White paper adopting the hybrid cloud what every cio must know

Adopting The Hybrid Cloud: What Every CIO Must Know To Achieve A Stable And Secure Local Environment

The Modular Micro Data Centre Solution

A White Paper

A White Paper 1

1. Abstract

2. Introduction – The CIO’s Dilemma

3. What Is A Hybrid Cloud?

4. Why Organisations Are Considering A Hybrid Model

5. Housing On-Premises Servers, Switches And Communications Equipment – Issues To Consider

5.1. SME – Server Room

5.2. SME – Shared Server Room Space

5.3. Enterprise – Satellite Offices

5.4. Connectivity To The Public Cloud

5.5. Matching Public Cloud Capabilities

5.6. Costs Connecting To The Public Cloud In Remote Locations

6. Modular Micro Data Centre – An Alternative To The Server Room

7. Modular Micro Data Centres In Practice – Example Scenarios

8. Modular Micro Data Centre Solutions In The Market Place

9. The MDC Market Leader - Zellabox

10. The Zellabox Advantage

11. Glossary

12. List Of Figures

13. References

Contents

2 The Modular Micro Data Centre Solution

When CIOs consider a private cloud strategy, a critical issue is how to house the IT infrastructure on premises to ensure it is kept both cool and secure, ensuring continuance of service.

“Cloud Computing” has been an industry buzz-word since 2007 and is now a well understood term that describes the sharing of IT resources and services over a private network or a public network, namely the Internet.

Cloud computing has allowed organisations to move to a pay-for-services lease model and reduce costs, rather than bearing the high cost of capital expenditure on owned premises based IT equipment.

The term has evolved with classifications as public cloud or private cloud; where in the public cloud model IT services are delivered over the Internet, differentiating it from the private cloud where corporate data resides in an organisation back-office and services are generally delivered over a private network owned by the organisation.

There are pros and cons to both models.

In the favour of the public cloud, it offers greater business flexibility, lower IT costs and a reduction in operational costs but brings with its implementation; security challenges and privacy concerns, and the need to consider carefully compliance issues of data storage location.

The private cloud alleviates the concerns over data compliance but introduces set-up complexity and therefore higher installation costs, as well as a higher cost of ongoing support and maintenance.

Enter the Hybrid cloud, a flexible, unique combination of public and private cloud services designed to fit an organisation’s IT business needs.

The hybrid cloud allows organisations to maintain and secure sensitive data, mission critical services and legacy systems on-premises in a private cloud, whilst taking full advantage of the ability to lease applications and other IT systems from the public cloud service providers. The hybrid cloud model provides full flexibility and cost savings of the public cloud lease model and provides ‘peace of mind’ that mission critical systems and data are secured locally. The hybrid cloud offers the ‘best of both worlds’ allowing flexibility, lower cost, reduced complexity and reduced support and maintenance charges.

When adopting the hybrid solution, CIOs then need to consider how to securely house their on-premises IT and communications equipment. Organisations that have server rooms may find that after moving some IT services to the public cloud the amount of floor space needed for IT and communications equipment within the server room decreases.

1. Abstract

When adopting the hybrid solution, CIOs and IT managers then need to consider how to securely house their on-premises IT and communications equipment.

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The organisation will still be paying rental on that floor space, when it could be used for another purpose. They will still be paying the cost of cooling the same volume of air within the room and so will still retain the high costs associated with running a server room.

Organisations without a server room face the challenge of how to secure and keep cool their private cloud on-premises services.

They might consider the high cost of building a server room but must consider that server rooms are costly to run, inflexible (they do not expand and contract as the organisation grows and contracts), are fixed and cannot be moved should the organisation wish to change premises and they need to be maintained.

An alternative to both these situations is the Modular Micro Data Centre (or MDC™); a small-footprint box about the size of a large refrigerator that offers the same services as a server room but being a much smaller entity at vastly reduced installation and ongoing maintenance costs.

An MDC has its own security; own power and own cooling that allows IT and communications equipment to be securely housed in a climate controlled, monitored, secure enclosure.

The MDC effectively replaces a server room, the air within the cabinet is kept at optimal temperature, so operational costs are lower (compared to the original server room); it offers complete flexibility to expand and contract with the organisation and can be moved on the back of a truck and taken to new premises should an organisation move to a new office location.

