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Cooling
Cooling architecture for data and facility environments
is having to evolve. Where power
requirements at a rack level
were once in the 2-3 kW range,
the introduction of 1U multiprocessor
units (two to four processors)
and blade server systems have
pushed power, and cooling requirements
at the enclosure up to 20kW
of power, or more. Traditional
facility cooling practices,
which may still be effective
under many circumstances, are
not able to address the issues
that arise as computer rooms
and datacenters adopt blade
or similar server configurations.
The higher heat loads that come
with high density computing
environments are demanding alternate
cooling solutions to ambient
air, which is quickly reaching
its heat removal limit.
At Potencia Technologies our goal is to identify
the need, and match the need
to the solution that best meets
the need. Sounds simple, but
it is all to easy to overlook
the root causes of cooling issues
within a facility or datacenter
environment. The solution for
some environments, based on
their existing infrastructure
may involve merely employing
some best practices so that
they can take advantage of unrealized
efficiencies. Another site may
have serious problems with their
cooling infrastructure that
involve a completely new cooling
architecture to meet the cooling
requirements of all, or part
of their datacenter.
CRAC - Computer Room Air Cooling
There a number of different
ways in which CRAC units can
be deployed and set up with
a facility. One of the more
common configurations involves
distribution of the cooled air
within the datacenter through
plenums underneath a raised
floor computer room environment.
The air is forced through perforated
tiles in aisles where it should
be dispersed into a "cold aisle".
The fans within the servers,
and other load bearing pieces
of equipment draw cold air in
the front, and exhaust hot air
out of the back where hot air
returns should remove the air
to the CRAC intakes. Best practices
within this type of configuration
would have datacenter managers
alternating their cold and hot
aisles for maximum efficiency.
Limitations to this configuration
are that the enclosures at the
end of the line tend to get
less cool air. Another major
limitation is that while this
type of cooling architecture
is fine for low to medium level
power densities, it is not sufficient
for high density racks.
Cold Aisle Containment
The basic idea with cold aisle
containment solutions is that
by preventing the problem of
short circuited hot airflow
seeping back into the cold aisle,
thusly creating cooling inefficiencies,
you are able to realize significant
cooling and energy efficiencies.
These configurations are ideal
for high density computing environments
as they provide dramatic improvement
in the ability to deliver cooling
to the equipment within the
enclosures while more effectively
removing any heat load. This
allows for a much quicker return
on the investment one makes
in their cooling infrastructure.
There are a few different variations
of this principle, but each
offerw significant efficiencies
over any cooling system based
on cooling ambient air at the
room level. Cold aisle containment
solutions can work as an overall
solution within a datacenter,
or quite comfortably within
a mix of different systems.
Spot Cooling
At times there may arise temporary
cooling requirements that necessitate
a portable cooling solution.
At other times, temporary, portable
cooling products can present
a bridge solution until the
funding is available for the
full capital project in your
computer room. For whatever
reason, spot cooling can be
an extremely efficient way of
cooling people, processes, or
equipment. Portable air conditioning
products can also be ideal for
small environments such as networking
and server closets where building
level cooling infrastructure
is not available.
At Potencia Technologies we will assist you in
implementing your cooling and
power infrastructure within
a new datacenter design project,
or with identifying the root
causes that are leading to inefficiency
or problems within your existing
site. We will insure that your
cooling and power needs are
met so as to insure the continuity
of your critical business processes.
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