How did it all get started?
How did we get to the modern data centre design? Why do most data centres look the same? Why are they so inefficient in how they consume electrical power? Why do they typically have a raised plenum...
View ArticleUsing Curtains to manage Data Center Airflow
Separation of Hot and Cold Aisle The photograph above was taken in BT’s Rochdale Data Centre. It shows the use of curtains to separate the hot and cold aisles, thereby reducing the amount of hot air...
View ArticleWhen things go wrong – Batteries
The thing about data centers is just how much power they use. This one in Cardiff, Wales uses about 20MW of power and has huge strings of batteries storing power to drive the UPS units. The batteries...
View ArticleJust how reliable is my Data Center?
The consequences of data center failure can be pretty catastrophic for your business, so unsurprisingly, you will have very high expectations about availability and reliability. Unfortunately for many...
View ArticleProactive Maintenance prevents Pyrotechnics
Way, way back in the stone age (whilst I was a student) I worked in the Edinburgh University Computer Labs keeping all of the hardware going. I had got a report of a DEC PDP 9 (drop me a mail if you...
View ArticleWhat is an Economizer?
HVAC Economizers (sometimes known as air-side Economizers) are useful for data centers which are located in regions of the world where the outdoor temperature is lower than the desired data center...
View ArticleAVIVA (aka Norwich Union) miss opportunity to Go Green
AVIVA (aka Norwich Union) is set to open its third data centre – Data Centre 3 (DC3) at the Broadlands Business Park near Norwich, UK this September. Although the site uses some modern design...
View ArticleIs there a DIY approach to Green Data Centers?
IT Infrastructure specialist Richardson Eyres recently issued a press release to help drum up some consulting business in the Retail market but make some generally applicable and interesting points...
View ArticleFire Detection Best Practice
Today we are going to look at how fire detection systems can be used in Data Centers to prevent catastrophic loss and damage; we will focus on Very Early Smoke Detection Systems, (VESDA – Very Early...
View ArticleHot Aisle Containment and Fire Protection
Recently we have been writing a lot about how hot-aisle/cold aisle containment. It is important to be aware this strategy, fire detection and protection requires special attention. A recent article in...
View ArticleData Center in a Tent?
I read a very interesting article from fellow blogger Christian Belady, who is Principal Power and Cooling Architect at Microsoft. Christian decided to take the PUE challenge and see if he could build...
View ArticleWhy your humidification plant is wasting electricity
Our atmosphere (the air around us) is made up of gasses consisting of nitrogen (78%), oxygen (21%), carbon dioxide (0.3%) and water in the form of vapor (humidity). The amount of water in the...
View ArticleA Less Well-Oiled War Machine
I am a member of the IEEE and receive a great magazine called IEEE Spectrum in the mail. A recent article describes the incredibly advanced thinking within the US Department of Defence on Energy...
View ArticleFresh Air Cooling revisited
I picked up a really interesting website from KyotoCooling that has a very interesting new approach to low energy cooling systems. The firm takes it’s name from the Kyoto Conference where our...
View ArticleLow Energy light-bulb tips
Look for bulbs with the Energy Star label, which indicates they meet at least minimal performance requirements. Be aware that compact fluorescents can take one to three minutes to reach full...
View ArticleThe low energy light-bulbs that don’t work
We have all been doing this – buy some new light bulbs, screw them in, and save the planet – simple. It was until I picked up an interesting article in today’s New York Times: A lot of people these...
View ArticleDefying the laws of Physics – being dumb in the data center
We are all trying to fix the unfixable in the Data Centre. How do we get more cooling capacity from sites we built a decade ago for low power density applications? One of the biggest problems is that...
View ArticleIBM claim that water cooled servers are the future of IT at scale
I am old enough to remember the 1960’s when IBM Mainframes used de-ionized water delivered by micro-bore pipes to cool the CPUs. (In fact I remember a spillage during a mainframe move that resulted in...
