Electronics Protection - September/October 2013 - (Page 7)

Feature that heat tolerances are not being exceeded, so ambient temperatures can reliably be raised, substantially reducing the costs associated with cooling. By using a DCIM solution and actively making adjustments to the infrastructure to eliminate hotspots, safely raising the temperature and continuously monitoring of the environment to ensure heat tolerances are not exceeded. Some organizations have reported increases in ambient temperature of as much as 9°F (5°C), according to a study conducted by Enterprise Management Associates of DCIM users. This helped lower PUEs by as much as 18 percent, an average achieved PUE of 1.62, perfectly aligned with typically-established targets for improvement. More importantly, annual cooling-related energy consumption rates were reduced, on average, by 1.24 GWh for every 10,000 sq. ft. (929 sq. meters) of data center floor space. For example, an IT managed service provider supporting multiple tenants co-located in a single facility was able to reduce costs using a DCIM solution. To ensure reliability in supporting customer compute resources, the organization had historically kept data center temperatures excessively low. Since customers complained about the related energy costs charged back to them, the organization recognized the need to improve cooling efficiencies to improve customer satisfaction with operational costs. By deploying a DCIM solution, the organization was able to slowly increase chilled water supply by about one degree, once a week. In addition, it leveraged the ability to show its customers a graphic display of the thermal state of the infrastructure in comparison to established thresholds, to provide the assurance that the increased efficiencies had no impact on the reliability of the production environment. Over a period of six months, the temperature of the chilled water system was increased from 45° to 55°, resulting in a substantial decrease of related power consumption from 0.53 kW/ton to 0.32 kW/ton. At the same time the efficiency improvements were being introduced, the organization also expanded its data center. The expansion increased floor size by 80 percent and load densities by 74 percent. Despite these increases, the organization was able to increase environment temperatures, reliably, and was able to reduce its PUE by 17 percent, reducing it from 1.7 to 1.45. Had the organization not been able to make this environmental improvement, overall energy consumption and costs would have been 15 percent higher than they are today. As mentioned in the beginning of this article, there are different approaches to addressing a data center’s power consumption and associated costs. Some are more ad-hoc, while others are more systematic. When dynamic power and cooling data is assembled into charts, gauges, real-time dashboards and reports via a DCIM solution, this provides the best platform for accurate decision making, as was the case for the aforementioned IT managed service provider. They realized nearly $286,000 in annual power cost savings, a strong validation for a DCIM investment and a pay-back on their investment in about four months. 1 “Quantifying Data Center Efficiency: Achieving Value with Data Center Infrastructure Management.” Enterprise Management Associates; 2013. Downloadable at www.fieldviewsolutions.com/roi FieldView Solutions provides managers of today’s complex, mission-critical data centers and Co-Lo facilities with browserbased, scalable software tools that deliver a real-time view into all aspects of data center infrastructure management (DCIM). For more information, visit www.fieldviewsolutions.com September/October 2013 www.ElectronicsProtectionMagazine.com 7 http://www.fieldviewsolutions.com/roi http://www.fieldviewsolutions.com http://www.amcoenclosures.com http://www.amcoenclosures.com http://www.ElectronicsProtectionMagazine.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Electronics Protection - September/October 2013

Geist Unveils Rapid Deployment Data Center Environmental Monitoring System
Enabling Effective Thermal Management with DCIM
Predicting Gasket Performance: SE Measurements with a TEM Cell to Study Gasket Reliability
Rack Containment 101
The Nine Core Elements of DCIM
Using Electronic Locking Solutions to Secure Enclosures and Meet Storage Compliance Needs
Hammond’s HJ Series Ticks All the Boxes
Rogers Introduces Poron SlimGrip Foam
Ferrite Suppressors Clear Interference
Fujipoly Thermal Sheets are a Cooling Influence on LED Lighting
GE Introduces TLE Series UPS Platform
Gore PolyVent XL Improves Reliability of Large Outdoor Enclosures
IMI Sensors Launches Linear Adjust Mechanical Vibration Switch
Industry News
Calendar of Events
Five Ways to Realize Server Room Profitability

Electronics Protection - September/October 2013