Its time to step up my blog game and start shooting videos! Hope you like this one – it is green screen video, post production by Final Cut/LiveType, shot using a Canon A1S HD camera and about 5k wattage of pro lighting. Sorry – it’s hard to be energy efficient using 5k of light – but that’s what it takes to produce this stuff!

It’s a generic wireless video – in that I hope to get the minds of IT and Facilities folks thinking about WSN (Wireless Sensor Network) technology and how the application of such technology can help green their enterprise data center. Remember – for technology to have value – it must solve a problem. The current problem, as I see it today in older data centers, is the clear lack of power and thermal visibility – which just plainly drives major inefficiencies and cooling over-kills.  Solve this problem – and you can save major money and tighten your green belt a notch.

Rather than write a long blog post – just watch the video please!

Making a video like this has been fun. I’ve still yet to develop my camera personality – at times I am looking a little too serious perhaps. But, over time I hope to loosen up and have some fun and expression to help flow the timeline out a bit more and make it more natural. It’s ain’t easy – but I’ll be working on it!

This blog is going heavy metal today! Warning: Stop reading now if you are not a metal fan! I have to post this as I thought it just fit so well. Let me explain…

I had just finished reading a Mike Manos post on the fact the ‘MAN’ is coming…

“Data center managers might not understand that once the legislation passes, in whichever form, they’ll be a significant contributor to carbon emissions and will fall under reporting requirements,” says Mike Manos, senior vice president of technical services at Digital Realty Trust, “I don’t think many data center managers see that coming or are aware of that.”

Excellent post Mike! I see this an accelerator for data center optimization and the need for Facilities and IT to take action. Right? So just after reading this – I ended up going for a quick run to burn off some steam. I load my ipod shuffle from about 50gb of euro rock metal house music to help me run.. Low and behold – a 1996 Motorhead tune called “Broken” comes on and as I listen to the lyrics – it’s like a perfect match to the thoughts I have on Mike’s post! Check this out:

You don’t know the trouble you’re in
Linvin’ in paradise, livin’ in sin
You better watch out baby one of these days
Another man coming gonna change your ways

Broken, broken truth must be spoken
Can we be responsible, is someone keeping score
Broken, broken when all guns are smoking
Do you want to die then, according to the law
Sunshine, moonshine, fire & flood
Death come hungry to your neighbourhood
You better watch out baby, one of these nights
Somebody coming to shoot out your lights

You can google the rest of the words but they really ring true to how most data centers are running today. Broken! Everyone is living in paradise without a care in the world for efficiency because no one is watching the hen house! Well this living in sin might come to an end if the Waxman-Markey energy cap-and-trade bill passes! Why?

“But when these initiatives pass, you’ll find yourself in a situation where you’re not structured for reporting or efficiency because facilities doesn’t get what you can do from a technology point to optimize the data center, and the data center managers don’t see power bills to understand where they’ll have to go to meet their energy use targets,” he adds.

Wow! This sounds like a SOX compliance/governance wave all over again!  I love regulations. It makes customers take action and it allow vendors to solve problems and make customer happy. Its a win-win!

Now that is music to my ears!

ASHRAE. Enjoy Summer.

If you thought your data center was just as cold as San Francisco in the summer, that might just be about to change. ASHRAE, which stands for “The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers” has some new recommendations for all you cost conscious data center folks!

“It’s ok to run a little warmer! I say, it’s ok to run a little warmer!!”

Every data center I have ever been in has been cold, noisy, and pretty much a place to get software installed, hardware plugged in, and then get the heck out of there and have the rest of the meeting where it is warm and quiet. ASHRAE is a game changer and causing lots of interesting articles to pop up all over the place.

So what do you need to know about ASHRAE?

The inlet air temp range has been updated to reflect modern times. From ASHRAE’s 2008 Extended Environment Envelope document Page 1. Here’s the deal:

These recommended conditions as well as the allowable conditions refer to the inlet air entering the datacom equipment. Specifically it lists for data centers in the ASHRAE classes 1 and 2, a recommended environment range of 20 to 25 degrees C and a relative humidity (RH) range of 40-55%

Basically – you don’t need to freeze the data center like an ice cube anymore and you can start to evaluate a higher operating environment. It does not mean you go change all the set points over night and start cooking everything like a Weatherford fired BBQ. Naw.. you need ot be able to understand what effect these neds ranges will have and be able to plan accordingly if you plan to adopt these new recommendations. Things to consider:

• What is my current baseline?
• How can I measure it if I don’t?
• How can I visualize the effects of increased temperature?
• How do I ensure I don’t create hot spots
• How can I adjust/refine set points to optimize?
• Can I associate changes to OpEx expenses and show an ROI?

It’s like a new opportunity is present with ASHRAE to determine and define a new operating environment that your data center can safely operate in, and but reducing the draws on cooling – be able to save money in the process. Makes sense to me. Of course, raising inlet temp, and based on delta T, the idea is not to be cooking the hot aisle beyond control or containment. You still need to be able to have humans survive a trip or perform work  in the data center. ASHRAE does not apply to humans.

Are you a fan of ASHRAE’s new recommendations? Have you taken any action to realize an ROI based on these new ranges?

Tom
Fan of ASHRAE