Access to the IT and communications equipment within the box is secure, a code or fingerprint recognition is required to open the door and when the door is closed the MDC is quiet and could be placed within an office environment without disturbance to the workers.

Zellabox is the MDC market leader. This white paper explores how Zellabox can help organisations secure their private cloud services on premises without the need to install a high cost server room. It also explores how Zellabox offers an MDC alternative to organisations adopting the hybrid cloud and needing to downsize or remove their server rooms.

CIOs, when considering the high cost of building a server room must also consider the ongoing costs to run, their inflexibility (they do not expand and contract as the organisation grows and contracts), that they are fixed and cannot be moved should the organisation wish to change premises and they need to be maintained.


When considering the public v private v hybrid cloud options CIOs spend vast amounts of time researching the best options for their organisation and are often faced with more questions and not enough answers.

Public cloud providers are strong promoters of their services to organisations but when considering a public cloud strategy CIOs must also consider what they need to do locally, at their organisation’s premises, to ensure the promised up time of services is achieved and maintained. Without a reliable private cloud facility at the organisation’s premises the connection to the public cloud is compromised. Even if an organisation chooses to move all their services to the public cloud there is still a requirement for a small amount of rack-mounted equipment to remain at the organisation’s premises. If the equipment that remains is not kept secure and cool the equipment may fail and the public cloud services compromised creating expensive ‘downtime’ through lack of service.

When considering a purely private cloud strategy it goes without saying that CIOs must consider how to house the IT infrastructure on premises to ensure it is kept both cool and secure, ensuring continuance of service.

An alternative consideration is the hybrid solution, the unique combination of public and private cloud services most fitting to an organisation’s IT business needs. In adopting the hybrid solution CIOs may decide to send non-critical data to the public cloud and take advantage of lower cost services but to keep mission critical services within the organisation’s premises, on their private cloud. In implementing a private cloud there is then the need to ensure critical data is safe and secure.

CIOs also face the additional dilemma of where to securely store back-up data and how to implement fail-safe disaster recovery plans (DRP), to ensure their organisation remains productive and IT equipment continues to function in the event of an unforeseen disaster (such as adverse weather conditions, vandalism, potential terrorism attacks or unforeseen acts of God).

Whichever strategy CIOs opt to adopt they face one common issue, how to safely house IT and communications equipment on premises ensuring that both equipment and data are secure. Indeed if the DRP calls for housing backup and disaster recovery data on-premises in a private cloud, a suitable secure housing facility is needed.

2. Introduction – The CIO’s Dilemma

As CIOs consider their options of moving to public-cloud, staying with private-cloud or adopting both, understanding their private-cloud on-premises infrastructure requirements forms a critical part of the decision making process.

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A server room represents one option but server rooms are inflexible and expensive to both build and maintain with high-energy consumption – up to 50% of office expenditure can be attributed to the server room energy consumption (EPA Report, 2007). Another alternative, often deployed, is to house servers, switches and IT equipment in an available cupboard but this is both insecure and the heat generated by the equipment may lead to equipment failure (or at least reduced longevity), down time or increased cost for replacement.

There is an alternative; a complete infrastructure solution that matches all the facilities of a server room but on a much smaller scale, it utilises only the space needed by the IT equipment, is totally flexible and can expand and contract as more or less equipment needs to be housed, it provides full security of systems and data, vastly reducing energy consumption and costs 30-60% less to run than a server room, the Modular Micro Data Centre or MDC for short. But before we address the questions faced by all CIOs globally let us explore what is meant by ‘hybrid cloud’ a little further.

A server room represents one option but server rooms are inflexible and expensive to both build and maintain with high-energy consumption.

There is an alternative; a complete infrastructure solution that matches all the facilities of a server room but on a much smaller scale.


Simplistically explained a hybrid cloud is a combination of public cloud applications and private cloud services, which reside on-premises. To fully understand what a hybrid cloud is, let us first distinguish between a private cloud and a public cloud. Private cloud (also called ‘internal cloud’ or ‘corporate cloud’) is a marketing term for a proprietary computing architecture that provides hosted services to a limited number of people behind a firewall. In other words, the organisation has full control of their data and it is stored in a server room on the organisation’s premises. Public cloud, on the other hand, is based on the standard cloud-computing model, in which a service provider makes resources, such as applications and storage, available to the general public over the Internet.

