Managing high power density in Sydney data centre

Equinix, a global provider of network-neutral data centres, recently installed a new cooling system to cool high-density computer equipment at its Sydney Internet Business Exchange (IBX) centre.

Equinix, which provides data centre space for over 180 companies, chose Emerson Network Power's Liebert X-Treme Density (XD) cooling system, the first deployment of its kind in Australia, to meet the cooling requirements of a high power density customer.

The system is designed to supplement existing computer room air conditioning (CRAC) systems where additional cooling is required to reject high-density heat loads, such as those generated by next-generation blade servers, SANs and high-density computer racks.

"We had a situation where the additional heat, generated by high power density equipment, in a relatively small area would create a 'heat zone' that affects the temperature balance of the entire IBX," says Doug Oates, managing director of Equinix Sydney. "Traditional raised floor cooling alone was insufficient to cool the high-density equipment of our customer and the temperature imbalance could translate into lower cooling efficiency and higher energy costs."

David Scott, managing director, Emerson Network Power Australia, says that blade servers are becoming increasingly popular in next-generation data centres because they take up much less room than traditional servers, but pack in more computing power, making them ideal for applications such as server consolidation and virtualisation: "While blade servers are much more efficient, they're also more power hungry. One blade server takes up about one-sixth of a server rack, but draws more power "” and generates more heat "” than the entire cabinet fully populated with traditional servers. That's a six-fold increase in heat rejection that needs to take place, and traditional CRAC equipment, however efficient, simply can't cope. With the XD cooling system we can easily cool more than 20 kW per rack."

John Mansfield, director of operations for Equinix Asia Pacific, says the system was the only solution of its kind available at the time of deployment that used refrigerated gas coolant instead of water to spot-cool high-density data centre equipment. "We looked at products from other vendors but they used chilled water as the coolant while we wanted a refrigerant-based solution. Running water through a business-critical data centre is risky since the results can be catastrophic for our customers if any part of the system fails," he said.

Being up to 40% more energy efficient in its power draw than traditional cooling equipment, the system will help to check energy consumption and reinforces Equinix's efforts in becoming a green data centre.

Oates adds: "The more efficient our power and cooling systems, the less strain we'll put on our environment and natural resources. It also means we can pass on energy savings to our customers, and ensure the ratio of power to cooling we use for their equipment is as efficient as it can possibly be."