Make it warmer

While analysts predict a rapid growth in all types of traffic and the further penetration of applications, and the Internet, into our life, Intel is seriously concerned about the increase in power consumption of data centers and server rooms, which ensure the work of most applications and websites. Already today it is known that the share of data centers, in general, accounts for about 1.5% of world electricity consumption, which in money approximately corresponds to 27 billion US dollars. These values ​​will only increase in the future, and IDC forecasts will double by 2014, that is, in just over two years.

The answer to the question “why data centers consume so much electricity?” Seems to be obvious. Smartphones and tablets are becoming more and more, as well as users of these devices. But it is unlikely the chips themselves are able to swallow 27 billion and not choke. Oddly enough, many data centers are still an island of outdated technology and views.

From 40% to 50% of the electricity consumed by the data center is spent on cooling and ensuring the operation of the UPS system, and only a third of the electricity supplied to the building forces electrons to perform calculations. A data center is a computing factory, which means that any energy consumed not on the server side is wasted.
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Therefore, Intel has written a guide to building servers that operate at higher temperatures. The higher the temperature, the lower the need for air conditioning, which means lower electricity bills or the ability to deploy more servers in one area. This is not to mention the fact that you can use the air from the street, minimizing its preparation (filtering or cooling). The use of large heat exchangers (economizers) can also make life easier and save money.

Remember that: a rise in temperature = a decrease in cooling = a reduction in energy consumption

Intel employs a small number of experts who help governments and large customers design the best and most efficient data centers, after recording their experience in the White Books, which can be used by anyone interested. Lief Nielsen - one of the architects of data centers, worked with Korea Telecom and helped build a data center in Da Nang, Vietnam, talks about the concept of a data center with increased ambient temperature (HTA, higher ambient datacenter), which normally functions at 27 ° C and higher. Intel even has experience building a datacenter operating at a temperature of 50 ° C, although the more common fashion is from 27 to 40 ° C.

Some examples of HTA data centers:

• The converted Facebook data center in Santa Clara, California operates at a temperature of 27 ° C. His annual electricity bill fell by $ 229,000, and the company earned compensation from the federal government for energy costs of $ 29,4761.
• The experimental Intel data center in New Mexico, where 900 production servers are deployed, uses a 100% exchange of indoor and outdoor air at temperatures up to 33 ° C (without control and changes in air humidity, with minimal filtering). The resulting energy savings are estimated at 67%, which corresponds to an amount of $ 2.87 million when calculated for a data center of 10 MW.
• Datacenter “Coop” Yahoo operates without the use of chillers and needs water for cooling only for a few days per year (estimated energy efficiency of PUE = 1.08). The cost of 100% natural air cooling averages no more than 1% of the total energy consumption of the data center building.

Another effective way to reduce costs can be to avoid uninterruptible power supplies in a data center - they include arrays of batteries that occupy a large area and use a considerable amount of electricity.

Do you think this is fantastic? We just threw out air conditioners and are going to do the same with the UPS - will the data center work effectively after that? What happens if an accident occurs in the external power supply networks? Intel technology will come to your rescue again.

Very soon, spare batteries that perform the functions of a UPS will be located inside the servers - like laptops. Intel Node Manager technology will allow you to instantly and automatically switch to built-in batteries in an unexpected situation, and, if necessary, switch to a reduced power consumption mode.

In addition, the Node Manager is capable of more - just as a computer in a car monitors the efficiency of the movement and informs you of the fuel consumption for the hundred kilometers that you have traveled, Intel Node Manager will help you to control energy consumption at the level of individual servers, racks, rows, and even data center as a whole. Intel evaluates the effectiveness of the Node Manager at 30% power savings, with no sacrifice in the data center performance.

You can read how Node Manager is used in BMW, Baidu, Oracle and China Telecom companies here and here .

So, how to save 2.16 billion dollars with one flick of the wrist? Totally easy. It is enough to convince all IT managers to raise the temperature inside their data centers by only 5 ° C. Just turn the thermostat knob slightly.

Intel IT employs many similar solutions to make its own data centers (and today there are 91) more efficient.

Learn more at the new Intel Datacenter Efficiency website.

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