1. NASA Data Center Consolidation
Tony Anania
Kennedy Space Center
AFCEA, SunComm 2011

2. Consolidation Basics
Trend to Data Center consolidation is industry wide
Data Center modernizations and consolidation are key initiatives for IT Infrastructure and Operations Managers
Data Center Consolidation is the process of physically and logically co-locating computer systems
Consolidation aims to reduce overall business costs by optimizing expenditures associated with:
Energy Consumption Operational Support
Facility Utilization Physical System Security
Hardware Utilization System Maintenance

3. Federally Mandated Work
Presidential Memorandum – June 2010
“…in order to address the growth of data centers across the Federal Government, agencies shall immediately adopt a policy against expanding data centers beyond current levels, and shall develop plans to consolidate and significantly reduce data centers within 5 years.”
OMB Agency Consolidation Plan - Feb 2010
“…Data Center Consolidation and the Cloud Computing Issue Areas will be government-wide priorities for all agencies beginning in FY2010.” FDCCI
NASA Lori Garver Memo – Aug 2010
“…The objective of this initiative is to reduce the overall cost of data center services by leveraging newer and more efficient technologies, reducing power consumption and consolidating locations to increase space usage densities, and decreasing the real estate footprint of Federal data centers….Mission Directorate Associate Administrators and Center Directors shall direct their staff to cooperate fully and openly with these discussion initiatives.”
NASA OCIO Priorities
Consolidation of Data Centers
NASA tasked by OMB to prepare a plan outlining the approach to reduce IT energy consumption by a minimum 30% over
a 3-year period (FY )
Security & Efficiency of Data Centers
In April 30, 2010, NASA provided OMB with the list of all data center construction, expansion and/or consolidations activities currently planned or underway as of June 30, 2010, the Agency integrated the approved data center consolidation plan into the
FY 2012 budget
In Sep 2011 NASA updated it’s “Long Term Data Center Consolidation Plan” addressing agency-specific strategic consolidation goals, consolidation approaches, risk management, acquisition strategies, governance, schedules of closures, and planned data center savings
From the new Fed CIO Steven VanRoekel – Oct 2011
"I basically told the team when I came on board that I wanted to scope it so everything is game. We also are expanding the project to more aggressively consolidate our data center footprint. First, we are widening the scope of the project to include even the smallest data center

4. Consolidation Strategy
NASA’s Data Center
Consolidation Strategy
Promote at least one healthy Data Center for each NASA Center
Focus on increasing IT efficiency:
Fully utilize existing Data Centers for initial consolidation efforts
Implement strategic improvements to strengthen health and availability of objective Data Centers
Employ best practices
Eliminate underutilized facilities, systems and applications
Aggressively work to eliminate rouge “server rooms”

5. NASA’s Data Center Environment
Initial State
Future State
ARC
SSC
MSFC
GRC
GSFC HQ
KSC
JSC
JPL
NSSC
DRFC
LARC
ARC
SSC
MSFC
GRC
GSFC HQ
KSC
JSC
JPL
NSSC
DRFC
LARC

6. Data Center Architecture
Future Environment
Public Cloud
When Applicable
NEBULA
Cloud
NEBULA
Cloud
Standard
Data Center Architecture
Consolidated
Data Centers
at Each
Center 6

7. OMB Data Center Consolidation Goals
Broad reductions of 10% in each of FY12, FY13 & FY14 in each of the various measurable Data Center areas:
Total # of Data Centers
Aggregate gross floor area
Total number of racks
Total number of servers
Total energy use

8. More than Just Consolidation
Consolidation alone will not provide the savings required by future budgets
Reshape Data Centers to Gain Full Economies of Scale
Colocation may exacerbate, rather than diminish, the cost of technology
The Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiatives (FDCCI) should meet the following additional requirements:
Tactical: improve energy efficiency, increase utilization and availability, and support disaster recovery
Strategic: increase standardization, leverage virtualization and scalability and improve governance
Innovative: where appropriate, incorporate cloud services, develop shared-service models and leverage centers of excellence

