Data Processing Centers

• Weekly hours
• Competences
• Objectives
• Contents
• Activities
• Teaching methodology
• Evaluation methodology
• Bibliography
• Web links
• Previous capacities

Teachers

Person in charge

• David López Álvarez ( )

Weekly hours

Competences

Technical Competences

Common technical competencies

• CT3 - To demonstrate knowledge and comprehension of the organizational, economic and legal context where her work is developed (proper knowledge about the company concept, the institutional and legal framework of the company and its organization and management)
  • CT3.5 - To identify the use possibilities and benefits which can be derived from an application in the different business software typologies and existent ICT services.
  • CT3.6 - To demonstrate knowledge about the ethical dimension of the company: in general, the social and corporative responsibility and, concretely, the civil and professional responsibilities of the informatics engineer.
• CT6 - To demonstrate knowledge and comprehension about the internal operation of a computer and about the operation of communications between computers.
  • CT6.2 - To demonstrate knowledge, comprehension and capacity to evaluate the structure and architecture of computers, and the basic components that compound them.
  • CT6.3 - To demonstrate knowledge about the characteristics, functionalities and structure of the Operating Systems allowing an adequate use, management and design, as well as the implementation of applications based on its services.
  • CT6.4 - To demonstrate knowledge and capacity to apply the characteristics, functionalities and structure of the Distributed Systems and Computer and Internet Networks guaranteeing its use and management, as well as the design and implementation of application based on them.
• CT7 - To evaluate and select hardware and software production platforms for executing applications and computer services.
  • CT7.1 - To demonstrate knowledge about metrics of quality and be able to use them.
  • CT7.2 - To evaluate hardware/software systems in function of a determined criteria of quality.
  • CT7.3 - To determine the factors that affect negatively the security and reliability of a hardware/software system, and minimize its effects.
• CT8 - To plan, conceive, deploy and manage computer projects, services and systems in every field, to lead the start-up, the continuous improvement and to value the economical and social impact.
  • CT8.1 - To identify current and emerging technologies and evaluate if they are applicable, to satisfy the users needs.
  • CT8.4 - To elaborate the list of technical conditions for a computers installation fulfilling all the current standards and normative.

Technical Competences of each Specialization

Information technology specialization

• CTI1 - To define, plan and manage the installation of the ICT infrastructure of the organization.
  • CTI1.1 - To demonstrate understanding the environment of an organization and its needs in the field of the information and communication technologies.
  • CTI1.2 - To select, design, deploy, integrate and manage communication networks and infrastructures in a organization.
  • CTI1.3 - To select, deploy, integrate and manage information system which satisfy the organization needs with the identified cost and quality criteria.
  • CTI1.4 - To select, design, deploy, integrate, evaluate, build, manage, exploit and maintain the hardware, software and network technologies, according to the adequate cost and quality parameters.
• CTI2 - To guarantee that the ICT systems of an organization operate adequately, are secure and adequately installed, documented, personalized, maintained, updated and substituted, and the people of the organization receive a correct ICT support.
  • CTI2.1 - To manage, plan and coordinate the management of the computers infrastructure: hardware, software, networks and communications.
  • CTI2.2 - To administrate and maintain applications, computer systems and computer networks (the knowledge and comprehension levels are described in the common technical competences).
  • CTI2.3 - To demonstrate comprehension, apply and manage the reliability and security of the computer systems (CEI C6).
• CTI3 - To design solutions which integrate hardware, software and communication technologies (and capacity to develop specific solutions of systems software) for distributed systems and ubiquitous computation devices.
  • CTI3.1 - To conceive systems, applications and services based on network technologies, taking into account Internet, web, electronic commerce, multimedia, interactive services and ubiquitous computation.
  • CTI3.3 - To design, establish and configure networks and services.
• CTI4 - To use methodologies centred on the user and the organization to develop, evaluate and manage applications and systems based on the information technologies which ensure the accessibility, ergonomics and usability of the systems.

