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The Site Uptime Network ®

A member-driven consortium of IT, Data Center Operations


and Facility Management professionals dedicated to improving
site uptime through collaborative learning.
Why are Some
Companies Just Better?
There are companies that enjoy stronger performance, more
significant profit, and better reputations. They do a significantly
and demonstrably better job than others in managing their
site infrastructure uptime. Behind their uptime success are
Information Technology, Data Center Operations, and Facility
Management professionals who are a step ahead of their
peers. They wield more information, more knowledge, more
influence, and achieve better results.

These companies are likely to be members of the Site Uptime


Network.

For over a decade, participation in the Site Uptime Network


has been proven to steadily and quantifiably reduce facility
downtime. In fact, the longer members participate, the more
they collectively reduce their unplanned downtime frequency
and duration.*
Reduced Site Downtime with
Years of Network Membership
1.2

1.0

0.8

0.6

Site 0.4
Failures
Per Year 0.2

0.0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Years of Network Membership

The track record exists. With an investment of just 0.4% of


members’ average site operating budget, members have successfully
reduced their downtime by a factor of 10!*

*Collective results of members participating over a ten-year period. Note: The Net-
work’s definition of a “failure” is very broad, including events ranging from the loss of
a single branch circuit or overheated computer device, to a site-wide power loss.
What is the Site Uptime Network?
The Site Uptime Network was formed in 1993 by The Uptime
Institute, Inc. with a clear purpose—to directly address and
resolve issues affecting continuous site infrastructure (power,
cooling, and electrical environment) availability. This was
accomplished by forming a consortium of member companies
responsible for America’s most critical data centers. Through More than one-third of the country’s largest companies* are Site Uptime
a unique, member-driven, collaborative learning experience, Network members. And these members stay. While the Network has grown
members have steadily achieved higher levels of site uptime. since 1993, long-time members represent a large part of the current Site
Uptime Network (membership commencement provided in parentheses).
The Site Uptime Network’s mission is to identify, quantify
and improve infrastructure availability. It achieves this by
providing the best possible information exchange between American Express (1993) Company confidential (1996)
members themselves, and between members and industry JP Morgan Chase (1993) Bank of America (1997)
experts on the staff of The Uptime Institute. UPS (1993) Boeing (1997)
Verizon (1993) Chevron (1997)
BellSouth (1994) Philadelphia Stock Exchange (1997)
BP (1995) United Airlines (1997)
Depository Trust (1995) Visa (1997)
“ When it comes to uninterruptible uptime, there’s no
alternative. There are no minor mistakes. Either you’re up,
CitiGroup (1996)
HP (1996)
Wachovia Bank (1997)
Company confidential (1997)
or you’re down. And the only path to uninterruptible
uptime performance is knowledge—knowledge acquired Northwest Airlines (1996) Johnson & Johnson (1998)
through membership in the Site Uptime Network, where SIAC (1996) MasterCard (1998)
members share a commitment to collaborative learning,
confidentiality, and success.

—Ken Brill, The Uptime Institute, Inc.
For a complete member roster of up to 68 companies, please visit our website
www.upsite.com/TUIpages/tuisunroster.html
* Source: Wall Street Journal, The World’s 100 Largest Public Companies, September 27, 2004
Membership
Benefits Membership in the Site Uptime Network grants The password-protected
direct access to the top tier of uptime professionals ‘Member’s Lobby’ website is
from up to 68 of the largest companies in a valuable ongoing resource for
members and houses Benchmark
America—all members of the Site Uptime
Surveys, Abnormal Incident
Network—plus the professionals of The Uptime Reports, Site Equipment Surveys,
Institute. There are countless opportunities for Email Query reports, conference
members to benefit from a year-long agenda of presentations and more.
interaction and communication including:

Private, three-day member-driven “think tank” Solicit specific advice anytime from other Network
Conferences with peers from America’s largest members through Email Queries administered by the
companies and the industry’s leading experts Site Uptime Network staff.
prepare you today for industry trends two to five
years in the future. Access to Benchmark Profiles and customized
Benchmark Surveys on a range of performance data,
Exclusive, two to three hour, in-depth, member- including uptime effectiveness and costs, provides
driven Site Tours at some of the largest and quantifiable data, from the best in the business, to
most advanced data center operations in the support your own efforts. Training is provided on
United States provide a unique hands-on learning how to use benchmark data to “sell” initiatives and
experience. investments to senior management.

Extensive Site Equipment Surveys detail members’ The quarterly Upsite News publication provides industry
satisfaction with manufacturers and their products insight all year long including: recap of past events,
help you confidently make decisions about future articles by The Uptime Institute staff on benchmarking
investments of your own. surprises, unusual events, industry trends and more.

