Douglas Alger-The Art of The Data Center - A Look Inside The World's Most Innovative and Compelling Computing Environments-Prentice Hall (2012)

The Art of
the Data
Center
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iii
The Art of
the Data
Center
Douglas Alger
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Images of the Data Centers of Affordable Internet Services Online (Chapter 2), Bahnhof (Chapter 3),
Barcelona Computing Center (Chapter 4), Calcul Qubec (Chapter 5), Digital Realty Trust (Chapter 8), eBay
(Chapter 9), Green House Data (Chapter 11), Intel (Chapter 13), IO (Chapter 14), NetApp (Chapter 15),
Syracuse University (Chapter 16), Terremark (Chapter 17) and Yahoo! (Chapter 18) provided courtesy of the
respective organizations.
Image of boiler room piping and closeup image of server cabinets within ACTs Data Center (Chapter 1) are
provided courtesy of KJWW Engineering Consultants. Other images provided courtesy of Neumann Monson
Architects.
Image of the building exterior and image of the concrete areaway of Ciscos Data Center (Chapter 6) by
Douglas Alger. Image of the rooftop solar panel array by Andy Broer. Other images provided courtesy of Cisco;
photography by Cyclone Interactive.
Image of the building exterior of Citis Data Center (Chapter 7) provided courtesy of Citi. Other images by
Christian Richters Photography.
Images of Facebooks Data Center (Chapter 10) by Alan Brandt Photography.
Images of IBMs Data Center (Chapter 12) provided courtesy of IBM Corporation, all rights reserved.
ISBN-13: 978-1-58714-296-3
ISBN-10: 1587142961
Text printed in the United States on recycled paper at Courier in Westford, Massachusetts.
First printing September 2012
To Andy Broer, for thinking a reporter could do
Data Center work, and to Melynda, my reason why.
Contents
Chapter 1: ACT Chapter 2: Affordable Chapter 3: Bahnhof

Internet Services Online
(AISO)
Chapter 4: Barcelona Chapter 5: Calcul Chapter 6: Cisco

Supercomputing Center Qubec
Chapter 7: Citi Chapter 8: Digital Chapter 9: eBay

Realty Trust
Chapter 10: Facebook Chapter 11: Green Chapter 12: IBM
House Data
Chapter 13: Intel Chapter 14: IO Chapter 15: NetApp
Chapter 16: Syracuse Chapter 17: Terremark Chapter 18: Yahoo!

University
Visit www.informit.com/title/9781587142963 to learn how to register this product and gain access to additional content.
viii
Preface
The Art of the Data Center
Welcome to the engine rooms of the Internet.

Filled with rows of sophisticated computing equipment, massive air conditioners and elaborate electrical
systems, Data Centers power the Internet, foster productivity, and drive the global economy. Theyre also flat
out coolultramodern technology chambers with petaflops of processing and megawatts of electrical capacity.
I began working in Data Centers more than 15 years ago, first stocking supplies and inventorying hardware,
and eventually designing and managing dozens of these specialized computing environments for Cisco. I also
visited hundreds of other Data Centers during those years, taking tours and chatting with their designers and
managers whenever possible. Data Center folks are all trying to wrestle the same set of physics to the ground,
and Im always curious to see what elegant (or maybe not so elegant) solutions people have implemented.
The idea for The Art of the Data Center orginated in 2009 while I was working on a different book, Grow a
Greener Data Center. I was writing about geothermal cooling and wanted to provide examples of Data Centers
constructed underground and discovered Bahnhof s co-location facility in Stockholm. Housed in a former
nuclear bunker, it was dubbed The James Bond Villain Data Center by several technology websites thanks to
unique features such as man-made waterfalls and a glass-walled conference room that looms over its data hall. I
smiled at the cinematic touches such as dramatic lighting and artificial fog and wished I knew more about it.
Why did they build the Data Center to look like a super-villains headquarters? How much did those features cost?
How did they get standby generators into that underground space? Waitis that a fish tank in one picture?
None of those details were relevant for my book on green Data Center design, so I moved on. The idea stayed
with me, though. Find the most compelling Data Centers, explore their innovations and ask the people who
built them to share their insights and lessons learned.
And so, a few years later, here we are. Bahnhof s Data Center finally gets its due in Chapter 3, as do 17 other
server rooms that are also notable for their unique features and groundbreaking technologies.
Who Should Read This Book

The Art of the Data Center is for anyone intrigued by architecture, sustainable design, computing environments
or technology. Although IT, Facilities, and Data Center professionals will be most familiar with some of the
topics that are discussed, a background in those fields is not required. You dont have to be a civil engineer to
appreciate San Franciscos Golden Gate Bridge and you dont need to be a Data Center person to marvel at
these impressive facilities.
How This Book Is Organized

The Data Centers profiled in this book are displayed in alphabetical order, typically by the name of the
organization that operates them.
ix
Acknowledgments
Several Data Center professionals generously shared their time and wisdom for this book. Thank you to Don
Atwood of Intel; Sergi Girona of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center; Jon Karlung of Bahnhof.; John Killey
and Jerry Walsh of Citi; John Manville of Cisco; Shawn Mills of Green House Data; Chris Molloy of IBM;
Phil Nail of Affordable Internet Services Online; Dean Nelson of eBay; Christina Page, Nick Holt, Paul Bonaro
and Bob Lyte of Yahoo!; Marc Parizeau of Calcul Qubec; Jay Park of Facebook; Chris Sedore of Syracuse
University; Mark Skiff of NetApp; George Slessman of IO; Jim Smith of Digital Realty Trust; Ben Stewart of
Terremark; Tom Struve and Lon Andersen of ACT, Inc.
Thank you also to their colleagues and associates who scheduled interviews, obtained images and clarified
infrastructure details for each Data Center profile, patiently fielding my e-mails for just one more thing.
These included Xavier Gonzales of Terremark; Scott Gomer, Nancy Owen and Steve Kayser of ACT;
Sara Ibez Leciena and Renata Gimnez Binder of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center; Alex Kirschner
of The OutCast Agency; Elizabeth Kubycheck, Lourdes Pagan and Lisa Krueger of IO; Mike Lewis and
Monica Penrose of eBay; Bruce McConnel and Todd Traver of IBM; Debbie McIntyre, Tina OMara and
June Szymanski of Syracuse University; Rich Miller and Lauren Williams of Digital Realty Trust; Kristine Raabe
of Intel; Denise Schmitz of Neumann Monson Architects; Janis Tarter of Citigroup; Amy Thon of KJWW
Engineering Consultants; Kristian Thorin of Bahnhof; and Dyani Vanderhorst of Voce Communications.
About the Author

Douglas Alger is a newspaper reporter turned Data Center guy who has worked for more than 15 years in
Data Center operations, physical design, architecture, project management, and more. He hosts the Data Center
Deconstructed blog and has written two other books, Build the Best Data Center Facility for Your Business and
Grow a Greener Data Center.
Doug is an IT Architect at Cisco. He previously was a writer and editor in the News & Publications office of
Syracuse University and a full-time stringer for the Los Angeles Times, where he was part of the team that won
a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the Northridge Earthquake. Doug has a bachelors degree in journalism from
San Jose State University.
Figure 1-1 ACTs Data Center in Iowa City, Iowa, was the first in the United States to be certified
LEED-Platinum. Image provided courtesy of Neumann Monson Architects.
Chapter 1
ACT
Essential Details
ORGANIZATION: ACT, Inc.
Location: Iowa City, Iowa
Online: March 2008
Notable features: Closed-loop geothermal cooling, HVAC dry coolers, tornado-resistant structure,
hot and cold aisles. Active-active configuration with a second Data Center 5 miles (8 km) away, linked
by ACTs own dark fiber. LEED-Platinum certified.
Time to design and build: 13 months
Size: 6,700 sq. ft. (622.5 sq. m) total, with 4,000 sq. ft. (371.6 sq. m) of hosting space.
Power: Two .9 MW feeds; IT usable capacity of 270 kW
Tier: III
Cabinet locations: 150
Power Density: 6 kW average per cabinet, 11 kW maximum
Infrastructure Delivery: Structured cabling above cabinets. Electrical conduits and air cooling delivered
under a 36-in. (91.4 cm) deep raised floor.
Structural loading: 300 lb. per sq. ft. (1,464.7 kg per sq. m)
Fire suppression system: Double pre-action wet sprinklers, FM200 gaseous fire suppressant. VESDA
detection system.
Leave it to a testing organization to achieve the highest
Background
grade for its Data Center.

ACT, Inc., the nonprofit organization best known for the
college entrance exam that bears its name, aced the
U.S. Green Building Councils environmental building
assessment system with the Data Center at its Iowa City
headquarters. Its the first Data Center in the United States
(and the first building of any kind in Iowa) to receive
LEED-Platinum certification.
Helping earn that high mark is a chalkboard-wide list of renewable or recycled materials employed at the site
including aspen fiber ceiling panels, cork flooring, cotton-wall insulation, and even a second-hand raised floor
system.
Extra credit should be awarded for how the server environment is cooled. The site features a geothermal field
consisting of vertical bore holes and a closed-loop piping system below ground that is filled with coolant and,
chilled by the surrounding earth, functions as a heat exchanger. Above-ground dry coolers are employed as well,
both as a redundant measure for the geothermal solution and in their own right when external temperatures are
low enough that outside air can help cool the Data Center.
Aside from its green features, the ACT Data Center is designed to withstand a tornado with wind speeds up to
250 mph (402.3 kph), including wind-driven projectiles, and operates in conjunction with a second Data Center
5 miles (8 km) away.
Pay close attention class, as Tom Struve, assistant vice president of Central Services, and Lon Andersen, vice
president of Information Technology, discuss how they sharpened their pencils, studied the details of their
project, and exceeded the curve with their Data Center.
The Interview
What role does this Data Center serve for ACT?
Tom: We realized the need to establish a second Data Center to ensure the
uninterrupted technology services to ACT Corporation and clients. This serves
that important role in terms of having the redundancy and resiliency in the
system. Just like every organization, technology is just such a huge, integral,
important component of ACT as it is with other modern organizations that we
just have to have the right infrastructure, resilient infrastructure, and be able to
provide those services on an uninterrupted basis, internally and externally.
5
Lon: An initial thought process was, because of how critical the delivery through
1: ACT
technology was to ACT, ACT and the board (ACTs board of directors) really
recognized we need something heavily for disaster recovery and how we would do
that. So, I think following on with that theme is, as youre seeing the trend in the
industry going away from traditional disaster recovery, the plans that I have right
now are starting to migrate away from Ive got my data someplace now how do
I build other servers and how do I recover to an active-active situation where, to
Toms point, even if one Data Center goes away the other centers may run a little
degradated but the service never goes away at that point in time.
So, from the concept of where they were to where were now conceptually trying
to build across the two centers is how do we get that active-active mode to where
were sharing workload across two different sites.
The fact that you knew that this was going to be part of a Data Center
pair operating in an active-active manner, how did that influence the
design?
Tom: One of the early decision points, as we were putting together our vision
and gameplan for this, was to come to grips with are we going to utilize the
traditional disaster recovery site location? What approach were we going to take in
terms of DR? Went through that process, looked at alternatives, the cost-benefits,
of those traditional approaches. Really as weto cut a long story shortdecided
that the best overall model for us, all things considered, was to establish an active-
active model and we have our Data Centers 5 miles (8 km) apart. Some people in
the DR scene would just shudder at that, Oh, man. It should be 25 miles (40.2
km). It should be in different regions of the country to avoid seismic activity, to
avoid electrical grid issues and on and on. Its all a matter of, as we all know, how
far do you take this?
LEED Certification
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a rating system for the design, construction, and
operation of green buildings. Facilities can achieve ratings of certified, silver, gold, or platinum based on
criteria within six categories:sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and
resources, indoor environmental quality, and innovation and design.
6
What we elected to do was establish it on a separate property that we owned

within the same city. One of the driving factors was that I was able to negotiate
with the city of Iowa City to allow ACT to install our own fiber between the two
sites. Then that starts getting in to the practical aspects that all start tying together
from an operational standpoint, from a disaster recovery standpoint, by having
those tied together over dark fiber.
Also, obviously, being able to have an active-active situation its not a matter of
having to go to some foreign location, try to bring the thing up, try to bring the
data with you, try to reroute communications to it. Its just seamless. And if you
look at it from a disaster recovery standpoint the onerous task of trying to get
staff to a different location to staff it and so forth, theres that aspect. And then
as we look at it from a day-to-day operation, yeah we could have established it
maybe 25 miles (40.2 km) away from Iowa City. Well that, just on a day-to-day
operations, impacts Lons staff and were not a huge global enterprise where we
have thousands of IT staff. So we boiled all that together and the value of having
that direct fiber connection was just huge from what that allows us to achieve
from an IT perspective and also from a cost perspective. Communication costs for
the bandwidth thats required anymore, even with bandwidth expenses coming
down, is still really significant.
Lon: The primary thing there from a technology standpoint is it opens up all
kinds of doors that arent there when youre beyond this dark fiber limitation. In
fact, when I would go to different executive briefings on future technologies
IBM happens to have one, they typically do it around their storage and they start
talking about replicationsthey always have to back up and stop and rethink
their thought process because theyre not accustomed to companies having that
dark fiber and that bandwidth.
Essentially, to us it all looks like just one Data Center. And the machines could
just as well be sitting right alongside each other on the same floor. So for the
engineers it makes a whole lot easier scenario to start envisioning and working
through as to how do you make this thing work and tie together.
7
1: ACT
Figure 1-2 ACTs Iowa City Data Center features Tier III infrastructure and is linked to another
ACT Data Center 5 miles (8 km) away. Image provided courtesy of Neumann Monson
Architects.
What design parameters did you have in place at the start of the
project?
Tom: As we set our project goals, we decided Tier III however we also said its
going to be tornadoyou want to have it be tornado-proof; the engineers are
quick to point out that FEMA uses the term of near-absolute protection.
In our location, seismic zone is not an issue. Tornado is, from a geographic
location and separation standpoint really probably our largest or one of our
largest risks, separate from electrical zones. So thats why we said we are going to
mitigate that risk by designing it to the near-absolute tornado protection.
8
What tier is the Data Center that this one is paired with?
Tom: This Data Center is a Tier III and then Tier I on the other side.
I assume that that Tier I site was your primary Data Center, prior to
this Data Center coming online. So, from a redundancy perspective
you took a big step up with the addition of this Data Center.
Tom: Yes. Historically, ACT has gone from outsourcing to pretty quickly being
responsible for a lot of its own data and processing. Across the board all of our
technology infrastructure had a huge project just to upgrade everything and this
was one element of that.
It seems you did that in a big way. Youve got the first LEED-Platinum
certified Data Center in the United States and the first LEED-Platinum
building in the state of Iowa. You obviously werent following the pack
when designing the room. You went from outsourced and Tier I to Tier
III, LEED-Platinum. What made you decide to build the Data Center to
those standards?
Tom: Yeah. The Tier III was, to me, a no-brainer. I guess thats easy to say, but
given our overall vision and where we were and where we saw our future going we
just had to have this resilient infrastructure and that was part of it.
The LEED aspect of it (came about) as we were doing initial almost like pre-
schematic design stuff. Our process is, we have a board of directors. We needed to
secure board of director approval for a project of this nature so I had to assemble
just a basic outline, enough to get a budget number put together and secure board
approval before we would really get serious about the project. Put together a team,
we decided we wanted to pursue the design/build of the project, adopt that model
if the project was approved.
9
We were certainly aware of LEED. The architect/engineers on the project had
1: ACT
a LEED background. We talked about it. Frankly, at the initial stages we said,
Boy, Data Center and LEED, its almost kind of a non-sequitor. That doesnt
necessarily follow. We did recognize and thought we would want to follow that
kind of a design framework but at that point we didnt establish a high-level
LEED goal.
It went to the board and we have a very progressive board and they said Yeah
LEED, yeah! And if were going to bother to do this we think we ought to set a
lofty goal and go for a high level LEED certification on this. It was great to get
the board approval so that we could launch into this thing. On the other hand,
we sat down with the team and said And... theyve set this goal for us.
You talk about one of the challenges of the project. First it was just getting over
the shock of the board setting what one could view as an insurmountable goal.
Back at the time the board approved this, we could discover four LEED-Silver
certified Data Centers but most of them were actually contained within a larger
building, which frankly allows you to achieve a LEED certification easier than, at
least it was thought at the time, a Data Center project.
That really got us started. We quickly got over that and it became a huge
motivation. Everyone on the team, fortunately, was like, Tell us it cant be done
and thats a challenge. It just took off from there.
A perception in the building industrybeyond just the Data Center

industry but the building industry in generalis that building a green
facility is notably more expensive than building a conventional one.
Did you find that to be the case with this project?
Tom: We really did not. Going in to this, the idea was just to have a very
utilitarian Data Center project. We put together a modest/frugal budget for that.
We had that as one of our overall guiding base of the design elements.
Where there were instances where we added costs into the project to work within
the LEED framework, we feel in every instance that it definitely added value to
the project. Did it add cost? Yeah, it did. But it was not significant. And that was
achieving platinum, also.
10
What are some of the features of the facility that helped you achieve
the LEED-Platinum rating?

Tom: What it really came down to was just a huge attention to detail. On the
one hand, when you walk up to the facility, when you walk in to the facility, in
many respects you wouldnt even think Oh, gee, this is some special building.
Which is in some respects the beauty of it, also, given its a Data Center. First and
foremost we had to achieve the Tier III. It had to be resilient. We used the line
a sustainable design from an IT operational standpoint. However, we were also
designing it within the LEED environmental sustainable design and construction
process.
So, to answer your question, one of the things that really stands out is the use
of the geothermal in a Data Center. It just was not used prior for Data Center
projects, wasnt considered to be compatible with Data Center projects in that, as
we all know, Data Centers are constantly rejecting heat. A geothermal field would
just become saturated and quickly just not become functional. So it typically was
just not considered.
I just have to give huge credit to every member of our team and KJWW
Engineering brought to the table quite a bit of geothermal and other innovative
technologies. Even before we were challenged by the board we had identified
geothermal as something that we were very interested in pursuing and then they
(KJWW) had been looking for an opportunity in a Data Center project; they had
some ideas about how they might be able to make that work. Thats probably one
of the features.
We can go through a long list of things. To incorporate, for instance, reclaimed
materials into a new Data Center project. Its like, How the heck do you do that?
And you want to be a Tier III.
When you go through the list, to me its just kind of like Oh, gee, is that it?
So, we reclaimed the floor system from a prior project. As you look at rapidly
renewable materials as a requirement, how do you incorporate rapidly renewable
materials into a Data Center project? We used aspen fiber ceiling tiles. There are
cork flooring and cotton insulation instead of fiberglass. Just things like that.
Again, you walk in you dont really see those things, you dont notice them
Gee, there are ceiling tiles. Gee, theres a raised floor system that looks the same
as everyone elses. Yes it does. However, if you dig in to the details then Oh, gee,
thats where that stuff came from.
11
Other things where we faced some challenges or opportunities, LEED framework
1: ACT
is to provide daylighting into staff spaces. Here we were with a Data Center
project that needed to be tornado resistant, all the usual security concerns and
all those kind of things. So that was an interesting challenge. What we ended up
doingagain, when you walk up you dont really notice itso theres a curtain
wall on the exterior of the building, however we established a separate interior
vessel that was actually the tornado resistant portion of the building.
While we incorporated tornado resistant glass, you cannot have at least at this
point (in time)Im sure theres probably bullet-resistant stuff, but we were on
a budget. So we came up with that design, not really a compromise it was just a
design solution.
Thats one where I would say if you were just building a non-LEED building it
just would have been a concrete exterior wall. We put some additional funding,
not significant, in to the project for that curtain wall. However, it really adds
value. I mean, wow, when you walk into the building and the staff lab space and
conference area its nice to have the windows and to get light and be able to look
out. Those are elements that are part of that.
And then from the site and so forth we have restored natural prairie vegetation,
non-irrigable, that kind of thing. Again, its just there. Do you think it looks odd
and its something really special? Not really.
Its just details, details, details and not losing sight of the overall vision. And for us
it was that dual goal.
12
Figure 1-3 Tornado-resistant glass allows daylight into parts of the building regularly occupied by
people. Image provided courtesy of Neumann Monson Architects.
What about how your geothermal system was designed allowed it be

used effectively for your Data Center?
Tom: It probably comes down to two things. The primary thing is that we
used the dry coolers and the free cooling during the winter season to circulate
the abundance of cooler air to reject the heat. We take a percentage of that and
circulate it through the geothermal field to basically rejuvenate it. Thats the
biggest thing.
And then, we have a different distance between the bores, factoring in the larger
amount of heat and the longer duration of the period to avoid that saturation
while were operating.
13
Just like many of the other things, once you see the answer it just seems so simple.
1: ACT
A lot of times its an elegant solution and simple that is the best. And it works.
Some Data Center operators prefer to keep their Data Centers quite
cool. Others using air economization technology employ warmer
settings to maximize its benefits. With your use of geothermal cooling
and dry coolers, what temperatures do you maintain your Data Center
hardware at?
Tom: Were at 72 degrees Fahrenheit (22.2 Celsius) and 50 percent humidity.
Were not doing that (exploring warmer temperatures) at present. There are some
additional refinements and measures like that that we recognize that we could
easily put in place, we just werent at the point where we needed that. Well spot
check what temperatures are and so forth but we dont have integral rack sensors
and those kinds of things.
You obviously wanted this Data Center to score well on the LEED
scale and the system can be specific about what design elements it
awards points for. While LEED has been embraced by the Data Center
industry more than any other environmental building assessment
system, there is some hesitation that features it awards points for
such as daylighting and providing shower facilities and bicycle storage
lockers dont reflect how green a Data Center truly is. Was there any
point at which you felt like you had to make a decision between
earning more LEED points versus good Data Center design?
Tom: From the standpoint of there being tradeoffs or compromising the Data
Center or the Tier III, no. We did not. Certainly we were faced with a large
number of options and decisions where we had to keep looking at whats the
balance here. We wanted to stay within the green framework but couldnt lose
sight of the Tier III.
14
For instance, a green roof is commonly associated with a LEED building. We

talked about that, could have done it. As we looked at what it would really take
to achieve that and to really have a good ongoing green roof and so forth we felt
there were some potential compromises with roof penetrations and just some
different structure things that way. We looked at the options and really we were
able to still be within the spirit and framework of LEED by instead putting
on an Energy Star roof system. It has a double roofing system: as far as the
tornado resistant structure we have a conventional roof, a couple inches (about 5
centimeters) of concrete slab over the top of that and then a single-ply membrane
roof on top of that, which is the Energy Star rating.
As you say, yes we provided the shower facilities, the various other kind of things.
It didnt compromise the functionality of the building.
Its a good question, Doug. Its right on target. As you know, LEED is constantly
evolving and refining and I know there have been efforts to establish a designation
for Data Centers. Personally I think that makes a lot of sense.
Certainly that was a challenge taking the LEED framework as it existed at that
point in time and applying it to a Data Center. I would imagine that as the
framework gets developed itll be better. I dont know if you would say easier in
the sense of using the framework that we had. Its just amazing what just a few
years does.
At the time we were doing this, in terms of the materials that were available, that
were certified appropriately, all the different sources for construction materials
we have recycled content in the steel and recycled content in the concrete and
those kind of thingsit was more difficult then to come up with those things
than I think even it is just today not that many years later. I guess the point is, on
the one hand I think the framework will be evolving and becoming more specific,
which I think definitely it needs to be. At the same time, then, I would imagine
that would then get more stringent from a Data Center standpoint. On the other
hand, then, theres a lot of materials and technology that are now coming on-
stream that one could get to make use of.
Among your re-use items you mention the floor system. Did you have
that in another facility or did you go shopping for a raised floor system
from someone else?
Tom: Yeah, we went shopping.
15
Where do you find a gently-used raised floor system for a Data Center?
1: ACT
Tom: At the time there was still a lot of stuff on the open market from the dot-
com bust. And there are sources for used furniture, used raised floors, those kind
of things.
What we did do was to specify and apply new surface material to it. So from an
appearance standpoint, the tile material is new. It looks new and so forth. But the
bulk of it is not the little surface its the actual structural portion of the floor tile.
Figure 1-4 Structured cabling is routed overhead. Electrical conduits and cooling are provided
below a raised floor. Image provided courtesy of Neumann Monson Architects.
16
You routed your structured cabling overhead and your power and
cooling below a raised floor. Did anything drive that particular

configuration? A growing number of Data Center designs now eliminate
any raised floor.
Tom: We did kick around some different ideas. However, all things considered
we felt that was still the best fit for us. Talking about the wisdom of stuff that
we learned, one of the things is taking a look at all of the best practices out there
and deciding and having a good understanding of what they are and where to
best apply them and then where to maybe reinvent them. Some of the things we
felt comfortable that they would best satisfy our needs currently and then going
forward.
Ive been in some Data Centers that dont have the raised floor thing and we
just felt from a cooling efficiency value, from a cost standpoint, that the raised
floor with the return plenum represented an optimal cost value and efficiency
standpoint.
It seemed to me thatit could be a misconception I havethe ones that we
visited and read about, not having the raised floor was really just a lot more cost-
driven than anything else. They were able to achieve the cooling and the utility
cabling infrastructure around it fine, but I really felt that there were compromises
drawn that overall it just, bottom line, wasnt the best value all things considered.
What did you have to do to make the facility tornado-resistant?

Tom: It was really everything. Certainly the wall design, the roof design. The
doors needed to be (a certain way). They do have certification rating standards
for tornado, FEMA compliant things. So, from a structural standpoint, all
of those elements. As we talked about, then, just from some other practical
standpoints not necessarily achieving the tornado rating but being practical to
ensure that the facility would continue operating is different than just having
a structure standing. In that regard, from an HVAC (heating, ventilation, and
air conditioning) standpoint, especially since we had the tornado portion of the
building versus the other portion that we just talked about with the windows
and so forth, the HVAC system has to be divided into two pressure vessels so
that when a tornado would hit that the Data Center portion is protected. We do
17
that through automated controls and sensors or if were aware that were in to a
1: ACT
warning area we can also remotely or at the Data Center put it in that mode.
And then we put the generator inside the building. The sole reason was to protect
it in the event of a tornado type event. Its nice from a vandalism point of view,
too, but its really the tornado thing that drove that. Again, the building could
be standing but most likely in a tornado event power to the building you have
to assume would be interrupted and so we need that generator to be functional.
So its within the building. Then you have the obvious problems of trying to
get a massive amount of air into that generator space for cooling primarily and
exhausting it. And so, on the air intakes and exhaust theres structural (barrier)
the best way to describe it is an array of steel tubes that would prevent a tornado-
driven 2-by-4 or whatever to be able to penetrate in and damage the generator.
Figure 1-5 ACT placed the Data Centers standby generators inside the building to safeguard them
from tornadoes. Image provided courtesy of Neumann Monson Architects.
18
What were the biggest challenges or surprises that came up during the
project?
Tom: Its good to have a little bit of time probably separating from when we went
through it. At the time youre in it you just do it. In some respects there werent
any huge challenges. It was really just breaking it down element by element
and just working through the options, looking at the LEED framework and
identifying options that we could incorporate.
We were pleasantly surprised by the synergies that ended up happening between
the LEED design and achieving the Tier III. For instance, the geothermal is
just a great synergy there. It has the energy efficiency and so forth. And the way
we use that is in our climate the geothermal field is most energy efficient in the
summertime and then we have dry coolers, out in the HVAC courtyard which
as they say provide essentially free cooling. All it requires is just the pump to
be running out there, so we rely on them as our primary heat rejection source
in the wintertime. Well, as part of the Tier III you have the N+1 redundancy
of the CRAC (computer room air conditioner) units within the Data Center,
however we also wanted to have redundancy and protection in terms of the rest
of the system.
Thats one thing that has always bothered me as I walk up to these Data Centers
is you have all these condensing units outside, up on the roof or out in the
courtyard or whatever, and in terms of potential risk from a tornado event or
vandalism or even a car running into the things, that kind of stuff. Thats always I
thought a risk thats not really a lot of times appropriately addressed. Sometimes
theyre placed within the building and then you have a huge challenge, which can
be overcome, of getting sufficient airflow in there for them to operate.
So with the geothermal everything is under the ground and the pumps are
all within the tornado-protected vessel. Worst case we feel that in the event
of a tornado we might lose some of those exterior condensing units but the
geothermal is standalone, self-sufficient and can go. Conversely, if we have some
problem with the geothermal we feel that needs addressingyou get a leak in one
of the loops or somethingif you need to take that offline then no problem we
just go over to the other side. So thats a nice synergy, I think.
Theres the energy-efficiency aspect to both of them, but you put them both
together and from a seasonal energy efficiency standpoint and then from a
resiliency standpoint in terms of the Data Center operation I think its pretty cool
how that works together.
19
Do you think the geothermal system and the other design elements
1: ACT
that helped you achieve LEED-Platinum certification are universal
solutions? Are they things that anyone building a Data Center could do
now and should do now, or are some of them very specific to what you
were trying to accomplish and where your facility is located?
Tom: I think the geothermal and combining that with the dry coolers is
definitely a climate-related solution. If your Data Center is in Texas, it really
wouldnt be a model that would fit. Above a certain latitude, then good to go.
There are some things dependent that way.
Otherwise I would say the rest of it would be just pretty universally applicable,
adaptable.
If you could go back and design this Data Center all over again what,
if anything, would you do differently?
Tom: To date, nothing has come up. Pretty surprising.
Lon: One of the things that hasnt been mentioned is there is already pre-
planning on expansion of this that got engineered and thought about before we
went ahead. Even to that standpoint, if the capacity got beyond where we needed
it we already had that thought into and laid out from an architectural standpoint,
and pre-planning how that next piece of expansion would go. And Im not sure
that facilities typically do that very well.
Tom: Well see how it develops, only time will tell. From my standpoint, our
future roadmap would be to establish a similar Tier III facility on campus to
replace the Tier I Data Center, which is contained within an office building and
constrained.
What suggestions would you offer to someone else embarking on a

Data Center project?
Lon: What I found when I first came in, I dont think the technical engineers
were thinking about green and sustainability of what was there at that point in
time. So the concept of really doing virtualization of servers, hot and cold aisles
20
inside the center, perhaps how we do backups, what we would do those to, and
how that story would bethats the biggest thing that if I were to look at it I
would say that design or that thought process needs to be ongoing and developed
as the building is being constructed.
Do you have a target level for how much virtualization you employ in
the Data Center?
Lon: Not a particular target level at this time. I can tell you the intent is to
reduce this year (the number of physical servers) by about 50 percent and we will
reduce further as we go on. Were going to reduce down from about 450 physical
servers to in the neighborhood of 200.
That will come down to a point of, like most places, a percentage of utilization
and that saturation of where youre actually providing decent core services versus
how much youre trying to put within a particular device.
Figure 1-6 ACT is reducing the quantity of servers in its Data Center through virtualization. Image
provided courtesy of KJWW Engineering Consultants.
21
Any other Data Center project strategies that you can recommend?
1: ACT
Tom: Establishing clear goals for the project. Its one of the obvious, simple
things but man you better know what they are and keep grounding it toward that.
The other thing that I constantly say is assembling the right team to achieve the
goals. Like we all know, it just comes down to the people involved and working
as a team on a project like this. Understanding what your goals are and then
choosing the right team members that bring the right experience and the right
kind of mindset to the project is just so important.
And I think that being motivated, certainly at least on this project,
being motivated by having an apparently very difficultwe say almost
insurmountabletask. Being open-minded and creative.
And just that details, details, details, while at the same time keeping a clear grasp
of the overall goals and vision. In terms of the (LEED) Platinum, certainly, boy,
it just really gets involved in the details of the thing. Like I said earlier, too,
understanding best practices sufficiently to be comfortable making decisions
regarding which of those to incorporate and which of those to reinvent.
Also a really key thing at least on this project was owner decision making.
Ultimately this is the owners project. You have to be knowledgeable and
intimately involved. If you think you can just hire a bunch of consultants and
say Hey, heres what I want. I want LEED-Platinum and I want whatever tier
and these kind of things, thats just not going to happen. Youre not going to be
satisfied overall with the project and its not going to achieve what you need it
to in all respects if youre not really involved. And you have to be knowledgeable
about the subject matter. You need to make the tough decisions in a very timely
manner and as an owner you need to accept full responsibility for the risks
associated with non-traditional approaches. And in doing so, the owner really sets
the tone by making those decisions.
If you get into a situation where youre setting up for a bunch of finger-pointing
later if something doesnt work then that just causes everyone to be defensive and
to fall back in to that old deal of just using the safe, tried and true best practices.
To me, my bias is its not the place for decisions by an owner committee.
Someone needs to be empowered with the authority and the responsibility to
make those decisions and just to make them.
We would to keep this thing moving and just a whole array with the LEED-
Platinum framework and since we were in somewhat uncharted territory we
would talk about things, bring them up, get them vetted and then I would just
22
make a decision. I know sometimes they would say Dont you want to think
about that? but weve all investigated, all the information there is to know is
here, so boom lets go this direction. We need to keep this moving. Boy, you can
just get so bogged down in something like this that you just have to be willing to
stand up and make decisions and move on.
Ultimately this is the owners project. You have to be

knowledgeable and intimately involved. If you think you can just
hire a bunch of consultants and say Hey heres what I want.
thats just not going to happen. Youre not going to be satisfied
overall with the project and its not going to achieve what you need
it to in all respects if youre not really involved.
What do you think were the toughest decisions for this project, or that
someone else in a similar project might find the toughest to make a
call on?
Tom: I suppose because the project was successful, both from the LEED
standpoint and the daily operational perspectiveits just performing greatin
hindsight they dont seem like there were any hugely difficult ones. Certainly
committing to the geothermal design, which was at that point not really proven.
The others were just evaluating the options, the pros and cons, and understanding
the dual goals and going for it.
A team dynamic that really workedin terms of achieving it, its more the people
involved and setting the toneis setting egos aside. And they did. As we were
working through all these different options and alternatives you could have seen it
stepping on toes of different disciplines. But everyone just really worked together
towards the common vision and were just really open and creative and willing
to sit and listen and consider different ways to do it and then talk about how
maybe mechanical and controls and electrical had to come together on some of
these things. How best to do that as we tried to incorporate the flexible, modular
approach into things.
23
Im happy with how we have done there. That requires cross-discipline
1: ACT
approaches. I think sometimes you just get some of these egos. It can enter in.
You get someone people in and they feel it has to be their way. Thats easier said
than done to get past that.
Figure 1-7 Chilled water piping for ACTs Iowa City Data Center. Image provided courtesy of KJWW
Engineering Consultants.
Figure 2-1 Affordable Internet Services Onlines Data Center operates entirely on solar power.
Images provided courtesy of AISO.
Chapter 2
Affordable Internet Services Online (AISO)
Essential Details
ORGANIZATION: Affordable Internet Services Online (AISO)
Location: Romoland, California
Online: April 2005
Notable features: Solar power used as primary power source. Air conditioners use atmospheric energy
process to produce cold air. Solar tube lighting and a rainwater collection system.
Size: 2,000 sq. ft. (185.8 sq. m) total, with 400 sq. ft. (37.2 sq. m) of hosting space
Power capacity: 110 kW from on-site solar array
Tier: III
Infrastructure Delivery: Power, cooling, and cabling infrastructure are provided overhead
Structural loading: Undetermined
Fire suppression system: Aerosol
Solar power is an impractical source of energy for a
Background
Data Center. Its only available for a limited number

of hours each day. Its prone to interference by the
weather. Beyond those limitations, solar generates a
miniscule amount of power relative to what a server
environment consumes. It certainly cant serve as the
primary source of power for a Data Center.
Or can it?
Affordable Internet Services Online (AISO) offers what
is believed to be the worlds only fully solar-powered
hosting company. Located in Romoland, California,
about 70 miles (112.7 km) southeast of Los Angeles, the Data Center and accompanying office space run
entirely on solar power by ruthlessly stretching each watt produced by an array of 120 solar panels.
The buildings white exterior and foliage-covered roof reduce how hard the cooling system must work, for
instance. Seven mirrored tubes bring natural light into the facility during the day, while energy-efficient LED
lighting is used at night. Tiny wind turbines installed within the buildings air ducts even harvest energy from
the passing air, charging batteries to run AISOs office computers. The site also includes a 10,000-gallon
(37,854.1 liter) rainwater collection system, allowing it to operate without drawing upon the municipal water
supply.
The two technologies that bring the most energy savings, though, are virtualizationAISO has a 60:1 ratio
of virtual to physical serversand an extremely efficient air conditioning system. The Data Centers 5-ton
Coolerado air conditioners use the same latent cooling process, known as the Maisotsenko cycle, that transfers
heat to a thunderstorm and makes the surrounding cooler area. According to the manufacturer, the units
consume up to 90 percent less energy than conventional air conditioners.
Despite the Data Centers relatively small size, it serves more than 15,000 clients, ranging from Krispy Kreme
Doughnuts to the Jacques Cousteau Foundation to the San Diego Convention Center, and its green technologies
save an estimated 150,000 lb. (68,038.9 kg) of carbon dioxide per year.
Phil Nail, AISOs founder and chief technical officer, talks about the companys solar-powered Data Center.
27
The Interview
2: Affordable Internet Services Online (AISO)

Solar is not typically used as a primary power source for a Data Center
because it cant generate the massive amount of energy demanded
by most server environments and because its not an always-on power
source. What prompted you to use solar power and how did you
overcome those limitations?
We went solar because of the fact of where we are. In Southern California we get
a lot of sun, we dont really get wind here. Its the best thing to do. Really, its the
right thing to do because any time you can use renewable energy youre better off.
We took this step back in 2001 (with a previous server environment) before the
green movement. We kind of pioneered running the Data Center this way. It
was challenging going solar because there were a lot of things we had to consider.
We had to reduce our power consumption and be very conscientious of what
equipment we use in our Data Center.
For us it was the right thing to do and the only thing to do. We just had to do it
and we had to figure it out and we had to make it work for us.
How are you storing the energy that you collect?

We have large backup units that actually hold all of the energy and store it. The
thing is with most Data Centers, now with the green movement that is out there,
most of them just try to buy green credits to make it look good.
We had to reduce our power consumption and be very

conscientious of what equipment we use in our Data Center.
28
So, you think they should directly incorporate alternative energy in

their Data Center designs instead?

No, not just that. I just think they need to be trying to green their Data Center
as much as possible and do everything they can possibly do and not whitewash
itor greenwash it you would sayby doing the energy credits. A lot of them
will say Hey, were green, were running green servers, were running all this green
stuff. But you have to really drill down and read every single word that they
have and finally somewhere in therell be a couple little words that say Well, we
buy energy credits. And I hear this so much from clients. They say Yeah, these
companies look really good but boy after you really start reading on it then you
want to run.
I think that small Data Centers should try to incorporate alternative energy
solutions in to their designs. It would be very difficult for larger Data Centers to
run completely off alternative energy due to the size of their footprint.
Figure 2-2
AISOs small
number of servers
makes it possible
to run entirely on
solar energy.
Was there a particular challenge that you had to overcome in order

to run entirely off of solar energy? Have you done something that you
think other companies cant do? If they can, why do you think most
arent?
Yeah, I think we have done something thats different than what a lot of
companies have done. I think a lot of them just arent doing it because of the cost
factor. And because of the fact that theyre afraid of about making that change.
A lot of these companies, too, they have a lot of red tape. Just because the IT
29
department doesnt want to do it doesnt mean all of the other divisions do, and it

takes six to eight months to get anything done.
First thing we had to do was completely change the way we run our Data Center.
We had to reduce the amount of power we were using which meant we had to
reduce the amount of equipment we were running. We also had to change the
way we cooled our Data Center. I think we have pioneered the green Data Center
by doing something others would have been afraid to do.
Most Data Center operators these days want to show they have green policies in
place but most just opt for purchasing green certificates. Our neighbor worked for
the electric company running all the high voltage lines and oversaw the operations
and he told me that there is no possible way that a company can choose to get
only wind generated or solar generated power because all power coming in to the
station or substation goes into a pool and then is sent out to customers who need
the power. At any given moment the power company may need extra power so
they check with other states and power companies and if that company has extra
power available it is sent into the electric pool. That means any one of us who do
not purchase green certificates still get some green power. We just do not know
from who and how much.
Talk a little bit about the cost issue. I assume you mean the upfront
capital cost to install a solar system. Did you find the system to be
notably more expensive than a conventional power system?
Oh sure, yeah. Im not sure what our cost was, it has been so long. But I can tell
you that it definitely is very expensive to do and there are a lot of things that
need to be fine-tuned after you install it. There are a lot of things that you have to
figure out that you hope will work and theres a lot of trial and error.
Getting started is extremely expensive but in our case it has paid off. Most
companies look at the ROI before they invest and the ROI (return on investment)
in most cases can be 10 to 15 years.
First thing we had to do was completely change the way we run

our Data Center.
30
Any potential errors that you would alert someone to if they were
looking to put a solar energy system in place to power their Data

Center?
I cant think of something off the top of my head. Every installation is going to be
different, depending upon what theyre running, how theyre running it. I dont
think theyre all going to be the same. Youre going to have individual challenges
for every single one. It all depends on cooling. There are a lot of different
configurations.
With that extra cost up front, did you have a sense of your return on
investment and how quickly you would make your money back due to
reduced energy costs?
We didnt even take a look at that. Most companies they want to know what the
ROI is before they even think about doing it. We just did it because we thought
thats the right thing to do. We figured it would pay off in the long run we just
didnt know how long.
What made you decide to locate your Data Center in Romoland?

Weve always had the Data Center right next door to our house. We were looking
for a piece of property that we could build a Data Center on and get up and walk
next door and go to work.
We were looking for a nice place that had some property that was close to the
cities but also out enough so that it could be very low key. Nobody would ever
know that we were a Data Center, driving by.
Another way that youre leveraged solar power is through the use of
solar tubing and windows. Did you have any security concerns about
using them?
No security concerns at all. The solar tubes are small in diameter so no one can
simply knock off the top and climb into the Data Center.
31
Figure 2-3

Solar tubing
and skylights
supplement the
lighting in AISOs
Data Center.
Tell me about your air conditioning system. I understand that the units
you have installed actually work more efficiently in warmer conditions.
Our AC units work extremely well 99 percent of the year. The other 1 percent we
need to run regular AC to help knock down the temperature inside. The reason is
the AC units use water and do not work well when the humidity outside is high.
The units we use are water cooled and can take 110 degree (43.3 Celsius) outside
air and cool the air down to 65 degrees (18.3 Celsius).
They work very, very well. Theyve been a really good thing for us. Because they
use water we have some large tanks we use to catch the precipitation when it does
rain out here. We collect that water and pump it to the Coolerado switch and it
in turn cools the Data Center. It only has about two moving parts, so the average
power consumption is only about 200 watts, which is nothing.
32
We used to use a cooling system called Freus, which was water-cooled as well but
it was down more than it was up. Our air conditioner guy was looking online
one night and he happened to find Coolerado. We went down and saw them at a
trade show and loved what we saw so decided to go for it.
Figure 2-4 AISOs air conditioners use an atmospheric energy process to produce cold air and are
more energy efficient than conventional units.
I was amused to learn that you have tiny wind turbines in the ducting
of your building. Where did you come up with the idea for that?
It just came to us. We said This looks like a pretty good idea. Lets just try it.
A lot of the things that we do, it just comes to us in the middle of the night or
whenever, and we just go for.
33
The power from the turbine is used to charge small batteries (which then power

employee computers). We use all thin clients for our computers in the office, so
they dont use much power.
Speaking of that, please talk about how you are using virtualization
technology.
Virtualization has played a major role in the running of our solar powered Data
Center. First off we had to eliminate all the high energy computers, servers, and
equipment. Then we decided on using NetApp for our SANs as they are the most
reliable and most energy efficient. We chose the IBM servers as they were the
most energy efficient servers we could go to. They are running the most energy
efficient power supplies and the most energy efficient processors on the market.
One hundred percent of our Data Center is virtualized, which also makes it
extremely easy to manage.
Weve gotten away from having physical boxes for every single thing that we do. It
just wasnt efficient. We use virtualization for our local computers and we use that
for all of our clients.
We started off with physical boxes and we migrated to virtual machines. We have
chosen VMware to go in to our virtual infrastructure. We started off with iSCSI
and that was a nightmare, because that didnt work very well. After we had 100
or so servers migrated across, we had a lot of slowdown issues so we had to get
off iSCSI real quick and move into a different protocol. That was really the only
challenge that we had. Other than that it has been just the best thing ever.
Its very, very easy to manage. It has made our life so much better. If a client server
goes down and its 2 oclock in the morning, we can just VPN in, get on and do
a simple reboot. Bring it right back online from our cell phone. Its very easy,
secure, and simple to manage.
Its so reliable. It just runs. I could never go back to physical servers again.
I could never go back to physical servers again.

34
Figure 2-5 Use of virtualization has allowed AISO to expand its computing power in a small
physical footprint.
35
Obviously not all Data Centers are using virtualized servers to the

degree that you are. What do you think might be holding someone
back from implementing virtualization?
I just think, especially companies that have a lot of equipment, you just have to
jump up and do it. A lot of them are still afraid to do it. Plus, they want to do a
tremendous amount of testing. The bigger the company, the longer the testing.
For us, were a small company so we can just jump out and do it and we dont
have to jump through a lot of red tape.
Most Data Centers allow clients to rent racks to put in their own equipment and
servers. Because of this model they cant simply go virtual.
Turning to your electrical system, your standby generator uses propane

rather than the more common diesel fuel. What made you choose that
system?
Its cleaner. It burns cleaner and we just felt that that was really the best way to
go for us. Were in a rural setting and we didnt feelbeing an environmental
company the way that we arethat diesel was going to be the right choice.
Its easy (to use). You need more fuel you just call the truck, they come pump it in
and youre good to go. Youre not dealing with underground tanks or any of those
other things you would have to deal with, with diesel.
You previously mentioned the rainwater collection system at your site.

How much water does that typically collect?
We had a rain at the end of the season, and in just a few hours we had over 6,000
gallons (22,712.5 liters) of water. So it can collect it pretty quick. The cooling
system uses only 50 percent of the water, so we take the remainder and keep our
landscaping up.
36
Figure 2-6 AISO harvests rainwater to cool its Data Center and for landscaping. Collection tanks
can hold 10,000 gallons (37,851.1 liters) of water.
You started with the solar infrastructure and then put in other
infrastructure efficiencies over time. What challenges, if any, did you
have in introducing new technologies? Were there any surprises along
the way?
There werent really any surprises. I think the biggest thing for us was just
explaining to clients that the virtualization was a better technology than having a
physical box. That was the hardest part for us.
It took a little bit of convincing them. Now, people just love it. Best way to go.
37
Several of the physical infrastructure elements in your Data Center

the solar power, the solar tubing, the Coolerado air conditioners
arent frequently used today in other Data Centers. Which of them do
you think are universal solutions or which are beneficial based on your
particular circumstances?
Solar tubing and LED lighting is one way for Data Centers to help lower their
cost and start down the road of being more environmentally conscientious. If a
Data Center is located in an area that does not have high humidity then I think
that air conditioning technology would also be a good solution for them.
I dont think solar is going to be a global solution for Data Centers for the simple
fact that a lot of these guys let just anybody off the street come in and rent racks
and load up any kind of computer system they want. If they dont have a lot
of land theyre not going to be able to power it. So I dont think thats a good
solution. But as far as the cooling, yeah, I think that could be a real good solution
for them. If theyre back on the East Coast, where it gets down to freezing its
probably not the best technology for them, but in the warmer climates I think it
would be a very good technology.
If you could go back and design your Data Center again what, if
anything, would you do differently?
Ive looked at that quite a bit over the years and I dont think really much of
anything. It just fell in to place very nicely the way that we did it. Other than
maybe make it a little bigger, thats about the only thing. The design worked out
really well. Were very pleased with it.
Are there any up-and-coming Data Center technologies that you

envision implementing at your site in the future, to make it even more
energy-efficient?
We are always in search of more eco-friendly alternatives and more ways to reduce
energy. Our team is very motivated and dedicated to being the most energy
efficient Data Center in the world and we will stop at nothing to do so.
38
There are some racks out there that were looking at, kind of testing out. They
dont stand straight up like your typical racks do, they lay down. You wouldnt
need any cooling whatsoever to use them. You actually take the fans out of the
servers. The racks themselves do the coolingyou close the lid on a rack and
its a self-contained system. Were taking a look at those and trying to see how
they might fit here. Were not sure at this point, but it sounds like a pretty good
concept.
What design advice would you offer to someone looking to build their
own energy-efficient server environment?
I would recommend if they start from scratch figure out how much actual energy
they need and build your alternative energy solutions around those numbers.
Next I would look at how you would setup and handle the cooling and heating
of your Data Center. Next, how will you provide light in your Data Center? How
will you run your servers in the most energy efficient ways and how will you do
this being fully redundant?
Look at the insulation that you build into the facility itself. The more energy
efficient it is, the less your cooling (system) is going to have to work.
And then, try to virtualize as much as you can. The problem with a lot of the
Data Centers is that they dont virtualize so they just use a tremendous amount of
power.
39
Figure 3-1 The above-ground entrance to Bahnhofs Data Center in Stockholm, Sweden. Embedded
100 ft. (30 m) underground in a former nuclear bunker, the Data Center retains its
wartime codename, Pionen White Mountains. Images provided courtesy of Bahnhof.
Chapter 3
Bahnhof
Essential Details
ORGANIZATION: Bahnhof
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Online: September 2008
Notable features: Artificial daylight, greenhouses, waterfalls, and a 687 gallon (2,600 liter) saltwater fish
tank. Two Maybach diesel submarine engines used for standby power.
Size: 10,764 sq. ft. (1,000 sq. m) total, with 5,382 sq. ft. (500 sq. m) of hosting space and
2,153 sq. ft. (200 sq. m) for back-of-house systems. Remaining space is for office and personnel areas.
IT-usable capacity: 800 kW
Tier: Not stated
Power Density: 5.7 kW average per cabinet, no specific maximum
Infrastructure Delivery: Cooling, structured cabling and electrical are delivered below a 3.3 foot (1
meter) deep raised floor.
Structural loading: 403 lb. per sq. ft. (2 tons per sq. m)
Fire suppression system: Novec 1230
Anyone who sees Bahnhofs Data Center in Stockholm
Background
is forgiven the urge to hum the theme music of their

favorite science fiction movie. Thats because the
Internet service provider purposefully designed its
server environment to evoke the cinematic look and
feel of Silent Running, Logans Run, and any number
of James Bond movies.
A circular, glass-walled conference room with an
image of the moon covering its floor overlooks the
server area. Multi-colored lights showcase man-
made waterfalls and greenhouses. Second-hand
diesel engines used in German submarines provide
standby power for the facility. (A submarine sound-horn is installed near the engines and alarms in the event of
a system malfunction.)
Cementing the other-worldly feel of this server environment is the fact that it resides in a former nuclear bunker
about 100 ft. (30 m) below ground, sheltered behind 15.7 in. (40 cm) thick metal doors. Bahnhof has retained
the sites Cold War codename, Pionen White Mountains, and a few of its trappings. These doors should be
locked at DEFCON1 reads a placard near the entrance.
The Bahnhof Data Center is a truly one-of-a-kind facility that took shape thanks to a clear design vision,
judicious use of explosives, and a strong desire to build something out of the ordinary.
Jon Karlung, founder and chairman of the board of Bahnhof, discusses the challenges of building an
underground server environment and the value that his Data Centers cinematic features provide.
The Interview
What made you choose a bunker as an ideal location for a
Data Center?
There were several reasons for it, but the primary one I think (is that) we had built
five Data Centers and most of them were built in traditional environmentsold
warehouse redesigns and old office building redesignsand we wanted to do
something different.
43
We are geologically in a very stable area. Most parts of Sweden are built on
3: Bahnhof
granite. The mountain, the stone is solid rock and its 2 billion years old. Its one
of possibly the earths oldest and most stable from a geological perspective.
There are fortresses and stuff from those days of the Cold War and I looked
through most of them. I think I was in 40 different spots. Most of them were too
small or scrapped or used for something else, but this facility was still there. We
were very lucky to get hold of it.
If you work with computers, you realize that the threat to operational computers
is not too much. The physical protection, okay, it must be there of course. It must
be there, but now we have a mountain defined originally to (withstand) well not
a hydrogen bomb outside the door but at least a hit somewhere in Stockholm and
the computers probably survive even if people may not.
The place was very big and it was also located very central in Stockholm. Our
competitors, and many Data Centers, are often located way outside the inner city
urban area because they can be built in a larger complex outside for a cheaper
price. But, you see, many computer consultants they live in the town. They dont
want to travel far away to look at their boxes. Its nice to have them conveniently
close to the city, actually. Of course its very hard to find a great, cheap space
where you can build a Data Center in this urban city but with one exception and
that is these caves because nobody can use them for something else.
Sometimes they have been used as garages, but (at this site) the entrance was too
narrow so it was impossible to build something like that. I would say it was a
clear benefit that the space was so centrally located and that gave us an advantage
against our competitors. Our clients can easily access the computers and after they
have accessed it they are in the main city area.
Its very hard to find a great, cheap space where you can build a
Data Center in this urban city but with one exception and that is
these caves...
44
Figure 3-2 The Bahnhof Data Centers Network Operations Center (NOC). Artificial daylight,
greenhouses, and even a saltwater aquarium have been installed to avoid the impersonal
feel of many conventional Data Centers.
The second reason: of course, the physical protection was also great. As you
know, when you work with a computer center, it might not be of that huge
importance. Most errors in my work are basically caused by humans. Human
errorthat is the most frequent. Mistakes in configurations and whatever can
make your environment go down. Not from some kind of big trouble with the
physical protection.
But that doesnt matter because the clients they like what they see. From a
marketing perspective, theyll of course appreciate that they feel secure. Even if I
know that humans are more cause of problems than the physical location. They
appreciate the solid feeling of the rock. The solid feeling of the rock gives us an
advantage compared to a conventional center.
45
The third thing was a combination. It was fun to do it. It is like playing. The fun-
3: Bahnhof
ness of it also brought us an advantage in marketing. I mean, I speak to you now
and we have had a lot of magazines and footage from different media channels
covering it. And of course that has given us invaluable access from a marketing
perspective. If I had to spend the amount of money on advertising it would
have been impossible. Now we have all of this, if not for free, it has given us an
advantage from the marketing perspective.
The style we chose, that was about the fun-ness of it. Its a French architect who
has been responsible for the design, but he has been working very close to us and
we have discussed ideas.
The great inspiration has been one-part James Bond and one part Star Trek or
science fiction movies and stuff like that. That has been an inspiration source
to do it like this. The only thing that is missing, I was considering a white cat
with long hair, like the character in James Bond, that Blofeld guy (Ernst Stavro
Blofeld), and sitting in our conference room in glass and have this cat. We have
plants, but no pets right now.
Figure 3-3 A circular, glass-walled conference room overlooks the Bahnhof Data Centers
server rows.
46
This room definitely makes an impression upon people when they see
it. Did you have a sense when you were designing the Data Center that
it would be so attention-grabbing?
Absolutely. There is something magical about caves. I dont know what it is but
people are sucked in to the facility and immediately like it. Even when we were at
a very early stage.
We defined it completely from the beginning.
We have blown out 4,000 cu. m (141,300 cu. ft.) of stone additionally, on what
it was before, with dynamite. We were building it for almost for 2 years. The
neighbors in the area were not so happy from time to time from this dynamite.
Once accidentally there was an explosion and the coverage from the front door
was not enough so a small piece of stone penetrated a car outside the entrance.
Luckily there were no people there and nobody was harmed.
When we had it very early people were very interested in it and they wanted to
come and see it and looked. Right now we have delegations from companies
and universities and interesting parts. And our policy has always been to be very
open about it. We invite people and we have meetings and visit the facilities
not where we have the servers, in that space, but in the other parts of the facility
where you can see it very well.
How long overall did it take to design and build the Data Center?
Maybe two and a half years from the start. We hadnt built a Data Center in solid
rock before and this was so different. It depends upon where you build it. If its
in a warehouse it takes a certain amount of time but this was so special. It took us
about twice as long as we foresee from the start.
This was a success. It has been a commercial success and its a success from a
design point (of view), from all angles, actually. Even so, Im not sure if I had
another opportunity to build a similar Data Center again I dont know if I would
do it because it was so tiresome to remove all this stone, and it was a risky project.
It could have gone wrong. There could have been problems with water from the
groundwater. There could have been different types of problems. It is cool and it
has been a success both technically and commercially but it was a lot of work to
do it.
47
I remember when I presented it (the proposal) to the bank, when we had some
3: Bahnhof
investment loans to carry some of the initial investment, and I told them that we
were going to build a James Bond fortress in the mountain. This is long after the
dot-com time. It might have sounded like a dot-com project.
Well, it turned out good and we had investments that are not huge. We kept a
very tight budget so it was built with very little money, actually. We put in mostly
our own work and found solutions ourselves to do it.
Figure 3-4
Solid rock
surrounds the
server cabinets
within the Bahnhof
Data Center.
48
Obviously, having to blast through solid rock to expand your usable

space is a major challenge. Were there other challenges specific to

this site or the fact that you were building it underground?
Each problem was very unique. If you have built several Data Centers in
conventional spaces you know basically what problems there are and what you
have to do. But with this every day was a new one.
I was worried that big huge blocks of stone might be loose and just fall down, but
it was not the case. It was really solid. We had some at the entrance we modified
something and when we blew up the space after that we added cement just to
fixate some of the rocks at the entrance.
I was talking about that before, it was built in the urban city area. People were
sleeping and living very close by. It was not a business-to-business area. There was
a church above us. I was worrying that (someone from) the church might call me
and say Well, we have to tell you that the church has fallen to pieces and that
would not be so good. That was my nightmare, but it didnt happen.
We actually had measuring equipment placed on the buildings outside just to see
if there were any troubles caused by the dynamite, but it turned out alright and
we didnt encounter any such problems.
The area where the Data Center is located, about 30 meters (98.4 feet) above us,
we have these old, 18th-century wooden houses. So its a big contrast, we have
this fortress in the mountain and then you have these small wooden houses. Its a
cultural park, a preserved area for older, traditional Swedish houses and then we
have this big church also. We have this contrast with the high high tech, science
fiction facility and the old environment outside.
I imagine it was difficult just bringing some of the traditional Data

Center infrastructure technology below ground, even once you had the
space cleared out the way you wanted it.
Yes. We lowered the floor 2 meters (6.6 feet) almost, to make the room have
better airflow. I would say the actual computers they are based on traditional level
floor cooling where they blow up cooling from the floor and into the cabinets. I
know there are different technologies today, but our clients are mostly co-location
customers. They come with different boxes of all types and they want access to
all types.
49
Its very hard to build individual coolness in individual cabinets unless you know
3: Bahnhof
exactly what type of computers or configurations people are using. When youre
doing open co-location space it must be very flexible. We have clients even with
old power models, God forbid, but that is the case. And the client is always right.
Then it has shown the most convenient way to do it is to have this level floor
cooling model.
In all other aspects its a conventional Data Center from a technology perspective.
We have great redundancy. The network is coming in from three different places.
The electrical power is also coming in from different places. The unique stuff is
the atmosphere and the protection it gets from the mountain.
At the early stage we discussed the use of some kind of geothermal cooling: you
drill into the mountain and bring up coolness from the ground. This turned out
to be insufficient, we have too much energy. We investigated that but I was told
we would have had to drill under several hundreds of homes and it would have
been of effect for a limited time span. Sooner or later we would eventually warm
up the entire mountain and then (the geothermal cooling) would have no effect.
So we decided to use the outside air cooling instead. One advantage in Sweden
is that the climate is colder, so we can very often use the outdoor temperatures in
the cooling system. We use conventional cooling also but using free cooling from
the outside air.
Figure 3-5
The
underground
Data Center
incorporates
outside air
cooling rather
than geothermal
cooling, to avoid
warming the
mountain that
surrounds it.
50
Did you have any particular challenges around ventilation and using
outside air, with the Data Center being embedded in a mountain

rather than in a conventional space?
There was no problem in that. It was built to have air in it in the beginning
because it was built for people. There is a ventilation shaft going up, on top of the
mountain where we bring in the ventilation for breathing. Its very clean air. Its
fresh air in most parts of Stockholm, but it is exceptionally good because its very
high up also. We have very good air inside there.
Right now there are 15 people working there. Its our NOC, basically, the
network operations center for our Internet telecom operator. We have been there
in an operational sense since it opened in 2008. We have no problems.
There are plants there, also. We had to bring some organic feel into it. If you are
forcing people to sit in the mountain you must have something that humans like.
And that is plants and we have a big fish tank, about 2,500 liters (660.4 gallons)
I believe, with saltwater fish. We tried to simulate daylight, stuff like that. Its very
much built for people.
Did you know from the beginning that you wanted to have those sort of
features in a facility or did that come later?
Definitely. That was initially planned. They were in the budget from the
beginning. It was a strategic decision very early. We decided that this should be a
nice James Bond fortress and if you have a James Bond fortress you should have a
fish tank.
We originally were planning to have piranhayou know, the little fishes that eat
meat. But I was told that they are so boring. They just stand still and are not so
colorful. So we decided for saltwater fish and colorful instead. And, the plants,
I think it was a science fiction movie Silent Running, something from the early
70s, where we had these space stations with greenhouses floating around in outer
space. This was the original idea. Everything was defined with this in mind. It was
not added on later. It was the idea to have all this from the beginning.
51
3: Bahnhof
Figure 3-6 Artificial waterfalls within the Bahnhof Data Center.
Its impossible to argue with the logic that if youre going to have
a James Bond villain lair you should try to include fish tanks with
piranha in them. Thats certainly consistent. You mentioned the raised
floor system for the delivery of cooling. Is the Data Centers power and
cabling infrastructure delivered under the floor as well?
Yes, that is under the floor. That is why we lowered the floor so much, to give
us additional space. I know that you can have it above, but aesthetically we
didnt want to have too much stuff (visible). It should be clean and look science
fiction-properly. That is why we decided to have them under the floor. It is a
higher (deeper) space than normally so this gives good airflow flowing in. I know
sometimes you get problems with the cables under (a raised floor) because they
can hinder the airflow, but this didnt happen. The raised floor is definitely higher
than in our conventional Data Centers.
52
If you could go back and design the facility all over again, is there
anything that you would do differently?

