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  • Sustainability in Data Center Lighting Design

    Sky's the Limit When it comes to green features and sustainable design in data centers, lighting design does not get a lot of attention, after all, there is so much focus on energy savings from newer technologies in cooling, IT equipment, and power generation, which account for more significant energy savings in these critical facilities. Thanks to LED lighting technology, today our lighting power consumption has dramatically decreased compared to the old days. Lighting power consumption in data centers accounts for approximately 4% of total energy consumption in a data center, by using LED light fixtures instead of fluorescent and HID, we are able to cut down significantly on lighting power consumption. So, one might ask, what else is there to further reduce, eliminate and save energy from lighting? In today’s world, data centers are pushing the envelopes to conserve energy to meet sustainability goals and improve power usage effectiveness (PUE). As all building systems are closely integrated to operate a more efficient building, effective and efficient lighting design not only affects its power usage, it also decreases cooling demand since light fixtures dissipate heat. Effective lighting design will not only help improve PUE, but more importantly, a good lighting design will provide significant cost savings with proper illumination, creating a better visual environment for all operators and users, and hence attract potential clients - particularly for colocation providers. Lighting Fixture Selection Too often we find a generic office lighting layout applied in a data hall with lighting from 2x2 or 2x4 troffers in the aisle between the racks. This puts lights where you want them but lacks focus and efficiency to where you actually need them. Data hall rack layouts are much like book stacks in the library, vertical plane illumination is more important than a horizontal plane, to make sure technicians can see and service the racks from top to the very bottom server. An energy-efficient, asymmetrical LED stack light would be a good design solution in server rack aisles to provide proper vertical plane illumination where you need it. Lighting sensor control A good, effective lighting design cannot be done with just proper fixture selection, it needs to be combined with proper lighting control in order to achieve sustainability. TIA-942-A provides guidance on data center lighting design with three levels: Level 1 is designed for unoccupied conditions, with enough illumination for video surveillance equipment. Level 2 is designed for initial entry to the data hall and to provide sufficient lighting for safe passage in the hall. Level 3 is designed for occupied space, to provide sufficient lighting for maintenance of equipment, with 500 lux in a horizontal plane and 200 lux in a vertical plane. Grouped or zoned LED fixtures controlled with multiple smart, dimmable occupancy sensors per zone can be programmed to provide proper light levels when and where you need them. When the data hall is unoccupied, the lights can be dimmed to a minimal level enough to support video surveillance, without having the entire data hall lights on full brightness. As you enter the data hall, the individual occupancy sensor will turn on the lights to a pre-programmed level, and ‘follows’ you as you walk around to provide a sufficient and safe light level for navigation. Once you have reached the server rack, the sensor will then turn on to full brightness to support maintenance tasks. These smart, dimmable occupancy sensors will provide lights only where and when you need them, to minimize energy consumption. BMS Integration Lighting design should be viewed not as a standalone design, but rather as part of the entire building system, as it contributes to its overall efficiency. As technology thrives, sensors are getting smarter every day. Since control, monitoring, and building management systems are all a necessity in data centers, why not integrate lighting occupancy sensors into a combination sensor/control device, creating a device that can perform multiple functions in one? Today, there are sensors on the market that can detect motion to turn lights on/off, as well as sensing temperature and providing energy metering all at once. These combination sensors can be tied into building a BMS system to enhance overall building monitoring and control, and in addition, provide more robust security measures with motion detection. Take the Next Step LED is one of the most efficient light sources today, but even with LED lighting technology, there are still some drawbacks. LEDs are powered by DC current, and in order to operate a LED fixture, one will need a ‘driver’ to convert AC voltage to DC. This driver is often built into the fixture housing itself and creates and then dissipates heat when energy is converted to drive the LED light, which means more heat gain in the data hall and hence puts loads on cooling units. One of the options to eliminate heat gain is to take the driver out of the LED fixtures. There are fixtures today that offer ‘driverless’ LED fixtures called PoE lighting. These fixtures share a central driver remotely, then power and control are supplied via low voltage Cat5/6 cables to each fixture. This will help take the heat gains out of the data center aisles and reduce loads on HVAC systems even further as well as provide a precise means of controlling fixtures. Conclusion As you can see, through proper lighting design via fixture selection, dimming controls, and efficiency measures, a significant amount of energy can be saved, but there are always more options to evaluate as we head toward a sustainable future. This is where we as professionals think outside of the box and find different alternatives to reduce the carbon footprint. Since by nature light reflects off lighter, whiter surfaces and gets absorbed in dark, black surfaces, there will be more light reflected in a room with lighter color walls and ceilings, than a room with darker shades. There are studies on utilizing white color server racks instead of traditional black. By doing so, not only the visibility improves dramatically inside of the rack, the quantity of light fixtures required to light the entire data hall can be reduced up to 25% or more, hence saving more in material and installation cost, electric power consumption, and reducing cooling demand even further. As data center design professionals strive for a more responsible and sustainable future, the sky is the limit. Who knows what other innovations will come around the corner tomorrow? Please contact us at EYP Mission Critical Facilities regarding any questions or needs around data center lighting design. About Author: Angelica K. Hermanto, PE, LC, LEED AP, is an energetic and result-driven senior electrical engineer with almost 20 years of experience and expertise providing power distribution, fire alarm, lighting, and low voltage system designs within various building sectors. Angelica is a senior electrical engineer at EYP MCF, she is an experienced project manager in leading multi-discipline design professionals and has a diverse background in project management, engineering design, and study of electrical distribution, emergency power, lighting, and fire alarm systems. Angelica holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Architectural Engineering from The Pennsylvania State University. Angelica also holds a Lighting Certification from the LC (National Council on Qualifications for the Lighting Professions, NCQLP), and is a LEED accredited professional.