A hybrid cloud is a cloud-computing environment where organisations provide some of the resources and manage these in-house, while other resources are provided externally. The external resources reside within a data centre somewhere in the world while the in-house resources reside within either a server room or in a ‘server-cupboard’ somewhere on the business premises.

According to Daryl Plummer, Gartner Managing VP & Fellow, hybrid solution is the best way to get the most effective combination of both private cloud and public cloud whilst maintaining data security, meeting compliance requirements and meeting budget restraints.

3. What Is A Hybrid Cloud?

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) defines a hybrid cloud as, ‘a combination of public and private clouds bound together by either standardised or proprietary technology that enables data and application portability.’

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Organisations have turned to public cloud services for on-demand access to applications such as software-as-a-service. However, according to a white paper and survey conducted by IDC in October 2014, companies often find it difficult to manage these services consistently across large-scale implementations. Data management and integration challenges are common and corporate policies related to data protection and confidentiality is often inconsistently applied and difficult to audit. Therefore as a result, mission critical applications supported by central IT teams in traditional on-premises are not easily replaced with public cloud services.

Organisations’ service levels are stringent for mission critical applications where unplanned downtime can result in significant revenue, customer satisfaction and employee productivity losses. Data residing in traditional databases, backup and tiered storage platforms need to be protected, and compliance and audit requirements need to be satisfied.

Furthermore the IDC survey states that IT decision makers want to take advantage of the cloud agility and cost savings from self-service provisioning and large-scale resource sharing and pooling. However, they also need to protect critical business information and comply with data management and audit regulations. Hybrid cloud strategies offer these organisations the opportunity to mix and match the needs of various workloads with a range of cost, performance, security and data management options.

One of the major findings from the IDC survey found that 93% of organisations worldwide are considering a hybrid solution.

A hybrid approach is sensible yet not without challenges such as deployment times, costs associated with space for the on-premises infrastructure and energy consumption concerns.

The attraction for organisations to adopt a hybrid solution is driven by the following factors:

1. The need to be in control of organisation’s data, to know where it is stored and where it is finally processed.

2. The ability to take advantage of the ‘interoperability’ of the public cloud services and the organisation’s private cloud services.

3. The ability to avoid being locked into long-term contracts with vendors that ultimately restrict flexibility and mobility should the organisation’s circumstances change.

According to Gartner nearly half of large enterprise will have a hybrid cloud deployment by the end of 2017.

4. Why Organisations Are Considering A Hybrid Model

According to an IDC info brief released in October 2014, hybrid cloud will become the dominant strategy in 2015.


Server rooms are energy inefficient, costly and environmentally damaging. According to the Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory, who conducted a survey into ‘Server Closets and Small Server Rooms’ in 2012, concluded that most small server rooms were not designed to operate as server spaces, with configurations that compromise energy efficiency and limit upgrade options.

Server rooms need to be cooled constantly and given the standard requirement considerations of door clearances and, the fact that the door needs to be opened and closed often, the rooms are highly energy inefficient. The energy inefficiency coupled with the equipment becoming more energy ‘hungry’ to run has created an increase in heat generation, which in turn means more energy is required to keep them cool. The following scenarios provide examples of situations that organisations may face when considering the housing of their on-premises IT and communications equipment.

5.1 SME – Rented Space in an Office BuildingA small to medium sized organisation has rented space within an office building and requires an on-premises private cloud set-up. The organisation builds a new server room within their allocated rented floor space. Once the server room has been built what will they do if the organisation either expands quickly or needs to move? The organisation will have to honor the terms on their rental agreement and return the converted space back into its original state. Not only will costs be incurred whilst the server room is in operation with costly server room induced expenses but also when it is time to leave with the costs associated with returning it to it’s original state.

5.2 SME – Office with Shared FacilitiesA small to medium sized organisation that has an office space within a building that does not allow server rooms to be built and has a ‘shared server room’ policy. A ‘shared server room’ policy means there is only one room available on each floor that can be utilised as a server room and is to be shared by many companies. Not only will the costs be the same as in the example above but to add to the concerns the security is non-existent and room to grow and add server capacity or back-up services is severely limited.

