Three approaches to building a data center from Louros Project, Keystone NAP and Iron Mountain
In the design and subsequent creation of data centers, their operators take into account a variety of factors: the immediate time required for the construction of premises, the power efficiency ratio (Power Usage Effectiveness; PUE), the most optimal location of the data center, its transport accessibility, meeting all standards of work conditions for staff, etc ... But there are concepts with which you can speed up the whole process a little. Below are three approaches to the construction of data centers, which take into account the diverse needs of businesses and end users of data center infrastructure.
Using the example of the Louros Project server farm, which is located in the Greek forest and is used by the Athens government as a backup, we can consider the advantages of a modular approach to the construction of a data center. It took about six months to implement this project. And this is two times less than the time spent on the construction of a standard data center.
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The designers of this complex were given the task of not creating damage to the ecology of the River Louros (in honor of which the data center was named) flowing nearby, when creating a data center. Therefore, experts have decided to minimize the area occupied by the data center, increasing the density of equipment placement indoors. As a result, they were able to build a server farm of 400 square meters and arrange server racks with 14-kW IT racks in machine halls. There is a hydroelectric station on the river that supplies the data center with electricity.
Next to the server farm are containers with uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), which maintain the health of the computing infrastructure during power outages. There is a “hot” corridor in the machines themselves. Using a special cooling system that uses water from the Louros river, it is possible to prevent the servers from overheating. At the same time, the flora and fauna of the river do not suffer at all. When a particularly hot time comes, the cooling system automatically switches to the well leading to the underground source. The water thus used maintains the required temperature.
Louros River (Louros)
It is through the use of electricity from renewable energy sources, building management systems (Building Management System; BMS) and a data center infrastructure management software package (Data Center Infrastructure Management; DCIM) that data center operators were able to minimize its negative impact on the environment. They managed to reach the PUE ratio of about 1.18 units.
The cost of the Louros Project is estimated at 2.5 million euros. This server farm has become an example for designers and builders of other modular data centers.
As one more direction in the creation of platforms for computing power, abandoned industrial or commercial buildings should be considered. The overhaul of such an object may be more optimal for data center operators than the construction of a new data center. That is the way the Keystone NAP collocation provider went, re-equipping the building of a former metallurgical plant in the state of Philadelphia (USA) for its own purposes. Its area is 6000 square meters. The company's specialists carried out repairs to the premises and installed modular containers for IT equipment on three floors of the building.
According to the co-founder of Keystone NAP, Sean Carey:
The plant that now houses the Keystone NAP data center
Engineers of Keystone NAP did not equip full-scale machine rooms inside the building. Instead, they used the former factory as a “protective building” to house modular, fast-assembled container server farms. The container manufacturer is Schneider Electric. They are capable of holding 22 or 44 mounting racks (the maximum power of the IT load is 100 and 200 kW, respectively). The smaller of these containers occupies just under 100 square meters of usable space.
Keystone NAP provided its tenants with the ability to remotely manage servers in racks. But at the same time, if necessary, customers can get physical access to IT-systems.
In the process of scaling a commercial data center inside the plant, the company's specialists will connect additional modular containers to the power and cooling infrastructure, as well as to their telecommunications network. Customer service level agreements state that different containers may have different levels of reliability. They are equipped with autonomous cooling infrastructure, UPS systems, fire suppression and security. In addition, the containers are not intended for rapid transport. Thanks to the pre-production of containers and equipping them with auxiliary equipment at remote Schneider Electric plants, the cost of building a data center was reduced by about 14% compared to standard data centers.
Another not quite common approach was the colocation provider and the Iron Mountain data protection service provider. The company has built a commercial server farm in Northboro, Massachusetts (USA). It took 12 months to build the data center.
The main task of the designers and builders was to create a proper atmosphere that would give tenants the feeling that they work in their own corporate data center. To this end, Iron Mountain specialists have provided the server farm with additional facilities for the repair of IT equipment outside the turbine hall, equipped with all the necessary tools. They also equipped the Northborne data center with a spacious recreation room and showers for third-party IT specialists.
According to Sam Gopal, Director of Product Management at Iron Mountain:
True, Gopal admitted that despite this, many colocation providers do not always serve corporate clients effectively and efficiently.
During the construction of the building, standard methods were used, but the designers of the data-center provided for the possibility of using modular structures and elements of auxiliary infrastructure to ensure a high level of repeatability. The latter will contribute to the rapid expansion of the server farm as the demand from tenants increases while minimizing capital expenditures.
Iron Mountain engineers designed the data center with a view to further expansion by rapidly duplicating the machine halls and auxiliary equipment without the risk of compromising the performance of the infrastructure already put into operation.
At the moment, the data center has one machine room with an area of ​​1000 square meters, which is able to accommodate an IT load of 1.2 megawatts. Twelve-inch concrete walls protect equipment inside the building from external influences. It is also reported that client IT equipment can be placed with a sufficiently high density (up to 20 kW per rack).