9. Data Center Consolidation Management
NASA established an Program Executive position within OCIO to lead Agency Data Center consolidation efforts
NASA established the Agency Data Center Consolidation (ADCC) Project Office at KSC to:
Coordinate Data Center consolidation activities
Deploy and manage an Agency-wide automated IT discovery and application mapping capability
Implement a real-time dashboard to monitor and track NASA Data Center consolidation progress

10. Domains of Data Center Consolidation
RESULTS
Facility
Room/Sq Ft Reduction
Energy Reduction
Application
Rationalization
Platform Consolidation
Consolidated
Data Centers
Efficient
Reliable
Available
IT Infrastructure
Servers & Storage
Reductions
Virtualization
Cloud Services

11. Compute Services Stack

12. Hosted Service Categories and Characteristics

13. Host Computing Service Environment

14. Strategic Preference

15. NASA Host Computing Strategy

16. Data Center Discovery
Semi-manual inventory of server class IT assets Agency-wide
Used NASA Property Database (NPROP) to identify servers and network equipment by location and mapped onto GIS floor plans from each Center to identify rooms/facilities that could qualify as potential Data Centers

17. Automated IT Asset Discovery
Deployment of an enterprise discovery tool to automate the collection of IT asset data and conduct application mapping

18. Data Center Consolidation Dashboard
Discovered Servers
Mapped Applications
Discovered Server Trend
Application Mapping Trend

19. Data Center Power Monitoring Service
Data center power monitoring and management solution, provided as a hosted on-site Software-as-a-Service (SAAS) offering
Provides a web-based mechanism to allow users at NASA facilities to monitor the power consumption at designated NASA data centers
Users can view current and historical power consumption data, and generate and export energy consumption and efficiency reports

20. Simulating Cooling Performance of Data Centers
CFD Modeling
& Analysis
Simulating Cooling Performance of Data Centers
Rack temperature map -
Determine and optimize the efficiency of data center cooling system
Find additional capacity without modifying cooling infrastructure
Faster, more practical and flexible “what-if” analysis for data center modifications than physical testing
Show benefits of implementing best practices (hot/cold aisle, blanking panels, etc)
Analyze impacts of adding/removing hardware BEFORE implementation and find “best fit”
Avoid unforeseen infrastructure modifications as a result of consolidations or other changes
Temperature fog -
Pressure distribution under the raised floor -

21. Application Rationalization Analysis
Identified candidates for consolidation, virtualization and Cloud potential, with focus on current inventory of applications
Phase 1 - Identified system level information, utilizing FISMA related security plans information to create a list of systems that have applications that are believed to be candidates for consolidation, virtualization or the cloud
Phase 2 - Gathered detailed application level data on potential system identified in Phase 1 to determine if they are candidates for consolidation/virtualization with minimal or significant effort

22. Consolidation Timeline
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
21,500
Physical Servers Reduce
10,000
79 Data Centers
54 Data Centers
22 Data Centers
50%
Virtualized Servers Increase
10%

23. Virtualization Ratio IaaS SaaS Physical Servers Decrease
Virtual OS Increase 10% per year
10 %
50 %
IaaS
SaaS
Cloud Services
Physical
Servers
Virtual

24. Estimated Savings 1st Year
Work across the Agency to reduce Data Center facility space and IT power consumption
Consolidation activities FY11
Eliminated 13 Data Centers and 19 rooms (Returned 22,289 sq ft of space)
Estimated energy savings of $337,210 per/year
Established goals for the next
12 month period
Today
Today

25. Next Steps
Continue to aggressively pursuing Data Center Consolidation, local Center participation and support of NASA Mission Directorates is key to success
Work with Centers to develop an Agency long term consolidation plan (through FY2015), to outline how Data Center consolidation will be achieved and to identify any significant budget augmentation or construction efforts necessary

26. KSC Data Center Consolidation
Goal: A successfully consolidated Data Center environment
Exists in one physical location…ideally (some systems can’t move)
Achieves optimization by employing a combination of physical and virtual servers
Offers a standard set of defined services (Service Catalog)
Provides a trained, dedicated support team
Encourages business-wide platform standards for application development
Kennedy Data Center

