Path Forward 2010

Home \ Resources

Path Forward 2010

The Path Forward 2010 comprises the presentations, reports, case studies, and videos associated with the Uptime Institute Symposium 2010: Data Center Efficiency & Green Enterprise IT (May 17-19, 2010, Hilton New York). Although many of these materials are freely available, some items require an access code to view. If you do not have a code and would like to request permission to view restricted items, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Introduction


	Availability • Scalability • Sustainability
	Welcome to the Path Forward 2010, a post-event package of information and presentations from the Uptime Institute Symposium 2010: Data Center Efficiency & Green Enterprise IT Symposium, held in New York on May 16-19, 2010. The 2010 event was the fifth annual Uptime Institute Symposium and was by every measure the largest, attracting 1,600 attendees from 42 countries. There were more than 120 presentations and panel discussions, and, for the first time ever, an extensive, formal program on one-to-one meetings between delegates, analysts and consultants. There was also, as usual, a large expo hall of data center and green technologies, which was busy throughout the event. In 2010, the Symposium was particularly notable for the very high percentage of delegates from companies owning or managing their own data centers.	« 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 » Pause Frontpage Slideshow (version 2.0.0) - Copyright © 2006-2008 by JoomlaWorks Photos courtesy Kyo Morishima Photography
	Symposium 2010 was also host to the annual Green Enterprise IT Awards, presented by the Uptime Institute and sponsored in 2010 by Jones Lang LaSalle and NYSERDA. The eight Award winners, as well as several finalists, presented energy-saving projects in detail. These presentations are included in this package. As always, we created the program and format for the 2010 event with two clear objectives: First, to serve as a forum for information and insight sharing about efficient data centers and, indeed, about energy-efficient IT in general. And second, to encourage managers to return to their organizations and take action. All of the presenters and the authors of the papers available here were briefed with this in mind. The three big themes of Symposium 2010, reflected throughout the papers and presentations here, were Availabiity, Scalability and Sustainability. Availability, is, of course, Uptime's core strength and is always a top priority for data center and IT managers. At the 2010 event, the Uptime Institute introduced the new Tier Standard: Operational Sustainability for data centers, which complements the well-known Tier Standard: Topology. Sustainability is also a big theme: the Symposium is both a data center event and an eco-efficient IT event. In the Path Forward 2010 you'll find multiple presentations and papers on energy efficiency and carbon emissions, both within IT and beyond. Third, the issue of flexible Scalability has become a top concern for data center managers and, indeed, for CIOs. The problem that many face is: How can they avoid over provisioning - with the potentially huge costs involved - without risking underprovisioning, which of course can have very severe consequences for the business. Symposium 2010 included an unprecedented extension from facilities and architectures (such as containers and pods), into management and planning, and, ultimately into IT issues, and the use of outsourcing and the cloud. Finally, this package provides an extremely useful repository of presentations and papers from vendors. We hope this will provide data center and IT operators an opportunity to get a better understanding of some of the latest technologies, and to see innovative ways of addressing some deep strategic problems. The regret we heard from delegates most frequently at Symposium 2010 was that there was too much to do, too many choices, too much information - and too little time. The Path Forward 2010 should provide an opportunity for you to take a more considered look at the world of data center efficiency in 2010. Andy Lawrence Program Director Uptime Institute Symposium 2010

Case Briefs & Papers

In 2010, the Uptime Institute presented Green Enterprise IT Awards in eight categories. Click on the title to view a case brief of each Award-winning project.

Audacious Idea - Microsoft

Containerization: An Evolution in Data Center Efficiency

Microsoft's goal was to build the world's first known container data center capable of supporting 200+ unique online, live, and cloud services for businesses and consumers globally. Their containerized data center in Chicago reduced PUE from 1.6 to 1.15, reduced build costs 33%, reduced OpEx 30%, and reduced time to deployment by 300%.