5.3 Enterprise – With Geographically Diverse Satellite OfficesA large enterprise organisation with many satellite offices scattered around the globe has similar issues as the SME’s but with additional concerns regarding governance and compliance of where their data is stored. The enterprise organisation has an additional issue with satellite offices residing in different locations around the world with different environmental and infrastructure conditions. The enterprise must have in-depth knowledge of each and every location their satellite offices occupy in order to build a brick-and-mortar server room, which is a time consuming, inflexible and a costly exercise. Managing their costs, ensuring ‘up-time’ is maintained and real time monitoring of each site is a necessity for any large enterprise.

5. Housing On-Premises Servers, Switches and Communications Equipment – Issues To ConsiderThe hybrid cloud model gives organisations the opportunity to place their data and workloads where they see fit, so what are the infrastructure housing issues that need to be addressed?

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5.4 Infrastructure Poor LocationsOrganisations located in infrastructure poor locations, or those within metro areas, that have limited connectivity options to public cloud facilities may find themselves unable to access the public cloud successfully or, in some cases, there may be no access. As such they have a need for a private or hybrid cloud and to house IT equipment and data on-site.

5.5 Matching Public Cloud CapabilitiesMatching public cloud capabilities with respect to infrastructure housing on the organisation’s premises and how to achieve this without incurring exorbitant costs is an issue to consider for both enterprise and SME organisations respectively. Organisations need to consider this, as the connection to the cloud solutions housed within datacenters globally is only as strong as the organisation’s local infrastructure connection. An organisation pays monthly fees for public cloud services that offer certain standards of operation and availability, without a performance matched connection at the organisation’s premises the service levels of the public cloud cannot be achieved. In other words if an organisation’s infrastructure fails due to overheating or lack of security the connection to the public cloud fails. Achieving an on-premises solution that incorporates these requirements within budget seems impossible to achieve.

5.6 Remote Locations with High Connection CostsOrganisations in remote locations, with no access to the fast fibre network, have limited connectivity to the cloud due to the high cost of connection. They may need to connect for backup purposes to download emails or to access any of the other services available through the internet. To keep costs under control instead of remaining connected 100% of the time the organisation may choose to rely on the services of an internal network to carry out the day to day business and opt to connect to the public cloud once a day or once a week dependent upon the organisation’s needs to access remote services, such as backup and email.

In all of the above scenarios there is a need to install a private cloud and house IT and communications equipment on an organisation’s premises to maintain normal business whilst ensuring cost control, security, flexibility and minimal use of floor space - the Modular Micro Data Centre provides the solution.


The increased adoption of cloud services has led to a reduction in the need for on-premises infrastructure, opening the door for MDC solutions. This trend has also seen businesses keep some services at the business location in a local private cloud due to security concerns and creating a need for a hybrid solution with part infrastructure on-premises and part in the cloud. Within this paper we have established that all organisations whether they adopt a public, private or hybrid cloud strategy will have the need to house IT equipment and possibly data on premises so must consider how to securely house that equipment within their office environment. Installation of the traditional ‘bricks and mortar’ server room is an option but we have already established this is high install cost, inflexible and has high ongoing operational costs. Equally we have established that a closet is not a viable, reliable, secure solution. The other option is the Modular Micro Data centre or MDC.

The Modular Micro Data Centre is a robust housing unit that replicates all the capabilities of a traditional data centre on a smaller scale. It miniaturises the traditional server room into the size of an average refrigerator, offering its own cooling (through an external air conditioner), security (through a secure access panel) and power capabilities (through its own internal rack-mounted switchboard and power distribution unit). The MDC significantly reduces energy consumption and on-premises IT footprint as it stands alone, totally self-contained, within open office environments removing the need for a server room.

The MDC allows for significant reductions in installation and operational costs. Power consumption is reduced, as only the air within the cabinet is temperature controlled. It is both flexible and portable and can be moved around on the back of a van or truck to wherever it is needed, or moved away from natural disaster zones, cranes are not required to load.

