How to Make Your Data Centre More Energy Efficient

Green energy is a big discussion point these days, not only when it comes to corporate social responsibility goals, but also in regards to cost savings. Power trends in the data centre have been steadily growing from 4-5kW an hour to 10-15 kW an hour and in the future, we can predict even higher growth to 20-40 kW numbers as the CPU core density increases, memory increases and the growth of AI and machine learning workloads on premises continues. When we think about what the IT sector can do for these goals, the biggest elephant in the room is the data centre.

Data centre power needs have not changed much in the last few decades. The standard questions of how many PDUs (Power Distribution Units) do you need, what types of cables, what type of UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply) would you like and how long do your servers need to gracefully shut down are all still valid and critically important questions as you architect and plan a data centre. Now throw in the added question "How can we make this more energy efficient to meet our green initiatives?" and we have to pause and look at the technology in the data centre. Lithium batteries, intelligent PDUs, liquid cooling and fresh air cooling are new innovations that bring a sustainable data centre to the forefront.

Lithium batteries are a great example of how the data centre is changing. When most people think of lithium-ion (Li-on) batteries, they think of the batteries in their laptop or cellphone. But these batteries have come down in price and increased in capacity to the point that they are now being used in large scale storage solutions like the Tesla Powerwall and, more importantly, data centre UPSes.

Changing from valve regulated lead-acid (VRLA) batteries to Li-ion leads instantly to a data centre footprint reduction. It can also help offload peak loads because the batteries can be charged and discharged many times versus older VRLA. Finally, the biggest savings is the refresh cycle of your UPS batteries. Typically, VRLA batteries last four to five years, where Li-Ion batters have a lifespan of 10+ years. By putting these all together you are reducing refresh costs, your data centre footprint and environmental waste.

Next on the list of smarter data centre power management is the intelligent PDU. They may have been lesser known, but still a hot topic over the last couple years in data centre green initiatives. The first question that we get is "What is an Intelligent PDU?" In short, it’s a PDU that will provide feedback about its operations and provide a remote control on the granular individual receptacles for that unit. It will be controlled through a network connection and managed by the IT data centre team like any other device they would normally manage.

As companies move into higher density power over 15kW, the ability to provide effective power becomes increasingly more important. With an intelligent PDU you will gain efficiency and control of the power, lower operating costs, improve capacity planning, increase operational efficiency and lower power usage effectiveness. The IT team and the business will be able to effectively monitor and provide visibility to all your racks, servers and critical infrastructure. Reporting exact metrics with efficiency increases by a minimum of 2-3 percent will translate into cleaner and more optimized data centres.

As we look deeper into the future of our data centres and the power requirements that the new wave of technology is bringing, we must also rethink how cooling will happen and how we can be smarter with this new challenge. Forced-air cooling will soon no longer be sufficient. We have heard of Microsoft submerging an entire data centre into the ocean as an example of new ideas on cooling, though we wouldn’t recommend sinking a data centre into salt water to our customers... So if we are not going to sink data centres into the ocean, what can we do?

There are varied approaches to this; two methods stand out as forerunners. Liquid cooling, where server components are submerged in a non-conductive fluid, has been around for PC gamers for a while. Data centres that are already transitioning to this are learning the new skills and management framework to drive cooling costs down. Liquids can conduct heat much better than air and as data centres densify, this is the most effective way to look at the new challenges.

The second frontrunner is free air data centres. These allow outside air to pass through an evaporative cooler and is then directed via filters to the data centre’s cold ventilation. This method has been a popular trend in North American data centres specifically, as the cooler northern air can be directed from outside. This allows the air conditioner units inside to only run when the outside ambient temperature gets too hot, and then add cold air only as needed, thus cutting costs.

These are only a few of the ways CDW can help customers tackle green initiatives in the data centre. Reach out to your CDW representative for more information and we will be happy to schedule a call to discuss further.