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A data center (
American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the most widely spoken language in the United States and in most circumstances i ...
) or data centre (
British English British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Lexico, Oxford Dictionaries, "English language, English as used in Great Britain, as distinct from that used elsewhere". More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in ...
)See
spelling differences Despite the various English dialects spoken from country to country and within different regions of the same country, there are only slight regional variations in English orthography, the two most notable variations being British and American ...
.
is a
building A building, or edifice, is an enclosed structure with a roof and walls standing more or less permanently in one place, such as a house or factory (although there's also portable buildings). Buildings come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and fu ...
, a dedicated space within a building, or a group of buildings used to house
computer systems A computer is a machine that can be programmed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as programs. These program ...
and associated components, such as
telecommunication Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that fe ...
s and storage systems. Since IT operations are crucial for
business continuity Business continuity may be defined as "the capability of an organization to continue the delivery of products or services at pre-defined acceptable levels following a disruptive incident", and business continuity planning (or business continuity a ...
, it generally includes redundant or backup components and infrastructure for
power supply A power supply is an electrical device that supplies electric power to an electrical load. The main purpose of a power supply is to convert electric current from a source to the correct voltage, current, and frequency to power the load. As a ...
, data communication connections, environmental controls (e.g.,
air conditioning Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C or AC, is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment (sometimes referred to as 'comfort cooling') and in some cases also strictly controlling ...
, fire suppression), and various security devices. A large data center is an industrial-scale operation using as much electricity as a small town.


History

Data centers have their roots in the huge computer rooms of the 1940s, typified by
ENIAC ENIAC (; Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) was the first programmable, electronic, general-purpose digital computer, completed in 1945. There were other computers that had these features, but the ENIAC had all of them in one pac ...
, one of the earliest examples of a data center.Old large computer rooms that housed machines like the U.S. Army's ENIAC, which were developed pre-1960 (1945), were now referred to as "data centers". Early computer systems, complex to operate and maintain, required a special environment in which to operate. Many cables were necessary to connect all the components, and methods to accommodate and organize these were devised such as standard racks to mount equipment,
raised floor A raised floor (also raised flooring, access floor(ing), or raised-access computer floor) provides an elevated structural floor above a solid substrate (often a concrete slab) to create a hidden void for the passage of mechanical and electrical ...
s, and
cable tray In the electrical wiring of buildings, a cable tray system is used to support insulated electrical cables used for power distribution, control, and communication. Cable trays are used as an alternative to open wiring or electrical conduit syst ...
s (installed overhead or under the elevated floor). A single mainframe required a great deal of power and had to be cooled to avoid overheating. Security became important – computers were expensive, and were often used for
military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...
purposes.Until the early 1960s, it was primarily the government that used computers, which were large mainframes housed in rooms that today we call data centers. Basic design-guidelines for controlling access to the computer room were therefore devised. During the boom of the microcomputer industry, and especially during the 1980s, users started to deploy computers everywhere, in many cases with little or no care about operating requirements. However, as information technology (IT) operations started to grow in complexity, organizations grew aware of the need to control IT resources. The availability of inexpensive networking equipment, coupled with new standards for the network structured cabling, made it possible to use a hierarchical design that put the servers in a specific room inside the company. The use of the term "data center", as applied to specially designed computer rooms, started to gain popular recognition about this time.In the 1990s, network-connected minicomputers ( servers) running without input or display devices were housed in the old computer rooms. These new "data centers" or "server rooms" were built within company walls, co-located with low-cost networking equipment. The boom of data centers came during the
dot-com bubble The dot-com bubble (dot-com boom, tech bubble, or the Internet bubble) was a stock market bubble in the late 1990s, a period of massive growth in the use and adoption of the Internet. Between 1995 and its peak in March 2000, the Nasdaq Compo ...
of 1997–2000.There was considerable construction of data centers during the early 2000s, in the period of expanding dot-com businesses.
Companies A company, abbreviated as co., is a legal entity representing an association of people, whether natural, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common purpose and unite to achieve specific, declared go ...
needed fast
Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
connectivity and non-stop operation to deploy systems and to establish a presence on the Internet. Installing such equipment was not viable for many smaller companies. Many companies started building very large facilities, called Internet data centers (IDCs), which provide enhanced capabilities, such as crossover backup: "If a Bell Atlantic line is cut, we can transfer them to ... to minimize the time of outage." The term cloud data centers (CDCs) has been used. Data centers typically cost a lot to build and maintain. Increasingly, the division of these terms has almost disappeared and they are being integrated into the term "data center".


