Some things to consider when running a data center

As businesses go increasingly digital, the need for data centers to secure company information is more important than ever before. It is not only tech giants like Google and Facebook that need a place to house their information - businesses across the healthcare, government and industrial sectors are looking to data centers as a solution to their storage needs. But running a data center is not something that can be done impulsively. Whether your company has the funds and scale of operations to occupy its own center or ends up looking into existing facilities, here are some important considerations to keep in mind to maximize an enterprise data center operation.

Consider renewable energy solutions
 
In Hollywood movies, data centers are generally represented as massive, noise-intensive operations that actively drain energy out of whatever area they are occupying. This public perception of such facilities is understandable given that data centers must rely on a constant supply of energy - after all, their functionality depends on remaining active at all times. But just because they harness energy sources does not mean data centers can't function in an environmentally-minded, sustainable way.
Just ask Google, a company that has been dealing with data storage needs ever since it rented its first data storage facility - a closet-sized, 7 foot by 4 foot operation with a mere 30 computers - in 1998, according to CNET. Google has come a long way since then, and so has its dedication to sustainable methods of data center operation. The tech giant now has a vast network of data centers spanning the globe.
What unites Google's facilities is a singular commitment to renewable energy. With renewable energy currently powering more than a third of Google's data storage facilities, the company is always looking for ways to expand the use of solar and wind power, according to its site. Because it is challenging to have a renewable power generator on location, the company did the next best thing: It reached out to renewable energy providers in the area - such as wind farms - and made deals to buy energy from them. Among Google's energy suppliers are wind farms in Sweden and Oklahoma. Through these sources, the company is not only able to maintain solid data room cooling practices, but benefit the local community.   

Have good outside air cooling

When it comes to maintaining an optimal data room temperature, it's best to follow the lead of companies well-versed in data storage. Google and Microsoft are two such businesses, and they both share a commitment to harnessing natural resources to keep their data centers cool.
In Dublin, Microsoft has invested more than $800 million to date in order to build a data center that covers almost 600,000 square feet. The enormous size of the facility would seem to present a major cooling challenge, but the company has been able to surmount that by using fresh air cooling, Data Center Knowledge reported. By building the center in Ireland, where the temperature remains optimal for data room cooling, Microsoft is able to maximize the location as a natural cooling solution - a move that saves significant energy costs while keeping the company environmentally friendly as well. And its commitment to environmentally sound solutions does not end with cooling: the center also recycles 99 percent of the waste it produces.
Google has a similarly cooling-minded approach with its data facility in Finland, which it hopes will be almost completely powered by wind energy by 2015, according to Data Center Knowledge. The wind energy will come from a wind park located nearby. But the center is not waiting until then to implement good temperature practice. Instead of relying on chillers and other machine-based cooling techniques, Google relies on seawater from a nearby Gulf to cool the facility. Its efforts in Finland are part of a broader effort to expand the Google sphere of influence.
"The Google data center in Hamina offers Eastern Finland a tremendous opportunity to jump from the industrial to digital age," said Will Cardwell, a professor at a nearby university.

But just as important as what goes on inside a center is the environment around it. That is because data centers are invariably affected by the physical location in which they are located. With that in mind, here are some more things to look into in order to maximize your data center potential.

Choose the location wisely

Considering that data centers are necessarily connected to the physical environment they inhabit, it is important to pinpoint the best location possible. Data centers are always going to require top-notch capabilities to maintain a good server room temperature, but the ease with which that happens can depend on the location of the center. As always, Google is at the top of the game with regard to location selection. Its Hamina, Finland center is strategically placed near the Gulf of Finland, enabling an easy and natural data room cooling solution.
But Google is not the only company maximizing natural environments for data center growth. Iron Mountain specializes in underground data center solutions, according to Data Center Knowledge. Formerly a storage company for physical records, Iron Mountain already had a 145-acre underground storage facility in a former limestone mine before it got into the data center business. This location turned out to be perfect for data center needs. Blocked from the sunlight and other external heat sources, the underground facility stays at about 52 degrees without any kind of additional cooling function. An underground lake provides further protection against ever needing to bring in a machine cooling system. The company's so-called "data bunker" gained so much popularity that Iron Mountain decided to expand its sphere of operations.

