Data Centers In India: Charette Summary

PARTICIPANTS (in alphabetical order by last name):

1.     Amit Antil, IBM

2.     Koshy Cherail, Conzerv Systems

3.     Suprotim Ganguly, CII

4.     Ravi Kapoor, IRG

5.     Satish Kumar, IRG

6.     Ravi Meghani, Wipro

7.     Samir Menon, Nature First

8.     Mohandas Mekanapurath, Hewlett Packard

9.     Shanmugam Ramu, Network Appliances (by phone)

10.  Rajdeep Sahrawat, NASSCOM

11.  Dale Sartor, LBNL

12.  Archana Walia, USAID

BARRIERS (in no particular order of preference)

• Lack of institutional framework
• Need for informed regulatory push
• Lack of awareness
• Lack of exposure to best practices
• Lack of value proposition
• Power Distribution (energy loss at every point)
  • Lack of available energy-efficient solutions (e.g. DC based power supply systems)
• Risk Averseness
  • Emphasis on reliability and redundancy
• Lack of Technical Expertise
• Lack of Interaction between IT and facility staff
• Lack of integrated building design approach
• Lack of good design information (e.g. management of cooling loads and air distribution)
• Quality and reliability of power supply
• Lack of comparative benchmark data
  • Energy Input
  • Output
• Computation
• Service delivered
• Infrastructure not keeping up with IT technology
• Better cost information

STRATEGIES

• Create Information/Awareness Framework
  • Industry forums: awards, workshops
  • Public Domain Knowledge: case studies, best practices, etc.
  • CEO value proposition (e.g. business case document and presentation)

• Perform Capacity Building/Training
  • Curriculum (Higher education, Corporate learning)
  • Design Charette – facilitation and guidelines
  • Sample contract documents (Incentives)

• Develop Performance Indicators and Benchmarking Framework
  • Agree on indicators, collect data, disseminate to promote best practices

• Create Regulatory, Standards, and Incentives Framework
  • IT Governance body;
  • GAP Analysis;
  • Background paper, road map

NEXT STEPS

• Transcribe the notes and distribute to the group
• Brief BEE
• Involve NASSCOM, CII (Id other key stakeholders – e.g. ISHRAE, IFMA Indian Chapter) to establish the public-private partnership (e.g. Green Grid initiative in the US) to carry the agenda forward
• Present on Thursday (draft findings and recommendations)
  • Distribute draft barriers and strategies
  • Discuss Action plan (form private/public group)
  • Solicit support/involvement

• Schedule kick off meeting for the industry-government group