Requirements for modern data centers

Modernization and data center transformation enhances performance and
energy efficiency Energy efficiency may refer to: * Energy efficiency (physics), the ratio between the useful output and input of an energy conversion process ** Electrical efficiency, useful power output per electrical power consumed ** Mechanical efficiency, a ra ...
. Information security is also a concern, and for this reason, a data center has to offer a secure environment that minimizes the chances of a security breach. A data center must, therefore, keep high standards for assuring the integrity and functionality of its hosted computer environment. Industry research company
International Data Corporation International Data Group (IDG, Inc.) is a market intelligence and demand generation company focused on the technology industry. IDG, Inc.’s mission is centered around supporting the technology industry through research, data, marketing technol ...
(IDC) puts the average age of a data center at nine years old.
Gartner Gartner, Inc is a technological research and consulting firm based in Stamford, Connecticut that conducts research on technology and shares this research both through private consulting as well as executive programs and conferences. Its client ...
, another research company, says data centers older than seven years are obsolete. The growth in data (163 zettabytes by 2025) is one factor driving the need for data centers to modernize. Focus on modernization is not new: concern about obsolete equipment was decried in 2007, and in 2011
Uptime Institute 451 Group is a New York City-based technology industry research firm. Through its Uptime Institute operating unit, the company provides research for data center operators. In December 2019, 451 Group sold an operating division, 451 Research, to in ...
was concerned about the age of the equipment therein.In May 2011, data center research organization Uptime Institute reported that 36 percent of the large companies it surveyed expect to exhaust IT capacity within the next 18 months. By 2018 concern had shifted once again, this time to the age of the staff: "data center staff are aging faster than the equipment."


Meeting standards for data centers

The
Telecommunications Industry Association The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) is accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) to develop voluntary, consensus-based industry standards for a wide variety of Information and Communication Technologies ( ICT) ...
's Telecommunications Infrastructure Standard for Data Centers specifies the minimum requirements for telecommunications infrastructure of data centers and computer rooms including single tenant enterprise data centers and multi-tenant Internet hosting data centers. The topology proposed in this document is intended to be applicable to any size data center. Telcordia GR-3160, ''NEBS Requirements for Telecommunications Data Center Equipment and Spaces'', provides guidelines for data center spaces within telecommunications networks, and environmental requirements for the equipment intended for installation in those spaces. These criteria were developed jointly by Telcordia and industry representatives. They may be applied to data center spaces housing data processing or Information Technology (IT) equipment. The equipment may be used to: * Operate and manage a carrier's telecommunication network * Provide data center based applications directly to the carrier's customers * Provide hosted applications for a third party to provide services to their customers * Provide a combination of these and similar data center applications


Data center transformation

Data center transformation takes a step-by-step approach through integrated projects carried out over time. This differs from a traditional method of data center upgrades that takes a serial and siloed approach. The typical projects within a data center transformation initiative include standardization/consolidation,
virtualization In computing, virtualization or virtualisation (sometimes abbreviated v12n, a numeronym) is the act of creating a virtual (rather than actual) version of something at the same abstraction level, including virtual computer hardware platforms, stor ...
,
automation Automation describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes, namely by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions, as well as embodying those predeterminations in machines ...
and security. * Standardization/consolidation: Reducing the number of data centers and avoiding ''server sprawl'' (both physical and virtual) often includes replacing aging data center equipment, and is aided by standardization. * Virtualization: Lowers capital and operational expenses, reduces energy consumption. Virtualized desktops can be hosted in data centers and rented out on a subscription basis. Investment bank Lazard Capital Markets estimated in 2008 that 48 percent of enterprise operations will be virtualized by 2012. Gartner views virtualization as a catalyst for modernization. * Automating: Automating tasks such as
provisioning In telecommunication, provisioning involves the process of preparing and equipping a network to allow it to provide new services to its users. In National Security/Emergency Preparedness telecommunications services, ''"provisioning"'' equates to ...
, configuration, patching, release management, and compliance is needed, not just when facing fewer skilled IT workers. * Securing: Protection of virtual systems is integrated with the existing security of physical infrastructures.


