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Data Center Builders
Introduction Building new Data Centers is a costly, complicated and with overwhelming details To build a new data center, the cost and the time it takes are serious issues, plus the top executives may not see the cost as justified. We believe that using good management, virtualization, intelligent building tools and automation would reduce the cost of building and the running data center to a fraction of what is done today. Building data centers would requires building the following: • Management teams • Planning • Budge • The physical structure - building, power, internet connections, ... etc. • Networks (OS, servers, routers, ..etc) • Network skilled staff • Testing team (on/offshore) Therefore, building data centers must be broken down to smaller and manageable and affordable steps with contingency plan. The first important ingredient is team work where all parties involved must have their views and participation in the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and first major milestone. The new data center (facilities and sites) would involve literally every IT departments and testing the new site is critical to the data center success. Use Case: Using Intelligence and Virtualization to Automate Building Data Centers Description: Is our claim a fancy or a con? According to the internet, most companies have between 50,000 to 100,000 servers. The actual cost of building a new data center with latest and the greatest will a run into the $Billion and will take a long time to build. Most executives and stakeholders may look at our claim which we would cut the bulding cost to fraction as a cone or a fancy. Our attempt in this page is to present our approach and architect and the world is free to use it or not. Briefly Describe This Use Case We believe that using good management, virtualization, intelligent building tools and automation would reduce the cost of building and the running data center to a fraction of what is done today. Primary Actor: Executives, stakeholders, Infrastructure directors and architects. Goals: To present a solid and sound approaches with an architect which removes any doubt about we are presenting. Analysis The first strategy would be “Divide and Conquer”. There is must be a pilot project as a test ground and learning curve. The best start is searching and a planning of the first manageable and affordable build. Once the plan is approved, then building the pilot project should be completed and tested. This pilot project is the basis for building the rest of the data center. Automation and intelligent tools such as our Building Editor must be used to cut cost and speed the building processes. Architect This pilot project is the basis for building the rest of the data center. Automation and intelligent tools such as our Building Editor must be used to cut cost and speed the building processes. 
Virtual Pilot Architect Diagram The virtual network structure and tools factories must be intelligent and automated. Plans and maintenance-troubleshooting , testing, reports, statistics and DevOps would be used to create, copy-paste and clone virtual networks. Management and documentation must run the networks. Reports and statistics would be used to evaluate the running networks. Virtualization, Virtualization, Virtualization and more Virtualization: We are talking about: • Virtual Servers (we define them as Sub-Servers Objects in OOD Model ) • Virtual Containers • Virtual Clusters • Virtual Networks Object Oriented System (OOS) or Object Oriented Design (OOD) can be implanted in the following:
Advantage of Virtualization: Network virtualization supports the complex requirements in multi-tenancy environments. Network virtualization can deliver a virtual network within a virtual environment with independent network resources. These virtual network can disperse traffic into zones or containers to ensure traffic balance and resources distribution. Customizing virtual servers and networks to meet the business requirement is the way to go. With Object oriented Design such virtual structured environment would be composed of manageable objects and our OO Virtual Model would be Easy to: • Structure and size • Build • Copy • Clone • Modify • Test • Inherit • Move around Also such virtualization can be created as a running prototype, or we can build software programs as model virtualizer similar to ones that are used in building airplanes, big buildings or high-rises. Such a program(s) can be created as way to give estimates, be part of the planning as well as test other criteria without building anything. Virtual Networks: A Network is all the running hardware, software, interfaces, wiring, IP addresses, licenses and anything any network requires. In term of Network and Network Management, a network is a handful of hardware, software, interfaces and man-hours which also has the potential of expanding and growing out of control. To convert a network into a class or an object we need to split Virtual Networking into sub-classes: • Bare-Metal Sub-Class – one of more Bare-Metal Container (actual hardware as the class Attributes) • Management Sub-Class – one of more Service manager Container • Documentation Sub-Class – one of more Documentation Container • Virtual Network Sub-Class – one of more Server Containers • Exception Sub-Class – Zero of more error tracking and handling Container • Change Control Sub-Class – Zero of more Change Control Container • OS Container What is a Virtual Network Class? A Virtual Network Class (object) is an independently running network and contains all virtual sub-classes listed. A Virtual Network Class can be extended-inherited and reused by other Virtual Network Class. Virtual and Bare-Metal: To clear our virtual concept, every hardware including physical servers, switches, wiring, etc are represented into two forms or ways as: • Software