  • The Importance of Computational Fluid Dynamics for Data Center Equipment Yard Layout Design

    As the demand for more data center space, power, and cooling continues to increase, the need for space management and equipment layout has become a critical design requirement. The increased load densities in the data center white space has led to an increased amount of support equipment, both inside and outside the data center building. Inside the building The mechanical cooling equipment such as the Computer Room Air Handling (CRAH) units, share space with electrical power equipment like the Power Distribution Unit (PDU) units in the CRAH gallery. They share space for several reasons which include but are not limited to PDU heat rejection contained in the gallery. The heat from the PDU is immediately rejected in the CRAH unit cooling system and this layout does not require a separate electrical room for the PDUs. Figure 1 below is a typical data center layout with CRAH units and PDUs sharing space in the CRAH Gallery. Figure 1 Typical data center layout with hot aisle containment and CRAH galleries on the opposite side of the data center Outside the building Either in the yard, on the roof, or both, mechanical heat rejection systems such as cooling towers and chillers share space with electrical standby generators. A compact high-density layout inside the building results in a compact outdoor equipment layout. This leads to significant airflow management challenges and issues outside of the building. Airflow patterns outside of the building are difficult to predict because of the different variables which design engineers and architects are not able to control. These variables include wind speed, air temperature and humidity, wind direction, and other activities surrounding the building. All these would impact the performance of the outdoor data center equipment. The Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis has become a critical tool for data center design for optimum yard or roof equipment layout. There are several CFD software vendors available on the market that are used for analysis and simulations. These simulations provide results that help data center owners and designers in the decision-making process in determining cost-effective layouts and performance. The CFD analysis when performed before the design is finalized and implemented helps in mitigating risks associated with design errors at the late stages of the design, which would result in significant and expensive change orders, construction delays or loss of compute capacity. Most manufacturer’s equipment literature provides yard and roof equipment minimum placement clearance requirements. While this information is provided as guidelines, it is expected that designers will make a correct judgment when finalizing design layouts. A good example of this is a chiller manufacturer’s recommended minimum of 8-foot clearance from solid obstruction. However, these guidelines do not factor in ambient air conditions, wind speed, or height of the obstruction. Figure 2 below demonstrates how following a manufacturer’s recommended minimum clearance can result in undesired air-cooled chiller performance due to air recirculation. Figure 2 Air Cooled Chiller Recirculation Demonstration With the use of CFD analysis and simulation, the condition demonstrated on Figure 2 is identified and corrected before the design is finalized and construction is completed. Another way the CFD analysis and simulation is a useful tool is by providing and understanding how multiple airflow patterns will interact with each other. Figure 3 below demonstrates the impact of generator exhaust air on the mechanical heat rejection equipment on the roof. In Figure 3 the hot exhaust air from the generator flue pipe and the radiator blown towards the building causes a stagnant air condition by the building. As a result of this condition the mechanical equipment inlet ambient air temperature range is outside of recommended manufacturer’s range which causes equipment not to perform as specified. Figure 3 Generator Exhaust Air impact on Mechanical Equipment on the Roof Conclusion In conclusion, the Computational Fluid Dynamic analysis and simulation tools available in the market, have become a critical tool in design for new and existing data centers. CFD analysis is one of EYP Mission Critical