Raised floor

A raised floor standards guide named GR-2930 was developed by
Telcordia Technologies iconectiv is a supplier of network planning and network management services to telecommunications providers. Known as Bellcore after its establishment in the United States in 1983 as part of the break-up of the Bell System, the company's name ...
, a subsidiary of
Ericsson (lit. "Telephone Stock Company of LM Ericsson"), commonly known as Ericsson, is a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company headquartered in Stockholm. The company sells infrastructure, software, and services in informa ...
. Although the first
raised floor A raised floor (also raised flooring, access floor(ing), or raised-access computer floor) provides an elevated structural floor above a solid substrate (often a concrete slab) to create a hidden void for the passage of mechanical and electrical ...
computer room was made by IBM in 1956, and they've "been around since the 1960s", it was the 1970s that made it more common for computer centers to thereby allow cool air to circulate more efficiently. The first purpose of the raised floor was to allow access for wiring.


Lights out

The "lights-out" data center, also known as a darkened or a dark data center, is a data center that, ideally, has all but eliminated the need for direct access by personnel, except under extraordinary circumstances. Because of the lack of need for staff to enter the data center, it can be operated without lighting. All of the devices are accessed and managed by remote systems, with automation programs used to perform unattended operations. In addition to the energy savings, reduction in staffing costs and the ability to locate the site further from population centers, implementing a lights-out data center reduces the threat of malicious attacks upon the infrastructure.


Data center levels and tiers

The two organizations in the United States that publish data center standards are the
Telecommunications Industry Association The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) is accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) to develop voluntary, consensus-based industry standards for a wide variety of Information and Communication Technologies ( ICT) ...
(TIA) and the
Uptime Institute 451 Group is a New York City-based technology industry research firm. Through its Uptime Institute operating unit, the company provides research for data center operators. In December 2019, 451 Group sold an operating division, 451 Research, to in ...
.


International standards EN50600 and ISO22237 Information technology — Data center facilities and infrastructures

* Class 1 single path solution * Class 2 single path with redundancy solution * Class 3 multiple paths providing a concurrent repair/operate solution * Class 4 multiple paths providing a fault tolerant solution (except during maintenance)


Telecommunications Industry Association

The
Telecommunications Industry Association The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) is accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) to develop voluntary, consensus-based industry standards for a wide variety of Information and Communication Technologies ( ICT) ...
's
TIA-942 The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) ANSI/TIA-942-B Telecommunications Infrastructure Standard for Data Centers is an American National Standard (ANS) that specifies the minimum requirements for data center infrastructure and is often ...
standard for data centers, published in 2005 and updated four times since, defined four infrastructure levels. * Rated-1 - basically a
server room A server room is a room, usually air-conditioned, devoted to the continuous operation of computer servers. An entire building or station devoted to this purpose is a data center. The computers in server rooms are usually headless systems that ca ...
, following basic guidelines * Rated-2 - Redundant component, key components are redundant * Rated-3 - Concurrently maintainabile, able to handle maintenance on any part of the distribution path or any single piece of equipment without causing an interruption to the data center operations * Rated-4 - Fault tolerant, able to handle one single fault at a time on any part of the distribution path or any single piece of equipment without causing interruption to the data center operations


Uptime Institute – Data center Tier Classification Standard

Four Tiers are defined by the
Uptime Institute 451 Group is a New York City-based technology industry research firm. Through its Uptime Institute operating unit, the company provides research for data center operators. In December 2019, 451 Group sold an operating division, 451 Research, to in ...
standard: * Tier I - BASIC CAPACITY and must include a UPS (uninterruptible power source) * Tier II - REDUNDANT CAPACITY and adds redundant power and cooling * Tier III - CONCURRENTLY MAINTAINABLE and ensures that ANY component can be taken out of service without affecting production * Tier IV - FAULT TOLERANT allowing any production capacity to be insulated from ANY type of failure. A fifth tier has been
Trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from othe ...
ed by
Switch (company) Switch is a company based in Las Vegas, Nevada, that develops and operates the SUPERNAP data center facilities and provides colocation, telecommunications, cloud services, and content ecosystems.Overgaard, Krist"Switch SUPERNAP Named as the Fir ...
, who have used this tier to define The Citadel, the largest data center in the world.