Give back to the community the center is in

Data centers often require a big fleet of staff to operate. Fortunately, they're usually built near communities from which workers can be hired. But as much as data centers plan to benefit from the community they inhabit, it is just as important to look for ways to give back. This kind of behavior encourages connectedness with the community and improves the reputation of the center - and therefore the company - in the public eye.
Google paid special attention to the local community as it developed its Hamina center. When they began mapping out the concept for the center, Google realized that construction would take about 18 months. And so they turned to the locals for help. In the process, they provided steady employment for 800 workers in the engineering and construction sectors, according to Data Center Knowledge. Google's willingness to involve locals in the construction process helped forge a lasting bond between the tech giant and the city.
This bond did not go unnoticed.
"Google's investment decision is important for us and we welcome it warmly," Finnish president Jyrki Katainen said.
And for those who work at the center, life is good.
"No two days are the same as we change our roles around frequently to keep things fresh and new," said Julian Cooper, a hardware operations worker at the facility.

Be prepared to surmount environmental obstacles

In the event of a disaster like a hurricane or earthquake, it is vitally important for all enterprises - especially data centers - to make sure their stock is safe. Iron Mountain understands the principle of environmental preparadness quite well, which is why they offer underground data storage solutions. By storing data underground, Iron Mountain protects it against any conceivable natural disaster. This nature-prove construction is especially important for companies like Marriott, which chose to house data at the Iron Mountain bunker because of the sense of complete security it afforded.
"We have always had a rigorous and constant focus on having disaster preparedness in place," said Marriott operational vice president Dan Blanchard. "Today we have a data center that provides Marriott with a tremendous capability for disaster recovery, and we have a great partner in Iron Mountain."
According to tech journalist David Geer, earthquakes pose a huge threat to data centers in many areas around the world, since they can be difficult to predict and potentially cause large-scale damage. If a company intends to build its facility in an area susceptible to earthquakes, it should apply the most stringent safeguards, including building a center that is capable of withstanding a quake one degree higher than the requirement for the zone it occupies.

Deep underground in Butler County, the Iron Mountain National Data Center functions like its own little city. With more than 3,000 badged employees, the former mine has its own fire department, restaurant, transit systems, water treatment center, and medical center. (Justine Coyne/Pittsburgh Business Times).

But what may be most surprising about this unique facility, located outside of Pittsburgh in Boyers, is the treasures that are stored inside.
Formerly a limestone mine owned by United States Steel Corp. (NYSE: X) in the early 1900s, today the mine houses everything from original prints of classic motion pictures, to data storage for more than 2,300 business and government agencies across the U.S.
Located 220 feet underground, Nick Salimbene, director of business development for Iron Mountain, said what makes the facility so unique is that it is virtually impervious to natural disasters. Salimbene said being housed underground also provides a stable environment that naturally maintains a temperature of 52 degrees.
Of the 145 acres that are developed, Salimbene said about 70 percent is used for physical storage. But demand is shifting toward more data storage. He said the demand for data storage has been increasing between 20 percent and 30 percent annually in recent years. Today, he said about 80 percent of what is coming into the center today is data.
For the privacy of its customers, Iron Mountain does not disclose who uses the Boyers facility by name. But it includes many big names. One tenant Salimbene could discuss is Corbis Corp., which houses its collection of over 20 million photographs .
"There's a little bit of everything here," Salimbene said. "But the most important thing for us, is that our customers feel secure having their items located here."
Obviously, with such valuable objects in its facility, security is very tight at Iron Mountain, with armed guards keeping watch 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
"We have companies trusting us with their most valuable assets," Salimbene said. "That's not something we take lightly."