Computer engineering specialization

• CEC2 - To analyse and evaluate computer architectures including parallel and distributed platforms, and develop and optimize software for these platforms.
  • CEC2.1 - To analyse, evaluate, select and configure hardware platforms for the development and execution of computer applications and services.
  • CEC2.2 - To program taking into account the hardware architecture, using assembly language as well as high-level programming languages.
  • CEC2.3 - To develop and analyse software for systems based on microprocessors and its interfaces with users and other devices.
  • CEC2.4 - To design and implement system and communications software.
• CEC3 - To develop and analyse hardware and software for embedded and/or very low consumption systems.
  • CEC3.1 - To analyse, evaluate and select the most adequate hardware and software platform to support embedded and real-time applications.
• CEC4 - To design, deploy, administrate and manage computer networks, and manage the guarantee and security of computer systems.
  • CEC4.1 - To design, deploy, administrate and manage computer networks.
  • CEC4.2 - To demonstrate comprehension, to apply and manage the guarantee and security of computer systems.

Transversal Competences

Sustainability and social commitment

• G2 [Avaluable] - To know and understand the complexity of the economic and social phenomena typical of the welfare society. To be capable of analyse and evaluate the social and environmental impact.
  • G2.3 - To take into account the social, economical and environmental dimensions, and the privacy right when applying solutions and carry out project which will be coherent with the human development and sustainability.

Effective oral and written communication

• G4 [Avaluable] - To communicate with other people knowledge, procedures, results and ideas orally and in a written way. To participate in discussions about topics related to the activity of a technical informatics engineer.
  • G4.3 - To communicate clearly and efficiently in oral and written presentations about complex topics, becoming adapted to the situation, the type of audience and the communication goals, using the strategies and the adequate means. To analyse, value and respond adequately to the questions of the audience.