Data center design

The field of data center design has been growing for decades in various directions, including new construction big and small along with the creative re-use of existing facilities, like abandoned retail space, old salt mines and war-era bunkers. * a 65-story data center has already been proposed * the number of data centers as of 2016 had grown beyond 3 million USA-wide, and more than triple that number worldwide Local building codes may govern the minimum ceiling heights and other parameters. Some of the considerations in the design of data centers are: * Size - one room of a building, one or more floors, or an entire building, * Capacity - can hold up to or past 1,000 servers * Other considerations - Space, power, cooling, and costs in the data center. * Mechanical engineering infrastructure - heating, ventilation and air conditioning ( HVAC); humidification and dehumidification equipment; pressurization. * Electrical engineering infrastructure design - utility service planning; distribution, switching and bypass from power sources; uninterruptible power source (UPS) systems; and more.


Design criteria and trade-offs

* Availability expectations: The costs of avoiding downtime should not exceed the cost of the downtime itself * Site selection: Location factors include proximity to power grids, telecommunications infrastructure, networking services, transportation lines and emergency services. Other considerations should include flight paths, neighboring power drains, geological risks, and climate (associated with cooling costs). ** Often, power availability is the hardest to change.


High availability

Various metrics exist for measuring the data-availability that results from data-center availability beyond 95% uptime, with the top of the scale counting how many "nines" can be placed after "99%".


Modularity and flexibility

Modularity and flexibility are key elements in allowing for a data center to grow and change over time. Data center modules are pre-engineered, standardized building blocks that can be easily configured and moved as needed. A modular data center may consist of data center equipment contained within shipping containers or similar portable containers. Components of the data center can be prefabricated and standardized which facilitates moving if needed.


Environmental control

Temperature Temperature is a physical quantity that expresses quantitatively the perceptions of hotness and coldness. Temperature is measurement, measured with a thermometer. Thermometers are calibrated in various Conversion of units of temperature, temp ...
Eight vendors' temperature recommendations can be foun
here
/ref> and humidity are controlled via: *
Air conditioning Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C or AC, is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment (sometimes referred to as 'comfort cooling') and in some cases also strictly controlling ...
* indirect cooling, such as using outside air,instead of chillers/air conditioners, resulting in energy savings Indirect Evaporative Cooling (IDEC) units, and also using sea water. It is important that computers do not get humid or overheat, as high humidity can lead to dust clogging the fans, which leads to overheat, or can cause components to malfunction, ruining the board and running a fire hazard. Overheat can cause components, usually the silicon or copper of the wires or circuits to melt, causing connections to loosen, causing fire hazards.


Electrical power

Backup power consists of one or more
uninterruptible power supplies An uninterruptible power supply or uninterruptible power source (UPS) is an electrical apparatus that provides emergency power to a load when the input power source or mains power fails. A UPS differs from an auxiliary or emergency power system ...
, battery banks, and/or diesel /
gas turbine A gas turbine, also called a combustion turbine, is a type of continuous flow internal combustion engine. The main parts common to all gas turbine engines form the power-producing part (known as the gas generator or core) and are, in the directio ...
generators. To prevent single points of failure, all elements of the electrical systems, including backup systems, are typically given redundant copies , and critical servers are connected to both the "A-side" and "B-side" power feeds. This arrangement is often made to achieve N+1 redundancy in the systems. Static transfer switches are sometimes used to ensure instantaneous switchover from one supply to the other in the event of a power failure.


Low-voltage cable routing

Options include: * Data cabling can be routed through overhead
cable tray In the electrical wiring of buildings, a cable tray system is used to support insulated electrical cables used for power distribution, control, and communication. Cable trays are used as an alternative to open wiring or electrical conduit syst ...
s * Raised floor cabling, both for security reasons and to avoid the extra cost of cooling systems over the racks. * Smaller/less expensive data centers may use anti-static tiles instead for a flooring surface.


Air flow

Air flow management addresses the need to improve data center
computer cooling Computer cooling is required to remove the waste heat produced by computer components, to keep components within permissible operating temperature limits. Components that are susceptible to temporary malfunction or permanent failure if over ...
efficiency by preventing the recirculation of hot air exhausted from IT equipment and reducing bypass airflow. There are several methods of separating hot and cold airstreams, such as hot/cold aisle containment and in-row cooling units.


