May, 2009

Syracuse University data center to be powered by microturbine generators

Syracuse University and IBM are teaming up on a new data center that will be off the utility’s power grid, instead relying on natural gas to power microturbine generators and supply both electricity and cooling to the facility.

The cost of the 6,000-square-foot data center is estimated at $12.4 million, with The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority pitching in $2 million. The server infrastructure will be a mix of IBM boxes — blades, Power-based machines, and z10 mainframes — and the data center will also use IBM’s Rear Door Heat Exchanger, which is a chilled water door on the back of server racks.

Perhaps most interesting about the project, however, will be its use of microturbine generators to power the facility (picture courtesy of Capstone, shown at right). I spoke yesterday to Roger Schmidt, a distinguished engineer at IBM who was a part of this project, about those turbines. He said the plan is for them to have 12 of the microturbine generators, each with a power capacity of 60-65 kilowatts, for a total of about 750 kilowatts maximum power to the facility. Schmidt estimated that when the facility first gets up and running, it will only need 150-200 kilowatts, and so it will be able to grow into the capacity. The data center will also be running uninterruptible power supplies (UPSes) and will be tied into the electrical grid as backups.

The microturbine generators come from Capstone MicroTurbine, one of the biggest manufacturers of these machines. Other companies that make them include Kawasaki and Solar, a division of Caterpillar. Schmidt explained how they work:

“So we bring in natural gas, which in the U.S. is pretty prevalent.  Basically we run that to a turbine, which you burn to create energy that rotates the turbine wheel. That ties into a generator that drives electricity similar to a power plant to power up the data center.”

Schmidt added that the waste heat from the turbine can then be used in two ways: to cool the data center and then for heating buildings elsewhere on campus.

How can waste heat be used for cooling? By using an adsorption chiller, the heat goes through a thermodynamic cycle, according to Schmidt, that can convert it into cooling energy. This process is typically known as cogeneration, meaning it generates both electricity and useful heat. Schmidt called it “trigeneration” because the generator not only creates electricity, but also creates useful heat that can be used in two ways — to cool the data center and warm campus buildings.

“I only know of a few other data centers using this technology of cogeneration,” Schmidt said. “It’s kind of a unique technology and really hasn’t been applied to data centers.”

The $1 billion data center?

Data Center Knowledge cites local media reports on speculation that Apple is building a massive data center that could cost as much as $1 billion.

Most of the massive data centers out there from Microsoft and Google have price tags around $500 million, so $1 billion would be a big jump. What makes the cost so high? Who knows. If it happens, this thing is likely to be monstrously large.

Building data centers in Afghanistan

A couple weeks ago I got the chance to spend the morning with Paul Brenner, who works in the high-performance computing department at the University of Notre Dame. Brenner is spearheading a project to build a containerized data center next to a local municipal greenhouse so that, during winter months, the heat from the servers can be piped into the greenhouse to warm it up. Check out the Notre Dame greenhouse data center story (there’s a cool video).

Another thing I learned from Brenner when hanging out with him is that he is an engineering officer in the U.S. Air Force Reserves, and actually just returned from an overseas deployment in Afghanistan a few weeks ago. While there, Brenner helped build data centers.

Obviously it’s not an ideal place, and Brenner had to do a lot of improvising. A few things complicated his mission. First, with it being the military, so much information is siloed, with select people able to access it. So not only do different branches of the military want their own data centers and their own servers, but divisions within each branch want close control of their IT assets. So a lot of data centers there are hodgepodge, small, and consist of a rack here or a rack there.

Brenner mentioned how some of the major IT vendors out there, such as IBM and HP and Sun Microsystems, have tried pitching their containerized data centers as a suitable option for military operations. But Brenner said that even in ideal conditions, deployment time is measured in months. In many cases, Brenner doesn’t have that much time.

So he made do. Oftentimes he would take a bunch of household air-conditioning units and daisy-chain them together, which he said actually led to a good deal of cooling redundancy. It’s all about adjusting to conditions, and when your overseas serving your country in a barren desert land, you do whatever you can to keep the computers running.

Facebook spending big money on data center real estate

Rich Miller at Data Center Knowledge did some great research into how much money the social networking giant Facebook is spending on data center real estate a year. The majority of that with Digital Realty Trust and DuPont Fabros. At this point the company does not plan to build its own data centers. For more info on Facebook’s data center growth, check this Facebook video.

Uptime Institute to open up data center tier standards

The Uptime Institute plans to open up its data center availability tier standards, with two programs catered toward end users and design engineers.

