AmSouth Bancorp of Birmingham, Ala., improved the efficiency of its Birmingham data center and reduced accidents by using a computer system that contains a visual representation of the facility to manage it.
Mallory H. Forbes, a senior vice president at AmSouth and its manager of enterprise server operations, said 80% of accidents in data centers are human errors.
As a result, "we have very strict rules about access," he said. "We don't allow the facilities people to go in and change the filters on the air conditioners except at certain hours of the day."
Since opening the 17,000-square-foot data center in early 2004 within a larger bank operation center, AmSouth has used the Vista software system from Aperture Technologies Inc. of Stamford, Conn., to manage the infrastructure.
Mr. Forbes spoke about the operation in conjunction with Aperture's introduction last month of its Vista 500, the latest version of the system, before AmSouth's acquisition in November by Regions Financial Corp., also of Birmingham.
Before AmSouth opened the new center, a person making any kind of change in the data center would have to walk through it to see what racks had space and whether ports were available.
"There was a lot of physical intrusion into the data center for discovery," said Mr. Forbes, who is expected to be named Regions' manager of mainframe technology.
AmSouth bought the Aperture Vista system in the fourth quarter of 2003 to provide a three-dimensional visual representation of the new center, including its power distribution network, air conditioning, floor-mounted equipment, and server racks including the equipment in them. It keeps track of such details as the IP addresses of individual servers, into which electrical outlet each server is plugged, and which under-floor cable tray contains the wiring for each server, Mr. Forbes said.
"You don't have to have anyone go into the center during production time and try to gather information on something," he said, "and you don't have to go out and write a database to do this."
The Vista system also generates work tickets, which describe necessary tasks with details such as which tiles of the raised floor must be opened to connect new equipment or disconnect old gear, Mr. Forbes said. "That's how we manage installations, moves, and decommissions."
The system is part of an infrastructure management strategy that includes multiple power feeds from separate electrical substations, biometric badge access requiring fingerprint verification, and security cameras.
"To us, it all comes back to control," Mr. Forbes said. "That level of discipline is very important. If we didn't have that level of discipline, I think we would have more problems than we do."
