NEST$-256$ Data Centre mini project W$24$

Data Center Mini Project

Overview

This mini$-$project involves designing a basic data center to support a small$$to medium$-$sized business, focusing on core components and critical design choices.

Objectives

Prioritize the essential elements of a data center.

Develop a network architecture plan.

Propose redundancy and disaster recovery measures.

Consider security and compliance requirements.

Project Description

Design a data center that can support up to $5,000$ concurrent users, providing web, database, and storage services that emphasize high availability, security, and efficiency. You will recommend the hardware and the software needed, as well as design a simplified network diagram.

For a web application with a database backend supporting $1000$ concurrent users, you might consider a server configuration similar to the following:

CPU: $20$ cores

Memory: $64$ GB of RAM

Storage: SSD for faster read$/$write operations

Your project should consider high availability; you should have several servers with load balancing between them.

You will have access to a room on the ground floor of your company building. This room already has enough power supply capacity to hold a maximum of ten $42$U racks, the most common rack size. Fortunately, there is already enough HVAC capacity because the building has been used for a previous data center, so you don$$t need to plan for new HVAC systems.

You will have to select rack server equipment. Check out HPE, Dell, Lenovo, IBM, and others.

You will have to select rack storage providers. Check out IBM, Dell$/$EMC$,$ Fujistu, HPE, Hitachi, NetApp, and others.

You will have to select the whole virtualization technology. Check out VMWare, Red Hat, and Microsoft.

You will have to select network equipment and virtualization technologies. Check your Cisco, Juniper Networks, Arista Networks, Broadcom, and others.

You will also need to research the Internet connectivity. Check the offerings of the telecommunications carriers in the GTA and the business offerings of new players such as Beanfield Metroconnect and other fibre providers.

Deliverables

Your report should contain these topics:

Concise report explaining the data center's key design objectives,

one network diagram. This does not need to be too detailed, but should offer enough information to express the data centre network capabilities.

A list or table of equipment you intend to use, indicating the manufacturer and short descriptions.

A short summary of the key technology providers you plan to use for servers, storage, network, and a UPS system. For this item, you must do research to identify the providers.

Your PDF or DOCX$-$formatted report should have a minimum of $3$ pages and a maximum of $7$ pages of single$-$spaced text, Font size $11$ or $12.$

Evaluation Criteria

The project will not evaluate individual hardware solutions but rather the completeness, ability to deliver a project in a short time, and clarity of the proposal.

Completeness of the proposal: the required aspects are presented and clearly explained.

The quality of the researched elements $($vendors$,$ products, service providers$)$

The clarity of the written communication of the design principles and the decisions made. The organization of the document is conducive to an efficient comprehension of the proposal.

Other relevant points not required but covered in your material $($examples are the budget and the operating procedures$)$ will be considered for additional marks.

The ability to design a proposal under time constraints.