Objectives

1. Structure of CPD: Identify the basic designing elements of a data processing center, its value and its importance in terms of application performance, reliability and center infrastructure costs.
   Related competences: CTI3.1, CEC2.1, CTI1.2, CT8.1, CT8.4, CT3.6, CTI1.3, CTI1.4, G2.3, CT3.5,
   Subcompetences:
   • Ability to design the different layers that make up an interrelated CPD from the subsystems that compose
   • Know the different indicators that mark the performance of each of the subparts of a CPD
   • To distinguish the essential characteristics of different types of DCP from the existing use, with particular depth in the DCPs and corporate Internet DCPs
   • To ascertain the existence and main features of the power supply system
   • To ascertain the existence and main features of cooling systems
   • To ascertain the existence and main features of computing systems
   • To ascertain the existence and main features of storage systems
   • To ascertain the existence and main features of the systems interconnection
   • To describe the relationships between different parts of a data center, getting an overview of its operation and implications
2. Costs and efficiency of CPD: To understand and apply concepts of energy efficiency in the field of processed data centers, including aspects of energy consumption and maintenance costs of the facilities.
   Related competences: CEC2.1, CTI1.2, G4.3, CT7.3, CT6.2, CTI1.1, CTI1.3, CTI1.4, G2.3,
   Subcompetences:
   • Understand and apply concepts such as PUE (power usage effectiveness) DCIE (Data center infrastructure efficiency), ROI (Return of investment) and TOC (Total cost of ownership) in the environment of DPCs
   • To analyze the energy cost of an installation from its hardware, software, and installation of cooling and power supply elements
3. Data Center Management: To select the ICT management applications, computational resources, networking and storage technologies appropriate to achieve flexible and efficient administration of the CPD
   Related competences: CEC2.1, CEC4.1, CTI2.1, CTI2.2, CT6.3, CT6.4, CT7.1, CT7.2, CT6.2, CEC2.4, CEC4.2, CTI1.1, CTI2.3, CTI4, G2.3, CT3.5,
   Subcompetences:
   • To apply the control mechanisms of the server virtualization technology, networks and advanced storage systems in DPCs
   • To design systems capable of monitoring the components of a DPC in an active and continuous way
   • To carry out comparative studies on the impact of different ICT management technologies in the management of DPCs
4. Elements of Computing: To identify the needs of computer applications designed to run on large capacity data processing centers.
   Related competences: CTI2.1, CTI2.2, CT6.3, CT7.2, CT6.2, CEC2.2, CEC3.1, CTI1.4, G2.3,
   Subcompetences:
   • To carry out comparative studies on the adequacy of the use of alternatives in the data center operating systems based on the capabilities of existing computers in the DPC and its characteristic features
   • To reason about the requirements imposed by the pervasive computing model on the computational elements of CPD
   • To design monitoring systems for computational resources to extract the data center performance measures and overall consumption
   • To estimate the hardware requirements of an application based on its characteristics and requirements
   • To offer combinations of hardware to be installed in a data center to meet the requirements of different applications that present distinct targets
5. Applications: Design, architecture and deployment
   Related competences: CTI3.1, CTI3.3, CEC2.3, CTI2.1, G4.3, CT6.4, CT7.1, CEC2.2, CEC2.4, CEC3.1, CTI2.3, CTI4, G2.3, CT3.5,
   Subcompetences:
   • To gauge the architecture of a multi-layer application from their hardware requirements
   • To distinguish between different technologies available from the point of view of the user, such as Cloud Computing and Virtualization
   • To analyze and identify the different specific steps that are necessary for each application in its deployment phase
   • To analyze and understand the requirements of availability of an application from its specifications
   • Being able to reason about the requirements imposed by the model of pervasive computing applications on DPCs
   • Know how to use some of the specific computing paradigms for extended DPCs
   • Know the characteristic properties of the different models used for distributed applications
6. Interconnection networks: To estimate the requirements of an application's network traffic to identify potential bottlenecks and to define the best strategy for deploying the application in the system
   Related competences: CTI3.3, CEC4.1, CTI1.2, CTI2.1, G4.3, CT6.4, CT7.1, CT7.2, CT8.4, CEC4.2, CTI2.3, G2.3,
   Subcompetences:
   • To relate the capacity of the communication system of a single DPC and the DPC system interconnection with other DPCs to perform computing tasks distributed between DPCs and migration of data and applications
   • To design redundant subsystems in the data center network at levela 2 and 3
   • To design the main components of a computer network for multi-layer data center, considering the requirements of the access layer and the aggregation of traffic
   • Being able to reason about the requirements imposed by the pervasive computing model on the communication elements of the CPD
   • Understand and be able to reason about the main features of the main technologies of computer networks for specific DPCs
   • To identify bottlenecks in the network of DPCs and propose alternatives for developing the applications to avoid them
   • To identify the communication needs of distributed applications designed to run on high capacity data processing centers.
7. Storage systems: To identify the needs of distributed storage application designed to run on data processing centers of large capacity.
   Related competences: CTI3.1, CEC2.1, CEC4.1, CT8.1, G4.3, CT6.3, CT6.4, CT7.1, CT7.2, CT7.3, CEC2.4, CTI2.3, CTI4, G2.3, CT3.5,
   Subcompetences:
   • To design redundant storage systems and to identify and guarantee the durability and reliability they can offer
   • To identify and implement the main features of storage devices that affect their performance, durability, reliability and energy consumption
   • To design storage systems for distributed DPCs considering the needs for availability, storage capacity, level of distribution, access permissions and bandwidth requirements
   • To perform comparative and final analysis on the interaction between different design alternatives for the data layer of an application and the storage system of DPCs
   • To analyze the relationship between storage systems, interconnection networks and security issues, availability and reliability of data
   • To identify the characteristics of different types of distributed storage for DPCs
8. Security, Availability and Reliability: To identify security needs and availability of distributed applications designed to run on data processing centers of large capacity.
   Related competences: CEC2.1, G4.3, CT7.3, CT8.4, CEC3.1, CEC4.2, CT3.6, CTI2.3, G2.3,
   Subcompetences:
   • To identify the specific security requirements os high-capacity data processing centers.
   • To design a contingency plan for possible contingencies that occur inan DPC from the requirements of the applications deployed and the characteristics of DPC
   • To design action plans in case of DPC's physical security breaking
   • To understand and apply concepts of Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery in the field of DPC
   • To understand and use basic concepts of risk analysis in the field of CPD
   • To identify the different elements that defines the physical security of a CPD
   • To analyze the ability of CPDs, its components and their applications in terms of RTO (Recovery Time Objective) and RPO (Recovery Point Objective)
   • To understand and apply concepts of different types of failures (hardware, software and security) in the DCP for the design of security policies
9. Information Unit and Unit Power: To evaluate the dependence of information and energy dependence.
   Related competences: CTI3.1, CTI3.3, CEC2.1, CEC4.1, CT8.1, G4.3, CT7.1, CT8.4, CEC3.1, CT3.6, CTI1.1, CTI1.4, CTI4, G2.3, CT3.5,
   Subcompetences:
   • To know the existence and characteristics of the different alternatives to CPD's current energy supply with renewable native sources.
   • To assess the energy dependence of one CPD or one CPD's set.
   • Knowing the complexity and challenges in the decision to select the location of a CPD
   • Understand and evaluate each of the models Clouds (public, private and hybrid) based on local energy (+ micro and macro information generation)
   • Knowing the advantages and disadvantages of relocation of CPDS and evaluate the dependence of information involved.
   • To understand and evaluate new models of resource management that are aware of the available energy (eg sun or wind prediction, or move data before we have lack of energy)
10. Sustainability of the CPDS: To identify and evaluate the sustainability of the implementation chosen in their economic aspects, social and environmental
    Related competences: CTI2.1, G4.3, CT7.1, CT8.4, CEC4.2, CT3.6, CTI1.1, CTI1.4, CTI2.3, CTI4, G2.3, CT3.5,
    Subcompetences:
    • Indicators to evaluate environmental issues such as the Carbon Usage Effectiveness (CUE) and meet the standards Catalan, Spanish and European about it.
    • Understand the challenges of cloud computing and options to make it sustainable.
    • To integrate ideas of sustainability in all parts of the design of DPCs, including their use
    • Having a holistic view of the problem of storing and processing massive data, studying alternatives and costs and implications of these towards the environment
    • To know the existence and characteristics of the different current alternatives in building CPD
11. Communication skills: To participate in discussions and brainstorming to make CPD's designs and work plans, defending and arguing against a working team
    Related competences: G4.3,
    Subcompetences:
    • Generate proposals and written material to support the argument for
    • Knowing how to use communication skills (active listening, asertivitat) participating in discussions and brainstorming work.
    • Know how to develop arguments, reasoning and conclusions.

