Sify Technologies Limited (Sify), an Indian information and communications technology
company, offers end to end ICT solutions encompassing Telecom Services, Data Center
Services, Cloud & Managed Services, Transformation Integration Services and Application
Integration Services.
With over 13 years of operational and technical experience, Sify has an impressive
portfolio comprising over 2,00,000 sq. ft. of white space spread across 6 Tier III
Data Centres, 15 Tier II Data Centres and 6 State Data Centres, built to exacting
specifications and best-in-class global standards.
The Need
In today's IT landscape, business requirements are changing rapidly. Due to growing
demand of storage capacity and digitalisation, every enterprise is looking for solutions
where massive data can be stored and utilised with efficiency and security. This
has contributed to the rapid growth of the data center segment.
To leverage this business opportunity, Sify decided to setup 'ClouDCentre', a next-generation
cloud-enabled Data Centre at Rabale - Navi Mumbai. The 'ClouDCentre'
boasts of modular design with advanced technology to cater to high density load
and offers 65,000 sq ft of built up space.
Solutions
Managing and operating a data center facility is very different from managing a
commercial office building or a factory. For most data centers, failure is not an
option. It needs to run 24x7 without any interruption. Another challenge is to reduce
energy consumption as they consume 25 to 50 times more power as compared to an average
office.
To address such challenges, Sify decided to implement an Integrated Building Management
System that would help in centralised monitoring and control of the data center
facility.
Rapid project execution was a key requirement of this project to ensure high yield
from the investment. C&A was selected by Sify for its ability to deliver integrated
solutions within a very challenging time frame of three months for every 10,000
sq ft area of each floor.
C&A was assigned the responsibility of implementing an Integrated Building Management
system for 40,000 sq ft area covering four floors, including engineering, project
management, installation and commissioning.
C&A delivered a complete building management system which included subsystems like
Access Control System, Gas Based Fire Suppression System, Fire Alarm System, High
Sensitivity Smoke Detection System, Rodent Repellent System, Addressable Water Leak
Detection System, PA System CCTV, BMS Controllers and BMS Software.
The solution is based on C&A's widely proven BMS platform - LTAB, which combines
a high level of customisation, user friendly and open platform technologies which
enables integration of various third party platforms over open protocol.
The biggest challenge faced during execution was to integrate all data center systems
and equipment into a single, cohesive control & monitoring system. C&A successfully
configured and interfaced LTAB Uses open protocol technologies commonly used for
BMS applications including BACnet and MODbus.
LTAB software with third party systems like Power distribution units, UPS, CRAH
unit (Computer room air handlers) - 26 nos, DG sets, DG Pumping System (CAT), HT
& LT Panels Energy Meters, Fan coil units, Addressable Water Leak Detection system,
Fire Alarm System and Gas suppression system. It operates on open protocols over
the IP network to monitor and control.
The continuous operation of Data Center being critical, redundancy feature (hot
active standby) was deployed at server level to ensure that in the event of one
server failing, a stand-by server would immediately take over.
LTAB allows facility managers to team with IT, thus bridging a traditional gap between
these two functions. It monitors and facilitates various conditions like power,
airflow, ambient and server rack temperatures, humidity, physical security, fire,
water, smoke and life safety to identity problems before they affect uptime. The
LTAB has the facility of providing managers with alerts at the approach of critical
parameters or cross control limits.
Integration with energy meters, DG sets and LV & MV Switchgear allows utility staff
to monitor floor wise energy consumption, power load and availability of backup
power.
It monitors energy performance in real time and generates usage charts analysis,
alarms and reports.
LTAB's webserver is configured and hosted on Internet which facilitates remote monitoring
of operations by users.
Benefits
- Real Time Monitoring of Energy Consumption encourages savings by enabling comparison
against target
- Improves operational reliability by planned preventive maintenance based on run-hours
and breakdown history
- Reduces Manpower cost by various means e.g. Centralised control & monitoring,
- Improves safety, comfort and security of the facility
- Enables energy saving
Result
Sify now enjoys centralised control & monitoring of the multiple systems inside
its mission-critical data center. C&A's LTAB system is the most important contributor
to keeping a data center up and running 24x7.