Message from the President
Perhaps it’s just me, but doesn’t it seem like the pace and volume of change continues to skyrocket? Think about the myriad of issues where change is the name of the game, whether perceived or real: healthcare, the environment, politics, technology, your young child’s clothing sizes (OK, that last one has been on my mind lately). We could continue this list for several days. Not only do we have LOTS of change to deal with, we have to figure out which changes we “can believe in”!? Well, for the purposes of simplifying our lives for the next few minutes, let’s focus on just ONE particular area of change: the data center.
Without question, the data center is one of the most critical collections of square footage that an organization owns or leases. In general, the data center is a centralized information technology environment that provides storage, processing, and communications capabilities which are intrinsic to the organization’s operation. As we say around our office, “Online. Real-time. All the time.” If you want to know what the winds of change feel like, just go stand in a data center for a few hours. Whether your interests are in the increasing density of server racks, new ideas in hot/cold aisle containment, increasing energy efficiency, the road to virtualization, or relocating your organization’s computing resources to somewhere on Cloud 9, the data center is a pretty breezy place.
In this issue of EDItion, we hope to provide helpful commentary on some critical aspects of planning, designing, operating, and transitioning these very important pieces of real estate. Making a guest appearance this month is Bill Rieger, with Baptist Healthcare in Jacksonville, Florida.
This issue also gives us the chance to introduce you to some new faces at EDI. As part of our firm’s commitment to delivering technology solutions and leadership that provide extraordinary value and confidence, we are happy to announce the expansion of EDI’s Data Center Services team. Under the leadership of Gary R. Cudmore, Principal, and Rob Nash-Boulden, Vice-President of Operations, our Data Center Services team is providing comprehensive project consulting services on projects throughout the United States. Our exciting expansion gives EDI a broader footprint in the west, including Phoenix, Denver, Salt Lake City, and Irvine. As always, we are grateful to have you as our reading audience. If you would like to explore any of these topics further, please let us know.
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Sincerely, Kevin Hebblethwaite, CPSM President & CEO |
EDI Welcomes Our Newest Team Members
EDI is pleased to welcome our newest senior audio visual consultant and seven new Data Center Services employees.
Click here to learn more about EDI’s newest team members.
Legislation, Trends, and Our Current Healthcare System: Key Factors Affecting the Future of Healthcare Technology
By Don Kinser, PE
The “future” of healthcare in the US, at least through 2015 or so, will be shaped in a fundamental way by the healthcare industry’s mad dash to achieve “meaningful use” of a “certified” electronic health record (EHR) mandated by 2009’s ARRA/HITECH legislation. As a result of HITECH the focus on healthcare IT has never been stronger and healthcare organizations everywhere are scrambling to cash in on the incentives and, more importantly, avoid the penalties that the ARRA/HITECH legislation mandates. Now that HHS has issued the “interim final rule” regarding meaningful use the race is on before the penalties kick in. Based on the HIMSS Analytic EMR Adoption model (EMRAM) scores at the end of 2009, less than 15% of US hospitals have achieved Stage 4 on the EMRAM scale. HIMSS believes that a Stage 4 hospital can meet most, if not all of the HHS’ meaningful use criteria. The healthcare industry clearly has a long way to go and most are working furiously to get there.
Beginning a Data Center Project
By Jim Harrison, RCDD
There has been an explosion in data center growth. The need for more data, information, storage, and applications are outperforming many existing data center infrastructures. Also, many organizations have reached their tipping point on their first or second generation data center and it is now time to consider a new data center to meet the organization’s critical IT infrastructure needs
Update Your Fire Protection Strategy
By Gary Cudmore
You have just completed a new data center construction project, which took two years to plan and build and cost millions of dollars. The project has been a collaboration of the IT department, facilities and many outside resources to engineer and construct. During this process, you reviewed numerous options for a fire detection and suppression strategy. It was determined that since the facility is manned continuously, it would make sense to invest in the additional expense of an air sampling system.
Data Center Relocation
By Jan Stuchlik, PE, CCNA
While at the recent AFCOM conference, I was sitting through a presentation on data center relocation. I began to wonder if every data center relocation project has to be so tedious. Can there be any excitement and job satisfaction in moving a data center?
I think so, but there are two ways of creating that excitement: the right way (typically earning you a promotion, a salary bonus, or at least a pat on the back), and the wrong way (likely ending your budding data center management career).
An Introduction to Data Center Mechanical Inspection
By Dan Fanning, LEED AP
With the rising awareness and emphasis on energy efficiency within critical facilities, EDI’s clients are often tasked with finding ways to save money and increase efficiency using limited capital investment dollars.
To assist with this, EDI’s Data Center Services Team recommends that clients start by inspecting their mechanical infrastructure. Mechanical systems can easily consume more than half of the total power within a data center. As such, it’s a logical place to start when looking for ways to improve efficiency, airflow, and temperature while saving operational dollars.
In this article we outline a mechanical system inspection process that clients can follow to make some preliminary determinations regarding their mission critical facilities.
New Featured Project
Valley Health War Memorial Hospital
Berkeley Springs, West Virginia
Photos courtesy of Valley Health
Valley Health recently acquired the assets of War Memorial Hospital from Morgan County, West Virginia to build a long awaited replacement hospital in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia.