Maybe blow out more space. Because now we have all of the cabinets are almost
gone (occupied) now. We should have made it bigger. That was the mistake. It
was a matter of cost, also.
Second, maybe even add even more (features). I designed with the plants and
stuff like that, but we scrapped other ideas. With the ventilation shaft there
was a possibility to build an elevator, and I was considering to have something
like a Batman elevator (with Bat-poles) going in to the cave from the top of the
mountain, but it was too expensive. Given the chance again I would definitely
add the Batman elevator to the facility.
We were also considering a small railway from the entrance down to the center,
but it was too complicated. Given the chance again I would add something more
like that. And my recommendation for guys building computer centers is (to
understand) that people like this kind of stuff. Even if you dont have a cave you
should definitely consider adding stuff that gives some kind of human touch or a
feeling or atmosphere for the facility because computer centers can be so boring.
Many of our customers, its included in our offering, they can bring their own
clients and can have presentations (at the site). Its a great facility to have a
presentation if you have some kind of new website or project to present. The
clients appreciate having meetings in this kind of environment. That enhances
their experience and gives them great value for placing their servers and
applications here.
I presented to the bank...and I told them that we were going to

build a James Bond fortress in the mountain.
53
3: Bahnhof
Figure 3-7 Two Maybach diesel submarine engines, complete with accompanying sound-horn,
provide standby power for the Data Center.
54
Youve anticipated my next question somewhat. Not everyone would

entertain the idea of putting a greenhouse or these other features in

their Data Center. For the amenities that you have installed, do you
think these are universal in that anyone who puts them in to their
Data Center would see a benefit or are they useful at your site solely
because you decided to have a theme?
Lets face it. Data Centers have been built by technicians for technicians but
sometimes we have forgotten about the human touch and to give some style on
something. I think you have to add that.
I dont say that you should have to build a fortress in this special style in a
mountain that we have done. But if you have a conventional center you can
always enhance your experience by playing around with stuff and doing it
differently. Something that gives it a unique feeling. That is often neglected.
People spend a lot of money on traditional marketing, but just by giving these
small items you can bring a lot of extra value. And many of the clients appreciate
it, too. From that point of view its definitely worth it to invest and give that.
Especially if you want people to work in the Data Center. People are more
productive and happy if their environments are nice than if you are working in a
boring space.
Do you have plans for any future Data Center buildoutsfor any other
Bond villain lairs if you will?
Yes. We are working on a concept with modular Data Centers. The idea sprang
from that fact that if you build in a mountain you realize that the mountain
it is very hard to expand in space. Once the space is finished you have to do
something else. So, I would like to build Data Centers in modules where you can
have module after module after module when you need more space.
55
With those modules, are you also going to put in any interesting
3: Bahnhof
features?
Absolutely. Absolutely. Im considering building a space theme. Imagine a space
station on Mars or something like that, with modular tents and very scaled
design. It should be defined.
If you consider the Swedish products like the Absolut vodka bottle. We can
always say that the bottle is a bottle. But if you add some design and add some
concept with it it enhances the experience. Its the same. If I say We are going to
build modules people will believe its containers, but its not containers. They will
be designed differently and they will for sure give the fun factor we are looking
for.
I have gotten a lot of publicity for this project. A mountain is a mountain, so
maybe that is hard to top in terms of the atmosphere. But we will give our best to
do it.
Any final advice that you would offer to others who work on Data
Center design projects in the future?
I think you should give the human factor a great thought. Computer centers
should be built for humans and for their clients. Most often you focus a lot on
the technological aspects but you forget about the humans who are going to work
there. Also, giving this design you add an experience for the client. That is very
often forgotten in these type of projects. Bring a human touch to the computer
center, thats my advice.
56
Figure 3-8 The Bahnhof Data Centers electrical room.
Figure 3-9
The reception
area at the
Bahnhof Data
Center.
57
Figure 3-10
3: Bahnhof
Greenery is planted in
the Network Operations
Center (NOC) to make
the environment more
comfortable for employees
to work in.
Figure 3-11
The Bahnhof Data Centers fire suppression system features a gaseous suppressant.
Figure 4-1 The Barcelona Supercomputing Center resides in the Torre Girona Chapel. Images
provided courtesy of Barcelona Supercomputing Center.
Chapter 4
Barcelona Supercomputing Center
Essential Details
Organization: Barcelona Supercomputing Center Centro Nacional de Supercomputacin
Location: Barcelona, Spain
Online: April 2005
Notable features: Server environment is located in 1920s chapel and houses the MareNostrum
supercomputer
Size: Overall chapel floor space undetermined. Hosting area is 1,722 sq. ft. (160 sq. m)
Power: 1.4 MW used by the entire facility, with about 850 kW consumed by computing hardware
Tier: 0
Power Density: Varies by cabinet, up to 22 kW maximum per cabinet maximum
Infrastructure Delivery: Electrical conduits, cooling, and cabling all delivered under raised floor
Structural loading: 512 lb. per sq. ft. (2500 kg per sq. m)
Fire suppression system: Water mist system
When Spanish government officials needed to find a
Background
building that could be quickly modified to house the

MareNostrum supercomputer they had what some
might call divine inspiration. They would convert
Barcelonas Torre Girona chapel into a Data Center.
The deconsecrated building had sufficient space to
house the supercomputer yet lacked the physical
infrastructure to support what was then the fifth
fastest supercomputer in the world. As of this writing
MareNostrum can perform more than 94 trillion
operations per second and includes more than
10,000 processors. It is used for intensive computing
tasks such as human genome research and cosmological simulations that replicate the development of the
universe.
The challenge for the designers and builders was to upgrade the 1920s building to support the ultra-modern
supercomputer while leaving the chapels distinctive architecture fully intact. The result of their careful work is
a facility that is frequently described as one of the most beautiful Data Centers in the world.
Dr. Sergi Girona, operations director for the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, discusses the challenges
associated with building the server environment.
The Interview
What drove the decision to locate your supercomputing center in the
chapel?
In 2004 the Spanish government had the opportunity to buy MareNostrum,
the supercomputer. The reason that Spain was able to do so is because a large
supercomputing research group from the Technical University of Catalonia was
working, since 1980, with very good cooperation with IBM. This offered the
Spanish government the chance to get them the system. But then the deal was to
have the system installed in four months very close to this research group, that
is, in the Technical University. So, as you can understand, a new computer room
setup in four months requires an existing building, but an existing building with
some special facilities. At this point of time there were only very limited spaces
available and one of them was the chapel, because it was a clear floor plan of more
61
than 120 square meters (1,292 square feet) with no columns; a height of more
4: Barcelona Supercomputing Center

than 5 meters (16.4 feet). So that was one of the possibilities, and the best one
in fact.
So you needed to install the supercomputer in just four months. How

long did you have to design and build the Data Center to house it?
This comes with the story. The agreement between the Spanish government and
IBM was signed on March 10th, 2004. The objective for IBM was showing the
system in November 2004, at the next supercomputing conference, and so this
four month requirement was in place. On March 11th, we had this horrible
terrorist attack in Madrid that, along with the deaths and all the disaster,
motivated a change of the governments in Catalonia and in Spain. This meant
that we were delayed for the construction of the computer room for three
months. We used this three month period for designing the facility and for
discussion, not beginning any construction, just making decisions, analysis, and
processing.
Then after a few months they made it clear that we needed to start building up
the facilities, so we started building in July and the facility was completely set
up on October 12th. Because of this delay we were not able to have the system
installed in MareNostrum in October to make the Top500, so we pre-installed
part of the system in Madrid. IBM was providing the Spanish government with
facilities that could host part of the system. Not the system in full production, of
course, but a sufficient size of the systems to run the Linpack test.
The Top500 ranks the fastest supercomputers in the world using what is known as the Linpack Benchmark, a
Note
method of measuring a computers floating point rate of execution by running a program that solves a series of
linear equations. The Top500 is updated twice per year, at the International Supercomputing Conference (ISC) in
Europe each June and at the Supercomputing Conference (SC) in the United States each November.
So in reality, we started the design of the system in April 2004 until June, with
construction spanning from July to October. This construction include the
computer room itself, the site facilities with the control switches and fire detectors
and alarms, and also the electrical transformers, because we are connected to a
medium voltage ring so we have to transform this to normal voltage.
62
Even with that outside delay thats still a relatively short amount of
time to bring all of that together.

Absolutely correct. And it happens to be also in the middle of summer vacation
here in Spain. You may know that in Spain, and normally this is true in the
south of Europe, because of the heat it is always difficult to have normal people
working. Its almost given that everybody is on vacation. You must have any
material you need in storage before starting, or you will not get any material at all.
This is obviously not your average building to construct a Data Center

in. What special restrictions or challenges did you have to deal with as
part of building a server environment within the chapel?
The first one is that we didnt want to change the structure of the chapel. So that
means that the chapel has the existing walls and we didnt change any walls.
Second, a chapel is intended for people to get in but not for machinery to get in.
So we have a very strict limitation on the size of equipment that can get in to the
chapel. We are only using one door that all the material in the chapel is going
through because all of the other doors are limited to people, so no big material
can get in.
Another important condition is that chapels here in Spain and in Europe, I
learned, use the chimneys of the nearby kitchen for heating inside. That means
that the floor is not thick enough for having very heavy components on top. So
we had to eliminate the chimneys on the basement of the chapel and then start
building the facility on top of that.
And another important one: the chapel does not have a roof that is thick or
strong enough for having the chillers on top. So we had to install the chillers
underground next to the chapel. For people from the United States this is a very
weird solution, because they consider that if a tornado is coming then you can
cover it and there is no destruction. But in Spain we dont have any tornadoes
and its more difficult to get fresh air in these basements. So that was also another
challenging situation.
63
So were there any modifications to the building itself? It sounds like

you very much tried to leave it in its pre-existing state.
The only modifications we made in the chapel were three or four channels
connecting from the main hall of the chapel to the corridor where we have
installed facilities, and one big channel connecting to the outside for the chillers.
This is absolutely not visible because it is underground.
If someone else was trying to build a Data Center in such a special

location, where they wanted to impact their surroundings as little as
possible, what advice do you have for them?
To schedule properly with all the people working on the facility. Because you can
discover very last-minute that they are thinking of working in parallel and this is
not possible. Because everyone is thinking of his field but not in the others field.
As an example, they were thinking of installing the beams and the glass of the
computer room at the same time that we were installing the channels for the
cabling. But of course you have only one space for moving the forklifts, and this
is the space of the channels. So you have to schedule that properly on your own,
and not to rely on the engineers that are working independently by areas of the
project.
We have a glass box inside the chapel, ok? This construction is governed by an
architect. And then you have the facility inside which is governed by the engineer.
Normally they are friends, but they dont share lunch. You know what I mean?
They talk to each other but they dont speak the same language. So, they have
different compromises and different points of view that they dont share at all.
Someone has to consider that part of the work.
64
Figure 4-2 The supercomputing center resides in a large glass box, providing maximum visibility of
the surrounding chapel.
Speaking of the glass box, why did you enclose the Data Center in
that way?
With the building completely finished the architect told us that it is simply
furniture inside the house, inside the chapel, because we dont want to modify
anything on the chapel itself. If you are installing some walls inside the chapel,
you will destroy the image completely. If it is glass, on the other hand, everything
is completely visible on the other side, so the chapel is always there.
65
But there is also another reason. In Spain we installed the computers, called

PCs (PC for portable computer). We installed those and we said that this place
is called a pecera, because its the place of the PCs. But in Spanish, pecera is the
translation of fish tank. So we have a very big fish tank for the computer.
Normally computer rooms have windows. Not those that are reserved in the U.S.,
but here normally you have windows to look inside. So we have a very big fish
tank for our computer room.
It helps at the same time for visibility and branding. Having walls that hide the
chapel would not be a good solution. You have seen the walls of the chapel it is
not a good solution because they are having columns on those walls that we have
to void for the cooling of the system.
What degree of infrastructure redundancy does the supercomputing

center have?
We have some redundancy. This is a computer center which is for scientists
in Spain, so we dont have any restriction on services. We dont have any
severe service level agreement with our users. We decided to maintain limited
redundancy in all the concepts.
For example, we only maintain on the UPS (uninterruptible power supply) and a
generator the file systems and the networking to the outside. So in case of failure
we simply lose all the computing capacity. We made the decision based on our
needs and on the overall total cost of ownership of the system with a different
solution.
Your power, cooling and cabling infrastructure are all delivered under a
raised floor, yes?
Yes. Every one of those racks is using 22 kW. At that point of time the cooling
was by air, so we decided to have a 97 cm. (38.2 in.) elevation for the first floor
and all the facilities and all the services went on this first floor.
"Having walls that hide the chapel would not be a good solution.
66
We have the distribution of the water pipe for the chilled water and this is
connecting up to 12 CRAC (computer room air conditioning) units for a total

capacity of 1.1 MW cooling capacity. We change the temperature of the chilled
water depending on winter and summer time. Normally in winter we operate
with warmer water and in summer we operate with colder water.
On the first floor we also have the channeling for the power and the networking,
with different levels for different channels and for different concepts. One level
for the power, a second level for the copper Ethernet, and another level for the
fiber. We try to keep whats called the cold aisles clean of any channel so all the
channels are below the hot aisles.
We have these compute racks and the floor was designed to be able to resist up to
2,500 kg per sq. m (512 lb. per sq. ft.). This is standard today but it was not at
that time. So what happened is that we decide to have the entire floor with this
capacity and we failed on the fluid dynamic analysis, on the amount of air that
was going through the tiles with holes.
So we substituted those tiles with open ones, and those tiles are not capable
of handling this weight but give more air to the environment. Following this
direction, I designed hardware that we placed in front of the rack to force all the
air that is coming from the first floor to go directly to the rack. Its like a chimney
but it forces the cold air to go directly inside the rack.
So we dont have cold aisles anymore, because the cold aisle is limited by this
device. And all the computer room is now a hot computer room. So the average
temperature in the computer room is today 32 Celsius (89.6 Fahrenheit). We
used to have 34 Celsius (93.2 Fahrenheit) but we changed it to 32 because of the
heat exchange to the exterior of the chapel. In the summer time people visiting us
complained about the heat that we were transferring to the outside.
To my knowledge, we were one of the very first computer rooms becoming a
hot computer room instead of a cold computer room. We produce cold air to 18
Celsius (64.4 Fahrenheit) but all the cold air is limited to the computer rack so
its going there directly. But not by a closed cold aisle, but the aisle is completely
attached to the device of the computer.
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What made you decide to run the Data Center at a warmer

temperature?
Efficiency. My problem was the delta-T of the CRAC units was not very high: it
was 3 to 4 Celsius (5.4 to 7.2 Fahrenheit) in total. Now I have a delta-T which
is above 12 Celsius (21.6 Fahrenheit) and this means that the CRAC unit is
working at a convenient performance for this machinery. It has been designed to
work in this environment and we maintain it. If you operate a computer room
in cold, then the cold air is getting back to the CRAC unit. Then its not having
enough delta-T so its not giving all the performance that it can deliver. You are
using those CRAC units less efficiently.
So with these devices and operating in warm temperatures we manage to have all
the fans of the computers working at the minimum speed. And we also manage
to have the fans of all the CRACs working at a very low speed. Very low speed for
this is about 70 or 60 rpm. If you are experienced with that you will know that a
fan working at 80 percent of capacity is using 50 percent of the energy. That really
was affecting my bill. In fact, one of the things that we detected after doing all
those modifications is that our electricity bill was decreased by 10 percent. And I
can tell you that our electricity bill on a yearly basis is about a million euros. So a
10 percent discount is some money.
So the problem is that everyone has their own point of view but you have to
design that specifically. The point is that air conditioners are normally working
to adapt to changes, but we dont have any change on the system. The system
is in full production all day long. We have a heater completely working all day
long, 24 hours a day, which is changing temperature from 18 to 32 every day,
every moment. We are not changing the conditions of the computer room as in a
normal facility. It is fixed and very stable.
I assume you dont have a lot of turnover of hardware. Are there

regular upgrades to the supercomputer and associated hardware or do
you maintain the same set of equipment over a long period of time?
Normally we dont change the systems in less than 6 months. So in 6 months
maybe another rack is coming in and an old one is going out. Shorter term we
dont do anything. This is a computer room that is specific for supercomputing,
other systems are located in different facilities.
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Figure 4-3 The MareNostrum supercomputer performs 94 trillion operations per second and
includes more than 10,000 processors.
What type of fire suppression system do you employ?

I was completely against using any gas for two reasons. One, for humans inside
the computer room, although the number of people that can get inside is very
limited because its visible from the outside, so nobody is normally inside.
The other reason is legislation. Its changing continuously here in Europe with
regards to which is the gas you can use for fire extinguishing. So we went with
mist of water. We use very small drops of water at high velocity for extinguishing
any fire.
69
I was visiting them (the manufacturer) in a facility they have for testing and I

was impressed by the results. They were showing me an environment where a PC
was discharged with this water mist twice a day and the computer room is still
operational.
And the other more impressive one, they start a fire with gasoline inside a tank
and it took three minutes with normal water to extinguish the fire, and it was
extinguished because the gasoline was consumed. But they start the same test
with the water mist and they stop the fire in 15 seconds. And they showed me
that they can restart the fire because the gasoline was still there. So it was able to
extinguish the fire with the fuel still available, so it was very fine by me.
Also, if it has been fired, recharging is not so expensive. This is an advantage
against the gases, which are very expensive to recharge. So this is just normal
water with some treatment. There is a cost but it is one-tenth the cost of the gas
for being reloaded to the facility.
If you could go back and redesign the Data Center all over again, are
there any design approaches that you would do differently?
With the technology today, yes. With the technology today, of course. For
example, we are changing the facility so we will have the capacity to cool the racks
by air or by the rear doors. So we will be having these two possibilities in the same
facility.
What else would I change? Not really a lot of other things.
Youre referring to liquid-cooled rear doors?

Correct. We have a limitation that we can only have 48 racks in the computer
room. This is because of the space required for the hot aisles. Otherwise its too
dense, and its too hot there. If we want to have an additional row (this is an
additional eight racks) the only way we can have that is if those racks are water-
cooled. And this can be achieved with the rear doors.
So we are updating the facility to be able to have most of the racks with this rear
door cooling. And then we will be extending the capacity of the total computer
room in terms of power and cooling capacity.
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Are you bringing in more power or is this merely allowing you to make
more use of electrical capacity that you already have?

I will be adding more capacity and using more capacity. Right now we are using
1.3 or 1.4 MW in total. Im expecting to use a total of 2 MW. But I will be adding
more capacity to still have some backup capacity, so we will be installing a total
capacity of around 4 MW. But Im planning to use a maximum of 2, 2.1 MW.
And the same goes for the cooling. We will be using the same we have but extending
it for redundancy, and we are planning to expand the total capacity. So instead of
having racks up to 22 kW we are looking for racks that can have up to 28 kW.
In a way you are getting to go back and redesign. A lot of the physical
infrastructure is in place already, but youre once again trying to work
inside this building that you dont want to impact. Has that influenced
how you approach the upgrade?
Yes, absolutely. First of all, I will be thinking very carefully for the scheduling
and the planning for all of the piping and all the analysis, and decommissioning
the old system and installing the new system. That has to be really planned and
scheduled. But of course any new system must be coming with an option for
having the rear-door heat exchanger, because otherwise I cannot host a lot of
them in my computer room. That will be a requirement for all the new computers
in this computer room. Including the disks, because the disks I have right now
are using 5 kW but the new disks we are just installing are using 15 kW. Thats
already a lot of heat that you can get out of a rack.
The original chapel obviously didnt have sufficient electrical capacity

to operate a supercomputer. What sort of capacity did you install?
The chapel didnt have any power capacity at all. We installed it in this big hall,
this big bunker we have next to the chapel. It was created by us in 2004. We
installed transformers with enough capacity for the computer room, not for
the chapel. The chapel originally had some lighting, but not very powerful.
We installed three transformers with enough capacity. This is connected to the
medium voltage ring of the university and we can get a consumption of 3 MW
and we are going to be extending this to 4 MW.
71
What structural loading capability does the chapel have? Obviously it

wasnt originally designed with any thought to supporting computer
hardware.
Except for the area where there were chimneys in the ground of the chapel, which
we covered completely, all the rest of the chapel is on the ground level. The weight
of the chapel is on the ground, persistent and therefore no problem. The first floor
can hold 2,500 kilograms per square meter (512 lb. per sq. ft.).
Did you have to take any special measures to reinforce the area where
the supercomputer resides or was the original infrastructure adequate?
No, that was adequate already. Outside of removing these chimneys everything
else was adequate. So we have continued construction on this ground level floor.
Looking back on the project, were there any surprises that came up
along the way?
Not really, no. Just normal problems. Things that everybody knows but nobody
knows how to fix.
For example, the humidification problem. We have the CRAC units, 12 of
them, humidifying and humidifying continuously because of the change of
temperatures. But if you are humidifying, its very expensive. Its three times the
cost on the power that the CRAC unit is using. If you are not humidifying you
are saving a lot of money. And you can humidify very simply.
I dont know if you live in the mountains or you live in the coast area, but in the
mountains for getting humidity what people do is just have a bag of water on top
of the radiator. This heats the water to the temperature that the water evaporates
and creates the nice humidity. So we have humidity problems in the computer
room and we are fixing it from time to time with bags of water and saving a lot of
money. Because this is just what you learn from nature. Humidification in nature
comes from the sea and with the sun thats getting the water to the environment.
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Your supercomputing center has been described in several

publications and web sites as one of the prettiest Data Centers ever
built. During the design phase, how much attention was given to the
look of the facility? Did you consciously focus on aesthetics or did its
striking appearance just happen to come from the design?
Its most likely the second one.
It really comes from the fact that we are installed inside the chapel and we dont
want to change the chapel. We want to maintain the chapel visible. Its not the
computer room that is nice itself, its the sum of the computer room and the
chapel and the fact that we are not changing any of the chapel and we are getting
the computer, the capacity of running in full operation, in this environment.
Of course we designed the computer room for efficiency. So if you have a look at
the pictures you will notice that all the beams of the computer room are mostly
located outside of the computer room not inside and this is to not influence the
fluid dynamics of the room.
We designed this to be 5 meters (16.4 feet) high instead of 3 or 4, because we
want to have better fluid dynamics. This gives us the possibility of matching the
size of the complete box with the size of the chapel, in terms of having the top
of the computer room at the same level as the upper floor of the chapel. And
thats given a dimension and a conjunction of the two bodies, the chapel and the
computer room, which is very good in terms of visibility and environment. It
happens to be that this solution fits efficiency for the computer room and at the
same time the visibility.
It sounds like after the decision was made to build this in the
chapel the design pieces came together as you worked around the
constraints of the building. You didnt necessarily intend for this to be
a showpiece, but by virtue of putting it in the chapel it became that.
Thats correct. When people realized that this is inside the chapel, the architect
had a challenge because he wanted not to destroy the chapel, but to show all the
vantages of the chapel. For the engineer developing the air conditioning it was a
challenge because in the design everything was very efficient, although inside the
chapel, not so much.
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We wanted to have this visible from every place in the chapel, so we designed

everything very clean in spaces. All the underground is visible from outside. So
you must have all the channels properly installed and labeled and everything has
to be very carefully placed.
You should know that we have visits every day into the chapel by universities,
schools, politicians; everyone comes here to visit us because of the chapel. This is
very good because then we can show what we are doing with the computer and
what the scientists are doing with this facility.
Figure 4-4 The height of the supercomputing centers glass walls were chosen to optimize airflow
and align with the physical dimensions of the chapel.
Figure 5-1 Calcul Qubecs Data Center resides in a concrete silo that originally housed a particle
accelerator. Images provided courtesy of Calcul Qubec.
Chapter 5
Calcul Qubec (Compute Qubec)
Essential Details
Organization: Calcul Qubec (Compute Qubec)
Location: Qubec City, Qubec, Canada
Online: August 2009
Notable features: Server environment is located in circular building that previously housed a Van de
Graaff generator
Size: 2,340 sq. ft. (217.4 sq. m)
Power: 1.2 MW
Tier: 0
Infrastructure Delivery: Power and cabling infrastructure are provided overhead. Cooling is distributed
through a ring-shaped, cold plenum, with hardware exhaust vented into a cylindrical, hot core.
Fire suppression system: Double-action dry pipe sprinkler system
Data Centers are typically all about squares
Background
and rectangles. Hardware and cabinets, power

distribution units and air handlers, floor tiles
and server rows: theres not a curve among
them.
What if those boxy shapes and their 90-degree
angles were placed in a circular space,
though? Can a Data Centers square pegs fit
gracefullyand perform wellin a round
hole?
Oui.
On the campus of Universite Laval in Qubec City, Canada, research consortium Calcul Qubec has converted a
cylindrical building that originally housed a Van de Graaff particle accelerator into a Data Center. The silo now
contains the groups Colossus supercomputer, whose users perform research in a range of scientific disciplines.
Three levels have been constructed in the 2,340 sq ft. (217.4 sq. m.) silo to house computing hardware. Server
cabinets are arranged in outward-facing circles: the outer ring acts as a cold air plenum while hardware
exhaust is vented into a hot core at the center. Grated floors allow air to pass through, drawn downward by a
bank of 3.3 ft. (1 m.) wide fans capable of moving 120,000 cfm (3,398 cmm) of air.
Marc Parizeau, professor of computer engineering at Universit Laval and deputy director of Calcul Qubec,
discusses what its like to do computing in the round.
The Interview
Please tell me the history of the silo building that houses your
supercomputer.
The building was built in 1965. It was a research center in nuclear physics and it
had a Van de Graaff particle accelerator.
We had to make some relatively minor changes. At first I thought that it was big
changes, but in fact demolishers are very efficient at what theyre doing.
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The silo was housing the accelerator itself. And it was accelerating particles
5: Calcul Qubec (Compute Qubec)

vertically into a room underneath the silo and then the particles were deflected at
90 degrees horizontally into a larger room which was called the target room. This
is where the physicists would make their experiments.
At first we wanted to put the Data Center in that target room, which has a very
high ceilingits an 18 ft. (5.5 m.) ceiling, a 3,000 sq. ft. (278.7 sq. m.) room.
And there was this silo that nobody knew what to do about. We had the idea of
putting the computer inside the silo but at first it was just a crazy idea. We didnt
know how to proceed.
So we started designing a room into the target room, which is a large rectangular
room in the basement. Its not underneath the silo but its just beside it. We had
the regular issues about trying to configure the room for contained cold and
hot aisles and putting the CRAC (computer room air conditioning) units inside
and having everything fit into the room. We had an objective of allowing up to
60 cabinets in the room and it was not quite large enough. And then we started
to think about the silo again. We had a team of engineers and we started to
brainstorm about what we could do and after a while the second option became
the first option because we could put a larger machine inside the silo and have a
better Data Center, more efficient.
To come back to your question, what needed to be changed: inside the silo, it
was mainly open. There was the accelerator but essentially there was a concrete
slab on the ground floor. We needed to remove that concrete slab. There was
also a mezzanine that was built inside the silo. And the mezzanine was originally
designed to support the accelerator housing because the accelerator itself is under
a metal shell and when it operates this shell is filled with inert gas so that the
accelerator that works essentially with static electricity so that the large electrical
charge that accumulates in the accelerator does not spark everywhere. It was
contained inside a metal shell and inside the air was removed and it was filled
with an inert gashelium I think.
The mezzanine was there to support this metal shell that was on top of the
accelerator. When the physicists needed to do maintenance inside the accelerator
they had to lift this shell which weighed several tons and they used to put this
shell on this concrete slab mezzanine. So we needed to remove that. That was it.
We had the idea of putting the computer inside the silo but at
first it was just a crazy idea.
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How long did it take for you to come up with a design and then to
make the necessary conversions?

The design took about a year. At first we were thinking about the target room
that I spoke of, that was in January 2007. A year later the engineers and architects
were doing the detailed plans and specifications. The first four months were spent
working on the Data Center inside the target room and afterwards we shifted
toward the silo design and that took another eight months before we settled on all
of the small details that needed to be done to have it working.
When did the facility formally open as a Data Center?

The servers started to be delivered in June 2009. The power was put on the
machines in early August and it was definitely accepted in November 2009, just
in time for the Top500 (supercomputer) list announcement.
The Colossus supercomputer within the silo occupies 56 cabinets that

are ringed around three levels?
The design was made for up to 56 cabinets but the current supercomputer that we
have is much more dense than what we expected at first. At first we designed the
site to be able to host 1U servers because we didnt know what we would get. The
worst case was a machine with 1U servers.
The machine we got was using blades and so the machine was much denser than
we anticipated. It occupies 20 cabinets right now on two levels. We have three
possible levels; there is one that is completely empty.
This facility supports a supercomputer rather than being a production

Data Center, but is it equipped with any standby infrastructure?
Yes. We have partial redundancy. We dont have any redundant power for the
compute nodes but all of the file systems and the network switches are under UPS
(uninterruptible power supply). At first we didnt have a backup generator but
we will have one soon because the university is building a new Data Center right
79
beside us. So they will be providing a generator very soon. The basic infrastructure

of the machine will be protected by a UPS and generator, but not the compute
nodes. The idea is that we are not doing any production workits only
researchso if there is an event then the worst case is that we lose the currently
running simulations and the researchers have to start them again when the power
comes back.
The only thing that we need to protect is the file system. So that if there is a
power outage we dont lose anything in the file system because file systems dont
like power outages, especially large parallel ones with thousands of disks. There
are always disks that suffer when the power goes out.
Tell me about the cooling configuration of the Data Center. Your server
cabinets are laid out on three levels of the silo, facing outward so they
are surrounded by a cold air plenum and there is a hot core in the
middle, while the Data Centers mechanical components are in the
sub-basement.
There is a cold plenum on the outside of the machine. Its an annular, ring-shaped
cold aisle. The cold air comes from the basement, goes up into this vertical cold
plenum, which has a ring shape. The air is drawn by the compute nodes, the file
server, every piece of equipment draws air from this cold air plenum and throws
out the hot air in the center cylindrical hot aisle. And then there are six large
variable drives, industrial blowers, that pull the hot air down into a square room
that has cooling coils on three sides. These are walls of cooling coils, custom-
designed, about 12 ft. (3.7 m.) wide by 8 ft. (2.4 m.) high. Very efficient coils,
four layers. They could absorb up to 1.5 MW of heat. So the blowers they force
the air to go through the cooling coils and then the air comes outfirst the air
goes through filters of course before going through the cooling coilsand then it
exits on the peripheral cold aisle and goes back up again.
I always get the question of why we were pulling the hot air down and pushing
the cold air up. If we wanted to benefit from the natural convection of the hot
air upward we would have to put the cooling system on top. So then we would
have the water on top. It would be more difficult for the maintenance because we
would have to climb all the way up to do the maintenance, change filters and all
that. And also, we wouldnt want the water to be on top of the servers. And the
convection effect is negligible compared to the blowing capacity that we have.
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Each blower can pull up to 20,000 cfm (566.3 cmm) each, so we have 120,000
cfm (3,398 cmm) of blowing capacity. These blowers are very efficient because
they are very large and theyre variable drives.
Figure 5-2 Variable drive blowers move air through Calcul Qubecs Data Center at low velocity,
consuming little power.
I understand youre recycling some of your heat to help warm the

buildings on your campus.
On the Laval campus they have two water loops. Theres a chilled water loop and
a hot water loop. The chilled water loop is connected to all of the air conditioning
units all over campus and the hot water loop is connected to all buildings. The
hot water loop is used to heat the campus in winter. During winter what we want
to do is we want to use the chilled water from the campus facility, which is very
efficient because they use outside air to make the chilled water. They send us
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chilled water at about 4 degrees Celsius (39.2 Fahrenheit). We heat up the water

to about 25 degrees Celsius (77 Fahrenheit) and we return it to them and they are
able to pump the heat in the chilled water return and transfer that heat into the
hot water loop. So in effect we are heating the campus building during winter.
This is what we want to do because in winter producing the chilled water is very
cheap compared to producing the hot water. Its about five times more expensive
to produce the hot water than the chilled water. So during winter we want to
recycle all of the heat, to pump this heat into the hot water loop of the campus
heating system.
Of course during the summertime it can get quite hot in Qubec City. So during
the hottest months, July and August, well then we do the same. We dont have
much choice. Mostly we use the chilled water produced by the campuswide
facilities and of course then we cannot recycle any of the heat, so the heat is put
in the cooling towers and it goes back to the atmosphere.
The university needs to heat the buildings about eight months per year. During
four months the temperature goes below zero, but there are four other months
where we still need to heat the campus. During the coldest months of the winter
the university can recycle maybe up to 90 percent of the heat during winter. Of
course during summer they are not able to recycle anything. So on average they
can recycle between 50 and 55 percent on a yearly basis of that heat.
We also have another cooling system, a free air cooling system in the silo. We are
able to draw up to 12,500 cfm (354 cmm) of outside air to cool the machine. In
practice this system can almost cool the whole machine. During winter when its
below 4 degrees Celsius (39.2 degrees Fahrenheit) outside we can cool about 80
percent of the machine using outside air. But during winter we dont want to do
that because its cheaper for the university, its better to recycle the heat for heating
the campus because producing chilled water is cheap and producing hot water is
very expensive, so the university prefers to do that. But in between, during fall
and spring, then there is a computer-controlled system that decides whether we
should recycle the heat or use the free air cooling system.
For instance, this year they are renovating the building which is adjacent to the
silo. For the cooling system we are connected to the pipes that bring us the chilled
water. The university will use the same pipes for the new Data Center that I spoke
of before. They needed to disconnect us for a few days so that they could connect
the new Data Center, so during three days in February we operated on the free
air cooling system. At first we operated 100 percent of the machine but then the
temperature was rising in to the silo and the system was not enough to keep it
within reasonable levels. So we had to shut down part of the machine. We could
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have shut down only 10 percent of the machine but we shut down 20 percent.
We didnt want to take any chances of having problems. We ran 80 percent of

Colossus on free air cooling for three days. That was very practical. We didnt have
to completely halt the machine while we were making some piping modifications.
What operational temperature do you maintain your supercomputers

hardware at?
Currently the temperature in the cold aisle is regulated at about 18 degrees
Celsius (64.4 degrees Fahrenheit), which is probably too low. We could operate
much higher than that, but this is the temperature that was set and we havent
changed it. In the hot cylindrical core it depends on the applications that are
running but it can go up to 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit). The
highest temperature I have seen is 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit),
when the machine is very loaded it can go all the way up there. Otherwise its
around 31, 32 degrees (87.8, 89.6 Fahrenheit) on the hot side. The temperature
that is regulated is in the cold aisle.
There is something that is specific, very particular about our design. We are
regulating the differential pressure between the cold and hot aisles. This is the
secret sauce of our design. As far as I know nobody is doing that in any Data
Center because when you have several aisles, even if you can contain your aisles,
its very difficult to control the differential pressure between the cold and hot
aisles. But since we have only one cold aisle and only one hot aisle, because these
aisles are vertical, its very easy to control. We just put the differential pressure
sensor between the cold side and the hot side.
And we have very low air velocity. This is the second ingredient of our secret
sauce. Its having very low air velocity. So then the cold aisle is really a plenum.
The velocity is below 2.4 m. (7.9 ft.) per second, which is quite low. And that
would be if we would fill the silo to capacity, then it would go to that figure but
its probably in the area of 1 meter (3.3 ft.) per second. So you can barely feel
the air move inside the cold aisle. Essentially, its a real plenum. So we measure
the relative pressure between the two aisles and if the servers accelerate their fans
to draw more air because theyre running hot then we just accelerate our fans to
provide all of the air that they need.
The problem in Data Centers is when the air velocity goes to 5 meters (16.4 ft.)
per second or above. Then you get differences in pressure in the aisles. Maybe at
one end of the aisle the pressure will not be equal in the whole aisle. Some servers
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will have less air than others, so they will start to accelerate their fans because

they are running hot. They dont have the air that they need. So in our design, by
regulating the differential air pressure and by keeping the air velocity very low
and why is it low? Its simply because the cross-section of the floor is very large.
In our cold aisle we have 32 sq. m. (344.4 sq. ft.) of hole. The flooring is grating
flooring, which is open 90 percent. Not like regular tiles in Data Centers with
raised flooring, where the tiles are perforated but the percentage of the surface is
quite low and the percentage of the surface that is perforated is even lower.
Whats the weight bearing capability of that floor grating? In a

conventional raised floor perforated tiles often support less weight
than solid tiles and, as you say, your flooring has a greater percentage
of openings.
When we designed the silo we had a structural engineer. He asked me what
I needed and I told him that I needed to be able to have up to 20 racks per
floor and I needed to have these racks anywhere on the floor. He made his
computations and he arrived at a figure of 940 lb. per sq. ft. (4,589.5 kg per sq.
m.) of load capacity on the floor. This is way above the standard Data Center.
Regular Data Centers are either 150 lb. per sq. ft. (732.4 ft. per sq. m.) or
when their floors are very strong they are 250 lb. per sq. ft. (1220.6 ft. per
sq. m.). The grating is very thick; its very high and its very strong. Its supported
by beams underneath and the beams were sized accordingly.
We didnt want the floor to move because we needed to contain the cold aisle
from the hot aisle. I didnt want the floor to bend. Its so strong that we didnt
have any issues with that.
Any other interesting design elements in your Data Center that people
should be aware of?
The most important thing is that we are using large, variable drive industrial
blowers. The blowers have a diameter of 1 m. (3.3 ft.) so they turn very slowly. I
dont recall their power consumption but they consume almost no power if you
compare that to the blowers that you will find in servers or even blades that have
more efficient blowers. These are order of magnitude more efficient and they are
variable drive. So, we blow the amount of air that the server needs. Because we
have a very large cross-section so that this air can go through and we keep the
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air velocity very low. Beneath 2.4 m. (7.9 ft.) per second in the worst case. Thats
if the blowers were running at full speed, 120,000 cfm (3,398 cmm) through
32 sq. m. (344.4 sq. ft.), then we would get about 2.4 m. (7.9 ft.) per second.
And we have pressure differential sensors to measure the amount of air that is
going through the servers and we just replace the air that the server needs. And
because the air velocity is so low the pressure is uniform within the cold aisle. The
problem with air velocity is when it goes too high the pressure inside the cold
aisle is no longer uniform, then there is friction. Friction produces turbulence
and turbulence produces differences in pressure. This is the root of all cooling
problems in Data Centers, is turbulence.
Figure 5-3
Hardware exhaust
vents into a hot
core and then
is drawn down
through the floor
grating to cooling
coils on the
ground floor.
The other factor about our design is that the racks are arranged in a circle. Thats
another interesting detail. Usually in Data Centers when you have problems of
turbulence, of differences in pressure or differences in temperature because of
pressure or because you need to move the air through very long distances, they are
at the end of rows. Sometimes in Data Centers the air will be very cold on one
side and at the other end of the aisle, the end opposite to the CRAC units, then
maybe there will be hot spots. And the hot spots are caused by turbulence and
turbulence is caused by friction and by corners, also. In a circular arrangement
like ours there are no corners.
85
Im curious, how are the noise levels in your Data Center? With

the airflow moving slowly, I assume the mechanical system is
relatively quiet.
When we designed the site, around the area where the blowers are installed we
installed on the walls sound-absorbing material because we were afraid that these
blowers would make a lot of sound. And they do make some sound but they
make much less sound than the servers themselves. It is noisy, but its the noise
of the blowers of the blade systems. The blowers of equipment that we got are
relatively noisy. So, its not quiet inside. If you need to work there for long times
its better to wear ear protection gear.
Were there any surprises that came up during the conversion of the
silo building into a Data Center?
We anticipated that we would have problems demolishing stuff. I told you about
the mezzanine and the concrete slab floor that needed to be removed. This is a
concrete slab floor, 2 ft. (.6 m.) thick, armored very strongly. The silo itself has
2 ft. (.6 m.) thick walls of armored concrete. It was a nuclear grade installation
so it was made very, very strong. In the basement the walls are 3 ft. (.9 m.) thick,
armored. We needed to cut some openings in there. We thought that would be
an issue but in fact all of the demolition and cutting out some openings in to the
silo and to the walls in the basement it took less than a month. And we needed
to remove also the metal enclosure of the accelerator. This thing was maybe 25 or
30 ft. (7.6 or 9.1 m.) high and its a metal enclosure that was 2 in. (5 cm.) thick.
We thought it would be a big deal to put that into pieces but in the end it was
very easy.
During the construction there were delays. Essentially it was the subcontractor
that prepared all of the metalwork for the floors. So the beams, the grating, that
took a lot of time. It took several months of delay because the subcontractor did
not do his job very well. He was late. So that was the explanation for the delays. It
took about 4 months more to build than what was expected. We expected about
4 or 5 months and it took maybe 8 months.
86
Figure 5-4 The housing for the Van de Graaff particle accelerator was sliced into rings to facilitate
its removal. Shown here, the accelerator base rests on the floor.
Surprises? No. We didnt have a lot of cost overruns. We had a few but not too
much. The biggest one is that at first for the fire protection system, we thought we
could use water from the adjacent building. When they made tests they realized
that there was not enough pressure. So we had to cross the street to get the water
for the fire sprinklers. That was a small surprise that cost about $100,000 to drill
through the street. On the campus we have the problem that the water pressure
that we get from the city is barely enough. It depends on when you make the test,
sometimes the pressure is enough and sometimes it isnt. When we made our test
it wasnt. So we had to take measures.
We didnt have any problems with the design. The design works well and we
didnt have any surprises there.
87
The shape of your building is obviously unique and influenced the

design of your Data Center, but are there any general design strategies
that you think others can take away from this project? Anything
that you have applied to the building of your next Data Center, for
instance?
The new Data Center uses some of the ideas that we used. They measure
differential pressure between cold and hot aisles, but they use a rectangular room.
Its on two levels, so there is one level with the server cabinets and another level
for the cooling system. They re-use a similar design but it was not in a silo.
One thing I can mention, when we were designing the silo we had a problem
how to access the different levels inside the silo? At first we wanted to have a
freight elevator. The problem is where to put it. We didnt want to put it inside.
We tried to put it outside. Then we had problems because it would have cost us
about a half a million dollars more and we didnt have that money, so we couldnt.
In the end we needed to, so we put stairs. The design of the stairs that we put
inside the silo needed to be optimized. We wanted to take as less space as possible
for the stairs, to keep the space for the servers.
It took us about four months to optimize the design of the staircases because the
building codes required us to have two fire exits on each level. So there are two
intertwined staircases that are round. That was a part of the design that wasit
looks kind of boring designing stairs but in that case it was quite a challenge.
How do you bring server cabinets and hardware in to the various levels
of the silo?
Inside the silo there was on the roof, built in to the silo, a movable crane. It was
a very sophisticated crane that was used to lift the housing of the accelerator,
for maintenance. This housing weighs several tons. There was this moving crane
attached to the roof of the silo. So we used that for building. If we didnt have this
crane inside the silo it would have been much more difficult to build, to demolish
what needed to be demolished and to build everything inside the silo.
The crane, it could move in two axesone longitudinal, in a straight axis, and it
could also rotate around the silo. It could move from one side to the other and it
could also rotate, so you could bring the crane at any position. And of course it
can go up and down. So it had three degrees of freedom.
88
If the building people if they did not have this crane for the construction, it
would have been very difficult for them because they used it a lot to lift stuff
and for the demolition. Like the mezzanine, for instance, they removed it in one
piece. They cut it from the wall and they cut the columns that supported the
mezzanine and they removed the floor of the mezzanine in a single piece using
this crane. It was quite impressive to look at that when they were doing it.
There is an opening also inside the silo. And this opening was existing in the
original silo. It was the opening through which the accelerator was brought inside
the silo. This opening was originally filled with concrete blocks. So it was kind
of closed but it was just concrete blocks that we removed and we put in a very
large window. In fact, the window has the height of the three levels where there
are servers. When the machine was delivered this window was not there. It was
left out. We put it at the end. So, the cabinets were delivered, and put in each
level through this window with the crane. In fact, with a truck with a platform
Figure 5-5 The silos crane, originally installed to lift the housing of the particle accelerator to
enable maintenance, used during demolition and construction of the Data Center. Here
the crane removes a concrete column.
89
lift. Anyway, if we need to bring more racks then we use the crane that is still

attached to the roof of the silo and we remove some sections in the center part of
the grating floor. We remove sections and we can lift the racks on the second and
third floor using the crane. The crane has a 25 ton capacity so we can lift any rack
with any content.
It would not be an easy operation, this is not something you would want to do
every day. If you bring 10 more racks it will take maybe a day to lift them one by
onean hour or maybe 30 minutes each.
If I were to re-do this design, it would be better to put a freight elevator. We tried
that but we didnt have enough budget to pay for that because the construction
budget was limited and we didnt want to have overruns. Even if we had the
budget we had another problem because on campus there is this committee
that overlooks all construction projects. At first we tried to submit to them a
proposition of adding a structure outside the silo, a rectangular structure that
Figure 5-6 The original appearance of the silo building, before its conversion into a Data Center.
90
would house a freight elevator and some outside stairs and they rejected it. So
even if we had the budget they didnt want us to modify the silo because its kind
of a landmark on the campus so we werent allowed to make modifications outside
the silo. We looked at the possibility of putting a freight elevator inside the silo,
but we still would have needed some stairs. So adding the freight elevator would
have used even more space, and then there were security issues, building codes.
Figure 5-7 The metal structure of the three data floors, as seen during the early stage of construction.
91

Figure 5-8 Power and cabling infrastructure are delivered overhead to cabinet locations
on three floors.
Figure 6-1 The Cisco Data Center in Allen, Texas, is linked with a second facility 15 mi.
(24.1 km) away, allowing it to instantly failover to one another if necessary.
Image by Douglas Alger.
Chapter 6
Cisco
Essential Details
ORGANIZATION: Cisco
Location: Allen, Texas
Online: April 2011
Notable features: Linked to a second Data Center in the same metro area. Enclosed cabinets with
chimneys. Airside economizer. Rotary UPS. Rooftop solar panels. LED lighting. Lagoon to capture rainwater
for irrigation. Building reinforced to withstand 175 mph (281.6 kph) winds. LEED-Gold certified.
Size: 162,000 sq. ft. (15,050.3 sq. m) total, with 27,700 sq. ft. (2,573.4 sq. m) of hosting space.
Power: Two redundant 10 MW feeds; IT usable capacity of 5.25 MW.
Tier: III
Power Density: 6.5 kW average per cabinet, 20 kW maximum
Infrastructure Delivery: Structured cabling, electrical conduits and air cooling delivered overhead
Fire suppression system: Pre-action dry pipe sprinklers, with VESDA smoke detection
Whats better than a highly-available, energy
Background
efficient Data Center that hosts cloud computing

resources for your company? Two of them, of course.
When Cisco opened its Data Center in Allen, Texas,
in 2011, the facility came with several features
common to a modern server environment. Enclosed
cabinets with chimneys isolate hardware exhaust
from incoming chilled air, an airside economizer uses
outside air for cooling more than 50 percent of the
time, and a rotary UPS provides ride-through power
in lieu of conventional batteries. Additional features
including a 100 kW solar panel array, LED lighting,
and a lagoon that collects rainwater to irrigate indigenous, drought-resistant landscaping helped the Data
Center achieve LEED-Gold certification.
Perhaps most interesting about the Data Center isnt its physical infrastructure design, though, but how it
is linked to a second Data Center 15 miles (24.1 km) away. The Tier III sites serve as active-active mirrors of
one another, providing immediate failover capability in the event that either suffers an outage. When data is
updated at one Data Center the changes are instantly synchronized at the companion facility. Cisco calls this
approach a Metro Virtual Data Center and the company is consolidating much of its Data Center resources into
a smaller portfolio that includes three MVDC pairs around the world.
John Manville, senior vice president of Global Infrastructure Services for Cisco, discusses the MVDC model and
how the Allen facility was designed to take advantage of the networking companys technology.
The Interview
What is Ciscos overall Data Center strategy? What is the companys
goals for its Data Center portfolio?
Two things. One is we need to address the business requirements as they pertain
to Data Centers. Number two, showcase Cisco technologies that are relevant to
the Data Center and generally raise the awareness and the mindshare that Cisco
has with prospective or current customers out there.
95
What are those business requirements?
6: Cisco
There are three main pillars that we wanted to address, that are the Data Center
outcomes from some of the business requirements.
One is we have to get the right capacity in the right places in the country, and
actually globally as well, and use that capacity in the right way. So we need to
optimize the use of it and possibly we need to build or partner with people to give
us Data Center space andprobably increasingly in the futureother resources
in the Data Center.
Number two is we need to increase the reliability of Ciscos IT environment in
general so that (if ) theres a catastrophe in one area, a natural disaster wouldnt
significantly influence Ciscos business.
And number three is we needed to change how we provided technology
infrastructure services to Cisco. This basically means moving to a services based
organization and using a lot of automation, understanding our costs really well,
driving down the cost, benchmarking many different aspects of how we provide
services.
Within that strategy, what functions does this Data Center in Allen,
Texas, serve for Cisco?
At a high level they, in conjunction with our Richardson, Texas, Data Center,
increase the reliability because for the necessary applications we can operate
in much more of an active-active way. So we definitely increase availability
and reliability of the services that we provide both internally and to external
customers, because Cisco.com for example is serviced in large part out from those
Data Centers.
LEED Certification
criteria within six categories: sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and
96
Were raising the tier level of the Data Center so just by itself moving these
applications and these business processes into a Data Center with a higher tier
level, even doing that increases the availability of the applications.
We are using a lot of Cisco technology and several of the pieces of technology
have new innovations and other features in them that address some of the
capacity and some of the reliability and actually probably some of the way that we
offer our services. Some of the new acquisitions from Cisco that were using down
there in our cloud, for example, specifically address how we provide services. So
I think all three main areas of what we were trying to do with the Data Center
strategy are tangibly implemented in Allen and with its partner Data Center just
down the road.
Figure 6-2 One of the two data halls within Ciscos Allen Data Center. Image provided courtesy of
Cisco. Photography by Cyclone Interactive.
97
You mention Cisco moving to a services model. How did the mission of
6: Cisco
this Data Center influence its design?
We did have discussions about whether we should have lower tier Data Centerswe
built two Data Centers reasonably close to each other, maybe 15 miles (24.1 km)
away from each other, and then used some active-active technology to distribute
the applications between themwhether we needed to build a Tier III plus Data
Center, which the Allen Data Center is, because it would probably have been
cheaper to do that (build to a lower tier).
We decided that in the end it did not make sense to do that because not all
applications are architected to operate in an active-active manner even though
sometimes thats what the users of those applications and business processes
actually need. There were many examples of mostly legacy but even newer
applications that we felt should be housed in a Tier III plus Data Center. There
is a cost difference between a Tier II and a Tier III plus Data Center but when
we looked at the increase we felt that since there were these applications that
couldnt make use of active-active capability, that still needed some higher level of
foundation and an increased level of reliability, so we would go with making it a
Tier III-plus Data Center. Thats one thing.
We also needed to make this a multi-tenant Data Center. There are some business
units at Cisco that wanted their own cage or wanted almost like a mini co-lo
inside that Data Center. Our goal is to provide infrastructure services but at the
moment there are valid reasons why some business units only need Data Center
space, where we provide them network, power, and cooling.
So theres multi-tenancy and its environmentally friendly. We made several design
decisions, many design decisions actually, to make it as environmentally friendly
as we can. Weve got Gold LEED certification for that Data Center, several other
things that weve done like using rotary UPSs for example.
As far as the technology thats being put in the Data Center its obviously a newer
version of some of the old legacy Data Centers that we have and weve used a lot
of the features of mostly Cisco but other partners as well. Technology that gives
us better reliability or is better easily managed or we can automate it better. One
example of this is weve built out one instance of our private cloud called CITEIS
(Cisco IT Elastic Infrastructure Services) is based down there. And that is highly
automated provisioning of infrastructure services.
98
Did you have to incorporate any particular design features to

accommodate the different operational policies of the tenants within

the Data Center?
From a Data Center space point of view we did design the corridors and access
capabilities to it and entry doors and things like that so that we could provision
off, reasonably easily, certain parts of the Data Center while giving access to the
right people and allowing them to have different maintenance windows, different
freeze periods, and different access control mechanisms.
What prompted Cisco to locate the Data Center in Allen, Texas?