The MDC is suitable for small to large organisations; MDCs can be linked together should an organisation have the need to house a large amount of IT equipment. A typical MDC is about the size of a standard 19inch server rack that is normally found in datacenters. MDC’s range in size from the smallest a 25U, with 21U worth or user space and the largest a 38U, with 34U worth of user space available. For example a server ranges between 2-4U and an SME may have 21U worth of equipment within a rack typically. An MDC can house any rack-mounted equipment that is needed by the organisation.

The MDC benefits both SME’s and large enterprises with a lightweight, robust and secure solution for housing their ICT infrastructure on premises (although much lighter than alternatives, floor loads should always be checked). The SME can choose any rental premises knowing the MDC can move with them as they grow and change office location, they also know their equipment will be housed securely, maintained at low operating costs and the MDC can reside anywhere within their open office environment. Enterprise organisations can standardise their satellite office on-premises private cloud IT infrastructure and monitor equipment at every remote office from one central location.

6. Modular Micro Data Centre – An Alternative To The Server Room

Modular Micro Data Centres replicate all capabilities of a traditional server room to house critical infrastructure on-premises or in infrastructure-poor remote locations, offering organisations a flexible lower cost alternative that is self-contained and secure with the added benefit of re-use at a moment’s notice.

Figure 1: Zellabox MDC – secure housing for ITC & communications equipment

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Scenario 1: Enterprise – Adopting The Hybrid Model

A large enterprise organisation decides to adopt a hybrid cloud model; moving non-critical data and services off-premises to the public cloud and keeping mission critical services on-premises, in a private cloud set-up. To take advantage of the hybrid cloud model and by moving services to the public cloud the enterprise’s current 20-25 racks of equipment currently stored within the server room will reduce down to 1-5 racks worth of equipment, and that is all the storage capacity that will then be needed to store business critical data and communications equipment. So instead of having to place the equipment within the original server room, the on premises equipment may then be securely stored in somewhere between one to five Modular Micro Data Centres, depending on the size of the equipment and so allowing valuable floor space, originally taken up by the server room to

be returned to the enterprise. The MDC runs quietly and can stand-alone in reception areas, amongst personnel or anywhere the business chooses to place them. The old server room is no longer required.

Scenario 2: SME – Move To The Cloud

A small to medium organisation decides to take advantage of cloud solutions and sends all data and services to a public cloud facility. What is often forgotten by organisations adopting this solution is that rack mounted equipment or a cloud ‘node’ is still required on premises to connect effectively to the public cloud and ensure a secure, uninterrupted connection. This connection is vitally important to the organisation’s ‘business as usual’ and so the equipment enabling the connection must be stored where it can be kept at optimum running temperature, where it is secure, whilst not increasing operational costs and installation of an MDC, anywhere on the SME’s premises, provides a reliable method of housing.

Scenario 3: Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP)

Either a large enterprise or SME organisation decides to implement an on-premises disaster recovery plan (DRP).

There will be a requirement to house equipment securely generating a requirement for a configuration of between 1-3 MDCs, depending on the size of the organisation. Mission critical data is kept close and is monitored by organisation staff and the MDC being secure, robust and moveable provides the organisation with the peace of mind that in the event of disaster there is minimal downtime. Additional MDCs can be added should there be future need for expansion.

7. Modular Micro Data Centres In Practice – Example Scenarios

Figure 2: Depiction of an Enterprise hybrid solution.

Hybrid Cloud

Critical data on-premisesacross multiple locations

Non-critical data in the cloudfacility off company property

Cloud access NODE on-premises Cloud applications accessibleover the Internet

Figure 3: Depiction of a SME hybrid solution.


Scenario 4: Resources Industry

Almost every business these days relies heavily on computers; switches, networks and digital data, and those within the resources industry are no different. In fact, access to digital maps, data and calculations has become an essential part of any mining or oil and gas company’s day-to-day operations. Unfortunately, the harsh environments in which such companies operate can be hostile to delicate computer equipment, servers and switches and the transitory nature of such work is unsuited to permanent, immovable brick-and-mortar server rooms. The compact size and portability of the MDC enables companies to distribute their IT infrastructure around a site, move it from location to location as required, add extra capacity when needed, and also to standardise global operations.