Contents

1. Introduction to the CPDS
   This topic will present the main concepts related to CPDS, which will be studied in more detail on each topic later.
2. Infrastructure of CPDS
   This topic will deal with the structure of the CPDS and its main elements in terms of infrastructure. Will study the impact of aspects such as location, energy costs and cheaper to maintain them, its modularity and flexibility to manage them, and also present metrics for measuring efficiency .
3. Storage Systems
   This topic will discuss various architectures and tools for storing data. Students will learn how data storage systems work, and ideas of data security and recovery (backup, RAID) and different storage architectures (distributed, SAN/NAS)
4. Networks
   The objective of this topic is to cover the different aspects to consider when designing a data center network. Specifically, the main concepts acquired during the course in the field of networking are: design layered corporate networks (access, aggregation and core) and the concept of Network Fabric, interconnection technologies (Ethernet, FC, ​​Infiniband, consolidation), network virtualization technologies and interconnected Data Centers.
5. Computer Applications and features
   The aim of this theme is present the main architecture of software and hardware used to run applications in the data center. From the standpoint of hardware architectures studied processors, memories and nodes used in such facilities. From the viewpoint of the software, explore the different paradigms used to develop applications specifically designed for use in CPDS, and therefore are massively parallel and distributed.
6. Recaps
   The aim of this last item is to review the concepts seen throughout the course in order to help the student to arrange the ideas seen throughout the semester, getting an overview of the subject.

Activities

Activity Evaluation act

Teaching methodology

Evaluation methodology

Bibliography

Basic:

• Cisco data center infrastructure 2.5: design guide - Cisco Systems, Cisco Systems, Inc., 2011. ISBN: 9781597493062
  https://discovery.upc.edu/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma991001002479706711&context=L&vid=34CSUC_UPC:VU1&lang=ca

Complementary:

• I/O consolidation in the data center - Gai, S.; Desanti, C, Cisco , 2010. ISBN: 1-58705-888-X
  https://discovery.upc.edu/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma991003827029706711&context=L&vid=34CSUC_UPC:VU1&lang=ca
• Cisco unified computing system (UCS) - Gai, S.; Salli, T.; Andersson, R, Cisco , 2010. ISBN: 1-58714-193-0
  https://discovery.upc.edu/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma991003827079706711&context=L&vid=34CSUC_UPC:VU1&lang=ca
• Grow a greener data center - Alger, D, Cisco Press , 2010. ISBN: 1-58705-813-8
  https://discovery.upc.edu/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma991003826879706711&context=L&vid=34CSUC_UPC:VU1&lang=ca

Web links

• Blog interessant sobre CPDs en general, i en especial en tecnologies de xarxa per CPDs http://blog.ioshints.info
• Recursos de Cisco per a CPDs http://www.cisco.com/en/US/netsol/ns743/networking_solutions_program_home.html
• Presentacions de Cisco sobre xarxes per CPDs http://www.slideshare.net/Ciscodatacenter

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