Cloud Computing Datacentres in Cyberjaya

Cyberjaya

Cyberjaya is a town with a science park as the core that forms a key part of the Multimedia Super Corridor in Malaysia. It is located in the district of Sepang, Selangor and is situated about 50 km south of Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. This town aspires to be known as the Silicon Valley of Malaysia.

The official opening ceremony for Cyberjaya was held in May 1997 by then Prime Minister, Mahathir bin Mohamad.

Cyberjaya is planned as an intelligent city with ICT and multimedia industries, R&D centers, a Multimedia University and operational headquarters for multinationals wishing to direct their worldwide manufacturing and trading activities using multimedia technology.

Toward this end, leading edge technologies were used, some with mixed results. In addition to the successful implementation of the above-mentioned Cyberjaya Dedicated Transportation System, the Cyberjaya blog is another example of the technology-based features that have been put in place

Several data centres operate in Cyberjaya. Notable are those operated by Shell, Basis Bay, NTT MSC, BMW and DHL. A small scale Data Centre ideal for Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs) is located at SME Technopreneur Center Cyberjaya SME Data Centre that provides Rack Location Unit (RLU) space rental and server co-location. There is also the largest carrier neutral, high-end purpose built data centre facilities, CX1 and CX2, in Cyberjaya, that is managed by CSF Advisers, a member of CSF Group plc CSF Group.

The proven cost savings and high return on investment from virtualisation and cloud computing in the datacentre have captured the imagination of many CFOs and CEOs.

In most cases, organisations can reduce datacentre costs by moving more applications onto fewer servers and can reduce software licensing fees and administrative resources by migrating to a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model.

When they add in faster deployment times for new applications and services while ensuring 24×7 reliability, organisations have a compelling business case for virtualisation and cloud computing in the datacentre.

At some point in the future, this type of highly virtualised, services-on-demand delivery model enabled through cloud computing will be the IT gold standard.

Cloud Computing

In terms of the physical network infrastructure, virtualisation and cloud computing complement each other in the following ways:

1. Cloud computing services can reside on top of virtual datacentres. Virtualisation can support cloud architectures;

2. Cloud computing software can orchestrate virtual server deployments. Cloud management software can control virtualisation services;

3. Cloud computing adds another virtualisation layer between end users and the entire IT environment, which enables a pay-per-use model; and

4. Both virtualisation and cloud computing require robust physical network infrastructures. They rely heavily on the network and require new ways of thinking about network architecture and design.

Before this transition occurs, however, the underlying network architecture must provide greater availability, performance, and security while simplifying datacentre operations.

A complete revolution in the datacentre, with its associated costs, disruptions, and time requirements, is unnecessary in almost every case. Instead, the transition to a highly virtualised datacentre can be smooth, non-disruptive, and full of business advantages.

As organisations add Virtual Machines (VMs) and shift to a cloud-based operations model, the network must be hardened against failures that disrupt traffic yet adaptable and flexible enough to support new business requirements.

The key to achieve "failure proof" datacentre is to move toward a target design along a well-planned path and to use incremental steps to control risk.

Therefore,Cyberjaya planning guidelines strongly required all datacentres to have two electricity connections from two separate substations. Diesel generators up to full load (except air conditioning load) were specified to be installed in all commercial buildings.

The electricity grid connection was also organized to enable “power islanding” and supported by the Serdang Power Station. The electricity service standard is set at 99.99% availability with maximum of 10 seconds interruption for office and commercial areas and maximum 15 minutes interruption for residential areas.

These measures were dreamed up to provide Cyberjaya with a comparative advantage against other areas outside the Multimedia Super Corridor.