Rackonomics

Rackonomics (Data Center Architecture)

In modern data center architecture, rackonomics refers to the concept of designing, provisioning and replicating server/compute systems, data networks and storage area networks (SANs) rack by rack to decrease the total cost of ownership of data center infrastructures, reduce IT complexity, and enable incremental scalability. Racks are a standard data center form factor that house blade and “pizza box” servers and/or storage systems, access/aggregation switches, and power supplies. Through rackonomics, data center architects can build and perfect a rack of equipment to meet application and business requirements. This standardized set of equipment then can be replicated uniformly - on demand, rack by rack - as needs require to provision massive Web 2.0 environments, high-performance clusters and virtualized data centers.

The conventional alternative to a rackonomics-based data center is a centralized data center architecture that is built out server by server with centralized storage pools and core network infrastructures. The move to a rackonomics-based approach to data center architecture is driven by IT requirements to “scale out” incrementally. Rackonomics is an alternative to approaches that “scale up” server by server in ways that may require massive over-provisioning of networking and storage elements and may require existing equipment to be ripped out and replaced.

Rackonomics addresses IT complexity and network overload caused by server and storage virtualization, I/O-intensive Web 2.0 applications and the move to data center consolidation. The growing popularity of modular systems, such as blade servers, top-of-rack network switches and unified fabrics for data and storage networking, is driving the acceptance of rackonomics. Through rackonomics, IT departments can contain total cost of ownership, deliver greater return on investment and increase business flexibility.

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