Facilities’ most important and powerful tools used at every stage of the project to vet and verify that solutions proposed in our design will yield expected performance results. The expected performance results are subject to varying climatic and weather conditions at the data center location as typically published by DOE, NOAA, and ASHRAE. About Author: Gardson Githu, PE is a Senior Mechanical Engineer and Consultant at EYP Mission Critical Facilities. Gardson’s experience focuses on the design and analysis of HVAC systems for commercial, industrial, and Data Center infrastructure facilities. His experience includes new facilities design, retrofit design, and mechanical systems analysis. His project experience includes chilled water plants, thermal storage systems, fuel oil systems, and air handling systems. Gardson specialized in mechanical system energy optimization, data center risk site assessment and data center thermal mapping (computational fluid dynamic analysis). He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from California State University Los Angeles, and a Master of Science degree in mechanical engineering with Themo-fluids option, from California State University Northridge. He is a team member of the recently launched EYP Mission Critical Facilities and I3 Solutions Group Sustainability Initiative to offer a practical roadmap towards a Carbon Net-Zero data center by 2030.

  • EYP MCF, and i3 Solutions Group Announce Collaboration to Tackle Data Center Sustainability

    - Leading global consulting engineers combine resources to drive thought leadership for data center GHG abatement. - Offer a practical roadmap towards a Carbon Net-Zero data center by 2030. - Highlight near-term opportunities for clean embedded primary and backup power generation and grid demand support. January 27th, 2021, New York, London & Singapore: Leading consulting engineering firms EYP Mission Critical Facilities, Inc. (EYPMCF) and i3 Solutions Group have announced a collaboration to offer a response to the climate crisis through Green House Gas (GHG) reduction initiatives for the data center sector, including a practical roadmap of progressive GHG abatement for existing data centers and net-zero GHG data centers by 2030. “As a major consumer of electricity and therefore a contributor to global emissions, the data center sector faces the prospect of regulation to reduce its impact on the planet,” said Rick Einhorn, Co-Founder and Co-Managing Partner at EYPMCF. “I’m pleased to announce this initiative by EYPMCF and i3 Solutions Group which brings together a respected team of data center MEP design engineers and operational consultants to offer thought leadership in data center emissions and carbon reduction, efficiency and sustainability.” Ed Ansett, Founder and Chairman of i3 Solutions Group said, “While the future of data center sustainability undoubtedly has a 100% renewable face, we are a long way from that end point. However, there are opportunities for large data center operators in hyperscale, wholesale, colocation and other sectors to engage in GHG abatement. This requires a paradigm shift, but the good news is, we can evolve from a GHG intensive, inefficient infrastructure to a reduced or even net-zero GHG asset with new revenue generating opportunities. For that to happen requires the inspiration of specialist data center design and strategy.” Those designing, building and operating data centers need to assimilate the technical considerations across a range of on-site power generation and energy storage solutions that practically address GHG abatement, evolving regulatory requirements and end-user performance requirements, at the same time taking full advantage of renewable energy sources and sustainable technologies. Accordingly, the collaboration between EYPMCF and i3 is developing objective material covering the following subjects: • A practical roadmap toward GHG abatement and carbon net-zero data centers by 2030 • Low GHG energy trading opportunities for large scale data centers • Demand side frequency and sag response, primary operation, and operating reserve opportunities for data center embedded generation and storage systems • GHG reduction with blended hydrogen and natural gas generation for data centers • Reliability implications of primary and standby embedded generation and energy storage systems for data centers