Aisle containment

Cold aisle containment is done by exposing the rear of equipment racks, while the fronts of the servers are enclosed with doors and covers. This is similar to how large-scale food companies refrigerate and store their products. Computer cabinets/
Server farm A server farm or server cluster is a collection of computer servers, usually maintained by an organization to supply server functionality far beyond the capability of a single machine. They often consist of thousands of computers which require ...
s are often organized for containment of hot/cold aisles. Proper air duct placement prevents the cold and hot air from mixing. Rows of cabinets are paired to face each other so that the cool and hot air intakes and exhausts don't mix air, which would severely reduce cooling efficiency. Alternatively, a range of underfloor panels can create efficient cold air pathways directed to the raised floor vented tiles. Either the cold aisle or the hot aisle can be contained. Another option is fitting cabinets with vertical exhaust ducts Chimney Hot exhaust pipes/vents/ducts can direct the air into a
Plenum space A plenum space is a part of a building that can facilitate air circulation for heating and air conditioning systems, by providing pathways for either heated/conditioned or return airflows, usually at greater than atmospheric pressure. Space ...
above a
Dropped ceiling A dropped ceiling is a secondary ceiling, hung below the main (structural) ceiling. It may also be referred to as a drop ceiling, T-bar ceiling, false ceiling, suspended ceiling, grid ceiling, drop in ceiling, drop out ceiling, or ceiling til ...
and back to the cooling units or to outside vents. With this configuration, traditional hot/cold aisle configuration is not a requirement.


Fire protection

Data centers feature
fire protection Fire protection is the study and practice of mitigating the unwanted effects of potentially destructive fires. It involves the study of the behaviour, compartmentalisation, suppression and investigation of fire and its related emergencies, as we ...
systems, including
passive Passive may refer to: * Passive voice, a grammatical voice common in many languages, see also Pseudopassive * Passive language, a language from which an interpreter works * Passivity (behavior), the condition of submitting to the influence of o ...
and Active Design elements, as well as implementation of
fire prevention Fire prevention is a function of many fire departments. The goal of fire prevention is to educate the public on the precautions which should be taken to prevent potentially harmful fires and how to survive these fires in the event that they do o ...
programs in operations.
Smoke detectors A smoke detector is a device that senses smoke, typically as an indicator of fire. Smoke detectors are usually housed in plastic enclosures, typically shaped like a disk about in diameter and thick, but shape and size vary. Smoke can be detecte ...
are usually installed to provide early warning of a fire at its incipient stage. Although the main room usually does not allow Wet Pipe-based Systems due to the fragile nature of Circuit-boards, there still exist systems that can be used in the rest of the facility or in cold/hot aisle air circulation systems that are closed systems, such as: * Sprinkler systems * Misting, using high pressure to create extremely small water droplets, which can be used in sensitive rooms due to the nature of the droplets. However, there also exist other means to put out fires, especially in Sensitive areas, usually using
Gaseous fire suppression Gaseous fire suppression, also called clean agent fire suppression, is a term to describe the use of inert gases and chemical agents to extinguish a fire. These agents are governed by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Standard for C ...
, of which Halon gas was the most popular, until the negative effects of producing and using it were discovere


Security

Physical access is usually restricted. Layered security often starts with fencing, bollards and mantraps.
Video camera A video camera is an optical instrument that captures videos (as opposed to a movie camera, which records images on film). Video cameras were initially developed for the television industry but have since become widely used for a variety of oth ...
surveillance and permanent security guards are almost always present if the data center is large or contains sensitive information. Fingerprint recognition mantraps is starting to be commonplace. Logging access is required by some data protection regulations; some organizations tightly link this to access control systems. Multiple log entries can occur at the main entrance, entrances to internal rooms, and at equipment cabinets. Access control at cabinets can be integrated with intelligent
power distribution unit A power distribution unit (PDU) is a device fitted with multiple outputs designed to distribute electric power, especially to racks of computers and networking equipment located within a data center. Data centers face challenges in power protec ...
s, so that locks are networked through the same appliance.


Energy use

Energy use is a central issue for data centers. Power draw ranges from a few kW for a rack of servers in a closet to several tens of MW for large facilities. Some facilities have power densities more than 100 times that of a typical office building. For higher power density facilities, electricity costs are a dominant
operating expense An operating expense, operating expenditure, operational expense, operational expenditure or opex is an ongoing cost for running a product, business, or system . Its counterpart, a capital expenditure (capex), is the cost of developing or provi ...
and account for over 10% of the
total cost of ownership Total cost of ownership (TCO) is a financial estimate intended to help buyers and owners determine the direct and indirect costs of a product or service. It is a management accounting concept that can be used in full cost accounting or even ecolog ...
(TCO) of a data center.


