D ATA CENTRE
The Metamorphosis of the Data Centre Adapt to Survive By Max Zaccaria, Sales & Marketing Director, Cannon Technologies Ltd
The ‘more from less’ creed has been driving data processing density inexorably upwards, so that real-estate of a given size can produce increasing amounts of data processing. The financial and strategic benefits
of such an achievement are countered to some extent by the resultant need for greater electrical power and corresponding increases in cooling capacity per square metre of floor space. The compression of these critical
A data centre, quite
obviously, is a resource for processing data. That core requirement never changes. However, as we all know, business economics is aggressively demanding much more from much less.
issues creates increased stress levels for all of the equipment involved. The pace of change has been rapid
in recent years and traditional data centres are responding by upgrading to significantly more efficient pieces of equipment, and finding more innovative solutions to common problems.
Cooling
One area of focus is now on substantially improving cooling air flow. This is achievable with aisle cocooning, which separates hot exhaust air and cooling air more effectively. This can be complemented by within- rack air management to achieve the same objectives. With these solutions, payback can
be achieved in a few months, and processing capacity increased. New concepts for cable management, utilising Rack Raceway mounting, also allows cable volume to be removed from air flow paths. This increases cooling efficiency and capacity, and has the parallel benefit of less costly installation. Chilled water-to-air heat exchangers
are highly efficient and very effective at high density cooling and are increasingly recognised as reliable and cost effective
for all densities of cooling. The initial fears of having water
systems adjacent to critical ‘IT’ equipment have now been proved unfounded and the extremely efficient, high capacity of chilled water-to-air heat exchangers within rack rows or within racks is proving to be one of the most effective solutions for almost any density of installation. The small foot print of the more
efficient water-to-air heat exchangers means that high levels of system resilience can be achieved easily and affordably at N + I or N + N. Tier 4 performance is readily
achievable with such installations, and, when properly combined with cold aisle cocooning, the efficiency can be impressive.
Monitoring
To maximise uptime in highly stressed environments it is essential to introduce high tech monitoring and control, locally and remotely, so that managers can understand the nature and characteristics of their data centre in depth. This will enable efficiency to be maximised and problems to be predicted and responded to effectively. More recently available monitoring and control systems have progressed substantially, and remote and local system managers can now enjoy unprecedented access to equipment performance and achieve high levels of uptime because of this capability. The more advanced systems manage
cooling, power, environment, security and access, all in one suite of control software. They also offer impressive amounts of information, as well as
remote control capability, alarms for out of tolerance parameter, and a performance/audit trail. The in-depth real time knowledge
available with such systems transforms the potential to maximise uptime and minimise cost as well as reduce carbon foot print by achieving more from less. Of course, quality electrical power
provisioning is essential. The modern data centre calls for high efficiency UPS Systems, mains power distribution units, and power strips with high levels of smart intelligence. At the same time it must be innovatively designed to occupy minimal rack space, releasing costly floor space for revenue earning data processing.
Changing commerce
Modern commerce is always in a state of change. Large fixed data centres increasingly need to be supplemented by quickly available modular data centres. Such needs are driven by rapid corporate expansion, IT relocation, business transition, and catastrophe planning. Increasingly, organisations are turning to modular data centres as they strive to reduce capital expenditure whilst achieving high efficiency and resilience. At the other end of the scale there is
a demand for high performance single rack data centres which contain all the life support systems for high density ‘IT’ in one Rack. This presents obvious benefits in terms of space economics. In certain challenging circumstances,
there is even the need for man-portable ruggedised data centres. These are contained within shock attenuated cases and have been deployed in military theatres of operation and other aggressive environments such as those found in the Petro-chem sector. The morphing of traditional
data centres into modular, mini or man-portable is an ongoing feature of the IT market. It is being driven by the need to achieve more from less while at the same time acquiring ever increasing reliability and more closely tailored specification which exactly meet clients’ specific needs, without sacrificing performance.
46 NETCOMMS Volume I, Issue 4 2011
www.netcommseurope.com
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