We already had a Tier III Data Center that was reasonably newthe Richardson
Data Centerin that location. When we made the decision that we wanted a pair
of Data Centers the decision sort of made itself.
Really the question is, is it a bad location for a Data Center? I dont think its
a bad location, I think its pretty good from a natural disaster point of view. It
doesnt have earthquakes. It does have tornadoes sometimes but you can harden
the buildings for that. The power down there is cheap. Its a little bit hot during
the summer so we cant use free air cooling all of the time but even there our
estimates are we can use it 56 percent of the time. So its not a bad location
at all. In fact, its relatively good. And also by the way its in the middle of the
U.S., which means that if there are any latency issues its equidistant from major
population centers in the U.S. so I think thats an advantage.
If we were building from a greenfield site we may have made other choices but
given some of the business realities in terms of we already had a Data Center
down there we werent obviously going to move that one, this was the right
business decision. The location is maybe not the ideal location but its a very
good location.
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6: Cisco
Figure 6-3 Adjustable louvers allow outside air to be brought into the Data Center. Image by
Douglas Alger.
Figure 6-4 Thirteen air handlers feed cool air into a common plenum above the server rows. Airside
economization allows the facility to be cooled by outside air more than half of the time.
Image provided courtesy of Cisco. Photography by Cyclone Interactive.
100
You mentioned this Data Center being connected to another one in

the area. Can you talk about Ciscos Metro Virtual Data Center concept
and how thats designed?
The idea of this MVDC or Metro Virtual Data Center is that from an application
point of view these two Data Centers look as though they are one Data Center.
However, if there is an issue in one of those whole Data Centers then the
application can recover reasonably transparently if not transparently and still
provide these services that either the application or business process is meant to be
providing.
There are technologies that we are usingsome from Cisco some from some
of our partners, like Oracle especially on the database side, that let us do this.
There are certain requirements on the application as well though, obviously that
the application is architected to support MVDC. But a lot of the underlying
infrastructure and middleware environments also have to support this and provide
the foundation to enable the applications and the databases to be serviced from
either Data Center.
Basically, its a way to provide almost continuous operation if there was an outage
of one of the Data Centers. It is quite expensive to do this from an infrastructure
and middleware point of view so not all of our applications use this capability.
Weve been through a criticality rating exercise with all of our business processes
and applications, rated them and then worked out which ones should be riding
on MVDC and which ones need not be riding on MVDC and then obviously
made those decisions and were well down the path to move the ones that we
think should be on MVDC to MVDC.
The idea of this MVDC or Metro Virtual Data Center is that from
an application point of view these two Data Centers look as though
they are one Data Center.
101
With Allen and Richardson, Texas, being only about 15 miles
6: Cisco
(24.1 km) apart, is there any concern that both Data Centers
could be hit by a single disaster event?
There is a chance that both will be taken out by a natural or other type of disaster.
We think its very small, however. But there is a chance and therefore we have a
disaster recovery site about 1,600 miles (2,575 km) away. Its a non-production
Data Center so when theres not a disaster all our development and other non-
production use cases go on in this Data Center. Its in RTP (Research Triangle
Park) in North Carolina and if there was a disaster that took out both of those
Data Centers in the Dallas area then we have the capability of bringing up the
business critical applications in our RTP facility, in our DR facility.
The physical distances among the three Data Center locations were
determined in part by the pre-existing location of Ciscos campuses
in Richardson and RTP. Generically, if someone was looking to
implement this model, with two linked Data Centers in a metro area
and a DR facility outside of the area, what are the recommended
distances to have among the three facilities?
The main technology issue is about how far the pair of Data Centers can be apart
from each other given that in most cases you need dark fiber and probably diverse
dark fiber between the two Data Centers. Its not really the physical distance its
the distance of the fiber between them.
My recommendation is to get them as far apart as you can given that you want
to stay within around about 60 miles (96.6 km) from a fiber distance. The reason
why that it has to be of that order from a fiber distance point of view, is because
if you are going to use synchronous write technology on the storage its important
not to introduce too much latency into the application and most applications will
work with a fiber distance of 60 mi. (96.6 km). Some of them start having issues
after that.
102
How did Cisco approach the design of the mechanical system? Texas
isnt the first place people think of for using outside air cooling, but
the Data Center incorporates air economization and uses outside air
more than half of the time.
For environmental and for cost reasons we wanted to use as little power as
possible in this Data Center. One way of doing this is to use outside air to cool
the Data Center when the outside air is an appropriately low temperature. And
thats just what weve done.
We have a lot of air intake so are able to take outside air when its sufficiently cool
outside. I was pretty surprised, actually, how large the percentage of time is that
we think we can take outside air from in the Texas region to cool the Data Center.
We did raise the inlet temperature in the Data Center as well so that definitely
helped. If its less than 72 degrees (22.2 degrees Celsius) or so outside we can
start taking air in from the outside rather than actually using a specific chiller to
actually do that and using power, so I think thats a great result for us. It saves us
money and as I said it helps the environment as well.
One of the design points obviously is to keep the hot air totally separated from
the cooler air and thats been implemented down there. In that facility we use
chimneys on top of the cabinets and that works really well. Theres very little
if any crossover between the cold air going straight into the hot air intakes
and weve done a lot of testing to make sure that the cabinet temperatures are
appropriate. Weve optimized the inlet temperature into the cabinets so that the
equipment stays within the range of what the equipment maker feels that those
equipment can withstand and keep it within the warranty and maintenance limits
of the device. So we did some optimization there.
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6: Cisco
Figure 6-5 Enclosed cabinets with vertical exhaust ducts isolate hot and cold airflow, providing
increased cooling efficiency. Image provided courtesy of Cisco. Photography by Cyclone
Interactive.
How does Cisco deal with the fact that some of its own hardware
models vent exhaust to the side rather than following that front-to-back
pattern that is preferred for Data Centers with hot- and cold-aisles?
There are a few answers to that. One is, we continually work with our BUs
(business units) and the BUs are pretty aware of this. There are just some specific
physical limitations when you start getting large switches, with cooling front to
back. We havent been able to solve that issue.
Number two is we have come up with some pretty inventive cabinet designs where
even though it is side to side airflow for cooling we can still use a chimney design.
104
The third thing is that we obviously realize that there are going to be some
equipment that just wont fit into one of these cabinets. For thatand its not
just Cisco equipment, in fact its primarily not Cisco equipmentwe do have
to understand that some equipment, maybe some storage equipment is the most
common, is going to be out on the floor and its going to be pretty difficult for
us to put a chimney on top of their proprietary cabinet. In that case we keep
those out on the floor. We position them in the most optimal place but the actual
environment is cool out on the floor because were using chimneys and that gets
cooled in a more traditional way.
This Data Center uses Ciscos Unified Computing System, which

integrates networking, storage, and server functionality. How did the
anticipated use of that technology influence the design of the facility?
The major influence was on the cabling. We are using far fewer copper cables in
the facility than we have done ever before. We also have optimized and changed
actually the type of fiber we use so that it can support 10G now and in the future
up to 100G. Even if we hadnt used Ciscos innovations in terms of converged
fiber channel and Ethernet and some other ones as well it would have still have
been a valid design decision to put far less copper cables in and a much, much
higher percentage of fiber connectivity.
There are two schools of thought these days around whether or not to
use a raised floor in a Data Center. What prompted forgoing it in this
facility?
With the higher power densities that cabinets are capable of supporting these
days, under floor forced air cooling is becoming less and less the right choice.
Its becoming harder and harder to cool these cabinets using under floor cooling.
Given that and some weight limitations in some of the equipment and some costs
actuallyputting in a raised floor is quite costlyweve made the decision in this
facility and in any future ones that we may build to not have a raised floor. Have
the cabling and the cooling and the power provided overhead. And weve come up
with some, again using our engineers, weve come up with some ways all of those
technologies can be provided overhead and co-exist and I think its worked out
really well.
105
This was the first Cisco Data Center to use a rotary UPS instead of a
6: Cisco
conventional battery-based UPS system. What were the drivers behind
that choice?
It was environmental. Dealing with the lead and the acid from the batteries would
have been more impactful to the environment, so we decided to go with a rotary
UPS. And for the size of this Data Center it will allow us to get the PUE slightly
lower by using rotary UPS.
Any concerns about the shorter ride through time provided by a rotary
UPS rather than what you can get from a bank of batteries?
Not really. I feel as though there are a couple of failsafe mechanisms on those
rotary UPSs. One of them is that in the end if the diesel generator is having
trouble starting, there is actually a clutch that kick starts the generator. We did
some testing of this and we think this is a valid way to go now. I think this will
soon become relatively mainstream, to use rotary UPSs.
Figure 6-6 Cisco employed a rotary UPS rather than a conventional battery UPS system for ride
through power. Image provided courtesy of Cisco. Photography by Cyclone Interactive.
106
We have talked about several elements of this Data Centers design:

the MVDC concept, chimney cabinets, air economization, the Unified

Computing System technology. Do you think the solutions are specific
to the function or geographic location of this Data Center or are they
universal and can be applied to most facilities?
I think each Data Center has some tradeoffs about which technology you
should use or which ones you shouldnt. In fact, we make tradeoffs when we
build Data Centers, not every Data Center is the same. However, I think some
of the techniques and technologies that weve spoken about should be at least
considered. People implementing Data Centers should make a choice and be
aware of the choices that theyre making around some of these subjects. Im
certainly not saying that everybody has to or should follow the same design that
we have. There are some specific business reasons why we wanted this design. But
all of these decision points should be considered about what power density you
need, should you use outside air for cooling, and various other things. At least a
discussion should be had about that and an optimized decision made.
I dont think theres a cookie cutter Data Center thats going to fit everybody but I
do think there are various almost a la carte options that you should consider when
building a Data Center and some of these weve spoken about.
If you could go back and design the Data Center again, what if
anything would you do differently?
I would revisit the decision to have chimneys and lay on the table again whether
we should use chimneys or whether we should use warm air aisle containment.
I think thats a different decision. They both get to the same point, which is
keeping hot air and cold air away from each other, but I do think its valid to
revisit that decision.
107
As you say, both solutions get to the same point. What would make
6: Cisco
you consider warm air aisle containment over the enclosed cabinets
with chimneys?
I think you can get better separation. I think you can handle higher density of
heat inside a cabinet using hot air aisle containment. As long as you dont go
overboard on how you design the containment mechanism, I think itll probably
be cheaper to implement that. You do need to make sure that the hot aisle
containment mechanism is flexible enough to allow you to expand or contract the
equipment and the number of cabinets you have in there. I dont think its a slam
dunk but I do think its a better design. Each implementation is slightly different
and depending upon the business requirements it could go either way.
Are there any other lessons from this project that you plan to take
forward into other builds?
The slab decision, I think that was a great decision. I think the density of power
distribution. I think we would spend more time making sure that we dont leave
any stranded power in the Data Center. We may make the power distribution
mechanism even more flexible than it is in the Allen Data Center.
What advice would you offer to someone taking on a Data Center

project?
Make sure that the right levels of management are involved in quite low level
details about how the Data Center is built, because some of those details have
major ramifications in the future and realistically youre going to be in this
Data Center for 10 to 15 years. So, a lot of the design decisions have long-term
ramifications.
Also, there are always trade-offs regarding cost. My advice would be to make sure
that you really understand what is driving the cost of the Data Center and that
you feel that whatever decision you are making and the cost associated with that
provides the necessary value back to the business for the amount of money youre
spending. Understanding the cost of some of those decisions is very important.
108
A Data Centers design will obviously vary based on its location and
the facilitys mission, but generally do you think this facility represents
the baseline of how Cisco will build its Data Centers going forward?
Yeah, I do. Well tweak things. Theres new technology that comes down. More
flexibility about power distribution, for example, is another one but I think in
general yes Im pretty happy with the design decisions made here.
We may make slightly different decisions depending upon the business needs and
other things in the future, but Im very happy with this Data Center. I think some
of the decisions we made were great, working out very well, were the right ones to
enable us to provide the necessary services to Cisco and some of our customers.
So, yes, I think it will serve as the baseline and will be tweaked from that.
Let me offer you the final word. Is there anything else you would like
to highlight for people about this facility?
Please come and visit it. We have a tour in a hall around the outside of all the
Data Center. We can show you a lot of the design decisions that weve made
now, that weve been talking about. We can show you them actually working
and discuss the pros and cons of them. I would certainly have liked to have seen
a Data Center like this before we made the decisions about how to build ours
because at least then you can learn from other peoples mistakes or other things
other people have done right. I would welcome any people, any readers of this
book to come visit the Data Center.
109
6: Cisco
Figure 6-7 A 100 kW rooftop solar panel array provides enough energy to power the office area for
personnel who support the Data Center. Image by Andrew Broer.
Figure 6-8 The Data Center features non-chemical condenser water treatment and an on-site
rainwater retention system for site irrigation. Image provided courtesy of Cisco.
Photography by Cyclone Interactive.
110
Figure 6-9 Four 20,000 gallon (75,708.2 liter) tanks of generator fuel, four 15,000 gallon
(56,781.2 liter) tanks of chilled water, and one 355,000 gallon (1,343,821.2 liter)
tank of domestic makeup water reside behind the Data Center. Image provided courtesy
of Cisco. Photography by Cyclone Interactive.
111
6: Cisco
Figure 6-10 Server rows in the second data hall are separated by cage walls. Image provided
courtesy of Cisco. Photography by Cyclone Interactive.
Figure 7-1 Citis Data Center in Frankfurt, Germany, was the first in the world to be certified
LEED-Platinum. Image by Christian Richters Photography.
Chapter 7
Citi
Essential Details
ORGANIZATION: Citi
Location: Frankfurt, Germany
Online: May 2008
Notable features: Green roof and green wall features. Reverse osmosis water treatment for cooling.
Harvested rainwater used for irrigation. Rotary UPS. First Data Center certified LEED-Platinum.
Size: 228,000 sq. ft. (21,181.9 sq. m) total, with 100,000 sq. ft. (9,290 sq. m) of hosting space
Power: 14.4 MW from two separate feeds
Tier: III
Cabinet locations: Information unavailable
Infrastructure Delivery: Structured cabling is provided overhead. Power and cooling are delivered under
a 31.5 in. (80 cm) raised floor.
Fire suppression system: Pre-action sprinklers
Much as car designers strive to find the sweet spot
Background
between acceleration and fuel economy, fun and

practicality, Data Center designers often seek a
happy medium between high availability and green
optimization.
Thats because the two qualities are traditionally
at odds with one another in Data Center design:
higher availability means extra layers of standby
infrastructure, which in turn mean more material used
and more electrical conversion losses.
Citi found a way to achieve both with its Data Center in Frankfurt, Germany. The facility, which is the financial
services companys main computing center for Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), is the first ever Data
Center to achieve LEED-Platinum certification. It also contains sufficient physical infrastructure redundancy to
satisfy the stringent uptime demands of a financial institution, with a Tier IV equivalent electrical system and
Tier III equivalent mechanical system.
John Killey, head of Citi Realty Services for EMEA, and Jerry Walsh, head of Design and Construction, Citi Realty
Services for EMEA, discuss how they were able to make sustainability and availability contribute to one another
within the design of their Data Center.
The Interview
What prompted you to locate this Data Center in Frankfurt, Germany?
John: We went through a very detailed site assessment process that looked to a
number of factors and at the end of the day those factors pointed to Frankfurt
being the optimum location to construct.
To give you some feeling for what those factors were, they included obviously
risk in terms of the nature of both sovereign risk and physical risk. The second
one was availability of power supplies. The third one was availability of network
connectivity both nationally and internationally, so international network
gateways.
Next was the right sort of construction infrastructure that could actually build
what we were looking for, both technically and also practically. And then also our
ability to support it ongoing in terms of the right level of infrastructure support
both in terms of the market and also from the Citi perspective.
115
Put all those into an equation and you come up with a number of solutions; one
7: Citi
of those is Frankfurt. And we decided to go with Frankfurt because we could
then find availability of the sites and so forth that allowed us to do what we
needed to do.
How long did it take to design and build the Data Center?
Jerry: (It was) quite a fast track program. We started the whole process in 2006.
We had earmarked a locality by mid-2006, but then of course we had to go
through quite a process of approval to acquire the site, et cetera. I can say to you
that really the design process started in September of 2006 and then we went and
had our bid documentation for design, et cetera, by February 2007. We went
out to bid in February/March 2007. We had a contractor on board and on site
in May of 2007. And within nine months we had available to us 12,500 sq. ft.
(1,161.3 sq. m.) of data space and by May of 2008, exactly one year later, we had
the facility complete. So it was a very fast track process.
John: The selection of that site and also the country of location assisted us in
meeting those sorts of timeframes.
Jerry: It did indeed, because with contractors in Germany its different from say
in the States where we also had a quite significant Data Center rollout. There the
procurement of the construction part of the project is usually done under the
construction management type procurement method. In Germany its much more
traditional so we had to have all our designs in place. So it was very critical for
us to get the right team on board. And we did that via a special vehicle where we
had a specialist, a very large international mechanical and electrical engineering
company, and a dedicated construction company and they came together and
formed a partnership for this particular project.
LEED Certification
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a rating system for the design, construction and
116
Also in Germany we had the advantage that a lot of the major elements in
construction theyre very used to pre-cast elements and doing a lot of pre-
fabrication work off-site. And that certainly helped us deliver this project as
well. Again, Germany helped us because thats the particular expertise that was
available to us.
Did you know, as you went through the site selection process, you
would be able to complete the project more quickly by building it in
Germany than other potential locations?
John: Our knowledge of the markets, yes. We had that as part of the selection
requirements because we knew the overall program we had to meet and it was one
of the factors. At the end of the day it wasnt an overriding factor. What was the
most important factor? It was the network connectivity. Second most important
was the power availability.
Jerry: And then of course the question we had to take into account was can we
deliver to our program. And we were confident we could do that because of the
expertise in Germany.
But I would also have to say that we would have done itusing different
procurement methodsif it was done for instance in the UK. I think we still
would have met those same timelines. But it certainly was part of the decision on
location.
This is the first Data Center in the world to achieve LEED-Platinum

certification, so its obviously green. Data Centers for financial
institutions typically have high availability requirements, though,
which means more standby infrastructure and therefore more
components and electrical conversion losses. How were you able to
balance those different requirements in your design?
John: How were we able to balance it? Its a very trite answer but very effectively.
Because what we did is we embodied the overall sustainability requirement as a
key design requirement along with availability, reliability and performance. If you
build it in at that stage and you understand the impact of a sustainable solution
117
and what it has on the overall performance of the facility actually sustainability
7: Citi
can add to the availability, not work against it.
A good example is, if you go down the route of a free cooling solution it can
actually give you enhanced availability because 80 percent of the time youre
getting free cooling and for a significant portion of the time youre getting
free cooling completely which means that youre totally divorcing yourself
from the need for chillers and the associated equipment. So you could actually
suffer multiple chiller failures to a greater level than you would in a more
traditional design and still having no impact on your availability. And thats the
understanding of the overall impact of sustainability.
Now, one of the things that we did do is, and again this is part of the process
when we went out to look at both the design team and also the construction
team, we made sure that sustainability was a contractual obligation of all those
individuals from Day One. Not added on at a later stage or an optional extra,
it was an integral part. So when we selected for instance construction elements,
sustainability, embedded CO2, those sorts of considerations were made alongside
things like performance, cost, et cetera.
Jerry: We had written in to our contract with the main contractor that our
minimum target was LEED-Gold. As you may well know, the contractor has
quite a considerable contribution to make to obtaining the necessary credits to get
LEED accreditation. However, it wasnt just about going for the highest LEED
accreditation, it was in support of our corporate sustainability goals as well. And
as John said it was absolutely embedded in the whole process of procurement,
design, delivery, and construction on site. In addition to free cooling we also had
reverse osmosis, where we save about 50 million liters (13.2 million gallons) of
water per year. Again, there was no interruption in design, this was just part of
the whole design consideration.
John: Even down to the design of the UPSs (uninterruptible power supplies),
we were able to use diesel rotary UPS models, and understanding what that
does in terms of reducing down the amount of cost for medium voltage units,
understanding what that does in terms of reducing down the amount of copper,
for instance. Reducing down the amount of construction that you require for the
building because they have fit a smaller footprint. Reducing down the need for
batteries with the associated issues in relationship to gas discharge and so forth.
All those aspects as well as performance decisions are sustainability decisions. And
so, again, thats how you can get a sustainable and green Data Center that is as
effective with as good availability.
118
If you build it in at that stage and you understand the impact of

a sustainable solution and what it has on the overall performance
of the facility actually sustainability can add to the availability, not
work against it.
Now, does it at the end of the day use lots of energy? Yes, course it does. Because
a Data Center will do. But things like the integrated design means that you get
a much better PUE than you would likely get with a more conventional design
as well as the advantageous lower environmental impact during construction,
commissioning, and then operation.
Figure 7-2
Citi uses reverse
osmosis to reduce
sediment buildup
in its cooling
towers and saves
about 13.2
million gallons
(50 million liters)
of water per
year. Image by
Christian Richters
Photography.
119
I understand Citi was very particular about the materials used in the
7: Citi
construction of the Data Center and their embodied energy. Can you
provide some examples of how that influenced your choices?
John: We used things like recycled materials in relationship to some of the
cladding systems. We used locally grown timber, naturally seasoned so that
from an ongoing maintenance perspective as well theres no great issues in that
respect. We also looked at things like the roofthe roof actually is a green roof
on there, which again has an impact over its total lifecycle. Because thats the
other key issue, you dont just look at it in the short term you look at it across its
total lifecycle to see what impact it has from an energy perspective. So those are
examples of that type of approach.
Did you use a particular source for defining the embodied energy
values? A challenge with embodied energy is that there isnt universal
agreement as to how to measure it. Also, the embodied energy of an
item can differ greatly by location because whats local to one site
isnt local to another and whats abundant in one location might be
scarce in another.
John: Youre correct, and thats why its very important to have a partnership
with a design company that understand your objectives and understand the issues
in relationship to sustainability as well as having a local knowledge and a local
presence.
We were fortunate in that we utilized Arup Associates. They are a
multidisciplinary both architectural and M&E practice that were also based
in the Frankfurt area as well as LEED accredited. They had LEED accredited
professionals, they have local knowledge, and they also have a great commitment
to sustainability. They have been actively engaged in the Qatar naturallycooled
football stadium, for instance. They are leaders in quite innovative sustainability
designs so that did help us immensely.
Jerry: In a lot of our workshops, that expertise came across and it played a big
factor. I may also say that our contractors were very committed to us attaining
the highest sustainability rating we can. They were very keen also to ensure that
recycled content of the materials were used as much as possible. They had to go
out to their suppliers, their subcontractors, as well and ensure that message was
got through the whole pipeline.
120
And indeed we ended up that the recycled content of the materials on the project
were specified at 27 percent and local sourcing of materials we exceeded 40

percent. That was because everybody knew how important it was to Citi but
also they all bought in to that goal. Again, Germany its pretty highly regulated
about waste and material, et cetera, so that information and audit was there for
us as well.
You mentioned that in the design of facility you reduced the amount
of materials used such as copper. Did you accomplish that entirely
through building a smaller facility or were there other elements of the
design that allowed you to streamline the infrastructure?
John: There were two aspects to it. The cabling aspect comes very much from
the UPS design. You can put in less copper because if youre transmitting voltages
around the building at medium voltage then obviously you need less copper.
What we also did from a data perspective is we made sure we tried to optimize
our cable runs on the data side to reduce the amount of cabling and the amount
of copper weve got. It was important to integrate that in to the cabinet layouts,
in the frame layouts, and so forth. So again youre making decisions with
sustainability being one of the criteria that actually also improve performance in
terms of optimizing the layouts for cooling effect, et cetera, et cetera.
The big message that I always try and stress is if you design sustainability in, not
from Day One from Day Minus One that is, before you start the projectthat
actually it assists you in the overall design process in many aspects and does
not hinder you. You can achieve optimization of that overall design without
compromise to sustainability, performance, reliability, or cost.
Cost is a key issue because if wed gone down the route of a more traditional UPS
solution then that would have cost us more money. We did spend more money
than we would normally have done on the mechanical side but that was offset
by the electrical costs, lower cost from drops. And also lower construction costs
because youre not building big battery rooms with all the issues that go with
them. When you look at it overall it can be beneficial.
121
Your facility has several water efficiency measures incorporated into
7: Citi
its design including reverse osmosis water treatment and rainwater
harvesting. The Data Center industry today is focusing on energy
efficiency but water usage hasnt received as much attention.
John: I would point out that Citi is the first bank to have published water
reduction targets as part of a sustainable agenda.
Do you think this is an issue the Data Center industry as a whole is

going to start paying more attention to in the future?
John: I do believe that water is a major issue going forward. You could argue,
why is it an issue in the likes of Germany where water shortage isnt a particular
issue? If you look at the U.N. environment agencies, water maps that identify
where there are likely to be issues, Germany isnt going to be a problematical area
for quite a long time. However, what I think you have to do is you have to look
at embodied water issues much wider. We didnt look at water in that respect at
that time but actually when you start to think about the impact that construction
materials have, for instance, or the systems you put in, then water becomes a
major issue. So I think longer term we will have to do it because it will become
more and more of a challenge, particularly in relation not only to direct water
usage but also to indirect water. I cant remember the figures off hand, but if you
look at how many liters of water to make a cubic meter of concrete its quite
significant.
Using less concrete saves you money. Using less concrete has a lower embodied
CO2 requirement because of the reduced amount of energy and also saves water.
If you understand that and the drivers that show that being economical with
design from say a concrete perspective can have an impact in terms of cost, CO2,
and water. Its understanding that holistic impact that your decisions have upon
the sustainable agenda overall.
122
Figure 7-3 Citis Data Center includes a green wall and a green roof that reduce the heat load on
the building and last longer than conventional materials. Image by Christian Richters
Photography.
Your site incorporates a green roof and a green wall and theres a lot of
landscaping across the facility that -
John: I would say theres not a lot of landscaping. Actually, the landscaping was
done as part of our need to provide water settlement. There were two aspects to
it. One, you have to have runoff from a roof and it has to be held before it goes
out to the sewer system simply because in a major flat roof you have a lot of water
coming off there and the sewer systems cant take that volume. So the landscaping
was done because of that.
123
But of course because weve got a green roof the actual roof acts as a reservoir
7: Citi
anyway, so it reduced down the amount of landscaping we did and it reduced
down the amount of earth we had to move to create those. So again the impact
of a green roof, not just from the roof perspective but what is a knock-on effect
from a sustainability point of view was a consideration at the time when we made
that decision. Its offset partially by the fact that you have got a slightly heavier
structure to support it, but again you get longer term benefits because actually
a green roof lasts longer than a conventional roof because its not subjected to
the same deterioration from a UV perspective or from a mechanical damage
perspective. So again sustainability solutions give you a better performance.
There isnt a lot of landscaping there. There is some but not an enormous amount.
Were there any challenges incorporating the green wall or the

green roof?
Jerry: No, definitely not. The technology was there, the design was there, it was
just a matter of us adopting it. And it certainly was not an issue from either a
cost or a delivery aspect. Again on cost, the roof lasts twice as long as it otherwise
would because we have this covering.
Tell me about your infrastructure delivery. Do you have a raised floor or

is your infrastructure provided overhead?
John: Let me be very clear. While we like to make sure that we are using
technology to its greatest advantage were also a bank and consequently we are
relative conservative in terms of design. While we want to be on the leading edge
we dont want to be on the bleeding edge. So when you look at what weve put in
there its all very, very conventional. Its not particularly innovative other than the
fact that weve taken great care in selection and putting the whole lot together.
So, yeah, its a conventional raised floor, its got a suspended ceiling, the layout is
relatively conventionalso if you went into that Data Center it wouldnt look a
lot different at all from any of the other Data Centers we have.
124
I take it then that the solutions used in this Data Center are universal
and can be used at any Data Center facility.

John: There are some advantages in being in a Northern European site because
obviously from a climatic perspective we can harvest the climate to our advantage.
You couldnt do a Data Center such as this in an equatorial site. So there is some
benefit from that perspective.
Jerry: Exactly. Particularly the free cooling as somebody mentioned earlier. And
indeed the green roof. It remains green because we use rainfall to irrigate during
the drier periods.
John: But in terms of the technology, a lot of the way we put the technology
together could be used anywhere. As long as that technology is supportable. For
instance we use diesel rotary UPSs. Diesel rotary UPSs are very widespread in
Europe. You very rarely see them in the U.S. And that is a function of the market
penetration of the manufacturers who have tended to be and continue to be
European based.
Figure 7-4 Implementing diesel rotary UPS systems helped Citi eliminate batteries and other
building materials. Image by Christian Richters Photography.
125
As you look back on the project were there any surprises along the
7: Citi
way? It sounds like a lot of what you did in the room you had decided
early on, but was there anything unanticipated that came up during
either the design or construction?
Jerry: Thats an interesting question. I was trying to rack my brain and see if
I could come up with something. We produced our concept design report and
that was our bible. Any variance from that we had to go through a whole change
control process. Really, looking back there were very few changes.
John: I think that was one of the reasons why we could deliver it in that time
frame. Because the design had been well developed to a point where there was
not a lot of need for change. We did a lot of value engineering and so forth as
part of the design process. It meant that the suppliers themselvesand its very
important when youre doing a lot of off-site fabrication you cant change your
mind once you get to the siteso it was important that we got it right and we
did. And actually if you look at the concept design document and took it onsite
you could navigate yourself around the site very, very effectively.
Jerry: Overall by way of change ordersand this is from memoryfor a job
of this size we were something like 50 or 60 change orders and a lot of those
were referring to locations of some doors and some things to do with the admin
buildings and the ancillary spaces like storage areas rather than the central plant
and the data hall. So there were no surprises, really.
John: The only thing that was a surprise, but it was a pleasant surprise, was it was
a mild winter. That was the one thing that I would say, it was not a hard winter.
Winters in Frankfurt can be very cold, very long, very hard. And we were very
lucky that that year it wasnt.
I realize this is still a relatively young Data Center and you sound very
satisfied with it, but if you could go back and design it all over again
what might you try to do differently?
John: To be perfectly honest I have not given it any thought, and nothing
jumps out at us. Im sure there are now improvements and changes in terms of
availability of materials but I wouldnt change the design team structure or the
construction team structure. I think that worked extremely well. Theres not an
enormous amount we would change.
126
I read that 100 percent of the Data Centers construction waste was
diverted from the landfill. What special steps had to be taken for that
to happen?
Jerry: I think, again, we had the advantage of being in Germany. Its highly
regulated anyway. Where you have waste you have to separate it on site. So we
had a set of requirements setting that out. Our original task was something like
50 or 70 percent to be diverted from landfill and we got up to 100. And we got
up to 100 simply because we made the commitment to maximize and we had our
specifications and our documents in place and the contractual obligations there
on the contractors and subcontractors.
For anyone starting a Data Center project, can you offer them some
advice?
Jerry: A big advantage for us was having an integrated team. We were very
conscious at the very beginning that we needed somebody who could provide
the architectural, the mechanical, the electrical, the security, and indeed IT
advice as well, and risk assessmentall that capability and disciplines within one
firm. That was a big advantage for us. We were very clear on our coordination,
very clear where the responsibility laid. We had the advantage of this particular
consultant and this is the way we wanted it. They had all the necessary disciplines.
I think that helped tremendously.
And also as I mentioned before, having the concept design report and having that
as our bible that was very, very critical. Because for us much of the early design,
the concepts and requirements, were put together here in London and we worked
with our consultants here in London and then of course we had to transfer at
a certain stage back to our colleagues and indeed transferring design over to
Germany as well. The same firms, the same groups involved but we then had the
language to contend with as well. Because all bid documentation, drawings, et
cetera, then had to be in German. But having an integrated design team was a
great advantage.
John: I would reiterate that. That is the biggest benefit I think. It was a team and
we were able to integrate then our requirements including the sustainability from
Day One, which I think also was a very key point.
127
Are there any final lessons that you would like readers to take away
7: Citi
from this project?
John: From a personal point of view, I think the lesson is integrating the team,
integrating the sustainability alongside the other requirements of a Data Center
performancereliability, availabilityand that you can achieve each of those
and each of those are mutually enhancing rather than working against each other.
Thats the message I would get. If you approach it right and early enough you can
get benefits in all of those areas and its not the detriment of one or the other.
Jerry: The only thing I would add is that it involves the entire supply chain,
down to your contractors, down to your subcontractors and suppliers. They have
a big role to play as well.
Figure 7-5 Citis Frankfurt Data Center at night. Image provided courtesy of Citi. Photo by
Steve Kay.
Figure 8-1 The Lakeside Technology Center in Chicago is a registered historic landmark and houses
multiple Data Centers. Images provided courtesy of Digital Realty Trust.
Chapter 8
Digital Realty Trust
Essential Details
ORGANIZATION: Digital Realty Trust
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Online: First constructed from 1912 to 1914. Converted to telecom use between 1998 and 2000.
Acquired by Digital Realty Trust in 2005.
Notable features: Designated historic landmark building. More power capacity than Chicago OHare
International Airport. One of the worlds largest carrier hotels. An 8.5 million gallon (32.2 million liter)
brine tank for thermal storage. Includes a 20,000 sq. ft. (1,858.1 sq. m) data hall that was first in the
United States to be certified LEED-Gold.
Time to design and build: Varies by data hall
Size: 1,133,391 sq. ft. (105,295.5 sq. m)
Power: 102 MW
Tier: Varies by data hall
Cabinet locations: Varies by data hall
Infrastructure Delivery: Varies by data hall
Fire suppression system: Dual interlock pre-action system with above and below heat and smoke
detection
When design began in 1912 on the RR
Background
Donnelley Printing Plant and headquarters

in Chicago, it was done with an eye toward
the future.
We are trying to make the whole building
dignified and beautiful, said then
company president Thomas E. Donnelley.
Something that will be beautiful not only
today, but 100 years from now.
A century later, Donnelleys vision has
been fulfilled in ways he never could
have imagined. Today the eight story
building is known as the Lakeside Technology Center and houses a collection of Data Centers operated by
Digital Realty Trust. Its one of the largest carrier hotels in the world and has the most electrical capacity in the
region, exceeding even OHare International Airport. Despite its change in function, many of the buildings core
characteristics as well as its distinctive gothic architecture live on.
Sturdy floors that once supported presses that printed everything from hardcover books to telephone directories
to the Sears Catalog now bear the weight of storage frames and standby generators. Vertical shafts that
permitted huge paper rolls to be transported between floors now convey electrical conduits, structured cabling,
and cooling. Even amenities for workers such as ample ventilation and natural lighting have been incorporated
into the buildings modern incarnation.
Jim Smith, chief technical officer for Digital Realty Trust, discusses the evolution of the facility, what its like to
operate a Data Center at such a massive scale, and the challenges that come with doing so within a designated
historic landmark.
The Interview
Lets start with some background about the Lakeside Technology
Center. What can you tell me about the history of the building and
how it came into the possession of Digital Realty Trust?
The site was the headquarters of the RR Donnelley Corporation and Mr.
Donnelley had his office there. If you ever get a chance to go to the building,
theres this incredibly beautiful library and that library housed all the first edition
books that they printed.
131
Its got this cool industrial story. He was one of these guys who was an industrial
8: Digital Realty Trust

humanist, where he was really into the workers. And so the original construction
had a lot of natural lighting and ventilation because he felt like that was good for
the workers. So its got a cool Donnelley story. They built it in phases as they grew
the business.
It became defunct. That part of the city was a really run-down piece of the city. If
youre a big fan of the Blues Brothers movie, like I am, theres a scene where they
come off the expressway and you can see the building in the background. And its
like something out of a Terminator movie. Its a wasteland, and the buildings got
broken windows and its open. I freeze the frame and think, Thats our building?
Its just all torn apart.
In the turn of the millennium a group was put together to redevelop it and they
had some funding from the Carlyle Group. That initial redevelopment happened
in 1998, 1999, 2000. You have to remember at that time this kind of telecom
boom was going on. People werent so much building Data Centers as they were
building switch sites. We were calling them Data Centers at the time but they are
as much switch POPs as anything and sure enough the initial leasing in there was
a lot of telecom carriers and people were thinking in terms of telecom centers and
telecom hotels. So, that original developer started the development and its an
interesting spot because its adjacent to the McCormick Place convention center
and theres a very large trigeneration plant across the street. That trigeneration
plant was built in support of the convention center and the hotel complex there
and it was built at a time in the energy markets where there was a lot of arbitrage
between daytime and nighttime use and the convention center load profiles are
really sharp. At night nothings happening and then (during the day) they turn
on the convention center and conventioneers arrive, you get this huge spike in
cooling and heating demand. So the tri-gen plant was an economic story built
and it has a huge thermal storage tank, a brine storage tank. Its enormous. Its the
largest chilled water tank in North America. They built the plant and sized it so it
could run all night. Fill the tank at low electricity rates and then in the mornings
when they hit huge demand from the halls, they could either cool or heat the
halls as needed. They ran a turbine on gas to generate electricity, they used the
waste heat to make chilled water, and then they had these big, medium voltage
chillers in there.
So, the original developer looked at that and said This plant is big enough to
provide cooling for this building and I can avoid the capital to build my own
cooling system. So the original building and redevelopment concept had that
energy plant as a big part of it.
132
Those guys had some success. They leased a couple floors. At this point in 2000,
2001 two or three of the floors were leased and enclosed, but there were whole
floors like the fourth floor or eighth floor that were open. They were open to the
elements and they werent contained so the chilled water plant that ran through
there had to act like it was exposed to the outside air. So it was a 30 percent
glycol plant for freeze protection. The building wasnt in very much pretty shape,
although it was pretty functional.
They got an offer they couldnt refuse from El Paso Corporation. At the time
El Paso was building a fiber network inside of natural gas lines. They had raised
money; they were flush with cash, so they bought out the original developer. Then
as El Paso flamed out and the dot com business wrapped upit stabilized, it had
some cash flow but it wasnt really healthy.
In the time when El Paso was wrapping up, as Digital was growing we had a
funny conversation with El Paso and they said We intend to sell you this building
but were busy getting rid of billion dollar assets. After we get rid of the billion
dollar scale assets well call you when were ready because were really busy. So we
waited patiently and courted our target and over a period in early 2005 we were
able to conclude the transaction and we acquired the building in June 2005.
It was something like $150 million. It was a good price for both of us. They were
able to get a good rate. They lost quite a bit of money on it but at the time there
was not much going on. We didnt have to overpay. We got a fair price for the
income that was there and lots of surplus space and assets. It was really a ball of
wax. We had to spend a lot of time figuring it out.
So in 2005 we took over the building. We started some basic rehabilitation,
putting in better security, just the kind of thing that a professional building owner
does. El Paso was never a real estate company. As soon as they bought it they were
in, generally speaking, financial trouble. So they werent investing in the building.
We started the basic investment program and started to market it for lease. At
the time there was an Equinix Data Center in there, the Chicago Mercantile
Exchange was in there, Qwest had a cyber center and a POP there, so it had
pretty good density and it was pretty well built out. But there were still two and
a half or three floors of vacant space so we knew we could do some other work
with it.
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Figure 8-2 Built in the early 1900s as a printing plant, the buildings strong floors and large
vertical shafts made it an excellent candidate for conversion to hosting space.
We started by rehabbing the base building and then we went around and we
found a number of Data Center telecom spaces that had either gone bankrupt
or reverted back to the buildings control and we did a lot of surplus work. So,
we would take a 500 kW, DC powered, 50 watt per foot (538.2 watts per square
meter) telco space. Generator was good, switchboard was good, cooling loop was
good, density was wrong, power was wrong. We would rip out the DC plant,
put in a UPS (uninterruptible power supply), re-engineer the cooling, give up a
bunch of space. We would bring to market a 75 watt per foot (807.3 watts per
square meter), non-raised floor Data Center space but we did it very inexpensively
so it was priced really attractive and we got great customers. We started to do
some of that where we would rehab the building and this is where we developed
our skill set, taking these kind of scary situations and doing some really, really
hard engineering and turning lemons in to lemonade.
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Thats a cultural trait that Digital has thats really important to us. Were a real
estate company that happens to do technology property so everything we do is

driven by economics and its not easy to get internal capital and we have to make
good arguments and good argumentation. We always have something a little bit
imperfect to work with, especially in those early days before we were doing the
big developments. That makes you a better engineer. Were really good at building
and were really good at stripping costs and finding where capacities exist and
taking advantage of surplus work.
About that time our business started to grow. We started to get some reputation
and the market started to recover, 2005, 2006. The surplus Data Center market
had mostly been consumed, the economy was getting better, and tech was buying
again. That building became a marquee spot because it had the Mercantile
Exchange for trading hub, it had Equinix for peering, it had other telco. Theres a
lot of fiber density. It had access to power, it had good cooling.
The LEED Data Center we built, we had a client who came in and said I want
to be in the building. I want you guys to build me a Data Center with the client
capital. It was a big energy company and they wanted to be green. They said
We have a story to tell about sustainability and how do you think we can do
that? Remember, in 2006 The Green Grid didnt really exist or they had just
started. The idea of high density was really just coming out. The ideas around
containment, higher operating temperatures, free cooling with outside air
these are all relatively new, right? We were still in traditional high-availability
Data Center mode. So we didnt have a lot of levers to pull like we do today. We
didnt have that stuffit wasnt in the playbook at the time, certainly not for
commercial companies like us.
One of the areas we thought we could do some work with them for sustainability
was LEED. None of us had built a LEED project. In fact, many people in the
company had never even heard of it. But it came up as a topic and the customer
loved it. They said, Yeah, this is what we wanted to do.
LEED Certification
criteria within six categories:sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and
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And then we had this sinking feeling of, uh-oh, what have we done? Have we just

added a lot of cost? We had no idea. We had looked at one checklist. We had no
idea. So of course you hire a consultant who is going to charge you a fee for it.
And what we found with LEED is its relatively straightforward to get done. There
are no big secrets to LEED; its really just a good list of best practices. And theyre
not just best practices on energy theyre best practices on building and water use
and cleanliness and waste diversion.
In hindsight, the biggest benefit we got was not that we learned how to do LEED.
It was that (for) everybody in the room on the construction and the client and the
engineering side, it became clear that sustainability and efficiency were important
to senior management and clients. So everybody changed the way they think. It
wasnt build it cheaper. It wasnt build it faster. It wasnt build it right. All those
were always there. But they said Hey I have some freedom and some license to
figure out other things. Should I even bother looking at low flow faucets in the
bathroom? Yeah, you should look at that because sustainabilitys important. From
my perspective that was the revolution that we created for ourselves, really for
our teams and our clients: sustainability is important. And that was the first time
anyone had ever said that.
If you know Data Center engineers theyre very smart people. And if you unleash
them on a new dimension theyre good. They figure stuff out, man. Hey, how
do you get a LEED point for this category? Well, you put windows in the UPS
room. What? Nobody puts windows in a UPS room. Well, daylighting is an
important energy conservation technique. You can make an argument about,
well, is daylighting important in a non-occupied space? Well its important when
theres a technician in there, and theres a technician in there frequently and there
are people doing rounds frequently and if you can keep the lights off that saves
energy.
Interestingly, in that building one of the biggest headaches we have to this day
is the external windows. Many of the windows are or were original and theyre
historic, so to replace them at the time was just this monstrous expenditure. So
thats the kind of thing for Digital weve done replacements slowly but surely over
time. Well at the time we couldnt afford or it didnt make sense to replace all the
that was the revolution that we created for ourselves, really for
our teams and our clients: sustainability is important.
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windows, so much of the building architectures have an inner wall that allows
access to the exterior windows. Weve got this kind of double pane effect just by
the need to be able to get to windows. Because of their age and their materials the
thermal expansion properties of the old glass are poor so they frequently break in
the hot and the cold from contraction. We have a big budget to replace windows.
Well, that worked very well for daylighting because it wasnt like we were putting
a single pane of glass in the UPS room. We were putting in a double set so that
you had some containment. If you had a window break you had a whole other
window. So, there were some architectural things that played in. And that was
one of those challenges that drove us crazy. Weve got to put in two windows?
No, thats expensive! We dont want to do that. But in the end, the form follows
function idea played well into that. Where it made sense architecturally, we
preserved the historical look without having to replace the exterior windows
and we got daylighting in. And it wasnt a completely insane (scenario in which)
theres a single pane of glass between the outside world and the UPS room.
Figure 8-3 Digital Realty Trust installed a second layer of windows behind the originals, providing
more physical security while allowing natural light in to certain areas.
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With you needing to justify the merits of a project in order to secure

funding, what convinced you that this building was worthy to obtain
and develop in the way that you have? How did you spot the diamond
in the rough and realize where you would want to go with it?
Remember, at the time, most people were still operating in the telco metaphor.
High ceilings. Heavy floor loads. Its interesting because now we own a bunch of
buildings with very high ceilings and theyre a huge pain in the butt. Theyre very
expensive to build in high ceilings. In fact, as the world goes more and more to
containment as containment gets acceptable, Im shrinking the building heights
a lot because with high ceilings containment becomes more expensive, too. You
need more material to go to the ceiling.
So, for us it was floor loading, access to electricity, access to cooling, and then the
footprint. The footprints and the floor plates in this building are about 140,000
feet (13,006.4 square meter) and they have a nice ability to be broken up. If
you look at our business and people like us who do redevelopment of telecom
and Data Center facilities you see a couple types that show up. There are a lot
of printing facilities because of paper handling and the weight of the press and
the weight of the materials. There are a lot of printing facilities that have turned
in to Data Centers. There are quite a few downtown core department stores.
Department stores typically have high ceilings for light and good view of the retail
products. They usually have a lot of elevators for shaft space and they usually are
concrete in construction because of the ceiling heights.
This building as a former printing facility it had fabulous shafts. They used to
move paper vertically from the basement storage up and down to various floors,
so the 350 Cermak building has something like 25 different vertical shafts.
Including some that you could drop a city bus through. Theyre huge. Theyre
massive shafts. That was another key piece of appeal for us.
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Have you used those for cooling or are you routing physical
infrastructure through them?