  • Considering evaluating a data center for purchasing or investing? Our experts can assist.

    For an investor, data center due diligence in the colocation and service provider sector requires more than just reviewing power and cooling infrastructure. Critical facilities due diligence efforts and opinions typically include reviews and assessments of existing asset conditions, one-line diagrams, equipment age, building management systems, Capex/Opex, Tier levels/equivalents, energy efficiency, and potential points of failure. "It is critical to understand the applications, security and processes in place for both the acquirer and the target." At EYP Mission Critical Facilities (EYP MCF), we often provide ROM cost estimates for expansion, upgrades or improvements identified in the course of our analysis. On top of this, our due diligence service offering can include additional areas beyond the mere physical asset assessment an engineering firm would provide that need to be well-understood as part of any merger or acquisition. These areas include: Operational procedures, maintenance management and staffing. These elements both drive costs and are frequently important elements in data center outages. Review of commissioning reports and historical failure incident report logs. Identifying reasoning for past failures that typically are a result of human error or in some cases may identify a more serious issue with building infrastructure. IT systems architecture. It is critical to understand the applications, security and processes in place for both the acquirer and the target. These elements are key revenue drivers (and important to SLAs of course) and the expected synergies, integration costs for multiple systems, and risks to the overall data center must be understood. Understanding these critical aspects of a deal during the due diligence phase is often overlooked and should be included in this process. A systems architecture assessment is important due to the tight integration and effect that it can have on the operations, management, and client (whether external or internal) facing environment. "A due diligence effort should include additional areas beyond the mere physical asset typically reviewed" DCD News Blog The enterprise and operations back end has serious impact on the underlying effectiveness of services and TCO. Choices of Operations Management suites, monitoring tools, client portals, use of Cloud, SaaS/PaaS, all have definitive impacts on Capex/Opex and the reliability and resiliency of the facility asset. This integration goes to the value of the purchase or more importantly uncovers the potential future state investments you may need make. Without this type of additional analysis, the acquirer may not have as accurate an understanding of the value of an asset as they should, to make informed decisions. As pointed on the DCD News Blog, "A due diligence effort should include additional areas beyond the mere physical asset typically reviewed" If you are a data center investor or holding company, please let us know how we can assist you with your growth and acquisition strategy. Follow us on LinkedIn

  • Happy Thanksgiving to all of our clients, partners, and friends!