The Green Mountain Data Center

The Green Mountain Data Center is adjacent to a fjord, which provides a supply of 8 degree C water that will be used in the cooling system.

Green Mountain Data Center

 Green Mountain Data Center
Located inside the mountain in a former NATO ammunition depot (the largest in northern Europe)
Built for the highest military security level. Secured against electromagnetic pulses (EMP)
"Nuclear secure" facility, secured against sabotage and direct attack from the sea.

Green Mountain Data Center

 Green Mountain Data Center a prime piece of real estate tucked inside a scenic Norwegian mountain. Built next to a cool water fjord and surrounded by evergreens and lush rock-clinging mosses, the space boasts of bright, airy subterranean halls carved out of natural cave walls and almost transcendental settings above ground. This will be the comfortable new home for many of Norway’s data servers. The Green Mountain Data Center is one of the first pioneering data centers that will greatly reduce its costs by harnessing the cooling power of the environment, namely, the steady flow of cool water from an adjacent fjord. Alas, the grass seems to be consistently always greener in Scandinavia.
The Green Mountain Data Center contains nine ‘Mountain Halls’—each spanning well over 1,000-square-meters of space to host rows and rows of servers—a workshop, and an administration building. Its servers will be hooked up to an uninterrupted supply of power from a total of eight independent generators as well as three supply lines connected to the central Norwegian network, and its carbon footprint has been thoroughly eliminated.


Of course its most compelling feature, aside from its generally pleasant, Hobbit-like atmosphere noted by Gizmodo, is the cooling system, which relies on the nearby Rennesøy fjord to provide an abundance of cold water year round to cool its resident motherboards. Facebook has gone a similar route by planting a server farm in the Arctic, but we wouldn’t be hard pressed to say that we like the hospitable environment of this data farm better, and it’s nice to see yet another Scandinavian mountain bunker to add to our favorites!

The Mountain Hall

    Approx. 21,500 m2 floor space in the mountain
    The areas consists of:
    – 6 mountain halls each of 1,855 m2
    (11 x 164 m each) in size
    – 2 mountain halls of 1,546 m2 (19 x 82 m each) in size
    - 1 Mountain hall with internal structure 1,370 m2 in size
    - I.e. combined mountain halls of 15,692 m2
    - Warehouse/workshop 520 m2
    - Administration building 840 m2
    - Quay w/"roll on-roll off" option

 Fire safety and fire
protection

    Closed caverns enable the use
    of inert / hypoxic air ventilation
    Reduced oxygen level to prevent fire and smoke
    - 02 reduced to 15 -16 %
    - Fire cannot arise as the combustion process
    does not get enough oxygen
    - Corresponds to an altitude of approx. 3,000 m
    Hypoxic air ventilation/Inert ventilation system
    - Reduces/limits smoke formation
    - Prevents combustion/fire
    - Ensures continuous operation
    - No fire damage
    - No secondary extinguishing damage (corrosion,
    harm to the environment, poisoning, etc.)
    - No problems with hard disks due to the triggering
    of fire extinguishing equipment

 Safe as a vault

    Located inside the mountain in a former NATO
    ammunition depot (the largest in northern Europe)
    Built for the highest military security level
    - Secured against electromagnetic pulses (EMP)
    - "Nuclear secure" facility
    - Secured against sabotage and direct attack
    from the sea
    "Best in class" data security

 Communication
- redundancy

    High capacity and redundancy
    Local broad band operators
    Good connectivity to the world
    Multiple high capacity lines to Oslo
    Multiple high capacity lines directly to the UK
    Multiple high capacity lines to continental Europe
    Carrier neutral availability

Hunt Midwest seeks tenant for SubTech underground data center space Read more: Hunt Midwest seeks tenant for SubTech underground data center space -