Routing infrastructure. The base building uses four of the shafts for common area
cooling and that plant we run, but for the most part we use them for routing.
Its really interesting because not every building, especially the vertical buildings,
not every building can you get segmentation of the routes. So for the most part,
shaft 21 will be cooling, shaft 5 will be telecom, shaft 6 will be primary power,
shaft 7 standby power. We brought to clients the ability to have segregation of
their services through the building. And thats an attraction for some of these big
footprint builders.
It also had some other features. This was a blighted area so the city was very, very
pro Lets give you guys what you need to get the job done. The city did a great
job. The original developer did a great job. So the building got a couple of key
code variations. One of them was, in this building we can run medium voltage
in metallic conduit. Generally speaking, its a union and utility convention in
the Chicagoland area that medium voltage needs to be encased in concrete. That
was one thing right away everybody recognized the buildings so big were going
to need to throw some medium voltage around and theres not enough physical
space and thatll be too expensive. Were going to need to run it in metallic
conduit. So we have a waiver for that. And thats been really critical to us for
development because we have some very large medium voltage generating plants
and because the building is so large we have to put in the big scale industrial
equipment.
Another exception or variation we got is that we were able to take generators and
day tanks and elevate them off the ground floor. Usually the general building
code convention would be no diesel fuel above any occupied spaces, which really
just means never off the ground floor. In this case the building has 40 or 50
generators on the first and the second floor that are stacked above each other,
and that allowed the limited yard space to grow the footprint of the building.
Theres something like 90, 96 engines programmed for this building and about
85 installed so getting the physical space for that many engines would require this
huge piece of land. So we were able to take advantage of that original variance
and get interior generators without housings, with remote radiators and pretty
complex air handling equipment, in on the first and the second floor. That was
a bit of planning that we inherited or we purchased that really, really made the
building work from a master plan perspective.
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Im intrigued by the prospect of operating and adding on to a Data

Center in a building thats not only about 100 years old but also a
historic landmark. What sort of restrictions does that present as youre
trying to design, build, and operate spaces within the building?
The main limitations on the historic designation are around the faade. The exterior
faade is the key protected piecethe shape of the building, the types of windows.
Its a very successful property for us, both from a financial perspective and a reputation
and landmark. Part of our story is well come into a building and maybe we paid a lot
for it or it needs a lot of sales to get going, but as buildings start to grow and become
healthier and stabilize we divert quite a bit of the cash flow back into the building.
Were making long-term investments.
Figure 8-4 Architectural details from the building feature symbols from the history of printing.
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For example, at first this window budget was killing us. As we stabilized the
building and grew it we were able to meet with the city and find a solution where
we have to buy a fairly expensive window but it matches the look and feel of the
historic windows. So, slowly but surely weve been replacing those. So, those are
the main things.
This is one of those buildings where normally the traditional real estate parts
of the buildingthe landscaping and the toilets and the parking lotare very
simple and then the Data Center is complex. This is a building where the Data
Center is complex and the building management is complex, because of things
like the maintenance of the faade. There are a bunch of little architectural
features embedded in the concrete in the window sills. Sometimes those fall, so
youve got to be careful from a safety perspective that that old stuff is maintained
and youre not adding risk to the population, and then the look and feel of those
things have to be right. So the faade is really one of the dominant pieces.
Then there are a number of historic lobbies and common areas. Those we really
just have to maintain this incredible, beautiful walnut woodwork and sandstone
carvings. And so those are places where were just off limits from development.
The management offices for many, many years were the original; Mr. Donnelleys
corporate office was where the general manager sat. Weve since leased that to
customers who love it. Weve built some more traditional functional office but
there are sections of the building where we go, It is what it is. We cant take any
of that wood out. We cant reroute the electrical. We can do some wireless LAN
but theres some historic office that weve leased to customers and its going to be
historic offices for the life of the building. But we knew that going in, so it wasnt
a place where we said If we could rip out all of this office we could put in a Data
Center. That fit into our master programming as theres going to be some office
there.
So, theres certainly an element of that. But those are benefits, right? Those are
attractions to the building. They get a lot of press. People love to see them. In
fact, this library I mentioned is common area in the building. So any of our
customers in the building can check out the library for meetings and events, its a
big conference room and its beautiful. Thats a nice feature. Im sure the property
manager and the guy doing the economics would like to be doing something
different with it, maybe it costs too much to clean. But from a branding and a
product part of the building its a huge positive.
One issue that has come up is, when we first did the development there was
nothing down there. Well, as Chicago has grown and the economy has recovered
that area has become gentrified. We have all the proper permits and licensing for
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all the equipment therethe generators and the equipmentbut weve gotten

some noise complaints from some of the local neighbors. Without being compelled
to, weve had to spend extra dollars on sound mitigation just trying to be a good
neighbor. Thats just as a landlord one of those thingsyes we have all the permits
but you have got to be a good neighbor, especially if its a nice neighborhood. So,
fine, weve spent some extra money. And Im not talking about a few hundred
thousand, Im talking about a few million dollars of noise abatement.
But other than that. The floors are incredibly thick. These buildings were built
before there were pocket calculators, so everythings generally overengineered.
Just cutting a hole in the floor it adds a lot of cost. So there are little things like
that. The age of the building changed the construction. But from an operations
perspective the paper-handling nature of the facility gives us a lot of benefit. Like
I said, the shaft space, heavy floor loading. Great spots for storage of equipment
and fuel. Great basement, good fiber entry because of the basement spaces. Its as
much positive as negative, I think.
Figure 8-5 Once abandoned, the building was converted to telecommunications use beginning in
1998 and has since been fully restored.
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The building obviously wasnt originally constructed with green

considerations in mind. What challenges did that present when you

sought to obtain LEED certification for one of its data halls?
LEED is an incredibly successful program and I think the USGBC (U.S. Green
Building Council) people should be proud of the work that theyve done. I think
LEED gets maligned. Depending upon which faction youre in, you can always
say something positive or negative about it. The thing that I like about LEED
now, having doneI think were into 35 or 40 projectsits very flexible. Its very
customer friendly.
When our Suite 610 got LEED-Gold I dont tell people that it was LEED
Commercial Interiors or LEED New Construction, because I dont want to
explain what all the variances are, but LEED is flexible. Commercial Interiors is
specifically designed for a tenant in a building that they dont own thats doing
a fitout. So its great. In this case I happen to do the construction and I own the
building but its a multi-tenant facility. I didnt get LEED on 350 Cermak, we got
LEED on Suite 610. And so that flexibility just makes the certification process
different.
Ill give you an example. One of the categories of LEED is about materials and
waste. Some of those features are, did you source your materials locally? So if
you get concrete for a project and the concrete has to travel 2,000 miles (3,218.7
km) over road, you dont get LEED points for that. If it comes from within 100
or 200 miles (160.9 or 321.9 km) you get a point for the fact that you didnt use
fossil fuels to transport your materials. Similarly, if you divert all your waste
your miscellaneous wood and rubble and fiberglassif you separate those and
send them to the appropriate recycling spaces you get more points. Well, on a
commercial interiors job, its pretty easy to get the waste diversion points because
youre not knocking down a building. On a LEED for New Construction
or a LEED for Redevelopment if you tear down any of the structure you get
murdered on points because youre creating so much rubble. Each little category
has its nuances. And someone could make the argument LEED CI isnt as good
as LEED NC. Well, whatever. That may or may not be true but guess what,
I wasnt building a new building I was doing a commercial interiors and the
USGBC people have a program for that. So in that context its just like every
other project. Across the criteria, theres where your materials come and go to,
indoor air quality, fundamental commissioning, energy performance, access to
transit, things like that. So A LEED CI job is just a subset of the requirements
for your particular thing.
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So there wasnt anything specific to 350 Cermak that hurt us. There were some

benefits. Like, the access to transit piece is an important one for people.
One issue was this daylighting issue. The building is an eight story building with
roughly 140,000 feet (13,006.4 square meter) per floor, so its a big rectangle, a
big rectangular volumetric space. The interior part of the building historically had
a hole cut in it for light wells to get to the workers. Well, the original developer
filled that in to create more floor space. So, one of the reasons we to get our
daylighting credit we had to do them in the UPS rooms is because the UPS
rooms happen to be on the perimeter. It would have been better to do the Data
Center with daylighting because thats where more people spend time but that
part of the building was interior. We didnt have any exterior windows. So that
was one little difficulty.
Other challenges related to LEED? I think of the biggest ones was none of us had
done LEED. And LEED has some funny quirks to it, right? You have to have
your commissioning agent selected before you go into design. Thats common in
the Data Center business now, but commissioning usually was at the end of the
project. That was one that luckily we caught it so we had someone on board.
Oftentimes we do projects in two separate phases. We usually do what we call our
Powered Base building where we might do the medium voltage, the basic pipe
work, and then we do our turnkey or our fit-out phase. Well, with LEED you
need to submit a single permit package. That was another one where procedurally
we got some good advice beforehand so we didnt make any mistakes on the
delivery.
I think cost-wise we probably overpaid for our LEED consultant the first time.
Now that were very experienced what we find is we may go to a new market
and meet a new architect and theyll say Oh, LEED. Well do that. Itll be, say,
$50,000 extra. We now say We will teach you how to do LEED since you dont
know how to do it and the cost will be free. Thats a negotiation point in the
supply chain because we historically and typically have a lot more experience
than our architect partners. And we have a LEED person internal, who works
out of our Boston office. She is an architect, we hired her just out of school
and said You run this program. She is the keeper of all of our points and our
certifications. She probably knows more about LEED for Data Centers than
anyone else in the world because shes the one whose name is on the forms, who
reviews the criteria and comes to me and says Were going to get Silver. Were
going to get Gold. Were going to get Platinum. Here are the levers we need to
pull to move our rank.
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I normally ask about power density and how many cabinet locations a
given Data Center has to offer. I assume that varies among the various
data halls within the facility.
It does, but since I was involved from the acquisitions due diligence to the master
planning to the final build out I can tell you with pretty good certainty. This
buildingremember, most of its programming and most of its large footprint
customers moved in in the 2000 to 2004 timeframeso outside of one financial
services company that owns almost a whole floor, much of the space is between
50 and 100 watts a foot (538.2 and 1,076.4 watts per square meter). Theres
not a lot of ceiling height here so theres a decent proportion of the suites that
dont have raised floor so youre naturally limited to 75, 100 watts a foot (538.2,
1,076.4 watts per square meter).
The newer builds, Digital has built up to 200 watts a foot (2,152.8 watts per
square meter). One of the clients in one of these very high density 25,000 to
30,000 foot (2,322.6 to 2,787.1 square meters), have built up to 400 watts a
foot (4,305.6 watts per square meter), but I would guess the building average is
probably 75 (538.2).
Do you have a default way that you provide infrastructure or does it

vary from suite to suite?
Because in this case there are so many customers that built their own its all over
the map. In Digitals case we generally build a 2N UPS system. Except for the
generator plant its a Tier IV type UPS and distribution architecture, in Uptime
standards. Its a double corded, concurrently maintainable system. Concurrent
maintenance is the key to availability for us. Were operating at such a big scale
that making our operators happy is the big part of my job. So, that 2N, double
conversion UPS is a very traditional plant. Its very simple, very easy to work on.
For example, when I tell you we have a floor thats, say, four suites and 1,350
kW apiece, thats not one big 6,000 kW system. At Digital Product we try and
make our pods and our suites as discrete as possible. And thats how we attract
enterprise clients because the enterprise clients they feel like Hey, look, this UPS
plant? Its mine. Theres nobody else on here. Im not sharing it. I dont have to
synchronize my maintenance calendar with a hosting company. I get to do it all.
And thats a big part of our product position.
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In this building, however, the building configuration (is complex). When we

go to suburban Dallasin Richardson, Texaswe build single story buildings,
dedicated generators, dedicated UPS, dedicated security systems, dedicated
doors to clients. In these more complex buildings you generally have to share
some systems. For us (at this site), for example, the eighth floor is one common
medium voltage paralleled generator plant and then the suites are broken up into
discrete UPS and cooling loads.
In this entire building, Digitals infrastructure is run by the chilled water plant
across the street. And that chilled water plant, we actually have a long-term, 25
year agreement with them where we went in, we re-engineered their plant, we put
in the generator capacity, we re-engineered all their valving and piping, we added
another riser. We were able to take a very large, robust industrial plant and make
it a mission critical environment so that its concurrently maintainable as well.
One of the cool things about that site, we have this thermal storage tank. At our
current loads, were the only people who can draw on the thermal storage tank
because the thermal storage tank is for the hotel and for the convention center. So
under normal operation the convention center hammers the tank, up and down,
up and down. In a power outage scenario the convention center and the hotel
have to evacuate. You cant have people in occupied buildings with no power. So
they have to evacuate. So were the only people who have emergency power on
the thermal storage pumps. At our current loads we have something like 40 hours
of thermal storage. Its just an unheard of number. We have more thermal storage
than we have fuel.
Thats one of those artifact features. Why do you guys have this? It just was there
and we showed up. And we have a great relationship with the owner. Its owned
by the state. We put capital into their facility so they loved us. And we extended
our contract so they loved us. We have a very good relationship with that plant.
At this site youre dealing with massive infrastructure capacities. Are

there any particular challenges that come with operating at that scale?
Yes. There are benefits first. We call Cermak the vertical campus. When we have
a place like Santa Clara or Richardson or Virginia or New Jersey, we have these
campus environments where we build multiple buildings with multiple Data
Centers and multiple customers. On a campus you get incredible economies of
scale from management. You still have a chief engineer at every building, but the
property manager and the tax people and the operations manager you get a lot
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of leverage on those folks. I imagine this funny scenario where theres a battery
technician somewhere in 350 Cermak and he never leaves the building. We just
send in tacos and food and sandwiches and hes just doing battery maintenance in
my building forever.
We do see a lot of those advantages of scale with the maintenance guy for UPSs,
for spares. In that building I happen to have one more than one UPS type, but its
only two. I have a Liebert set of spares and I have an MGE set of spares. Im able
to take that spares kit and spread it across 10, 15 MW of load. So there are a lot
of efficiencies at this scale.
On the headache side, certainly on the chilled water plant it keeps people awake
at night. A big common system is risky. One of the things about when we build
our Turn-key Data Centers, theyre usually 1125 or 2250 kW, we have dozens
and dozens of those systems so if any one of them blows up and fails our fault is
contained. We dont have our whole client base exposed to a common system. So
any time we do things at large scale with big common systems it makes us a little
bit nervous. Our competitors build bigger systems and we think thats risky and a
lot of our customers agree. They like that they have these smaller, discreet things.
Until we did the complete upgrade of the chiller water plant across the street that
was my nightmare scenario. Something happened at the Cermak cooling plant
and we have to turn most of the building off. Now that weve been able to invest
more than $10 million in the infrastructure of that facility I can sleep comfortably
because its reliability and its availability and its design are just like everything else
we have, so its neutral. So thats certainly one (challenge).
On a campus you get incredible economies of scale from

management.I imagine this funny scenario where theres a battery
technician somewhere in 350 Cermak and he never leaves the
building.We just send in tacos and food and sandwiches and hes
just doing battery maintenance in my building forever.
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At that scale on the power grid, you start to have higher profile and bigger

impact. Typically Chicago will have utility scale outages on incredibly hot days.
Thats where they get hit up in Chicagoland. In that scenario, when the grid gets a
little bit unstable, if we make the choice or if our customers make the choice Lets
go off the grid, lets run on gen because things are a little haywire out there, we
have to be much more tightly coordinated with the networks when we come back
on. Thats a skill set and a set of phone calls and a set of procedures that are not
common. And because were a big client, Com Ed (Commonwealth Edison) loves
us, we love those guys. Theyre one of our favorite investor-owned utilities. Theyre
really, really good. We have very close relationships with them. We have access to
senior management, we have access to operations people. Thats one of those key
things where, if the Fisk substation has an outage at the transmission side and all
of the sudden weve got a bunch of stuff running on gen, we are on the phone
at the utility level talking about whats going to happen and when were going to
restore.
Theres always an environmental concern with the volume of fuel. Two hundred
thousand gallons (757,082.4 liters) of fuel, youre nervous about that. Once again,
some of its customer owned some of its owned by us. But its a lot of fuel to keep
track of from an insurance and environmental and liability perspective.
And then people. That building has more than 2,000 badge-ins and badge-outs
per day. The physical flow of peoplewe have a huge security staff and a huge
operations staff because theres so much activity in the building. A couple of our
customers in there are co-location providers so their clients are coming through
our security perimeter. Theres a lot of physical management.
That particular building is blessed with four very large freight elevators. But the
freight elevator scheduling during construction times, when we were developing
the building, it was a 24-hour operation with a manager and logistics people at
each elevator. And there were periods where if a contractor missed a 15 minute
window he might have to wait a day to get back on the elevator.
Similar to the people control, is security. Theres just a lot going on. I dont even
know how many cameras are in there. Once again, thats a case where were testing
the limits of human factors. Lets presume I have a security station and theres
people therefive or six or one. How many cameras can they actually cover?
These are these things, we get tested at scale. Over time weve ebbed and flowed
up and down. Touch wood, we havent had any meaningful security events there
but are we more exposed, are we more risky because were at scale? I dont think so
but were not really sure. Its a different thing. Theres not a lot of other people we
can go to for this type of experience.
148
Figure 8-6
Employees and
customers enter
and exit the 1.1
million square
foot Lakeside
Technology Center
more than 2,000
times per day.
149
Since obtaining the facility and doing various buildouts and upgrades,

have there been any surprises that have come up?
What we found was, after the first year we thought we had a pretty good plan. We
studied this thing. I feel like I would go to Chicago and I would sit in the lotus
position on the fourth floor and commune with the building. What can you do
baby? Where should I go next? I was up and down the stairways and what about
this and pipe routing and engineers and studies... What we found was we were
getting better every time. Every job we did we got smarter.
We got into a rhythm of once per year we got all the major stakeholdersme, the
person running the construction group, the property manager, the construction
manager on the recent jobs, and then the P&L owner for the regionand we
would redo the master plan. We felt like it was wasteful because we did all this
work last year, but what we were learning was Hey, remember on that last job
when we thought we didnt have enough height for on that interior gen? Well,
we fixed it by changing the order and now actually we can put gens over here.
Or Remember we had that prospect and they really wanted us to do this crazy
stuff so they funded the engineering study to do the work and they didnt really
buy from us but we have this engineering study that showed us this? So, I think
it wasnt really so much that we were surprised by any one thing as that we got
better at owning the building, if that makes any sense. The more time we spent
with the machine the more intimate we got with the machine and the machine
ran faster.
The noise surprised us, I suppose. Everything we did was good. Every individual
Data Center was well built and well planned and all that but the aggregate noise
on the roof surprised us. We didnt plan to do some of that sound attenuation.
Strictly speaking we could have just fought but its just easier to be a good citizen
and like I said the building is very successful, its very profitable so we reinvested
that profit in the asset. Its a fair decision.
If you could step back in time to 1998 to be part of the

redevelopment of the building is there anything you would do
differently to it?
I think its a good posture in business to be a little bit skeptical of your own
success. You never know if youre going to make it. When we acquired 350
Cermak we acquired it on its merits. It had cash flow. It had a value. We paid the
150
right price for it. We were able to invest more capital and grow it. Now its worth,
whatever, hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars.

If I could do everything over, knowing the end state of the building and the
financial successone of the interesting things thats going on in the Data Center
business is theres lots of growth. Theres some big mega stuff: Apple, Facebook,
Yahoo!, Microsoft. Those guys dont deal with capital like we do. Theyre different
types of companies. They have different disciplines. They have different hopes and
dreams and goals and accounting treatments. If Microsoft or Google or Apple or
somebody is building a 100 MW Data Center they probably wouldnt build it
like we would, and so if I did something different I wouldve acquired the energy
facility across the road, built a 50 MW trigeneration, gas-powered facility with a
50 MW utility intertie and if I had that today I would be operating a traditional
Data Center with traditional chilled water with a traditional PUE but my energy
source and my chilled water creation would be putting my energy and carbon
performance on line with the Facebook Open Compute Project1.05, 1.1 PUE.
That doesnt make economic sense at 10 MW in an urban environment. But
at 100 MW this would be a showcase of how 100 MW Data Centers should
be built. The issue that we all have, even at our scaleweve got a $10 billion
balance sheet, $1 billion of revenue, hundreds and hundreds of megawatts of
Data Centerseven me, Im not going to build a 100 MW facility on Day One
for almost anybody, even if a client says theyll fund it all. Thats I think one of
these inflection points were at. The industry is scaling. Were growing. Were
going to run up in to some limits and were going to have to do some new more
industrial things. But the economics are so intimidating that nobodys going to be
that first one to do it.
But I really feel at 100 MW scale trigeneration for a Data Center is perfect
because youve got baseload demand for the cooling, youve got baseload demand
for the electricity. You get a nice big gas feed. Get a system tuned up. Tied in with
the grid so you can take it off and maintain it just like other power plants do.
Then the question becomes should Digital own that or should Com Ed own that
or should a third party own that? The ownership piece I dont have solved but the
engineering piece, I think large 100 MW trigeneration scale is going to be the
right tech.
151
Not that most people are going to fall into this sort of Data Center

project, both in terms of massive scale and dealing with a unique
building, but are there any design principles you would recommend for
someone taking on a major Data Center project?
Yeah. I am a big fan of outside air, whether you want to go direct or indirect. And
if you want to incorporate outside air at large scale the volumetric dimensions of
your building and land become critically important. This building is a giant cubic
form so the volume of the building that doesnt touch an exterior edge is massive.
And I think at scale you want to be building flat, large buildings. Or tall and
narrow. You want to make sure your ratio of interior volume is matched to how
much surface you can touch because you need that surface to move air through
the facility.
So the question becomes, can everybody build in remote areas? And the answer
should be yes and no, because we cant all go to Utah or Wenatchee or Nashville
or wherever. Theres still demand in urban centers. Its amazing. Why are people
building Data Centers in California? Its doesnt make any sense. Its expensive.
There are earthquakes. Its hard to build here. Yet its one of our biggest markets
if not our biggest market. So thats an interesting piece. Anything I could tell you
on form and function and design could be blown out by market demand. I think
thats the biggest takeaway.
We have a new template of a building that we call our PBB Plus, our Power Based
Building Plus, where we took a form factor that matched the volume of the Data
Center, the volume of air that needs to flow through it, with a physical set of
dimensions in steel, that creates a kind of a Data Center unit. We can put 10 of
those together. We can put 40 of them together. We can put them two stories.
We can put them single story. And in each one of those we can feed them with
outside air, so when we go to the business from the design team, we say Hey,
what do you guys want to do in market x? They go, We want to put 10 MW.
Then get me a piece of land of this dimension. Or Ive got a piece of land of this
dimension, what can you guys do there?
We have this pre-built playbook of the building physical structure that then
we can put in a couple different facility architectures inside of it. But that
building configuration becomes the driving factor. If you look at Facebook Open
Compute, the Yahoo! Computing Coop, you see that. The building config is the
Data Center now.
152
I have seen a lot of Data Center projects over the years where the
server environment wasnt a primary consideration during planning of

the building. Its a turning point when the Data Center design is given
priority. A lot of new capabilities can be enabled.
This is one of the issues with the Data Center business. Even at some tech
companies, Data Centers arent at the forefront. They you go into a traditional
enterprise where techs just a service and its way down the list.
We started our discussion of building configs as an economics thing. I said,
Look, Im sick of these complex buildings. I love them, theyve made me the
man I am today, but I think if we spend time and design a building right itll be
cheaper. We had this big argument. No, the time to develop land and build the
buildings will interfere with the economics. We said, Yeah, that might be true in
some cases.
What we did was I told (Digital Realty Trust vice president) Steve Kundichhes
an architect by training and he ran this group for a long timeGo take a blank
sheet of paper and design me the perfect Data Center building, in a vacuum with
no one else telling you what to do. And then when we costed those up, sure
enough we found out you know what we can actually save quite a bit on the Data
Center fitout if we build the building right. And then the benefit of having it pre-
designed obviously is big for us because it allows us to be more agile.
After working on several Data Center projects in which being

green was a priority, I reached the conclusion that green design is
fundamentally good design. Even if someone isnt compelled by the
environmental merits, youre streamlining the design and operations
so that things function while consuming fewer resources, which means
greater efficiency and cost savings.
I once did an exercise with Liebertwe were doing an account review and they
were showing us what we bought and what the roadmap wasand I said I would
like you guys to come back to tomorrows part of the meeting and I want you to
show me your entire large frame UPS product line on a price per pound basis.
They were like, What? In great British pounds? I said, No, by weight. Like, how
many pounds does each UPS weigh? And they said, Well why do you want that?
153
I said, Dont ask. Ill tell you later, but just go do it. So they did it and what I

was trying to get was, what percentage of their gross margin was from innovation
and technology. I wanted to strip out the material cost. I presume its an equal
volume of steel, lead, and copper.
Sure enough, it was a completely linear relationship with price per pound. And so
I said, I would like to buy the lightest UPS please. Its one of those things where,
guess what, the lighter models were the ones that were transformerless, etc. And
maybe those dont fit and maybe they do but it was that concept you just talked
about, of stripping things out. And weight, its cost, its shipping, its materials, its
smelting. Weights an important factor in these things. Lightweight stuff is more
sustainable.
Let me offer you the final word. Is there anything else people should
know about this site?
At the risk of inflaming the marketplace, because this is one of these image
issues we have: Data Centers consume a lot of power, is that good or bad? My
argument is Data Centers are huge engines of productivity increase. Data Centers
using a lot of power is good for the world.
But I think the takeaway is, this building and its recent load growth is now the
largest power consumer in the city of Chicago. That for us is a good milestone in
that were helping the city of Chicago transform from its former industrial base
into its new industrial base built around service and technology. And financial
services are a big part of that, because thats a big client base there. That I think
is a good anecdote and a good milestone for the building. We passed OHare
Airport in the last year.
I do think its elegant, the function of this building had in the past
and the one it has now. It seems very evolutionary.
From an economics perspective, like what is redevelopment, were taking capital
and materials that came from the Industrial Revolution and were reusing them in
this revolution. Its a cool, cool circle that were in.
were taking capital and materials that came from the

Industrial Revolution and were reusing them in this revolution.
154
Figure 8-7 Additional architectural details of the Lakeside Technology Center.

155
Figure 9-1 The Project Mercury Data Center in Phoenix, Arizona. Images provided courtesy of eBay.
Chapter 9
eBay
Essential Details
ORGANIZATION: eBay
Location: Phoenix, Arizona
Online: October 2011
Notable features: In-building data hall, containerized Data Centers on the roof. Air and liquid cooling to
cabinets, outside air cooling, adjustable computing capability.
Size: 42,000 sq. ft. (3,901.9 sq. m) total, with 14,000 sq. ft. (1,300.6 sq. m) of hosting space in the
building and rooftop containers.
Power: 4MW for IT initially, expandable to 6 MW for the in-room data hall and 6 MW for containers
Tier: II
Cabinet locations: 256 on the main floor; roof can house 10-12 containers, whose rack count can vary by
configuration
Power Density: 14 or 28 kW per cabinet
Infrastructure Delivery: Electrical conduit, structured cabling, and cooling are delivered overhead.
Liquid cooling piping is routed below a 6 ft. (1.8 m) raised floor.
Fire suppression system: Double action, pre-action interlocked system. VESDA detection system.
When online marketplace eBay built its Project
Background
Mercury Data Center in Phoenix, Arizona, in

2011, the company outfitted it with the sleek,
futuristic look of Tron: Legacy.
A computer-circuit pattern is etched on the
doors, accent lights adorn the walls, and ice
blue panels at the end of each server row are
numbered with the movies distinctive font.
(During Project Mercurys grand opening,
eBay played a 10-minute video that includes
staffers in Tron attire wielding glowing data
discs and light sabers to combat a denial of
service attack.)
Beyond Trons neon-lined styling, eBay apparently took to heart the movies tagline: The game has changed.
Rather than designing the Data Center in-house or using vendors from previous projects, for instance, eBay
issued a public RFP (request for proposal), inviting firms to submit competing designs. It employed a similar
approach with Data Center container and hardware manufacturers. The company meanwhile streamlined its
operations: standardizing hardware configurations, prioritizing applications, and creating processes to deploy
fully-occupied racks and containers, allowing thousands of new servers to be installed as demand warrants.
The Data Centers physical infrastructure includes game-changers as well: including hot water cooling, rack
and container accommodations, air- and water-based cooling, and a raised floor deep enough to race light
cycles underneath.
Dean Nelson, Senior Director of Global Foundational Services at eBay, talks about how the companys supply
chain and Data Center design have each been optimized to operate efficiently and scale rapidly.
The Interview
Project Mercurys design came about in a unique way, with eBay
specifying requirements and then having design firms submit
proposals. Tell me about its development.
I joined eBay in 2009 and they were right in the middle of Project Topaz, which
is a Tier IV Data Center built in Salt Lake City. I took on that project kind of
mid-stream, and then brought that to completion which was in May of 2010.
159
Tier IV, they did a lot of innovative things in there. They got to a PUE design of
9: eBay
1.4, so they elevated the temperatures. Theyve done a lot of the best practices to
go back and get the best efficiency. Theyve gone to 400 volts, theyve done a lot of
things in the industry. They did a lot of best practices and it will serve our needs.
But the problem is, it still had a lot of the same older approaches in it.
There were fixed UPS amounts per room. There were three 20,000 sq. ft. (1,858.1
sq. m) rooms. It was expected to have lots of space that you could spread out. And
so the philosophy of space is cheap I should build that up and I can just spread
things out as I need. It was a lot of facilities-focused decisions in that. And what I
found was everything was also based on a Tier IV expectation. So, the applications
no one had really done the inventory to find out what has to be in a Tier IV Data
Center and what could be in a lower tier Data Center. So that was the first thing I
did was just go back and assess that. And what we found is up to 70 or 80 percent
of the applications that run in our Data Center, the equipment that actually runs
in the Data Center for those apps, can be in a Tier II. So were spending a lot of
money to basically do overkill on a lot of applications that are resilient already.
That was now where we said lets right-size applications. That was the first
philosophy.
I work in an organization right now where all costs are included. So I own all of
the Data Centers, the networks, supply chain, security, etc. My peer owns all the
provisioning. He takes the cache equipment we have and he basically creates the
infrastructure as a service to deploy out whatever we need for whatever app. So you
profile equipment, you can now make a decision and push things out. And then my
other peer is the one that does site operations and analytics. Its really looking at the
health of the site and the uptime and then all the data around that and presenting
all that information back.
What we found was, lets filter through these apps and from there lets figure out
what we should put in the Data Center. The other part was, we dont know really
what we need when we need it so we need to build a generic, modular approach.
Thats one of my background piecesmodularity is really important in all of this.
And modularity at almost every level, to be able to scale out components as you
need. And multi-tier. Since we had a Tier IV Data Center how would we augment
with a multi-tier center next to it. Dont lose your investments that youve already
had. Lets figure out how we could build, utilize the Tier IV to give it more runway
but now take out things to free up capacity in the Tier IV and put them into
adjacent Tier IIs that utilize the same power infrastructure, that utilize the same
security teams, support teams and delivery channels, and all that on the same site.
160
After that then we started really looking at well what are we putting in the
Data Center. And (there were) tons of skus, tons of configurations, lots of
people making the choice about what hardware is going in there and not really
standardizing. Just earlier this year we looked at how we could reduce the number
of skus and have standard skus. We took 15 of the top skus companies can have
hundreds of them; we had well over 100and we were able to get those down to
two. One for was Hadoop, which required a lot of local storage, and the second
one was for everything else. We got common CPUs, common memory, common
bus, common network speedsall those pieces so now we could say Well maybe
we can do front end for search or a pool or any other kind of application could
run on this equipment.
With that, then we started to apply that to the supply chain and we started to
find the sweet spot. So now weve got standard skus how do we package them?
The packaging was really, for me, once we started handing off to the vendor to
do a thing called rack and roll and thats where we give them the spec and the
configuration they need to do. They acquire the components, they build, they
rack, they cable, they image, they test, they validate and then they ship us a rack
that we basically plug in the power and the network and then turn up.
When you start to look at that, the efficiencies that we get of now streamlining
the supply chain process and the amount of volume we start to get because we
have all the same type of hardware being ordered and then the competitive RFPs
we can put out therelots of people competing at it and we get great pricing. So
that was the next piece was consolidating those skus.
Then, what we found is that the sweet spot as we started doing the calculations
of running this workload at this much wattage, there are two valuesand theyre
14 kW and 28 kWthat we want to go after. So its a 48U rack, its up to
3,500 lbs. (1,587.6 kg) In our one config its 96 servers in a rack. Weve got the
ability now to put in multiple failure domains from a network perspective. Weve
got the optimized power strips. Weve got the optimized cooling. All of those
components fall together that we have this unit and that unit now is what we can
order from the vendors. And that 28 kW really works in to I can deliver a lot in
less. I have less racks I have to do. Because of the co-los were in, were paying rent
in a footprint based on the density. And so if I get lower density it sounds like it
would be cheaper but the problem is youre getting more racks to do that same
work and youre actually paying more money.
161
9: eBay
Figure 9-2 Greetings program. Visitors first encounter the eBay Data Centers Tron theme at its
entrances.
162
So when we looked at that total cost we decided that the sweet spot here was 28
kW and 96 servers in a cabinet. Or 48 servers, for sku two, which is the Hadoop
one. And then we started pushing that. Then we were designing the facilities to be
able to handle any load, but really the scale is that every footprint should be able
to scale up to 28 kW over time.
Then we start looking at what were building in Phoenix. How do you build
the maximum density inside of a Data Center that can scale both on the
infrastructure side and then as youre doing tech refresh and rolling equipment
in and out? You can replace it with footprints and double them as the business
needs it.
Now all those pieces started coming together. And then we said I want free
cooling in the Data Center. I want it in Arizona. Its one of the hardest places
for us to solve this. We put the public RFP out there for the industry to take
these parametersfree cooling in Arizona year-round, modular, multi-tier Data
Center solutions, and ultimate flexibility: we want to be able to have racks or
even containers on the roof. And so we did this in a small footprint. We were
building the building already, and we said lets build up as a Data Center adjacent
to our current one on the land we have. Thats where we started saying 3,500 lbs.
(1,587.6 kg), with containers and everything else. We need 1 million lbs. (453.6
mt.) of steel in the building. Were basically building a 10-story building in 3
stories.
But once we had all of those parameters together, we really figured out the
optimum way from a cost standpoint to build a multi-tier center. Because weve
got the Tier IV next door to it.
The challenge out to the industry, this is what really worked with the public RFP
process. The design and consulting engineers out there, the architecture firms, the
engineering firms, they love this. Because it wasnt a company like eBay coming
out and saying this is how you have to build the Data Center. It was Heres our
business problem, here are the components that we really need you to design to.
Now you tell us how to design the Data Center. And that worked. That worked
really well. We had some great innovation and the guys really thought about it.
It took away a lot of the constraints they had in the past and came at it from a
problem statement.
And what we came back with, we finally chose EDI as the winner and they
brought in Winterstreet Architects and AHA Consulting Engineers and between
those three they had a really flexible, simple, efficient, and modular design. And
then when they brought that back in we saw the concept and said Ok, now
163
weve got to blow that up a little bit because our demand just doubled. Heres the
9: eBay
footprint which you have to play with. Youve got a little more space. Whats the
max you can fit in there? What can I fit in that building? Whats the optimum
capacity I should put in? And then I want to grow it in 2 MW chunks over time.
What we ended up with, in 14,000 sq. ft. (1,300.6 sq. m), was the ability to scale
from 4 MW to 12 MW of IT capacity. If you start to divide that out with the
amount of footprint in 14,000 sq. ft. (1,300.6 sq. m)half of its on the roof in
containers, half is in rack and roll on the ground floorit ends up being about
28 kW a cabinet at the end. So its funny how all these things started coming
together with the amount of space we had to be able to do that density. And then
when you look at the reality of what technology is doing, today the containers are
landed on the roof, we found the sweet spot of about 450 kW because that is the
maximum airflow that you can actually get across the equipment in that area of a
contained box, to be able to continuously cool 28 kW. So we found the ceiling of
air. Great.
On top of that we said we wanted free cooling year-round. So we went and took
the hottest day of the year with a wet bulb and that was 85 degrees Fahrenheit
(29.4 Celsius) and they designed a hot water cooling loop. And the hot water
cooling loop is a supply of 87 degrees (30.6 Celsius) because thats eventually
what it gets to at the server. But 87 degrees (30.6 Celsius) were also looking at
being able to plug in, not just todays air-cooled stuff but the future. I want to be
able to have liquid cooled right to the chip. Because 87 degrees (30.6 Celsius) to
the chip is cold.
So, you see all these pieces are starting to come together. Were building a very
flexible Data Center that allows us to pick the tier level, pick the density as
the business needs change. And they will change, and they did change literally
overnight here. And as we see over the life of the Data Center weve given
ourselves runway. Todays best air-cooled solutions Ive got to the cap. Im
maximizing my floor space, Im maximizing my supply chain, Im maximizing my
efficiency.
Because containers that were putting in there, some are using 87 (30.6 Celsius)
as the primary source, the other ones are using outside air and just regular swamp
cooling and theyre getting free cooling the majority of the year round. Ive got
PUEs of less than 1.1 at 28 kW density in cabinets. Thats the kind of result we
can get, that our overall cost per MW is going down because of all these variables
that came together to build for what the business needs versus building what the
Data Center needs and then just accommodating the equipment afterwards.
164
Thats been the lesson really for us. Weve created this multi-tier modular strategy
that allows us to scale. By the way, the RFP process we did for the Data Center we
followed with the actual compute equipment. So we put out that were looking
for 96 servers in the rack, 48 servers in a rack, for these two skus. Were looking
for these CPU and memory configs and network configs, etc. So we gave them
all the specs. Then we said youre going to be scored on your unit costs delivered,
because theyre going to package up and do everything else. Youre also going to
be scored on the wattage consumed with our average workload over its useful life.
So we took the depreciation cost of the server plus the wattage costbecause I
pay that billfor that equipment over its 3 year life. And we made the decision
on the IT equipment based on that. So, all-in TCOa real TCO. We made a
vendor decision, an IT decision. I was really pleased with that. And that yielded
great results because the first round went to one vendor that was a surprise
to everybody because they had the most efficient design. And then the other
vendors saw that theyd lost and we told them why they lost and they tuned their
equipment and a different vendor won the second round.
So Ive got two vendors on the roof and two vendors on the ground floor, Day
One, opening this Data Center in Phoenix. And theyre both uber efficient.
Theyre both highly cost effective. Theyre both dense. And theyre both getting
free cooling almost year-round.
Most people certainly wouldnt think of Phoenix as a likely candidate

for employing outside air cooling. What prompted you to explore that?
My past, I came out of the IT side and what I saw was a lot of vendors coming
up with really cool solutions on the IT equipment that never saw the light of day.
Why? Because everyone had a phobia about water in the Data Center and about
temperature and they assumed that air is the answer.
When I looked at the problem Im like, there are two variables here: the
surface temp of the chip and the outside air temp. Can we design to those two
parameters to get free cooling? Yeah.
I saw a lot of vendors coming up with really cool solutions on

the IT equipment that never saw the light of day. Why? Because
everyone had a phobia about water in the Data Center and about
temperatures and they assumed that air is the answer.
165
Everybody buffers. You look at the chip manufacturersIntel, AMD, etc.they
9: eBay
have to ship all over the world so they ensure that their operating temperatures of
the chip are going to work everywhere. Which means there has got to be 20, 30,
40 percent overhead of temp, right? If youve got a really well tuned environment,
you can raise those temperatures and stay within those boundaries.
Through the Chill Off 3 (a head to head comparison test of Data Center cooling
products) we tested workload with both air and liquid. And we found out that
there was no loss of performance at 87 degree (30.6 Celsius) inlet air. We found
that there was a shadowing removal, meaning that the chip with memory in front
of it and a CPU behind it the memory will heat up the chip further. Thats from
an air standpoint. But even with the shadowing its a little less efficient but it still
didnt have any errors and the boxes were running fine. And then when you put
liquid to itcold plate was one of our teststhe shadowing goes away so the
efficiency gets even better. And then at that point you can now look at the chip
and say Am I really optimizing that chip? Because what I want is a gas pedal.
I want to be able to raise the frequency of that chip or decrease the frequency
of that chip just like I would have a Prius turns into a Ferrari, because when we
need it we need it. I dont care if Im paying more wattage for it, it just needs to
stay within the thermal boundaries, which we can if weve got liquid to the chip.
Boomwe can burst and use less machines to do the work and then back off in
the times when its not loaded. So, you take that parameter, too.
Figure 9-3 Illuminated panels at the end of each row reinforce the eBay Data Center's futuristic appearance.
166
Part of the RFP was we want direct access to the CPU to be able to adjust the
voltage so that we can adjust the frequency of the chip as needed, so our engine
can go back and adjust itself. So, weve got that hook in there. At the same time
we now said build out the Data Center that I can roll in a cabinet thats going to
use air, side cooling, or a passive door, or any other solution around it, or direct
liquid to the chip, without having to redesign the Data Center. So we delivered
two loops, the 55 degree (12.8 Celsius) loop and the 87 degree (30.6 Celsius) hot
water cooling loop to every location in the Data Center. So the containers can use
it, the racks can use it. I spent maybe an extra half a million dollars in capital to
be able to do that Day One and that depreciated over 30 years is peanuts in what
were doing.
So here weve got the capability now to do from 5 kW to 40 in a footprint and
an average scaling up to 28 kW a cabinet through every rack in the Data Center.
So the useful life of a Data Center just extended. And the capabilities for us to
go back and replace equipment thats air cooled today and roll in a liquid cooled
one in the exact same footprint and get potentially two to three to four times the
performance? Amazing. And I spent half the money that I did before.
Whats the break point at which you want to change from air cooling to
liquid cooling?
Anything over 20 to 25 kW. Youre going to pay a little bit more for the liquid
side. Again, there are products coming. Were pushing hard because they know
what our workload is, they know what were trying to accomplish, and if they can
get that CPU variation its a huge win on the TCO. Its not about power saving
mode, where you turn on power throttling and those kind of things. Thats in
environments where its just too hot. What if you have it optimized? Well you
should now be able to go back and to tune it to what you need and when you
need it. To me that is such a difference from what it was in the past.
If you start to get your arms around what compute workload is going to be on
there and then you start to roll in say, if I use liquid cooling I can overclock these
systems for three years because theyre really optimized for that environment. So I
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can buy cheaper processors and use them like more expensive processors and still
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get the same performance. The unit cost may be about the same, but then at the
times when I want to use it Im turning it into a Ferrari. So I may use 120 percent
of the wattage during that four hour period. But imagine at that point you back
off. For the rest of the 20 hours I have less than that. And at other times I can
either go idle with them or I can take them out of commission because I have less
load than is needed.
So Ive got a variable here, a gas pedal that I can go up and down. And instead
of this constant in the Data Center from a load perspective it starts to vary. So
the overall cost of running that equipment goes down substantially when you
have control over the chip, when youre doing it with that temp. And everyone is
going after this from an air perspective: we need to use outside air. Ok. But what
I find is a lot of people are designing Data Centers with the equipment spread
out. Theyre using the cheap processors and more of them. So theyre using twice
the amount of equipment to do the same workload in a cheaper building to get
a PUE reduction of another .1 and theyre missing the point. Theyre still using
twice the amount of equipment. Theyre like Well, the wattage is two-thirds of
what it was before. But youre still using twice the amount of equipment. Youre
using more wattage than I would in a high density, high temp solution than what
youve got in yours.
A lot of people are designing Data Centers with the equipment

spread out. Theyre using the cheap processors and more of them.
So theyre using twice the amount of equipment to do the same
workload in a cheaper building to get a PUE reduction of another
.1 and theyre missing the point.
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So its a holistic view into the Data Center. When you really know the workload
and the facilities infrastructure and you get those together and you start to tune it
like a machine you get incredible efficiencies from that.
I understand eBay seeing significant variation in workload for its Data

Center hardware. Do you think those trends are typical for other server
environments? Is how youre designing your Data Centerscapable of
alternating between Prius and Ferrari characteristicsa good solution
just for you or is it applicable for most installations?
This comes back to being generic in the Data Center. So today you may have a
business like a bank or just a traditional enterprise IT organization, right? And
they dont change their equipment that much. Its fairly static at different times.
But if you build up an infrastructure thats modular from Day Onea Data
Centerand you have the ability to scale over time, it doesnt matter if you do
it every 2 years or every 7 years. You still have the ability to add more capacity.
Because the upfront cost to do larger pipe sizes, more outlet links and those
things but not buy all the other support equipment is minimal. I have the ability
to now take my 4 MW and go to 6 for almost half the price of what I did the first
4 MW for. And then from there I do it again. I do another upfront for the first 2
MW and the next 2 are almost half the price of that first 4. So Ive given myself
runway for that Data Center and I know that over time the densities are going to
continue to increase.
Itll be different for everybody about how well they increase, but my point with
this is the leading edge people, the ones that are pushing thisits usually high
performance computingthat is the leading indicator in the industry. What are
they doing? If you look at the fastest computer in the world, its liquid cooled.
Why is it liquid cooled? Because they have the same chip problem that everybody
does and so theyve figured out how to optimize that environment. Weve just
taken it one step further and figured out how do I optimize for that chip and for
When you really know the workload and the facilities

infrastructure and you get those together and you start to tune it
like a machine you get incredible efficiencies from that.
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the outside air and build a Data Center that can manage both. And if you did
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that in all the regions? You know, the hardest one is going to be Singapore because
of the humidity. But if you have liquid cooling direct to the chip in Singapore,
youre going to get free cooling.
My point is: these practices about building a modular Data Center that is
scalable over time, that does it up frontnot everything but the ability to scale
in chunksapplies to almost every Data Center out there. Its about how youre
investing in your center. And if the centers are supposed to have a minimum life
of 10 years then you should assume youre going to have a minimum of two to
three tech refreshes. And others could have up to five. Like, we do tech refreshes
every two years on a lot of our equipment because were really pushing the
boundaries here from a performance standpoint. But even if you did it every 5
years you have the ability now to double the capacity. If you could roll in a rack of
the next stuff and not have to rebuild your Data Center and all the complexities
around that thats a pretty big win for the company. And youre not spending 2x
at the beginning, youre spending 15 to 20 percent more on piping and other
infrastructure. Its just proper planning.
I was going to ask if eBays rapid refresh cycle of its hardware

replacing about half of its computing equipment each year
influenced the design of the Data Center. It sounds like you consider
the design applicable for any company that has a hardware refresh
cycle, frequent or not.
The cycles there, its just how far in between is the cycle. Is it a long sine wave or a
short sine wave?
Ive been in the IT rooms. Ive been in the labs, the server rooms, the Data
Centers and all those pieces and they all have the same need. Its still compute
equipment of some density somewhere that has to land in a place and youve got
to power and cool it. Why wouldnt you build the most flexible infrastructure to
be able to do that?
People that are building just for air today are going to be limited in the future.
Will it work? Sure. Will they be able to take advantage of the technologies that
come out? Not all of them. Were pushing the vendors to come back with these
liquid cooling solutions because we know the answer already in our models, so I
want to products that will fall in there. What I believe the industry is going to get
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from that is here is one of the leading indicators of whats coming. So if theyre
able to roll that into their Data Center and take advantage of it theyre using half
the equipment or less to do the same work. You talk to an IT person and say you
can spend half the capital to grow in here if you use this solution, like liquid to
the chip. But if they have a Data Center that cant take advantage of it, theyre
going to spend more in capital to enable it in the Data Center than its worth.
Ive said this for years: its the organizational alignment. When you have these
facilities teams and IT teams working together, and thats exactly I believe the
secret sauce at eBay, Were all in it. Were in the same game, we have the same
goals, we have the same budget. We all have to go lower the cost per megawatt
to deliver capacity for the actual company. And that works out to be watts per
transaction, or watts per user or watts per whatever variable. Its still watts. And
the less watts I can use to do that and all the other knobs you turn for itthe
efficiencies of the servers to the Data Center efficiencies to liquid cooling to air
cooling, whateverthey all basically lower the amount of watts per whatever.
How are you delivering the infrastructure into the Data Center? Is it a
raised floor environment?
Yeah. This is whats ironic. I didnt like raised floor before because it was kind of a
waste. I dont need to have raised floor to deliver cooling, right? Modular cooling,
I can put in sidecars or overhead, etc., is pretty easy. But what I found in this
environment is it was worth it to put in a raised floor and we have an almost 6 ft.
(1.8 m.) raised floor.
I know, its ironic, Im building one of the biggest raised floors out there and I
dont like them. But the point is, theres no air underneath it. Everything under
that is pipe work because weve got the two loops delivered to every one of the
locations so that now I can snap in either a sidecar air conditioning unit or a
passive rear door or I can plug directly into the rack as those liquid racks become
available.
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Figure 9-4 Liquid cooling piping is routed below a 6 ft. (1.8 m.) raised floor while power, cooling,
and cabling are distributed overhead in eBays Project Mercury Data Center.
In our next tech refresh I am pushing really, really hard that we are going to have
liquid cooled equipment. And I think thats going to be here sooner than people
think. When we roll it in and start seeing what we can get with that gas pedal,
thats when I think the lights are going to turn on for people. Like, Wow, I today
build infrastructure with DR that goes no more than 50 percent of my capacity.
Thats really wasteful. Im only using half of what I can out of these servers yet
Im still paying the wattage penalty. Imagine if you put in half the amount of
equipment and you had the ability to overclock those to 130 percent when you
need them. Youve got the gas pedal when you need it, because its really only four
hours per day for us where its the peak of the peak. The rest of it Im going down
to these low numbers.
What were looking at is both horizontal and vertical scale. So, Ive got 100 racks
of equipment delivered for search. If I need all 100 racks for that peak of the peak
and I overclock them to that point I can probably use 70 racks for it. The vertical
scale: I can take my 70 racks and make them act like 100 racks by overclocking.
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Then I go back and say Well, when I go down to here I cant go too slow because
our search function requires a certain amount of latency to deliver a search result
to a customer. So theres the threshold at the bottom you say, Well I would never
go below 2 GHz. Ok. So downclock them all to 2 GHz. Youre still delivering to
the performance of the application. Then, if you only need 30 of the actual racks
take the rest of them out of the pool and put them in hibernate. And as you see
the triggers going up where its starting to increase add another rack in. Thats the
horizontal scale.
But you see what I mean is we build the infrastructure to be able to have these
cabinets scale up and down and horizontally as we need them, because we know
what the IT workload is and we tie back in the infrastructure so that the engine runs
efficiently. Think of a car. People are designing Data Centers without understanding
how the engine inside operates and the people designing the engine are not
expecting or worrying about anything in the cooling or what-not. So they drop an
engine in and theres a disconnect. But when you have them designing the whole car,
because the car itself is the Data Center, the engine is the IT and the control system
is the gas pedal and everything else that takes advantage of ityoure tuning for all
those aspects. Thats what were looking for. Ultimately it becomes one machine with
all components working together and knobs that automatically turn themselves.
Were also looking to converge in the infrastructure and allowing the Data Center
because weve got I think over 240,000 points monitored in that Data Center in
Salt Lake City and that we go into a PI System and that PI System is the stuff that
runs nuclear power plants. It scales to millions and millions of points. We want to
take that data and roll that back into our engine that is the application so they can
start to understand, Oh, its currently nighttime in Phoenix and I can overclock all
my systems to here and ship the workload over there, because now its even colder at
night so I can get even more performance out of those chips because its delivering
70 degrees (21.1 Celsius) instead of 87 degrees (30.6 Celsius) during the heat of the
day. But the whole engine is tuned and the applications now can take advantage of
that. The whole stack is connected. Thats where our ultimate goal is, is to be able
to have a finely tuned machine that only consumes the wattage it needs but can
perform based on whatever business demand comes.
Think of a car. People are designing Data Centers without

understanding how the engine inside operates and the people
designing the engine are not expecting or worrying about anything
in the cooling or what-not. So they drop an engine in and theres a
disconnect.
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During most interviews for this book I ask about recommended
9: eBay
Data Center design principles. I have taken away some from our
conversation already: modularity, scalability, look at the Data Center
from end-to-end, expect liquid cooling in the future. Is there any other
advice that you would offer someone?
Multi-tier. If you build a modular infrastructure you should be able to deliver
whatever tiers youre looking for. If you build out Tier IV, youre going to have
Tier IV. If you build out a center that can scale to Tier IV or you build out a
section thats Tier IV and the rest of them can scale between Tier I and III, youre
going to give yourself a lot more flexibility. The majority of companies out there
still have at least half or less of their equipment that really requires Tier IV.
Even the banking industry, certain transactional things and all of that its the data
where its stored. Its the network that has to be in the Tier IV, but the compute
engine thats doing that theyve got to point it at multiple locations, the same
thing as our search. You should be able to put that in multiple locations at a lower
tier. So, right sizing your applicationstheres another one.
I guess the other piece is still the same mantra: can the Facilities and IT teams
work together? Are they approaching the design with a unified front? Are they
looking at the problem together?
I participated in a Data Center project a few years ago in which

building multi-tier areas was considered. The argument against doing
it was the belief that once you paid for the foundational infrastructure
to achieve Tier IV, you might as well build the entire Data Center that
way because if you didnt you were overpaying for the sections with
less redundancy throughout their design. How do you get around that?
Or is that cost simply insignificant over the lifetime of a facility?
If you look at what we built in Salt Lake City: $287 million for a Tier IV center.
Bulletproof. Big. Solid. Its just isnt going to go down and we need it. But Im
going to build right next to it almost four times the capacity at less than half the
costalmost a quarter of the costthe capabilities of being able to do that. I
would say over its lifetime Im building half of that with almost four times the
capacity.
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Ive got a certain amount of capacity inside of our Data Center in Salt Lake that
because today Im filling up the space, I would have consumed all my power
already with compute equipment unless I now am building a center that I can
pull out certain things that are lower tier. So, the capital investment of a Tier IV
what you really probably need to do is how much would I actually build Tier IV,
and I still would be really surprised if people would build more than 50 percent.
If I am building 50 percent Tier IV and 50 percent Tier II I can build two to
three times the amount of Tier II and give myself a lot more runway, up to four
times the amount that I would within Tier IV. If I build that out modularly I
should be able to now scale it up as I need. Were looking at 75 to 80 percent of
our stuff is going to be removed out of our Tier IV. Thats a big deal.
Talk about runway. I gave myself another 5, 10 years because Ive just gotten rid
of the majority of load in there. And Im only putting the core network and the
large storage devices and certain databases and other things that really cant go
down, in there. And those scale a lot slower than everything else. But the ones
that scale are the search nodes, are the front end nodes, the ones that we want
to replace every two years because thats where all the workload is and they call
the databases, they use the network. But all those computers are in the front,
consuming a ton of power.
Again, its the multi-tenant environment. If you have a generic footprint what
we found is the smallest unit is going to be a rack. When we roll in a rack of
whatever its going to be allocated to, a business unit or a function. So if weve got
generic cabling infrastructure, power infrastructure, etc., to be able to roll that in,
then we dont really care. We want to have secure environments, we can still lock
the cabinets, we can still put them in different sections but its still anything can
go anywhere at any density and attached to any project.
That requires the network team to figure out how they would isolate. That
requires the IT teams to figure out how they would distribute for disaster recovery
for failure domains inside of the equipment. Theyve got to think through it. But
weve given them a flexible environment. Today in a lot of the centers I have to
go figure out which blade slot in which chassis has enough power and enough
connectivity to be able to add capacity. Thats wrong. What I should be able to
do is say, What capacity do you need in IT? and I can accommodate it wherever
I am. I can roll that into the Data Center and plug it in and go. That agility and
that speed, that time to market, is whats really, really important to us.
That flexibility in a traditional enterprise IT organization makes it simple. You
acquire companies, you downsize, you do a tech refreshall those different
activities you still have a flexible infrastructure that allows you to accommodate
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them. You may not have a high growth business such as an Internet based
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company as eBay or Amazon or Google and those things but you definitely have
the same philosophy about modularity, enabling flexibility inside of a center
to grow at your pace. And to do it very, very cost effectively both in capital
investments as well as efficiency of operating them.
Were there any surprises throughout the project?