Scenario 5: Mine Site – Shared Office Location

Two organisations working on the same mine site require infrastructure to be housed within an open plan office space, next to each other with complete security from one another.

Organisations are each able to place an MDC on the same site, standing right next to one another, and neither of the organisations has access to the other’s MDC despite this close proximity. In addition the equipment can be placed amongst personnel within the open plan office space without interruption.

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There are a limited number of providers of advanced Modular Micro Data Centers globally that provide solutions for controlled environments to secure on premises IT infrastructure. Interestingly, each has adopted a different architectural approach to their solutions, which can be key in determining a hybrid cloud strategy. The differences, critically, encompass the key issues of (i) mobility and weight and (ii) flexibility and security.

The following diagram provides a perspective of architectural positioning adopted by leading global providers in the Modular Micro Data Centers today.

8. Modular Micro Data Centre Solutions In The Market Place

Figure 4: Current solutions in the market place based on Gartner Magic Quadrant methodology

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visionariesniche players

Mob

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Flexible & Secure

Zellabox

RittalAST Modular

Huawei

Emerson

EllipticalCanovate


Zellabox, based in Perth Western Australia, is a market leader in the Modular Micro Data Centre industry with a worldwide customer base. The Zellabox solution has been deployed in small office environments to major corporates in industries from government, banking, telecoms, oil, gas and mining to major enterprise. Zellabox operates through a network of distributors and resellers worldwide.

Zellabox Modular Micro Data Centres are an absolute replication of the public cloud server room facilities, adhering to the 8 data centre disciplines (see Zellabox Advantage or www.zellabox.com) giving businesses the opportunity to install a robust, secure and scalable cloud solution on-premises.

Figure 5: Two Zellaboxes in SME reception joined together. The lighting system inside indicates internal environmental status.

9. The MDC™ Market Leader - Zellabox

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The Zellabox is designed to contain and protect an organisations IT equipment. Customers may opt to put in; any rack mounted devices from servers, data storage, and telecoms and communications equipment to protect it from damage and to ensure it operates at optimum temperature and remains reliable. The design of the enclosure is of paramount importance to its function and the fact that the Zellabox is completely sealed is its greatest advantage compared with competing solutions.

The Zellabox is resistant to extreme temperatures and humidity, and able to withstand the consequences of infrastructure failures such as fire, rain and has been known to withstand even the collapse of a building. This high level of robustness means the Zellabox allows the customer to use IT infrastructure in any location, regardless of environmental risk.

The Zellabox is a true Modular Micro Data Centre. It is built incorporating the 8 disciplines of data centre engineering, seamlessly integrated into the solution. The disciplines facilitate and provide the engineering eco-system of an enterprise or high-end internet data centre. The disciplines ensure the Zellabox solution is robust and resilient, protecting customer equipment. The 8 disciplines are;

1. Structure - whether it is an in-situ built data centre, a computer room in a shared commercial building or a standalone MDC, all of these forms constitute a structure that will support a data centre,

2. Data cabling - data cabling is the fibre and copper interconnectivity or the physical layer of the network within the data centre,

3. Electrical - this discipline comprises all power infrastructure components from the mains supplier transformer to the rack power distribution unit,

4. Fire & environmental protection - environmental protection refers to aspirated smoke detection or heat sensors which monitor the data hall or computer room,

5. Mechanical - the mechanical systems are the components associated with cooling, with a sole purpose to maintain a regulated atmospheric condition in the data centre, namely temperature and humidity.

6. Racking - primarily house and support the active infrastructure systems such as servers, switches, storage and network equipment,

7. Security - security is provisioned in a layered approach in which the facility provides access control, based on different levels of authorisation to particular individuals, and

8. Infrastructure management - the data centre facility environment can be monitored by a standard building management system as well as being supplemented with an environmental or infrastructure management system.

10. The Zellabox Advantage

Figure 6: Zellabox MDC in the staff lounge room.

Figure 7: Zellabox MDC in the public hallway.

Figure 8: Zellabox MDC in a meeting room.


These disciplines apply to the design and construction of any ‘bricks and mortar ’ data centre. The Zellabox MDC is a true miniaturised version of a large-scale data centre, making it unique within the MDC market and ticking all the engineering requirements boxes.

