A Head-to-Head Comparison of the Mega Data Center
Earlier this month, Tulip Data City announced that it had partnered with IBM to create a mega data center facility in Bangalore India. At 900,000 square feet the facility ranks third in the world for size and was designed to serve as a foundation for cloud services. The mega facility also is representative of the country’s ambition to build-out its technology infrastructure.
The Tulip facility, with its screaming capacity and tight security controls, boasts many similarities to the fourth largest data center in the world – the 750,000 square foot facility from NGD Europe based in Newport, Wales. Opening back in 2010, NGD like Tulip, features all the state-of-art systems expected of a next-generation data center. NGD is multi-tier, has several layers of security, a centralized energy management system custom designed by Schneider Electric, cooling including direct air, multiple onsite high-speed low latency fiber connections, etc. But unlike Tulip, NGD also features a massive dedicated hall for containerized computers which are in demand for hosting large public and private cloud deployments. You need plenty of power and space to put containers in a pre-existing facility which is why NGD has dedicated it’s top floor – 140,000 square feet to accommodate containers stacked three high with the reserved the power to match.
Another, more striking difference between the two behemoth data centers is that NGD has the added benefit of a totally green power supply. NGD connects directly to the nation’s super grid via its own substation, ensuring a massive 180 MVA of resilient power supply – nearly doubling Tulip’s power offering of 100 MVA.
So, herein lies the decision for companies seeking primary or co-location data center facilities – do I go remote and if so, how far away am I comfortable being? And, what are the pros and cons of a rural vs. metro-based facility? Corporations and CIOs based in the West will need to weigh whether they want a data center like NGD in Wales – far away enough from London to count when it comes to lower operating costs, more resilient power supply and natural security, yet close enough to matter when it comes to the convenience and peace-of-mind in knowing your mission-critical data is housed only a two-hour dash from global or European headquarters – or somewhere so far away like India, involving major time differences, long-haul flights and in the thick of some of the most densely populated land on earth.
Challenges of IT TodayNothing Changes at Twitter and IBMNoise Complaints to Close Data Center?Case Study: Tugboat Company Finds Cloud Servi…
Simon Taylor is Chairman of Next Generation Data (NGD) Europe. He has an outstanding track record in developing products both in the corporate world during his early career with Toshiba Information Systems and Cable & Wireless, and in the last decade as an entrepreneur and investor. In 1995 he founded Interoute Products, part of Interoute Telecoms (later re-named Telecom FM), which developed telecom routers and soft switch products, and gained substantial market share throughout Europe within the first 5 years. Simon is a founder of NQuire Ltd and Group Chairman and founder of Saiph Group which focuses on IP telephony and convergence and has major customers in both the public and private sectors.