27. Initial State of Facilities
Much Inefficiency
Power - Whole Bldg. sections powered 24/7 to accommodate one small room or a few rooms with a server etc
Planned facility outages become a major challenge
Presently 4 Buildings with significant Data Centers
VAB , SSPF, CIF, O&C
Many Admin areas in buildings utilized as IT type servers rooms (closets, server under desk etc.)
(Some require portable generators to be installed)
Our Current State is not a good picture. We run air handlers 24/7 in whole sections of buildings for small rooms with a server or a small number of servers. For example: Thousands of SF powered to support a room of 150 SF.
Currently we are reporting 4 major Data Centers at KSC
There are many Admin areas not intended as IT rooms being used all over the Center.
From the Agency Data Center Consolidation Team They are telling us that KSC has NASA IT hardware in 307 rooms spread through 58 buildings.
307 Rooms in 58 Buildings

28. State of Applications
Multiple instances of identical or similar applications and systems exist at KSC
Duplicate functionality and capabilities across the Center
Limited integration between services, systems and applications
SharePoint A
Windchill B
Maximo A
SharePoint C
Windchill A
Maximo B
SharePoint B
Maximo C
Windchill C

29. Objective State
All applicable KSC systems consolidated into a single Data Center facility by 2015
Infrastructure will support existing systems and be scalable to support new Program and Institutional needs
Employ virtualization techniques for maximum optimization (more apps on less hardware)
Data Center Capabilities Available as an IT Service
In line with OCIO mission “…to increase the productivity of scientists, engineers, and mission support personnel by responsively and efficiently delivering reliable, innovative and secure IT services.”
Will achieve this vision while maintaining compliance with existing and future IT initiatives
Agency Data Center Consolidation (ADCC)
“Cloud First “ philosophy (Migrating appropriate applications offsite)
Enterprise Architecture (based upon common standards)
“Green IT” (Reduction of carbon footprint)
Green Data Center

30. End State Benefits To KSC as a whole
Cost savings stay on center, where they can be applied to other priorities
New mandates are easier to adopt and require fewer resources across the various organizations required to support them
World Class Data Center capabilities become a selling point in bringing new business and jobs to KSC
Timely consolidation brings us into alignment with mandates from OMB and NASA OCIO

31. Inventory & Coordination
Approach
Discovery
- Where are the systems/applications? - What is their impact on their current facility?
Inventory & Coordination
What are the systems/applications?
What are their consolidation requirements
and constraints? Business Case justification?
- Housing vs. Hosting
Analysis
Schedule Development
What order should the
systems move?
- When?
Execution
Interim location
Final location

32. Approach Inventory And Coordination
Inventory aggregates existing information and data obtained from system owners to build a baseline
Discussion with system owners and IT Relationship Managers to understand the systems and the best options for consolidation (Housing vs. Hosting)
Conduct Business Case justification (Cost, Impacts, Risk, Return on Investment)
Coordination between IT, Facility Management and customers to determine where/when to move candidate systems and what changes must be made to the existing Kennedy Data Center to accommodate it
While there may be impacts the goal is to ensure an efficient move
End product is a prioritized list of discovered systems with a coordinated timeframe for consolidation

33. Approach Schedule Development
Refine prioritized list created during Inventory and Coordination
Establish an order for system to move at a high level
Coordinate key milestones for individual moves with stakeholders
Identifies long term growth for new and existing Data Center Facilities

34. KDCC Approach to Schedule
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
Older established Data Centers
can now be consolidated C
Shuttle
Post T&R A
Server Rooms in Admin Areas
consolidated into KDC
New KDC Scalable Facility
can absorb the rest
New Facility under construction
nears completion
Kennedy
Data Center
KDC E
KDC
NEW
KDC
Data Center A
KDC nears end of life. Major consolidations
will go to new facility D
Agency
Cloud
(Federal) B
Data Center B
Apps moved
to cloud will be on-going

35. Kennedy Data Center Conclusion
Data Center Consolidation is a required activity that will have a positive impact
It saves local operational resources
Reduces yearly power usage and frees up floor space
Provides a managed and more secure IT environment
It enables KSC to address IT mandates more efficiently
Facilitates innovation through implementation of new technologies like virtualization and cloud computing
Kennedy Data Center

36. Q & A
So, Lets Go.