    We are very pleased to issue our 2H 2020 EYP MCF newsletter! Happy Thanksgiving to all of our clients, partners, and friends! We know that it has been a difficult year for so many and hope that better days are ahead with the positive news about vaccines we have seen lately. Our amazing team here at EYPMCF has continued to deliver for our clients during these past 8 months or so and this has meant traveling to customer sites for commissioning work and design meetings that simply can’t be done remotely. We are incredibly thankful to our staff for their tireless effort and dedication to helping our customers achieve their goals during these tough times. We also believe that despite the challenges of Covid-19, our industry and building type is one of the unique sectors that has been least affected. We believe we may actually come out the other side in an even stronger growth position due to remote work, remote learning, e-commerce, and many other areas that have seen their adoption grow 5 years quicker than expected. This should have positive effects for all of us in this growing industry. In just a few months we will also be marking the 3rd anniversary as a stand-alone firm. We could not be more excited about what we have accomplished in this short time in terms of new customers, exciting projects, and new employees. We have worked for over 70 clients thus far this year and are expanding our reach monthly. We also recently finished the largest single project from a capacity and sq. ft. perspective in our history – dating back to 1997. This could not have been done without the great support and trust of our clients and our team. For this, we are very thankful. In the spirit of thanks, this month we also celebrate Veteran’s Day. We always want to recognize our veteran workforce, which has continued to grow this year, and for which we make a concerted effort to continue building. We also will never forget our own John Rickert, a 16-year EYPMCF’r, and beloved colleague, who passed this year, and was a proud Navy veteran himself. Last year we commemorated and honored our veteran staff with a donation to the Gary Sinise Foundation – a very worthy cause that was selected by our veteran workforce. This year, with John’s passing still fresh on our minds, and the belief we hold that working in the “mission-critical” world is a natural home for retired vets, we have thought that a perfect way to honor the veteran community is to further their transition to civilian life. Thus we are actively exploring working through one of the professional mission-critical or federal engineering organizations (7x24, SAME, etc.) to sponsor a scholarship in John’s name to be awarded to a recent veteran to use in advancing their data center education through one of the many programs cropping up with a focus on engineering and operations in this field. We expect to have this formalized – hopefully by year’s end. As always, we are excited to share some information on new projects we are working on or have recently completed, as well as some technical information that should be of interest to you all. Please enjoy the newsletter, and let us know how we can help in any way. Click here to view our 2H 2020 EYP MCF newsletter: https://conta.cc/2Hmm1Je

  • COVID Challenges Facing Higher Education IT

    Prior to the COVID crisis, higher education institutions were already striving to create effective and flexible short- and long-term strategies for IT infrastructure and data centers. A common challenge for many institutions is that aging data centers are in academic buildings on campus occupying valuable and expensive space that would be better suited to supporting the institution’s core mission. Increasing user and performance demands are overwhelming the existing IT infrastructure, requiring additional data center systems, power, and space. The capital costs associated with IT facilities are often difficult to estimate in campus master planning, and even more challenging to fund amidst multiple departments with competing academic priorities. The COVID pandemic has changed IT/network bandwidth requirements dramatically. Face-to-face course delivery is being combined with synchronous and asynchronous digital learning. Most higher education institutions are not prepared for the facilities and IT/network requirements to manage this radical pivot. Some of the challenges generated from a new hybrid course delivery model include: • Significant increase in data center facility requirements (power, space, density, reliability) to support the delivery of streaming and online courses. • Networks struggle to support the increased bandwidth and hardware needed to deliver courses and research to thousands of remote users and geographically dispersed network nodes on remote campuses. • Dedicated media production studios and purpose-built, or renovated, lecture hall/classrooms are needed to support the creation and delivery of quality, interactive courses. Due to the expectations of an institution’s brand level of education, digital courses need to maintain a standard to stay competitive. There is industry consensus that these changes in the delivery of higher education courses is changed now for the long term. Parallel investment is necessary for the facilities that support face-to-face learning as well as investment in the IT/network infrastructure to support distance learning. Both modes of delivery are critical to provide maximum flexibility to institutions as they strive to meet the needs of students and faculty going forward. From a planning perspective, there are critical short term, tactical steps that can be taken to prepare for the Fall 2020 semester. These initial projects need to be a part of a longer-term strategic plan so that capital is well invested in a building block approach. This requires a partner with a deep skillset in the following areas: • Significant IT and Network Architecture and the ability to translate that into the supporting facility infrastructure design and delivery • Forensic engineering skills to extend existing infrastructure capability to support both tactical and strategic plans • Architectural design and MEP expertise to thoughtfully integrate new systems into existing facilities and infrastructure • Financial acumen and program management skills to develop potential options that identify associated time, cost, and risk to make informed decisions understanding capital and operating costs For additional information please visit our higher education website at: https://www.eypmcfinc.com/higher-education