Oh, yeah. Ill tell you one that was very interesting to me. I was trying to get
down to a single-corded device. If that device can go down then Ill design the
infrastructure to be able to accommodate it. But I want a single cord that is
concurrently maintainable. Thats doesnt sound possible, right? A single power
cord on a server thats still concurrently maintainable.
We said, alright, well, weve got a single cord. Then, upstream lets put in the ATSs
(automatic transfer switches) and everything else so we can still do maintenance
on the infrastructure but we can have all the single corded devices that dont go
down. Theres still more risk because when youre doing the maintenance and
others it can go out, but the point is lets build it into the back end for flexibility.
And what I found was all of this effort that were putting in when you step back
and look at it, I was saving a couple hundred thousand dollars in power supplies
and PDUs and those things. Ok. But I was spending millions on the ATS
infrastructure and massive power and everything else upstream to do that.
The lesson learnedand we literally changed it right in the middle and said, ok,
the ATS is complex, were not sure if its going to work, its at 4 MW. I mean its
big, big stuff that we have to flip so that we can do maintenance on infrastructure
to allow these servers not to go down.
When we took it out of that and said Ok, we want two power cords from
every one of them, on every server. The power cords, though, one goes to a
UPS supported gen-backed up feed the other one goes to street power thats
conditioned. So I still have the ability to do maintenance on my A feed and I have
the rollup capability to put a generator on my B feed if I really want to do it while
Im doing maintenance on the A. Ok. I get the exact same thing. I cut out $2.5
million or $3 million and netted a savings of $2.5 million because we had to still
buy the power cords and the power supplies and busway stuff.
It was just one of those aha! moments for us, that here were trying to solve the
problem by making it as flexible as we can up top but really we should be looking
at what it is they need at the other end, simplify that. And so the two power cords
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Ill do that on everything all the time. I wont get to the single power cord. Youve
got a lot of people out there that are going that way, too. Low wattage CPUs,
low frequency, cheap commodity hardware with single power cords. They will go
down. As long as you have everything that they can go down, ok. But if I dont
have to go down why should I go down?
I am actually adding an extra power supply and those things in there, but Im not
adding all the UPS and gen and all the other stuff on the other side that cost a
lot of money so Im still getting all the major benefits out of it. The net-net is I
have two power sources for every device in the Data Center and by the way we
added additional UPS feeds for the things that really required more runtime like
the network infrastructure thats inside of the building. Its Tier III because it still
goes through the Tier IV backbone but I dont want those to go down. But thats
like less than 3 percent of the load and the space in the Data Center. The rest of
it, its all two-cord, UPS gen on one, street power on the other. So that was a great
learning for us.
Any other lessons learned?

Its great to put containers on the roof, but if you dont have to, dont do it. I
would rather have a building thats twice as much area on the ground that has
all container capabilities than putting them on the roof. We were bound by the
footprint we had. We put in another 1 million lbs. (453.6 mt.) of steel in the
building so we that could handle the weights, but the containers came in at
almost twice what they were originally specd at. We got 98,000 lbs. (44.5 mt.)
going up. We go 1,920 servers in there. Its big. We got a 100 ton (90.7 mt.)
crane lifting it up on the roof.
They came in and it was as fast as 22 minutes to go from the truck to the roof
and start plugging in power and data and cooling, but still it was a lot of work to
make that happen. And then we found that the size of the containerswe wanted
flexibility to orientation, size, dimensions, weight, whateverso we had to build
a secondary grid on the roof so that we could now orchestrate or land them
however we wanted. Because we wanted the flexibility to say, well today its going
to be these two vendors but tomorrow somebody else may come out with a better
container that we land up there. We wanted to be able to accommodate it.
A slab environment or an environment that allows containers to move around
easily without it requiring a massive crane organization and structural steel to do
it, you save a lot of money there too.
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Figure 9-5 Half of the Data Centers capacity is provided by way of containers on the roof.
The other lesson learned in this is if you dont have to go that fast to build it,
dont. If you can give yourself more time, do it. You do make compromises. This
team has been really good, they havent compromised on any of the major pieces
we needed, but schedule did limit the amount of vendors who could participate.
We couldnt use bundled or coupled gen-UPS units, because we couldnt get them
in time or their size was a bit too big. So that limited some of the vendors from
being able to be in it. Then we had to go back and now have decoupled gens and
UPSs. Its working but I would much rather have those modular units because
they work better when theyre coupled together. The same manufacturer is
responsible for that handoff between those units. Its just a finely tuned machine
versus two independent vendors hoping that theyre going to lock the bus and be
able to switch.
Oh, and another lesson learned is leading power factor. Not a lot of companies
are turning on a half a megawatt to a megawatt at a time of load. If you dont have
an inline UPS thats adjusting the power factor so that the gens dont see any issue
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you have to figure out how to manage that. If the leading power factor is too high
on the server equipment it will shut off your gens. The big playersyou look at
Microsoft, Google, uswhen were putting up these containers of 1,000 to 2,000
servers at a time you have to really consider that. So we had to put some stuff in
the middle to correct that, to filter that to allow us to be within the tolerances of
leading power factor. And thats primarily because of the way the design is, I dont
have a double conversion UPS because that gets rid of the leading power factor.
Where did the name Project Mercury come from?

The closer you get to the sun the hotter it is, right? So, were getting close to the
heat. And then Project Quicksilver is, of course, liquid mercury that moves and
changes very quickly. We want that capability in our Data Center. We should be
able to adjust. And liquid mercury, liquid to the chip eventually. Thats where the
names came from.
You mentioned the Data Centers 14,000 sq. ft. (1,300.6 sq. m)
hosting area. How much additional area is used for electrical and
mechanical systems?
Its close to two times the floor space. Because we used larger units, weve got 3
MW gens so were adding those chunks in three at a time and the UPSs are 2
MW. There was a kind of a mismatch in those sizes but we know that well be
adding the next brick as we need it. Because we still have N+1 in the gens. So, 2x
I think.
The way the design was put together is, weve got a 55 degree loop because we
still have to have chilled water to some things. So, 55 (12.8 Celsius) and then the
other one is the 87 degree (30.6 Celsius) loop, so its a condenser loop. And both
of them are directly accessible to the equipment itself. We can choose over time
which one were going to build out. So if weve got 12 MW of capacity that we
need to deliver and then the N+1 in that I can now say 8 MW of that is going to
be condenser so scale those up. Or if we realize that were getting more efficiency
of some of the chilled water you can scale that up too. Or we can scale the chilled
water and then scale it back and scale it up with the condenser over time. Because
not everything is going to fit on that 87 (30.6 Celsius) loop and we cant mandate
that right now. We still need the flexibility.
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If I look at the grand scheme of it, its less than 5 percent (of our capital cost)
9: eBay
that we put in there to be able to have that flexibility. Again, having it from
the beginning, that the design is flexible and all of the design engineers are
understanding the problembecause we spent a lot of time with them explaining
the business challenge and then what the ultimate numbers are going to be.
Finally we came down to a density per rack footprint that we needed to have
based on the space and based on the available MEP yard space and that that we
could say this is the sweet spot and then well scale it up over time.
The ground floor, we knew we would have stuff coming in at less than 10 kW in
some areas. But other ones were going to have rack and roll thats coming in at
25 or 28. Ok, well we can handle both and then we just scale them up over time
by adding in modular units. As we get denser we add more modular units right
on the floor. They take up space but as we replace those and potentially roll in
the liquid solutions we gain all that space back again. So, the entire ground floor
I can have 70 percent of it at 40 kW a cabinet and thatll work. Thats a big deal,
hundreds and hundreds of cabinets.
With all of the steel you had to put in place, what is the weight
bearing capability of the Data Center building?
We can handle containers with all the supporting components at 125,000
to 140,000 lbs. (56.7 to 63.5 mt.). We can handle anywhere from 10 to 12
containers on the roof.
We have one vendor thats coming in at 98,000 (44.5 mt.), another one that came
in at 112,000 (50.8 mt.). The next ones when they come in we dont know if
theyre going to be heavier or less if theyre all liquid cooled because liquid would
have more weight but we would have less infrastructure as well. We dont need
all those air movers. We need liquid infrastructure to the chips and thats low
flow liquid. So its that same amount of liquid going to the container its now just
distributed directly to the devices instead of distributed to the air handlers. And
then the other one thats using all outside air cooling, the swamp cooler stuff, that
just is city water and not a lot of it.
I love this because the Data Center has 100 percent outside air cooled solution.
Right next to it is a design thats using a heat exchanger with a primary source is
the 87 degree (30.6 Celsius) loop and if we happen to go over 87 (30.6 Celsius)
because of some fluke over time it exchanges with the 55 (12.8 Celsius) loop to
cool down the 87 (30.6 Celsius) to 87 (30.6 Celsius). And everythings tuned.
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It was a really cheap, innovative way for us to go back and get direct hot water
cooling today to air based equipment in a container. Im really proud of that. We

pushed the vendors and they really thought about how to solve this problem. And
we have two completely unique solutions that land in the same Data Center that
are getting the same sub 1.1 PUE average over the year. Excellent.
Whoever comes up with the best mousetrap I want to land that mousetrap in
our Data Center. And let the competition continue because the vendors love this.
The HPs, Dells, Oracles, IBMsyou look at all of them, theyre all competing
for the business. But what they really want is the IT business. If were tuning it to
the infrastructure they understand that. They can win it because of their overall
efficiency. Its really neat.
The other part is containers. Weve gone through probably four generations or
five generations of containers now. Everybodys trying to get in to the market but
the reality is the IT equipment inside of this container has to be warranted by
someone and the best to do that right now are the actual manufacturers. Weve
found that buying a full unitits like one big racka container with the power,
cooling, and the connectivity infrastructure built into it thats warranted as one
box and UL listed as one unit is the most effective way to deploy these things. Its
also extremely cost effective. Somebody can build a cheaper container but if that
containers not tuned to the equipment in it and youve got a failure and Ive got
$5 million or $10 million worth of equipment thats now damaged? Sorry, not
going to happen.
I see that the container industry starts to shrink more. Thats a prediction right
now. Because the people that are building the equipmentthis is just a big rack.
They want to ship it. Its the packaging. I love it. We landed 1,920 servers in one
day and then the next week we had another 1,500 servers come in and it landed
in as fast as 22 minutes. And then we had another one come in the following
weekbinkand we landed right next to it. So, I had almost 4,000 servers
landed in less than 12 hours when you add it all up. Thats insane.
Weve never had that much equipment actually coming in to the Data Centers at
eBay in the history of the company. But thats the whole point. Were doing it at
half the opex, half the capex, and literally less than half the time, at four times the
density. Thats really cool. Thats why I love my job, I get to do this stuff.
Whoever comes up with the best mousetrap I want to land that

mousetrap in our Data Center.
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Figure 9-6 A computer circuit pattern adorns one of the Data Center entrances.
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Figure 9-7 Additional accent lighting within eBays Data Center.
Figure 9-8 Sliding doors at the end of rows 7 and 8 open (left) and closed (right).
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Figure 9-9 Containers are pre-populated with more than 1,500 servers each and then placed on the
roof by a crane.
Figure 9-10 Power strips glow in a darkened Data Center container.

Figure 10-1 Facebooks Data Center in Prineville, Oregon. Images by Alan Brandt.
Chapter 10
Facebook
Essential Details
ORGANIZATION: Facebook
Location: Prineville, Oregon
Online: May 2011
Notable features: 277 volt power distribution. Evaporative cooling system. Power over Ethernet (PoE)
LED lighting. Custom servers. LEED-Gold certified.
Time to design and build: 15 months for 147,000 sq ft. (13,656.7 sq. m) first phase
Size: 307,000 sq. ft. (28,521.2 sq. m) total, with about 261,000 sq. ft. (24,247.7 sq. m) of hosting
area and 46,000 sq. ft. (4,273.5 sq. m) of electrical room space. Mechanical systems are located in an
enclosed area on roof and not included in size figures.
Power: 30 MW available for IT
Tier: III
Cabinet locations: Undisclosed
Infrastructure Delivery: Power, cabling, and cooling are all provided overhead
Fire suppression system: Pre-action dry pipe system with VESDA monitoring
Imagine having to create your companys first
Background
purpose built Data Center that is expected

to not only support the online activities of
millions of users at one of the most popular
websites in existence but also be an example
for other Data Center designers worldwide.
Such was the challenge facing the designers
of Facebooks Data Center in Prineville,
Oregon, during 2009. The social networking
giant had previously leased space at various
third-party sites in California and Virginia, leveraging wholesale Data Center properties as a way to quickly add
capacity. This server environment would be different, though.
Facebook custom designed many elements of the facility, from an uncommon power delivery systemusing
277 volt rather than traditional 208 volt configuration, thereby eliminating the step-down transformationto
building its own minimalist hardware. Facebooks server, slightly more than 1.5U (2.6 in. or 6.7 cm) in height,
touts a vanity free design to reduce weight and materials. With no paint, logos, stickers, or front panel, the
hardware use 22 percent fewer materials than typical 1U servers; the greater size was chosen to accommodate
larger, more efficient fans and heat sinks.
Equally minimalist is the Data Centers mechanical design. There are no chillers or cooling towers. Outside air
enters an enclosure above the Data Center, dubbed the penthouse, through adjustable louvers. The air flows
through a mixing room where it is combined, as needed, with warm server exhaust and then passes through
a bank of filters and into an evaporative cooling room where a misting system adds moisture. Fans then draw
the air through a mist eliminator, capturing any water droplets not fully absorbed in the air, and push it down
through openings above the Data Centers cold aisles.
Beyond the Data Centers infrastructure, Facebook has also taken a different approach in its lack of secrecy.
Rather than treating the technical details of its Prineville Data Center as proprietary information, Facebook has
publicized them, offering server, rack, electrical, and mechanical specifications by way of its Open Compute
Project.
Jay Park, director of Data Center design, construction, and facility operations for Facebook, discusses how the
facility was designed.
187
The Interview
10: Facebook
Your company has rather famously gone public with information about
its Data Center in Oregon, through the Open Compute Project. At what
point in the project was it decided that you would be sharing your
Data Center design information with the world?
We started this design back in early 2009 and developed it by end of 2009. It
really came from our fearless leader, (Mark) Zuckerberg. He said, This is not
our core business, Data Center design, and if we can share with the world and
everybody can save energy... He had this vision and he wanted to open it up.
The second thing is that as we developed this new power supply running at 277
volt and the localized DC UPS system. You know, if more people can buy this
stuff quite honestly we can drop the price as well. The power supply is really the
commodity, so the more people buy it the price will come down.
So those are really the two main drivers from the company perspective.
LEED Certification
188
Did knowing that your Data Center information was going to be public
influence the design? You were not only trying to design an effective
Data Center for Facebook, you were trying to design something that
was intended to be a model for others to emulate.
That is correct. If you look at the design, in all these years we knew that if
we increased the input power voltage we will be able to gain some additional
efficiency in these power supplies but industry in general they didnt want to
develop a new power supply running at 277 volt that comes right off from
the 480 volt system. They will continue to use this 208 volt system that
requires additional transformation from 480 volt, perhaps to an inline UPS
(uninterruptible power supply) system, things like that.
So, yeah, youre absolutely correct.
Lets talk about that power distribution system. If someone is looking

to adopt the same approach that Facebook did, using 277 volts, they
probably wont have the same customized servers. What do they need
to do to be able to make use of that technology? Are there any hurdles
to doing so?
Thats a good question. As we open up this OCP (Open Compute Project)
actually there are a lot of companies now developing power supplies running at
277 volts. Already HP and Dell are making that product available in the market.
We are currently working with Samsung and other vendorsthese are power
supply manufacturersand they are saying that this can be developed. Theyre
really excited about this and theyre developing this product. I think in general in
the market you should be able to get this product fairly easy now.
They all knew that going with the 277 volts, getting rid of the additional
transformation, you reduce the energy loss. I think everybody agrees with that
concept.
189
10: Facebook
Figure 10-2 Facebooks custom servers feature no paint, logos, stickers, or front panel, eliminating
weight and materials.
Looking at your UPS configuration, you have dedicated battery

cabinets to support your server cabinets. What prompted you to use
that rather than traditional room-level UPS devices?
So, I wouldnt even call that as a UPS system. I called that a UPS system (in the
Open Compute Project documents) because its an uninterruptible power supply
but if you think about it all it does is it provides 48 volt DC voltage. I see two
advantages here. First of all, when you locate that UPS system closer to the power
supply you increase the availability of the entire system. I actually ran some of the
availability calculations. The truth of the matter is if you locate the power bridge
system closer to the load youre kind of sort of eliminating the single point of
failure. So you are increasing the availability.
190
The second thing is that the UPS system that we designed does not have all of
the components like an inline system, like inline rectifier modules, you dont have
an inverter, you dont have static bypass switches, you dont have maintenance
bypass switches, and all that. The design is just the 48 volt DC battery banks in
parallel, with the one common bus. Thats basically what it is. I called it as a UPS
system because its an uninterruptible power supply but it does not have all of the
components like an inline UPS system.
And, note that this is an offline system. Its not an inline system at all. During the
normal operation the DC UPS system is basically all in standby mode.
How did the design for the enclosed mechanical area above the IT
hosting space come about?
Originally we were going to install rooftop units, on top of our roof space, above
the IT space. What happened was, when we started laying out all of the rooftop
units, it was going to take a lot of roof space and we were running out of roof
space. In addition, on cold days in the winter, maintaining this equipment up
there it would be a very difficult thing to do.
So what we did is instead of buying packaged rooftop units we just built the
penthouse wall around it and put all of the inside equipment in the penthouse.
Its not a people space, you can call it a single giant rooftop unit if you want to.
Whats the overall electrical capacity of the Data Center?

Youve got 15 MW per each phase so its a 30 MW site when its fully built
out and running at max capacity. With our PUE is running at about 1.077.
Mechanical is very, very little.
If you look at it we dont have chillers, we dont have cooling towers. All we have
is just a fan array and a misting system. The misting system is these Mickey
Mouse high pressure pumps and thats it. It draws like 2.5 horsepower, something
like that. Its ridiculously small. And so we dont have a huge mechanical system
at all. Its very little. And fans, the bearings are all incredibly efficient. This doesnt
consume a lot of power at all. So 1.077 is what were seeing right nowthis is
accumulated PUE not a snapshot.
191
You mentioned the misting system. Can you walk me through how
10: Facebook
thats used and how the evaporative cooling system works?
Yeah. Lets start with the city water. We kill the bacteria, we eliminate all these
substances. Then we pump that water up to what we call the pump skid. This
pump will create the water pressure. The nozzle sprays in very, very fine water
mist, which creates the misting system. Then basically the fan array will pull the
air from outside. The system is horizontal, in parallel with the air stream, and it
cools that air. Then it dumps it over into the Data Center.
The pump skid is right now configured as a 2N system. We got two pumps with
manifolds and we come up with a common manifold and from that point on we
have many misting zone lines. If you see the picture you will probably see it, the
misting system you see a bunch of pipe lines, like a spiderweb. Each one or two
lines are a zone. And then if you dont need to turn on all the misting system, like
out of maybe one through seven zones, only zone one would be turned on and
zones two to seven would be turned off, with everything in-between, because the
skids are controlled on VFDs (variable frequency drives).
Figure 10-3
When needed,
warm server
exhaust is added
to incoming air in
a mixing room.
192
Figure 10-4
When the outside

air used to cool
the Data Center is
too dry, moisture
is added by way of
a misting system.
A mist eliminator
prevents water
that has not
been absorbed
by the air from
proceeding into
the Data Center.
You have the evaporative system in place and also an air economizer.
How many days per year do you anticipate being able to use outside
air for cooling?
Throughout the entire year were going to be using outside air. This is it. The
outside air and we just cool it with the misting system and dump into the Data
Center. One hundred percent of the time.
During the wintertime, since bringing in 100 percent outside air would be
too cold for the servers, we recirculate hot return air from servers to bring the
temperature up to an acceptable range. So the outside air damper during the
wintertime is only partially open and mixes the temperature up to a warmer
setpoint.
193
What operational temperature are you using in the Data Center?
10: Facebook
Were using the ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air
Conditioning Engineers) TC9.9 standard 80.6 degrees Fahrenheit (27 Celsius)
as the maximum inlet temperature and 65 percent RH (relative humidity) as the
maximum RH.
I assume climate was one of the drivers for choosing where to

locate the Data Center, enabling you to use certain energy-efficient
technologies. What else lead Facebook to build in Prineville, Oregon?
The number one reason was that we could easily reduce the operating costs. And
the utility rate was low because we were closer to the main transmission lines.
How long did it take to design and build the first phase of the
Data Center?
The design and construction was one year. Well, a little bit more than one year
because we kind of cheatedwe actually started our design work a little bit ahead
of time. We were doing a little R&D work here and there so we were able to use a
lot of that design. I would say about 15 months from design to completion of this
project.
Even at 15 months that still seems fast for a facility of this size that
has a lot of innovative technologies and youre making your own
custom server design as part of the project. As you said at the start of
this interview Data Center isnt necessarily core to your business. For a
company that doesnt have Data Centers at the core you seem to have
done a pretty good job with it.
Well, let me back up. Our site acquisition stuff like that I did not count that time.
Im talking about the Data Center design and construction, probably about 15
months. Because we were doing this R&D site at the time we were doing a lot of
engineering work up front. We were able to use a lot of that.
194
Lets say, if you have to build a Data Center and were giving you all this Data
Center information, you should be able to build a Data Center in 15 to 16 months.
Beyond the technical details that are included in the Open Compute
Project documents, are there any particular Data Center design
principles that you followed with the project?
When I joined two and a half years ago, there was no Data Center design team. I
was it. I came from the Data Center design industry, construction industry, and
then we started pulling a bunch of the experienced people on board. So, we knew
exactly what we were doing. Its not like we were spinning the wheel or trying
new things. That was not the case.
Certainly. Is there any general advice that you would suggest someone
keep in mind as they embark on a Data Center project?
The only recommendation I would like to give industry is dont believe
everything the server manufacturers say. Their nameplate data, obviously they
are very conservative numbers. As a user I think they should really do a little
more research on servers and understand the boundary of the server operating
parameters. And then dont be afraid to push that boundary. I think thats the key
to have a successful project.
Dont believe everything the server manufacturers say. Do a little

more research on servers and understand the boundary of the
server operating parameters. And then dont be afraid to push that
boundary.
195
During your project were there any surprises that came up along the way?
10: Facebook
Yeah. Because when I came from another industry we built the Data Center but
we never really built the servers. So when we started developing the servers and
actually the servers they can take a much harder, harsh environment. You can push
the humidity level up to 90 percent. It will work, no problem. Or the low side
humidity condition. People talk about static discharge, its going to damage the
memory chip, CPU, blah, blah, blah. But the truth of the matter is that every rack
has been grounded. With the proper procedure, when you touch the servers you
can ground yourself. Its basic process and procedure to touch or remove servers.
You could do all that and you dont need to really worry about low-side humidity
either. There are a lot of things you can do. Those are the kind of things I found
out. I think the industry in general theyre too conservative.
I was quite surprised actually how much we can push the boundary of server
operating conditions. We didnt quite do that but next phase, next project were
actually pushing the boundary a little bit harder.
Figure 10-5 Power, structured cabling, and cooling are all provided overhead in Facebooks
Data Center.
196
Your Data Center is obviously very new but if you go back and design it
again what if anything would you do differently?

Maybe build it in phases and dont have to put all this capital cost from Day One.
The entire building maybe you can build it in phases as business grows. We would
have to think about that. You know, we are such a growing company and we need
to meet the demand.
We are so there as far as the energy efficiency and the cost to build the Data
Center. Yeah, if we squeeze it we should be able to get something out of it but
right now our focus is meeting the demand.
I read about your Power over Ethernet (PoE) LED lighting system.
What prompted you to use that particular solution?
First of all, as you know the LED light fixture lasts a really long time. Another
reason we wanted to use that system is we have hot aisle containment doors, we
have a ton of doors. Lets say somebody opens this door and doesnt shut it tight
and leaves it open. All the hot air will be mixed with the cold air and we will
not know about it. We could have put a door contact in and send it over to the
Building Management System but even though we do that sometimes its hard to
spot these doors. So by using these LED fixtures you can actually integrate that
with a door contact. If somebody leaves that door open the whole bay light we
can make it flash.
So, there are a lot of controls. The functions are built into that system. And
this is why we chose that system. And plus its obviously energy savings and
its incredibly low power consumption. But quite honestly the ROI (return on
investment) wasnt quite there. The truth of the matter is its an expensive system
and it wasnt there. We dont have to change the fixture every two or three years,
itll last almost 15 years.
If you leave the lights on all the time it might be a different story but we have
what we call a lights out environment. If nobodys there we turn the lights off.
When we ran that calculation under the lights out environment the ROI was not
there. But the control system was very interesting and we were able to use that
system to monitor the doors.
197
For your fire detection and suppression system you have VESDA
10: Facebook
monitoring and pre-action sprinklers. Is that a dry pipe system?
Yeah, it is a dry type system. As you know, if you leave that dry type system
and you leave the pipe empty over a period of time youre going to see some
condensation building inside of this pipe. If the pipe is perfectly sloped and if you
have the drainage, thats not an issue. But I can guarantee you when these guys
installed this piping its never going to be perfectly sloped. So what happens is this
condensation happens and youre starting to collect this water and it will collect in
the low point. And then it will start corroding and you will have a little pinhole
and then water will be starting to drip.
I experienced this problem with my previous employer and Data Center.
Changing this piping in a live Data Center was a huge challenge. And so what
we did here is that, not only is it dry type but we used nitrogen gas rather than
compressed air. When you fill it with the nitrogen you dont have the oxygen
so the corroding problem goes away. If you look at the National Fire Protection
Association (NFPA) website they talk about this corrosion problem a lot and
thats exactly what they recommend, too.
There are ongoing discussions in Data Center circles regarding

whether or not to use a raised floor. Were there any reasons in
particular that you didnt use one in your Data Center?
Yeah. To me it is a very expensive system compared to a slab. And also, when
you do containment work you really dont need a raised floor because youre just
containing the hot air and then you just throw it either outside or recirculate or
whatever. And then cable management in the overhead in my opinion is much
easier than under floor. Easy access and a faster installation. And floor loading,
again, you dont need to worry about it. Especially when youre in a seismic zone
areawere notthe height of the raised floor has some limitation unless you do
some serious bracing. So there are a lot of cons toward raised floors. Im not a fan
of raised floor design.
198
Figure 10-6 Outside air passes through

multiple filters before entering Facebooks

Data Center.
Figure 10-7 Mixing room fans.

199
Figure 10-8
10: Facebook
Air passes through mist eliminators, at
left, and propelled by variable speed fans,
at right.
Figure 10-9 Cool air descends into the cold aisles of

Facebooks Data Center.
Figure 11-1 Green House Datas facility in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Images provided courtesy of Green
House Data.
Chapter 11
Green House Data
Essential Details
ORGANIZATION: Green House Data
Location: Cheyenne, Wyoming
Online: January 2008
Notable features: All power for Data Center comes from or is offset by locally generated wind.
Virtualization, high-efficiency air conditioning, airside economizer, hot aisle enclosures.
Size: 9,500 sq. ft. (882.6 sq. m) total, with about 7,500 sq. ft. (696.8 sq. m) of hosting space
Power: 1 MW overall; IT usable capacity of 850 kW
Tier: III
Power Density: 4.25 kW average per cabinet, 12.5 kW maximum
Infrastructure Delivery: All infrastructure is delivered overhead
Wind isnt known for blowing in straight
Background
lines. Its appropriate, then, that Green

House Data had to take an indirect path
in its quest to run its 850 kW co-location
facility on wind power.
The 7,500 sq. ft. (696.8 sq. m) Data
Center is located in the capitol of Wyoming,
a top wind site in the United States
thanks to its high plains and powerful,
long-lasting breezes. By late 2012,
Wyoming had more than 1,400 MW of wind
power installed and more than 5,700 MW of wind projects in queue, according to the American Wind Energy
Association.
Despite those ideal conditions, Green House Data doesnt harvest wind on its own property or draw power
directly from the wind farms in its vicinity. Its power instead comes by way of a 162 mi. (260.7 km) there-and-
back detour into Colorado. Green House Data purchases renewable energy credits from a company in Boulder,
Colorado, that in turn purchases energy from wind farms back in Cheyenne.
To keep power consumption low, the Data Center uses a variety of energy efficient elements including
virtualization, high-efficiency air conditioning units, air economization, and enclosed hot aisles.
Shawn Mills, founder and president of Green House Data, explains the reason for its roundabout solution
for securing renewable energy as well as what other strategies his company employs to make his server
environment green.
The Interview
Lets start with some background about your facility. What prompted
you to build your Data Center in Wyoming?
In 2007 a good friend of mine and I were sitting down over coffee in Jackson
Hole, Wyoming, talking about how there were no Data Centers in Wyoming. We
began researching and determined that Wyoming could definitely accommodate
a high density, multi-tenant Data Center but it would need to be a nationally
unique business model. This is where I had the idea of tapping into Wyomings
wind resources. This direction then lead me to research methods for Data Center
efficiency for not only sustainability but also cost efficiency.
203
We ended up choosing Cheyenne as it was planned to be home to three or
11: Green House Data

four relatively large wind farms. We also appreciated the proximity it has to the
Denver, Colorado, area.
How long did it take to design and build the Data Center?
We built our facility in a highly modular fashion. With an unknown amount of
demand and the desire to be an entrepreneur and build it and they will come, we
went down the path of building it out in a modular fashion. We have a 9,500 sq.
ft. building (882.6 sq. m) and we built out the first private suite of 1,000 sq. ft.
(92.9 sq. m) to start and then have just grown modularly since then. Now were
launching another 3,000 sq. ft. (278.7 sq. m) of our facility as a suite.
Your facility doesnt have a raised floor. Did you forgo it for any
particular reason?
We were retrofitting an existing building and the ceiling heights werent high
enough to allow us to use a raised floor. We were able to come up with a design in
our building specifically that is relatively unique just because of our floor layout
that allows us to use overhead supply and hot aisle overhead return as well.
Your companys reputation is built largely on its use of clean,

renewable energy and you even have the word green in the name of
your business. Whats your definition of green, and in particular a
green Data Center?
Its funny, because a lot of people ask How are you green? From our perspective,
at the end of the day we are a green Data Center because all of our energy comes
either from locally generated wind or offset by locally generated wind. The
unfortunate realities of renewable energy is that for the most part you cant be
right next to the wind farm that produces at a price point that means something
to somebody, a.k.a. has a payback. So we have had to leverage utility-scale wind
farms in order to make sure that our pricing stays in line with the Data Center
market. We couldnt afford to pay three times the cost of electricity for on-site
generated wind.
204
So, we are committed to getting our wind energy a portion of it through the
local power company and then offsetting it and covering it 100 percent through
renewable, Green-e tags. Thats one component of it from the green perspective.
Probably more important isand what we tell our customersthe greenest
electron is the one you didnt use. We operate at probably about 90 percent
greater cooling efficiency than most Data Centers. And were doing that by
leveraging the outside ambient air in Wyoming to cool the facility almost 365
days a year.
You obviously wanted to be green with your facility. At what point in

your design process did you decide that you wanted to be powered by
wind energy? Was it because you were going to be located in Wyoming
and therefore wind is an obvious choice?
We actually did a lot of research on solar, geothermal, and wind and at the end of
the day cost per kilowatt hour is the least in wind energy production and so we
went down that path.
We dont leverage any on-site generation. That said, why we chose what we
chose is to maximize the cost savings were able to pass along to our customers.
The way our equation works is, we operate at about 40 percent less total energy
consumption than an average Data Center but we have to pay approximately a
10 percent premium to be powered through wind energy. That net difference of
30 percent we share with our customers to ensure that they are green as well as
getting a good deal on Data Center services, because electricity consumption is
one of the higher costs of operating a Data Center.
205

Figure 11-2 A row of hardware within Green House Datas server environment.
How can someone who wants to power their Data Center with
renewable energy, but for whom on-site power generation is
impractical, do so? Whats the process for making that happen instead
of just using the standard electrical supply from the local utility?
We talked to our local power company about how we can leverage their
investment in wind energy. So it all starts with the local power company, working
with them to figure out what type of accounting capabilities do they have to
account for the wind energy production. Then what weve done to purchase our
own renewable wind energy credits is gone through a company called Renewable
Choice in Boulder (Colorado) that then actually purchases the wind back from
other wind farms in Wyoming and specifically ones right near us that were not
able to tap into.
206
The main roadblock to you connecting to a wind farm right in your

area is cost?
Yeah, absolutely. Its cost-related. Really, when you boil it all down, its cost per
kilowatt hour related. For me to produce it here on-site at my facility its cost.
For example, 40 cents per kilowatt hour, which is really expensive power. Where,
literally across town, at utility scale they produce it at probably 4 cents per
kilowatt hour.
Some people distinguish between purchasing renewable energy credits

versus directly using renewable energy on-site. Do you think that the
use of credits are somehow less green?
My opinion of it is that in an outsourced model nobodys willing to pay what
it costs to provide an on-site generated electricity Data Center. Other than an
enterprise that chooses to do that in their own Data Center for their own reasons.
In the co-location market, the incremental cost of on-siteeven with the energy
efficiency that we havestill wouldnt justify itself and I dont think we could sell
it in the marketplace.
Tell me about some of the energy-efficient features you have in the

Data Center. I understand you have Coolerado air conditioners.
The Coolerados are a critical component to our energy efficiency. In the pod
where the Coolerados are we operate about 200 kW of power IT load, and based
on the manufacturers specs the Coolerados operate on something like the 5 to 10
kW range, which is a shockingly low PUE.
Your website mentions aligning hot and cold aisles and redefining the
cage space concept. Can you elaborate on that?
In essence, there are zero cages in our Data Center facility and if we were to
put a cage for security purposes it would still fit within our hot aisle, cold aisle
containment scenario.
207
The problem with cage spaces is what we call the chaos factor. When you put

a cage in there theres little to no control over hot spots and cold spots and
containment of air to be as efficient as possible. What weve done is built it out
into 20-cabinet pods where each pod is two cold aisles and a hot aisle and then its
all contained and exhausted out of the building.
Figure 11-3
Plastic enclosures
above the cabinets
isolate hot and
cold airflow while
door panels control
physical access.
208
Youre using a clear plastic enclosure at the top of your cabinets that
acts as a chimney to exhaust the hot air, correct?

Exactly. That plastic keeps all of the hot air in the hot side of the cabinet and
doesnt allow any mixing of the cold air with the hot air.
That hot air is ultimately vented outdoors?

Yeah. Its part of our 2N on the cooling system. We have 100 percent of IT load
covered by our Coolerado system and then 100 percent on CRAC units. When
were running on our Coolerados the air is exhausted and if we had to for any
reason switch to the CRAC units, all of the system shuts down and it becomes
like a traditional computer room with CRAC units recirculating the air.
Were there any surprises during the design and construction of the
facility?
Yeah. The biggest surprisehistorically and not so much moving forwardwas
the lack of Data Center engineers willingness to build a non-traditional Data
Center. It was definitely us pushing them to think outside the box to build this
the way we wanted to build.
Was there resistance to anything in particular that you wanted to

implement?
Historical experience building Data Centers, really. Basically it came down
to Data Centers are supposed to be this way and their last experience with
ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning
Engineers) standards. Theyve always built to the old ASHRAE standards and
havent kept up to the more progressive ASHRAE standards.
The biggest surprisewas the lack of Data Center engineers

willingness to build a non-traditional Data Center. It was definitely
us pushing them to think outside the box
209
With that in mind, what operational temperature do you try to

maintain your Data Center at?
Our target is 50 to 77 Fahrenheit (10 to 25 Celsius) on temperature. The mean
stays at 68 (20 Celsius). Were still able to stay in the general vicinity but it floats
on a wider band on a temperature perspective and then with broader humidity.
Depending on the suite youre talking about, from 30 to 80 percent humidity, or
zero humidity control.
How did you overcome resistance to what you wanted to implement?

Was it a case of Im the client and were going to do it this way or did
you have to demonstrate that what you wanted had some advantages?
It was a combination of both. There was a lot of hesitancy from the engineers,
saying Weve done it this way for the last 20 years. Why do you want to do it
differently?
I had to tell them that this is how we are going to do it. They needed to figure out
how to make it work under the energy efficiency constraints. We are very pleased
at how they were able to rise above their traditional Data Center experience to
create what we have today.
We have touched on some of the energy-efficient elements in your

Data Center. Anything else that you want to make folks aware of?
I think really the interesting thing is just virtualization and cloud computing. At
the end of the day its the single biggest impact on total energy consumption in
the Data Center.
Thats just for our managed cloud services. Were a cloud hosting and co-location
facility. When a thousand servers doing a thousand different server tasks can
operate on 100 servers using a tenth of the power thats a pretty amazing thing.
210
Do you think the various technologies in your Data Center are universal
and can be implemented anywhere, or are some of them limited to

what you wanted to accomplish at your facility?
Our cooling infrastructure cant be implemented anywhere, thats definitely a
climate based thing. But just fundamental blocking and tackling things like hot-
row containment, virtualization, even just hot-row/cold-row blanking panels, all
those things absolutely can and they make a big difference.
The biggest challenge in corporate Data Centers is the need for speed and
comfort. You dont understand how many times I was told by engineers Well
just do a CRAC unit, we can get it done faster. There is a real impetus to not be
energy efficient because of comfort level with doing it the way people have done it
for an extended period of time.
So can it be done? Yes. Do you have to be diligent about it? Absolutely.
Your Data Center is not very old but if you could go back and start over
again, what if anything would you do differently?
The interesting thing is we do get to start over, and we are starting over with
this next 3,000 sq. ft. (278.7 sq. m) suite. What we are doing differently is that
we wont have a full DX backup moving forward. We are comfortable with our
ability to be cooled by 100 percent outside air and so are our customers. This is
similar to Facebooks Open Compute Project, which is cooled by 100 percent
outside air and yet still falls within the ASHRAE standard.
Youre planning to open another Data Center, which will be online by

the time this book is published. I assume you will make that facility
green as well. What are your main site selection criteria for that?
It absolutely comes down to cooling capabilities and the ability to cool the facility
in a similar fashion to what we currently use. Its not a small dollar value being
able to cool using the outside ambient air. The savings are tremendous and it
makes us more competitive when were closing deals.
211
What type of fire suppression measures does your server environment

have?
We have an early warning air sampling system as well as Novec 1230 gas. In
our research it was the safest for humans, the safest for the ozone, and by far the
greenest gas out there.
Any advice that you would give or design principles you would offer to
someone preparing to start a Data Center project?
The biggest piece of advice that I would give is find engineers that agree with your
principles, so that you dont have to battle the engineers to create the Data Center
youre trying to create.
Figure 11-4
Power is
distributed
overhead to Green
House Datas Data
Center cabinet
locations.
212
Figure 11-5 A closeup of the electrical bypass switch for Green House Datas server environment.
213

Figure 11-6 High-efficiency air conditioners cool Green House Datas Data Center.
Figure 12-1 The hosting area within IBMs Data Center in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.
Images provided courtesy of the IBM Corporation, all rights reserved.
Chapter 12
IBM
Essential Details
ORGANIZATION: IBM
Location: Research Triangle Park, North Carolina
Online: November 2009
Notable features: Modular design, extensive sensor network that monitors and manages electrical and
mechanical system efficiency, use of both air- and liquid-based cooling. Rainwater harvesting. Ninety-five
percent reuse of pre-existing building shell. LEED-Gold Certified.
Size: 160,000 sq. ft. (14,864.5 sq. m) total, with 100,000 sq. ft. (9,290.3 sq. m) of hosting space.
Power: Two 21 MW power feeds, 15 MW for IT
Tier: Declined to estimate
Infrastructure Delivery: Electrical infrastructure, structured cabling, and cooling are delivered under a
36 in. (91.4 cm) raised floor
Fire suppression system: Wet pipe system, with VESDA detection
When it comes to battles of man versus
Background
machine, its clear which corner IBM

is in. This is, after all, the company
responsible for the supercomputers Deep
Blue, which battled world chess champion
Garry Kasparov in the 1990s, and Watson
that topped uber Jeopardy! winners Ken
Jennings and Brad Rutter in 2011.
I for one welcome our new computer
overlords, Jennings joked during his final
answer on the televised quiz show.
IBM has a good idea of what it takes to make computer overlords happy, judging by the amenities of its Data
Center in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. At 100,000 sq. ft. (9,290.3 sq. m), its the second largest of
the technology and consulting companys more than 450 server environments worldwide and one awarded
LEED-Gold certification for its energy efficient and environmentally sensitive design.
Tens of thousands of sensors within the Data Center monitor the operating conditions and energy efficiency
of its mechanical and electrical systems. Still more allow IBM to continuously generate CFD (computational
fluid dynamic) models of the Data Center to further optimize performance. Power can be provided in different
quantities among the cabinet locations, with air- and liquid-cooling available as needed to keep computing
hardware comfortable. The facility was constructed in modular segments, allowing for rapid expansion.
Chris Molloy, IBM distinguished engineer, discusses these and other design elements that are incorporated
within the Data Center.
The Interview
What functions does this Data Center in RTP serve for IBM?
It serves two major functions. IBM provides a lot of outsourcing content for
customers and its an outsourcing source of our Data Centers. We have roughly
8 million sq. ft. (743,224.3 sq. m) of Data Center space in the outsourcing
segment that we manage for our customers on their behalf. This is our second
largest Data Center.
The second major purpose for this Data Center is our public cloud computing
offerings, of which at the moment there are two offerings that are offered out of
that Data Center.
217
What prompted you to renovate an existing building rather than build
12: IBM
something new from the ground up?
There were basically three things that we were looking at, which were cost,
schedule, and resources. In this particular case we were renovating old warehouse
space and manufacturing space, which had the power characteristics already there
at the site and also the hardened raised floor and a dual-story roof. That and the
fact that we had been a part of the Research Triangle Park for quite some time.
As a result of those items a couple of things came into play. One, the schedule
was shorter because we didnt have to go buy land or build a building. Two, the
building was fully depreciated so the cost of the project was less. And three, the
schedule in general came in because of the lack of needing to add things like
power or hardened raised floor, that kind of stuff. Other characteristics of using
an existing building made it very lucrative from the standpoint of schedule, cost,
and labor.
You used 95 percent of the existing building shell and recycled 90

percent of the original building material. Presumably you made a
conscious decision to incorporate those pre-existing elements into the
Data Centers design.
Correct. Those were driven by the desire to have LEED certification. There
are two pieces of that. One is submitting a proposal during the design phase,
which will tell you how many points youre going to get and therefore what level
of certification. And those items were a direct result of how many points we
wanted to get for energy efficiency and the re-use of the building, the recycling
of materials, the purchasing of materials from the local area to cut down on the
carbon footprint of it, and then buying recycled materials as well.
LEED Certification
218
All that work had to be done up front from the standpoint of determining how
the project was going to be implemented in order to do those things during the
project.
IBM uses a modular design approach to Data Centers to reduce build

time and limit disruption to pre-existing server environments. Tell me
about that approach.
The design itself is a 15 MW design. We also, in addition to using our Data
Centers for outsourcing, we have a consulting group that builds Data Centers.
They came out with a modular enterprise Data Center design which allows
customers to build Data Centers in increments of space and power. This was a
larger implementation of that reference material. It was eventually a 15 MW
design, eventually 100,000 sq. ft. (9,290.3 sq. m) We started out at 6 MW and
60,000 sq. ft. (5,574.2 sq. m) and we could go from 6 to 9 to 12 to 15 MW and
then we had another 40,000 sq. ft. (3,716.1 sq. m) that we could add to as well.
This ended up being better than what we thought because we dont build out
until we need it. We thought we were going to add additional power as power
density goes up on the equipment. So we thought we were going to add more
power to the existing 60,000 sq. ft. (5,574.2 sq. m). It turns out our customers
dont have that demand yet so were going to actually build out more space than
we are adding power to the existing space.
How does modularizing the Data Centers design help save time and
scale capacity? I assume this is more than just building out a few rows
at a time.
In this particular implementation we had 3 MW modules and we had room for
five of them that we designed in, and the cooling that matches the power because
the power turns to heat dissipation. So we created a 3 MW module that had the
UPS (uninterruptible power supply), the generators, the chillers, and then we
decided where those would goeither inside in an MEP (mechanical, electrical,
and plumbing) room or outside as far as generatorsand then we reserved the
space for them but we did not install them. So right now today we have all the
generators for the first 6 MW and we know in the existing 60,000 sq. ft. (5,574.2
sq. m) where the next set of generators are for the next 3 MW. We also had to
219
pre-install some of the cable trays and make the water pipes big enough to be able
12: IBM
to hold the eventual load, but the amount of additional cost to do that while you
were doing the build was negligible compared to having to go back and add that
after the fact.
The modular approach helps you bring in the 18- and 24-month projects down
to under a year and it makes them smaller projects. Instead of building a 15 MW
Data Center were building five 3 MW Data Centers.
Figure 12-2
Thermal storage
tanks for IBMs
Research Triangle
Park Data Center.
220
The Data Center had first 6 MW and later 15 MW of capacity for IT.
What are the overall power feeds into the Data Center?
You figure it was designed with a designed criteria of a PUE of 1.4, so you can do
the math on that.
The benefit there is we did some things that improve the reliability, decreased
the risk, but decreased the cost. Ill give you an example of that in the cooling
distribution system. Typically a cooling distribution system would have, even
with a waterside or airside economizer, the chiller would be in line with the
economizer which would be in line with the pumps which would be in line to the
CRAC (computer room air conditioner) units out on the floor. So, there would
be a kind of a one-to-one mapping of those.
What we did we criss-crossed the connectivity of those major components so that
any chiller can supply any flat plate heat exchanger which can supply using any of
the pumps to any of the CRAC units. And those were just water valves. Thats not
a very expensive thing to get that extra resiliency.
I can see how that would give you some additional redundancy within
the system. Does that also increase the amount of power density or
heat load that you can support at a given cabinet location?
No, thats predominantly just a resiliency statement.
One of the other things that we did was, traditionally you would size the chillers
and put chillers on the UPS units so therefore increasing the amount of UPS that
you needed in addition to the UPS that you needed for IT. What we ended up
doing was running the numbers economically and deciding instead of putting the
chillers on UPS we just put them on generators. And what we did was we built
three 50,000 gallon (189,270.6 liter) chilled water tanks and we run the cooling
distribution through the chilled water tanks similar to how we put UPS batteries
in line, to use the cooling tanks to condition the water from a temperature
standpoint. Those tanks have 30 minutes of ride-through time, which is more
than sufficient to get the generators up and running and get the chillers running
on the generators at a much lower cost point. That affected operational cost and
capital cost but at the same time improving resiliency and reducing risk.
221
I understand the Data Center has different power densities from
12: IBM
cabinet to cabinet.
Traditionally people have used the term watts per square foot. And watts
per square foot is getting to be the worst metric of a Data Center because it
implies that youve got uniform distribution of power and therefore cooling to
a particular segment of the raised floor. And we have moved away from that.
Instead of having, like, all 4 kW racks or 2 kW racks we wait until we actually
need to run the power and we supply a certain amount of forced air cooling. But
if we need to be able to cool past that well do something like add a rear door heat
exchanger to have the supplemental cooling. So weve disconnected the amount
of cooling you have to have for the amount of power. Also, we can run different
capacity racks.
We did an analysis of how many of each type of rack in terms of power density
our customers were currently using and then we extrapolated to say, Ok during
this first revolution while they are filling up the Data Center how much power
density will they have to have by rack? So we support not only the low density
racks but also support the 8, 16, and now 32 kW racks and we dont strand that
power because we dont run it until the rack needs it.
Stranded capacity is a big challenge in legacy Data Centers. Not just

low power density but whether or not you can deliver power where
the demand is and not have any thats inaccessible. I imagine being
able to distribute power flexibly really opens up the use of the server
environment.
Yeah. The flexibility of how much power we can bring to a rack, like having a
4 kW rack next to a 32 kW rack, is one flexibility. The flexibility of decoupling
the power from the cooling is another one.
Ill give you an example. In our Boulder Data Center we needed to install a
high density rack. We had the power but we didnt have the cooling so we
brought in a rear door heat exchanger to provide the supplemental cooling
and we could continue to run that high density rack in a 40 watts per sq. ft.
(430.6 watts per sq. m) rack space.
222
This Data Center was planned from the beginning to support cloud
computing. How does that functionality manifest itself in the design?

