Insidious pue
PUE, a rather controversial, but equally interesting parameter of the energy efficiency of data center operation, recently received another blow to its authority as a universal measure of the optimality of energy consumption. NGD (Next Generation Data) has announced that their data center has a PUE ratio of 1.0! What is it? A fundamental breakthrough in technology, a marketing manipulation with a not too agile factor, or an outright lie? Further in this article we will try to understand such a non-trivial statement about the achievement of the incredible PUE, which was made last week in London by Nick Razey, CEO of NGD.
“Say what you want, but do not call my statement a marketing profanation” - that was Nick Rasey’s answer when he was sharply asked at an ongoing IT conference in London about the energy efficiency ratio of his Wehlian data center in Newport.
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The data center located in the west of the country is undoubtedly green, but guaranteed to customers in PUE 1.0 contracts concluded - this is very bold, if not reckless. No one has yet canceled the lawsuits.
After reviewing the company's website with the information provided there, you can clearly see that there is no misconception, there is no misunderstanding: “Guaranteed energy efficiency of contractual PUE for data center 1.0 - this is by far the highest level of energy efficiency among all data centers analyzed by this methodology” .
The general director of NGD generally calls his data center “First in the World” for this indicator. Here, of course, he was right; there was no such precedent yet. But the problem is that, strictly speaking, this is impossible.
As is known, the PUE value is defined as the ratio of the total power consumed by the entire data center to the power consumed directly by IT equipment that is involved in the processing and storage of data from this data center. Based on this logic, the stated factor of 1.0 means that all the electricity supplied to the data center is spent exclusively on server racks and is not used anywhere else in the structure, including lighting, air conditioning, cooling of server racks.
The voiced situation is obviously impossible. Achieved by the titanic efforts, the result of modern temples of the IT infrastructure in the area of ​​PUE 2.0 is an objective reality. The best indicator in this field is currently reached by data centers from Facebook. For example, the data center located in Prinville (USA), as a result of tremendous efforts and complex technical solutions, maintains its PUE value at a phenomenal level of 1.08! In such a situation, a logical question arises: how does the NGD contract guarantee such a high coefficient value?
Located in Wales, a data center with an area of ​​nearly 70,000 square meters is the largest data center in Europe. Its main power requirements are provided by a 35 kV line, which stretches from a nearby hydroelectric station. The data center building itself was erected back in 1990 by LG for the creation of semiconductors, but the corporation has not launched its production there. Using the fact that the building inherited a spacious flat roof from a typical industrial object, NGD engineers placed an entire solar farm on it. This is a very reasonable step, because according to Nick, solar panels can generate "up to a million kilowatt-hours per year." Thus, by delivering energy to the network, the solar station will cover its own energy needs.
The installed ventilation system of the server rooms is very progressive. The latest development, presented by one of the leaders in the market, allows you to very accurately monitor the temperature in the premises and deliver the required amount of air to the right place, which minimizes the power consumption for its operation.
Although NGD has its own solar power station, this is certainly not enough for the data center to function. As one of Amazon’s engineers James Hamilton noted earlier: “At the latitude of North Carolina, 362 square meters of solar panels are needed on average for one square meter of server racks.”
It is not clear whether the claimed million kilowatt-hours per year from solar panels to cover at least the operational needs of the data center is enough. NGD General Director Nick Rasey argues that this is more than enough, and that it is this panel-generated electricity that will allow for the consumers of their services that contract PUE 1.0, which, in fact, was discussed.
After this interpretation of the coefficient by the NGD CEO, as was to be expected, an avalanche of criticism from industry colleagues fell on him. Professor Ian Bitterlin (Ian Bitterlin), technical director of Emerson Network Power, commented on this somewhat indignantly: "Such interpretations of PUE are absolutely incorrect, and moreover, they are contrary to common sense, because part of the total amount of incoming electricity is deliberately subtracted." Technical analyst Clive Longbottom was not so arrested in terms and called all this hype with NGD a “green fraud” and so offensive marketing profanation that hit Nick Rasey.
But even after such a cold “reception” of Nick’s ideas by the IT community, he doesn’t repent and insists on his own. “We have built a modern data center, applying the most advanced technology in it. If we consider it PUE according to the classical scheme, then we have reached the coefficient 1.18. The fact that our additional investments in solar panels allow us to receive free energy now and cover some of the needs of the data center by it gives us the opportunity to honestly offer clients announced contracts. To offer contracts, the cost of which will include energy costs only for the operation of server racks, is our right. ” Felling off further attacks in his own way, Nick frankly summarized: “We are fine with common sense, and he tells us that if we had more power at the facility that could be restored energy, which could already cover at least partially the power requirements of server racks, we would have voiced our PUE and below 1.0, even to zero. "
Are NGD employees so wrong in interpreting numbers? Obviously, in the pursuit of sensation, the desire to get on the front pages of Internet publications, all this mess was brewed. Leaving each with his own opinion, the topic itself and the emerging issues involuntarily give us grounds for reflection, and most importantly, once again show the conventionality and weaknesses of the universal measure of energy efficiency of data centers.
