VSNL: Always On

Being a connectivity service provider offering a slew of
services is not an easy task. In a typical Internet datacenter, there are many
constituents that facilitate peak uptime, and power backup devices have a
mission-critical role here. VSNL, India's largest datacenter and ISP in terms
of bandwidth and customer base, has created a robust power backup solution in
association with Emerson Network Power India to ensure almost no downtime.

VSNL operates a large number of earth stations, switches,
submarine cable systems and value-added service nodes for basic and value-added
telecom services. In terms of bandwidth, a maximum of 350 MBps international
Internet bandwidth comes through VSNL. One of the key interest areas of VSNL is
the Internet datacenter. However, in order for a datacenter to perform to
stringent quality standards in terms of service delivery, it needs to have a
proactive power management paradigm in place. According to industry experts, the
fundamental requirement when a customer is outsourcing a datacenter or hosting
requirement, is that the infrastructure available should have all the
ingredients for running it on a 24/7 basis, at continually higher available
uptimes, without getting into the hassle of managing that infrastructure on
their own.

Experts also say that from the most basic requirement
perspective, power and network availability assume a critical role. All
associated infrastructure-routers, cables, or air conditioning-finally draw
power from the main grid. If this power fails for some reason, applications
running from the datacenter will come to a grinding halt. With so many diverse
ingredients going into creating a successful datacenter, the bottom line is that
all these devices have to be always on and need to be available 24/7. Thus,
power management becomes a critical aspect in determining the availability and
integrity of the datacenter. Also, with stringent SLAs, the service provider has
to pay dearly in the case of downtime. Hence, one of the key challenges in
creating a datacenter is offering 99.99 per cent uptime.

VSNL enlisted Emerson for the creation of a robust power
conditioning and cooling infrastructure. Emerson worked with the officials at
VSNL and designed the ideal Network Uptime Solution in line with VSNL's
business strategy. The Emerson solution had to ensure that right from the floor
plan of the electrical to the ultimate rank, there would be no downtime for the
customer. Emerson undertook a site audit to study the power requirements at VSNL
and drew up a power conditioning plan.

The plan envisaged by Emerson is based on the redundant design
structure, which is considered critical in the smooth functioning of a
datacenter. Most of the design aspects were taken care of by VSNL, and as per
specifications provided by the client, Emerson provided expertise in terms of
power solutions and online maintenance. Emerson ensured redundancy up to the
last level to ensure 99.5 per cent uptime across the board. In some key accounts
such as LIC, the network is subsequently beefed up to ensure 99.9 per cent
uptime.

According to sources at Emerson, to chalk out a flawless
network, one has to take into account the customer's needs. One has to
understand the profile of customers, their growth patterns, their business needs
and expectations, scalability and flexibility of the solution and then
incorporate these in the solution provided.

Shrikanth G

shrikanthg@cybermedia.co.in