A couple of things. When you look at the cloud computing modeland in this
particular instance were talking about IBM as a service provider of clouds
we are running our desktop cloud and now our smart cloud enterprise, which
has production x86 based workload. Those are modular as well. So, weve got
modularity in the power and cooling. Weve got modularity in the space. Now
were starting to see modularity in the IT equipment that were going to be able to
put on the floor.
What we did when we designed the smart cloud enterprise was we built a
modular footprint, which was a mixture of server, storage, and network, and
we took that same footprint and mirrored it around to the different cloud sites
around the world that we support. And we made that footprint small enough so
it didnt require as significant an initial capital outlay and then now that were
coming back and reaching capacity limits at the different sites were just adding
another footprint. And we designed the footprint not to have to be contiguous
to the existing footprint that was there, which is a big problem that other people
have which is coming back later and either having to reserve contiguous space or
not being able to put additional content there.
The implications of that is, knowing what the physical characteristics are of that
footprint and knowing that our cloud equipment is higher density equipment
and being able to support that. Also, from a network drop standpoint, as a service
provider these are public clouds so our ratio of MPLS (Multiprotocol Label
Switching) private network to public facing Internet network, the connectivity
changed. So we had the discussion with our network service providers to make
sure that they were bringing in more from a ratio standpoint Internet based
connectivity versus MPLS private connectivity.
It seems that you have a lot of flexibility with the Data Center.
In addition to the modular approach you can adjust how much
infrastructure to provide at a given cabinet location based on what the
demand is going to be.
Yeah. And the reason we have to do that is, and weve been extremely successful,
were an outsourcing group so we dont know which accounts are going to
sign when and we dont know which accounts are going to have mergers or
223
acquisitions and want to dynamically add content at will. So we dont want
12: IBM
to make mistakes and we dont want to put ourselves at risk, so we do that by
creating this module flexibility.
Figure 12-3
Pre-piping under
IBMs raised floor
supports future
water cooling in
the Data Center.
Tell me about your rear door heat exchangers and what functionality
they provide.
Liquid cooling techniques are coming back to the Data Center. If you look at
our Z10s, which are our mainframes, theyve got built in coolers that you just
dont see the external water connections. Old mainframes, circa 10, 20 years ago
had water connections to them. So were starting to see liquid cooling techniques
come back into the Data Center and some people who have them are concerned
about that risk. Were not because weve got a long history of using water in the
Data Center not to mention the water thats in the sprinklers right above the
equipment. But be that as it may we want to be efficient, we want to be cost
effective. So if you look at the U.S. EPA (Environmental Protection Agency),
which commissioned Lawrence Berkeley National Labs to go look at what
the latest liquid cooling techniques are that come closer to the Data Center
obviously CRAC units are supplied by water but theyre at the perimeter of the
Data Center, Im talking about within the rackthen you would look at the
results theyve had to what they call chill-offs.
The rear door heat exchanger is a device that fits on the back of the rack and has
won the chill-off the last two years in a row, of all the liquid cooling techniques
from the different vendors. Lawrence Berkeley National Labs did the independent
analysis and it was the most cost effective technique for cooling per unit of cost.
That device is a low pressure device and it actually contributes cooling to the
room for every rack that its on, because what happens is the fans from the servers
or the IT equipment blow across a radiator. That radiator has cold water flowing
224
through it. The net effect, if you put your hand on it, is that it ends up blowing
cold air into the Data Center because it overcools the amount of cooling thats in
that particular rack. The other thing is that is low pressure water and its a closed
loop sealed system, so should there be a leak it would not leak that much water
and it would not leak it at high pressure. So, again, low risk for the additional
resiliency.
The other thing is you dont need to put in on every single rack. You can just put
it on the high density racks.
Some Data Center operators are hesitant to employ liquid cooling

because of concerns about having a leak in the Data Center. It sounds
like you definitely consider it a reliable solution and that, if a problem
were to arise, its anticipated to be minor because of the low pressure
nature of the system.
Yeah. Liquid cooling is inevitable from the standpoint if you look at the major
manufacturers and what theyre designing equipment to these days and their
future roadmaps, the density is going to get higher.
You look at the ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-
Conditioning Engineers) charts which were recently updated, they continue to
show that exponential trend in power density within a rack. At some point in
time you wont be able to forced-air cool all the devices so you are going to have
to do liquid cooling techniques. And thats why in the Raleigh Data Center in
the 60,000 sq. ft. (5,574.2 sq. m) we only supplied cooling for 80 percent using
CRAC units and forced air because the other 20 percent we were going to put
liquid cooling techniques. As a result of that, every third CRAC unit we actually
have taps off of the dual ring. Weve dual rings of water that run in opposite
directions around the Data Center so we can take out sections and turn them off
to do CRAC maintenance. But we also have taps there to be able to have taps to
bring cold water out to the floor for liquid cooling techniques like rear door heat
exchangers.
Liquid cooling is inevitablelook at the major manufacturers and

what theyre designing today and their future roadmaps.
225
Do you have a certain thresholdsay 20 kW per cabinetat which
12: IBM
point you start using liquid cooling rather than forced air?
Economically its much better than that. Theres the physics involved and when
do you have to. And thats a function of how youre spreading the forced air
around and are you averaging it by putting a high density rack next to a low
density rack. Even at the 6 MW over 60,000 sq. ft. (5,574.2 sq. m) with 32 kW
racks, we could still air cool them from a physical standpoint. From an economic
standpoint what were finding is at less than probably 10 kW racks it may be
more economically feasible to start using rear door heat exchangers. As that
technology keeps improving its going to go down to 6.5 kW.
Is there such thing as a common power density per cabinet now, or

does that vary greatly based on individual need?
As you point out, its more the latter than the former. It used to be we didnt
care. The reason why we were able to do even level power distribution on a raised
floor and measure average watts per square foot (meter) is because the servers, the
network, and the storage gear were all the same power density so it didnt matter,
you could mix and match and not worry about it.
If you look at the ASHRAE charts, the growth rate by familywhether its
servers, network gear, 1U or 2U standalone servers, tape equipment, network
equipmenttheres different exponential curves for each one and over time those
exponential curves have more differentiation so the situations going to get worse
as far as uneven need of power as we build more equipment.
This Data Center has more than 30,000 utility and environmental
sensors tied in with various software tools. What sort of data are the
sensors collecting and how are you making use of the information?
To start with, youve got the up-down sensors and monitoring sensors for all the
Facilities and the IT pieces of equipment. So, the CRAC units report information
on up-down and how well theyre doing. The generators, the pumps, pretty
much any piece of electrical gear either on the Facilities side or on the IT side is
reporting things. The generators report oil pressure or amount of gas left in the
tank. So thats where theses tens of thousands of sensors are starting to report
226
data and would create an information overload if all you did was look at the data.
So from that you have to start having whats now called a class of Data Center
information management or DCIM (Data Center Infrastructure Management)
software that starts paring that down to taking the data and making it
information and knowledge that you can use.
The other thing thats being reported from the IT equipment is temperature
data and energy use data, how much energy a particular server is using, because
the new Energy Star rating for servers requires that the energy fluctuate as the
utilization fluctuates which means youll have much more stranded power than
you did before because usually when you turned a machine on it didnt vary much
depending upon what utilization it was running.
Figure 12-4 Use of waterside economization provides free cooling about 3,900 hours per year in
IBMs Research Triangle Park Data Center.
227
IBM has airflow modeling technology associated with this Data Center
12: IBM
as well. Is that accomplished through these sensors?
Thats something thats a little bit different but integrated with our overall DCIM
strategy.
IBM prides itself on having a very large investment in R&D, to the tune of $6
billion a year. A lot of that goes to our IBM Research organization and our IBM
Research organization came out with this MMT (Measurement and Management
Technology). Originally it was a mobile technology that had sensors at different
heights and could build you a CFD model of the Data Center to identify hot
spots. Its a temperature model and could model airflow as well. Well that was a
snapshot and you would have to move the portable technology around each time
you wanted a snapshot. What weve done now with the Raleigh Data Center is
add permanently mounted sensors above and below the floor at different points in
the rack and at different points in the rows and the aisles. And we can generate a
continuous CFD model or snapshot dynamically.
Once you have that information you can tie that into hot spot analysis in real
time or you can plug that into your decision making process on where you place
the next piece of IT equipment in relation to the IT equipment you already have.
So you in other words put it in the cold areas not the hot areas. And then you can
also use that information for capacity planning for where do I need to put the
next cooling technology or when were doing analytics, whats the optimal cooling
solution for the entire raised floor and should I eventually move workload around
the Data Center to even out the cooling and mitigate hot spots?
When using that technology and examining what happens when

hardware is deployed in different power densities per cabinet, does
anything counter-intuitive or surprising emerge?
No. Its typically what you expect to see. We have hot spots around the high
density equipment.
The other thing it points out to us isand weve injected this MMT technology
in some of our lower density Data Centersas opposed to a CFD model where
you put in your configuration MMT does real-time monitoring and can reconcile
against what the model says and when there are differences you have loss. So
thats where it helps us identify things like the fact that the blanking plates may
228
not be there or the cable cutouts arent filled with cushions or the perforated tiles
are in the wrong place. It helps us do that type of analysis. Likewise it helps us to
identify most older Data Centers, especially ones that had liquid cooled or a lot of
hot equipment, there are way more CRAC units in a facility for redundancy than
need be. Its actually also advised us on turning off some of the CRAC units and
saving that energy and the life of that CRAC unit.
This Data Center has a raised floor. What infrastructure are you
delivering overhead and what are you delivering by way of that raised
floor?
Overhead were running the water for the fire suppression system. Underneath
were doing the forced air. Were also doing the electrical and cabling underneath
as well. We looked at overhead cabling. Our criteria for Data Centers has been
better service at lower risk and lower cost. When all other things are being equal
as far as same amount of risk, same amount of cost, we ask the hardware planners
and the people who are working in that space what they prefer and if there wasnt
a cost differential we went with what they preferred. They much rather prefer
under the floor cabling because pulling cables under the floor is easier and quicker
than moving a ladder around upstairs. And they were approximately the same
cost.
The return air plenum is overhead. We have perforated tiles in the cold aisle on
the floor and perforated ceiling tiles in the hot aisle, with a false ceiling therefore
bringing the return air back to the CRAC units.
Its a 36-in. (91.4 cm) raised floor. We found raised floor being still the most
economical way to cool the base set of equipment in the Data Center because the
customers arent investing yet in higher density equipment.
What sort of fire detection and suppression system does this facility
have?
Theres always been a raging debate about charged dry versus wet. IBM prefers
wet. The insurance companies in the area dont care which one has a bias. We also
use flexible piping where the head of the sprinkler is so that we can reposition
it over the IT equipment. The other thing is the sprinklers themselves have
229
individual trips so that if one trips it just trips over that equipment not over a
12: IBM
section or an aisle of the rows of the raised floor. Weve got VESDA early smoke
detection systems as well installed there.
When you think about how this Data Center has been designed, is it
a universal design that can be done by anyone for any facility or are
certain technologies only appropriate based on the mission of this
Data Center or where its located?
There are a couple of things that are geographic specific, like the economic value
that you get from a flat plate heat exchanger. In other words, we have a facility in
Boulder that will use it more than the facility in RTP. The other thing we looked
at was things like CHP or combined heat and power to have a gas turbine.
Youve got to understand that some of those are economically driven not
technology driven. If youve got a power source like a CHP system, natural
gas, that is 8 cents a kilowatt hour that would be beneficial in the northeast
where youre paying 13 cents per kilowatt hour but wouldnt be beneficial in
Raleigh where were paying 5 to 6 cents a kilowatt hour. The technologies have
an economic component which cannot be ignored. So although some of the
things are proven technology theyre not economically feasible for that geography
compared to other technologies.
So, yes you use a modular design. Yes it can go anywhere. The piece that some
people cant do that we did, which we leveraged our Global Technology Services,
Site and Facilities organization (the IBM group that provides Data Center
consulting to external customers), was they did the analysis of what would a 3
MW module consist of from an electrical and a cooling standpoint. Not only the
low initial cost of capital but the operating cost as well. They went through the
major vendors equipment and provided us that guidance on, this is what will
match your electrical with your cooling and this is the model you need to invest
in because of its operational characteristics, because of its variable speed drive,
its variable speed fans. The variability that has the control content where we can
control that variability so as utilization goes up and down on the floor and the
heat goes up and down on the floor, the cooling can go up and down as well. A
lot of people can duplicate that extensive analysis.
230
Any surprises that came up during the design and build of the
Data Center?
Yeah. A recommendation that we make to everybody thats building a Data
Center is that when you commission the Data Center that you actually put the
type of load to test everything. So we actually did put a 6 MW heat load out
on the raised floor in the different zones and tested it. What we found was our
chilled water tanks lasted longer than we thought their design point would be, so
we actually have more ride-through time than we thought that we would.
Is there any overall advice that you would offer to someone

approaching a Data Center project? Any general design principles that
are useful to follow?
Building Data Centers is significantly different than building a commercial
building and certainly different than building a residential structure. Its in your
best interest to get people involved in helping you build your Data Centers that
have built Data Centers and have built Data Centers recently. If you look at the
EPA report to Congress were now building Data Centers more efficient than
what EPA thought would be possible by this point in time. Some of the PUEs
that are reporting now, the EPA said the improvements in technology wouldnt
have even gotten there this far, but the things like any to any connectivity of the
cooling distribution system, the modularity, the analysisget somebody whos
experienced in doing that. Obviously commissioning, the raised floor space, to
make sure that it meets your design criteria. Look at not only the capital costs but
the trade-off between capital and operating, because you can get some low non-
variable facilities equipment, cooling and electrical, inexpensively but youll pay
for it in operating costs. So you have to do a total cost of ownership, not a I want
to decrease my capital costs.
Figure 12-5
An under-floor view
of the piping for
water cooling in
IBMs Research
Triangle Park Data
Center.
231
12: IBM
Figure 12-6 Use of both air- and liquid-based cooling allows the Data Center to support different
cabinet power densities.
Figure 12-7 Electrical switchgear for IBMs Research Triangle Park Data Center.
232
Figure 12-8 3 MW of wet cell battery capacity provide 15 minutes of ride-through power.
Figure 12-9 Six 2.5 MW generators provide standby power for IBMs Research Triangle Park
Data Center.
233
12: IBM
Figure 12-10 Cooling tower fans for IBMs Research Triangle Park Data Center.
Figure 13-1 Intels pioneering use of enclosed cabinets in its Rio Rancho Data Center supports
36 kW per cabinet with air cooling. Images provided courtesy of Intel.
Chapter 13
Intel
Essential Details
ORGANIZATION: Intel
Location: Rio Rancho, New Mexico
Online: July 2006
Notable features: Converted wafer fabrication facility. First Data Center to employ cabinets with ducted
exhaust to optimize cooling efficiency.
Size: 18,000 sq. ft. (1,672 sq. m) total, with 6,700 sq. ft. (623 sq. m) of hosting space.
Power: Redundant substation feeds; IT usable capacity of 8 MW
Tier: II
Infrastructure Delivery: All physical infrastructure delivered overhead; copper and fiber in separate
cable trays and electrical wiring in dual redundant power busbars. No raised floor.
Cooling solution: Air cooling, featuring enclosed cabinets with exhaust chimneys and air handlers located
in a separate story above the hosting area.
Structural loading: 200 lb. per sq. ft. (976.5 kg per sq. m)
Fire suppression system: Wet pipe sprinkler system with VESDA detection system
Intel Corporation has a reputation in the Data
Background
Center industry for innovation, often pushing

boundaries to see what extra performance can
be squeezed from the hardware and physical
infrastructure within its server environments.
Company engineers have invented cabinet
enclosures to improve cooling efficiency,
constructed buildings that re-use server waste
heat and even run hardware for months at a
time in humid and dusty conditions to see how
much energy could be savedand how server reliability was affectedby operating without the extensive
climate controls typically provided in Data Centers.
The result of the companys constant experimentation is a Data Center model that not only incorporates
tremendous power density and optimized air-cooling but also coordinates networking, compute, storage, and
facility elements.
Intel first employed its high performance/high density Data Center design in 2005, retrofitting a 25-year-old
factory in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. Originally used for the production of silicon chips, the building now features
a Tier II, 6,700 sq. ft. (623 sq. m.) Data Center capable of housing more than 22,000 servers in just 268 cabinet
locations, thanks to 8 MW of electrical capacity and a power density of up to 36 kW per cabinet.
(Two other server environments are contained in the factory as well. A conventional 4,000 sq. ft. [372 sq. m.]
raised floor space with hot- and cold-aisles and 7 to 10 kW of power per cabinet and a 60,000 sq. ft. [5,574
sq. m.] expansion space that is largely unoccupied save for the State of New Mexicos 28-cabinet, liquid-cooled
Encanto supercomputer whose workload includes tasks such as projecting the movement of the Gulf Coast oil
spill in 2010.)
Don Atwood, Global Data Center Architect for Intel, discusses how the old factory was converted into a high
performance Data Center and why he envisions server environments with higher operational temperatures and
greater power densities in the future.
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The Interview
13: Intel
What drove the decision to convert a wafer fabrication facility to a
Data Center?
The evolution of the technology within the semiconductor industry and the
requirement to change footprints within the factories left us with available space.
How we build chips, the different sizes of the chips and the different facility and
physical requirements of the equipment to build the chips actually pushed us
as a business into a substantially different factory footprint. Because of that we
eventually end-of-lifed this facility and basically moved and it sat empty for
many years.
Although the facility itself was used on and off for miscellaneous different internal
purposes for many years, Intel was having substantial compute requirement
growth needs globally. Our rate of growth in the Data Center from a space,
power, and cooling perspective was very, very substantial. As we looked at our
global footprint and where we needed to build based on where the right people
were, what the bandwidth and latency needs are for the needs of our facilities,
and what made sense financiallydo we green-build do we retrofit?we basically
did a survey of our global landscape and said Hey, New Mexico is actually a
good place for many reasons. Geographically, from a power perspective, from a
reliability and a cost perspective, it was one of our best locations globally. And
here we had this fabulous, improved facility that was sitting empty that we could
re-use as opposed to doing a green build at one of our other locations.
The lower cost and risk perspective was really great here, so we said Lets convert
an old factory instead of building a new facility. We have 150 sites globally and
we had a lot of opportunities to go pretty much anywhere we wanted around the
world but it made more sense financially to do a re-use of an old factory building
and specifically do it here in Rio Rancho because of the low cost of energy and
the high availability of power.
238
The fact that you were working with an existing facility, how did its
pre-existing elements impact the design of the Data Center?

I think if we were to build a brand new Data Center and start fresh, there are
certainly components that we would do differently. When you take a building
that already exists and you retrofit it, you say Okay, these are the walls I have and
these are the structures that we have and these are the investments weve made so
how do we best make use of those? So what we came out with is not necessarily
how we would design a new one if we were building from scratch but what to do
with infrastructure we already own.
The way that factories are traditionally designed, the top floor would be
mechanical. Factories require a lot of constantly moving air to have cleanliness in
the factory. The middle level is always the factory and the lower level is always the
electrical delivery to the factory. Those are the three big pieces that Data Centers
needyour Data Center space, your mechanical space, and your electrical space.
So this facility was already fairly well established from a power distribution
perspective. The water pipes were in the right areas and the electrical was in the
right areas. We said This is what we have and it somewhat aligns to what we need
from a design perspective for a Data Center.
The only big gap that we had to look at was that we were building our first ultra-
high performance Data Center. The design criterion was initially above 30 kW
per cabinetwe ended up building 36 kW per cabinet. Our biggest concern
was since we were going to have to put the compute on the second level, which
is where the factory floor was, could the floor architecturally hold that much
weight because we had pretty high density, high weight racks? Factories have very
heavy equipment and it actually worked out very well. We did not need to make
modifications to support the weight of our 2,500 lb. (1,134 kg) loaded racks. In
many instances the buildings weight-bearing capability was about double the
capacity of what we needed, with even current-day technologies.
239
13: Intel
Figure 13-2 Air handlers on the third floor of Intels Rio Rancho Data Center.
Thirty six kilowatts per cabinet is an impressive power density. What

different cooling approaches did you consider along the way to
accommodate that and what solution did you ultimately choose?
When we built this and designed it (in 2005), this was an interesting time in
the lifecycle of Data Center design at Intel. We were moving from low/medium
density Data Centers to extremely high density Data Centers, which at the time
we were saying anything over 10 kW was very high. We were internally learning
a lot about what high density meant and what the benefits of it were. We were
kind of designing at the same time that we were testing the theory in other Data
Center locations and also at this location.
240
We have multiple different types of compute within Intel. Some compute are
not highly critical but other servers if they go down our stock will go down or
our employees wont get paid; our finance and HR compute. High availability is
different than a lot of our high density compute internally. The largest percentage
of compute at Intel is high density that did not need that ultra-high reliability,
just reliable services.
So, as we were going through the design to build our higher density, we kept
asking ourselves what does that mean? Ultimately the cooling outlook was
determined to be, if we ran our Data Centers and completely separated the hot
air and the cold air and got away from hot spots or warm spots, we could gain
about a 24 percent mechanical efficiency at the cooling coil. Meaning if I had
1,000 servers, for example, in a room that was 5,000 sq. ft. (465 sq. m.) or if I
had 1,000 servers in a room that was 1,000 sq. ft. (93 sq. m.)the same exact
IT loadwe could run about 24 percent more efficient with a high dense type of
environment instead of spreading out the load. The tighter and the higher density
we could go, the more efficient we were.
At that time there was not really a product on the market to cool 30-something
kilowatts per rack without going to a liquid type of design, which was incredibly
expensive. We actually designed the chimney cabinet that exists on the market
today. Multiple vendors are selling it. We chose not to patent it so it would get
out to the industry, but we actually designed that at this site for this need. We
figured out that that was a great way to control the air completely and not let any
of the hot air mix with the cold air. You can do it through hot aisle containment
or chimney racks and there are multiple solutions today to accomplish this, but
at the time we basically invented the Data Center chimney rack and we designed
this room around it. When you walk in the Data Center today and you see many
thousands of servers in a very small space what you find is that there are no warm
or hot spots in the room because its completely controlled.
The mechanical design was to totally control the air, have no leakage of hot or
warm air into the room, and have the highest density to provide the hottest air to
the coil. Instead of mixing hot air with cold air (pre-cooling), we want it as hot as
it can get to the coil for the highest efficiency. There were some struggles. This was
definitely the highest density we had ever done. In fact, outside of a few super-
computers its still our highest density design five years later. But it was extremely
effective and worked very well for us.
241
13: Intel
Figure 13-4 Structured cabling and electrical infrastructure are routed overhead in Intels
Data Center.
Why did you forgo a raised floor in your high-density Data Center
design?
People do raised floors for a lot of reasons but the original intent of raised floor
was to distribute the right air to the right parts of the room to manage the hot
spots. We dont have hot spots because we 100 percent manage the air and we
let no hot air into the room. If you control all the air in the room then you can
dump the cold air anywhere you want and you can avoid the cost of building the
raised floor. As long as you have enough cold volume in the room to meet the
draw of the servers it doesnt matter where it gets in to the room. All network and
power is done overhead for simplicity and agility.
242
What operational temperature do you try to maintain for the hardware

in the Data Center?

At the time, which is different than what we do today and what we intend to
do in the future, we were chasing the traditional thinking. I think our design set
point was about 71 degrees (21.7 Celsius).
We now know, due to other tests weve done at this site with free cooling and
a few other things we have done and published, that 71 (21.7 Celsius) is not
necessary. The technology today is very tolerant to higher temperatures and we
dont have hot spots to manage. Realistically, we want to get up to an average in
a general Data Center in the mid- to higher 80s (27 to 31 degrees Celsius). We
know we can go well in to the 90s or even into the high 90s (32 to 37 degrees
Celsius) from a technology perspective today but theres a balance between risk
and environmental controls and how many people are going to be working there.
We know were over-cooling the rooms even as we sit today but with some legacy
hardware raising the room temperature is a net loss. Certainly at the time the
Data Center was built lower temperatures were normal. We plan not to do that in
the future and we plan to bring those temperatures up quite a bit.
I can go into that same room today and I can bring the temperature up to 93,
95 degrees (34, 35 degrees Celsius) and the servers would run fine. Therell be
no problem at all, theres not going to be an increased failure rate. Were very
confident in that and well save a ton of mechanical electricity by doing that.
The problem is with the older technology, even generations just two years ago, if
I raise the temperature the server fans will just spin faster and will actually draw
more energy at the server than Im saving at the facility level. So its a balance.
With the new technology the fans arent going to spin as fast, theyre not going
to try and push as much air. To save a dollar, we dont want to spend $1.50
somewhere else. Its finding the right power consumption balance in the room
based on the technology were running.
243
13: Intel
Figure 13-4 Structured cabling flows through an overhead cable tray in Intels Rio Rancho
Data Center.
Assuming you dont encounter the problem that you mention, of

server fans spinning faster, do you see 36 kW and high-90s operating
temperatures as the maximum thresholds or do you see those numbers
being driven up even higher in the future?
I definitely see it going up from where we are today. If we look at our (Data
Center) strategy and where we believe were going, and where we know were
going from a chip perspective, we definitely know that our footprint within Data
Centers globally is shrinking substantially as our compute needs are rising. We
have opposite vectors happening. A lot of growth needs are being driven through
better utilizing general office and enterprise computers through virtualization and
cloud technology. So instead of having 1,000 office servers that are 10 percent
utilized, as an example, with virtualization we might have 100 servers or less that
are highly utilized but our footprint and overall power consumption per CPU
cycle used is substantially smaller overall. So we believe that certainly within the
design side of our business, which represents about 70,000 servers, the higher
density footprint with the latest technology is going to continue getting higher
and higher in a smaller footprint and with lower overall power consumption.
244
Do you think the Data Center industry as a whole is going to be moving

toward those super-high power densities?

When you look at the cost of building Data Centers per square foot, from a
design perspective, its going to be really hard for the industry to justify building
mega Data Centers anymore. Unless youre one of the very few companies, the
half a percent (of ) companies that are building these monster Data Centers
globally, which most companies arent, I think your average company is not going
to be building 20,000 sq. ft. (1,858 sq. m.) Data Centers much longer.
I consult with companies often, around the globe, who are looking at building
60,000 sq. ft. (5,574 sq. m.) Data Centers or 80,000 sq. ft. (7,432 sq. m.) Data
Centers and after spending some time with them and showing them the model
that we use, they often resize their design and build Data Centers at one-fourth
of the size that are much more efficient operationally and reduce not only their
capex upfront cost of building but their operational cost long-term. When it boils
down to that theres a big savings both upfront and long-term, its a hard sell to
continue building these large footprints and low density Data Centers.
When you look at the cost of building Data Centers per square
foot, from a design perspective, its going to be really hard for the
industry to justify building mega Data Centers anymore.
Coming with that higher density, is there a greater risk around thermal
runaway? If something breaks, things are going to heat up that much
faster. Or have we already crossed the point at which in most Data
Centers things are going to heat up very quickly anyway?
Thats a great question. Thats something that we experienced early on with our
really high densities. If you cool a Data Center in a very traditional manner
thermal runaway is definitely an issue that people have to consider. But theres a
multitude of ways of mitigating that risk.
I think what were going to find and what you already see starting to happen, if
you build high density Data Centers and you have alternative types of cooling
like free air cooling all of a sudden that doesnt become such an issue because the
245
normal mechanism of cooling your air is evolving. If you try to do high density
13: Intel
with traditional cooling, its a big gap to consider. I can tell you that as we went
through this process globally we learned our mistakes the hard way a few times.
When you have many thousands of servers in a very small square footage, you can
have a runaway condition very quickly if you completely lose all of your cooling,
for example.
You touched on liquid cooling and youre certainly at the power

density levels at which people normally think about using it. It sounds
like cost was a concern. Were there any other drivers that caused you
to do this through air cooling rather than liquid cooling?
Initially, at the time, people thought anything over 10 kW you had to use liquid
cooling solutions. But the cost was crazy high. We knew that we were saving
a lot of money by going to high density but operationally we did not want
to overspend money up front so we had to find the balance with a lower cost
solution. Through the chimney design process that we went through we found
outand were very confident with the chimney rack at leastthat we can cool
about 30 kW with completely passive cooling. No fans blowing the air. There are
multiple solutions that have fans inside of chimney but we dont use any of these
as they increase risk and consume more power. One hundred percent managed
air via chimney cabinets or hot aisle containment solutions are all we need for less
than 30 kW.
Beyond 30 kW chimney solutions, which I think the industry will see some day,
controlled hot-aisle types of environment where you just dump all of the air into
a room to cool or dump all of the air outside will allow us to go beyond 30 kW.
Depending on what youre doing with the air when it comes out of the server, for
example if youre just pushing it outside like some companies are doing in some
instances, really skys the limit. As long as its not an environmental issue and
youre not melting the cables behind the server, its really not a gap.
How long did it take for the design and reconstruction of the building?
The design phase of the building was about seven months. A lot of that was going
back and pulling up 20-year-old plans and validating a lot of the old systems that
were in place and doing gap analysis of what we had versus what we needed to do
246
this high density, high performance installation. The entire project from design to
buildout was about 20 months from concept to funding to lights on.
Figure 13-5 Intels Rio Rancho Data Center features 8 MW of electrical capacity.
Were there any surprises or challenges that arose along the way?
A whole bunch of them. Most of the gaps and surprises that we came up with I
would call normal construction project issues. They were mostly around taking
an old factory that was designed for extreme low density and converting that to
a very high density power delivery and cooling design. Having the right chillers
in the right places and the right air handling in the right places and how do we
deliver enough power to every rack to support the high density? There were just
some operational challenges. I wouldnt say anything major, but a lot of in-the-
field decision making on how to get over obstacles using an old building that
wasnt designed to do what were doing with it.
247
If you could go back and design the Data Center again would you do
13: Intel
anything differently?
Its all about the timing. So for example, from the power distribution perspective,
at the time nobody was doing densities like this and you couldnt get enough
power to the rack the way we wanted so we had to use vendors in some cases
and suppliers in some cases that we just werent completely happy with but
(did) to get the densities that we wanted. This was kind of an untapped market
to a certain degree so we worked with what we had or could get. So, I wouldnt
necessarily say that we would do things differently, but the timing was such that
we were leading the drive to go to high density and a lot of the products werent
in place.
The biggest challenge we had from a design perspective using this old facility
is going back to the point that traditionally the factories we build are designed
to have mechanical on top, factory in the middle, and electrical on the bottom.
What that means is we had water on the top of the compute and electrical on the
bottom. So making sure that we designed the pipes on the top to be contained
and have the appropriate amounts of leak detection was a must. We had so many
weld joints and so many solder points and so many pipe fittings, things were
going to leak at some point with thousands of fittings so we needed to make sure
leaks would not affect us.
With the super-high density and all of the technologies that come
with that, do you feel that these are universal solutions that can be
implemented everywhere or are some of these just corner cases that
worked here but if someone else were designing a Data Center maybe
it wouldnt be a good fit for them.
Thats a good question. For us this was our big jump into extreme high
density, we called it HPDC for high performance Data Centers. It has become
our universal standard for designing Data Centers globally now and with
virtualization, this will remain our standard for more traditional servers as well. I
think that certainly there is evolution in technologies and vendors improve things
and make them a little better so we see improvements year to year.
248
So this is certainly a repeatable model for you.

Extremely repeatable, yep.
If someone reading this book is looking to build a Data Center and

they need 5 kW a cabinet or maybe 10 kW, do you think the chimney
cabinet configuration and the other elements that youve employed are
still an appropriate design for that or are we talking about different
models based on different power density?
Ive participated in many conversation with companies who are doing exactly
what you ask, in general most companies when they have an opportunity to
redesign or build a new facility from the ground up or a major investment
upgrade, Im seeing them go to much higher density designs using either
chimney solutions or hot-aisle containment. Im talking about the medium(-
sized) companies, 500-servers to 5,000- or even 10,000-servers companies, most
of them are converting to a much higher watts per square foot Data Center
design similar to ours. Again it purely comes down to operational costs through
efficiency and also a capex build savings.
The only exception I would say to that, and I would say this is an exception
even within Intel, there is a small piece of our business that requires ultra-high
availability solutions; reliability is critical and these systems cannot go down. In
those scenarios we probably dont want to put all of our eggs in one basket, and
there is a higher risk associated with putting all of our most critical apps and
compute in extreme high density design. For that little sliver of our business,
which represents today less than 5 percent of our total compute load, youll find
us in a more traditional medium density type of design, spread out a little more
for risk avoidance.
So I think if you find companies like critical investment and banking companies,
super critical businesses for which millions of dollars a second could be lost if they
go down, I doubt that youll see all of their servers in a small little closet just to
save a couple bucks up front. They spread them out across multiple Data Centers
and they have active-active clustering and synchronous replication for reliability.
But for the vast majority of compute and traditional types of servers that arent
super critical to the business, I think what youre seeing is a high compression,
decisions to move into much smaller spaces to maximize investment and
experience high efficiency.
249
Any other lessons for people to consider from your high-density Data
13: Intel
Center design?
Historically, we had traditionally built Data Centers without the larger IT needs
clearly in mind. We have a team that builds facilities and theyre focused on
the physical stuffthe power, the cooling. The facilities have not always been
built with a direct correlation of the complete use model and it wasnt always an
optimal design.
What weve moved to and what you see in this design for the high performance
Data Center, we built a room to function as a large compute solution. When we
talk about Data Centers internally we dont talk about the facilities anymore,
we talk about the entire IT stack. We build our facilities in alignment with
the compute and the storage and the network pieces needed to support the
application layer. We are getting good about looking at the entire stack as a
solution with less focus on the individual pieces, including the facility.
A fair amount of space in this building is unoccupied. Do you intend

to eventually expand the Data Center?
Four years ago I would have told you Absolutely, and I actually had plans to do
that. But because of the high density and the reduced floor space requirements
were seeing globally, we will never use that space for Data Centers. Our footprint
globally is being reduced dramatically at the same rate that our compute needs
are ramping (up) substantially. Our biggest saving grace from a Data Center
perspective and the game-changer for us internally in the way we build and run
and plan for Data Centers, is (that) Intels multi-core technology has changed
what we do and what we need. We no longer build Data Centers for additional
capacity. Our footprints are shrinking. We are focused on the larger stack
perspective that I mentioned before. If I can spend $5 million on compute and
avoid $30 million in facility, thats a good investment for our stockholders.
This was our turning point and we said, This is no longer about the facility
specifically. Data Centers for Intel mean the entire stack and how the stack works
to deliver the right MIPS (millions of instructions per second) for the solution.
There was a point that making investments in facilities made a lot of sense to us,
but we passed that point about three years ago when our new technology came
out and we were able to ramp up our compute by leaps forward and actually
250
reduce our cost and footprint in the Data Centers by investing the right money
in the right places. Thats why we really dont focus so much on facilities anymore.
Facilities are one component of the entire stack.
How does that manifest itself in your design? I think most companies
design the physical layer of their Data Center to be very reliable but as
essentially a self-contained set of infrastructure components. If youre
considering the entire stack, how does that drive down and impact the
physical design?
I think thats a really good question, and it took us a little bit to get good at that.
About 70 percent of our IT compute is designing next generation chips. Like
airplane and car manufacturers will design concepts electronically and model
them before theyre physically built we design our chip and model it before we
physically build it.
We basically take the business requirement/compute requirement and we associate
that to our high-density knowledge. (We know) we can get X amount of cores out
of a rack so we need so many racks to fulfill that design requirement. We build
around the requirement. We dont build the facility and see what were going to
put in it 10 years down the road. We figure out what we need and we build the
facility around it with the application layer clearly in mind. Three to five years out
is the target. Were not building 20-year facilities; the technology is changing too
quickly. So we try to be very adaptive. I think that goes back to the main point
of, we build modular for cost and agility, because technology is changing too fast
for us. We cannot build a Data Center today that is going to satisfy our need in
10 years so we would rather build small ones that meet the needs today and build
another small one or medium onewhatever you call 8,000-ish sq. ft. (743 sq.
m.)five years from now when the technology has changed and we know what
the 2015 chip and the 2020 chip is going to look like, for example. Our design
target should be based on overall uptime of the stack; over-building costs too
much money and under-building creates unwanted risk. When you consider the
entire stack concept, reliability can be delivered in many different ways.
251
And then you refresh the Data Center modules as you need to?
13: Intel
Bingo. Thats exactly right.
Any final lessons that you would like share about this Data Center
project?
Internally, one of the Aha! moments that we had through building this Tier II-
ish facility is a strong design can deliver great reliability at a lower cost. Weve had
no downtime in almost 5 yearszero. I suspect at some point well have some
downtime somewhere but what we are finding globally is you can build a Data
Center without all the components you think you need and just do it differently
with more intelligence and achieve the high availability numbers without
spending the money.
Were building two Tier II-like Data Centers and getting Tier IV performances
out of them. Really thats the sweet spot for us because were not spending
the money but yet were getting the reliability consistently with the lower tier
investment.
What we are finding globally is you can build a Data Center

without all the components you think you need and just do it
differently with more intelligence and achieve the high availability
numbers without spending the money.
252
Figure 13-6 One of the air handlers supporting the Rio Rancho Data Center.
Figure 13-7 Chilled water piping.

13: Intel
253
Figure 14-1 IOs co-location facility in Phoenix, Arizona employs time-shifted cooling to save millions
of dollars per year in operating costs. Images provided courtesy of IO.
Chapter 14
IO
Essential Details
ORGANIZATION: IO
Location: Phoenix, Arizona
Online: Opened as a water bottling and distribution plant in 2006. Acquired by IO in December 2008 and
brought online as a co-location facility in June 2009.
Notable features: Time-shifted cooling. Thermal storage featuring polyethylene balls of ice and a glycol-
water solution. Patented cabinet enclosures. LED lighting. Ultrasonic humidification. Modular components.
Time to design and build: 6 months for the first phase.
Size: 538,000 sq. ft. (49,981.8 sq. m) of total space divided among two warehouses, including 360,000
sq. ft. (33,445.1 sq. m) of hosting space.
Power: 120 MW
Tier: III
Cabinet locations: About 3,000
Power Density: Varies
Infrastructure Delivery: Cooling is delivered through a 36 in. (.9 m) raised floor. Power and structured
cabling are provided overhead.
Structural loading: 700 lb. per sq. ft. (3,417 kg per sq. m)
Fire suppression system: High sensitivity smoke detection, pre-action dry pipe.
Those who live in extreme environments
Background
must adapt to survive, developing new,

useful abilities while discarding those
that provide no advantage. That tenet of
evolution has clearly been embraced by IO
for its Data Center in Phoenix, Arizona.
When the co-location provider acquired the
former water bottling plant in late 2008, it
constructed a traditional Data Center in one of the sites two warehouse buildings. Leveraging Arizonas tiered
power pricing, IO runs chillers at night when rates are lower, freezing water-filled plastic globes in a solution of
glycol and water. During the day the softball-sized ice balls chill the glycol mix, which is pumped through a heat
exchanger to chill water for the Data Centers cooling system.
The sites first adaptation occurred in 2009 when IO extended the Data Centers pressurized plenum into a
patented server cabinet it developed, tripling the power density supportable at cabinet locations to 32 kW.
Another came in 2011 when IO discarded traditional design for its second warehouse, improving operational
efficiency by deploying Data Center modules. IOs business model evolved, too, becoming a modular component
manufacturer as well as co-location provider.
Even highly successful species can have an evolutionary false start. IO in 2009 announced it would install a
massive solar array capable of generating 4.5 MW for the facility. They later scrapped those plans.
George Slessman, chief executive officer of IO, discusses the evolution of its Phoenix facility, what caused the
company to forgo solar, and why traditional Data Center designs are as outdated as a vestigial tail.
The Interview
IO began as a traditional co-location provider and has since expanded
into manufacturing modular Data Center components as well. How
does modularity fit into your Data Center strategy and what role do you
see it playing in Data Centers going forward?
It comes from a place where we believe there are four things that are
fundamentally wrong with Data Centers as theyve been constructed for a long
time. I come to this with a view that there has been what I would describe as
incremental innovation in the Data Center over the lastlets call it 35 years
or even longerfrom the late 60s when the first data processing rooms were
257
stood up for mainframes to today up until say a year and a half ago. They have
14: IO
essentially all been built the same way.
At the end of the day there are cooling elements. There are power distribution
elements. Its a room. Its part of a facility in one way, shape, or form. Yes, the
components have gotten more efficient individually. Theyve gotten bigger. They
have more capacity than theyve had before. There are more of them. There are
more air handlers than less. There are bigger chillers than less. There are variable
speed drives. But at the end of the day the overall architecture of the Data Center
hasnt changed in any meaningful way in a very long time. If you look at the
architecture of what we describe internally as Data Center 1.0, we believe there
are four fundamental flaws of that architecture.
First, its insecure, both physically and logically in most cases, meaning that the
control software and the control tools that have been implemented typically in
traditional Data Center builds have not been purpose built or designed for that
outcome. As you well know, most of these came from being building automation
systems or building management systems and not really from the industrial
controls world, which have been mission critical to it. They have come out of the
commercial building industry of managing HVA systems, managing office air
conditioning.
Then the physical design of the Data Center itself, because of the complexity
and the number of discreet components in itself makes it very difficult to secure.
You have lots of doors. You have lots of openings. In every Data Center theyre
different. In some cases, Data Centers have been placed in to buildings with other
uses, with people and other things. Holistically, we believe that the traditional
Data Center environment is not well suited for managing security.
The second major flaw of the traditional Data Center is that it takes far too long
to deliver. In the context of what they support, from an IT infrastructure both at
the physical layer up through the application layer or the virtualization layer and
then ultimately users, the speed at which IT moves is in months not years. So
they take far too long for most enterprises in our experience.
we believe there are four things that are fundamentally wrong

with Data Centers as theyve been constructed for a long time.
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In the government and even for service providers that tend to be a little more
agile, from the day they first invent the idea of a new Data Center to the
day that they rack IT, its typically over two years to go through the whole
procurement process, decision making, analysis, engineering, all the way through
to commissioning and then finally a piece of IT being stacked. Because of that
length of time to construct, it also then forces that asset to try to be more relevant
for a longer period of time because you cant cycle it. It forces you to look at the
Data Center in a 10 or 15 or even 20 year event horizon for utility. Again, in the
context of the IT world every year you add youre adding an enormous amount
of variability and complexity in calculating exactly what its going to look like
one year, two years, three years. Then imagine trying to look 10 or 15 years out. I
always quip, Whats a 10 year old cell phone look like? It gives you a sense of the
technology challenge there.
The third component that is broken in the existing model is that Data
Centers cost too much. If you look at the total deployment from conception
to acquisition of whatever the particular real property component is, the
construction process all the way through to the non-IT fitup of the Data Center
to then the point where you start to add IT is very expensive on a unit basis.
Because its based in the construction worldconstruction I believe is the only
industry over the last 20 years that is less productive today than it was 20 years
agoyou have productivity regression. In addition, construction in and of itself is
subject to wage inflation and raw goods inflation and these sorts of attributes. You
see that theres not a visibility in to that unit cost going anywhere but continuing
to escalate over time.
Compare that to the IT world. Virtually every component of the IT stack is
actually going down on a unit cost and theres visibility to continue unit cost
reductions over time whether youre looking at storage devices or CPU cycles or
network capacity. All three over time decrease in cost. In fact, the productivity of
the IT department is the driving engine of productivity in the world today. IT
department budgets, if you poll IDC or Gartner, have been essentially flat for 10
years and theyre doing hundreds of times the amount of computational work
they used to do. It doesnt match up very well.
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Figure 14-2 Inside the first phase of IOs Phoenix Data Center.
The last component that weve attempted to solve with our technology platform
and we believe is a flaw in the 1.0 model is the lack of scalability. The other ones
are pretty easy to point at. Scalability is all of the things that we aspire to in the
IT stackmodular design, modular components, in-place upgradable, just-in-
time deployment. All of these attributes that we see in an EMC storage array or
we see in a Cisco router platform or that we see in any of these other devices that
make up the IT stack and the virtues of those devices that we as IT consumers
have grown accustomed to having access to dont show up in the Data Center.
I boil it down to one basic concept from scalability. Everything in IT now is
thinly provisioned. You have the ability to make very quick decisions and to
provision an asset and then re-provision that asset, change its capacity rapidly
and redeploy it to the same user, whereas the Data Center is a fixed provisioned
asset, typically. You make a varied set of discreet engineering decisions up front.
You apply discreet engineering principles to those and you deploy an asset that
hasIll boil it down to one metric that is the quintessential thick provisioned:
this Data Center is 150 watts per square foot (1,614.6 watts per sq. m). Youve
now made a decision that impacts everything in the engineering.
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This is the part that most people dont get and why I think theres been so many
challenges in the Data CenterIT people dont think that way. IT people
provision a router and then assume that if they need more capacity they can pull
a blade out and put a new blade in that gives them more capacity. So when they
buy a Data Center or use a Data Center that someone says, its 100 watts per sq.
ft. (1,076.4 watts per sq. m) the assumption is that Oh, two years later when
I need 150 watts a foot (1,614.6 watts per sq. m) I should be able to just slide
a blade out and put another blade in and have that capacity, whereas we know
in an engineered, construction-based Data Center you just cant do that. Its an
integrated system. When you design x amount of power distribution that means x
amount of cooling. When you say x amount of redundancy you get x amount of
redundancy. It isnt that simple (to change). Hence why it takes so long.
The other component of scalability that I point to that weve attempted to solve is
the ability to variably match the service level goals of the userthe applications
inside the Data Centerwith the resources being deployed. The other very
challenging decision thats made in Data Centers today that affects scalability
is you have to essentially decide what the resiliency tolerance you have for the
entire Data Center. As we know, its very difficult to have part of a Data Center
in the Data Center 1.0 world to be N+1 and one part to be 2N and one part
to be (something else). Or, more importantly, to have one part be five nines (of
availability), one be four nines, one be three nines, and one be who-cares.
So, if you take those four things, thats the state that we believe the current Data
Centers are in. Having been in the Data Center world for a decade and having
been in IT and technology for a decade and a half, we came to the conclusion
about two years ago when we finished constructing the first phase of this Phoenix
Data Center that this just wasnt going to be sustainable over the next 20 years.
That continuing to build Data Centers, even though we build them much larger
and we scaled them up and all these things. These four problems were going to
adversely affect, if not become untenable, going forward for the IT consumer as
we continue to see IT demand grow. The demand for IT cycles is exponentially
increasing with no end in sight and in fact accelerating, I would say. Which
means more and more and more Data Center, which if we keep building the way
weve done were going to paint ourselves in to the proverbial corner.
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With that as a backdrop, thats the way we see the world. What we attempted to
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do then, and what we believe weve done in our modular product, is to solve those
problems with two fundamental principles. Making the Data Center delivery
component itself a manufactured and engineered component that is modular
in aggregatefinitely modular and as a system modular. You can scale up
vertically and horizontally. So you can go inside the module and you can upgrade
components; you can in-place upgrade power delivery and cooling infrastructure
inside the thermal dynamic module. You can also then add more modules when
you need more capacity in that vector. And manufacture that so you get all of the
benefits of having a supply chain, having innovation cycle over and over and over
again rather than having all of the engineering skill that goes into a Data Center
essentially go in to this Data Center and then moves on with the construction
or engineering firm to the next oneand theres no incentive really to drive that
innovation cycle over and over.
The real incentive for most engineering firms is to take the same plans they
already spent the money on to build and just hand them to the next guy and
charge him the same amount. Whereas in a manufacturing process were incented
and our customers are incenting us to manufacture better, faster, cheaper just
like everything else. So cars today for essentially the same price as 15 or 20 years
ago have 3x the functionality. From air bags to ABS, to all these things, are
innovations that have shown up, and quality and cycles are better.
The second part we have attempted to solve in the approach to modularity in
solving these four problems, is that now that you have a standardized delivery
unit thats manufactured, on which to layer on top of that a software automation
layer or control layer. In our case we call it a Data Center infrastructure operating
system. That then gives you the ability to manage and actively and pro-actively
control and then ultimately intelligently optimize that physical layer to match up
with the IT stack.
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So, taking those four problems into consideration we determined the way we were
going to solve those problems was to manufacture the Data Center components
and then software automate them. In getting there we now have a 300,000 sq.
ft. (27,870.9 sq. m) factory that we operate where we produce these modules.
Each module is roughly 200 kW of capacity. We have over a hundred frames in
production. Weve delivered over 70 modules to customers at our own locations
in Phoenix and New Jersey where we host the modules for customers.
The punch line is, weve already recognized for customers anywhere from 50 to
60 percent reduction in initial capex in apples-apples environments. And weve
also seen ongoing operating expense reductions in the order of 25 to 30 percent.
In addition to that, were able to deliver quickly. Just as one discreet example,
Allianz, the German insurance company, we delivered a 3.6 MW Data Center
system to them in 91 days from the day they signed the contract to the day they
racked IT. So we symptomatically now are seeing the results of this platform
solving those four problems.
Lets talk about the Phoenix site in particular. It seems this started as
a conventional space and it has gone to using modularity throughout
the facility. When did it first open?
We acquired the site in December of 2008. Its an interesting site in the sense
that we repurposed it. It was previously a distribution and water bottling facility,
owned by a company that had subsequently gone out of business. The structure
and the site was developed and turnkey delivered to the water bottling company
in 2006. We acquired the site in December 2008 and built out phase one, which
is lets call it the first half of the site. Its a 538,000 sq. ft. (49,981.8 sq. m) facility
and its on about 40 acres (16.2 hectares ) from a campus. It has a substation on
site provided by the local utility.
We built out the first phase in what we call Data Center 1.5, which is a scaled
deployment of capacity, bringing to bear all of the things that we thought
was necessary to start to solve these four problems in a scaled way in a more
traditional technology architecture. Its about a 250,000 sq. ft. (23,225.8 sq. m)
raised floor space. Its all in one room, which is kind of unique, you dont see very
often. Very high ceilings, 30+ ft. (9.1 m) ceiling heights in the space. We have
24.5 MW of UPS (uninterruptible power supply) online net of redundancy in
that phase one space. We moved our first customer into the site in June of 2009.
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We have 8,000 tons of chiller capacity, two 4,000 ton plants. This is phase one
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Im speaking only to. We have two 16 MW Caterpillar generators through two
sets of 20 MW paralleling equipment that power the phase one space exclusively.
Its broken into four individual pods, but again all still in the same room. Each
pod yields about 45,000 sq. ft.(4,180.6 sq. m) of usable raised floor. So out of
that 250,000 sq. ft. (23,225.8 sq. m) in the phase one Data Center room theres
180,000 sq. ft. (16,722.5 sq. m) of net usable raised floor for IT.
We deployed a service gallery architecture so down the center of the room and
to the north and the south sides of the room there are service galleys that have
the power distribution power distribution units as well as the CRAH (computer
room air handler) units located in those. Its a full chilled water system, bi-
directional loops. We have a Tier III design certification for this site for phase
one from Uptime Institute. One hundred percent concurrently maintainable
across the entire system architecture, both power distribution as well as cooling
infrastructure. We have a meet-me room on site, actually two that we operate.
Today there are about 20 different telecommunications providers that are here
on type 1 diverse fiber builds into the site. So its a very large scale, kind of
traditional-plus Data Center build that we completed.
Figure 14-3 Phase one of IOs Phoenix Data Center is a traditional build with power and cabling
routed overhead and cooling delivered below a raised floor.
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How long did it take to convert the building from its original use as a
water bottling plant to a Data Center?

What was interesting was there wasnt a whole lot of conversion necessary to
the space we use for Data Center. When we acquired the site they had cleaned
everything out. It was really two 250,000 sq. ft. (23,225.8 sq. m) warehouses
when we acquired it, with some office cap. We just went into that empty
warehouse space and then built out the first phase Data Center. We completed
the site, that phase one, in approximately six months from the day we took over
to the day we moved the first Data Center customer in.
I confess I hoped that your Data Center retained some of the water
bottling infrastructure, so anyone working in the room who wanted a
drink could easily grab one off of a conveyer belt somewhere.
Everybodys like Water bottling in Arizona? Whats funny about it is, Arizona
actually has really cheap water and has really cheap power. Because of that, the
site was obviously also very well suited for a Data Center. We use a tremendous
amount of evaporative cooling in our hydronic economization strategy so we
consume a lot of water.
In addition to that, low cost power and high resiliency power is valuable as well.
Arizona turns out to be a very, very good location for Data Centers.
I was going to ask what caused you to place your Data Center in
Phoenix.
We have looked at obviously a lot of different places. We like Phoenix for its
proximity to California from a commercial perspective, because there are lots
of Data Center consumers and businesses in California. And Arizona, Phoenix
specifically, is a short trip from Los Angeles.
In addition to that, from an environmental perspective or natural disaster all of
the things that California is exposed to Arizona isnt. So earthquakes primarily,
coastal risks, those sorts of things. Its a very, very stable environment in Arizona.
Its also very dry most of the year, which makes the ability to use pre-cool and
direct cooled hydronic economization very, very effective in this market.
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The cost of power is very stable here as well. The power distribution in Arizona
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is still regulated by the state. Though it may not be as cheap as it would be in a
competitive market, its still very, very low cost because of the amount of hydro
and nuclear power that feeds Arizona. In addition to that, because of regulation
it provides great stability in pricing because the process to change rates requires
government action. It yields pretty stable rates.
The only negative obviously people point to and ask us about, is, well, its hot
very hotduring many parts of the year. But envelope load in a Data Center
of this size, meaning the cooling load derived from the exterior heat, is not a 3
percent issue in a Data Center. And the bigger the Data Center the less of an
issue it is. The dry environment more than compensates the additional cost that
you would have to your cooling load during the summer months. And as we
know, for a Data Center with 24 MW of IT load in it, it doesnt matter what the
temperature is outside is its going to overheat if the cooling turns off.
What operational temperature do you try to maintain your hardware at?

Weve taken a very pro-active approach over the years, obviously working with
our customers who have a significant voice in these decisions, but we believe that
Data Centers for many years have been kept way too cold. That IT equipment
does not need 60 degree (15.6 Celsius) supply air and in some places even lower.
We target a supply temperature in the mid-70s (23 to 25 Celsius), with a plus or
minus 5 degree range. Were more than happy to run a Data Center at 80 degrees
(26.7 Celsius) on the supply side. I actually think you can go well beyond that.
Data Centers should probably run in the 85 to 90 degree (29.4 to 32.2 Celsius)
range on the supply side.
Its certainly the trend for Data Centers to operate at warmer

temperatures now. The standards are catching up to what
manufacturers have listed for a while as acceptable temperature
ranges.
The manufacturers have been beating this drum for years and just havent gotten
ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning
Engineers) and some of the other organizations to pay attention. They have
different mandates so its a different outcome. Again, this I think is a little bit of
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the legacy-think. Oh, well the standard says this. Weve all see IT stuffed in a
cabinetnot an IT cabinet but under a desk. Itll be running 120 degree (48.9
Celsius) air and its perfectly happy.
With the amount of abuse that people subject laptops to, it does seem
that Data Center hardware could withstand more severe conditions
than they are typically subjected to.
Especially since its the exact same gear for the most part. At least in your PC
server environment, the Wintel boxes, there is not a significant amount of delta
between commodity Wintel servers and whats in a desktop PC or a laptop.
Its essentially the same, maybe a faster processor. Same manufacturer. Same
architecture.
Where this comes from, though, is one of the things that weve attempted to
address in our technology platform. Theres no integration between the IT
equipment and the Data Center in the legacy build. And I mean that from a
programmatic or software management perspective. There are very few places
where you can actually correlate the performance of the IT hardware with the
performance of the Data Center. Whats the temperature of the chip set? Whats
the temperature of the room?
What weve attempted to do and have done now in our IO. Anywhere product
with our IO.OS on top of it is, you can go in and in one of our modules you
can set an average planar temperature for IT to be the set point for the cooling.
Rather than cooling the room you cool the chips, because the chips are what
youre trying to maintain.
I read about plans for this Data Center to have a massive solar panel
array300,000 sq. ft. (27,870.9 sq. m) of panels. Has that been
installed?
No, it wasnt, actually. None if it has been installed because the state of Arizona
abandoned their incentive structure for solar and without the solar incentives it
did not pencil.
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Covering an 11 acre (4.5 hectares) roof with solar panels yielded less than 3 MW
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of peak power production during perfect operating conditions. This site pulls
north of 15 MW of active demand, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a
year. And from a kilowatt hour production perspective it was going to be less than
an 8 percent contributor to our total power load here on site, if we kept all the
power on site. When you look at the ROIC for the cost to deploy, if you try to do
it without incentive programs its a long ways from penciling. Especially in a state
where I can purchase power for 5 cents a kilowatt hour from the utilities. It gets
very, very, very challenging for solar to keep up with a scale, nuclear power and
hydro.
On paper, this site seems to be a perfect test case for using solar in
a big way. You have the option to employ it on a significant scale and
youre in Phoenix where sun coverage is ideal. So if its impractical for
you, is solar just not a workable solution for powering Data Centers?
I think energy density is the primary problem. The amount of solar panels
you would need to provide a significant enough load to actually create a valid
alternative just isnt practical. And thats before you get to the cost analysis. If 11
acres (4.5 hectares) yields 3 MW, for what we would need here would be 5x. We
would need almost 50 acres (20.2 hectares) of solar panels to match our peak
demand. It doesnt really work physically from an energy density perspective.
The second thing is, when you get to the cost side of it, the cost per kilowatt
hour fully amortizing the cost of the panels, the installation, the maintenance
and everything else. And then appropriately assessing the panel risk, because if
you go with the newer technology from a cell and panels it hasnt been in the
field long enough to know what the degradation rates going to be over time on
it. So your effective yieldtoday you may be yielding 100 GWh per year and
if the degradation rate isnt 3 percent and its 12 or 15 percent, 10 or 15 years
from now that production has gone down 15 or 20 percent, which can massively
impact the return on investment calculus. So with that you have two choices.
You either abandon the newer cell technology, which is higher density and lower
cost, and go with a more traditional cell technology, which has been proven and
there are definitive, quantitative analysis and actuarial analysis around what the
degradation is over time. In that case youre now paying too much and youre
using older technology. The more we dug into itand I spent a lot of time
personally working on thisits a very challenging analysis.
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I think your assessment is dead on, that if it didnt work for us in this
environment (it wont work for any site). And were not shipping any of the power
off-site. We were going to invert all of it and put it right here on site and use it all
ourselves. Without a relatively massive tax subsidy it doesnt work.
I have seen some solar arrays deployed at Data Centers but theyre
just a fraction of the facilitys overall power capacity.
Yeah. Its neat to point at, and its a neat technology, and I guess its one to at least
start looking atrenewable on site and these things. But I think for industrial
use, which is what Data Centers truly are is an industrial use of energy, its going
to be pretty challenging for it to meet the density needs. Those silicon chips use
a lot of power per square millimeter and it doesnt make a lot of sense if you can
match it up with things that produce a little bit of power across square meters of
capacity.
I understand youre using thermal storage in a clever way to lower your

energy costs.
What we did is, we have the capability to do almost 27,000 ton hours of thermal
energy storage here on site. Because Arizona has variably priced power between
day and night, and we were able to negotiate demand rates in the off-peak hours,
and specifically during the hottest hours of the year, during the summer, were
able to make ice during the nights and then use that ice to either augment or
completely carry the cooling load during the highest cost times of the day. It has
provided a pretty significant impact for us to our aggregate energy costs and then
also provides an additional layer of resiliency to our system from a continuous
cooling perspective.
Its a solution everyone should consider. The problem is it requires scale. Its very
hard to make it effective sub 10 MW just because 1) the physical space it takes up
and then 2) the cost of deploying it. But once youve reached that 10 MW barrier
it is a very, very good solution. Now, it only makes sense if you have variably
priced power, or youre able to negotiate power purchasing rights, so you can time
shift. The total amount of energy consumed is still exactly the same.
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Figure 14-4 IO creates ice during the night, when energy rates are lower, and then uses that ice to
cool the Data Center during the day. This use of thermal storage saves the company
millions of dollars per year.
How much of a cents-per-kilowatt-hour cost delta in power prices do

you need to make it worth doing?
You need to have at least a 15 percent delta between peak and valley. The bigger
that delta the more pronounced obviously the savings are. And thats a fully
loaded cost.
If you ever look at your utility bill, its a relatively complex set of calculations the
utility company does to get to the number. There are typically surcharges for peak
demand versus off-peak demand, whatever your highest number is. So when you
do all the calculus there, you have to have at least an aggregate delta split of 15
percent from your lowest cost power to your highest cost power.
Also what impacts that is what the length of those time periods are, because you
obviously have to be able to recharge. The longer your off-peak is, the slower you
can recharge your ice. This means the less demand youre putting on the meter in
the off hours as well.
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The other barrier to it is being willing to operationalize it and really put the time
and resources into building the automation necessary to take full advantage of
itand then also having engineering and analytical skills inside your organization
where you can keep on top of it. But it well in order pays for itself. Weve saved
millions of dollars over the last two years.
You previously mentioned the Data Centers raised floor. What

infrastructure is delivered under floor versus overhead?
The architecture of the Data Center is its a 36-in. (.9 m) raised floor. Its one
common raised floor plenum among the entire 180,000 sq. ft. (16,722.5 sq. m)
of raised floor, so you have an inordinate amount of shared plenum.
One hundred percent of the cabling is overhead from power distribution as well
as networking cabling, fiber optic, everything. All of thats done in an overhead
architecture.
The cold air distribution is a little bit different. We took the approach of doing
static pressure, so we implemented variable speed plug fans across all of the
air handling in the room. And we separated the air handling from the coil
management in the air handlers. So we use 100 percent of our pumping energy
before we deploy any fan energy. The coils we maintain almost at an 100 percent
open state so that we can fully optimize the minimum pumping energy that we
have to have on the chilled water loop. And then the fans actuate based on the
static pressure delta between the IT space and the sub-floor plenum. The concept
being, rather than blowing air like a desk fan does what were doing is essentially
making the sub-floor like a balloon which has a higher pressure than the room.
If you stick a hole in a balloon, no matter where you put the hole you get airflow
because its flowing across a pressure differential rather than by using velocity.
What it does is it gives you a much more even distribution of your airflow out of
the floor.
It also enabled us to deploy a patented technology of ours which is called our
ThermoCabinet, which is where we extend that pressurized plenum up into the
cabinet itself so that the pressure differential then is across the server face rather
than between the sub-floor and the room. We maintain a couple millibars of
pressure differential and then the fans in all the air handlers just simply actuate
against that pressure delta. We measure those deltas in a lattice across the entire
room and then it actuates to the fans nearest the data point. The variability is
really fluid across the entire room.
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Some new Data Center designs arent using raised floors. What
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prompted you to use a raised floor and this cooling distribution
method, compared to other options?
We had a little bit different decision making criteria than others do. Because
we dont know exactly what the customer fitup is going to look like because its
a co-location site. The raised floor provides a tremendous amount of flexibility.
Anywhere you can take a tile out you can put one in to push airflow and so it
gives you tremendous flexibility in where and how the individual cabinet rows
and IT kit end up being laid out. Ive built and operationalized Data Centers
with no raised floor and it works fine. I dont believe theres any real operational
benefit one way or the other, other than the flexibility you get in air movement.
Where you have a room where youre blowing air essentially without raised floor
and youre distributing it you have to lay out the IT kit ahead of time. Whereas in
an environment where you have a raised floor plenum like you have here you can
really make ad hoc decisions about where youre going to place IT kit.
Theres a tremendous amount of value in having flexibility. Any time you can
eliminate construction inside a Data Center youre eliminating an enormous
amount of risk.
What sort of power density does the facility support?

