final thought
A COOL IDEA
Jon Leppard of Future Facilities looks at the pros and cons of raising data centre temperatures, and other
ways of responding to the pressure to reduce power and cooling expenditure.
I
n today’s climate, businesses
are demanding more and
more from their data. Not
only is it created, shared
and stored in ever increasing
volumes, but it must also be
readily accessible at all times,
and without delay. The unenviable
task of delivering this fluidity lies
with facilities managers – and the
challenge does not end there. The
C-suite also requires that all of
this is delivered with operational
expenditure kept to a minimum.
In order to adhere to these
demands and maintain a competitive
edge, data centre designers are
increasingly experimenting with
building data centres in extreme
environments. A prime example
of this is Facebook’s data centre
at Lulea, Sweden. The facility has
been built within the Arctic Circle to
take advantage of free cooling from
the external environment. Rather
than cooling the facility manually,
freezing cold air from outside, at an
average temperature of -20ºC, is
used instead.
But whilst facilities such as
these are undoubtedly eye catching,
and generate media interest and
publicity, do they actually deliver
tangible business benefits, or do
they fall into the common industry
pitfall of overengineering?
Is cold climate
best for business?
Cooling constitutes a significant
aspect of operational expenditure,
so in theory there are considerable
savings to be made if it is provided
in effect ‘for free’ by the natural
climate. The problem is that
relocating data centres to cold
climates is completely at odds
with another major trend that is
developing in facilities management.
Rather than moving to colder
climes, many operators are opting to
raise the temperatures within data
centres instead. Doing so reduces
the power required for cooling, and
the cost of compute. Therefore,