Innovation drives datacentre sustainability

THE GLOBAL demand for datacentres is being driven by cloud-based services, AI, automation and digitisation. These data handling facilities house large amounts of IT infrastructure and require high levels of power to run the equipment and to cool it. The latest servers are more energy efficient and able to operate at higher temperatures. As major consumers of power and land, data centre operators have the responsibility to aggressively reduce emissions and lessen environmental impacts wherever possible. In addition, datacentres frequently contain critically important data, and it is not uncommon for 99.999% uptime to be a requirement. The monitoring and control requirements are therefore comprehensive and stringent.  

Partners in innovation

Vantage Data Centers powers, cools, protects and connects the technology of the world’s well-known hyperscalers, cloud providers and large enterprises.Vaisala's development project was initially prompted by the sustainability requirements of the new Vantage campuses. "We are constantly looking for ways to improve both the efficiency and sustainability of our datacentres," explained Eugenio Lukianov, principal automation manager, EMEA at Vantage Data Centers. "Due to their accuracy and reliability, Vaisala sensors are frequently specified in the requirements of our new or refurbished datacentres worldwide. Many of our facilities are large, and the sensor cabling requirement can be enormous, so we were keen to find a better solution."

A plug and play solution

Engineers from Vaisala and Vantage found that the amount of cabling required at datacentres could be significantly reduced if the sensors could be re-designed to be daisy-chained, rather than each having their own individual cable.

"In order to facilitate the daisy-chain, it was necessary for the sensors to be ‘plug and play’ which made installation so much easier," Lukianov continued. "The sensor cables are initially coiled in the roof space, and then, once the servers are installed, the sensors are simply dropped into place. This modular approach also simplifies ongoing maintenance because any damaged sensors or cables can be quickly and easily swapped out."

The cable reduction potential of the daisy-chain solution is very significant. For example, a single 100m datacentre aisle, with 30 instruments at 3m spacing, each with a dedicated cable and a 3m cable drop would require about 1695 metres of cable, which is more than a mile of cable! In contrast, if the same aisle is equipped with the daisy-chain solution, the cabling drops to just 187 metres, representing an 89% drop in carbon footprint.

The benefits of daisy chain systems

Lukianov believes that the benefits extend beyond long-term accuracy and energy efficiency. "The modularity of the daisy-chain saves time and money during installation and maintenance, and with our partners and system integrators utilising Vaisala technology, we have been able to reduce the volume of spares and training that are required," he stated. The daisy chain systems have now been installed for up to two years in UK campuses. 

Anu Kätkä is product manager at Vaisala 

For more information:

www.vaisala.com

Tel: +44 121 683 5620