Speakers discuss challenges in setting up data centres

Speakers at the first ever international conference on "Data Centre 2011" discussed the challenges in setting up data centres and their resolutions. They also discussed different models to resolve the issues relating to critical power, cooling and energy efficiencies.
The conference was organised by Total Communication at a local hotel, here on Thursday. The speakers said that the data is the most critical asset of any organisation and in the case of data disaster; its recovery is the most challenging issue for them. They suggested that there must be data recovery centre so that the important data could be recovered in case of any disaster.
They discussed different models for setting up large data centres and said that hiring of right people and right vendors are very important for setting up large data centres. "Only right and skilled people are able to select the right vendor that is critical for setting up efficient data centre", they said. They suggested that the companies should allocate more funds for setting up efficient and well-equipped data centres. There should also be strict regulatory requirements for setting up data centres, they said.
Salman Ansari, CEO of SATC gave an overview and introduction to aspects of data centre design and operations. David Sims, Director Global Data Centre Services, IBM discussed the international standards for setting up data centres. He also briefed about the services being offered by IBM.
During the penal discussions, the participants discussed data centre operational and management issues, asset/material management, capacity and change management, power system - UPS, precision cooling, fire, facility management, security, critical power and cooling issues, energy efficiencies, data service planning and controls, servers, storage, virtualisation, operations, reliability, cloud computing and others.
Haider Devjianie, head of IT, Soneri Bank; Faisal Khaliq, CIO of Ufone; Munib Khawaja, country manager of APC; Javed Edhi, IT Head of Silk Bank; Sabah-uz-Zaman, CIO of State Bank of Pakistan; Imran Daudi, CIO of Engro Fertiliser; Ali Sarwar, head of IT Infrastructure, Ufone and others participated in the penal discussion. On the occasion, an exhibition was also held where various companies set up their stalls to showcase their products and data centre equipment.