When customers arent utilizing our ThermoCabinet technology we draw the line
at about 10 kW per rack. Thats the natural threshold. In our ThermoCabinet
product, because its a completely sealed and heat and thermally isolated package,
were able to support way north of 24 kW per cabinet. When we have customers
who need ultra high density, which we say anything north of 15 or 20 kW per
cabinet, we provide them the ThermoCabinet architecture to deploy in.
Weve talked a lot about the first phase of the facility. Lets discuss
the design of the second phase and its use of modularity.
The second phase of the site is now essentially the second warehouse. The first
250,000 sq. ft. (23,225.8 sq. m) warehouse we turned into phase one. The second
250,000 sq. ft. (23,225.8 sq. m) warehouse is now a bidirectional chilled water
spine that runs along the west wall of the warehouse. That spine then feeds
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modules that we set down. Also along that spine is a set of medium voltage unit
substations that are tied to a 20 MW generator farm. The chiller capacity is tied
to a 4,000 ton chiller plant in phase two that does both hydronic economization
as well as traditional water evaporated, water cooled chiller. The power spine
and the chilled water spine then connect to power modules or network or data
modules. The power modules are 2 MW, integrated, manufactured, energy
storage and distributionso, UPS, battery and distribution panels that are in a
module. You set down two of those modules which gives you the ability to up to
2N resilience for the customer. You set down a network module which is your
meet-me room or carrier interconnection space for the system. Then we add data
modules to the end of those three modules until we get to 20 and then we start
the next row. Its a very, very different approach than you would see otherwise.
Its actually really cool here. Whats great in our tour, when we take customers
through, you can actually walk from what was legacy, traditional Data
Center design and deployment and then somewhere in between that with the
ThermoCabinet architecture and things like that, and then you can walk into
what is DC6 and DC7 which is the modular. And its a completely different
experience.
The fire suppression in that room is just traditional wet pipe EFSR (Early
Suppression, Fast Response fire sprinklers) because you dont need to put dry pipe
in because the modules are each individually watertight as well as theyre each
individually fire suppressed. And its a steel box. Its fire-rated as well. Each box
has its own fire detection and suppression system which is gas based, inside each
of the modules.
Each module has all the air-handling capacities, so one thing thats immediately
obvious when you walk into the modular is that its quiet because all the air-
handling capacities are inside of each module. When you walk into the larger
room its dead silent. And then you walk into the module, and then the air
handling capacity is modular, in and of itself and is inside of each module. The
power distribution PDUs are inside of each module. And then you have up to
20 racks of IT equipment per module as well. And those modules run from 200
kW to north of 500 kW depending upon what the customer requirements. The
minimum threshold is about 10 kW per rack and then can scale to well north of
25 and 30 kW a rack, depending what the customers needs are.
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14: IO
Figure 14-5 IOs use of modular components reduced costs, quickened deployment times, and
improved scalability.
Were there any surprises along the way, during the deployment of
either of the Data Centers different phases?
Unfortunately, one of the attributes of having done this for a long time is that
the surprises are no longer surprises. Theyre expected. How they happen I think
sometimes surprises you.
Ive been surprised as weve deployed the modularany time you deploy new
technology and a new way of doing things, especially in as risk adverse of a
marketplace as IT professionals tend to be, though theyre tasked with technology
which is always innovative and always new they tend to be very careful about it
how quickly customers as we show them the traditional way of doing it and the
modular, how quickly theyre willing to move to the new way.
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Ive also been surprised at the operational efficiencies that weve picked up that
I didnt fully appreciate with the modular approach versus traditional. Most
important in that is the standardization. All of the components are the same.
Theyre in the same spot. Theyre manufactured the same way. That you can
blindfold a technician and take him from one Data Center module to the next
one and its exactly the same. What has surprised me is not that its standardized,
because we knew that when we built them. What it has resulted in is the
operational utility of a Data Center operations tech has been greatly, greatly
increased.
I was also surprised at how quickly this very large Data Center was filled. I
continue to every day benot shocked because its not surprisingimpressed at
how quickly were building IT infrastructure. It used to be business drove these
things and I think now what were seeing is consumers are now taking over the
drivers seat in technology. Its showing up in businesses but it is being driven
by consumers. Technology like the iPad and the iPhone and the consumer user
experience are driving business and commerce to keep up. And what its resulting
in is just an enormous amount of capacity being deployed and very, very rapidly.
Phase one here, 180,000 sq. ft. (16,722.5 sq. m) of raised floor and 24 MW of
UPS we essentially took to 100 percent utilization in 16 months. I think that
probably during the whole 60s and 70s and 80s there wasnt much more than
that deployed. Its an enormous amount of capacity. Then when you think about
the computational capacity of 24 MW, its pretty extraordinary. And this is one
Data Center.
Technology like the iPad and the iPhone and the consumer user
experience are driving business and commerce to keep up.Its
resulting in an enormous amount of (Data Center) capacity being
deployed and very, very rapidly.
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Thats an interesting point. Many companies are using virtualization
14: IO
and other technologies to make their Data Centers more efficient but
their demand for capacity continues to grow. I jokingly call it the diet
soda syndrome: its half the calories so people drink two. Data Center
efficiencies free up capacity, but companies immediately consume
the savings. Theyre doing hundreds or even thousands of times the
computing than they did before but arent reducing their consumption
of capacity.
Theres a famous maxim that came out of the Industrial Revolution in the late
1800s. It basically says that humans are pre-ordained to take productivity and
turn it into more work. Efficiency never shows up in a reduction in use. It shows
up in more use. To exactly your point.
I can never remember the gentlemans name. I think he was a professor. His whole
assessment was, now weve mechanized everything and we just do it all faster. We
just do more. No one used the telephone to reduce the amount of time that you
talk to people. You talk to more people, right? I always point that out to people.
Its the same in the Data Center.
Back in my early days when I was in IT at a very fundamental level, the old joke
was the development server. There is no such thing because the minute you plug
it into the wall its in production. The minute you give a developer access to a
device that users can connect to its going to be in production before you know it.
I think similarly weve done the same thing in Data Centers.
The design elements of this Data Center have obviously evolved over
time. If you could go back in time to when you started with the site is
there anything you would do differently?
We no longer will even do traditional Data Center build anymore. Its all
modular. And after seeing it and deploying it and operationalizing it and all these
other things at this point in time and knowing the underlying economics of it
and whats its done for us from a commercial perspective, I would never go back
to building a traditional Data Center again.
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Is there any final advice that you would offer someone if theyre
setting out on a Data Center project?

Dont buy an eight-track tape, the iPods out. There are companies that have
modular technology, including ours. Im now such a believer in the technology
after it has been deployed and we have operationalized it that my advice would be
think long and hard before you start down the path of a traditional construction-
based Data Center. At this point in time youd be better off to wait six or eight
more months and see how this continues to play out than to start down the path
thats going to cost an extraordinary amount of money and by the time its done
could be two generations or three generations old.
Figure 14-6 Overhead structured cabling bundles in IOs Phoenix Data Center.
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14: IO
Figure 14-7 Standby generators provide backup power for the Tier III Data Center.
Figure 14-8 Cooling infrastructure for a Data Center module.

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Figure 14-9 Assembly of IOs Data Center modules.
Figure 14-10 Fire suppression controls and a badge reader adorn the side of a Data Center module.
14: IO
279
Figure 15-1 NetApps Data Center in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina was the first to earn
the Energy Star for Data Centers rating from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Images provided courtesy of NetApp.
Chapter 15
NetApp
Essential Details
ORGANIZATION: NetApp
Location: Research Triangle Park, North Carolina
Online: March 2009
Notable features: Pressure control governance of airflow to cabinets, airside economizer, data hall cold
rooms, 52U racks, rotary UPS system. Energy Star-rated Data Center.
Size: 125,000 sq. ft. (11,612.9 sq. m) total building space, with 33,000 sq. ft. (3,065.8 sq. m) of
hosting space
Power: 25 MW
Tier: III
Infrastructure Delivery: Power, cooling, and cabling infrastructure are delivered overhead
Structural loading: 185 lb. per sq. ft. (903.2 kg per sq. m)
Fire suppression system: Double-interlock dry-pipe
Pressure, as the saying goes, makes diamonds. Air
Background
pressure apparently makes energy-efficient Data

Centers.
Computer storage and data management company
NetApps innovative use of air pressure to regulate
cooling helped its Data Center in North Carolina
become the first ever to earn an Energy Star
designation from the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency.
Although energy efficient the facility doesnt lack for
power. The Data Center provides 25 MW for occupantsup to 42 kW in its 52U racksand averages 770 watts
per square foot (8,288.2 watts per square meter) of cooling.
Much of this is accomplished thanks to NetApps use of an airside economizer as well as the vertical layout of
the Data Center. NetApp placed the air handlers on the second level where they pump chilled air into designated
cold rooms in the data halls below. Local weather conditions allow outside air to cool the Data Center about
two-thirds of each year.
Mark Skiff, senior director of East Coast Tech Sites for NetApp, discusses the Data Centers unique air pressure
control system and other features.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency established the Energy Star rating for Data Centers in 2010. Facilities
Note
are scored on a 100-point scale and earn the Energy Star designation if they are among the top 25 percent of
their peers in energy efficiency.
The Energy Star Program, begun in 1992 to highlight energy efficient products, was initially applied to
computers and monitors and later expandedinvolving participation from the U.S. Department of Energy
and applying to office equipment, major appliances, lighting, home electronics, new homes, commercial and
industrial buildings, and more.
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The Interview
15: NetApp
What role does this Data Center serve for NetApp?
When we first set out to build this Data Centerits a greenfield site on an
existing parcel of land where we have some office buildings in RTP (Research
Triangle Park)the purpose was for it to support our internal research and
development, so (it was to be) more of a lab environment. A lab environment is
a little less rigorous in terms of infrastructure redundancy than a corporate Data
Center.
But shortly before occupying the building, shortly before its completion, which
was around January 2009, we were asked to retrofit a portion of it for corporate
IT. So one of the things I think that is interesting or unique about the Data
Center is that its a multi-tenant Data Center. It has corporate IT, which is high
availability with fully redundant on-site power systems with UPS (uninterruptible
power supply), and thats physically about one-sixth of the Data Center.
Comparatively speaking its a relatively big Data Center. Its not the biggest in the
world but its about 33,000 sq. ft. (3,065.8 sq. m) of cabinet space and capacity
of about 25 MW of equipment load. Thats pretty good size and the corporate IT
takes up one-sixth of that. So about 360 of the racks in the buildingthere are
2,200 racks, roughly, in totalare for corporate IT and the balance of the racks
or about 1,800 are for product development R&D effort to support our product.
I assume those tenants have different operational models. What

measures do you have in place that help them co-exist in your
Data Center?
We have basically swimming pool rules, that there are certain things that you can
do and cant do. For example, you wouldnt want to uncrate equipment up in the
white space and create a lot of particulates.
Even though the space is all contiguous white space internally, we actually use a
cold room versus a cold aisle (and in) our rooms for the corporate Data Center
the front of the cabinets are card access controlled. So theres physical separation
and security between the general white space and then the corporate IT white
space. We installed doors on the hot aisles as well with card readers that, again,
physically in a secure way isolate the space.
284
Like you say, the R&D environment is a little bit more dynamic than the
corporate Data Center and the change control requirements are obviously a little
tighter for the corporate Data Center but from a Facilities perspective we tend to
do a lot of the same things. Were still concerned about lets say transformer load
balancing loads compared to the rated ampacity of the breakers.
We dont treat them terribly different although our experience is that the
Data Center people are more disciplined in terms of if you tell them how the
infrastructure works theyre going to adhere to it versus the R&D guys, for them
to string cabling in a weird way or to connect things that are fed from different
power services in a way thats not the greatest is more common just because there
are a lot more people youre dealing with. Thats how we deal with it. It hasnt
been too much of an issue with having two users.
At what point in the design process was it decided to pursue the

Energy Star certification?
We learned about the Energy Star portfolio manager initiative early on. I came
here to NetApp in 2005. I was involved in a lot of the Energy Star work in D.C.
with the EPA for commercial office buildings in my previous life so I was pretty
well aware of the program. Through that we had certified our office buildings and
we got to know about this benchmarking program and I think that was in the
2009 timeframe.
Ultimately the program rolled out in June or July of 2010 and we were part
of the benchmarking programI think there were around 100 Data Centers
because they were trying to develop the parameters of what was large or small
and was it important to take into account geography and climate or if you
had UPS or not UPS, if you had economizers, et cetera. As they developed the
program parameters and did their sensitivity analysis we were a part of that
and as soon as we found out the program was alive we easily qualified. I think
at the time we submitted our first year of data, where our IT loads werent as
quite as high as they are today, we were running an annualized PUE of 1.35. We
recently surpassed 1.2 and now run a 1.17 PUE for the most recent 12 months of
operating data.
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15: NetApp
Figure 15-2 Cold room enclosures isolate hot and cold airflow for greater efficiency in NetApps
Research Triangle Park Data Center.
Because you were able to easily qualify did the fact that you wanted
it to be an Energy Star-rated site have a significant impact on the
design?
No, because the design really pre-dated any information we had that they were
going to roll out a program on the Data Center. Back in 2006 we actually
developed a fairly high density Data Center in one of our existing office
buildings. It was a 3 MW facility and the average watts per square foot was
around 500 (5,382 watts per square meter), which was fairly high, 8 kW per rack.
We were able to achieve that by enclosing the cold aisle and using at the time a
fairly unique differential pressure control scheme for managing the air that was
delivered to the cold room. This continues to be a pretty unique approach in
the industry in terms of feeding only the quantity of air to the cabinets that the
286
racked equipment is going to actually consume. That enables us, together with
the direct outside air/free cooling, to keep our PUEs really at a minimum.
Back when we built a prototype lab we had proved the concept of metering
exactly the amount of air to the cabinet as required based on differential static
pressure and then when we built this new Data Center what we wanted to do is
increase the density to 770 watts a foot (8,288.2 watts per square meter), which
was 12 kW per cabinet. We actually can do up to 42 kW in a cabinet with the
pressure control approach. The other thing we wanted to do was get the air
handlers closer to the load, so rather than them sit at the ends of the hot aisles
they were moved to directly on top of the cold aisles or cold room, with no duct
work. Then we added the outside air/free cooling capability which enables us to
cool the equipment about 70 percent of the year with no chiller.
Really, the desire was to make it more energy efficient and a higher density. The
thing we found out by building a vertically-oriented building and compacting
25 MW in a 1 acre (.4 hectare) footprint our construction cost wound up being
about a third what the Uptime Institute says it should cost for a Tier III Data
Center. From a total cost of ownership this facility, both because it has a low PUE
and because our construction cost was about $7,000 per kilowatt for Tier III, the
cost as we measure it internallywe look at cost per kW per month delivered to
our userworks out to about $60 per month for corporate IT here. That is about
one-tenth the cost of what we pay at a co-lo and its significantly less than what
we pay internally in other sites where we have Data Centers that we have built
and own within NetApp.
You bring up a feature of your facility that I definitely want to talk

about, which is controlling air pressure to regulate air volume in the
Data Center. I think theres the understanding in the Data Center
industry that in many cases were using a brute-force approach to
cooling. We throw a tremendous amount of cold air at something and
then hopefully evacuate hot air exhaust...
It doesnt work. Youre only going to consume what the equipment is going to pass
through it. And that was the aha back in 2006 when I got here. I started looking
at the cooling coil design parameters and then we did some measurements on the
racked equipment. Our cooling coils were designed for 10 or 12 degrees and the
equipment was seeing 20 to 25. What that says is youre delivering a lot more air
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and assuming that its only going to go through a 10 degree rise on the coil. What
15: NetApp
happens is you oversupply, like you say, the equipment and you just get a lot of
mixing and turbulence. We deliver everything from overhead. The more air you
try to jam to the cabinet the more entrainment of hot air you get from the hot
aisle when you dont have any physical separation between the cold and the hot as
weve done with the cold rooms. What we basically do is put doors and a little bit
of fascia above the cabinets and drop the ceiling down. The construction cost is
miniscule compared to the mechanical and electrical.
Thats how we got there. We said, This is ridiculous. Even Liebert units and some
other custom type air handlers, the coils are designed for 16 degrees or so and if
the equipments seeing 20 youre missing it by a pretty wide margin.
I think anyone designing Data Centers nowadays understands hot and

cold airflow isolation techniques, but whats the best way for someone
to determine if theyre oversupplying air to their server environment or
whether the air pressure is optimal?
When people are doing the containment, unless they exactly match the air theyre
going to have over-pressurization or theyre going to starve the equipment. I
havent heard of really anybody doing it based upon differential static pressure.
People are still trying to use temperature in the hot aisle or thermal information
from the equipment maybe. For air conditioning, capacity is a function of
temperature and flow. If the equipment only is going to take a certain amount
of flow then thats really your only option then, to match the flow. And the
temperature you select to provide, for us its all based on our desire to economize
our operation. We try to make it as hot as we can without cooking the people that
are working in the hot aisle. Because the equipment can take much warmer air
than the people can stand.
We try to make it as hot as we can without cooking the people

that are working in the hot aisle. Because the equipment can take
much warmer air than the people can stand.
288
Im not out there every day looking at Data Centers that have containment but
everything I read online tells me that they probably do have an issue with pressure
and flow. If theyre doing it with an air curtain, lets say, probably their curtains
are flapping open or whatnot.
So, to answer your question, I hear a lot as people come through the facility and
we have hundreds that come through here in a years time, organizations that are
customers or partners or prospects. They talk a lot about temperature control and
they look at what weve done and its an aha to them that this is the way it should
be done or one way that is an effective way to do it.
Figure 15-3
Pressure
differential
transmitter used
in NetApps RTP
Data Center
for cold room
pressurization
(right) and
mezzanine
pressure controlled
relief air (left).
What made you decide to operate your Data Center at 74 degrees

Fahrenheit (23.3 Celsius)? I know of many companies running their
server environments warmer than that and of many companies running
them cooler.
There are several drivers for that. Of course the warmer we can make the cold
room the more we can use outside ambience, because if its 75 (23.9 Celsius)
outside and were using 74 or 75 (23.3 or 23.9 Celsius) degrees supply as long as
the outside air is cooler than the return air were going to use the outside air. And
289
with a 20 degree riselets say its 85 (29.4 Celsius) outsideit still makes sense
15: NetApp
to take 85 degree (29.4 Celsius) air and cool it to 75 (23.9 Celsius) because the
air coming back is 95 (35 Celsius), right? Obviously we want to make it as warm
as we can but the limiting factor, like I said earlier, becomes how warm can you
make it in the hot aisle before people get too hot?
We found that 95 degrees (35 Celsius) is about the limit, and particularly when
youre bringing in outside air in the summertime that has a fair amount of
humidity in it. It tends to get pretty warm. In fact, even though its cooler in the
winter and we could make a 60 degree (15.6 Celsius) cold room if we wanted, our
folks working in there would get used to that 80 degree (26.7 Celsius) air in the
hot aisle and then they would really complain a lot. And 95 (35 Celsius) in the
summertime is certainly not an OSHA issue and if you dress appropriately its not
a hazardous condition. Its more a personal preference. We try not to float things
too far down in the winterwe might go down to 70 (21.1 Celsius) because its
still free and then well float up to 75 (23.9 Celsius) in the summer.
The other thing that were doing is by having higher temperatures we never really
try to get to the dew point where were taking moisture out of the air, which
from a Data Center perspective the equipment doesnt really understand latent
cooling and humidity as long as you dont have it too high or have a condensing
environment. Our objective is not to do any condensing at the cooling coil and
waste more energy.
Again, if you look at the typical Data Center thats running a 55 degree
Fahrenheit (12.8 Celsius) supply, about a third of the work being done could be
latent cooling, or at least the rated capacity of that cooling coil is based on about a
third of the work being latent cooling. Thats probably not the case because most
Data Centers are built pretty tight and theres not a lot of moisture infiltration
but theres going to be some because youre introducing outside air for ventilation
and whatnot. Those are really the drivers for why we picked 75 (23.9 Celsius).
The other thing is, if you get up to 80 (26.7 Celsius) what you see is a lot of the
equipment the way its built will actually internally speed up the fans and the
fans can be a fairly high proportion of the energy used by the racked equipment.
We havent had a chance to study it to a high degree but we know that the
incremental energy used, once we get to 80 (26.7 Celsius) and we start triggering
these fan speeds up, offsets the gain we get on not running the chiller.
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Is the design of this Data Center a standard for NetApp going forward?
Are the technologies that are being used repeatable at other locations
or are they specific to this particular site and its climate and other
conditions?
Thats a really good question. In 2006 we built this prototype room with the
differential pressure control and high density and then shortly after that we built
a lab in Sunnyvale, California, based on that concept and added a free cooling
capability to it. It was sort of the next generation to what we did here in 06.
They have some issues there with trying to get the exhaust air out of the building
because it was built within an existing office building and they had to create
a chaseas you bring in outside air you got to get rid of air youre not using
anymore from the hot aisle.
There are a few hiccups but this building, because it was a green field, we didnt
have that issue. The whole second story of the building is the air handling that is
able to get the air out of the sides of the buildings as we bring raw air in from the
roof.
So, to address your question, would we do (this design) in any location we choose
to build another Data Center? It depends, because some locationsit gets back
to the issue of using ambient air for free coolingif you have salts, if you have
corrosives, if you have high particulates, maybe not such a great idea. This is a
great location for doing free cooling in that were in a suburban business park
with pretty good air quality. The only issue we run into about a week a year is
pollen. Not that pollen is difficult to filter, but pollen is just pervasive and we
found that it gets around some of the filter rack. One thing we did here is we used
a commercial type air handler and saved a lot of money by using it and it does
by and large a pretty good job but the filter rack that the filters sit in have a lot of
bypass so weve had some issues with the filtration of the pollen. That being said,
its probably cheaper to run the chillers one week a year than it is to change 3,500
filters.
If you could go back and design the Data Center all over again what, if
anything, would you do differently?
Functionally, the only thing we would do differently is to add a pre-filter to the
filter rack to address the pollen issue.
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Theres probably a half a dozen things we could do to make the building work a
15: NetApp
little bit better. Theyre so minor in some respects that I dont think it would be
meaningful to really go through them.
On the other side of it theres a few things we could do cost-wise to even reduce
the cost beyond where we have it today and still have the functionality. But the
building, when we built it, the total cost was around $66 million and we had less
than 1 percent change orders. So, it was a pretty interesting process and I would
say by and large we havent really done anything in two years to address any issues.
Were wrestling with this filter-rack thing now and its probably a couple-hundred
thousand dollar type of fix but when we started the whole process actually back in
March of 2007 (when) I was told to build this building I interviewed some name-
brand Data Center consultants and each of them that came here wanted to build
a single-story building about 15 acres (6.1 hectares) in size to handle 25 MW.
At the end of the day we built this 1 acre (.4 hectare), three-level building and we
did it with a local architect and a design firm that does a lot of biotech, because
to me it was more of a high-volumes-of-air, big-chilled-water-plant design issue
for mechanical/electrical plumbing than it was a Data Center. We actually used
a general contractor that had never built a Data Center, somebody that we had
worked with on some office fit-ups. The message there is we didnt buy into any
pre-conceived notions. NetApp was very involved as the project manager of the
building and every decision that was made.
We didnt even know for sure what it was going to cost us. Were not in this
business, right? We just used the prototype building costs and sort of said This
is going to be four times bigger and were going to need a shell and we think its
going to cost x. Prior to the modification for the corporate Data Center we had
a $45 million budget not including the racks and PDUs and we brought it in at
$44 million. It was just an interesting project, but not knowing what it would
cost every step of the way we looked for opportunities to save in the construction.
At the end of the day, functionally it has worked (with) very high availability and
low cost of ownership.
What helped you get from those original estimates of a 15-acre

(6.1 hectares) Data Center down to just 1 acre (.4 hectare)?
Well, most Data Centers are 150 or 200 watts a foot (1,614.6 or 2,152.8 watts
per square meter), so youre talking about 4 kW a rack. Maybe a more modern
292
Data Center might be trying to get to 7 or 8. We were doing 12. By using the
pressure control we were able to get the higher density, the 770 watts a foot
(8,288.2 watts per square meter). Being able to get two or three times the kw per
rack that most Data Centers can get shrank the footprint and then by going with
a three-level building where the air handlers sit right on top of the load and the
utilities are all in the basement, you divide that by two-thirds. Those two things
really enabled us to get from 15, 17 acres (6.1, 6.9 hectares) down to one
(.4 hectare).
Figure 15-4
NetApp installed
commercial grade
air handlers rather
than customer
Data Center
models, saving
about $10 million
in capital costs.
I saw that you scored 99 out of a possible 100 points on the Energy
Star scoring. First, let me say congratulations. Second, though, I have
to ask: what was the one point that you missed?
Its not a point based system, its a performa that they create. Weve gone back in
and put in our numbers today and were at 100 based on our PUE being lower.
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Im not a proponent of someone chasing a higher score on a Data
15: NetApp
Center metricPUE, LEED, et ceteraby doing things that dont
truly make their Data Center more efficient, but was there any point in
your project where you had to make a decision whether to incorporate
certain design elements to achieve a higher score versus its cost or
merits?
Thats a good question. Really the thing that drives the cost effectiveness of the
Data Center is the airside economizer. Its going to give you a lot more free
cooling hours than a waterside economizer. There are pluses and minuses to each.
If your ambient air is not good quality or you could use one in combination with
the other, but we know at 25 MW even in a moderately priced utility state like
North Carolina the free cooling, the PUE difference between lets say a 1.8 and a
1.2 is $6 million a year and thats going to buy a lot of features. Frankly, putting
an economizer on an air handler is almost no cost. It involves a connection
between the air handler and outside air and a mixing chamber. Youre talking
something thats clearly less than $1 million to do that.
Another things weve done is the containment. The cost to do that is 1 or 2
percent of the project cost so, again, its a no-brainer to use the pressure control,
limit your fan horsepower, et cetera. It wasnt anything where we modeled a lot.
We looked some different things up front but we were also trying to build a
building pretty quick. We interviewed architects and engineers in April of 2007
and delivered a building in December of 2008 so we didnt have a lot of time to
say Were going to explore or model A, B, and C. At the same time, we had the
prototype and we had a clear vision of what we were going to do.
Is there any advice that you would offer someone as to how to

approach a Data Center project?
The whole project teaming is the most critical element of doing this. NetApp,
being a relatively young company without a lot of baggage and pre-conceived
notions and being rewarded because your boss did it a certain way, we had an
advantage, I think. The culture of the company is innovation. Probably the fact
that it started off as a lab versus a Data Center, it was a lot easier to convince
the R&D guys who were my customers than it may have been corporate IT
294
which tends to be more conservative. I think just generally based on what Ive
seen talking to people, the more mature cultures look at this and say I get it,
but I would never be able to make this happen versus younger West Coast-type
companies where the early adopters they tend to be doing these sorts of things.
All of the Data Centers physical infrastructure overheadtheres no

raised floorand youre using very tall cabinets, at 52U. Did you
encounter any challenges in routing and terminating it all?
No. Most of the cabling is all fiber and were heavily into the Cisco Nexus
switches so if you look at the cable plant its actually pretty minimal. There is a
cable tray system that connects everything, but like I say its fiber. You wonder
why we have all these big heavy cable trays for a little bit of fiber.
If you look in to the cold room through the door what youre going to see is 30
cabinets on the right and 30 cabinets on the left separated by a 46-in. (116.8-cm.)
aisle. Up above that, down the center in about 6 in. (15.2 cm.) in a drop ceiling is
your lighting and fire suppression. And then on either side of that is basically an
architectural grid that simply is there for aesthetics and the air handlers sit above
that on variable speed drives and they pump the required amount of air based on
the static pressure.
Thats all thats going on in the cold room, its pretty clean. Its about an 8 ft. 9 in.
(2.7 m.) ceiling. When you get into the hot aisle, now you have a 16 ft. (4.9 m.)
clear height where you have above the cabinets the busways and the cable plant
and then some lighting. Its very clean.
The one by-product of having the containment is its very quiet versus most high-
density Data Centers are very noisyyou cant talk. Here because you have doors
on the cold room its really an effective acoustic treatment.
295
If someone wanted to fully load one of your 52U cabinets, whats the
15: NetApp
greatest power density you can support at a given individual cabinet
location?
Heres what I always tell people. You look in the cold room, through the door,
theres 720 kW of power. You can use it however you want in that room of up to
60 cabinets, you just cant have more than 42 kW in a particular cabinet.
The reason we can do that is, if you take a bathtub and you stick your arm into
it youre not going to change the water level in that bathtub as much as you try.
You might make some waves. If you put a cabinet in there with 42 kW of power
and its able to move the air through that cabinet the pressure in that room
immediately backfills. You cant change the pressure in the room, its physically
impossible to do it.
Our only limitation with this pressure control idea is based on power distribution.
The reason we get the 42 kW is every cabinet in this Data Center has two 21 kW
power strips in it.
Your cooling system includes the capability to use wastewater from

a nearby municipal treatment plant to serve as makeup water. Were
there any challenges with incorporating wastewater?
To be quite honest with you, were still waiting for them to turn the system on.
So, well see. The issue you might have is the availability or are the contaminants
higher than theyre telling you? Are the contaminants variable?
With water treatment you sort of assume you got the same stuff youre having to
treat. With wastewater, who knows if that will be the case. The reason were using
it is we dont want to be relying upon city water and we would like to have two
sources.
Having this wastewater systemits the town of Cary, Wake County and
Durham County are developing for the RTP (Research Triangle Park) Business
Park. It was a no-brainer for us to ask to be connected to it and use it as a primary
source.
296
Any final advice?

Work closely with your internal customers and pick the right partners. In our
case I think having partners that were doing the design for us be local was really
important, versus somebody that had to fly in and it would have been a hardship
to get together. Particularly in the beginning youre doing a lot of brainstorming
in the design concept phase. Picking the right team and having a good
partnership internally with the user is really critical.
Figure 15-5
A walkway between
two server rows in
NetApps Research
Triangle Park Data
Center.
15: NetApp
297
Figure 16-1 Syracuse Universitys Data Center is both a production server environment and a
research facility. Images provided courtesy of Syracuse University.
Chapter 16
Syracuse University
Essential Details
Organization: Syracuse University
Location: Syracuse, New York
Online: December 2009
Notable features: Microturbines powered by natural gas. A trigeneration system that produces cooling,
heating, and power for the Data Center and nearby building. Use of direct current and alternating current
power. Closed-loop water cooling system using rear-door heat exchangers and sidecar heat exchangers.
LEED-Silver certified.
Size: 12,000 sq. ft. (1,114.8 sq. m) total, with 6,000 sq. ft. (557.4 sq. m) of hosting space.
Power: Two redundant 750 kW feeds; IT usable capacity of 600 kW
Tier: II
Infrastructure Delivery: Structured cabling above cabinets. Electrical conduits, piping for liquid
cooling system, and air cooling delivered under a 36-in. (91.4 cm.) deep raised floor.
Structural loading: 450 lb. per sq. ft. (2197 kg per sq. m)
Most modern server environments feature their share
Background
of redundant systems but few can match the belt and

suspenders deployment of physical infrastructure solutions at
Syracuse Universitys primary Data Center.
Built in 2009 to host IT academic and administrative systems
for SUs 1,500 full- and part-time faculty members and
nearly 20,000 students, the facility features both alternating
and direct current power topologies, both liquid- and air-
cooled cooling systems as well as both on-site power generation and utility power feeds. Such technologies are
typically either-or choices for Data Centers, but here theyre all used simultaneously.
Thats because the 12,000 square foot (1,114.8 square meter) production facility also functions as a
sophisticated test bed for University researchers to analyze Data Center electrical and mechanical systems at
work. Researchers are using the collected data to develop models and simulation tools to monitor, manage, and
even predict Data Center energy usage.
Not surprisingly, the Data Center has been designed to be extremely energy efficient. It employs twelve 65 kW
natural-gas powered microturbines for primary power, two 150-ton absorption chillers, and two heat exchangers
that together form a trigeneration system that not only provides chilled water for the Data Center but also
warms the 92,000 square foot (8547.1 square meter) building next door. (In all, the system generates 4.1
million BTUs of byproduct heat.)
Chris Sedore, Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer for Syracuse University,
discusses the challenges and lessons learned from designing and building the dual-purpose Data Center.
The Interview
I understand that in addition to this Data Center being a production

facility, you use it to measure the efficiency of Data Center systems.
Its almost a test bed for what other Data Centers can do.
It absolutely is. Im not aware of another facility thats been built like this, with
that intent. Ive seen ones that are pure research-oriented, in which you build
it and you put test loads in and experiment. And there are obviously lots of
production Data Centers. But this merger I think is fairly unique.
301
It really drives a lot of the analysis and design choices we made here, to say
16: Syracuse University

Where do we need to instrument and how do we need to instrument to make
sure we can measure this? A lot of the benchmarks that are out there now, theyre
good but theyre maybe not as scientific as our researchers would like them to be.
Can you give me an example of some of the things that are being
measured with this Data Center?
I say tongue-in-cheek that we measure everything. Thats a little bit of an
overstatement, but we have a lot of instrumentation. If you look on the power
distribution side, all the way from the grid connection or the turbines down
through that power distribution chain to the outlets in the racks, we can measure
power consumption. For the servers that were installing, the majority of them,
you can also ask the server How much power do you consume? So, you can
look all along that chain at what the performance of the system is. Similarly, in
the cooling space its heavily instrumented to let us know how the cooling system
is performing. Its really this notion of collecting large quantities of data about
performance of different portions of the system. The piece were working on now
is basically how do we take all this data, crunch it, and use it for both operational
purposes and also for research ones.
LEED Certification
302
For that research portion, once you have that data and youve been
able to do with it what you want, whats the intent? Is this something
that is to be shared with people who you might host in the facility? Is
it to be shared with the public so that the Data Center industry as a
whole can learn from it?
Certainly thats our hope, that we will share what we learn in various ways.
One of our traditional outlets, of course, is academic publishing. So we hope
to produce articles from our researchers and graduate students talking about
various ways to be efficient in the Data Center. One of the drives there is to
understandand this is an issue with construction of Data Centers as well as
buildings in general(why) designs dont often perform exactly the way that they
say they will. We really want to be in position to help refine those models so that
theyre more sophisticated in terms of what outcomes you get based on particular
design inputs.
What is Syracuse Universitys overall Data Center strategy? Is this

facility going to meet your needs for the foreseeable future or do you
have plans for building out additional server environments?
From a prime computing perspective, what I said (when planning the Data
Center) was I expect that this will comfortably meet our needs for 5 years, from a
power and cooling perspective. And I believe that it will meet our space needs for
10 years. The power and cooling is a lot harder to predict than the physical space
is. I didnt have to sign in blood on those things, but the projections led us to that
place.
So, I dont see us constructing additional Data Centers as prime capacity items.
However, we are likely to build a secondary Data Center that is smaller that
houses core network equipment for our North Campus and also serves as a
backup Data Center for key systems.
303
Figure 16-2

The data hall
within Syracuse
Universitys Data
Center.
Your facility doesnt neatly fit into the traditional tier classification
system for Data Centers. What drove your decisions regarding which
physical infrastructure components to have redundant?
Thats a great question. One of the things we did in constructing this Data
Center was to not necessarily be driven by rules of thumb or best practice. And
I dont mean to say that those things are necessarily bad. But we were really
looking to try to optimize everything that we could in the design of this facility.
When we looked at where to build in redundancy it was a risk-based approach.
What components do we think are likely to fail? We looked at service history for
microturbines, for example.
One of the things we did in constructing this Data Center was to

not necessarily be driven by rules of thumb or best practice...we
were really looking to try to optimize everything that we could in
the design of this facility.
304
One of my big pieces in Data Center design is, I need it to be flexible. So, if
we need to make a change to the power system, I want it to be a pluggable

infrastructure. Its the same design principles we use for IT, but at least in some
placesand fortunately thats not true herefacilities (components) dont
necessarily get designed with the same notion. You pour the concrete and thats
what you deal with rather than saying Well, if we design this a little differently
we would have a lot more flexibility.
Back to your question, from a redundancy perspective we tried to look at the
known performance characteristics, known risk characteristics for all the elements
of the system, and then base our redundancy decisions on those characteristics.
You mention microturbines. Tell me about those. Thats one of the

features of this facility that I think is interesting and an element that
you dont see in a lot of Data Centers.
Microturbines, theyre really fascinating pieces of technology. Theyre essentially
small jet engines. People run them on different things: natural gas, diesel fuel,
landfill gas, and lots of other input fuels. In our case, we have 12 of these units.
Theyre nominally 65 kW per unit and they produce electricity and they produce
hot exhaust.
Ours are a little unique because the way that ours are assembled they also serve
as the UPS (uninterruptible power supply) for the facility. Because of the nature
of how the inverters in them are constructed, we can plug a battery array in the
center of the flow of the turbine and let them draw from batteries to also produce
the power needs of the Data Center.
305
Figure 16-3

Primary power
for Syracuse
Universitys Data
Center comes
from twelve 65
kW hybrid UPS
microturbines.
What prompted you to use microturbines as a primary power source

rather than going with the conventional setup of commercial power
feeding your Data Center and a generator behind it?
When you look at on-site electrical generation, if you look at it straight from a I
need electricity and how can I best get it? perspective, its hard to beat the grid
in most places. But you have to look at the full picture of where the electricity is
generated to the point of use in your Data Center facility, to look at the losses all
the way along that chain. This is a concern for us as an institution because were
a Presidents Climate Commitment signatory. Were really trying to look at our
environmental footprint.
The American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment is an initiative to make higher education
Note
campuses sustainable and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Syracuse University was one of 152 charter
signatories of the ACUPCC in 2007. As part of the initiative, the University in 2009 issued a Climate Action Plan
that includes the goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2040.
306
If youre running a coal-fired electrical plant, youre sending a lot of heat out
the stack as waste, essentially, where in our case were actually able to use that
byproduct of the generation process either to provide cooling for the Data
Center or to provide heat for the adjacent facility. So we actually get a better full
utilization of the energy than we would otherwise and it makes that cost picture
look different.
Please explain your trigeneration system, which encompasses cooling,

heat, and power for the Data Center.
If you look at a flow picture, you have the natural gas flowing into the
microturbines, electricity coming out to feed the Data Center floor, and then the
heat byproduct goes to one of two places. One is just a heat exchanger that turns
that hot exhaust into hot water that we can use for heating next door. The other
is to this really neat device thats called an absorption chiller that takes that hot
exhaust and turns it into chilled water. Its like a propane refrigerator, if youve
ever heard of such a thing. Its really a heat-driven engine that produces chilled
water. Our chilled water capacity is about 300 tons, so its a lot of cooling in that
space. Probably not enough for every possible scenario in terms of the adjacent
building, but its enough the majority of the time to cool the Data Center at full
load as well as the adjacent building.
Figure 16-4 Electrical switchgear for Syracuse Universitys Data Center routes power from
turbines to hardware, from turbines to backup batteries to keep them fully charged,
and from batteries to turbines to restart any that are idle.
307
If someone was building a Data Center facility and they were looking

to use this sort of system, but they didnt have a building nearby to
be able to use the excess capacitysay they have a standalone Data
Centerdoes that reduce the benefits of this solution so that its not
advantageous to use?
Its a great question. It depends. There are really a couple of dimensions that you
look at there. One is the cost of electricity where youre constructing. We call this
spark spread, which is the difference in cost between buying it and generating it.
If you happen to be in an area where you can buy natural gas very inexpensively
and electricity tends to be quite expensiveand there are places like thisthen
the system can make sense just based on the power needs for the Data Center as
well as the byproduct cooling. So, youre not getting full advantage but you get
the cooling out of it.
Theres a climate aspect to it. If youre in Arizona where you really need cooling all
the time, then it works well. On the other hand, if you were in northern Canada
then all youre really getting is electricity because you can use outside air for
cooling a good portion of the time so maybe it doesnt work so well. So, you have
to factor those things in.
The other thing that matters for some Data Center owners is that their utilities
cant give them any more power. For whatever reason, their location in a metro
area, et cetera, they may not be able to get enough power into their facility. So
if you have a Data Center in lets say Manhattan, and youve got 30,000 sq. ft.
(2,787 sq. m) that you cant put equipment on because you dont have electricity,
it may be worth doing this even if youre throwing away some of those byproducts
because otherwise the real estate utilization is such a problem. You really have to
understand the investment in many dimensions in order to know whether its the
right choice.
Another thing that you can do with this (trigeneration) is, rather than use it
totally as prime or only as backup is you use it as a base load piece. So lets say
I had a 1 MW Data Center facility, I might put in half a megawatt worth of
generation capacity, use all of the coolingbecause then I can use 100 percent
because essentially every bit of power used in IT equipment turns into heat. So,
Im not going to generate 100 percent of my electrical need but Ill generate 50
percent that the byproduct gives me 100 percent of my cooling. Thats a very
common way to use cogeneration or trigeneration systems because they do a nice
job of providing that mix.
308
When outside temperatures are low enough, you can leverage outside
cooling for your needs. How many days per year do you anticipate
being able to use it?
We anticipate 120 days per year of cooling will be possible from using heat
exchangers with outside air.
What operational temperature, at the server inlet, are you aiming for in
this Data Center?
Its interesting that you ask that. One of the analysis tasks for us is to look at
what is the optimal inlet temperature. There are these interesting issues that
happen. There has been a lot of work to say we should be raising Data Center
floor temperatures. The consensus is that thats a good thing and I dont intend
necessarily to argue with that consensus. But, with the way that were doing
cooling it isnt necessarily clear what the optimal point will be on the curve. You
start to look at what the efficiency profile of your air conditioning units is. In a
traditional Data Center you have to look at your air handlers, whether theyre
CRACs (computer room air conditioners) or CRAHs (computer room air
handlers), and the energy youre spending blowing air around. That optimization
can look a little different when youre using rear door or sidecar heat exchangers
because it might make sense to maybe run it a little higher, it might make sense
to run it a little lower. You really have to analyze this to know the answer to that
question.
I cant quote any of these for a variety of reasons right now, but I know that
when weve done some of the modeling work some of the results have been
counterintuitive. So we want to make sure that before we set that design point
that were getting the optimal efficiency from it.
309
You have hinted at the liquid cooling solution that youre using in the

Data Center. My understanding is that this was customized for this
site. How was that developed?
The partnership behind this was really Syracuse University and IBM. The rear
door and sidecar exchangers are an IBM creation, at least the ones that were
running.
We partnered with IBM to look at how to put this cooling system together. IBM
has been doing liquid cooling since the 70s. Its kind of fun to work with them
because they pull out documents that are literally 30 to 40 years old that talk
about issues and concerns and design parameters for these. But we also did some
things that are new and unique that were brought both by our own experience
with building facilities as well as IBMs in terms of variable speed drives for our
pumps and newer ways of doing instrumentation. I would say it was a partnership
between Syracuse, IBM, and the two engineering firms on the project.
Figure 16-5 Hardware within Syracuse Universitys Data Center. Shown are an IBM storage array, a
mainframe that uses direct current power and a supercomputer with liquid cooling to
the chip. The liquid cooling is integrated with the buildings chilled water system. The
three full-height rack doors on the left are rear-door heat exchangers.
310
In the Data Center industry the general take on liquid cooling is that
its more efficient than an air system but that it has a higher capital
cost. Theres also a lingering concern about water in the Data Center.
Many folks have worked hard to keep liquid off of their floor and are
hesitant to bring it back to the cabinet. Did you have any concerns
along those lines?
Well, Id be lying if I said I didnt have some concerns at least when we were
starting down this road. But when you actually look at the systems that were
putting in place here, the truth is that there really is not a significant increase
in the risks in operating a Data Center. If you look at our rear door exchangers,
for example, were doing the chilled water distribution under floor and the
connections for the rear door and the sidecar exchangers are both down at the
bottom. So, if you look at where we were likely to have a leak, its all down below
the place where we have equipment.
You go back and actuallyagain, IBM is a great resource in thiswe did this
for a long time and the record of these liquid cooling systems is actually pretty
good. Were there zero incidents of problem? No. But frankly we have water issues
in a number of places. One of the things that was interesting to me as we were
beginning this design process was the number of Data Centers I visited that have
sprinkler systems in them. The basic thing is, look, were very unlikely to have a
fire here and they have dry pipe systems, but when we looked at the cost of other
fire suppression, we decided this is the better risk/reward ratio.
So, is it a concern? Yes. But I can tell you that if its up to me I wont build
another raised floor Data Center. I will do distribution overhead just to avoid
the capital cost and other issues associated with a raised floor. And that includes
putting chilled water overhead. If its done right I dont think its any significant
risk profile we cant deal with.
311
Youre using a direct current power topology in your Data Center. I

have heard a lot of people talk about employing DC power because you
can avoid the losses from converting from DC to AC and back to DC
power again, but this is the first production Data Center Im aware of
to actually implement it. What prompted you to use it and what sort of
savings are you seeing?
What prompted us to use it is really when you look at the chain of what happens
to power in Data Centers. It is the conversions you speak of that are of concern
here. Even down to the power supply of a machine where the first thing that
happens when you enter a typical switching power supply is you take 120 volt or
240 volt AC and turn it in to nominally 385 or 400 volt DC so that you can step
it through to produce what the machine needs. This is another place where the
partnership with IBM mattered in the sense that were working with them to look
at next generations of this technology. We decided that we think there is a future
for DC.
Certainly there are concerns about what equipment is available to run on DC.
There are some folks who have vested interest in AC power saying the savings are
really smaller. Its a case of, we think this is a direction that makes sense to go in
the longer run. Its going to take some changes in the market space.
The other thing thats relevant here goes back to our conversation about on-site
power generation. We did turbines because turbines are proven, their performance
profile is well known and well understood, but also on the horizon is fuel cells.
One of the things thats interesting about fuel cells is that they produce DC
natively. So when we look at this developing in the next 10, 15 years we think
that theres going to be an even bigger play for DC because you have the potential
to go straight from the generation to the machine without any intervening steps.
Fuel cells have a particularly great story in this regard. They work essentially like
batteries, theyre lots of small cells. If you want 400 volts you just assemble the
right collection of them and you can have 400 volts output. The other thing
about fuel cells thats really attractive from a Data Center perspective is that they
are very, very reliable. So as that technology evolves and develops, as I think most
of us expect that it will, theres going to be an even stronger play for DC power in
the Data Center than there is now.
I should also say that the turbines can also natively generate DC, and this is
something were going to be playing with in the Data Center as well.
312
Do you have the option to provide AC power for the Data Center
as well?
Oh, yeah. The distribution is that we have 500 kW of AC power and about 100
kW of DC power available to the floor. We cant get everything that we want to
run in our Data Center DC power-equipped. So, the majority of the equipment
in there we anticipate being AC-powered for at least the next few years.
Were there any special steps that you needed to take because you
have both types of power going in to the facility?
A little bit. You want to make sure its clear to your electrician whats what. In
a typical Data Center you can look at a cable and know what it is. But in ours,
given that we have both AC and DC power distribution, those folks have to be
oriented. The distribution systems are a little different and there are some things
that you have to know, but I was actually pleasantly surprised both in terms of
the folks that worked with us on the construction but also our own (Syracuse
University) electricians that this is not as big a deal in terms of a transition.
As a side note, that is also true because in the larger mechanical systems for
buildings theyre sort of blurring these lines anyway in terms of the large blowers
and pumps and things you use as part of normal infrastructure. So, these
electricians have to be pretty sophisticated folks generally. This is not as much of a
curveball as you might think.
What lessons did you learn during the design and construction of
the facility?
One of the things that I learned is, boy do you have to have the right team to
do this kind of project. There are lots of architectural and engineering firms,
Data Center design firms. You can hire them and get a great conventional Data
Center, and even a reasonably efficient conventional Data Center, but if you want
to color outside the lines, you really have to have a team thats comfortable with
coloring outside the lines. That includes the CIO who has to be willing look at
things and say Well, I know no one else has done this, but Im looking at the way
that this is arranged and the nature of the components and the track record and
whats proven, et cetera. And I am willing to certify, yes I will run my production
systems on that.
313
Another piece I often mention, and this is particularly true for larger companies

or institutions, is that you really have to have a great working relationship
between your IT and your Facilities folks. Ive had exposure to other institutions
or organizations where that relationship is not so great. Theres a clear black line
between those two organizationsIm the provider and youre the consumer
and what I do you dont need to worry about what I do. Well, if you want to
optimize Data Centers those things are intertwined in fairly sophisticated ways
and that relationship needs to reflect that sophistication in terms of if you want to
optimize you have to link those things at a pretty sophisticated level.
Were there any challenges or surprises that came up that you didnt
expect when you started?
I was actually surprised at essentially how straightforward it was to get all of these
folks working together on something that was so out of the box. The people were
great, but also it was really a willingness to look at all of the different components.
Most of what we have in this Data Center is stuff thats off the shelf from
somewhere. There are a few things in there that weve done that are unique and
you really cant find anywhere else in the world. The particular microturbines that
we have out there now I believe they were first of a kind and so far are only of a
kind, but theyre going to be an off-the-shelf item now from Capstone (Turbine
Corp.). Outside of those things, this was Lets look out there, find all these things
and lets put them together in a way no one else has. And that was maybe easier
than I thought it would be at the outset.
This is a relatively young facility, but if you could go back and start
the design all over again what, if anything, would you do differently?
Let me answer that question two different ways. If I look at doing it with the
same missionin other words I want it to be a research facility as well as a
production Data Centerprobably not very much. We really need all of the
different aspects of what we have there to satisfy both of those missions.
If you said Hey, Chris, I want you to start again. I want you to build something
thats equivalently efficient but its really going to be a production Data Center
I would look seriously at dropping the raised floor. There probably are some
other minor things we would look at. One of the things that we did do relatively
314
quickly after we constructed it was we built some caged space inside the Data
Center to accommodate researchers and others. We basically had to double the

amount of caged space we had on the floor pretty quickly after we opened because
demand for that kind of Data Center space was stronger than we had anticipated.
The other thing is that, this whole densification/virtualization has been playing
out as we have been working through this process as well as the cloud side.
My own analysis of buying cycles out of the cloud: if your utilization is above
60 percent, its a pretty clear case you can do it cheaper on premise if were
just talking cycles. But I certainly would want to look at all of the options for
providing the services that we have to provide if I was going to start again and
do this today. We did look at leasing space, we looked at lots of other different
options for doing this rather than construction. Even excluding the research part
of what we wanted to do, it was really difficult to meet the needs that we had with
what was available when we started this process a couple years ago.
This world is evolving pretty rapidly. For institutions Syracuses size and maybe a
little bigger and maybe a bit smaller, the ongoing Data Center strategy is going to
be an interesting space to try to choose the right investment.
Figure 16-6 Two 150-ton absorption chillers help cool Syracuse Universitys Data Center.
315
I know you mentioned that the technologies in your Data Center, if

theyre not out-of-the-box now they soon will be. But you do have a lot
of elements that I think set this Data Center apart from a traditional
server environment. The microturbines, the trigeneration system,
liquid cooling, the DC powerwhich of these do you see as being
universal solutions that are appropriate for anyone to put in to their
Data Center going forward and which do you think someone would
need to pick and choose depending upon specific circumstances?
It really depends on some of the dimensions we talked about earlier. What does
your electrical supply look like? Where are you located in terms of climate? I did
a presentation for a tech conference for New York State folks and I said Look,
if youre in New York State and you dont have an economizer, either an air
economizer or a water economizer using outdoor cooling, youre really kind of
crazy because you should always have this.
My view is if youre building a Data Center of any size, I think youre going to
have to do liquid cooling. Its not even really a matter of is it cost effective. The
reality is when you get up to a range where your racks are, say, 30 kW its very,
very difficult to do that with raised floor airflow. You get to a point where the
temperatures and the rate of flow, how much energy youre running with blowers,
it just cant make sense any more. There are some who are looking forward
further in to the future arguing were going to have to go inside the boxes with
the liquid once again. We have an IBM P575 where weve got liquid to the chip
because that was the way that they needed to do it to make this work. I think on
the liquid cooling side, thats another one from my perspective that youre going
to have to do it because physics is going to demand it, but I also think from an
energy perspective it works pretty much everywhere. Unfortunately for a lot
of the vendors who send me offers to do CFD (computational fluid dynamic)
models of my Data Center, all of those issues worrying about hot spots and the
rest of that stuff, they just go away. So, operationally, in terms of risks and other
sorts of concerns that you have those become non-issues.
I think that if you look across the spectrum at the generation side, that is less
universally applicable. Its really a local optimization that you have to look in to
and understand.
316
To DC power, I think this is a market evolution question. I had a conversation