SubTech Data Center is a ground-level facility built inside solid limestone,
offering security unmatched by any other data center facility. SubTech is located in Kansas City, which provides one of the lowest utility costs in the country and is ranked #2 in the United States for enterprise data center operating affordability. SubTech's data center solutions are reliable and flexible, offering maximum power and connectivity for your robust data center needs. Site plans by

http://www.totalsitesolutions.com/
Expanding or needing data center space? SubTech has millions of square feet available for IT and raised floor area. The facility provides clients with data center space ranging from 5,000 - 100,000+ square feet with 16' clear ceiling heights throughout. The initial 100,000 s.f. can be built out in 20,000 s.f. modules. Click here to download our site plan. http://www.subtechkc.com/site_plan.pdf

Ora Reynolds (left), president of Hunt Midwest Real Estate Development, and Tammy Henderson, director of real estate marketing and governmental affairs, are preparing for when a portal (background) will be the front door to an underground data center.

Hunt Midwest Real Estate Development Inc. is getting into the data center business — or rather, under it. Subtechkc

The Kansas City-based company plans to build a 40,000-square-foot data center in Hunt Midwest SubTropolis. The massive underground business complex is roughly northeast of Interstate 435 and Missouri Highway 210 in Kansas City.
Construction on the estimated $30 million SubTech project will begin once Hunt Midwest signs a tenant or tenants for the first 20,000 square feet, company President Ora Reynolds said.
Reynolds said the company originally planned a 100,000-square-foot project but scaled back after an unsuccessful attempt in the summer to add state tax incentives for data centers to a bill aimed at retaining automotive jobs. Missouri is at a disadvantage, she said, because Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa and Oklahoma offer financial breaks for data centers.
“The investment in a data center is so much more expensive than a regular building,” Reynolds said. “The investment is so large you can’t do ‘If you build it, they will come’ if you don’t think you can compete.”
Reynolds said the company envisions a Tier 3 facility, meaning it has redundant power and cooling systems, with the ability to expand in 20,000-square-foot increments.
“The thing that we’re saying is the biggest advantage, and what makes us different, is we have 8 million square feet that has been mined out and has not been developed at the present time,” Reynolds said. “Somebody who’s out there and says, ‘I need 20,000 square feet now, but I know I’m going to grow and need 100,000 square feet in the next five years,’ we can accommodate them while somebody who has an office building wouldn’t let half the building stay empty.”
She said Hunt Midwest would be strictly a landlord, preferring to find a managed services/collocation firm to become the main tenant, subleasing rack and cabinet space to smaller companies or leasing entire data suites or powered shells — where the tenants install most of the technical infrastructure themselves.
The data center business has taken off in recent years as companies have looked for options to remotely operate or back up data networks.
New York-based Tier 1 Research said in a Sept. 23 report that demand has outstripped supply in many markets because the economy has slowed construction and financing of new data centers.
The underground data center is relatively new in the industry, despite the obvious increase in security and resistance to natural disasters.
Tier 1 analysts Jason Schafer and Michael Levy said in a separate report looking at the SubTech project that so-called data bunkers have had trouble attracting tenants in other markets because of the added complexity of supplying power and getting rid of excess heat and moisture.
They said that SubTech does have size and the ability to grow in phases going for it but that it will run into the same skepticism other operators encounter.
“This isn’t to say that there isn’t a market for a secure underground data center facility,” they wrote. “It just fits the needs of fewer types of tenants that are likely comparing all data center providers.”
Cavern Technologies operates a 40,000-square-foot data center in the underground Meritex Lenexa Executive Park. Cavern President John Clune said the company has grown from four customers three years ago to 35.
“Our market has really taken off,” he said, adding that not having to construct an actual building and underground’s cooler air temperatures let Cavern compete on cost. “The economics of the underground allow us to provide more space for the money.”
Clune said that data centers typically charge as much as $1,200 a rack but that he charges $2,900 for 250 square feet — enough room for four racks.
“It’s when people come down here that the light goes on,” he said.
Numerous area companies operate their data centers, including some in underground space.
Overland Park-based Sprint Nextel Corp. has three data centers supporting network operations, with two built into earthen embankments, spokeswoman Melinda Tiemeyer said.
Other companies use underground caves to store computer data tapes.

