Data Center 101 Report Series

Data Center Redundancy

Data Center 101 Report Series Data Center Redundancy

Power Delivery and Redundancy

After studying this report, you should be able to:
▶▶ Define what the “N” jargon actually means—and what it doesn’t mean.
▶▶ Describe why redundancy matters to clients.
▶▶ Communicate to a client the redundancy capabilities of a specific facility.

The symbols N, N+1, N+2, 2N, and 2N+1 are N+1

commonly used to describe the level of redundancy
 his design requires two failures of the same
T
built into the architecture for the power and cooling
equipment within the same segment during the same
infrastructure within a facility. The definitions below
timeframe to cause an outage.
provide a quick definition so you can understand what
each of these actually mean for power delivery; for N+2
our purposes, “outage” is defined as a loss of power
to the IT load on the data center floor: Same as N+1, but with two — not just one — extra
pieces of critical infrastructure added to each
N segment. This design requires three failures of the
same equipment within the same segment during the
Power delivered along a single path from the utility
same time frame to cause an outage. See Figure 2.
to the end user. Should any piece of infrastructure
fail within this path, the entire path will fail and
cause an outage. See Figure 1.

Figure 1: capacity diagram

Figure 2: Parallel and Isolated redundant capacity diagram

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Data Center 101 Report Series Data Center Redundancy

2N
Power delivered from the utility to the end
user along two separate and diverse paths.
If the end user is using both paths in a
primary/redundant fashion, any failure
along one path will not cause an outage.
This design requires any one failure within
any segment on both paths for the end user
to experience an outage.

2N+1
Diverse paths with one extra piece of critical
infrastructure added to each segment along
both paths. If the end user is using both
paths within a primary/redundant fashion,
any one failure on both paths will not cause
an outage. See Figure 3.

WHY REDUNDANCY MATTERS

There are a few reasons why redundancy
is important. To the customer, there is a
cost for downtime. If the cost of downtime
for a twenty-four-hour period is $5,000 or
less, they may not look at a high level of
redundancy being worth the cost. But, if the cost
of downtime is $1,000,000 for two hours then yes,
the additional redundancy is worth the cost. In the
business it is considered the cost of “insurance.”
If a customer is looking at a disaster recovery site
versus a production site, then the redundancy may
not be that important. For that same customer, the
production site’s redundancy may be very critical.
Why does it matter? Because the cost to deliver
these levels of redundancy drastically increases
as you move from N to 2N+1 and because more
physical pieces of infrastructure and links within
the infrastructure are required to be deployed,
maintained, and managed. There is also a higher cost
for maintenance and electricity use will be higher
due to the additional components.
The SLA and committed uptime a data center
provider will offer will be determined by the level
of redundancy designed and managed or actually
contracted and delivered to a client. A facility may
have a 2N+1 design in place; however, if a client
chooses to only accept a primary feed from one
available path, the uptime guarantee will be less
reliable than if it accepted feeds from both paths
available. More often than not, a provider will
Figure 3: 2N capacity diagram
reduce the price of power as well if a lower level of
redundancy is requested and can be delivered.
To understand exactly how power is delivered from
the utility to a cabinet on the floor of a given facility,
ask to see the electrical “one-line” drawings used by
those who manage the physical infrastructure itself.
If uptime is critical to your company and its
applications, learning how to read these drawings will
give you the ability to instantly see if the redundancy
of the facility is in fact what the provider is claiming.
Unfortunately, due to a lack of knowledge as to
what these terms actually mean, or in some cases
due to deceptive sales tactics, some providers will
claim the redundancy offered is much higher than
what has actually been designed and/or delivered
to customers. For example, a company may claim
its facility has a 2N+1 design when only one specific
segment of the power or cooling delivery mechanism
is designed with that type of redundancy. This is why
buyers should look for specific certifications such
as Uptime, TIA-942, or BICSI-002. Having a third
party review the design and do a site visit will give
potential customers a feeling of confidence in the
redundancy and resiliency of a facility.

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Data Center 101 Report Series Data Center Redundancy

CHAPTER SUMMARY
▶▶ N redundancy: Power on a single path. If one element fails, it all fails. Think Christmas lights.
Or don’t, if you have traumatic memories.
▶▶ N+1 redundancy: Each element of key infrastructure is backed up by a redundant element,
but power is supplied from only one unique source.
▶▶ N+2 redundancy: Each element of key infrastructure is backed up by TWO redundant elements,
but power is supplied from only one unique source.
▶▶ 2N: Two independent/diverse power supply paths.
▶▶ 2N+1: Same as 2N, with redundant pieces of critical infrastructure added along both paths.

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