Best Facilities Product - Verizon Wireless

Orangeburg Data Center: Data Center Intelligent Cooling Controls

Verizon Wireless partnered with Emerson Network Power to install an intelligent cooling control system for its data center. With better control, Verizon improved its cooling efficiency by placing redundant cooling components in a "hot standby" mode. These standby units can reactivate as needed, saving energy without increasing risk to IT operations.

Click here to see the presentation slide deck.

Best IT Product - Raritan

Data Center Energy Efficiency Improvement

As part of a data center upgrade, J.R. Simplot installed Raritan's intelligent rack PDUs and energy management software. The company also reconfigured its power distribution from 120 volt to 240 volt AC power. These changes allowed for improved capacity management, reliability, and energy efficiency.

Click here to see the presentation slide deck.

Beyond the Data Center - Helsingin Energia

The World's Most Eco-Efficient Computer Hall from Helsingin Energia

Helsingin Energia's innovative solution uses the recovery of waste heat to heat buildings and water in the City of Helsinki. Working in cooperation with ICT service provider Academica, Helsingin Energia has reduced CO2 emissions from computer hall cooling by 80%. Their long-term goal is completely carbon-neutral production by 2050.

Data Center Design - HP

A Cool, Low-Energy Approach to Sustainable Data Center Design

The HP Wynyard data center takes advantage of a cool climate to reduce the energy required for cooling by using a large quantity of fresh air supplied by axial fans through high-efficiency filters. The building is an energy-efficient and sustainable design, incorporating recycled materials and rainwater harvesting.

Click here to see the presentation slide deck.

Facilities Innovation - Savvis

NJ2 HVAC Upgrade Project

This project was to replace and upgrade the controls of the 12-year-old chiller and pumping system at one of Savvis's data centers. The project was completed without any impact to the IT function, and the energy savings will provide an 18-month payback, as well as increased redndancy for the facility.

Click here to see the presentation slide deck.

IT Innovation -
Office of the Chief Administrative Officer, US House of Representatives

Going Green at the US House of Representatives

The data center for the US House of Representatives provides mission-critical enterprise services supporting all House offices throughout the country. But the primary data center was at capacity in terms of space and power usage. As part of the Green the Capitol program, the House data center virtualized the majority of their server infrastructure and right-sized the servers. The initiative reduced power consumption by 70% while allowing for enhanced data center services.

Joint IT and Facilities Innovation - Itaú

An Integration Tool between IT and Facilities Departments in a Large Bank

Itaú, an 85-year old financial institution with a strong focus on Internet banking, has grown enormously in the last 20 years. As their data centers grew, so did their energy consumption. As part of a multi-year, multi-faceted Green IT initiative, Itaú joined IT and Facilities departments under the same board of direction, with shared mission, goals and responsibilities. To date Itaú's integrative approach to achieving 100% efficiency and availability has resulted in significant energy and cost savings annually, and 98% of their e-waste is recycled.

Underwriter papers, pertinent to the themes and topics of the Uptime Institute Symposium,
are an important aspect of the Symposium's mission of knowledge-sharing and education.

