The unseen dangers of power outages
Chris Smith, marketing director of on365 flags up the increasing concern about restrictions on power supplies which is leading organisations to uprate their business continuity planning to secure 24/7 operation of critical systems
Government planning for emergencies and disasters has become more sophisticated after the tragic experiences of July 2005, the Buncefield disaster and a spate of floodings incidents in 2007. However one particular category of incident - industrial accidents, and in particular, loss of power leading ICT system outage and potential data loss, is becoming a concern to Britain's government departments and enterprises. This situation is exacerbated by the massive nation-wide expansion of ICT infrastructures, particularly data centres, leading many organizations in areas such as London to exhaust the power supplies open to their ICT hubs.
Limitations on power supplies may surprise executives accustomed to year on year ICT system expansion. Technology industry analysts Gartner predicted that half of data centres would start to run out of power by 2008. More worryingly, areas such as London are starting to see restrictions on power supplies to data centres given the density of existing ICT hubs and the allocation of power to the 2012 Olympics infrastructure. A number of government and health sector organisations have started to uprate the business continuity planning to secure their 24/7 operation of technology infrastructures so there is no interruption to critical systems such as email, servers.
Given the apparent strain on infrastructures how should ICT managers plan for interruption to power supplies? What systems should they have in place to deal with serious outages caused by loss of whole infrastructures and buildings? What form should planning take?
How can you evolve a power continuity plan?
The best way for organisations to ensure power continuity in the event of a business interruption is to plan ahead, install appropriate capacity and have regular operational reviews.
Planning
The first step is part of broader risk assessment: gaining an understanding of how much power is needed, for what purposes and for how long. The organisation must list services that must be protected, what must stay on – life and business critical systems. It needs to decide what, if any, systems can be safely halted.
For example, having only a back-up generator unit for an office is not enough. Although they are suitable for providing longer-term power in case of interruption to the grid, all generators can take time to start. Businesses need to consider purchasing true uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) which can work in conjunction with a generator as part of the system to cover the gap (seconds or minutes as required) between a power interruption and the generator being able to provide full power.
It is vital that when specifying UPS to consider the power demands of not only mission-critical infrastructure such as servers themselves but ancillary infrastructure such as cooling systems which are vital for their operation. If an IT manager switches off the close coupled cooling to a high performance blade server in a data centre and the machine is likely to switch off within about 30 seconds to save itself from overheating damage.
Installing capacity
The vast majority of government and businesses now take broader business continuity precautions. However, in our experience, it is all too common for organisations to discover that the steps they have taken are not as effective as they had hoped when disaster strikes.
Ironically, this can occur as systems are gradually upgraded and actual power protection fails to keep pace with the new installation. This is particularly true in the data centre environment where increasingly power hungry 'drop-in' replacements are swapped in to increase capacity. This risk is exacerbated by so-called 'green' power supplies that are being used for ICT department's servers and storage. These have very different power loading characteristics to traditional power supplies and are consequently not fully compatible with many installed power protection systems. They could cause damage to vital back-up systems if not fully tested during new equipment's installation.
Departments which put in place detailed risk planning and power capacity provision frameworks will achieve:
1. detailed understanding of power needs and the relative criticality of different systems
2. the latest performance data and experience of available UPS and power distribution systems
As a result, these organisations are in a position to specify and install effective power protection for critical systems. In many cases, the ICT function does not always have this expertise onboard, nor the time to train and develop such knowledge for what is typically a "once in five years" purchase. Bringing in expert planning and infrastructure consultants enables dangerous assumptions to be avoided and ensure current industry best practice is adhered to.
Of course, different regulations apply across sectors. High risk industries such as transport, the process industries, healthcare and the financial sector already have specific legal or regulatory requirements to adhere to. Many other industries may find that they have certain obligations under general legislations such as the Health and Safety Work Act.
Operational reviews
The final stage is for government organisations and their partners to carry out regular reviews and testing of their ICT infrastructure's power supplies with expert advice and support. As well as supporting risk assessment and resilience planning, these strategies have the benefit of allowing organisations to examine the real cost of the emergency power systems they are operating.
Green matters
The drive towards more sustainable daily operations could inadvertently heighten the need for power continuity planning. Despite pressures on organisations to reduce their carbon footprint, the demand for power continues to grow, as seemingly, does the reliance on complex electronic/ICT equipment. Given predictions that UK power generation capacity shortages could be experienced in the coming years, gaining access to and delivery of reliable power will become a core competence for facilities management teams. It will also feature more prominently in the assessment of local partner organisations' ICT resilience capabilities.
For resilience planners and senior management, power costs will also feature increasingly on their agenda. They will need to ensure that critical business systems and associated infrastructure, including power delivery systems are both efficient and cost effective. The drive to using greener power supplies will certainly continue, but must be assessed from an overall risk perspective.
Government organisations running critical services must plan to ensure power continuity in the event of even temporary interruption to safeguard critical data and the operation of ICT infrastructures. They must therefore plan ahead, install appropriate power and back-up capacity and conduct regular operational reviews.
