Modius Data Center Blog

Just read about a new innovative way to address the cooling requirements within the data center worthy of mention here. As no surprise, the data center energy management challenge has many parts to it, and as we all are seeing, MANY different new solutions will be required and combined over time to fully embrace the REALM OF WHAT'S POSSIBLE. Oh sure, everyone will have their favorite 'energy saver' technology. We saw this happen with Virtualization, and we saw it happen with Variable Frequency Drive controllers for data center fans.

Well, what if we take a look WITHIN the servers themselves and consider the opportunities there? Does the WHOLE server generate heat? NO. Key parts do, like the CPU, chipset, VGA chip and Memory & controllers. So why do we have to BLOW SO MUCH air across the entire motherboard, using bigger expensive to operate fans? Wouldn't it be better to SPOT COOL just where the heat is? Reminder, the goal is to just move the heat away from the chips that generate heat. We don't need to move large volumes of air just for the thrill of air handling....

I have seen two competing advances in this space. One maturing approach has been adopted in 'trials' by some of the biggest server vendors. They offer liquid based micro heat exchanger equipped versions of some of their commercial server product lines. This means these special servers have included PLUMBING/cooling pipes into the server chassis themselves, and the circulating fluid moves the heat away from the server's heat-generating chips. Take a look right next to the LAN port and power plug in the back, and you'll see an inlet/outlet fitting for liquid! Basically fluid based heat removal. Humm, harkens back to the 80's when big IBM 390s were using water cooling when everyone else went to air. (As a note, fluid cooling is making a resergence as liquid cooling becomes popular once again...).

So now I see a new approach... 'solid state' air jets. Air jets? Yes really small air movers that are essentially silent, have no moving parts, and consume tiny bits of power. Turns out at least one vendor has created really small 'jets' which have proven that you can move LOTS of air without any moving parts. Yes, they are also really silent, and can magically create large amounts of air movement in really small spaces. Using this technology, you can target just the chips that need cooling with relative 'hurricanes', and then simply use small standard fans to carry this (now easily accessible) hot air out of the box.

What results in savings does the spot jets achieve? In their published test, they reduced the standard high power fan speed from 9000 rpm to 6500 rpm, going from 108watts originally to only  62watts. Add back into this an estimated 10% energy cost for the air jets themselves, and the net savings for fans inside the box is about 30%. Remember, FANs account for nearly 47% of a data centers' entire cooling energy consumption, so reducing FAN speeds inside AND outside the boxes is critical to long term power savings.

Lastly, how do you know all your effort has paid off??? Monitor FAN speeds! I'll say it a million times, monitoring FAN speeds is very important. The slower the run, the less they consume. Monitor, Monitor, Monitor!!!

While I've seen my share of some pristine new data centers over the past few years, as well as a huge number of large scale retro-fit projects where old centers are being turned into new usable data center space, I have also seen an alarming number of older 'house of cards' data centers that are up in modern production and appear to be 'hands-off'.

These data centers are typically chock full of older devices and interconnects that were passed down from generation to generation of IT managers, only to realize that what they inherited was unmanageable. While it is true that these data centers will ultimately find their way into extinction in a world focused on operational efficiency and pro-active management and best practices, we can all feel the pain involved when we encounter something like this.

Above is one of the most interesting centers I've seen, and would appear to have conflicting priorities as to what is required to move forward. While I don't have a comprehensive sequence of steps required to migrate to a highly supportable, efficient and monitored data center, let me suggest one step that will help tremendously... Find the YELLOW patch cord and disconnect it.

Seriously, when I saw this photo I had to laugh and take a second look. Was it some new thermal blanketing technology? Or a way to eliminate blanking panels? The reason I make light here is that there are countless data centers that are in similiar out-of-spec designs and would benefit from adopting new data center technologies, new power distribution, cooling and monitoring solutions, but are challenged by WHERE TO BEGIN and the magnitude of the task at hand.

In the monitoring world for instance where Modius delivers value, we regularly find data centers with NO VISIBILITY to their energy usage and easily can identify hundreds or thousands of points of monitorable data that would help get energy usage under control. We are ready willing and able to take on chaos and make sense of it.