UNCOVERING THE LAYERS
Dean Boyle , CEO , EkkoSense
A conventional approach here might be to use a BMS . Unfortunately , thermal issues such as cooling and airflow problems typically don ’ t trigger BMS alerts early enough as there is no hard SLA breach or fault . And when they do , it ’ s often too late to prevent an SLA breach from taking place .
That ’ s why at EkkoSense we ’ ve been working to help organisations take an AI- and Machine Learning-led approach to their M & E software-based optimisation – one that takes advantage of the latest capabilities to enable true real time cooling optimisation and airflow
management . The key here is in bringing together a mix of technologies – from SaaS systems and scalable cloud infrastructure to new low-cost sensor technologies and IoT-enabled comms – to facilitate the crunching of multiple complex datasets to support instant optimisation decisions . The result is a 3D visualisation and analysis toolset that ’ s particularly easy for operations staff to use and understand , helping them to visualise airflow management improvements , quickly highlight potentially worrying trends in cooling performance and effectively remove risk from their white space .
Creating a digital twin of your data centre layout
Combining the power of Artificial Intelligence with real time data from a ‘ fully-sensed ’ room enables the creation of a digital twin of your data centre layout – one that not only visually represents current thermal conditions , but also provides tangible recommendations for thermal , power and capacity optimisation . This level of decision support can help operations teams take things to the next level , as the software continually ‘ learns ’ the environmental changes in the room and provides ongoing optimisation recommendations via the digital twin .
So instead of simply automating systems and trusting AI to get on with managing the sensitive security and controls needed for critical data centre cooling duty performance , we believe in a more productive approach . Gather cooling , power and space data at a granular level , visualise that complex data to make it easier to compare changes , highlight trends and anomalies , and then use Machine Learning and AI to provide actionable insights to your data centre team .
At EkkoSense we have put this approach into practice with Cooling Advisor , the industry ’ s first advisory tool embedded within a thermal optimisation solution . By offering focused cooling performance recommendations and advisory actions we can help organisations unlock 10 %+ cooling energy savings , just by acting on this advice . And these actionable changes – such as suggested optimum cooling unit set points , changes to floor grille layouts , checking that cooling units are running to specification , fan speed adjustments or advice on optimum rack locations – are all presented each time
www . intelligentdatacentres . com Issue 21
63