Data Center Efficiency

I had a great conversation with president of Strategic Clean Technology Inc. Arnold Murphy where we discussed data center efficiency, what can be done to control operating costs of data centers as well as increasing their reliability and service up-time. Having "grown up" in a data center, I was very pleased to conclude that SCTi is doing an incredibly important work, the right way. Data center operators should take an immediate notice of SCTi's value proposition to improve their bottom line.
Problem: Based on prior experience visiting and working in various data centers, I noticed that some operators don't know what equipment they have running and why, others are running it for somewhat misguided reasons - like just in case we need it... Then you have cases with several AC and humidifier units, possibly incorrectly sized, competing with each other, wasting the precious energy. Currently, many of system managers are preoccupied with virtualization in efforts to increase the data center density, achieve cost reductions, etc. Both ends of the spectrum however can have detrimental effects on operating costs, potentially leading to premature equipment failures and undesirable downtime, if not addressed correctly.

Solution: This is where SCTi provides an essential service of assessment, planning and execution of optimization remedies. In assessment and planning stages, they quantify the impact of these remedies on operating costs of the data center for the benefit / cost analysis.
They specialize in three general areas where they teamed up with some exceptional companies:

• Power Monitoring - Knowing on circuit level how much your equipment draws, why and when is the first key to being able to manage your electrical loads.
• Environmental Monitoring - through a clever wireless sensor network allowing you to monitor real time environmental performance of your data center - thermal (cooling), humidity, dew point and pressure differential, etc. allowing for new ways to optimize the cooling and IT loads.
• Containment - airflow management is more often done incorrectly than well. Incorrectly designed and deployed containment leads to undesirable hot-spots causing premature equipment failures. SCTi with partners will recommend a solution for you resulting in extending efficiency gains, reducing operation costs and extending lifetime of your data center.

This type of optimization is especially important for centers where virtualization efforts are under way. While server virtualization has its benefits, it has often overlooked requirement with potentially very costly consequences. Now that you have virtualized, you are running at much higher CPU cycles and heat densities than before. Have you considered and checked what it means to server thermal management? Are you overloading any electrical circuits with changed, higher loads? Is the air delivery adequate to accommodate the denser heat load in the racks?

If in doubt, I suggest consulting SCTi to avoid some of these costly, avoidable mistakes. You may be surprised what they can come up with in their assessment.
I should mention a very important fact - all this can be accomplished in a totally non-invasive manner with a minimum risk of disrupting the data center operation. Fiddling in a data centre was for me something to avoid, unless every step was perfectly planned and risks well understood. I'm talking here about a mission critical data center with a lot of money and safety at stake in a large chemical plant... I broke into a couple of cold sweats - how could I forget... So, think low risk.

I also suggest considering the location of your data center and the surrounding building environment.

If the HVAC system in the building is turned off during off hours and weekends, assess what this means in terms of thermal loads on your data center as the building heats up in the summer - think of insulating walls and reduce air infiltration from the rest of the building. To prove the point, Mr. Murphy showed me real examples of the detrimental impact this can have on data centres situated on the top floor in the middle of a building with the office HVAC shut off during the weekend. The additional load on the data center A/C and impact on servers is very noticeable.

In terms of results, your boss will love you. You as the sysadmin will end up with less headaches having to fix, replace and definitely rebuild your systems.
Besides, it is the right thing to do for the environment, our often challenged power grid and your packets...

The mess in Gulf of Mexico

I find what is going on in Gulf of Mexico very, very disturbing.

Setting aside the disaster event and what led to it just off shore of Louisiana is one thing, but I’m questioning the motives and actions of some people at BP and US government. Are these folks listening to scientific advisers that quantify and state risks, or lobbyists and folks in leadership positions that are concerned about optics above all?

Take for example the use of the chemical dispersants that are used to alter physical properties of crude oil that normally floats on the surface of the water. 

There are two problems with this approach that I can see:

1.

The chemical dispersants are themselves nasty chemicals designed to turn crude oil into emulsion like substance and sink to the bottom. The chemical cocktail in question is named COREXIT 9500. You can find the MSDS at this URL http://bit.ly/bI5xbd .

In a nutshell COREXIT contains surfactants that are based among other things on 10% (w/w) petroleum products containing aromatic hydrocarbons. Aromats are a very good sources of irritants, carcinogens, pathogens and mutagens. Dumping hundreds of thousands of tons of this material into aquatic environment just blows my mind. OK, while crude oil is somewhat related to COREXIT in composition, crude oil is much more complex and damaging mix of hydrocarbons with even worse impact potential on the environment. So we are treating terrible with bad...

2.

We are making the crude oil starting to sink to the bottom, literally pushing the problem out of our view. Everyone in the media is preoccupied with oil hitting the shore, cleaning up the birds and other land animals. They say, stand by for the full environmental impact...

Aquatic environment is much more delicate and sensitive than our environment on the land. Both are interconnected however. Aquatic food chain that is being slaughtered as we speak is based on plankton. Plankton is on the bottom of the food chain and is absolutely critical food source to many aquatic species from shrimp, through variety of fish to whales. Guess what? Fish, shrimp and other crustaceans are already part of our food chain and food chain of living land creatures. As time progresses, birds and other animals will starve from lack of food or get poisoned by ingesting toxic fish or plants. Then there is the human food chain. See? It’s all interconnected.

Hmm, it looks like we are in no win situation. If we don’t make oil sink, it will severely impact the shores and its inhabitants. It is a terrible mess to look at - the oil covered beaches and marshes, dead birds, turtles and other sea creatures that didn’t make it and others that are suffering, being rescued by people. Your public relations nightmare...

If we make the oil sink, the sea life is severely impacted as creatures swim through the mess and the sea floor dwellers just get covered by it and die. We have chosen the second method that covers the terrible destruction under the water surface as it is out of sight and out of mind. At least for now.

I don’t want to sound like a hypocrite stating this is someone else’s problem, because we are all equally responsible by our dependency on crude oil. I drive a car, on daily basis I use items made out of plastics and other chemicals that are made from crude oil, so I’m just as guilty as the next guy fueling the demand for crude.

Bottom line: We are all going to pay for this mess one way or another.

Lessons learned and action items: Control oil lobby. Immediately, tighten up environmental and safety regulations for the off shore drilling to prevent such occurrences from happening again. Invest more into new clean technologies and renewable energy, energy storage, make the effort to get off the crude oil to throttle down the demand.  Exercise proper risk management and generally make responsible choices that will not have such profound impact on the environment, security and ultimately, us all.