  • EYP MCF, new services, new clients, new webinars, and a great 2019

    Happy Holidays to everyone from the EYP Mission Critical team! We hope all of our clients, partners and friends had a great 2019 and will get some well-earned downtime with family and close ones over the next few weeks before we all go charging into the New Year. On our end, we look back on a great 2019, and can’t believe that it’s been nearly two years since we became independent once again. Time flies when you are having fun no doubt. This past year saw us continue to scale our client base, signing up over 40 new clients over the first 11 months, and continue to expand our presence within organizations we have been supporting for years. We have also continued to expand our services over the course of the year and introduced a new Cloud Adoption service for our customers seeking to evaluate the cost and feasibility of moving applications to a cloud environment, as well as broadened our Datacenter Roadmap program, which assists customers with evaluating their overall strategy with regards to their datacenters – helping them determine the right mix of on prem, cloud and collocated workloads, and then working with them to implement this strategy. Just this past week we held a recent webinar on the top issues when considering a Data Center Transaction: Co-location Services, Financial Requirements & Contracting SLA’s, which would provide significant value if you are contemplating such a program. We have also increased our presence with our clients in traditional areas like datacenter MEP design and Commissioning, and focused on developing new Operational services for 2020, which will assist our customers (in particular Hyperscale and Colocation) in driving more efficiencies and reducing downtime in the many new facilities that have been constructed over the past 10 years. Accordingly, we also see a need for significant retrofit and renovation work across our client base to bring facilities they have put into place even five years ago that need to be upgraded to address changes in IT and market demand. To address this need, we published an article focused on best practices in renovation and retrofits for live datacenters. In the spirit of the season we are also developing our first “giving back” program at EYPMCF. The firm has chosen to support The Gary Sinise Foundation on behalf our veteran staff we are proud to have on our team. This foundation’s purpose is to honor our defenders, veterans, first responders, their families, and those in need. They are also known for steering a large proportion of their donations directly to those that have served, delivering over 91% of all dollars donated in 2017. As our firm, and the industry as a whole, employ a high percentage of veterans and first responders, our team feels it is very appropriate to be aligned with this cause, which is so important to our country. More to come on progress around this initiative in future newsletters. Click here to view our December newsletter: https://conta.cc/355AzU6

  • EYP MCF and Tidal Migrations Launch Integrated Data Center and Cloud Strategy Service

    Valhalla, NY, November 18th, 2019 EYP Mission Critical Facilities (EYP MCF) is pleased to announce a new partnership with Tidal Migrations which augments our industry-leading data center strategy service with a detailed application cloud readiness assessment. This new service positions EYP MCF as a thought leading firm that can offer a comprehensive Data Center Strategy that includes both planning and quantifying the impact of cloud migration on data center and IT requirements and costs. We take an application-centric approach to evaluate customer applications to understand their cloud readiness factors, application dependencies, and underlying infrastructure. These are crucial elements for planning and implementing a cloud migration and understanding its costs and impact on our clients’ data center strategy. “EYP MCF have demonstrated the strongest capability in detailed facilities and application transformation planning. The new service offering announced today streamlines an approach for more customers to rapidly integrate facilities, IT, and cloud strategy into one powerful engagement.”, said David Colebatch, founder and CEO of Tidal Migrations. EYP MCF has always captured and quantified IT growth, refresh, and replatforming into our overall strategy development. Cloud adoption, however, has become one of the largest factors driving data center strategy, which now focuses as much on downsizing and consolidating as it does on increasing capacity. The challenge facing our customers is to identify and quantify which applications will move to the cloud and to incorporate this impact into the overall data center strategy. Technology changes and expansion of cloud options imply that any data center strategy is inseparable from your cloud journey. EYP MCF, together with the Tidal Migrations platform and methodology, can help our clients develop plans for both. About EYP MCF EYP MCF is a pioneering consultancy in the data center and critical facilities industry with over two decades of experience assisting its clients plan, design, test and efficiently operate their critical facilities. With clients across many verticals, from enterprise to institutional, colocation and hyperscale, EYP MCF has unmatched experience and capability to deliver projects of any size. With a global presence and projects in over 40 countries, EYP MCF continues to drive new solutions and thought leading concepts to market that benefit its customer base. About Tidal Migrations Tidal Migrations empowers enterprises around the world to transition to modern application development environments and embrace the cloud as part of their digital transformation strategy. Our team delivers a scalable, multi-tenant web application to support cloud transformation initiatives augmented by our best practices and our partners’ professional services. Our mission is to support migration initiatives by making the complex straightforward. For more information click here: https://www.eypmcfinc.com/application-cloud-readiness