An example of a modular data center from the Greek Louros Project
Using the example of the Louros Project server farm, which is located in the Greek forest and is used by the Athens government as a backup, we can consider the advantages of a modular approach to the construction of a data center. It took about six months to implement this project. And this is two times less than the time spent on the construction of a standard data center.
')
The designers of this complex were given the task of not creating damage to the ecology of the River Louros (in honor of which the data center was named) flowing nearby, when creating a data center. Therefore, experts have decided to minimize the area occupied by the data center, increasing the density of equipment placement indoors. As a result, they were able to build a server farm of 400 square meters and arrange server racks with 14-kW IT racks in machine halls. There is a hydroelectric station on the river that supplies the data center with electricity.
Next to the server farm are containers with uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), which maintain the health of the computing infrastructure during power outages. There is a “hot” corridor in the machines themselves. Using a special cooling system that uses water from the Louros river, it is possible to prevent the servers from overheating. At the same time, the flora and fauna of the river do not suffer at all. When a particularly hot time comes, the cooling system automatically switches to the well leading to the underground source. The water thus used maintains the required temperature.
Louros River (Louros)
It is through the use of electricity from renewable energy sources, building management systems (Building Management System; BMS) and a data center infrastructure management software package (Data Center Infrastructure Management; DCIM) that data center operators were able to minimize its negative impact on the environment. They managed to reach the PUE ratio of about 1.18 units.
The cost of the Louros Project is estimated at 2.5 million euros. This server farm has become an example for designers and builders of other modular data centers.
Abandoned buildings as data centers
As one more direction in the creation of platforms for computing power, abandoned industrial or commercial buildings should be considered. The overhaul of such an object may be more optimal for data center operators than the construction of a new data center. That is the way the Keystone NAP collocation provider went, re-equipping the building of a former metallurgical plant in the state of Philadelphia (USA) for its own purposes. Its area is 6000 square meters. The company's specialists carried out repairs to the premises and installed modular containers for IT equipment on three floors of the building.
According to the co-founder of Keystone NAP, Sean Carey:
The choice fell on this structure because of its excellent structural characteristics. The former factory is far superior to most modern buildings in terms of the thickness of concrete and steel reinforcement. Electricity enters containers through three independent power lines, while river water and H2O from underground aquifers, coming from a well near the building, are used to cool the server equipment.
The plant that now houses the Keystone NAP data center
Engineers of Keystone NAP did not equip full-scale machine rooms inside the building. Instead, they used the former factory as a “protective building” to house modular, fast-assembled container server farms. The container manufacturer is Schneider Electric. They are capable of holding 22 or 44 mounting racks (the maximum power of the IT load is 100 and 200 kW, respectively). The smaller of these containers occupies just under 100 square meters of usable space.
Keystone NAP provided its tenants with the ability to remotely manage servers in racks. But at the same time, if necessary, customers can get physical access to IT-systems.
In the process of scaling a commercial data center inside the plant, the company's specialists will connect additional modular containers to the power and cooling infrastructure, as well as to their telecommunications network. Customer service level agreements state that different containers may have different levels of reliability. They are equipped with autonomous cooling infrastructure, UPS systems, fire suppression and security. In addition, the containers are not intended for rapid transport. Thanks to the pre-production of containers and equipping them with auxiliary equipment at remote Schneider Electric plants, the cost of building a data center was reduced by about 14% compared to standard data centers.
Iron Mountain Server Farm
Another not quite common approach was the colocation provider and the Iron Mountain data protection service provider. The company has built a commercial server farm in Northboro, Massachusetts (USA). It took 12 months to build the data center.
The main task of the designers and builders was to create a proper atmosphere that would give tenants the feeling that they work in their own corporate data center. To this end, Iron Mountain specialists have provided the server farm with additional facilities for the repair of IT equipment outside the turbine hall, equipped with all the necessary tools. They also equipped the Northborne data center with a spacious recreation room and showers for third-party IT specialists.
According to Sam Gopal, Director of Product Management at Iron Mountain:
When deploying computing infrastructures with a capacity of less than six megawatts, corporate clients should seek help from colocation providers instead of building their own data centers. This is the most rational approach from an economic point of view, as it allows you to minimize the coefficient of PUE and, as a result, operating costs. In addition, owners of commercial data centers more often carry out the modernization of the supporting infrastructure.
True, Gopal admitted that despite this, many colocation providers do not always serve corporate clients effectively and efficiently.
During the construction of the building, standard methods were used, but the designers of the data-center provided for the possibility of using modular structures and elements of auxiliary infrastructure to ensure a high level of repeatability. The latter will contribute to the rapid expansion of the server farm as the demand from tenants increases while minimizing capital expenditures.
Iron Mountain engineers designed the data center with a view to further expansion by rapidly duplicating the machine halls and auxiliary equipment without the risk of compromising the performance of the infrastructure already put into operation.
At the moment, the data center has one machine room with an area of ​​1000 square meters, which is able to accommodate an IT load of 1.2 megawatts. Twelve-inch concrete walls protect equipment inside the building from external influences. It is also reported that client IT equipment can be placed with a sufficiently high density (up to 20 kW per rack).
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/302264/
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