What is SubTropolis?

SubTropolis was created through the mining of a 270-million-year-old limestone deposit. In the mining process, limestone is removed by the room and pillar method, leaving 25-foot square pillars that are on 65-foot centers and 40 feet apart.

The pillars’ even spacing, concrete flooring and 16-foot high, smooth ceilings make build-to-suit facilities time and cost efficient for tenants. A tenant requiring 10,000 to one million square feet can be in their space within 150 days. SubTropolis is completely dry, brightly lit, with miles of wide, paved streets accessed at street level.

Hunt Midwest SubTropolis sets the standard for subsurface business developments.

Read more: Hunt Midwest seeks tenant for SubTech underground data center space - Denver Business Journal

Data Center cooling

Data center cooling is becoming a continually greater challenge as blade servers make it possible to pack more and more computing power into ever smaller spaces. A standard server cabinet dissipates on the order of 3 kilowatts of power, while partitioned blade servers can dissipate up to 5 times as much. While it is clear that many companies will need to make expensive expansions to their air conditioning systems to accommodate increases in power density, simply increasing air conditioning capacity is not the most efficient way to address this problem.

Air conditioning must be provided where it is needed and the ideal cooling arrangement usually involves the careful management of cool and warm air flows. “Enterprises must … carefully factor in the power and cooling demands of these blades,” says a recent Gartner Group report. “Many organizations will not be able to achieve optimum density because of environmental limitations.” ASHRAE’s Thermal Guidelines for Data Processing Environments (2004) says that temperatures should be maintained between 20 degrees Celsius and 25 degrees Celsius in the server room. As temperatures rise, failure becomes a real possibility, which can lead to downtime and even data loss.

The challenge was especially great in a recent project where the computer room air conditioner (CRAC) units were located in mechanical rooms on either side of the server area. This approach makes it possible to keep the server area locked and sealed even while the CRAC units are being serviced. The room was originally designed so that cold air would flow out of the CRAC units, under the raised floor, and up through perforated tiles into the server area, forming cold aisles between racks of servers. The cold air would then be drawn into the air intakes of the server racks, where it would take on heat from the equipment. The hot air would then exit from the backs of the servers into hot aisles, where it would be drawn up to the ceiling and through perforated panels for return to the CRACs.

One approach to estimating cooling requirements for data centers involves the use of hand calculations to estimate the performance of various alternatives. The problem with these calculations is that they require many simplifying assumptions, thus limiting their accuracy in practical applications. Another approach is the use of energy analysis programs that accept as input a description of the building layout, systems, construction, usage, and utility rates, along with weather data. The limitation of this type of program is that is primarily intended to evaluate energy usage and cost and thus can only predict average temperatures for a particular space. Of course, knowing that the average temperature in the data center is 22 degrees Celsius would be small comfort if the air temperature near one critical server is 29 degrees Celsius.

In the past, about all that engineers could do was to make sure the average temperatures were right and hope that there wasn’t too much variation in the data center. In this building, because of the unique design, there was a real risk that after the building was finished temperatures in the data center would be too high. It would then be necessary to go through a lengthy and expensive trial and error process in order to remedy the problem.

Facilities Engineering Associates (FEA) felt that computer simulation was essential to resolve the unique nature of the cooling problems in this application. CFD can provide enormous assistance by calculating and graphically illustrating the complete airflow patterns, including velocities and distributions of variables such as pressure and temperature. They selected Fluent Incorporated, Lebanon, NH, as consultants to perform the analysis because of Fluent’s leading position in the CFD industry and its experience in addressing heating, ventilation, and air conditioning applications. Their goal was to identify potential problems in the room prior to construction, in order to prevent them from occurring later on, which would require costly downtime for after-the-fact modifications. The process of simulating airflow in a data center has been greatly simplified by the development of Airpak CFD software from Fluent Inc., because it is designed specifically for modeling internal building flows.

