"This book covers a wide spectrum of topics relevant to implementing and managing a modern data center. The chapters are comprehensive and the flow of concepts is easy to understand." -Cisco reviewer Gain a practical knowledge of data center concepts To create a well-designed data center (including storage and network architecture, VoIP implementation, and server consolidation) you must understand a variety of key concepts and technologies. This book explains those factors in a way that smoothes the path to implementation and management. Whether you need an introduction to the technologies, a refresher course for IT managers and data center personnel, or an additional resource for advanced study, you'll find these guidelines and solutions provide a solid foundation for building reliable designs and secure data center policies. * Understand the common causes and high costs of service outages * Learn how to measure high availability and achieve maximum levels * Design a data center using optimum physical, environmental, and technological elements * Explore a modular design for cabling, Points of Distribution, and WAN connections from ISPs * See what must be considered when consolidating data center resources * Expand your knowledge of best practices and security * Create a data center environment that is user- and manager-friendly * Learn how high availability, clustering, and disaster recovery solutions can be deployed to protect critical information * Find out how to use a single network infrastructure for IP data, voice, and storage

Provides the fundamentals, technologies, and best practices in designing, constructing and managing mission critical, energy efficient data centers Organizations in need of high-speed connectivity and nonstop systems operations depend upon data centers for a range of deployment solutions. A data center is a facility used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunications and storage systems. It generally includes multiple power sources, redundant data communications connections, environmental controls (e.g., air conditioning, fire suppression) and security devices. With contributions from an international list of experts, The Data Center Handbook instructs readers to: Prepare strategic plan that includes location plan, site selection, roadmap and capacity planning Design and build "green" data centers, with mission critical and energy-efficient infrastructure Apply best practices to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions Apply IT technologies such as cloud and virtualization Manage data centers in order to sustain operations with minimum costs Prepare and practice disaster reovery and business continuity plan The book imparts essential knowledge needed to implement data center design and construction, apply IT technologies, and continually improve data center operations.

Alger presents technologies, design strategies, and operational approaches that can help any company improve the energy efficiency and "eco-friendliness" of their IT facilities. He walks step-by-step through "greening" physical construction, power, cooling, and servers; then covers equipment consolidation, virtualization, and much more.

Master the basics of data centers to build server farms that enhance your Web site performance Learn design guidelines that show how to deploy server farms in highly available and scalable environments Plan site performance capacity with discussions of server farm architectures and their real-life applications to determine your system needs Today's market demands that businesses have an Internet presence through which they can perform e-commerce and customer support, and establish a presence that can attract and increase their customer base. Underestimated hit ratios, compromised credit card records, perceived slow Web site access, or the infamous "Object Not Found" alerts make the difference between a successful online presence and one that is bound to fail. These challenges can be solved in part with the use of data center technology. Data centers switch traffic based on information at the Network, Transport, or Application layers. Content switches perform the "best server" selection process to direct users' requests for a specific service to a server in a server farm. The best server selection process takes into account both server load and availability, and the existence and consistency of the requested content. Data Center Fundamentals helps you understand the basic concepts behind the design and scaling of server farms using data center and content switching technologies. It addresses the principles and concepts needed to take on the most common challenges encountered during planning, implementing, and managing Internet and intranet IP-based server farms. An in-depth analysis of the data center technology with real-life scenarios make Data Center Fundamentals an ideal reference for understanding, planning, and designing Web hosting and e-commerce environments.

Energy Efficient Servers: Blueprints for Data Center Optimization introduces engineers and IT professionals to the power management technologies and techniques used in energy efficient servers. The book includes a deep examination of different features used in processors, memory, interconnects, I/O devices, and other platform components. It outlines the power and performance impact of these features and the role firmware and software play in initialization and control. Using examples from cloud, HPC, and enterprise environments, the book demonstrates how various power management technologies are utilized across a range of server utilization. It teaches the reader how to monitor, analyze, and optimize their environment to best suit their needs. It shares optimization techniques used by data center administrators and system optimization experts at the world’s most advanced data centers.

And server load balancing fundamentals are covered in detail, including session persistence and cookies, server health, modes and predictors, and multitier architectures. Putting it all together are chapters on Data Center design that also advise you on integrating security into your design and understanding performance metrics of Data Center devices. An in-depth analysis of the Data Center technology coupled with real-life scenarios make Data Center Fundamentals an ideal reference for understanding, planning, and designing scalable, highly available, and secure server farms applicable to web-hosting and e-commerce environments amongst others. Book jacket.