Jonathan Leppard, director at Future Facilities discusses the data centre, the heart of what is helping digital transformation take place in a COVID-19 world.
All eyes have turned to how the latest advances in technology can rescue us from our current crisis. From track and trace, to monitoring regional spikes in cases. These digital transformation initiatives have seen legacy systems overhauled and the introduction of tools that allow health records to be stored and accessed from one database.
There is only so much front-end investment organisations can make before gaping holes are found in the back-end infrastructure. One of the most important parts of the digital operating environment under increased pressure is the data centre. With lives on the line, it is imperative the data centre industry does not make the mistakes which will make this a reality.
The past few months have pushed the data centre industry to the brink. As the public has relied heavily on cloud-based applications to work and socialise, a huge amount of stress has been seen on the world’s digital infrastructure.
Microsoft’s Teams platform to 44 million users globally, and video conferencing platform Zoom grew from 200 million to 300 million users in one month! Amongst this strain, healthcare data scientists have also relied on public cloud resources, using AI and machine learning tools to contribute to urgent Coronavirus research. Two years ago, we saw a tech failure in the NHS which cost the government £7 million just to stabilise. As the amount of data flowing through the system has never been higher, senior healthcare officials must prioritise their tech infrastructure to avoid a further crisis.
Meanwhile, industry operations have become complex. Data centre managers are faced with the challenge of balancing a vastly increased workload with new measures to keep their employees safe. To manage this, data centre facilities have restricted access to only the most essential personnel.
Older facilities, designed for much lower power, are particularly challenged when modern high-density equipment has to be shoehorned in. Without accurate insight into power consumption to help improve control and decrease cost, legacy data centre operators turn to overprovisioning or underutilisation to maintain reserve margins.
The combination of high demand and operational challenges has created a tension point which only has one solution. Data centre operators must address the fundamental inefficiencies which lie at the core of planning and operations; and accept they cannot rely on the ‘rule of thumb’.
Across the industry, accurate decision making on cooling, power and capacity is being compromised by the pressures that teams are under. Future Facilities recently commissioned a study which found 29% of data centre managers are compromising on decision making all of the time, while 45% are at least some of the time. It’s clear the damage that a lack of data is doing. Performance, quality of work and meeting deadlines are all affected from not having the right information at the right time.
To rectify this, data centres backing up our medical organisations must look to technology which helps them run more efficiently and reduces the chances of downtime. The latest trend supporting efficiency in the industry is the introduction of digital twins, which are integral components to engineering fields with zero margin for error. Think about the modelling of aircraft before hundreds of thousands of pounds are spent on construction. It is time data centre operations are treated the same.
Data centre performance is a delicate balance between capacity, efficiency and compliance. The use of a digital twin allows operators to find the optimal balance to save energy and maximise performance. Once a setup has been found that achieves the desired results, it is then implemented in the physical data centre itself, safe in the knowledge it has been rigorously tested. This process saves money in designing and operating a data centre and mitigates the risk of unplanned changes while improving infrastructure reliability.
Increased demands mean we need to rethink how we operate and ensure we are up to the challenge. This is vital to properly support the medical industry as it becomes dependent on technology that keeps us safe. Demands aren’t going to reduce any time soon, so it’s about time we leave the rule of thumb, and take a scientific, data led approach instead.
