was possible to raise the chilled water set point by 8o
F – reducing the energy
required for cooling by 30%, and saving Cisco a great deal of money every year. The data centre industry is starting
to realise the negative effects of the communications gap that has long been present between the various parties involved in facility operations and management. Facilities engineers, IT operations, and general management often have differing goals, but don’t have the opportunity to check how their actions, combined with the actions of others, will affect the facility. This can lead to detrimental data centre configurations that reduce efficiency, available capacity, and facility lifespan in general. As a result, the concept of Data Centre Infrastructure Management (DCIM) has been introduced to counter and improve the situation. Successful DCIM is defined by Gartner as “the integration of IT
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and facility management disciplines to centralise monitoring, management and intelligent capacity planning of a data centre’s critical systems”. Specific management tools bring together IT and facilities management in this precise way to enable constructive decisions to be made within a harmonious operational environment. The complexity of the data centre
conundrum is greater than many appreciate - every single feature of the facility, right down to chip level, has an effect on the room as a whole. Not only that, but the behaviour of the equipment, configurations and airflow within the facility are transient, always changing to meet the requirements of the facility owners or clients. With IT equipment manufacturers continually increasing power densities to meet the constant demands for greater processing power, data centres are forced to deal with higher levels of heat dissipation.
Managing all these factors is often a precarious balancing act, and it is a rarity for a data centre operator to be convinced that their facility has no room for improvement. The recent drive to be ‘green’ and
improve efficiency metrics such as PUE is forcing data centre operators to re- evaluate their operations, but reductions in energy requirements can only be attained by making specific informed changes to the data centre configuration - and doing this safely requires an in- depth knowledge and understanding of the facility. Data centre simulation tools can provide this knowledge and enable this understanding, while also giving a valuable look into the future health of the facility - and taking advantage of this technology will help us move the data centre industry into a new era of innovation and prosperity.
NETCOMMS europe Volume I, Issue 4 2011 49
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