	Sustainable IT: Increasing Efficiency and Eliminating Data Center Waste
	This paper explores the topic of measuring efficiencies in the data center, explains what can be done to identify and eliminate this waste, and why this is the year to take action.
	Indirect Airside Economization: Can it Deliver on its Promises of Economy With Reliability?
	Indirect airside economization utilizes a non-enthalpy heat wheel to deliver cooling capacity that can exceed the cooling PUE of direct airside economization, without introducing outside air into the data hall. This technology promises economy without sacrificing reliability. Analysis of the characteristics of this system reveals that some aspects of data hall design must be approached differently from 'traditional' design in order to optimize the system. Do these differences from traditional data hall cooling constitute compromises in operations or reliability?
	The Chameleon Data Center: Transforming To Meet Your Business Needs
	Real flexibility will be forced on the data center as the biggest challenge in the coming years - the result of both increasingly rapid change in and increasing uncertainty of the IT environment. The Chameleon Data Center has been designed and engineered to dynamically adapt when meeting the current and future requirements of the market - allowing maximum flexibility of data center use in terms of IT space, cooling, power and Tier level, while maintaining energy efficiency and sustainability. The Chameleon Data Center changes the way we do business and addresses current and future demands in the areas of space, reliability, flexibility and investment.
	The Enterprise Data Center as a Microgrid
	Mention smart grids, global warming or oil prices and you will set off a tidal wave of opinions and perspectives. Regardless of your perspective, the reality is that energy costs are increasing; energy use is increasing; and opportunities to create new industries in and around energy is here to stay. What we are suggesting today is that the global 'enterprise class' data center is an ideal environment for at least one aspect of the smart grid - the microgrid.
	Intentional Electromagnetic Interference: A Review of the Phenomenon, the Threat it Poses to Data and Electronic Equipment, and its Impact on Data Center Operational Sustainability
	In recent years, a newly recognized phenomenon has emerged as a growing threat to the operational sustainability of data centers and a host of other civilian infrastructure facilities that rely on electronic data processing and storage: Intentional Electromagnetic Interference. What should data center designers/operators do in response?
	A Green Data Center Means Green Savings
	Most people feel that sustainability is the right thing to do for our environment, but is it the smart thing for designing and operating a productive data center? In a word -- yes. Contrary to the belief of some, reduced energy consumption does equate to reliability. Greening a data center boosts, not sacrifices, mission-critical operational efficiency and stability.
	Improving Business Efficiency with Unified Physical Infrastructure Solutions
	Panduit's Unified Physical Infrastructure (UPI) approach maps physical-layer infrastructure solutions onto logical architectures. This approach enables customers to deploy state-of-the-art technology solutions across data center, intelligent building and industrial automation applications. This case study profiles the work that Panduit undertook to support Pizza Pizza, a leader in Canada's quick-service restaurant industry. After 25 years at the same location, the customer turned to Panduit to install a UPI solution in its new headquarters that would help enhance business growth and efficiency, help to manage a facility powered by 'green' energy, and provide high reliability for its centralized ordering system.
	J.R. Simplot Data Center Refurbishment
	Learn how the J.R. Simplot data center management team improved energy efficiency during a data center refurbishment that increased IT rack density, assured troubleshooting capability, and provided systems to manage potential risks.
	Water-Side Economizing and Efficiency
	Data center owners and operators are in constant pursuit of methods to further reduce their energy costs and negative impacts on the environment. For many years, economizing has been done in conjunction with cooling systems found in both commercial and industrial settings to cut energy consumption. More recently, the application of these technologies to the data center environment has also been widely practiced, although primarily in large data center spaces. This paper explores water-side economized cooling and its benefits for small-to-medium-sized data centers, which are more prevalent in the industry today than their larger counterparts.
	Allocating Data Center Energy Costs and Carbon to IT Users
	Are complicated software and instrumentation needed to measure and allocate energy costs and carbon to IT users? Or can we get by with simple, low-cost methods for energy cost and carbon allocation? How precise do we need to be? This paper provides an overview of energy cost and carbon allocation strategies and their precision. We show that it is both easy and inexpensive for any data center, large or small, new or old, to get started allocating costs and carbon, but the expense and complexity escalate and ROI declines when excessive precision is specified.
	Power Efficiency Gains by Deploying 415 VAC Power Distribution in North American Data Centers
	This paper presents how 415/240V line to neutral power infrastructure based on a global standard can achieve efficiency gains for a North American datacenters using solutions readily available in the marketplace today.
	More Cooling Air Does Not Always Mean Better Cooling
	This case study demonstrates how computational fluid dynamics analysis can be used to analyze the cooling performance of a data center and facilitate cooling and energy efficiency.
	Measuring Power Consumption and Equipment Utilization for Greater Data Center Efficiency
	Lack of available power along with the energy expenses associated with IT equipment and cooling infrastructure have heightened the requirement for data center energy-efficiency initiatives. Until now, it's been difficult to successfully improve energy usage and gain visibility in the data center because of the cost and complexity involved in measuring equipment power consumption and utilization.
	Rack Hygiene
	This paper describes the concept of Rack Hygiene, which positions the rack as an airflow management device, not an inert commodity. It offers solutions at the rack level by defining a benchmarking methodology for quantifying airflow leakage as a means of setting performance goals for racks.

