DVL Group Blog with Helpful Information on Running Your Data Center (29)

ASHRAE: Warmer Data Centers Good for Some, Not All

by Mike Rinaldi on 10/5/12 3:23 PM

Don Beaty has built some of the worlds most efficient data centers. Between 2004 and 2011, Beaty has been resonsible for crafting recommendations on data center cooling for the leading industry group for heating and cooling professionals. Those dual roles have provided Beaty with a unique vantage point on the evolution of new strategies to cool servers implementing cutting-edge techniques for the industrys leading innovator as his day job, while working to develop standards and recommendations that can work for a broad spectrum of data center operators.

Beaty has grown accustomed to managing the heat. This week marks the release of the latest guidelines on data center cooling from ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers), which reflect the growing momentum for operating servers at higher levels of temperature and humidity. Thermal Guidelines for Data Processing Environments is published by ASHRAEs Technical Committee (TC) 9.9, which was co-founded by Beaty and IBMs Roger Schmidt to provide specialized guidance on data center cooling.

> Click here to read article

Published on October 5, 2012 by Rich Miller-Data Center Knowledge

Allowable vs. Recommended ASHRAE Guidelines - Design Your Data Center

The majority of data centers have multiple generations of technology, some type of spinning disc, some type of tape storage and maybe even some mainframe systems. These data centers can still be extremely energy efficient, but are not going to see the extremes of the ASHRAE design guidelines. They are the data centers that should probably stay with the ASHRAE recommended guidelines. Below is an example of the recommended versus allowable ASHRAE Guidelines. Please note that the recommended temperature guidelines didnt change in 2011, only the allowable.

Temperature

2004 20C to 25C - Recommended

2008 18C to 27C - Recommended

2011 5C to 40C - Allowable

Humidity

2004 40 to 55% - Recommended

2008 35 to 60% - Recommended

2011 20 to 80% - Recommended

One thing we are seeing more and more of today is confusion over what temperature and humidity parameters data centers should be designed for. Most of the discussion seems to assume that there is a monolithic block of data centers that can all be designed the same way. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Most of the data centers in existence today have a mixture of technologies and systems that all have varying environmental requirements. We typically refer to these as mixed use data centers. Unlike an E-Bay, Google, Microsoft or Apple data center, there is not rack after rack of the same equipment, all with similar operating requirements.

Topics: Data Center, kW per rack, data center energy, PUE, electrical distribution, reduce downtime, data center outages, 7x24 exchange

Is your organization trained on the new NFPA 70E requirements?

by Mike Rinaldi on 9/24/12 3:30 PM

New NFPA Electrical Safety Rules Mean Changes for Your Data Center

A service professional is working on a piece of electrical equipment. Hes done it hundreds of times before, but in a moment of carelessness or by total accident, an arc flash occurs. Most of us think this couldnt happen to us. The truth is that electrocutions are the fourth leading cause of traumatic occupational fatalities, and according to the American Society of Safety Engineers, more than 3,600 workers suffer disabling electrical contact injuries annually.

Check out the Is Your Data Center Prepared for an Outage? whitepaper

To help prevent electrical injuries and deaths, the new 2012 version of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 70E: Standard for Electrical Safety in the Workplace makes important changes in the areas of safety, maintenance and training.

> Read Full Article

Proper gear and procedures are critical when working with energized electrical equipment. Employees working on electrical equipment without adequate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) risk serious injury or death when an electrical arc occurs.

Is your organization trained on NFPA 70E requirements?

Topics: Emerson Network Power, data center infrastructure, Data Center, data center design, data center infrastructure management, robust data center, electrical distribution, reduce downtime, data center outages, critical air conditioning

LEED Silver Data Center

by Mike Rinaldi on 9/7/12 11:42 AM

NTT: Taking the LEED lead in Hong Kong

NTT Communications now operates Hong Kongs first LEED:EBOM certified data center. Taylor Man, NTT Com Asias Executive Vice President for New Business, explains why the standard is becoming so important for the countrys data center industry.

The focus on Corporate social responsibility (CSR) by governments, regulators and increasingly customers is driving sustainability in the data center sector. And market volatility, focus on expenditures and rising operational costs has further led to demands for process efficiency, the streamlining of operations and lower energy usage.

While operating right at the heart of bustling at the heart of bustling Hong Kong, NTT Communications started to look for ways of being more green. We found the answer with LEED:EBOM, the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standard issued by the Green Building Council for Existing buildings, Operations and Maintenance).

NTT became the first data center in Hong Kong to receive LEED Silver certification EBOM for its Hong Kong Data Centre after proving large energy savings due to efficiency measures. The data center is in a seven-floor building, which covers 212,000 sq ft that was launched in 2009. It provides high-availability services and has been built to handle mission critical environments, with a Tier III infrastructure.

> Read more here

Topics: Emerson Network Power, data center infrastructure, Data Center, PUE, robust data center, Containment, electrical distribution, Green Technology, energy, critical air conditioning

Do You Control Your Data Center or Is It Controlling You?

by Mike Rinaldi on 8/15/12 11:55 AM

Ever have one of those days which turn into weeks, where nothing seems to be going your way? Your boss is constantly nagging you to reduce the power usage in your data center in an effort to curb costs; a cable becomes loose somewhere (and it takes you hours to figure out where it is); a server goes down yet again, causing the network to crash. And just when you thought things were starting to go right a power failure in the whole region has your data center shutting down for days. In this post, I am going to probe the concept of whether your data center is controlling you, rather than the other way around.

HOW DO YOU CONTROL YOUR DATA CENTER?

-Pursuit of Efficiency

-Gaps in the Market

-Combining the Software with the Hardware

-Total Control of the Data Center

>> Read more here

Data Center Knowledge

The Question Remains: Do you prefer hot aisle or cold aisle containment?

data center

Topics: data center infrastructure, Data Center, Green IT, data center design, kW per rack, data center energy, data center infrastructure management, Containment, reduce downtime

Do You Prefer Hot Aisle or Cold Aisle Containment?

by Mike Rinaldi on 8/7/12 3:13 PM

Separating the hot and cold air in a data center is one of the keys to improving energy efficiency. Containment systems don't have to be fancy or expensive. Containment systems have been in use at least since 2004, but there's an ongoing debate about whether it is best to contain the hot aisle or cold aisle.

Do you use containment in your data center? If so, do you contain the hot aisle or cold aisle?"

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