Data Center Central
Data Center Central is a new section of EDItion where we will highlight work performed by EDI’s Data Center Services Team, as well as share articles and other information pertinent to the world of data centers. Please feel free to contact us at info@ediltd.com if you require specific information regarding your data centers.
Saving Energy in Data Centers
Data Center Energy Practitioner Program
 By Dan Fanning
EDI is pleased to announce that Dan Fanning, Projects & Engineering Manager for EDI, Ltd., recently completed the US Department of Energy (DOE) pilot Data Center Energy Practitioner Program (DCEP - established in 2010). Participation in this pilot program is by invitation only. Dan is now one of an anticipated 200 practitioners to be certified under this program by 2011.
As a Level I Practitioner, Dan is qualified to evaluate the energy status and efficiency opportunities in data centers under this new program. The key objective of the DCEP is to accelerate energy savings and reduce environmental emissions in the dynamic and energy-intensive data center marketplace.
The DCEP is driven by the fact that significant knowledge, training, and skills are required to perform accurate energy assessments in data centers. Benefits of using these Practitioners include consistency of qualifications and approach, as well as a high level of repeatability and credibility of recommendations.
For more information on this program, as well as other information on saving energy in data centers, please Click Here.
Interested in a Complimentary Data Center Assessment?
EDI’s Data Center Services Division is offering an individualized and complimentary, 30-minute data center assessment, via conference call, to all who sign up before December 31, 2011. Our holiday gift to you!
Sign up today by emailing your name and contact information to info@ediltd.com.
High-Density Cooling
The power consumed, and heat generated, by the equipment housed in a single server rack enclosure can vary dramatically. Modern servers may demand as much as 20 kW of cooling per rack, approximately 10 times the average rack power in existing data centers. With most data centers designed to cool an average of 2 kW per rack, innovative strategies must be used to guarantee proper high density cooling.
The simple answer to this problem would be to provision a data center so that it is capable of providing 20 kW of redundant power and high density cooling to every enclosure. Unfortunately, this is not easily achieved, nor economically practical in most cases. However, there are a variety of solutions that allow high-density computing equipment to be effectively deployed in conventional environments.
EDI, Ltd. encourages our customers to focus on the purchase of IT equipment based on functionality provided per Watt, rather than the physical size of the IT equipment. While designing an entire data center for high density remains impractical, data centers can support the limited installation of such equipment by using supplemental, high-density cooling systems, using rules to allow the borrowing of neighboring underutilized capacity and by spreading the load among multiple enclosures.
Making the wrong choices when specifying a data center for high-density cooling operations increases the total cost of ownership for the physical infrastructure exponentially. High-density servers present a significant cooling challenge, but the experts at EDI can help you design efficient, cost-effective cooling strategies that meet your needs now and in the future.
For more information on data centers and to schedule a complimentary, 30-minute phone assessment with an EDI Data Center Team Associate, contact us at info@ediltd.com.
Ten Flaws of Data Center Air Flow
The professionals at EDI have assembled a list of the ten most severe problems with data center airflow:
- Mixing - when hot air corrupts and warms the cool air supply. Standard condition for most data centers.
- Recirculation - when warm air escapes its planned return path and re-enters computer equipment, warming it instead of cooling it. Affects top-of-rack and end-of-row servers especially hard.
- Short Circuiting - when cool air escapes back to the CRAC without doing any cooling work.
- Leakage - when supply air from beneath the floor air sneaks into the room through cable openings and cutouts.
- Under Floor Obstructions - hidden enemies of proper cool air supply, such as ridges and divides of cables, trays, piping, and structural incursions.
- Poor Return Path - when the warm air has no clear route to return to the CRAC. Heat build-up provokes operators to try homemade solutions.
- Dehumidification - happens when air reaching the CRAC is so humid that the moisture it carries condenses on the CRAC, then the air has to be re-loaded with moisture. Very expensive problem that is poorly understood by owners.
- Venturi Reversal - happens most often in front of the CRACs, when the cool air traveling at high velocity pulls air from the room down into its path.
- Vortex Generation - when misplaced CRACs generate swirls under the floor, whose centers do not have enough pressure to cool the equipment above them. Seldom diagnosed without simulation.
- Wrong-Way Racks - when computer racks are installed so that they intake from a hot aisle and vent into a cold aisle. Common in computer rooms that have seen considerable growth over several generations of equipment.
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In This Newsletter
EDI Wins eBay Modular Data Center “Project Mercury”
2010 Lessons Learned
Project Spotlight
New Project
Data Center Central
Data Center Energy Practitioner Program
Interested in a Complimentary Data Center Assessment?
High-Density Cooling
Ten Flaws of Data Center Air Flow
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
What’s Hot for 2011?
EDI's Newest Associate
Count on Us Award
Intriguing Lives Outside of EDI
EDI on Winning Project Team of 2010 National Design-Build Award
EDI Out & About
In 2010
November 13-15: Jim Harrison and Shane Fischer attended the BICSI Fall Conference & Exhibition in Las Vegas.
October 3-6: Rob Nash-Boulden and Gary Cudmore attended AFCOM in Las Vegas.
November 5: Rob Nash-Boulden attended the Phoenix Business Journal’s Healthcare of the Future Roundtable in Phoenix.
November 14-18: Don Kinser and Howard Wageman attended the Healthcare Design 2010 conference in Las Vegas.
November 14-18: Rob Nash-Boulden and Gary Cudmore attended the 7x24 Exchange Conference in Phoenix.
In 2011
February 20-24: EDI will be attending the 2011 HIMSS Annual Conference & Exhibition in Orlando.
March 13-16: EDI will be attending the ASHE 2011 PDC Summit in Tampa. Don Kinser, Chairman and President of EDI, will present a session on “Legislation, Trends, and Our Current Healthcare System: Key Factors Affecting the Future of Healthcare Technology” on Tuesday, March 15, from 3-4 PM.
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