The Zellabox MDC reduces operating costs by 30-60%, compared to a server room, it increases business flexibility and mobility and is totally secure. The Zellabox is completely sealed, it is resilience to power and environmental fluctuations making it suited to quiet office environments through to a hot and dusty mine site.

Zellabox is the perfect IT equipment housing solution for organisations migrating their IT services to the cloud, whether they be implementing or migrating to a public, private or hybrid cloud and where a secure and efficient connection to the ‘cloud’ facility is essential.

THE ZELLABOX IS A TRUE MODULAR MICRO DATA CENTRE.

Figure 9: Zellabox MDC in the public hallway near the coffee machine.

Figure 10: Zellabox MDC in the reception.

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11. Glossary

Cloud-computing A model for delivering information technology services in which resources are retrieved from the internet through web-based tools and applications, rather than a direct connection to a server. Data and software packages are stored in servers.

Data Facts and statistics collected together for reference or analysis.

DR Disaster recovery

DRP A disaster recovery plan is a documented process or set of procedures to recover and protect a business IT infrastructure in the event of a disaster.

Enterprise A business or organisation

Hybrid Something that is created by combining two different elements.

ICT Information and Communication Technology.

IT Information Technology

MDC Modular Micro Data Centre

Node A single Modular Micro Data Centre that houses rack mounted equipment enabling the organisation to connect securely to the internet and access cloud applications.

On-premises Servers, switches and computers are stored in the building of the organisation using them.

Off-premises Servers, switches and computers are stored at a ‘server farm’ or cloud facility away from the organisation’s building.

SME Small to medium sized organisation.

Server room A room within the building that is dedicated to storage of servers, switches and communications equipment.

Up-time Time during which a machine, especially a computer, is in operation.


12. List Of Figures

Figure 1: Zellabox MDC – secure housing for ITC & communications equipment

Figure 2: Depiction of an enterprise hybrid solution.

Figure 3: Depiction of a SME hybrid solution.

Figure 4: Current solutions in the market place based on Gartner Magic Quadrant methodology

Figure 5: Two Zellaboxes in SME reception joined together. The lighting system inside indicates internal environmental status.

Figure 6: Zellabox MDC in the staff lounge room

Figure 7: Zellabox MDC in the public hallway

Figure 8: Zellabox MDC in a meeting room

Figure 9: Zellabox MDC in the public hallway near the coffee machine.

Figure 10: Zellabox MDC in the reception.

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13. References

Cheung, et. al, 2012 Iris (Hoi Ying) Cheung, Greenberg, S. Mahdavi, R. Brown, R. and Tschudi, W. (2014). Energy Efficiency in Small Server Rooms: Field Surveys and Findings ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Delforge, et. al, 2012 Delforge, P., W. Tschudi, J. Dickerson, I. H.Y. Cheung, R. Mahdavi, S. Greenberg, and R.E. Brown. (2012) “Fact Sheet: Improving Energy Efficiency for Server Rooms and Closets” Berkeley, CA: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. LBNL-5935E. September. Available at http://hightech.lbl.gov/documents/data_centres/fact-sheet-ee-server-rooms-3.pdf

EPA EPA, Report to Congress on Server and Data Centre Energy Efficiency, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ENERGY STAR Program, August, 2007.

GFI White Paper GFI White Paper, On-premises vs. cloud-based solutions 2010WSP Environment & Energy, LLC; Natural Resources Defense Council; The carbon emissions of server computing for small-to-medium-sized organisations, A performance study of on-premises vs. The Cloud; October 2012

IDC 2014 IDC Infobrief, sponsored by EMC. Workload awareness is vital for effective enterprise hybrid cloud strategies. IDC, October 2014.

Mell et.al, 2011 Mell, P. Grance, T. (2011). National Institute of Standards and Technology, U.S Department of Commerce, The NIST definition of cloud computing, September. (http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-145/SP800-145.pdf )

Plummer, 2014 Plummer, D. (Gartner Managing VP & Fellow). (2014). Hybrid Cloud: IT Control to IT Collaboration.

Subramanian, K. 2011 Subramanian, K. (2011). Hybrid Clouds, A white paper sponsored by Trend Micro.

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White paper adopting the hybrid cloud what every cio must know