When other Site Uptime Network members Continuous site uptime performance and outstanding
experience problems on their site, Flash Report participant presentations are recognized at Annual
email warnings enable you to proactively prevent Awards events. Awards and recognition mean the
problems with similar equipment on your site. most when it comes from the industry’s leading
professionals—your peers.
Leverage the Abnormal Incident Report (AIR)
database featuring a decade’s worth of over 2,700
abnormal events, case studies, failure reports and
“ Feedback from the data center tour is the best


quantifiable “saves” that you can use to sharpen your part of the Network.
root cause analysis skills and to quantify and improve —Clint Baranowsk, BP Amoco
your site’s performance.
How the Network Works
Each member company must be of sufficient size and/or
complexity and have sufficient engineering and management
resources to contribute meaningfully to the Network. Each
member company should have consistent, senior-level
Information Technology and Facility Management participants
representing Planning, Engineering, Operations and The strength of the Network is member participation.
Management functions.
The Network is for uptime practitioners, i.e. end users who are responsible
Network members operate in four groups with a maximum for maintaining data centers. Manufacturers of infrastructure products and
capacity of 17 companies each which isolates direct service providers are excluded from the Network. This creates a unique
competitors and fosters trust, learning and collaboration. environment where Network members can safely and openly exchange
experiences as they collectively pursue higher levels of site uptime. Vendors
Members focus on running data centers with high availability are encouraged to participate in other programs including annual reviews
objectives. They do not share sensitive business or IT of the Network’s findings on their offerings (Abnormal Incident Reports,
strategies. Even so, Information Exchange Agreements Email Query Alerts, Site Equipment Surveys) and discussions on needed
preserve confidentiality, allowing members to openly share industry innovation and improvements.
best practices and real-world experiences for the edification
of all Network members. Information from member activities Eighty-five percent of conference material is presented by members
is collected by The Uptime Institute, qualified, validated and themselves, so topics are always current and relevant with cutting
scrubbed of confidential or identifying information before edge, practical, “how to” (and sometimes “how not to”) information.
being posted on the members’ password-protected website as Members also host site tours, determine benchmark survey topics, and
an on-going member resource. directly contribute to all forms of data collection, Flash Reports,
Abnormal Incident Reports, Email Queries and more.

The primary learning activities are two three-day conferences in the


“ I value how members freely exchange information. This is
an environment where members want to see each other be
spring and fall during which members make and attend presentations
and participate in professional networking events, roundtable
successful. There is no competition, only ‘How do we do it
discussions and site tours. Additionally, talks and tutorials are made
right together?’

— Katie Johnson, Northwest Airlines
by top professionals from The Uptime Institute on insights and cutting
edge reviews of industry developments.
Industry Experts – Who are we?
Network conferences are facilitated by nationally
recognized industry experts from The Uptime Institute
and the management and engineering consulting staff of
sister company ComputerSite Engineering, Inc. (CSE).
Involvement from several of the industry experts below
complements the member-driven conference activities to
broaden and enrich the learning experience for attendees.*

KEN BRILL is founder and Executive Director of The Uptime


Institute, the Site Uptime Network, CSE and Triton Technology
Systems. Many uptime innovations, such as dual power topology,
can be traced back to his original work.

DAVID BOSTON, the Network’s Program Director, plans and


conducts conferences, is editor of the Upsite News publication,
manages Network staff, and is accountable for Network deliverables.
For CSE, David conducts Continuous Availability and Site
Infrastructure Operations Reviews.

BOB PHILLIPS’ company built the first Tier IV data center. For ROBERT “Dr. Bob” F. SULLIVAN, PhD, had a 32-year
CSE, he provides electrical operations and maintenance expertise, engineering career at IBM. He was part of the IBM team that first
construction estimating and scheduling, and long lead procurement identified zinc whiskers. Bob originated the Hot and Cold aisle concept
expertise. in 1993. He has performed detailed research on how computer room
cooling actually works and teaches the Institute’s seminar on High
RICHARD SCHLOSSER, PE, is responsible for technical oversight Density Cooling.
and validation of the Abnormal Incident Reporting System. He
prepares the annual trending reports and oversees incident coding PITT TURNER, PE, as helped clients justify $1.5 billion of site
and root cause identification. For CSE, he is the Electrical Principal on infrastructure investment since 1992. He teaches the Institute’s seminar
Continuous Availability diagnostic reviews. on justifying data center investment. He and Hank Seader invented
what has become the industry standard Tier level site infrastructure
RICK SCHUKNECHT, President of CSE, has justified and rating system.
managed the construction of three large Tier IV data centers, which
were run by a global mission critical facilities organization he created.
For CSE, he is the practice leader for facility outsourcing, operations
and maintenance best practices, and global standards.