Chris Smith, marketing director, on365
on365.co.uk (www.on365.co.uk) is a specialist in the planning, installing, management and optimisation of physical IT infrastructure and utility services, from the desktop to server rooms to data centres
Business Continuity: The Unseen Dangers of Power Outages
Chris Smith, marketing director of on365 flags up the increasing concern about restrictions on power supplies which is leading organisations to uprate their business continuity planning to secure 24/7 operation of critical systems
Government planning for emergencies and disasters has become more sophisticated after the tragic experiences of July 2005, the Buncefield disaster and a spate of floodings incidents in 2007. However one particular category of incident - industrial accidents, and in particular, loss of power leading ICT system outage and potential data loss, is becoming a concern to Britain's government departments and enterprises. This situation is exacerbated by the massive nation-wide expansion of ICT infrastructures, particularly data centres, leading many organizations in areas such as London to exhaust the power supplies open to their ICT hubs.
Limitations on power supplies may surprise executives accustomed to year on year ICT system expansion. Technology industry analysts Gartner predicted that half of data centres would start to run out of power by 2008. More worryingly, areas such as London are starting to see restrictions on power supplies to data centres given the density of existing ICT hubs and the allocation of power to the 2012 Olympics infrastructure. A number of government and health sector organisations have started to uprate the business continuity planning to secure their 24/7 operation of technology infrastructures so there is no interruption to critical systems such as email, servers.
Given the apparent strain on infrastructures how should ICT managers plan for interruption to power supplies? What systems should they have in place to deal with serious outages caused by loss of whole infrastructures and buildings? What form should planning take?
How can you evolve a power continuity plan?
The best way for organisations to ensure power continuity in the event of a business interruption is to plan ahead, install appropriate capacity and have regular operational reviews.
Planning
The first step is part of broader risk assessment: gaining an understanding of how much power is needed, for what purposes and for how long. The organisation must list services that must be protected, what must stay on – life and business critical systems. It needs to decide what, if any, systems can be safely halted.
For example, having only a back-up generator unit for an office is not enough. Although they are suitable for providing longer-term power in case of interruption to the grid, all generators can take time to start. Businesses need to consider purchasing true uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) which can work in conjunction with a generator as part of the system to cover the gap (seconds or minutes as required) between a power interruption and the generator being able to provide full power.
It is vital that when specifying UPS to consider the power demands of not only mission-critical infrastructure such as servers themselves but ancillary infrastructure such as cooling systems which are vital for their operation. If an IT manager switches off the close coupled cooling to a high performance blade server in a data centre and the machine is likely to switch off within about 30 seconds to save itself from overheating damage.
Installing capacity
The vast majority of government and businesses now take broader business continuity precautions. However, in our experience, it is all too common for organisations to discover that the steps they have taken are not as effective as they had hoped when disaster strikes.
Ironically, this can occur as systems are gradually upgraded and actual power protection fails to keep pace with the new installation. This is particularly true in the data centre environment where increasingly power hungry 'drop-in' replacements are swapped in to increase capacity. This risk is exacerbated by so-called 'green' power supplies that are being used for ICT department's servers and storage. These have very different power loading characteristics to traditional power supplies and are consequently not fully compatible with many installed power protection systems. They could cause damage to vital back-up systems if not fully tested during new equipment's installation.
Departments which put in place detailed risk planning and power capacity provision frameworks will achieve:
1. detailed understanding of power needs and the relative criticality of different systems
2. the latest performance data and experience of available UPS and power distribution systems
As a result, these organisations are in a position to specify and install effective power protection for critical systems. In many cases, the ICT function does not always have this expertise onboard, nor the time to train and develop such knowledge for what is typically a "once in five years" purchase. Bringing in expert planning and infrastructure consultants enables dangerous assumptions to be avoided and ensure current industry best practice is adhered to.
Of course, different regulations apply across sectors. High risk industries such as transport, the process industries, healthcare and the financial sector already have specific legal or regulatory requirements to adhere to. Many other industries may find that they have certain obligations under general legislations such as the Health and Safety Work Act.
Operational reviews
The final stage is for government organisations and their partners to carry out regular reviews and testing of their ICT infrastructure's power supplies with expert advice and support. As well as supporting risk assessment and resilience planning, these strategies have the benefit of allowing organisations to examine the real cost of the emergency power systems they are operating.
Green matters
The drive towards more sustainable daily operations could inadvertently heighten the need for power continuity planning. Despite pressures on organisations to reduce their carbon footprint, the demand for power continues to grow, as seemingly, does the reliance on complex electronic/ICT equipment. Given predictions that UK power generation capacity shortages could be experienced in the coming years, gaining access to and delivery of reliable power will become a core competence for facilities management teams. It will also feature more prominently in the assessment of local partner organisations' ICT resilience capabilities.
For resilience planners and senior management, power costs will also feature increasingly on their agenda. They will need to ensure that critical business systems and associated infrastructure, including power delivery systems are both efficient and cost effective. The drive to using greener power supplies will certainly continue, but must be assessed from an overall risk perspective.
Government organisations running critical services must plan to ensure power continuity in the event of even temporary interruption to safeguard critical data and the operation of ICT infrastructures. They must therefore plan ahead, install appropriate power and back-up capacity and conduct regular operational reviews.
Chris Smith, marketing director, on365
on365.co.uk www.on365.co.uk is a specialist in the planning, installing, management and optimisation of physical IT infrastructure and utility services, from the desktop to server rooms to data centres
