Associate
Hi all,
I'm hoping this is the best place to post this, so if not - apologies!
I work as a Technical Director of a company that designs and builds Data Centre's/server rooms ranging from small rooms of 20kW IT load, up to my current largest installation of 2.2MW. My company is quite unique in some aspects in that they have a somewhat eco-warrior (potentially ego-warrior) in myself that is always striving to maximise the energy efficiency of our installations, typically through advanced and modern cooling practicies.
I have reached a point in our designs whereby it is difficult to further innovate in the "air cooled" architecture of our designs, mainly due to inflexibility of operators to raise server inlet temperatures, typically with the reasoning behind legacy kit and it's inability to operate (and remain within "warranty") at higher inlet conditions. Whilst I fully appreciate that this is a valid reason, I have worked with various industry leaders (ASHRAE TC9.9 chapter being one of them) who classify IT servers around their thermal operating characteristics ranging from A1-A4, with suitable inlet temperatures ranging from conventional 18-27degC, up to 40degC. I should point out that I'm not pushing for crazy inlet conditions up to 40degC, but the ability to design (for some conditions) within what is known as the A1 range of up to 32degC inlet air.
My suspicion based on my experience in Data Centres is that there are many sites using legacy equipment alongside their nice new shiny servers/blades, but that the idea of legacy is up to 10 years old which puts us back to a manufacturing date of ~2008 - at this point, nearly all servers complied with A1 if not A2 inlet conditions......so you can guess where I'm coming from - who actually has kit in their sites that is over 10 years old, and/or can't handle the odd couple of hours operating at this condition.
So here is the point of my monologue.......administrators/managers/technicians - could you do me a massive favour? I am looking to get an idea of what the oldest pieces of server/network hardware are installed and operating inside of your Data Centres and Server Rooms such that I can compile a list and add them to a paper I'm writing discussing the issue and ways to overcome it. I would be extremely grateful if you could provide a list of these older items of kit including their manufacturer and model number, and also the current operating temperature of your room (if possible.)
I can't promise that the paper will be published, but if it is and you would like to be included as a collaborator I would be thrilled to contact you in DM and get your details - the likelihood is that it could be issued in industry magazines although it is possible to be included in a technical memorandum of the EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres.
Thanking you all in advance if you can help, and if you've managed to get this far in my monologue
Matt.
I'm hoping this is the best place to post this, so if not - apologies!
I work as a Technical Director of a company that designs and builds Data Centre's/server rooms ranging from small rooms of 20kW IT load, up to my current largest installation of 2.2MW. My company is quite unique in some aspects in that they have a somewhat eco-warrior (potentially ego-warrior) in myself that is always striving to maximise the energy efficiency of our installations, typically through advanced and modern cooling practicies.
I have reached a point in our designs whereby it is difficult to further innovate in the "air cooled" architecture of our designs, mainly due to inflexibility of operators to raise server inlet temperatures, typically with the reasoning behind legacy kit and it's inability to operate (and remain within "warranty") at higher inlet conditions. Whilst I fully appreciate that this is a valid reason, I have worked with various industry leaders (ASHRAE TC9.9 chapter being one of them) who classify IT servers around their thermal operating characteristics ranging from A1-A4, with suitable inlet temperatures ranging from conventional 18-27degC, up to 40degC. I should point out that I'm not pushing for crazy inlet conditions up to 40degC, but the ability to design (for some conditions) within what is known as the A1 range of up to 32degC inlet air.
My suspicion based on my experience in Data Centres is that there are many sites using legacy equipment alongside their nice new shiny servers/blades, but that the idea of legacy is up to 10 years old which puts us back to a manufacturing date of ~2008 - at this point, nearly all servers complied with A1 if not A2 inlet conditions......so you can guess where I'm coming from - who actually has kit in their sites that is over 10 years old, and/or can't handle the odd couple of hours operating at this condition.
So here is the point of my monologue.......administrators/managers/technicians - could you do me a massive favour? I am looking to get an idea of what the oldest pieces of server/network hardware are installed and operating inside of your Data Centres and Server Rooms such that I can compile a list and add them to a paper I'm writing discussing the issue and ways to overcome it. I would be extremely grateful if you could provide a list of these older items of kit including their manufacturer and model number, and also the current operating temperature of your room (if possible.)
I can't promise that the paper will be published, but if it is and you would like to be included as a collaborator I would be thrilled to contact you in DM and get your details - the likelihood is that it could be issued in industry magazines although it is possible to be included in a technical memorandum of the EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres.
Thanking you all in advance if you can help, and if you've managed to get this far in my monologue
Matt.