HANK SEADER, PE, with Pitt Turner, created the Institute’s Tier
classification. In a former position, Hank managed the infrastructure
of a number of very large and very critical data centers. For CSE,
he conducts design oversight, operations and maintenance, and
commissioning, and transfer to operations.
*Conferences are facilitated by two to three of the above experts in the spring and
four to five experts in the fall.
Sample Conference Agenda 2005 Site Uptime Network
Monday Conference Schedule
8:00 Travel to host data center
8:30 Network introductions and announcements
8:45 Host welcome with narrative on their site and business FEBRUARY 13—16 GROUP 4 PHOENIX, AZ
9:45 Review one-lines, site facts
10:00 Data center and site infrastructure tour APRIL 10—13 GROUP 1 CHICAGO, IL
1:00 Feedback from tour
1:45 Methods of procedure process at host company MAY 15—18 GROUP 2 ST. LOUIS, MO
3:00 Automatic static transfer switch installation
JUNE 26—29 GROUP 3 MINNEAPOLIS, MN
Tuesday
8:00 Track A - UPS replacement at member site OCTOBER 9—12 FALL JOINT CONFERENCE SEATTLE, WA
Track B - Distributing power to server farms
9:15 Track A - Preventive maintenance frequency
Track B - Circulating ground current on PDUs
10:30 Principals Session


Track B - Vendor roundtable discussion This is my first Site Uptime conference and I found
1:00 Track A - Effective cable management practices it to be very beneficial. Since I’m fairly new to the
Track B - Group discussion Data Center Ops and Facilities profession, it is a good
2:15 Track A - Server standardization opportunity to exchange information and learn what


Track B - Water treatment applications
some of the new trends and best practices are.
3:30 Track A - Skill development training program
—Deb Schwellendbach, United Airlines
Track B - Building automation systems best practices
4:30 Select fall meeting topics

Wednesday “ The atmosphere of friendly exchange of information


and openness fostered by the Network staff make
8:00 Human activity related abnormal incidents the meetings some of the most effective and


9:15 Track A - Developing a compelling business case worthwhile I’ve ever attended.
Track B - Cut-over to new electrical distribution —Gregg Rudinski, company confidential
10:15 Track A - “Facilities Speak” for IT Managers
“IT Speak” for Facilities Managers
Track B - Cooling Issues for 100 watts/ft2 data centers
Design considerations and findings to support high density loads
11:30 Best practices and Lurking Vulnerabilities
1:15 Panel presentation on PDU breaker installation best practices
Should You Join the
Site Uptime Network?
Statistics on Network Members If the consequences of an information outage to your
business affect the bottom line—the answer is yes.
Average computer room area 57,000 ft2
If you are in IT or Data Center Operations, or Facility
Average planned heat density 65 W/ft2 Management (Corporate Real Estate) and are responsible
Average uninterruptible power system capacity 3,700 kW for keeping critical data centers running—the answer is yes.
Average engine generator plant capacity 5,700 kW
Averaging just 0.4% of members’ site operating budgets,
Average annual site infrastructure operating budget $2,800,000 members view the cost to join the Site Uptime Network
Average annual site infrastructure capital budget* $2,000,000 as a small investment that yields returns several times over.
Total computer room area (87 sites) 5,000,000 ft2
Total uninterruptible power system capacity 325,000 kW 2005 membership costs include:
Total engine generator plant capacity 500,000 kW
Total active critical load electrical branch circuits 200,000 Membership & three benchmark sites $12,000 per year
Total annual branch circuit churn 60,000
Conference registration fee
FLASH Report warnings on manufacturer 10-15
product problems per year for first three attendees $350–450 per person*

* Estimated members’ capital budget figures. Conference registration fee Registration fee plus
for each additional attendee $100 per person

Additional benchmark sites $1,500 per site

* Attendance fees vary slightly depending on conference location and content.

“ We appreciate being able to network with other companies


and colleagues. We value the ability to develop teams
within our own company.
— Harry Palefsky, Wachovia Bank ”

“ I like the fact that asking a question gives you access to


dozens of industry experts, many of whom have already
solved your exact problem.

—Chris Boudreaux, Cisco Systems, Inc.
The Uptime Institute, Inc.
Building 100
2904 Rodeo Park Drive East
Santa Fe, NM 87505-6316
Fax (505) 982-8484
Tel (505) 986-3900
www.uptimeinstitute.org
tui@upsite.com

TUI762B © 2005 The Uptime Institute, Inc.

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