Aug
Chill-Off! SVLG Data Center Energy Summit: Modular Datacenter Cooling Systems
Demo Project Tests Datacenter Cooling Technology of 7 Vendors
Dean Nelson blogs about the results of a demonstration project on comparing cooling products for datacenters, the results of which were presented in May 2008 at the Silicon Valley Leadership Group.
Nelson identifies the participants in the demo, who were:
- Liebert
- XD
- APC
- InRow
- Rittal LCP+
- IBM/Vette Cool Blue
- Spraycool chip-level cooling.
An interesting feature of the test was the decision not to use new, high efficient equipment but, rather, older V20 Sun servers to create a more hostile environment for the solutions.
Nelson explains this decision by declaring his impatience with “marketing hype” and sought instead to develop results that the industry itself (and on its own) could use to make informed decisions concerning their IT budgets.
The presentations, as Nelson describes them, took the shape of a moderated debate that pitted one contender against another before an audience of some 300 datacenter customers and industry professionals. Nelson writes that the vendors took questions in good spirits, and the format was a productive one for the audience.
Readers interested in learning more about the project will find an abundance of information in the links listed below:
A copy of Nelson’s presentation can be found here and the final Accenture/SLVG report here.. All of the case studies can be found here, including the Sun Modular Cooling Test, “The Chill Off.”
In the end, Nelson writes that he found a number things that stood out the most this test:
- All of the modular cooling solutions are more efficient than traditional datacenter designs.
- As an industry, we need to keep pushing the inlet temperatures higher. Our server fans did not kick into higher speed even with an inlet temperature of 80 degrees F.
- If we can get these temperatures higher, it opens a huge amount of the world to economizers.
- The collaboration and effort from all involved was incredible, even from from fierce competitors.
Nelson also announced that he has begun to plan another “chill off” session, one that will incorporate the testing of containers, ducting, mixed vendor hardware loads and locations, highly optimized equipment via virtualization, raised air and water temperatures, 30kw loads, and any and all other items that can potentially lead to better and more efficient cooling technology for the datacenter.
A two-part YouTube video (part 1, part 2) of a tour Nelson gave to reporters and industry analysts and a video interview of some of the presenters conducted by Deborah Grove of Grove Associates are also available