Greenhouse gas emissions

In 2020 data centers (excluding cryptocurrency mining) and data transmission each used about 1% of world electricity. Although some of this electricity was low carbon, the IEA called for more "government and industry efforts on energy efficiency, renewables procurement and RD&D", as some data centers still use electricity generated by fossil fuels. They also said that lifecycle emissions should be considered, that is including "embodied" emissions, such as in buildings. Data centers are estimated to have been responsible for 0.5% of US greenhouse gas emissions in 2018. Some Chinese companies, such as
Tencent Tencent Holdings Ltd. () is a Chinese multinational technology and entertainment conglomerate and holding company headquartered in Shenzhen. It is one of the highest grossing multimedia companies in the world based on revenue. It is also the wo ...
, have pledged to be carbon neutral by 2030, while others such as Alibaba have been criticized by Greenpeace for not committing to become carbon neutral.


Energy efficiency and overhead

The most commonly used energy efficiency metric of data center energy efficiency is
power usage effectiveness Power usage effectiveness (PUE) is a ratio that describes how efficiently a computer data center uses energy; specifically, how much energy is used by the computing equipment (in contrast to cooling and other overhead that supports the equipment). ...
(PUE), calculated as the ratio of total power entering the data center divided by the power used by IT equipment. : \mathrm = It measures the percentage of power used by overhead (cooling, lighting, etc.). The average USA data center has a PUE of 2.0, meaning two watts of total power (overhead + IT equipment) for every watt delivered to IT equipment. State-of-the-art is estimated to be roughly 1.2.
Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
publishes quarterly efficiency from data centers in operation. The
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon pro ...
has an
Energy Star Energy Star (trademarked ''ENERGY STAR'') is a program run by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) that promotes energy efficiency. The program provides information on the energy consumption of pr ...
rating for standalone or large data centers. To qualify for the ecolabel, a data center must be within the top quartile of energy efficiency of all reported facilities. The Energy Efficiency Improvement Act of 2015 (United States) requires federal facilities — including data centers — to operate more efficiently. California's title 24 (2014) of the California Code of Regulations mandates that every newly constructed data center must have some form of airflow containment in place to optimize energy efficiency. European Union also has a similar initiative: EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres.


Energy use analysis and projects

The focus of measuring and analyzing energy use goes beyond what's used by IT equipment; facility support hardware such as chillers and fans also use energy. In 2011 server racks in data centers were designed for more than 25 kW and the typical server was estimated to waste about 30% of the electricity it consumed. The energy demand for information storage systems was also rising. A high availability data center was estimated to have a 1 mega watt (MW) demand and consume $20,000,000 in electricity over its lifetime, with cooling representing 35% to 45% of the data center's
total cost of ownership Total cost of ownership (TCO) is a financial estimate intended to help buyers and owners determine the direct and indirect costs of a product or service. It is a management accounting concept that can be used in full cost accounting or even ecolog ...
. Calculations showed that in two years the cost of powering and cooling a server could be equal to the cost of purchasing the server hardware. Research in 2018 has shown that substantial amount of energy could still be conserved by optimizing IT refresh rates and increasing server utilization. In 2011
Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...
,
Rackspace Rackspace Technology, Inc. is an American cloud computing company based in Windcrest, Texas, an inner suburb of San Antonio, Texas. The company also has offices in Blacksburg, Virginia, and Austin, Texas, as well as in Australia, Canada, United ...
and others founded the
Open Compute Project The Open Compute Project (OCP) is an organization that shares designs of data center products and best practices among companies, including ARM, Meta, IBM, Wiwynn, Intel, Nokia, Google, Microsoft, Seagate Technology, Dell, Rackspace, Hewlett ...
(OCP) to develop and publish open standards for greener data center computing technologies. As part of the project Facebook published the designs of its server, which it had built for its first dedicated data center in Prineville. Making servers taller left space for more effective
heat sinks In thermodynamics, heat is defined as the form of energy crossing the boundary of a thermodynamic system by virtue of a temperature difference across the boundary. A thermodynamic system does not ''contain'' heat. Nevertheless, the term is al ...
and enabled the use of fans that moved more air with less energy. By not buying commercial off-the-shelf servers, energy consumption due to unnecessary expansion slots on the motherboard and unneeded components, such as a graphics card, was also saved. In 2016 Google joined the project and published the designs of its 48V DC shallow data center rack. This design had long been part of Google data centers. By eliminating the multiple
transformer A transformer is a passive component that transfers electrical energy from one electrical circuit to another circuit, or multiple circuits. A varying current in any coil of the transformer produces a varying magnetic flux in the transformer' ...
s usually deployed in data centers, Google had achieved a 30% increase in energy efficiency. In 2017 sales for data center hardware built to OCP designs topped $1.2 billion and are expected to reach $6 billion by 2021.


