Datacenters are facing new cooling challenges. The servers and storage today are more efficient, faster, and incredibly dense. You can pack more computing power and storage in a much smaller footprint. Datacenter floorspace is expensive, so space savings are great. But how do you maximize density without compromising cooling?
We have watched datacenters evolve from general CRAC based cooling: where the entire room is cooled without any attention to the efficiency, to Aisle Containment, where there are hot aisles (backs of racks) and cool aisles (front of racks), to In-Row cooling where cool air is provided in cool aisles, and warm air is returned from the warm aisles, which provided a dramatic improvement.
Most datacenters still use one of those methods, with a surprising number just cooling the entire facility with or without Aisle Containment. These methods are not only very inefficient, but also uncomfortable for staff working in those datacenters.
The answer is LIQUID COOLING. The method the gaming industry has been using for years to cool overclocked processors and memory.
A rear of cabinet cooler of this kind can save a lot of energy. Our UK partner USystems have documented energy savings of up to 98% over CRAC, 83% over Aisle Containment, and even 45% over In-Row cooling with their ColdLogik system. I know liquid in a datacenter sounds scary, but when combined with their patented Leak Prevention System which maintains a negative pressure on the coolant, this becomes a non-issue.
With 45% to 98% better performance you have several benefits.
- Reduced operating cost
- Reduced demand on electrical sources, which makes more electricity available for computing without having to add more capacity, which can be extraordinarily expensive.
- Greener datacenter with much lower carbon footprint.
- Higher density in each rack. More effective cooling allows much higher density racks, which also reduces TCO by reducing the number of racks and amount of floorspace required.
In 2013 Cambridge University, using ColdLogik reduced their cooling power consumption to a super PUE of 1.05 placing them number 2 in the Green 500 datacenters in the world.
In 2012 STIHL needed a hurricane proof solution for their new 200KW datacenter in Virginia Beach. The ColdLogik team designed the most energy efficient solution for STIHL. Thanks to their access to a natural underground water supply, water was taken via a bore hole from the underground springs with a nearby lake used as a back up resource. This solution was naturally hurricane proof as no water towers or external plant would be required.
Because the datacenter cooling solution source was below ground the water supply temperature was a constant 64.4°F allowing for all year-round free cooling therefore benefiting hugely on cost savings as it took less than 7.5kW to cool 200kW IT heat load.
The back up water source at the nearby lake had large coil heat exchangers deployed and a reverse cycle heat pump, this meant during the winter months the supply could switch so waste-heat from the datacenter could be recycled to heat their building free of charge.
In 2010 ARM, the world’s leading semiconductor intellectual property supplier, required a very small, very efficiently cooled datacenter. In 12m x 4m they were able to deploy 60 cabinets with a PUE of 1.045 on full load – 68% current load PUE of 1.08-1.16. Because ARM required the pipe work to run through their data center, they opted for the additional security and peace of mind that the patented Leak Prevention System which complements the ColdLogik rear cooler solution in many scenarios.
In 2008 Jaguar Land Rover expanded their data center with 40-foot containers due to space restrictions. Each container was to house 17 cabinets with a cooling capacity of 10-30kW per cabinet. Therefore, cooling for this project was the priority as there was no false floor, an extremely small footprint and a serious heat issue with such high densities. ColdLogik rear-cooler was the only viable option for this requirement. Three containers were deployed and allowed this datacenter in Spain to expand outside of the existing building.
With ColdLogik you can be green and increase the density of your existing data center or build a state of the art high density data center from scratch. It can be phased-in rack by rack or implemented data center wide.
If you want to reduce your carbon footprint while reducing your TCO, then you want to look at this innovative solution from ColdLogik.
About the Author
Andrew Lindzon is the President of Ashlin Technology Solutions Inc. Ashlin Technology Solutions specializes in Managed IT Support, providing Cloud Solutions and Network Services in Henderson, Las Vegas, Paradise, Enterprise, Summerlin South, and Sunrise Manor.