with one server manufacturer that I wont name and they said, basically, Look,
if I cant sell a million units I cant make a business case for this. Theres going
to need to be some instigation in the market that really drives an efficiency gain
here and that may take 5 or 10 years. When people ask Should I put DC in? I
say generally if you have equipment that you know you can run on DC and its
sufficient to pay for itself at this point yes I would put in DC. If you dont have
those characteristics in what youre doing, I would make provisions so that if
youre planning on having a facility life that extends beyond 10 years that youre
able to install it and operate it in that facility but it isnt something that I say
generically everyone should be putting in now.
You have the goal that at some point this Data Center will be able to
flexibly provision both its application workload and its cooling. Move
the IT load, move the facility resource to be able to support it. How do
you envision being able to accomplish this?
Thats a great question. There really are two dimensions to that. One is the IT
dimension. How do you distribute workload across the compute resources and
storage resources and network resources that you have in your Data Center.
For us, the big play here is in the virtualization space. Were doing experiments
with VMwares vSphere product. They can automatically load balance, they can
consolidate, they can actually turn physical servers on and off to add capacity or
subtract capacity based on load. So, on the IT side its really leveraging the tools
that we have there to provide the right mix of redundancy and performance and
energy efficiency.
On the Facilities side the challenge and the opportunity is to, number one,
factor in the Facilities parameters in to those choices so that you can say Well, it
would be best from a Facilities systems perspective if we could consolidate load
geographically within the Data Center as well as just picking 10 different servers
that are in 10 different racks as the destinations for it. The other thing is, its nice
to be able to tell the Facilities systems what youre doing from a consumption
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perspective so that they can produce that optimally. And Im not claiming that we

have this now, but its this kind of optimization that were working to be able to
perform. Some of it is here. VMware can do it, and we have a pilot environment
where were doing this auto-scaling experimentation.
If youre looking at larger enterprises, we already do this follow-the-sun approach
with tech support. You could do maybe the reverse of that with your Data
Center load and say When is electricity most available? Well, typically its most
available at night in a particular region or continent, where people are asleep so
energy usage goes way down. Why not just move your workload to where energy
is the cheapest or the most available or maybe the greenest? Thats the bigger
scale version of this. Yeah, we can say that we can do it within Data Centers and
optimize, but I think those same models and algorithms should be able to drive
that on a global scale as well as within the Data Center scale.
Do you have any final thoughts that you would like to share regarding
this facility or Data Center design practices in general?
Probably the parting thought that I would share is a challenge to CIOs, to be
willing to try new things and, with appropriate due diligence, take some risks to
build facilities that are new and innovative rather than sticking to whats known
to be safe.
Be willing to try new things and, with appropriate due diligence,

take some risks to build facilities that are new and innovative
rather than sticking to whats known to be safe.
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Figure 16-7 A closeup of the Syracuse University Data Center buildings outer wall.
Figure 16-8 Hot exhaust (585 degrees Fahrenheit/307 degrees Celsius) from microturbines flow
through heat exchangers, shown here, producing hot water that is then piped to an
adjacent building to heat it.
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Figure 16-9 Air- and liquid-based cooling are delivered in Syracuse Unversitys Data Center below
the 36-inch (91.4 centimeter) raised floor.
Figure 16-10 An IBM Rear Door Heat eXchanger cooling door removes heat from the hardware
within a cabinet inside Syracuse Universitys Data Center.
Figure 17-1 Rooftop satellite dishes provide backup connectivity for Terremarks NAP (Network
Access Point) of the Americas building. Images provided courtesy of Terremark.
Chapter 17
Terremark
Essential Details
ORGANIZATION: Terremark
Location: Miami, Florida
Online: June 2001
Notable features: One of the largest single-building Data Centers on the planet. Capable of withstanding
Category 5 hurricane winds. Lightning prevention system that defends against strikes by discharging static
electricity flares.
Time to design and build: Ongoing
Size: 750,000 sq. ft. (66,677.3 sq. m) total, with 600,000 sq. ft. (55,741.8 sq. m) of hosting space
anticipated upon buildout.
Power: Designed for 70MW upon buildout
Tier: III
Cabinet locations: Varies by customer configuration
Power Density: Varies by customer configuration
Infrastructure Delivery: Power and cooling are delivered under a raised floor, structured cabling is
provided overhead.
Structural loading: 180 to 280 lb. per sq. ft. (878.8 to 1,367.1 kg per sq. m)
Fire suppression system: Pre-action dry pipe
Terremarks flagship Data Center is a testimony to
Background
thinking big.
When the massive co-location facility known as the
NAP (Network Access Point) of the Americas was
proposed for construction in 2000, Terremark was a
real estate development company with no Data Center
design or operations experience. The dot-com bubble
burst early that year, making the outlook for Internet-
related companiesand co-location centers that rely
upon them as customersgrim.
Despite that, Terremark moved in to the business in a big way, constructing one of the largest Data Centers
on the planet. (The company now has about 50 facilities.) At 750,000 sq. ft. (66,677.3 sq. m) and with an
anticipated 70 MW of electrical capacity upon buildout, the six-story buildings capacity dwarfs what some high
tech companies have for their entire global Data Center portfolio.
The immense structure features Tier III standby infrastructure, server cabinets up to 10 ft. (3 m) tall, and
almost unlimited power densityas of this writing, two U.S. government agencies are in discussions with
Terremark to host a hardware deployment requiring 1,000 watts per sq. ft. (10,763.9 watts per sq. m) of power
and cooling.
Although the scale of the Data Center seems daunting, the abundance of its physical infrastructure elements
space, power, and coolingare actually its greatest strength, providing design and operational flexibility not
usually available in smaller installations.
Ben Stewart, senior vice president of Facilities Engineering for Terremark, discusses why bigger has proven to be
better for the NAP of the Americas.
The Interview
What drove the decision to locate this facility in Miami?
If you look on the Eastern seaboard of the U.S. all the transoceanic cables come
in to New York or Florida. Most of the Florida cable systems service Central and
South America, though we do have Columbus 3 which comes over from the
Mediterranean into the South Florida coast.
All those cable heads come into south Florida and they had to find a place
where they could peer their traffic. They were buying tail circuits up to Ashburn,
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Chicago, and other major peering centers to conduct that. So, a consortium
17: Terremark
pooled their money to build a facility in Miami where all these cable heads turn
up in to and actually staged their traffic right here in Miami. Terremark, a real
estate development company at the time, won the contract to build this facility
and then somewhere through that process decided that it was going to shift its
business model and become a designer, operator, and owner of these kind of
facilities around the world.
So thats really the genesis of the facility. It was the cable heads coming in to
South Florida and needing a place to terminate in to and exchange their traffic
with all of the terrestrial carriers as well. We now have 172 carriers inside this
building who are exchanging traffic with each other.
So it was as part of this Data Center project that Terremark decided it

wanted to get into the co-location business?
Yeah. Manuel D. Medina was our CEO at the time. That was right at the time
when Internet was really getting hot and heavy and also when it busted, in the
2000/2001 time frame. Nonetheless he saw that as the absolute future for telcos
and everybody and thats when he shifted gears. He had the vision and he wanted
to dive into it and certainly must have had hundreds of doubts.
I didnt join the company until 2003 but during 2000/2001 right during the dot
bomb when you build a facility of this size750,000 sq. ft. (66,677.3 sq. m)
and all those cable heads coming up and carriers coming in and to have the
Internet bubble burst on you just as you open your doors had to be a very trying
time but of course over the years has proven to be the secret sauce. It was just a
brilliant move.
As a huge co-location facility you obviously support a variety of

customers with different physical infrastructure needs. Whats the
upper limit to the power density that you can support for a given
customer space?
Most of our co-location floors are in the 40,000 to 50,000 sq. ft. (3,716.1 to
4,645.2 sq. m) range and with that kind of floor space we can accommodate
almost anything.
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We dont meter our power, we charge by the whip. And the more power you buy
the more cooling youre obviously paying for with that. So its really up to us to
figure out how were going to deliver that cooling.
Obviously each floor is designed and built to some power density. For instance
our second floor, which is the first floor we built more than 10 years ago, it was
designed and built to 80 watts per sq. ft. (861.1 watts per sq. m). But thats over
roughly 80,000/90,000 sq. ft. (7,432.2/8,361.2 sq. m) of white space so we can
move that cooling around very easily. And in the early days we had a lot of carriers
coming in at about 30 to 35 watts per sq. ft. (322.9 to 376.7 watts per sq. m).
On the other side of our floor weve got a customer pulling down about 300
to 400 watts per sq. ft. (3,229.2 to 4,305.6 watts per sq. m). And we have no
problem delivering that because thats just static pressure under the floor. You
throw more tiles down and you get the air in there that they need to cool those
servers.
With such large floors we dont dictate that to our customers. Were in the
business of making this space work for any customer that could ever possibly
want to come in here and weve built and designed that sort of flexibility into
our floors.
Whats the most extreme request that you have had to accommodate?
A customer came in with some mainframe type of equipment, some real high
power type stuff and theyre running probably in the 300 to 400 watts per sq. ft.
(3,229.2 to 4,305.6 watts per sq. m) range in a very small area. Thats probably
our heaviest one in this facility.
How does it influence your Data Center design, knowing that youre
going to have to accommodate a range of client needs? How do you
ensure that you have flexibility within your infrastructure?
On the cooling side, which is usually the more difficult side because you can
distribute power from other floors and things, its really the raised floor. The raised
floor and the ability to move our cooling around by moving perforated tiles.
I read a lot about people talking especially on the enterprise side going away
from raised floors and building directly on the slab and ducting the cold air and
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ducting the hot air out. Thats a great idea, energy efficiency-wise thats probably
17: Terremark
one of the better ways to go. But when you do a build-it-and-they-will-come
model where youve really got to have the flexibility and you dont know who is
coming or how much theyre going to need and youre designing their layouts on
the fly, that raised floor just provides an enormous amount of flexibility.
Figure 17-2 An unoccupied hosting area within Terremarks NAP of the Americas facility.
How long did it take to design and build the NAP of the Americas
facility?
Were really designing it on an ongoing basis.
When the site was originally built we only built out the second floor, so the design
basis and the build was only to power and cool the second floor. As we go from
floor to floor we continue to modify that design basis as we learn things and try new
things on an energy efficiency basis. Each floor is just a little bit different as we go.
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The time period to design this, they started construction in August of 2000
and opened the doors operationally in June of 2001 so it was less than a year to
put this entire structure up. It was built on a parking lot so it is a purpose-built
building. But the design was only about 6 months and design was ongoing as
they constructed the facility, to include adding floors.
You mention changing your design and build approach based on what
you have learned. What are some of the things in recent buildouts that
you didnt do originally?
The second most recent one is that we put in a drop ceiling so we have a hot
air plenum as well. Now not only do we move our cold aisles by moving our
perforated tiles we move our hot aisles by moving egg crate thats hanging in the
drop ceiling above. So even on a better basis were separating our hot air from
our cold air and then taking the CRACs (computer room air conditioners) and
putting them straight up into the hot air plenum. Were sucking the hot air out of
the hot aisle instead of letting it just naturally convect up in the overhead and pull
off to the perimeter coolers.
I say two times ago because we improved on that a little bit more. That proved
to be very difficult for our cable management systems because, again, we build it
out in advance. Having that drop ceiling in there and trying to put Allthread up
into the overhead to drop trapezes and ladder rack and stuff down to run cable
management to where our customers want to be proved to be pretty challenging.
We modified that a little bit by using something called Unistrut. We put in a big
green grid overhead of all of our floors where we hang our lighting and our cable
management and everything. When we did the drop ceiling that conflicted with
that so we got the Armstrong drop ceiling folks together with our Unistrut folks
and now we actually build the drop ceiling into that Unistrut so it doesnt conflict
with our cable management in any way, shape, or form. So we can still have the
benefit of the hot air plenum without the operational complexity of trying to
calculate your cable management in advance so it doesnt conflict with the drop
ceilingits all one now.
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When I interview most Data Center designers I typically ask what they
17: Terremark
would do differently if they had an opportunity to go back and design
their facility again. That doesnt seem applicable here because youre
getting to design sections of the facility on an ongoing basis.
Excellent point. Thats exactly right, because as we do each floor we learn a little
bit more.
We have a facility up in Culpepper, Virginia, where were building individual
50,000 sq. ft. (4,645.2 sq. m) pods on 30 acres (12.1 hectares)in fact, we
just bought another 30 acres (12.1 hectares) so its going to be a 60 acre (24.3
hectares) piece of property. The original design on the original 30 was to build
five 50s. So A was our first one, we built B and C, were in the process of D. I tell
people that by the time we build E were going to want to burn A down.
Figure 17-3 Clients use cabinets up to 10 feet (3 meters) tall in Terremarks Data Center.
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Are there any early installations where you cant wait for them to
become vacant so that you can go back and re-design them because
you know much more now?
On our second floor, back when we were first just trying to stay alive and put
customers on the floor, we kind of allowed customers to go on the floor wherever
they wanted, however they wanted, oriented any way they wanted. So our cold
aisle/hot aisle orientation is not optimal in the way that we actually had some
customers come in and orient their servers. Theyre sucking air in from the hot
aisle and blowing hot air out into the cold aisle. Weve had to come in and take
them down and turn them around because we just couldnt tolerate that.
I would love to distribute the carriers around a little more. When we built out
the second floor we built from the west to the east so on one side of the building
weve got a whole bunch of 35 watts per sq. ft. (376.7 watts per sq. m) customers
and on the other side of the floor weve got a whole bunch of 400 watts per sq.
ft. (4,305.6 watts per sq. m) customers. Kind of would liked to have mixed that
up a little better, but when youre in a constrained revenue environment there are
certain things you have to do to just stay alive.
That makes sense. Even for companies with in-house Data Centers if
they undergo huge growth surges it requires discipline and foresight to
closely manage installations and not allow the drive to bring hardware
online rapidly to take precedence over everything else.
Youre absolutely right. Engineering and Operations, one group wants to stick to
the rules and the other ones say they cant stick to the rules. Its a constant battle.
Its a yin and yang sort of thing, but the business model will vet out what the
right answer is.
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Although youre building this facility incrementally its capacities are
17: Terremark
much larger overall than most other Data Centers. Did any challenges
come with designing and building a server environment on such an
immense scale?
To be honest with you I would say the oppositeit made it a bit easier. Because
we have so much power and so much cooling that we can spread around to so
many different places, that kind of flexibility has made it easy for us to bring
customers in and when they wanted something very unique show them the
unique things we could do for them. A lot of the other places they have been
to take a look (they are told), Here are your three choices, which one works for
you?
Weve got all this white space and all this pressure under the floor and all this
power distribution capability that we havent distributed yet. You tell me what
you want and we can work with you. Having so much capacity in terms of space,
power, and cooling to move aroundthe built-in flexibility to do thatits
proven to be pretty powerful. If we just had a bunch of 2,000 sq. ft. (185.8 sq. m)
rooms that would be a lot more difficult to do.
Your standby infrastructure includes to rotary UPS (uninterruptible

power supply) systems rather than conventional battery UPS systems.
While those are becoming more common for new Data Centers today,
they werent the default choice when your facility came online in
2001. What prompted Terremark to use them?
I can go on for hours about that. Quite honestly, in your book Grow a Greener
Data Center you address that pretty well: the smaller footprint, no need to
environmentally control at 77 degrees (25 Celsius) the large battery strings and to
replace the battery strings every 3 to 5 years to the tune of $100,000 per battery
system, et cetera, et cetera. All those things apply here.
When we talk to people who say Ive got to have my 10, 12, 15, 20 minutes of
UPS I always ask why. Because nobodys mechanical systems are on UPS. And
with the power density youve got in Data Centers nowadaysour floors start
heating up very, very quickly if we have a bump in our cooling. I dont think
we can go a minute before were going to have servers start shutting themselves
down or overheat. So if you have anything more than a minute of UPS its wasted
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money, wasted capital, wasted maintenance because the floor will not tolerate
anything more than a minute.

We say weve got 15, 20 seconds worth of flywheel backup at full load, which
were not at so we in fact have something larger than that. The generators here
start in 1.2 seconds. Generators at some of our other sites that are on a little
different topology start in 10 seconds. NEC (National Electric Code) requires
a generator to start in 10 seconds. Give yourself 50 percent margin, call it 15
seconds. Who needs more than that?
And if youve got proper redundancy built in to your systems, as all quality
Tier III/Tier IV sites have, you dont need anything more than that. You can
even tolerate failures and still keep the load up.
Your facility has satellite dishes on the roof that provide backup
connectivity in the event a problem occurs with your fiber cabling.
What can you tell me about them?
The dishes on the roof, there are two 16.4 m. (53.8 ft.) C-band dishes and then
the smaller one that looks more like a geodesic dome thats an 11 m. (36.1 ft.)
Ku-band dish. Those are all pointed to commercial satellites and on the other side
wherever the customer isI really cant talk too much about whos actually using
those servicesthey just put a small VSAT (very small aperature terminal satellite
communication system) up on the side of their building and if for any reason they
were to lose their terrestrial connectivitya fiber system went down, a central
office caught fire, or somethingwe can just switch over to the satellite modems.
Its obviously not at the same bandwidth but at a lower bandwidth reestablish that
connection to the VSAT terminal sitting on the side of their building going across
that commercial satellite.
Thats not a technology commonly used at a co-location facility, is it?

No, none of our other centers have done this. This one customer that Im
speaking of is unique and very risk averse. Even with our large customer basewe
have thousands of customers deployed at this facility here in Miamithere are
only two or three using this service and theyre all kind of linked. Its not common
at all.
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Was this something you had in mind during the initial construction of
17: Terremark
the facility?
No. Absolutely not. Weve learned so much from this facility. For instance, when
it was first built we never envisioned in a million years that the U.S. government
would want to be inside here, however in retrospect the Southern Command is
here (so) it makes perfectly good sense for them to be here.
The Southern Commands area of operations is Central and South America and
all those cable systems come into this building. So when theyre running it off
down there sometimes they need to hook up some terrestrial circuits in a real
hurry. If you want to hook up to something in a real hurrywhat they call zero
mile connectivityall the carriers are right here in the building. We put in a
cross-connect and youre up as long as the tail circuit is on the other end, youre
up and running right away. Were turning up circuits for the Southern Command
in hours that used to take them 6 to 9 months.
We never envisioned that before. Satellite dishes on the roof? Absolutely not. In
fact we had mapped out the entire roof because we dont have a lot of equipment
yard here. Everything has got to go on the roof. We had mapped out the entire
roof for 7,000 tons of chiller up there, how we would lay it out and how we
would grow into it.
When the need for the satellite dishes came around we had to consume an awful
lot of that real estate on the roof for the dishes. That was not planned. However,
all the dunnage was built onto the roof of the chillers and as luck would have
it we were able to saddle off the weight to the columns straight down to the
bedrock. We were able to pull it off. Again, that flexibility for these customers
that wanted it here. And now weve gone to a more vertical style chiller to account
for the lost square footage on the roof.
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Figure 17-4 Four inch (10.2 centimeter) conduits turn up into Terremarks building from an outside
underground vault. In the conduits are innerduct with fiber optic cable and pull strings
protruding from the innerduct.
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A lot of whats built at your facility is driven by the needs of specific
17: Terremark
customers, but do you feel that the design elements overall are
universal and can be installed in any Data Center or are they point
solutions that are only appropriate in certain circumstances?
There are point solutions, but these are things anybody can use anywhere and
they are being used anywhere and if they had floors this size they would be doing
it this way. Like I say, it gives you that kind of flexibility.
When I refer to point solutions, we do have some customers that are in 2,000 sq.
ft. (185.8 sq. m) suites. We do have some of those here, which incidentally were
originally designed to be the battery rooms and instead we went with rotary UPS
and we opened them up to be sold as private suites.
Sometimes it gets so hot in those rooms that if you put downflow coolers in
there you wouldnt be able to put any cabinets in because they were going to
consume so much power. So we went to cold aisle containment and in-row
cooler technology inside those rooms. That would be a point solution example of
how we accommodated high power density in a very small room, where we just
couldnt get enough air handlers in there to handle it directly.
With all of the retrofits and expansions that you have done along the
way, even though youre only working with one facility it seems like
you have actually built multiple Data Centers.
Youre absolutely right.
Do you have a Data Center design philosophy or general advice to offer

someone as they approach a Data Center project?
Yes and no.
We build co-location centers, which are a little different animal. So there are
things that I would say are true for co-location centers which would probably
be absolutely not true for an enterprise builder. For instance, I get all the Data
Center (industry) newsletters and when I read about the Facebook project in
Prineville, I drool at that. They own all those serverstheyre building their own
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servers with big heat syncs on them, really cool stuff. With a co-location center,
what are we going to tell our customers, We love to have you come here, well sell
you some square footage but youve got to build your own servers. Weve got to
meet everybodys needs.
If we had a customer come to us and say I need about 30,000 sq. ft. (2,787.1 sq.
m). I need you to fence that off for me, and I need you to help me come up with
a really, really energy efficient solution just for my 30,000 sq. ft. (2,787.1 sq. m),
what a ball that would be, because now all that flexibility isnt required anymore.
We can do anything we want inside that space because we know the hardware
thats going in there, all of the variables that we have to consider on the outside
somehow suddenly become fixed constants and we can design to that.
I love it when people say Ive seen Data Centers, theyre all the same. I disagree.
Data Centers are like fingerprints, theyre all so very different. You can class them
and categorize them but even within their categories they change theyre so very
different. In a co-location environment its very simple, were in the business of
selling space. We want to consume as little of it as possible yet keep it as flexible
as possible(those are) almost diametrically opposed, but nonetheless that is our
goal when we go out and look at white space to develop and grow. Use as little of
it as you have to for your own stuff but keep it as flexible as you possibly can. And
that doesnt work for an enterprise. That would be ridiculous.
Data Centers are like fingerprints, theyre all so very different.

You can class them and categorize them but even within their
categories they change theyre so very different.
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Thats interesting to hear. Data Center capacity was primarily defined
17: Terremark
by physical space for decades, until the 2000s when high-density
hardware made capacity about power and cooling for most companies.
But youre saying that for your business Data Center capacity still
comes down to physical space.
Correct. Well, well usually run out of power and cooling before well run out
of space but we are very, very careful about how we carve up our space for our
customers.
Im sure youve read about our cloud environment. Were very virtualized and
virtualizing increases your power density. Youre putting the same amount of
compute into a smaller area. It doesnt really save you a lot in the way of energy,
although some people are quoting about 15 percent of power savings by piling
it all over into one corner. But by piling it over in one corner just complicates
your cooling solution. Yet thats a good thing to do because it frees up more white
space that you can build more power and cooling and customers in to. Its a
dynamic.
When most people think of virtualization I dont know if they

necessarily think it being offered by a co-location facility. How does
virtualization play into your facility?
Well, virtualization on our side is on our own IT equipment. Youve got these
huge facilities full of IT equipment and people always ask us How many servers
are you supporting? I dont know. They dont belong to us. And when we
calculate our PUE and our efficiency people ask what are you doing on the IT
side of the equation? Nothing, because it doesnt belong to us. It belongs to our
customers.
It would behoove our customers to put in more efficient power supplies in their
servers so they had to buy less power from us. It would lower their opex and all
that does is really give us back power we can sell to somebody else. But we do
have our own IT infrastructure and thats the cloud, managed services as well as
our cloud computing.
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What we found is the cloud computing environment, which is a very small part
of our floor because its virtualized, it actually gives us an opportunity to do that

enterprise thing. Now we can take that IT equipment that belongs to usall our
customers care about is they can get into it and turn up compute, down compute,
storage up and down, network up and down. As long as they can get into it and
do what they need to do and it is up 100 percent of the time, they dont care what
were running our cold aisle at. They dont care how were managing that room in
there. So suddenly we now have the freedom to go in there and do some of the
things like theyre doing up in Prineville. In fact, if we wanted to build our own
servers to support that cloud environment we could do that, too. In this huge
floor weve got this little area over on the side which is our cloud footprint that
allows us to do some of that enterprise stuff. Its actually kind of exciting for us,
but we have very little of it on a percentage-of-floor basis.
You are, by necessity and design, getting to use a lot of different Data
Center technologies in your facility.
This is a playground.
Figure 17-5 An enclosed hosting area within Terremarks NAP of the Americas facility.
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Anything out there that you havent had a chance to employ that
17: Terremark
youre hoping to?
I keep reading about more and more of these places like the Yahoo! Data Center
in Lockport or Facebooks Data Center in Prineville using this evaporative cooling
where theyre actually building a center with no chillers. They arent installing any
chillers at all. We arent building up in those latitudes that allow us to do that, but
we do use waterside free cooling, airside free cooling. Obviously no free cooling
here in Miami but some of our other sites where free cooling makes some sense
were able to do that.
But we really havent been able to get into the evaporative cooling part of the
world yet. Its something were always looking at because its obviously going to
save us a great deal of money in terms of utility, a lot of opex savings. The other
side of it too, though, we dont evaporate any water at all. All of our chillers,
everything is air cooled. We see that as a risk. Right now all of the focus is on
Data Centers and the amount of energy they consume. Youre already starting to
read some things about how much water theyre consuming and where their water
sources are and where their backup water sources are. Its kind of nice when we
have a customer come to us and grill us about those sorts of things and we get to
the water piece and they ask Whats your backup water supply? We dont need
any water. We dont use water. We dont evaporate water. We have no evaporative
cooling.
So, right now we dont have that anywhere. Yet I keep reading about the benefits
of it and places with no chillers. How exciting is that? Would love to explore that
a little bit further, but currently were just not in any area dry enough to allow us
to do that.
Any final thoughts that you would offer someone approaching a Data
Center project? Any lessons learned as you have solved issues for
various customers needing Data Center capabilities?
When we solve them for our customers usually theyre coming to us because
theyre tired of trying to do it for themselves. But I do talk to and deal with other
companies and people in professional associations, people who are trying to still
roll their own, trying to do it for themselves.
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My only advice to them is, Data Centers have a lot of moving parts. People think
theyre very simple, theyre very straightforward and there really isnt that much
to it. Even if you just break it down electrically and mechanically, there are a lot
of moving parts, a lot of options. Theres no one model thats perfect for anybody.
There are tradeoffs, there are pros and cons. They really need to partner with
somebody else who has got that kind of experience or take the time to develop
that experience on their own through their own study to really make those kinds
of decisions for themselves. I have seen so many Data Centers designed for an
enterprise that did not take into account anything to do with their business model
or what it is they were trying to do. And they were just miserably disappointed
with the product that they got because it doesnt support their business because
nobody took that into account.
Even some of your large companies out there will just go to a major A&E firm
and say I need a 100,000 sq. ft. (9,290.3 sq. m) Data Center. The firm says Ok,
well what for? I dont know, I just need it. And they get a Data Center and its
built to Tier III or something to that effect and they get in there and say, This
isnt working for us at all. Its not shaped right, its not powered right, it doesnt
have the flexibility. Yet all those things seem to come out afterwards, and thats
because the people doing the buying and the people doing the building didnt
shake hands very well.
There are just a lot of moving parts, a lot of things to consider. I love it when
someone comes to me and says Ah, a Data Center is a Data Center. Yeah, there
are some differences but in the end theyre all the same. I just smile and say My
God I hope you never build one.
339
17: Terremark
Figure 17-6 Distributing cooling beneath a raised floor and strategically placing perforated floor tiles
gives Terremark maximum flexibility to support customer deployments.
Figure 18-1 The Yahoo! Computing Coop in Lockport, New York employs no chillers or mechanical
refrigeration. Images provided courtesy of Yahoo!.
Chapter 18
Yahoo!
Essential Details
ORGANIZATION: Yahoo!
Location: Lockport, New York
Online: September 2010
Notable features: No chillers or mechanical refrigeration. Airside economization and evaporative cooling
system. Hot aisle containment. Rotary UPS. Shared space for electrical and IT infrastructure.
Time to design and build: 9 months from ground-breaking to commissioning
Size: 190,000 sq. ft. (17,651.6 sq. m) total
Power: 20 MW
Tier: Varies
Cabinet locations: 2,800
Power Density: Undisclosed
Infrastructure Delivery: Power, cabling, and cooling infrastructure are delivered overhead
Structural loading: Undisclosed
Fire suppression system: Dual interlock, pre-action dry pipe
Twenty miles east of Niagara Falls sits a cluster of pre-fabricated
Background
metal structures. With louvers on two sides, angled roofs and a

cupola rising above their centerline, they are oriented to maximize
space on the property and take advantage of prevailing winds.
The buildings were designed with a nod to chicken coops and their
natural ventilation, but shelter powerful computing equipment
rather than poultry. Welcome to the Yahoo! Computing Coop.
Thanks in part to western New Yorks cool weather and Yahoo!s
willingness to exceed ASHRAE (American Society of Heating,
Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers) temperature and humidity guidelines, the facility operates
without chillers or refrigeration. An evaporative cooling system is in place but typically used less than 3 percent
of the year.
The online search giant created the coop design after testing hardware in extreme environmental conditions
and challenging a fundamental design issue: could they build an effective Data Center without mechanical
refrigeration? Doing so has resulted not only in reduced capital and operational costs, but also improved
availability by not relying on a complex mechanical system.
Yahoo! has subsequently deployed the design, which earned a $9.9 million sustainability grant from the U.S.
Department of Energy, at Data Centers in the state of Washington and Switzerland.
Yahoo!s Christina Page, Global Director, Energy and Sustainability Strategy; Nick Holt, Director Global Data
Center Facilities Operations; Paul Bonaro, Data Center Facilities Manager in Lockport, New York, and Bob Lytle,
Data Center Development Project Manager, discuss the design and operation of the Yahoo! Computing Coop.
The Interview
What factors prompted you to locate the Data Center in western
New York?
Paul: One of the criteria the site selection committee looked at was the weather.
To implement this design requires a certain weather profile. That was the number
one driver in being able to deploy this technology. The other was proximity to
renewable energy and hydro power. That was a major factor. And a location where
all the other criteria that would go into a Data Center site could be met.
Chris: Access to power that was both green and affordable was a key component.
Some other factors were network connectivity from multiple providers and
reasonably priced land. Tax benefits and the first-rate workforce present in the
state of New York also played an important role.
343
Thats interesting. You didnt choose the site and then come up with
18: Yahoo!
the design. You planned to use this design and went looking for a
place where you could leverage the climate to accomplish it.
Chris: Correct.
This Data Center is best known for how its cooled. Can you walk me
through how thats done?
Paul: Essentially theres an air handling system for the computer room segments
that takes in outside air, filters the air, and then there are fans that move it into
the room. That air handler makes use of return air from the IT equipment to mix
with outside air to achieve the set point. Thats all done through building controls
and automation with outside air and return air damper systems.
The only means of cooling that we use is the evaporative cooling system, which
we deploy when we exceed our desired set point. The evaporative cooling
system is a passive cooling system that uses tap waterno artificial means of
pressurization or anything like thatand evaporative media to cool the air thats
coming in through that air handler.
That creates the cold aisle temperature or inlet temperature to the racks that we
desire, and then we use hot aisle containment. Hot aisle containment captures the
heat off of the back of the cabinets and discharges it through the top of what you
may have seen as the chicken coop in pictures of the site. That air is not recycled
unless we want to use it to warm the air in the cooler months to reach our set
point.
I understand you were very precise with the cooling design, down to
the point of how the buildings are oriented so as to take advantage of
how the wind blows across the property.
Nick: The reasoning for the buildings being tilted like they are was actually two-
fold. One was position on the land that made the most effective use of the land
itself. Additionally, you didnt want a building that dumped hot air onto itself.
Positioning the building in a certain way would allow the prevailing winds to
push the exhaust heat away from the building. When you placed the building you
344
wanted to make sure you didnt locate it where the prevailing winds would push
the hot exhaust into the intake. So the alignment of the building was based off
prevailing winds but it wasnt a major design factor, but rather a positioning factor.
Figure 18-2
Yahoo! positioned
its Data Center
buildings to
maximize space on
the property and
to ensure exhaust
heat was blown
away from the
structures.
Ive seen both hot and cold aisle containment used in Data Centers.
What caused you to favor hot aisle containment?
Nick: As you go through the history of the change of the Data Center model
from more of an open floor plan to more of the hot and cold aisle configurations,
initially cold aisle configurations were set up because the distribution of the cold
air was via raised floor, under that floor to the front of the aisles. As soon as raised
floors went away, and we moved away from distribution of air under the floor tiles
to air from in front of the servers, it became possible to do hot aisle containment.
So, a big change that came from cold aisle containment to hot aisle containment
was because we were no longer distributing with a raised floor. That allowed you
to open the front of the servers up and not have to wonder where the air was
coming from specifically but wonder where its coming from fundamentally,
because as you open the room up the whole room became the cold aisle versus
just right in front of the cabinet. So, that was the reasoning behind transitioning
from cold aisle containment to hot aisle containment.
345
Was the decision to forgo a raised floor tied to the use of the
18: Yahoo!
cooling design?
Nick: The reasoning for removal of the raised floor was that it was not needed.
Designs that do not have under floor distribution of air can still use raised floor
we do that in some locations, for cabling and for infrastructure under the floor.
But you can do cabling above the cabinets, so in most cases raised floors arent
needed.
Paul: Its a huge savings on construction, too. Massive.
Nick: And structurally as well. You had to make all these cabinet positions be
structurally sound on a raised floor and its a lot easier to do it on slab.
Bob: And when youre building from a green field you actually have the option
of running it all in conduits under the slab, which you wouldnt be able to do in,
say, an existing building which might make it tougher to go with a non-raised
floor. You would be running so much overhead.
Do you consider the design elements of this facility to be universal?

Could anyone implement this in a Data Center, or is the design meant
to serve a particular function in a particular location?
Nick: Heres my input regarding the design and implementation. It has to be
done in climates that accept outside air economization. Period. Thats the bottom
line. It has to meet the fundamentals, to utilize the air outside.
Let me discuss co-location. You as a co-location provider can provide a YCC
(Yahoo Computing Coop) pod to somebody. You could sell pods versus rows
and racks.
The YCC building design is universal. Its not just enterprise companies,
its not Fortune 500. It can be your mom and pop co-los that can use the
same technology. Its really just about understanding the fundamentals of air
distribution and also the dynamics of thermodynamics.
Paul: And it can work on any scale. You can go down as small as you want.
The building is essentially a modular design just repeated over and over again. It
doesnt have to be a multi-megawatt facility to utilize the techniques.
346
Is there a maximum power density that this design can accommodate,

leveraging outside air, either per cabinet or on a watts per square foot
basis?
Nick: Id say no at this point. Because youre controlling the cold aisles, but
the (ultimate) control point is the hot aisle. So as long as your hot aisle doesnt
overheat then, yeah, you can deploy anything you want in there.
What was the inspiration for the Data Centers cooling design? I love
the thought of someone at Yahoo! sitting at their desk, looking out the
window and suddenly thinking of a chicken coop, but was it that easy?
Nick: Ill take you on a short journey of how we got there. We start with YTC
(Yahoo Thermal Cooling), which is our design regarding cold aisle encapsulation
with cooling coils. Basically, take the cooling coil out of a CRAC (computer room
air conditioner) unit, place it between the two rows of servers, and let the servers
move the air. That design was based off of getting rid of CRAC units because
CRAC units of course draw a lot of energy. They take up a lot of space and theyre
maintenance intensive.
That was to resolve an issue regarding CRAC units. When we went into the
YCC design the basis was basically like a circus tent. Why do we need all these
components that we have inside the Data Center? Why cant we just use the fresh
air thats outside? Utilizing different tests that we did by placing cabinets outside
and all these other tests that we completed prior to the mockup of the actual
design, we decided we didnt need all those components that currently were inside
a legacy Data Center. It was really trying to think outside the box and decide can
we do this? Well, we determined that we could.
We also determined that we didnt need all the control points, the stringent
humidity requirements, the stringent temperature requirements. They were no
longer needed and were a legacy from punch card days when keeping humidity
between 45 and 55 percent was required to keep punch cards from sticking.
That wasnt required anymore. As long as we keep a consistent temperature and
a tempered humidity we were going to be fine. And thats what drove us to this
design.
347
18: Yahoo!
Figure 18-3 Power, cooling, and cabling infrastructure are delivered overhead to cabinet locations in
Yahoos Lockport Data Center.
Was it a case of realizing that hardware is robust enough that you

dont need to follow strict operational guidelines?
Nick: See, we still stay within the guidelines. The manufacturers specs are the
manufacturers specs. Its just that we realized that those specs are pretty wide
open. When you tell me you can run a server at very high temperatures, then Im
going to run it that high.
Thats additionally the internal distribution of the electrical system. If the
manufacturer tells operators that a PDU (power distribution unit) can operate
at high temperatures, then we push the equipment temperatures to the higher
temperatures.
348
That drove the industry to a) recognize some great opportunities that were
available and then b) it was an opportunity for the server manufacturers to

understand that 72 degrees (22.2 Celsius) isnt always the best and required. Now,
granted, at 72 degrees (22.2 Celsius) the servers do run at a lower temperature,
which makes them run at a lower load, but its not required for operation 24
hours a day, seven days a week.
Paul: There was the wide discrepancy between the server manufacturer operating
ranges and the ASHRAE guidelines. You see ASHRAE consistently expanding
their guidelines to accommodate designs like this and I think this just took that a
few steps further.
Having looked to the manufacturers specifications during design, now

that the Data Center is operational have you had any hardware that
hasnt performed under those conditions?
Nick: Weve found no gearwere talking strictly servers, were not talking tape
libraries, media, stuff like that, thats a different storyweve found no server
thats not able to withstand the temperatures and humidity ranges that were
operating in, no.
How long did it take to design and build the first phase of the site?
Nick: We went from YTC design straight in to YCC. So, for the design length of
time is kind of a fluid number, because of the different types of testings that we
did complete. To go from a fundamental theory to an actual design was probably
six months and then youve got to work yourself in to engineering and all that
stuff to get an actual design.
What did some of that testing entail?

Nick: The local testing, what we did basically is a mockup. We mocked this
entire building up and basically had inlet restrictions. We created restrictions with
filters and stuff like that and laid the configuration of the racks a certain way that
we wanted the air to flow past them. And we tried the atomization of air with
water, which didnt work. Basically it got the servers all wet like a rainforest.
349
We then went to a media which is like a swamp cooler media, versus the atomized
18: Yahoo!
air concept that saturated everything, and found that when we tested the swamp
cooler approach everything worked great. During that day we did two tests. One
was heat the building up really, really high, to about 104 degrees (40 Celsius),
and then allowed the moisture to cool the air. We additionally added humidity to
the air to see the fundamentals of what happened at the server level with elevated
humidity as well as elevated temperatures. We were able to get a full swing of data
from from one extreme to the next extreme.
Additionally, we tested the low temperature side, using recirculation. When you
put in cold air to a Data Center thats actually worse than putting in hot air,
because if you have a Data Center sitting in high temperatures and you blast it
with low temperature air youre going to break some stuff. So, the solder joints
will be sitting at high temperature and youll hit it with extremely cold air, the
solder joints will retract and the servers will break themselves.
So testing the high temperature as well as the low temperature as well as the
air distribution flow, in a controlled environment with data collection, were all
important.
Did you find a sweet spot? Conditions that were ideal to operate within
that you then wanted to try and find in nature?
Nick: Its not so much a temperature you create; its the consistency you create.
You can run a server at 90 degrees (32.2 Celsius) inlet if youd like, but you need
to do that continuously and consistently. Dont go up and down, up and down,
up and down. You can run a server at 50 degrees (10 Celsius) but dont do that
inconsistently. Its all about consistent temperatures is what really is the saver.
Paul: Like Nick was saying, controlling the rate of change is obviously a big
concern when youre talking about outside air. I described that recirculation
feature before where we can hold a set point. That rate of change is very easy for
us to control during most conditions throughout the year. And then when we
are subject to the rate of change that the outside air throws at us, its really not an
issue at that point, which would be more toward your summer months.
We also find that in western New York, for most of the year you can run at
however low a temperature you want in the computer rooms without having to
increase mechanical loads, which is kind of a unique feature of a building of this
design. Whereas a server might consume less power at lower inlet temperatures,
350
if the server fans are driving off of server inlet temperature, most Data Centers
would have to increase their mechanical horsepower to drop that inlet

temperature. Here in Lockport, we can mix the temperature to wherever we want
without increasing any mechanical loads. The dampers just adjust to a different
open or closed position. Its kind of a unique feature were taking advantage of
here, to find like you said that sweet spot for a computer room and for the servers
within it to operate.
And this still is well within what would be considered a traditional kind of
environment for them temperature-wise. In the summer we dont get extreme
dry bulb temperatures too often. But what we do look at that affects a lot of
our systems here would be the outside air dew point. Because we lack humidity
control, were subject to whatever the outside air dew point is, so monitoring that
and understanding how that will affect our building systems is more important in
a facility like this than it would be in a traditional Data Center.
Figure 18-4
A worker stands
inside the cupola
atop one of the
Yahoo! Computing
coops. Hardware
exhaust is
discharged out of
the building from
here.
You obviously wanted this Data Center to be energy efficient. What

other design principles did Yahoo! follow when designing the facility?
Nick: We wanted to operate it with the least amount of mechanical load possible.
We wanted to basically eliminate cooling. Thats the bottom line. It sounds
simplistic but that was really the design principle, just completely eliminate
cooling.
Paul: Along with that, the elimination of complex mechanical systems. Once you
identify all of the failure modes of the new design, your availability is increased
because youre not dependent on complex mechanicals. Ive been in Data Centers
where its winter outside but theyve overheated because a chilled water pump
351
failed. You cant just open a window in those kinds of Data Centers. But that is
18: Yahoo!
what we do herewe can open those windows.
If youre asking about availability perspective, thats one of those things that I
dont think you had to have this design criteria per se because it was inherent
within the reduction of that complexity.
Chris: Frequently reducing your complexity increases reliability; it also reduces
cost. That was one of the things here. Cost effectiveness and reliability were
priority one. I think people have this mental model that when youre talking
about energy efficiency or green, its going to be more expensive up front and
you really have to sweat the payback period. In some cases, especially with the
simplicity of design, it can be cheaper and faster to build.
Youre supporting this Data Center with a rotary UPS (uninterruptible

power supply). What prompted you to implement that rather than a
conventional battery UPS?
Nick: If you look at a typical battery system, youve probably got three
fundamentals that are consistent. One is the size of the installation. Weve
addressed that with reducing from 10 minute batteries to 5 minute batteries,
which was just a fundamental reduction in battery capacity, the amount of
batteries you have deployed. When we went over to a rotary systemits called a
Hitec, which is basically an induction couplingyou retract the kinetic energy
out of the flywheel.
We were familiar with rotary power systems and had used them before. We liked
the efficiencies with them and we looked at a couple different manufacturers and
determined that Active Power is what we wanted to deploy. Our first Data Center
we deployed it at was one of the largest deployments of that product in one single
configuration in the world at the time. Then when we went to Lockport, we went
toward a more distributed system.
Paul: The flywheels are associated with smaller loads than you typically see.
Typically, in the past when theyve been deployed, you see megawatt or greater
chunks of flywheels grouped together and feeding out to large sections of
computer room. The units here are distributed more in like what would be
traditionally seen as a PDU-sized segment of power. This for us reduces some of
the risk associated with operating those systems by virtue of affecting a smaller
chunk of power with each transfer or whatever were doing with the system, such
as maintenance. It also fits into the modular philosophy of the building very well.
352
Youve got a group of equipment associated with one system, associated with a
segment of the cooling system. It makes it very repeatable here. It allows you
to scale in a more controlled fashion, versus building out a massive segment of
power and then filling it up we can reduce the time needed to deploy a segment
of this thing.
Were there any surprises that came up during design or construction?

Nick: Yeah, it actually worked. Some of the testing we did I looked at and I
thought to myself, Wow, theres no way. Then you would look at it and think
Hey, thats pretty cool. There were a lot of people in a big room looking at each
other, thinking Wow. This actually works. It was enlightening.
Paul: Last summer would have been our first summer really operating with a
significant load in the building. If you look at the weather history for western
New York last year it was a very, very hot summer. It was like the third hottest
July on record. So right away we got to validate the design in what you would call
extreme or design conditions.
I think that was fortunate, that we werent living with something for three or four
or five years and then got hit with something extreme and maybe at that point
had to question how we do things. It was still relatively new. The team, were
constantly learning about the building, obviously, but at that point we knew we
were going to have some challenges in the summer just trying to figure out how
best to tune equipment and to optimize equipment. We were already in that
mode. We had a lot of the resources available at our headquarters with Nick and
the team there, as well as members of the design team that were still engaged. It
was nice to have a challenge like that come along right away.
Nick: That was one of the blessings that we got. We got that early enough in the
design that we were able to play with it before we were playing with it with a full
deck.
Chris: Paul has a really nice slide summarizing some of the extreme events of July
2011. Im looking at it right now. It mentions things like it was the third warmest
July in 141 years of data, warmest single month in 56 years, 30 of 31 days over 80
degrees Fahrenheit (26.7 Celsius) high temperature.
It was like Mother Nature gave us a little test run. That was pretty extreme, and
the Data Center functioned really well.
353
Figure 18-5 A view from inside one of the Yahoo! Computing Coops contained hot aisles. 18: Yahoo!
354
This is a still a relatively young facility, but if you had to go back and
do the project again is there anything you would do differently?

Paul: We live with it every day and, there are small things always, but I wouldnt
say anything with any of the components that were selected or the sequence of
operations and things like that. Were constantly changing, but there is nothing
that we would change fundamentally or that is a major hindrance for us operating
the facility.
Once you kind of reset your mindsetyouve been working in a traditional
building for that long, you can step away from that and look at it with a fresh
perspectiveI wouldnt say that theres anything that we would really change
too much.
Nick: This design and this build were done by operating engineers. Not by
design engineers. Not by construction managers. This was done by people
that actually operate Data Centers. And so with that in mind we were able to
identify the stuff that we already know about. We didnt walk out and say Could
somebody design us a Data Center? We were actually the operators that designed
the Data Center.
As an operator we know the fundamentals that were challenged against and
we were able to incorporate those in the design. Additionally, we brought Paul
Bonaros team on board so early in the process that they were able to incorporate
the operational side of the Data Center immediately. Not We built a Data
Center and then Here, go run it. Paul and his team were incorporated Day
One. As soon as we identified Paul as the guy for the Data Center he was put
right into the process with full authority to make decisions. I think that was one
of the fundamental things that made it this way; it was built by operators.
355
What steps were taken in this project to coordinate IT and Facilities
18: Yahoo!
goals? If youre trying to design a Data Center without a conventional
cooling system, that presumably requires buy-in from both IT
that owns the hardware and Facilities that maintains the physical
infrastructure.
Nick: Since 2005, we as an organization have run IT and Facilities under the
same VP. Theres no win-loss. A lot of our designs, going back to YTC designs and
also the cold and hot aisle configurations, come from a true partnership between
Facilities and IT. A facilities manager does the infrastructure and Site Operations
does the servers and those two sit in the same office of that building.
Theres no Oh, its your fault, Oh, I need this, Oh I cant get that because
Facilities Its one voice, one answer. And we involve IT in the design. Hell,
the servers move the air. Part of our design incorporates the IT side because thats
how we move the air. The fans are only to get it past the filters if we need it.
And during recirculation thats not even needed. So, this was a true partnership
between IT and Facilities from conception to commissioning.
Paul: I would say the same thing on the project side. Ive been involved in
construction projects beforenot in the capacity I was here, buta lot of times
your decisions are made by a design engineer who is not an operator, who hasnt
been an operator. Not that theyre wrong, but without an operators input to
challenge some of the assumptions if youre not involved in the process at that
point you may get handed a facility where theres a disconnect between the
operating principles and the design principles.
Bob, being the project manager, was really able to facilitate a lot of that. The
decisions that were made during the construction phase and getting the input
from the operations teams so that the decisions made were what the operations
team wanted to operate. Not what the mechanical design engineer or electrical
design engineer wanted to implement because that was their principles. More so
than any other project that Ive worked on it really integrated into the design phase
and so you knew what you were getting at the end, which is almost a luxury.
356
Nick: Heres an example. People stand around a table and say Lets go build
a Data Center and then they hire someone to do it. And what happens is,
that person that actually designs your Data Center is a guy that sits in a room
whacking on a keyboard on a BMS (building management system) that decides
how youre going to operate your building. Thats reality. Reality is that somebody
who has a history of building legacy systemsif he even built a Data Center
beforeis the one coding your BMS or coding your controls.
We took that away. We said You know what? We want control of that, and we
want to be able to say how its going to work. That was a fundamental design
change for us. We took total control. And we didnt allow somebody else to come
in and decide what they felt we needed to do. We just did it.
It was a change in the industry. It was very complicated at first. This guy was
saying What about my years of experience? Well I dont care. Because I dont
need to know how a fundamental Data Center works, I need to understand how
my Data Center works. And so thats how that kind of change came about.
Chris: I think an ongoing theme is the idea that the status quo isnt necessarily
going to work for the Data Center of the future. And yet another good quality
of the modular design is being able to continue to push the status quo. But, the
status quo is tied to a lot of operations systems and BMS to a lot of things. And
so challenging in design in some ways is just the first step.
Any final advice that you would offer someone who is taking on a
major Data Center project?
Nick: Yeah. Get the operators involved. Thats my best advice. What happens is
the design engineers design things the way they have done for years. So get the
operations team involved early.
The status quo isnt necessarily going to work for the Data Center
of the future.
357
Figure 18-6
18: Yahoo!
The U.S. Department of Energy awarded Yahoo! a
$9.9 million sustainability grant for its computing
coop design.
Figure 18-7
Outside air is drawn in, filtered, and then moved into the Data Center
with fans.
Figure 18-8
There are no raised floors in the data halls, saving material and
construction costs.
Figure 18-9
Yahoo! made sure to involve its Data
Center operators when developing its
computing coop.
Image by Christian Richters Photography.
Appendix
Although this book is aimed at a general audience, a handful of Data Center
industry terms crept into the conversations. Here is a brief overview of them, and
why theyre significant.
AvailabilityA Data Centers availability is the time the facility is operational

and capable of providing services.
Delta TDifference in temperature. For Data Center infrastructure, the term is
typically used in reference to the difference in the inlet and outlet temperatures of
a cooling device or piece of computing hardware.
Hot and cold aislesA layout of Data Center server rows in which inlets on
the front of IT hardware face an aisle designated for delivering cool air, while the
hardwares exhaust is vented into a different aisle.
POP (Point of Presence)A facility containing servers, networking devices, and
call aggregators that is an access point to the Internet.
PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness)A metric for Data Center efficiency,
calculated by dividing a facilitys overall power draw by the amount of power
used solely by the Data Centers IT equipment. The lower (closer to 1.0) a Data
Centers PUE, the more of its power is used for computing.
Rack unitA unit of measurement for the height of internal installable space
within a server cabinet. One rack unit = 1.75 in. (4.45 cm). Abbreviated as U, as
in a "1U server" or a "42U server cabinet."
TiersA classification system for server environments based on their physical
infrastructure redundancy, developed by the Data Center industry group the
Uptime Institute. A Tier I Data Center has non-redundant infrastructure
and a single distribution path; a Tier II Data Center has redundant capacity
components and a single distribution path. A Tier III Data Center has redundant
capacity components and multiple, independent distribution paths. A Tier IV
Data Center has multiple, independent, physically isolated capacity components
and distribution paths.
360
UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply)A standby power supply used to

keep Data Center computing equipment operating for a short period of time
if primary (utility) power fails. Conventional UPS systems consist of batteries;
others employ a spinning flywheel.
VESDA (Very Early Smoke Detection Array)An air-sampling device that uses
a laser to check for smoke particles.

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Douglas Alger-The Art of The Data Center - A Look Inside The World's Most Innovative and Compelling Computing Environments-Prentice Hall (2012)

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The Art of

Upper Saddle River, NJ Boston Indianapolis San Francisco

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is on file. Publishing

Chapter 1: ACT Chapter 2: Affordable Chapter 3: Bahnhof

Chapter 4: Barcelona Chapter 5: Calcul Chapter 6: Cisco

Chapter 7: Citi Chapter 8: Digital Chapter 9: eBay

Chapter 13: Intel Chapter 14: IO Chapter 15: NetApp

Chapter 16: Syracuse Chapter 17: Terremark Chapter 18: Yahoo!

Welcome to the engine rooms of the Internet.

Who Should Read This Book

How This Book Is Organized

About the Author

grade for its Data Center.

What we elected to do was establish it on a separate property that we owned

We were certainly aware of LEED. The architect/engineers on the project had

A perception in the building industrybeyond just the Data Center

the LEED-Platinum rating?

Other things where we faced some challenges or opportunities, LEED framework

What about how your geothermal system was designed allowed it be

For instance, a green roof is commonly associated with a LEED building. We

cooling below a raised floor. Did anything drive that particular

What did you have to do to make the facility tornado-resistant?

What suggestions would you offer to someone else embarking on a

Ultimately this is the owners project. You have to be

Im happy with how we have done there. That requires cross-discipline

Data Center. Its only available for a limited number

2: Affordable Internet Services Online (AISO)

How are you storing the energy that you collect?

We had to reduce our power consumption and be very

So, you think they should directly incorporate alternative energy in

their Data Center designs instead?

Was there a particular challenge that you had to overcome in order

2: Affordable Internet Services Online (AISO)

First thing we had to do was completely change the way we run

looking to put a solar energy system in place to power their Data

What made you decide to locate your Data Center in Romoland?

2: Affordable Internet Services Online (AISO)

2: Affordable Internet Services Online (AISO)

I could never go back to physical servers again.

2: Affordable Internet Services Online (AISO)

Turning to your electrical system, your standby generator uses propane

You previously mentioned the rainwater collection system at your site.

Several of the physical infrastructure elements in your Data Center

2: Affordable Internet Services Online (AISO)

Are there any up-and-coming Data Center technologies that you

is forgiven the urge to hum the theme music of their

Obviously, having to blast through solid rock to expand your usable

space is a major challenge. Were there other challenges specific to

I imagine it was difficult just bringing some of the traditional Data

outside air, with the Data Center being embedded in a mountain

anything that you would do differently?

I presented to the bank...and I told them that we were going to

Youve anticipated my next question somewhat. Not everyone would

entertain the idea of putting a greenhouse or these other features in

Figure 3-8 The Bahnhof Data Centers electrical room.

building that could be quickly modified to house the

4: Barcelona Supercomputing Center

So you needed to install the supercomputer in just four months. How

time to bring all of that together.