Power and cooling analysis

Power is the largest recurring cost to the user of a data center. Cooling it at or below wastes money and energy. Furthermore, overcooling equipment in environments with a high relative humidity can expose equipment to a high amount of moisture that facilitates the growth of salt deposits on conductive filaments in the circuitry. A power and cooling analysis, also referred to as a thermal assessment, measures the relative temperatures in specific areas as well as the capacity of the cooling systems to handle specific ambient temperatures. A power and cooling analysis can help to identify hot spots, over-cooled areas that can handle greater power use density, the breakpoint of equipment loading, the effectiveness of a raised-floor strategy, and optimal equipment positioning (such as AC units) to balance temperatures across the data center. Power cooling density is a measure of how much square footage the center can cool at maximum capacity. The cooling of data centers is the second largest power consumer after servers. The cooling energy varies from 10% of the total energy consumption in the most efficient data centers and goes up to 45% in standard air-cooled data centers.


Energy efficiency analysis

An energy efficiency analysis measures the energy use of data center IT and facilities equipment. A typical energy efficiency analysis measures factors such as a data center's power use effectiveness (PUE) against industry standards, identifies mechanical and electrical sources of inefficiency, and identifies air-management metrics. However, the limitation of most current metrics and approaches is that they do not include IT in the analysis. Case studies have shown that by addressing energy efficiency holistically in a data center, major efficiencies can be achieved that are not possible otherwise.


Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis

This type of analysis uses sophisticated tools and techniques to understand the unique thermal conditions present in each data center—predicting the temperature,
airflow Airflow, or air flow, is the movement of air. The primary cause of airflow is the existence of air. Air behaves in a fluid manner, meaning particles naturally flow from areas of higher pressure to those where the pressure is lower. Atmospheric ...
, and pressure behavior of a data center to assess performance and energy consumption, using numerical modeling. By predicting the effects of these environmental conditions, CFD analysis in the data center can be used to predict the impact of high-density racks mixed with low-density racks and the onward impact on cooling resources, poor infrastructure management practices and AC failure or AC shutdown for scheduled maintenance.


Thermal zone mapping

Thermal zone mapping uses sensors and computer modeling to create a three-dimensional image of the hot and cool zones in a data center. This information can help to identify optimal positioning of data center equipment. For example, critical servers might be placed in a cool zone that is serviced by redundant AC units.


Green data centers

Data centers use a lot of power, consumed by two main usages: the power required to run the actual equipment and then the power required to cool the equipment. Power-efficiency reduces the first category. Cooling cost reduction from natural ways includes location decisions: When the focus is not being near good fiber connectivity, power grid connections and people-concentrations to manage the equipment, a data center can be miles away from the users. 'Mass' data centers like Google or Facebook don't need to be near population centers. Arctic locations can use outside air, which provides cooling, are getting more popular. Renewable electricity sources are another plus. Thus countries with favorable conditions, such as: Canada, Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Switzerland, are trying to attract cloud computing data centers. Bitcoin mining is increasingly being seen as a potential way to build data centers at the site of renewable energy production. Curtailed and clipped energy can be used to secure transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain providing another revenue stream to renewable energy producers.


Energy reuse

It is very difficult to reuse the heat which comes from air cooled data centers. For this reason, data center infrastructures are more often equipped with heat pumps. An alternative to heat pumps is the adoption of liquid cooling throughout a data center. Different liquid cooling techniques are mixed and matched to allow for a fully liquid cooled infrastructure which captures all heat in water. Different liquid technologies are categorized in 3 main groups, Indirect liquid cooling (water cooled racks), Direct liquid cooling (direct-to-chip cooling) and Total liquid cooling (complete immersion in liquid, see Server immersion cooling). This combination of technologies allows the creation of a thermal cascade as part of temperature chaining scenarios to create high temperature water outputs from the data center.


