EDITOR’S QUESTION
Interest in how the industry anticipates
sustainably meeting the growing demand
for power is increasing.
In fact, there is now greater emphasis on
putting planning and performance upfront
and benefiting from the technological
advances in the field, while allowing for
the fact that data centre construction is
an extremely complex process.
Data centre level energy saving:
Airflow Management Solutions
Airflow Management Solutions (AMS),
for example, offer practical answers to
these issues. AMS solutions optimise
data centre equipment, improve
information processing, create a greener
data centre and increase flexibility for
the data centre manager.
ASHRAF YEHIA,
MANAGING DIRECTOR,
EATON MIDDLE EAST
ooling is one of
the biggest drains
on energy in most
data centres. This is
particularly true in
the high temperature
conditions, such as in the Middle East,
and the issue is of growing importance
as increasing ICT equipment densities
create larger data centre footprints and
excessive energy demands.
C
Some simple statistics explain the
priority now being given to this issue.
At the turn of the century, after years
of rapid growth, data centre power
consumption crossed the threshold
of 1% of all power generated in
developed economies.
Cooling and UPS losses make up around
35% of total energy consumption in a
www.intelligentdatacentres.com
data centre, of which general computing
equipment power accounts for 50%.
In terms of carbon footprint, this growth
has elevated the ICT industry into a
major contributor to the overall rise in
energy consumption and greenhouse gas
(GHG) emissions. Today, about 2% of
global carbon emissions come from the
manufacture and use of ICT – a similar
figure to the energy consumption of the
aviation industry. Data centres represent
a significant and growing share of all ICT-
related emissions.
The IT industry has realised the economic
and environmental significance of allowing
this power consumption trend to continue
unchecked. Focus, therefore, is shifting
from increasing performance and capacity
only; to a more balanced view that places
a high value on energy efficiency.
A wide range of partial and total
containment solutions is available to
accommodate hot aisle containment,
cold aisle containment and rack-based
heat containment.
Rack containment solutions contain
the heat and extract it directly back
to the computer room air condition
(CRAC) using, for example, a straight
Telescopic Chimney (TC).
They use AMS for switches and network
devices, as well as blanking panels to ensure
an effective rack hygiene methodology.
The best solutions go beyond the rack
and row, implementing room based AMS
to further enhance the efficiency and
predictability of data centres.
Innovations such as CRAC Collars and
raiser floor grommets provide additional
measures against bypass airflow.
In addition to this, individual rack
capacity as well as CRAC cooling
efficiency can also be improved by using
the appropriate solution.
Eaton’s aisle containment solutions,
for example, include a variety of aisle
ceilings and overhead vertical wall
systems, aisle ducts and end-of-row
doors that alleviate the oversupply of
cool air in the date centre.
Issue 04
31