The Uptime tiers have become the de facto standard for availability in the data center industry. The system includes four tiers that escalate in availability as the number increases, with Tier 4 being completely fault tolerant. Uptime has tried to rein in the standards, as many data centers have claimed a certain tier availability without official certification from Uptime. On the other side, some have questioned the relevancy of the tier standards, saying that putting them to practical use can be as difficult as solving the Da Vinci Code.

The first program Uptime will announce tomorrow is the Owners Advisory Committee, a program that could lead to changes within the decade-old tier system itself. The committee will consist of data center end users who are Uptime Institute Site Uptime Network members, and will make annual recommendations on how to update the tier system.

Currently there are about 30 companies that have agreed to be part of the committee, Uptime Institute officials said. They expect there to be many more. Hank Seader, an Uptime consultant who helped develop the tier system, mentioned two issues in particular that he expected to pop up in the committee’s infancy. First, he expects there to be a further refining of Tier 1 that differentiates a non-redundant data center from a server closet or a desktop with a bunch of servers on it. Next, he expects the group to recommend changes that better define what components should be redundant in a Tier 2 data center.

The committee will make recommendations primarily through a Web-based forum. From that forum issues will emerge, and then the committee will make a formal recommendation to Uptime through a voting process.

“Right now the idea is that they’ll make the recommendation, and it will be the current tier certifying authorities deciding how it will go into the standard,” Seader said.

There is more information at Uptime’s Owner Advisory Committee site. Though it doesn’t cost extra to be a part of the committee, you must be a Site Uptime Network member to join the committee. Membership costs $12,000 a year, according to the Site Uptime Network’s call for new members.

Secondly, Uptime will announce tomorrow an accreditation course for certified engineers on the tier standards. The two-day course will take place quarterly throughout the country, with the first two scheduled to take place in September in Denver, and the third in Dallas, likely in December. The course will cost $5,000. There’s more information at the Accredited Tier Designer site.

Seader said these will be detailed, technically heavy courses on practically applying the tier standards to real data centers. There will be seven sessions: overview, mechanical infrastructure, electrical infrastructure, ancillary systems (such as water and backup fuel, for example), common disqualifying design omissions, a hands-on group exercise, and the exam.

Julian Kudritzki, vice president of development and operations for Uptime’s professional services division, said the courses will give accredited engineers an advantage as they’ll have an “enhanced understanding of the tier classification standards, and it will be a competitive differentiator for them when they respond to RFPs that have a clear tier design goal aspect to them.”

Perhaps just as importantly, Uptime is moving toward opening the certification process up to outside engineers. Currently only members of Uptime’s professional services division can certify data centers as having a certain tier level. Seader said he foresees a time when engineers who have taken the accreditation course could certify data centers with a certain tier level.

“I anticipate that in three to five years - closer to three - that there will be tier certification authorities outside of The Uptime Institute,” Seader said.

I’m going to try to talk to Site Uptime Network members as well as Uptime critics and have a more fleshed-out story later this week, so stay tuned.

Manos explains move to Digital Realty Trust

Michael Manos, the former data center pro at Microsoft, lays out his reasons for moving to Digital Realty Trust in a blog post this morning.

There are two main ones: 1) Digital is in a position to effect change in the data center industry in a major way; and 2) They are led by forward-looking people who are passionate about the industry. Sounds like good reasons to me. Manos expands on the “passionate” point:

Let me reiterate that passionate point a moment, this is not some real estate company looking to make a quick buck on mission critical space.  I have seen enough of those in my career.  This is a firm focused on educating the market, driving innovation in application of technology, and near zealot commitment on driving efficiencies for their customers.  Whether its their frequent webinars, their industry speaking engagements, or personal conversations they are dedicated to this space, and dedicated on informing their customers.  Even when we have disagreed on topics or issues in the past, its always a great respectful conversation.  In a nutshell, they GET IT.

Digital certainly is out at industry events, speaking, running booths, and being a strong presence. And they do hold regular webinars — I would say once every couple months or more frequently — a few of which I’ve listened into and found to be helpful. The company is considered the largest data center real estate company in the world, with presence all over the U.S. and Europe (you can see all their locations here).

Manos also lauded Digital for being big on quick data center deployment, which is something he worked hard on with Christian Belady while at Microsoft. The modular data center is a hot topic now, particularly among large Web companies and data center colocation businesses who are looking at the data center as a set of Lego building blocks with which to build data centers as quickly as possible.

Manos revealed that one of his goals while at Digital Realty Trust will be to “develop the ability to deliver data center capacity start to finish in 16 weeks.” That’s less than four months. The normal data center planning and construction process usually takes 4-6 times longer. So that is worth keeping a close eye on.