Sub-server containing the hardware • Properties of virtual classes For example, the firewall hardware or box would be represented or assigned a software Virtual Sub-Server which would be the link and the handler of such hardware. Even if the hardware may be directly handling the traffic, the software Virtual Sub-Server is the representation of the firewall hardware within the Virtual Container as follows: • The Firewall Virtual Sub-Server’s Methods will have the steps and processes dealing, running and maintaining the firewall hardware or box. • The Firewall Virtual Sub-Server’s Properties will be the documentation for tracking the wiring, links, and IP addresses and so on. • Bare-metal Container would have all the firewall physical boxes and data including the hardware inventory and expiration tracking Technical Notes: As for properties, these can be implemented as a Java ArrayList<String> data type Object which throws an exception when any of these Properties are deleted if such properties are shared between Virtual Containers or networks. For example, routers and switches can be stored or assigned as Properties of a Sub-Server object. They can be also shared between Sub-Servers, containers or even virtual networks. Network and Network Managed Services: The breakdown of the Network and the Management Services and into objects: 
Virtualization and Object Oriented Design Classes Network Engineering and Design High Availability Security Plant Design Installation Sub-Servers and Containers and their properties and methods Network Architecture Firewalls, routers and switches Server Network Interface Card (NIC) Teaming (High Availability Architecture) Load Balancers and Intrusion Detection Systems WAN/LAN Integration and Storage Area Networks (SAN) Telco Services, including Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) Leverage Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) enhanced features and functionality to effectively Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) Installation and Configuration Services Services Management Container Skilled Staff Network Utilization Capacity Management Performance and availability management, including eliminating bottlenecks Pro-active preventive management and highly efficient reactive capabilities for unexpected repair problems Contingency plans Documentation Sub-Server and Container User account administration, network devices and configuration, and change management Standard monthly reports, including network services reports and incident reports Exception Container Connectivity troubleshooting and monitoring Automated preventive notification Pre-failure alerting Trend analysis Event correlation and root cause analysis Troubleshooting and Problem Resolution Change Request Container Rigorous change and configuration management, including auto-discovery process and performance thresholds OS Container Network Operations Monitoring, alerting and reporting iPhone Operating System (IOS) Firmware Patch Management Troubleshooting and Problem Resolution Support DIR’s customers Bare-Metal Container All the Physical hardware Hardware inventory Hardware expiration tracking Reality Check: Using Object oriented Design and Virtualization in Building Data Centers is new and needs all parties involved to be open-minded, think in these terms (OOD and virtualization) and see the advantages of using these approaches. From experience we may have an uphill battle convincing all the parties involved. Virtual Topology: The key ingredient is our virtual network is the following Containers: • Services Managers Container • Documentation Container • Exception Container • Change Control Container These Containers run the show with Services Managers Container as the Kernel or the Boss. They should be built as a Virtual Cluster. The Second key ingredient is the size of these classes or object should be manageable by human with automation and intelligence. Since these Containers or clusters are virtual so creating an array of these cluster would be manageable and can be copied, moved and inherited. We can actually name the Center Structure cluster as “Control-Tracking Cluster” Class. The same thing can be apply to virtual network in term of size, management and complexity. 
• Star Topology • Mesh Topology • Ring Topology Data Center Specification Network Editor: With same approach we are building cluster editor, we also developing an editor for Network. The difference between these two editors is the network will be using the cluster's data structure-classes and arrays of classes to build the network classes. As for the management and documentation, the Network editor management and documentation classes would be the level higher in the building structure hierarchy. 
Parallel Arrays of Virtual Network and Control-Tracking Cluster: These can be viewed as parallel arrays first the Virtual Networks array and second is the Control-Tracking Cluster array. An admin GUI interface should be developed as the human control center for all the virtual networks and their supportive Bare-Metal containers. The best answer to our virtual model and approach would be best illustrated with the following topologies: Addressing Security with Virtualization: When it comes to security, Virtualization is a very powerful tool in creating and managing layers of security such as: 1. Virtual Proxy Servers as security front 2. Virtual Firewalls - actual protection and filters 3. Virtual Sandboxing to isolate a number of running software 4. Using Virtualization to create clusters with different functionality - adds a layer of abstraction 5. Isolation and multi-tenancy 6. Virtual Honeypots and Honeynets - decoy and traps 7. Rollback Honeypots are computers set up for the purpose of luring attackers, and a honeynet is an entire network of honeypots. The honeynet looks to the outsider like a production network. |
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