Intro to Minimum Computational Requirement
June 16, 2007 07:49 Filed in:
Technology 3.0
The Minimum Computational Requirement or MCR is an analytical method for helping an organization determine the least amount of technology required for a function or organization.
MCR enables you to determine true
processing need based upon commercially available hardware and
software. It does not require that you follow current technology
conventions to meet that need. For example: A company that provides
web services to manage family histories for 1,000,000 subscribers,
might have a standards based web technology infrastructure
consisting of Java or .Net applications running on sixteen web
servers, four application servers, four database servers, and two
storage area networks (SANs) in each of two data centers. An MCR
assessment might determine that a single 64-bit server with a
larger PCI bus could support all transactions. The company might
have to re-architect its forty gigabyte (40 GB) family history
database keeping the primary instance in RAM and a shadow instance
on disk. After considering availability and disaster recovery
requirements, the Minimum Computational Design might consist of two
proxy servers, one SAN with clustered controllers, and two
multi-purpose 64-bit servers with database and applications
processes linked via shared memory (instead of being linked by an
IP network). These four servers would also be replicated to a
second data center.
The final phase of an MCR would be to look at the data center. Prior to the MCR assessment, the web company in this scenario needed power generation, four twenty ton ACs, a dozen racks and four Cisco high-end Catalyst data/iSCSI switches to serve the two mid-sized data centers with 48 total servers and four SANs. The web company would have needed to double the data center infrastructure to support the expected 300% growth in two years. With the new Minimum Computational Design the current data centers could support 3x growth plan AND potentially reduce power, cooling, and space requirements by half.
The final phase of an MCR would be to look at the data center. Prior to the MCR assessment, the web company in this scenario needed power generation, four twenty ton ACs, a dozen racks and four Cisco high-end Catalyst data/iSCSI switches to serve the two mid-sized data centers with 48 total servers and four SANs. The web company would have needed to double the data center infrastructure to support the expected 300% growth in two years. With the new Minimum Computational Design the current data centers could support 3x growth plan AND potentially reduce power, cooling, and space requirements by half.
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