View ArticleCurtains in Sunnyvale
I am on the West Coast of the US this week visiting with NetApp in Sunnyvale again. On this trip I had the opportunity to visit a couple of NetApp’s internal data centers (B11 and the impressive B2...
View ArticleStanding in the cold aisle
Here is a photograph of my ESG colleague Taya Wyss and Cesar Orosco from NetApp in Sunnyvale standing in a smart cold aisle containment system. This is an aftermarket fitting in a relatively old data...
View ArticleBack to the future for the z11 Mainframe
I recently had a conversation with Mark Anzani, IBM’s CTO for System z, the mainframe platform. Regular readers will know that cooling technology is a favourite subject here on the hot aisle and I was...
View ArticleZero emission datacenters
I met with Dr. Bruno Michel who is IBM’s, Zurich based, advanced thermal packaging manager yesterday. We spoke about IBM’s view of cooling technology in the 5 to 10 year horizon and what I heard was...
View ArticleInnovation obsoletes the data centre
Next week, Iceotope will announce that it has developed, patented and manufactured an extreme IT equipment cooling solution. The solution tackles the problems of cooling servers in data centres all...
View ArticleData Centre Dilemmas
I recently chaired a very interesting panel debate and discussion Hosted By BLADE Network Technologies in London. The panel was made up of: Harkeeret (Harqs) Singh, Global Head Data Centre Energy...
View ArticleGreenwash or Greenbacks?
Greenwash or Greenbacks? – an eWEEK Europe Webinar What is the real motivation behind the Green Data Centre movement? Saving the planet… or saving money? …or keeping one step ahead of possible...
View ArticleNew pictures of Iceotope Liquid Cooled Blades
Iceotope Unveils First Modular Liquid-Immersion Cooled Blade Server Supercomputing 2009, Portland Oregon; 17th November 2009: Iceotope (www.iceotope.com) today launched its new liquid-cooled server...
View ArticleEven Dilbert knows…
…that cooling data centres using refrigeration is madder than a box of frogs. Maybe he could have suggested, fresh air cooling or the new Iceotope liquid cooling solution and kept his job whilst...
View ArticleHow do you currently choose where to place equipment in your data centre?
Recently The Hot Aisle conducted an online survey asking the question – “How do you currently choose where to place equipment in your data centre?” As usual we got a very large response to the survey...
View ArticleCute retrofit air containment solution launched
Last week I met with my friend Steve Sole of Nubis who wanted to tell me about the work they have been doing in data centers around improving energy efficiency. Nubis make demountable Aisle Containment...
View ArticleKnowledge is Power
Back in 2008, Steve O’Donnell wrote an article here on The Hot Aisle explaining one of the challenges he set his team during his time at BT, the difficult task of getting Asset Management right. To...
View ArticleData Center Predictions for 2010
Around this time, analysts at ESG pull together a ten point list of predictions for the coming year. One of my areas of coverage and of expertise is in the Data Center around power, cooling,...
View ArticleLive Efficient Data Centre Summit Webcast 21st April
Data Centre design is an evolutionary process and we can see the first signs of significant change in the latest sites. Co-generation, liquid cooling, cloud computing, high density are all likely to...
View ArticleIs there an option other than Semtex to fix my Data Centre?
There are a lot of them around, Data Centres. A few of them are designed and operated very well and deliver great Power Usage Efficiency. Some could do a bit better, perhaps an airside economiser or...
View ArticleSo you think you understand your data center?
Yesterday Chris Leahy (my Technical Facilities Manager) and I were agonising over why we had low plenum pressure in our Data Center and why we were seeing symptoms of hot air trapped in the roof void....
View ArticleThe science of managing air handling units in a Data Center
Looks are deceiving, and in the data center they can be confusing. If you are doing a good job your Power Usage Efficiency (PUE) might get worse! Energy consumption in the data center is the result of...
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