Cross-Connect Blog

Hot Aisle Containment and Better Power Management Linked to Lower Data Center Energy Use

June 30, 2016

Case-Study-BendBroadband.jpgIn the first comprehensive energy analysis of data centers in nearly 10 years, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that U.S. data centers are becoming much more energy efficient. Strategies such as hot aisle containment, improved power management and more efficient servers and switches are linked to the scenario.

Energy use in data center across the U.S. started to plateau in 2010 and is expected to remain at the same pace through 2020, according to the report. Data centers still account for about 2 percent of total U.S. electricity consumption.

Among the reasons for these improvements, is the fact that cooling and power strategies have gotten better.

“In the past, most data centers blasted air conditioning indiscriminately to keep equipment from getting overheated—this is grossly inefficient,” Berkeley Lab researcher Arman Shehabi, one of the authors of the report, says. “Now there are more advanced cooling strategies, such as hot aisle isolation, economizers, and liquid cooling, which all make the cooling process far less energy intensive.”

Another good practice to scale back energy use is to shut down idle servers, and consolidate the ones that are not being fully utilized. Intelligent power distribution units (PDUs), power management software as well as better hardware help address this challenge. A PDU with switching capability, for instance, can be scheduled to turn off and turn on non-mission critical equipment.

The result of this report underscores Chatsworth Products’ (CPI) concept of Passive Cooling® and intelligent power management in the data center. Our breakthrough solutions for cooling and power in the data center attest to it.

Aisle Containment Solutions by CPI are available in four standard configurations, each offering a unique and versatile approach to addressing your most pressing data center cooling needs: 

For reliable and smart power management, consider CPI’s intelligent eConnect® PDUs, which are designed to withstand the heat loads of any hot aisle environment and are available in more than 330 standard configurations. We also preinstall eConnect in CPI cabinets at no additional costs, saving you installation time.

Benefits include:

  • Models with switching capabilities allow you to turn equipment on and off
  • Monitoring at the device level provides true power in values for each device, which can be matched to workloads using software.
  • Secure Array™ IP Consolidation reduces the costs associated with multiple IP addresses and enhance system reliability through advanced failover technology
  • Select models feature built-in web interface with many key DCIM software that accepts SNMP v1, v2 and v3

“The idea that electricity use is doubling every five years is still commonly believed to this day,” Shehabi says. “In fact there have been tremendous strides in efficiency. But there are still tremendous opportunities in the near term,” he adds. 

When looking for improvement opportunities in your next data center project, consider CPI’s advanced cooling and power management solutions. Visit our case study page to see how CPI has helped many companies solve their energy efficiency challenges.

Raissa Carey, eContent Specialist

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