FOCUS COOLING UPDATE
Issue 9, April/May 10
IBM TALKS DATA CENTER DESIGN IN YOUTUBE VIDEO
the amount of solar heat it attracts, and rainwater is collected for reuse, although not for reuse in the cooling system.
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www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTrLWTcDi2k&feature= player_embedded
LOOK MUM, NO CHILLERS, SAYS FACEBOOK AFTER GREENPEACE ATTACK
IBM has decided to explain its thinking behind the design and purpose of its new data center in a YouTube video.
The company’s new data center is located on its campus in the Research Triangle Park near Raleigh, North Carolina. Big Blue says the new facility, which has been constructed to IBM’s dynamic infrastructure design principals, is a culmination of the decades of experience it has in building data centers.
IBM, of course, is no stranger to this sector as it currently has more than 450 data centers around the world, and adds between three and five data centers to its global infrastructure each year.
“As we design data centers and continue to mature our level of technology and sophistication, this announcement is something of a new plateau for us,” says Joe Dzaluk, IBM vice president of Global Infrastructure and Resource Management.
“It’s the combination of everything we’ve done here. It’s utilising some products that are not yet commercially available from IBM Research. When you add it all up, we think it’ll make IBM more competitive in the marketplace,” he says.
Among some of the facility’s energy-saving features are airside economisation and continuous monitoring of temperature and humidity, with real-time adjustment of cooling capacity according to the monitoring data.
The building has a reflective roof to reduce 46
www.datacenterdynamics.com
Facebook has emphasised the highly efficient, chiller-free design of its first own data center in Prineville, Oregon, after Greenpeace attacked the popular social networking website over its choice of the facility’s power provider (Pacific Power), which relies heavily on a large amount of coal-powered plants.
“Mechanical chillers use a lot of energy and are only exceeded in their energy use by the thousands of computers inside the data center,” Facebook said. “Because of the climate around Prineville and our unique design, we won’t use any mechanical chillers – we won’t even build any. Instead, the data center will use an innovative evaporative cooling system.”
While acknowledging that Pacific Power “has an energy mix that is weighted slightly more toward coal than the national average”, Facebook said in its response that every data center is connected to an electric grid that distributes energy which comes from a variety of sources.
The company pointed out that the power provider plans to expand its renewable energy sources to reach more than 2,000MW in capacity coming from renewable sources by 2013. “Thus, our data center is only going to get more green over time as these resources come online and contribute even greater portions of the facility’s energy.”
UNNAMED UK BANK OPTS FOR EFFICIENT TURBOMISER CHILLER
A major UK bank has chosen to deploy the Turbomiser chiller in its new data center, which is currently under construction in the south of England.
The unnamed bank will install the chiller,
made by three European companies – the UK’s Klima-Therm and Cool-Therm, and Italy’s Geoclima.
The makers are touting the chiller’s superior energy efficiency, which they claim is achieved by “the combination of a compact centrifugal compressor with virtually frictionless magnetic bearings, floating head pressure design, LPA low-energy free cooling, EC fans, total emersion evaporator and fully integrated dynamic control system”.
VETTE CORP BACKS LIQUID COOLING WITH DEDICATED COOLCENTRIC UNIT
Vette Corp has created a new division dubbed Coolcentric (formerly the Datacom Facilities Division), in an effort to promote the concept of liquid cooling and its LiquiCool systems.
As demand continues for sustainable data centers, businesses are, of course, being confronted by rising energy consumption figures and operating costs. With “up to 55% of the power consumed in a data center associated with its cooling infrastructure”, Coolcentric claims that its LiquiCool technology “reduces or eliminates unnecessary fan power, which reduces cooling unit energy consumption by up to 90%. Data center cooling costs are reduced by up to 60% by lowering capital expense, energy consumption and space requirements”.
Essentially, its LiquiCool system cools servers by using what it calls a Rear Door Heat Exchanger (RDHx) that mounts to the back of IT racks, and therefore cools computer equipment exhaust air before it re-enters the data center operating environment.
“A majority of the world’s data centers are highly inefficient and utilise legacy air cooling methods that consume vast amounts of energy,” says George Dannecker, president and chief executive of Vette Corp. “The benefits of data center liquid cooling are clear, evidenced by dramatic reductions in power consumption, space requirements and operating costs. Coolcentric aligns all our knowledge, experience and resources to best serve the needs of owners and operators of sustainable data centers.”
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