Podcasts

Podcasts by keynote speakers and Underwriters, pertinent to the themes and topics of the Uptime Institute Symposium, are an important aspect of the Symposium's mission of knowledge-sharing and education.

Unified Physical Infrastructure - Jack Tison, CTO, and Vineeth Ram, CMO, of Panduit discuss Panduit's Unified Physical Infrastructure vision, which embodies the next wave of systems integration and risk management by aligning and harmonizing critical systems – power, communication, computing, security, and control – throughout the enterprise.
Current Trends in Data Center Energy Measurements - Pitt Turner of Uptime Institute and Deborah Grove discuss current trends in data center PUE measurements and energy efficiency.
The Role of C-suite Executives in Data Center Management - Lauralee Martin of Jones Lang LaSalle and Deborah Grove discuss the role of C-suite executives in determining data center build-out and energy efficiency initiatives.
Where is Cooling Lost at the Rack Level? - Carl Cottuli of Wright Line and Deborah Grove discuss where cooling is lost at the rack level – and almost never observed.
A Carbon Calculator for Data Centers - Neil Rasmussen of APC and Deborah Grove discuss the APC carbon calculator for data centers.
Yahoo!'s Data Center Design Innovations - Christina Page of Yahoo! and Deborah Grove discuss Yahoo!’s most recent data center design innovations.
Containerized Computing Alternatives - Martin Olsen of Active Power and Deborah Grove discuss the merits of containerized computing alternatives.
The EU's Code of Conduct - Dr. Paolo Bertoldi of the European Commission and Deborah Grove discuss the EU’s Code of Conduct and how it will gain in significance over the coming years.
Total Data Center Efficiency - Dr. Albert Esser, on behalf of Dell, and Deborah Grove discuss potential power savings and Dell’s latest Total Data Center Efficiency metrics.
Corgan's Latest Green Growth Initiatives - Brian George of Corgan Associates and Deborah Grove discuss Corgan’s foray into China, Kyoto Cooling, and LEED certification.
Benefits of Cloud Computing - Dr. Jonathan Koomey of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Deborah Grove discuss four benefits of cloud computing in improving energy efficiency and IT asset utilization.
NYSERDA's Energy Efficiency Rebate Programs - Scott Smith of NYSERDA and Deborah Grove discuss NYSERDA’s energy efficiency rebate programs for data centers.
Data Center Smartgrids - Mark Ascolese of EDSA and Deborah Grove discuss the microgrid and EDSA’s solutions for data centers generating power.
Energy Efficiency at the Chip Level - Allyson Klein of Intel and Deborah Grove discuss embedded technologies in Intel chips that contribute to data center energy efficiency measures.

Research Reports

Reports by

Tier Standard: Operational Sustainability

Tier Standard: Operational Sustainability was released by Uptime Institute on 1 July 2010. It provides data center owners and operators with means to unify the uptime potential of the infrastructure with its management. When these two aspects are aligned, owners can achieve optimal, sustainable data center performance. The Operational Sustainability Standard works in tandem with the Institute's international Tier Classification System (Tier Standard: Topology). Long-term data center availability is the resultant combination of the Tier of the infrastructure and the rigorous operations defined and classified in Tier Standard: Operational Sustainability.

Reports by

The reports below, published within The 451 Group's Market Insight Service, are part of a series of eco-efficient themed reports that will be republished for the lead-up to Symposium 2010. Please check back often as we will be periodically posting additional reports.

For additional information on The 451 Group, the parent company of the Uptime Institute, or to apply for trial access to its services, please go to www.the451group.com.

Eco-Efficiency and the Virtualization Factor

Energy efficiency has been one of the key drivers behind the rapid rise in the use of virtual infrastructure. This reports takes a look at the arguments and at some recent innovations.