“Say what you want, but do not call my statement a marketing profanation” - that was Nick Rasey’s answer when he was sharply asked at an ongoing IT conference in London about the energy efficiency ratio of his Wehlian data center in Newport.
')
The data center located in the west of the country is undoubtedly green, but guaranteed to customers in PUE 1.0 contracts concluded - this is very bold, if not reckless. No one has yet canceled the lawsuits.
After reviewing the company's website with the information provided there, you can clearly see that there is no misconception, there is no misunderstanding: “Guaranteed energy efficiency of contractual PUE for data center 1.0 - this is by far the highest level of energy efficiency among all data centers analyzed by this methodology” .
The general director of NGD generally calls his data center “First in the World” for this indicator. Here, of course, he was right; there was no such precedent yet. But the problem is that, strictly speaking, this is impossible.
As is known, the PUE value is defined as the ratio of the total power consumed by the entire data center to the power consumed directly by IT equipment that is involved in the processing and storage of data from this data center. Based on this logic, the stated factor of 1.0 means that all the electricity supplied to the data center is spent exclusively on server racks and is not used anywhere else in the structure, including lighting, air conditioning, cooling of server racks.
The voiced situation is obviously impossible. Achieved by the titanic efforts, the result of modern temples of the IT infrastructure in the area of ​​PUE 2.0 is an objective reality. The best indicator in this field is currently reached by data centers from Facebook. For example, the data center located in Prinville (USA), as a result of tremendous efforts and complex technical solutions, maintains its PUE value at a phenomenal level of 1.08! In such a situation, a logical question arises: how does the NGD contract guarantee such a high coefficient value?
Located in Wales, a data center with an area of ​​nearly 70,000 square meters is the largest data center in Europe. Its main power requirements are provided by a 35 kV line, which stretches from a nearby hydroelectric station. The data center building itself was erected back in 1990 by LG for the creation of semiconductors, but the corporation has not launched its production there. Using the fact that the building inherited a spacious flat roof from a typical industrial object, NGD engineers placed an entire solar farm on it. This is a very reasonable step, because according to Nick, solar panels can generate "up to a million kilowatt-hours per year." Thus, by delivering energy to the network, the solar station will cover its own energy needs.
The installed ventilation system of the server rooms is very progressive. The latest development, presented by one of the leaders in the market, allows you to very accurately monitor the temperature in the premises and deliver the required amount of air to the right place, which minimizes the power consumption for its operation.
Although NGD has its own solar power station, this is certainly not enough for the data center to function. As one of Amazon’s engineers James Hamilton noted earlier: “At the latitude of North Carolina, 362 square meters of solar panels are needed on average for one square meter of server racks.”
It is not clear whether the claimed million kilowatt-hours per year from solar panels to cover at least the operational needs of the data center is enough. NGD General Director Nick Rasey argues that this is more than enough, and that it is this panel-generated electricity that will allow for the consumers of their services that contract PUE 1.0, which, in fact, was discussed.
After this interpretation of the coefficient by the NGD CEO, as was to be expected, an avalanche of criticism from industry colleagues fell on him. Professor Ian Bitterlin (Ian Bitterlin), technical director of Emerson Network Power, commented on this somewhat indignantly: "Such interpretations of PUE are absolutely incorrect, and moreover, they are contrary to common sense, because part of the total amount of incoming electricity is deliberately subtracted." Technical analyst Clive Longbottom was not so arrested in terms and called all this hype with NGD a “green fraud” and so offensive marketing profanation that hit Nick Rasey.
But even after such a cold “reception” of Nick’s ideas by the IT community, he doesn’t repent and insists on his own. “We have built a modern data center, applying the most advanced technology in it. If we consider it PUE according to the classical scheme, then we have reached the coefficient 1.18. The fact that our additional investments in solar panels allow us to receive free energy now and cover some of the needs of the data center by it gives us the opportunity to honestly offer clients announced contracts. To offer contracts, the cost of which will include energy costs only for the operation of server racks, is our right. ” Felling off further attacks in his own way, Nick frankly summarized: “We are fine with common sense, and he tells us that if we had more power at the facility that could be restored energy, which could already cover at least partially the power requirements of server racks, we would have voiced our PUE and below 1.0, even to zero. "
Are NGD employees so wrong in interpreting numbers? Obviously, in the pursuit of sensation, the desire to get on the front pages of Internet publications, all this mess was brewed. Leaving each with his own opinion, the topic itself and the emerging issues involuntarily give us grounds for reflection, and most importantly, once again show the conventionality and weaknesses of the universal measure of energy efficiency of data centers.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/244603/
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