Log in to IT, or how we decided to build a data center and built it. Part one

With all the abundance of goods and services offered today, it would seem that finding something worthy that fully meets the needs should be easy. But in practice, even in “rich” Moscow, the situation is not so rosy. In particular, in the field of data centers.

The list of requirements for a data center for medium and large customers often takes several pages. But due to various factors, they almost completely fail to satisfy them completely. Most often, you have to compromise, squeeze and trick.
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Our company is engaged in providing data center services and various IT services, from the design of cable systems to the organization of large purchases of equipment. An integral part of the business model is to have a reliable data center, own or rented. The main theater of our actions is Moscow, and here, it would seem, there should be no shortage of good data centers. However, in reality, things are somewhat different.



We used the services of several commercial data centers, and nowhere could we get the required level of service. In one data center, the claimed “train” bandwidth of the channels jumps almost depending on the air temperature outside the window. In the second rack are cooled by household floor air conditioners (heartbreaking spectacle). In the third, in order to bring in or take out the equipment, it is required to sign a wad of papers and run several kilometers between the offices, managing to get into the chaotic work schedule of the responsible persons. At the same time, it is also required to be polite with the last mile in the face of a sleepy guard at the entrance, who loves to demonstrate his tiny power over the situation, if suddenly the engineers do not like him with something.

And in such adverse conditions, we must fulfill our obligations to our own clients. And they don’t care about the fact that somewhere a drunk power engineer confused the switches, and the operators missed the planned replacement of batteries in a deserved UPS of the last century. And this is right - the client shouldn’t have a headache about the working conditions of his expensive equipment or the continuity of service - for this he turned to us.

The solution, which allows to solve all the problems in one fell swoop, albeit very expensive, lies on the surface. This, of course, the construction of its own data center. It’s quite difficult to venture on this important step, and the matter is not only about money. From the very first moment there is a mass of the most serious issues that require an unequivocal choice of several options. Build yourself or attract a contractor? What level of reliability to expect? Build only for yourself, or plan to sell space and power to third-party clients? Buy equipment directly from a vendor or through a distributor? How to choose racks, raised floor, lighting, ventilation, monitoring system, backup power system and fire suppression? What kind of staff is required? And finally, how much money do you need for all this luxury?

Now, when we have already completed construction, many questions and problems seem commonplace, and the answers and solutions are obvious. But, without stuffing the cones, it is difficult to get a complete understanding of the architecture of the modern data center, and this is exactly what we wanted. It is practically impossible to build a decent modern DC only on our own, unless, of course, you are a company professionally engaged in the design and construction of DC. In any case, at some stage, it will be necessary to involve professionals, the main thing is only to decide in what form. You can hire an employee who is familiar with the specifics, and instruct him to organize the process. In this case, if he is, of course, not a documenting genius and a pedant to the bone, there is a risk of being tightly tied to this person - if something happens, you can’t figure it out without him. In addition, people who are able to organize the construction of a modern data center are literally worth their weight in gold and can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Therefore, it is better to dismiss such a scheme as almost impossible to implement.

If a talented organizer is not found, you can attract a contracting company. A serious office with several successfully completed projects behind its back will surely sound close to real terms and prices, take all the questions upon itself. True, it will have to pay thirty percent more for this. And you need to be mentally prepared for the fact that about half of what will be done right in the process will have to be redone anyway. At least because of a different understanding of seemingly simple and obvious things. Well, the differences in the mentality of the customer and the contractor, especially if the generalists' masters from the southern republics are mainly involved in the construction work, can be felt. Another factor in the rejection of this option may be the fact that your own staff, able to take on some of the directions, may be idle.

After analyzing all possible options, we decided to dwell on a hybrid solution. In order to successfully implement it, you need to try to calculate the balance in as much detail as possible and choose the directions in which you will need to involve the contracting organization, and those where you can manage on your own. This option seems to be optimal.

Where this is really necessary, it is possible, by making an effort, to give the reins to the hands of the contractor. On the other fronts of the work, the available human resources will be useful, which can later form the backbone of the staff of the future data center. Such a solution looks optimal, and we decided to stick with it.

Now, after a year since the beginning of construction, we decided to talk about how the data center was built, what pitfalls we found, and how we avoided colliding with them. We have accumulated a lot of non-trivial problems and have gained invaluable experience of interaction with vendors. All this we plan to tell in a series of articles that appear in this blog. Follow Habr!