  • Upgrading, Retrofitting or Expanding a live Data Center?

    It’s important to take a holistic and integrated view from design to commissioning to operations EYP Mission Critical Facilities has a long history working in live datacenters, dating back to the late 90’s and early part of the new millennium. We consistently provided upgrade work for the financial, telecommunications, and insurance industries who were constantly adding new equipment or expanding capacities with every new IT refresh. Likewise, in the decade that followed, we found ourselves modernizing numerous early web hosting and service provider facilities as they converted them to multi-tenant, colocation or hyperscale use. The next upgrade cycle will include many of the greenfield facilities we and others designed for the enterprise, service provider/colo and cloud/hyperscale sectors With the rapid pace of cloud adoption, during this time there was also a cascading wave of conversions and consolidations, as enterprises moved more and more IT workload to these hyperscalers and colocation providers. Coupled with this, was the unrelenting pace of corporate mergers and acquisitions, with their own dynamic of consolidation that inevitably led to optimized, off-loaded or decommissioned data center facilities. In such cases, and in addition to all the services already presented, comes a level of strategic analysis and due diligence unique to these enterprise IT transformations. A significant number of facilities constructed over the last decade require modernization to drive efficiency and align with technology changes driven by AI, IoT and other digital advancements. The next upgrade cycle will include many of the greenfield facilities we and others designed for the enterprise, service provider/colo and cloud/hyperscale sectors. Even these facilities of varying designs for search, storage, and hyperscale, in some cases less than a decade old, need significant engineering work to meet customer requirements; be brought to a new standard; or to simply replace end-of-life components. In summary, these upgrades will become more and more prevalent over the next five years. A significant number of facilities constructed over the last decade require modernization to drive efficiency and align with technology changes driven by AI, IoT and other digital advancements. The key to these successful upgrades is alignment between your internal facilities and operations team, with outside operational experts and MEP design teams. These professionals need to be experienced at working in active facilities to ensure you are factoring in, and mitigating in advance, any potential problems that might occur during an upgrade scenario. Renovating an operational data center is analogous to performing open heart surgery, so experience and intimate knowledge of the infrastructure control is crucial to success without unscheduled downtime.

  • Happy 4th of July from the EYP Mission Critical Facilities team!

    The first half of 2019 has been a great one for the firm as we continue to expand our team, deliver high-quality services to both new and repeat clients, and as always drive thought leadership through our articles, blogs, and monthly webinars on relevant technical or strategic topics related to the data center and critical facilities industry. We are featuring recent examples, including articles focused on; due diligence for data center investors, and cloud adoption. As you all know a cornerstone of EYPMCF’s culture from the start has been advancing the industry through sharing approaches and solutions to complex problems our clients face with our database of peer organizations and partners. We have certainly continued in that tradition over the last six months and in this newsletter we are featuring recent examples, including articles focused on; due diligence for data center investors, and cloud adoption; and links to webinars around the latest and greatest battery technologies. Gain great insight and further understanding relevant to your own companies strategy or methodology. Please take some time to read and hear from our consultants on these topics – as I am sure you will gain great insight and further understanding relevant to your own companies strategy or methodology. Lastly, as always, we will briefly highlight a few of our recent projects across a very diversified group of industry verticals. Please contact us with any questions, if you need assistance working through project strategies, or ideas on how to make this communication even better. Click here to view our July Newsletter: https://conta.cc/2NifCks Sincerely, Rick and Brian.