Dynamic infrastructure

Dynamic infrastructure provides the ability to intelligently, automatically and securely move workloads within a data center anytime, anywhere, for migrations,
provisioning In telecommunication, provisioning involves the process of preparing and equipping a network to allow it to provide new services to its users. In National Security/Emergency Preparedness telecommunications services, ''"provisioning"'' equates to ...
, to enhance performance, or building co-location facilities. It also facilitates performing routine maintenance on either physical or virtual systems all while minimizing interruption. A related concept is Composable infrastructure, which allows for the dynamic reconfiguration of the available resources to suit needs, only when needed. Side benefits include * reducing cost * facilitating
business continuity Business continuity may be defined as "the capability of an organization to continue the delivery of products or services at pre-defined acceptable levels following a disruptive incident", and business continuity planning (or business continuity a ...
and
high availability High availability (HA) is a characteristic of a system which aims to ensure an agreed level of operational performance, usually uptime, for a higher than normal period. Modernization has resulted in an increased reliance on these systems. F ...
* enabling
cloud In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. Water or various other chemicals may ...
and grid computing.


Network infrastructure

Communications in data centers today are most often based on
networks Network, networking and networked may refer to: Science and technology * Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects * Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks Mathematics ...
running the IP
protocol Protocol may refer to: Sociology and politics * Protocol (politics), a formal agreement between nation states * Protocol (diplomacy), the etiquette of diplomacy and affairs of state * Etiquette, a code of personal behavior Science and technolog ...
suite. Data centers contain a set of routers and
switches In electrical engineering, a switch is an electrical component that can disconnect or connect the conducting path in an electrical circuit, interrupting the electric current or diverting it from one conductor to another. The most common type of ...
that transport traffic between the servers and to the outside world which are connected according to the data center network architecture. Redundancy of the Internet connection is often provided by using two or more upstream service providers (see
Multihoming Multihoming is the practice of connecting a host or a computer network to more than one network. This can be done in order to increase reliability or performance. A typical host or end-user network is connected to just one network. Connecting ...
). Some of the servers at the data center are used for running the basic Internet and intranet services needed by internal users in the organization, e.g., e-mail servers,
proxy server In computer networking, a proxy server is a server application that acts as an intermediary between a client requesting a resource and the server providing that resource. Instead of connecting directly to a server that can fulfill a reques ...
s, and DNS servers. Network security elements are also usually deployed: firewalls,
VPN A virtual private network (VPN) extends a private network across a public network and enables users to send and receive data across shared or public networks as if their computing devices were directly connected to the private network. The be ...
gateways,
intrusion detection system An intrusion detection system (IDS; also intrusion prevention system or IPS) is a device or software application that monitors a network or systems for malicious activity or policy violations. Any intrusion activity or violation is typically rep ...
s, and so on. Also common are monitoring systems for the network and some of the applications. Additional off site monitoring systems are also typical, in case of a failure of communications inside the data center.


Software/data backup

Non-mutually exclusive options for
data backup In information technology, a backup, or data backup is a copy of computer data taken and stored elsewhere so that it may be used to restore the original after a data loss event. The verb form, referring to the process of doing so, is "back up", ...
are: * Onsite * Offsite Onsite is traditional, and one major advantage is immediate availability.


Offsite backup storage

Data backup techniques include having an
encrypted In cryptography, encryption is the process of encoding information. This process converts the original representation of the information, known as plaintext, into an alternative form known as ciphertext. Ideally, only authorized parties can deci ...
copy of the data offsite. Methods used for transporting data are: * having the customer write the data to a physical medium, such as magnetic tape, and then transporting the tape elsewhere. * directly transferring the data to another site during the backup, using appropriate links * uploading the data "into the cloud"


Modular data center

For quick deployment or disaster recovery, several large hardware vendors have developed mobile/modular solutions that can be installed and made operational in very short time.


See also


Notes


References


External links


Lawrence Berkeley Lab
- Research, development, demonstration, and deployment of energy-efficient technologies and practices for data centers

- FAQ: 380VDC testing and demonstration at a Sun data center.
White Paper
- Property Taxes: The New Challenge for Data Centers
The European Commission H2020 EURECA Data Centre Project
- Data centre energy efficiency guidelines, extensive online training material, case studies/lectures (under events page), and tools. {{Authority control Applications of distributed computing Cloud storage Computer networking Data management Distributed data storage systems Distributed data storage Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning Servers (computing)