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This article was published in ASHRAE Journal, February 2013. Copyright 2013 ASHRAE. Posted at www.ashrae.org. This article may not be copied and/or distributed
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Internal IT Load
Profile Variability
T
By Donald L. Beaty, P.E., Fellow ASHRAE
and great return on investment by right sizing for the IT load in data
ASHRAE Journal
Configuration
Description
Model
Condition
Typical Heat
Release
Airflow
Nominal
(m3/h)
cfm
(m3/h)
Minimum
420
26
44
40
68
Full
600
30
51
45
76
Typical
450
26
44
40
68
February 2013
center may only see high Internet traffic for eight hours of any
given day.
Weather-related events such as natural disasters seem to
have more of a roller coaster type of impact on Internet traffic.
Typically, surges occur before and after the event as people seek
information, but drop during the event, presumably caused by
interruptions to service because of significant surges in demand.
In summary, each data center has its own unique traffic profile, and each of those profiles can be subject to fluctuations of
disruptive proportions. These fluctuations often are accounted
for in the installed capacity of the server systems, specific to
each site, and are something that is constantly managed.
Hardware Virtualization
The Internet of Things and its limitless potential load impact
notwithstanding, Internet traffic fluctuations and the idle server
power of 50% still being the maximum server power has meant
that it was common to see peak demands in a data center as a
small percentage of the connected load such as 25% (similar to
other areas of the building industry). In other words, to make
the Internet work for the fluctuations and customer demands,
it has been built with large margins so that it works under all
operating conditions. However, this has proved an inefficient
use of energy, as well as capital.
As a result, there has been an overall trend towards virtualization of servers and network making them far more flexible for
fluctuating demands, but also reducing the stranded capacity
associated with servers with one or more applications that are
seldom used or at low demands.
Virtualization started on the mainframe computers back in
the 1960s. Essentially virtualization at the server level means
a change from physical servers to virtual servers. From the
perspective of the software applications, virtualization means
73
DATA CENTERS
that a single physical server can become many virtual servers
and/or many physical servers can become a single virtual server.
The purpose in doing so is to recapture stranded capacity and
better use. By virtualizing a server, many applications now can
be used on that single server at once or on demand.
Organizations that have moved towards hardware virtualization have reported a reduction in quantity of servers (as much as
a 10:1 reduction for some). In some cases, this has driven major
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74
Big Data
Another data center industry topic to
consider is big data. Searching online for
big data will result in big number of
web page returns describing the challenges
with being able to effectively handle the
large volumes of data that something like
the Internet of Things can yield. Handling
this data includes its capture, storage,
search, sharing and analysis.
This is a really hot topic that has recently caused disproportionately large
growth in the data storage portion of the
data center industry. It is another indication of the high variability and unpredictability of the data center load. Storage
servers, unlike compute servers, tend to
have a flatter load profile and are working
to counteract the fluctuations caused by
virtualized servers in some data centers.
Conclusion
It is an incredibly difficult task to try to
predict the load profile of a data center,
which makes it incredibly difficult to
right-size the cooling system to achieve
optimum energy efficiency. The right
solution for one data center will not work
well for another since each has very unique
business models and traffic demands.
It is important to understand all of the
variables that influence the load, both now
and in the future, and to ensure designs
are adaptive, flexible and receptive to
potentially frequent and prolific change.
By gaining these insights, steps can be
taken to right-size the infrastructure so
that superior energy efficiency can be
more readily obtained.
Donald L. Beaty, P.E., is president of
DLB Associates Consulting Engineers, in
Eatontown, N.J. He is publications chair of
ASHRAE TC 9.9.
A S H R A E J o u r n a l
February 2013