Process Notes

When developing an activity based cost model for a delivered service, especially the underpinning (did I really say "underpinning"?) technologies, too often factors that are overlooked are space, A/C and electricity (and redundancy of those systems). Here are a few presentations that will point you in the right direction with respect to understanding those cost factors - if nothing else, they will remind you of factors you may normally overlook.

• Undestanding the Data Center
• Data Center Efficiency

Another page that covers data centers from a facilities management perspective is Facilities Management Notes that were a collection of research notes gathered by myself and Linda Zarate a long time ago. Actually, this material is probably better suited to the Service Continuity Management topic area, but since there are significant cost factors cited, I am going to leave it here.

Another excellent resource is Energy Efficiency for Information Technology: How to Reduce Power Consumption in Servers and Data Centers, which will literally pay for itself in a short order. This book will serve as a guide for TCO computations during the pre-procurement phase of the lifecycle, as well as throughout it. For those of you who look at different views of TCO, such as server factor costs, will find this book to be invaluable.