  • Cloud Adoption Requires Organizational Adaptation

    In most companies Facilities and IT have historically operated far more separately than in alignment. Most observers understand that this is not the best way to operate but that organizational barrier has been resistant to change. Now, however, the simple economics associated with adoption of cloud computing is forcing the issue. When a data center sourcing strategy includes a cloud component, it is no longer possible to plan facilities and IT independently. Cloud computing pricing includes both the facilities costs and the IT costs. That means cloud costs need to be measured against any offsets on both the IT budget (licensing, hardware, etc.) and the facilities costs (data center, colo costs, etc.). The implication is that previously distinct facilities and IT spending must now be considered and budgeted jointly. When a company is choosing between on-prem and the cloud it is a decision that impacts many areas or departments that do not typically work well together. Let’s imagine a cloud initiative that is large enough to move the needle for all departments: 1. Facility: Reduced loads force or enable data center reduction or consolidation. In this case, some costs are getting saved in the Facilities budget while some corresponding costs are being added to the Application Owners’ costs. i.e. cloud cost hitting their budget directly or indirectly. 2. Compute: Fewer VMs, ESX hosts, lower hardware and licensing costs. Where are these costs budgeted vs. where do the cloud costs hit? 3. Applications: App transformation costs. There will be one-time development costs to make applications cloud compatible. 4. Staffing: Smaller facilities, Bigger cloud and IT governance, more developers. Again, these cloud impacts span multiple budgeting areas. As this incomplete list implies, when a data center sourcing strategy includes a cloud component, it is no longer possible to plan facilities and IT independently. Without sacrificing our mission critical roots, EYP MCF has broadened its expertise footprint to help our clients develop integrated strategies that both dive into the functional area details without losing the collective view of Facilities, IT, and Cloud. As this new reality affects our clients, it has similarly forced EYP MCF to evolve and invest in new expertise and skills that go far beyond the traditional world of facilities. To enable our strategy service to encompass IT, Cloud adoption analysis, and the resulting deeper and more complex financial analysis we’ve done the following: · Invested in further developing our own staff with cloud expertise. · Developed a partnership and joint data center strategy and Application Analysis service with a Cloud Adoption partner. · Invested in our finance expertise in order to perform comprehensive total cost analyses that incorporates the newly intertwined facilities, IT, cloud, and staffing cost elements. Without sacrificing our mission critical roots, EYP MCF has broadened its expertise footprint to help our clients develop integrated strategies that both dive into the functional area details without losing the collective view of Facilities, IT, and Cloud.

  • Celebrating the first year anniversary of our independence

    We are very pleased to issue the latest EYP MCF newsletter to our clients and partners! While we have of course been around for many decades as a pioneer in this industry, February 1st 2019 marked the first year anniversary of our independence from a subsidiary of a large IT organization. The “first” year was on all accounts a big success and surpassed our expectations. We hired multiple new employees (including bringing back a number of former senior EYP MCF leaders), and renewed our position as an industry thought leader through innovative articles, presentations and blogs, new service development, and a number of webinars on technical issues of interest to our client database. We also signed up over 25 new customers in the past 12 months, and once again started servicing multiple “dormant” customers that we had not worked for in multiple years. And of course we expanded our position with existing customers that we had been working for throughout the transition. This could not have been done without the friendship, partnership and trust that you all have shown us. Please enjoy the technical discussion, recent project highlights, and industry information -- and of course let us know if we can help you in any way. Best! Rick and Brian Click here to download the March 2019 newsletter: https://myemail.constantcontact.com/March-Newsletter-.html?soid=1130428338663&aid=xTs8kjzavUU

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