Data Centre EnvironmentsCCS Commercial Overview Session 3The Greening of the Data Centre

16th December 2008

Paul Mathews MInstSMM

Global Channel Manager

• The heartbeat of any business, designed to manage the flow, processing and storage of information

• Must be reliable, secure and flexible to enable growth and reconfiguration

• A data centre can support small singular businesses through to thousands of clients ecommerce facilities

• “A building or portion of a building whose primary function is to house a computer room and its support areas,” according to TIA 942

Introduction to Data Centres

Energy usage in Data Centres

• Average 200 sq m computer room in a data centre uses 52 more times electricity than an office LAN

• An average of 7500 kW hours per sq m / pa

• Present day servers generate around 2.5 kW of heat per sq m – this is expected to rise to 10 kW as CPUs become densely populated

• A floor tile emits an average of 1.2 tonnes of carbon omissions pa

• Based on costs of £450.00 per sq m would result in savings over £9000 if efficiency was improved by 10%

Energy wastage in Data Centres

• Huge financial industry burden and public policy environmental issue

• If a Data Centre could be 100% efficient, all electrical power would need to reach the IT loads

• Real world environments see non-IT physical infrastructure devices consuming power (manifested as heat), including:

- Transformers- UPS- Power wiring- Fans- Air conditioners- Pumps- Humidifiers- Lighting

This all needs cooling (thereforeconsumes more power)

Increased redundancy meansmore energy required

Why are data centres inefficient?

• Over sizing of the physical infrastructure creates fixed losses of electrical power and cooling systems

• Data Centre industry power and cooling usage worldwide wastes more than 60,000,000 megawatt-hours per year of electricity

• Data Centres typically run at 30-50% of capacity

• Losses in energy are proportional to overall electrical power ratings of a system, regardless of IT load (so installations with light IT loads, fixed losses of the physical infrastructure equipment often exceed IT load)

Example:• Every 10 Watts of power delivered to a data centre loaded to 10% of its rated

capacity, only 1 Watt actually reaches the IT equipment, remaining 9 Watts are lost to energy inefficiencies

• Generally, 50% of energy in data centres goes to IT Loads, the other 50% to physical infrastructure equipment including electrical power devices

Data Centre Infrastructure Efficiency (DCiE)• Data centres needs to become more green

• Measuring data centre efficiency is measured as the ratio of watts to the IT Load / Watts to the data centre (DCIE)

• To maximise DCiE, efficiency measurements for the whole data centre should be monitored and targeted for improvement in an ongoing strategy

DCiE Architecture (Data Centre Subsystem)

• IT Load• Auxiliary devices• Lights• Humidifiers• Chillers• Pumps• Heat Rejection• CRAC• Distribution Wiring• Switchgear• Generator• PDU• UPS

Data Centre GreeningImprovement Guidelines – Part 1

• Electrical power and cooling equipment not needed should not be energised

• Minimise over sizing where possible, so equipment operated within the optimum region of efficiency

• Electrical power, cooling and lighting equipment should utilise up-to-date technology to minimise power consumption

• Sub-systems used for redundancy should be optimised for their fractional load capacity, not the full load efficiency

Data Centre GreeningImprovement Guidelines – Part 2

• Use a capacity management tool to manage the amount of electrical power and cooling to the Data Centre, ensuring ‘stranded capacity’ is minimised

• To optimise the efficiency of zones/areas within the data centre, an integrated physical configuration should control the system and not just one room

ExampleRow-based cooling for racks should be integrated with IT racks, independent from the room based cooling

• Integrate management systems to monitor and alert electrical consumption levels that cause high inefficiency levels

Data Centre GreeningImprovement Guidelines – Part 3 Cabling

• Design cabling and racks to maximise air flow (use blanking panels in cabinets, hot and cold aisle placement)

• Use pre-terminated cabling to reduce waste

• Consider optical fibre:

- kinder to the environment in manufacturing v copper- bullet proof for longer life cycle- components consume less power v copper- higher bandwidth, extended distance (performance)- cabling such as Connectix Starlight MTP reduces amount of cables and improves air flow

Sizing the Data Centre

• Sizing the physical infrastructure inline with the IT Load will have the most impact on electrical consumption

• Scalable physical infrastructures that can grow with IT Load offer the best opportunity to limit electrical waste and costs

• A well designed, correctly sized physical infrastructure can eliminate up to 50% of the electrical bill in real-world installations

• So….. Design a modular, scalable physical infrastructure

Sub-system GreeningPart 1

• Scalable electrical power and cooling:

Helps increase efficiency in smaller data centres or data centres early in their life formHelps defer capital and operating costs until needed

• Row-based cooling:

Shortens the air flow path to improve predictability of air distributionPerimeter CRACs operate at 80% efficient at 70% IT LoadRow-base CRACs operate at 95% efficient at 70% IT Load

Sub-system GreeningPart 2

• High-efficiency UPS

Current new products can improve efficiency by over 10% compared to current installed UPS

• Capacity management tools

A mixture of tools and company regulations that implements a safe operating system that is higher density and more efficient, designed to reduce capital costs and energy bills

Energy Efficiency Best Practices• Install blanking panels

• Coordinate CRAC Units

• Improve under floor airflow

• Implement hot and cold aisles

• Install sensors to monitor temperature

• Implement cold aisle or hot aisle containment

• Raise the temperature in the data centre (ASHRAE)to improve electrical use

• Exploit ‘free cooling’

• Design new data centres and computer rooms using modular cooling

Additional information can befound in the Gartner report ‘Howto Save a Million Kilowatt Hours

in your Data Centre’

Data Centre Whitepapers• Data Centre Design Whitepaper

http://www.connectixcablingsystems.com/library/detail.cfm?item=10

Connectix Technical Articles

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