Management Issues in a 21st Century Data Center Environment (Case Study Pakistan) Group 9 Pakistan Dec 2011

Abstract  Data Centers are a pure product of 21 st century with almost no previous precedence. They are the IT centers through which the pure knowledge based economies are run. Information content is distributed and managed, IT services are provided and billions are made in virtual and ultimately real money basing on the non-stop operational capability of these Data Centers. Almost all of its products are intangible, making its importance seem less at first sight, however for organizations basing their business operations on a stable Data Center are banking upon its non- stop, reliable operation throughout the Year, 24-7, with the constant dread that a few hours of outage can mean millions of dollars in real hard cash.  In the knowledge based era of fast computing, Think-Done ® business strategies and even faster impending management issues, the challenging task of managing a product of this era with no precedence in the history of mankind in terms of complexity, technical resource and technological skills required to run is no mean task. The management Issues start from requirement, training, and retention of trained manpower, availability of hardware for constant operations, power reliability and availability, availability of Networks to distribute the information content, and the huge, ever increasing storage and computing requirements to name just a few.

Abstract  In this project the Pakistani Data Center Picture will be viewed and analyzed in the two most important spheres where these data Centers are being established and maintained, the Defense based Data Centers and the Civil Sector (Mostly Telecom Sector) based Data Centers. Both the public and private Sector organizations will be surveyed and evaluated to find out specific and common management Issues in the above mentioned areas and more, which may come into view during the process. Finally recommendations to improve upon the existing data Center management Issues will be given.

Objectives  Even in international Data Centers, finding qualified staff was as problem faced year after year, as per Symantec’ Reports of [4] [5]. It can be easily surmised that establishing a Data Center in Pakistan, and trying to find qualified staff, and managing its power, hardware and communication requirements is a challenge in itself. These challenges can start from basic establishment of data Centers, and continue in every day-to day operation throughout the year.[4][5].  Also the IT fields being covered in Data Centers are so diverse, that a normal university graduate has no clue about the technology base on which he is expected to work. Hence training of acquired staff is of extreme importance. Similarly the normal equipment being used inside any data center in not available in any of the training institutes teaching IT and communication to the masses. Similarly the massive networks deployed on top of these data centers are one of the largest in the world with one of the largest consumer base in the world in terms of sheer numbers. All these factors make the management of a Pakistani Data center a nightmare, as there is no assured supply and replenishment system of manpower, equipment, or even the most basic assumption, availability of power.

Hypothesis  Pakistan is in embryonic stages as far as IT is concerned. A lot of progress is being made in Telecom Sector and in defense based organizations. In order to fully automate the processes and to meet growing needs of their customers, state of the art cloud based Data Centers are being established. These data centers can be compared to the world standards in terms of hardware used, communication infrastructure deployed and money spent. However when it comes to finding staff to manage these Data Centers, the availability of power, hardware, finance and information security issues, the overall resource crunch is lacking both technically as well as in sheer numbers to coop with the demand of all of the above mentioned factors.  Hence in a developing country like Pakistan, the problem of finding the right resources for this kind of technically advanced environment is a double challenge. The first being a venture challenge in acquiring a new technology and the second being the ability to sustain its operations to meet customer demands. So it can be said that the whole process of Data Center establishment, to its running requires extreme effort to find the right resources for the continued operations of the data center.

Research Methodology  In order to gather information of this nature a descriptive research involving peer reviews and Delphi method involving expert judgment of Data center managers of both public and private data centers has been used to gather information regarding the problems indicated in the hypothesis. A large source of information was based on the Network Management system or NMS, a repository of issues being faced with their record of resolution being kept automatically. Ample help was sought from International Data Center management Issues being faced globally, and once the same issues were checked in the local scenario, the problems were found similar, but at a much graver scale

Data Analysis Overall Management Issues Basic Issues Public SectorPrivate Sector Establishment phaseO&M Phase Establishment phaseO&M Phase Human resource7267 Information management2855 Facility management6743 Financial Management1174 Skills Management3632 Networks management5326 Storage Management0500 Servers Management4411 Overall Management Issues

Data Analysis Overall Management Issues Basic Issues Public SectorPrivate Sector Establishment phaseO&M Phase Establishment phaseO&M Phase Human resource7267 Information management2855 Facility management6743 Financial Management1174 Skills Management3632 Networks management5326 Storage Management0500 Servers Management4411 Overall Management Issues

Data Analysis Human Resource Human Resource Management Issues Basic Issues Public SectorPrivate Sector Establishment phaseO&M Phase Establishment phaseO&M Phase Initial Recruitment7466 Basic Training2655 Advance level Training6744 Staffing Levels6373 Staffing Budget1132 Migratory Behavior2227 Retirement3511

Data Analysis Human Resource Human Resource Management Issues Basic Issues Public SectorPrivate Sector Establishment phaseO&M Phase Establishment phaseO&M Phase Initial Recruitment7466 Basic Training2655 Advance level Training6744 Staffing Levels6373 Staffing Budget1132 Migratory Behavior2227 Retirement3511

Data Analysis Information Management Issues Basic Issues Public SectorPrivate Sector Establishment phaseO&M Phase Establishment phaseO&M Phase Edge Network Security3545 DC Network Security2314 Servers Management6431 Storage Management4623 DB Management5767 Encryption7252 Financial Transactions1176 Information Management

Data Analysis Information Management Issues Basic Issues Public SectorPrivate Sector Establishment phaseO&M Phase Establishment phaseO&M Phase Edge Network Security3545 DC Network Security2314 Servers Management6431 Storage Management4623 DB Management5767 Encryption7252 Financial Transactions1176 Information Management