data center cooling

The cooling infrastructure is a significant part of a data center. The complex connection of chillers, compressors and air handlers create the optimal computing environment, ensuring the longevity of the servers installed within and the vitality of the organization they support.Yet, this current ecosystem has come at a price. The EPA's oft-cited 2007 report predicted that data center energy consumption, if left unchecked, would reach 100 million kWh by 2011 with a corresponding energy bill of $7.4 billion. This conclusion, however, isn't strictly based on Moore's Law or the need for greater bandwidth. Their estimate envisions tomorrow's processing power will be addressed with yesterday's cooling strategies. The shortcomings of these designs, coupled with demand for more processing power, would require (10) new power plants to provide the juice for it all, according to the report. In light of this news, many industry insiders are turning a critical eye toward cooling, recognizing both the inefficiencies of current approaches and the improvements possible through new technologies. The information contained herein is designed to assist the data center professional who, while keeping uptime and redundancy inviolate, must also balance growing demand for computing power with pressure to reduce energy consumption.