Pathlines colored by temperature for the perpendicular rack case, simulated as part of the proof-of-concept phase of the project

Pathlines colored by temperature for the parallel rack proof-of-concept case

Simulating the proof-of-concept designs

The Fluent consultant assigned to the project began by modeling the geometry of the two proposed proof-of-concept designs. The main goal of this analysis was to evaluate the placement of the high density rack relative to the position of the CRAC units in the data center room. In one proposed layout, the CRAC units are parallel to the server racks and in the other design, they are perpendicular. The server and mechanical rooms were defined as boxes, and the raised floor, physical rack locations, CRAC units, suspended ceilings, beams, and tiles were created for each case. One server rack was assigned a higher power density than the others, and the impact of its presence and location in the room for each case was studied. The simulation results provided the air velocities, pressures, and temperatures throughout the server room and lower plenum, and were used to illustrate the resulting air flow patterns for each layout. The global air flow patterns showed that the design worked as intended, with the air rising through the perforated sections of the floor, flowing through the racks, and exiting through the returns in the ceiling.

Zoomed view of pathlines in the vicinity of high-density rack for the perpendicular proof-of-concept case

While the design seemed to be working well at first glance, closer examination showed several serious problems. The figure above shows the flow in the area of the high-density rack, which is positioned next to the wall in the perpendicular orientation case. Cooling air is drawn into the cold aisle between this rack and the adjacent low-density rack through the perforated floor tiles. Following the temperature-coded pathlines, it can be seen that the hot air exiting from the high-density rack circles over the top of the rack and re-enters the cold aisle, where it is drawn into the upper intake portion of the neighboring low-density rack. The lower portion of the low-density rack is not affected. It continues to be properly cooled by air entering through the floor tiles. Temperature contours on the rack intakes (see figure below) further illustrate the problem. A similar problem occurs for the parallel orientation case, where the high density rack is positioned between two normal density racks. Hot air exiting from the high-density rack circles above and around the sides of the rack and re-enters the cold aisle, compromising the cooling air that is delivered through the floor.

Surface temperatures on the rack inlets in the cold aisles for the perpendicular proof-of-concept case

Evening out the heat load

The proof-of-concept simulations demonstrated that the root cause of the problem was with the layout of the high-density racks. It was apparent that the original design concentrated the high load racks in a single row, which created a hot spot in that area. Working within the constraints provided by the client, engineers repositioned the servers to even out the heat load throughout the room. The engineers also addressed the fact that the heat load of the different racks varies widely, from 1 to 7 kilowatts. The original model used the power ratings provided by the blade manufacturers, but the engineers recognized that deviations from the rated values could greatly impact the accuracy of the simulations. They therefore measured the power draw of each unit and discovered that the actual values were considerably less than the rated ones. Using this information, along with information from the simulations, the engineers were able to determine the air conditioning capacity required to cool the room. The calculation was based on the requirement that the failure of any single CRAC unit would not cause the temperature to rise to dangerous levels. Finally, they examined the predicted pressure losses throughout the room and lower plenum to determine the requirements of the fans used to drive the system.

FEA and Fluent engineers also evaluated the effect of the plenum height on the flow patterns in this region. The results showed that a jet of air traveled through the 10.5 inch high plenum and struck the opposing wall, causing a recirculation pattern with nonuniform flow conditions and localized high pressure zones. Assuming that the height of the plenum was the cause of the problem, engineers generated several different models with a plenum of various heights. They discovered that a plenum height of approximately 16.5 inches was the smallest that would promote smooth air flow into the server room. In order to straighten out the airflow through the perforated floor tiles, engineers specified ductwork with an aerodynamic shape that creates a uniform static pressure across the entire space and also absorbs noise.

This application demonstrates that CFD can be used to resolve problematic areas within existing or planned data centers. By using CFD in the design process, potential cooling problems, such as those illustrated in this example, can be identified before they occur, saving the time and expense required for repairs and retrofitting, once the center is on-line.