Wednesday, October 23rd, 2013

Time	Event
11:30a	Data Center Jobs: McKinstry At the Data Center Jobs Board, we have a new job listing from McKinstry, which is seeking a Senior Data Center Technician in Olympia, Washington. The Senior Data Center Technician is responsible for supervising CFE shift staff by providing direction, reviewing work, supporting delivery of training, providing performance feedback, supporting the creation, review and approval of Critical —Environment (CE) procedures, ensuring adherence to McKinstry Co. Safety Policy and Procedures, overseeing Computerized Maintenance Management System usage and reporting, and supervising MEDP Contractors. To view full details and apply, see job listing details. Are you hiring for your data center? You can list your company’s job openings on the Data Center Jobs Board, and also track new openings via our jobs RSS feed. (Comment on this)
12:30p	The Syracuse Green Data Center: Driving Energy Savings & System Reliability David Blair, P.E., senior vice president of GEM Energy, directs the design of combined heat and power (CHP/CCHP) projects using gas turbine and advanced technologies including the Syracuse University Green Data Center for which he provided oversight and management of the project team responsible for the development, installation and commissioning of the first hybrid UPS micro turbine tri-generation system in the world. DAVID BLAIR GEM Energy Our story begins with two Syracuse University graduates: Vice Chancellor and Provost Eric Spina and IBM Vice President Vijay Lund and the aging and overloaded existing data center on the Syracuse University campus. The goal:  construct a new data center that would demonstrate a 50 percent reduction in energy consumption. The Syracuse University Green Data Center was born. Such a bold plan needed very talented leadership. First, a partnership developed among Syracuse University, IBM, and NYSERDA. VIP Structures, and Towne Engineering would provide the design. GEM Energy would provide integration of CCHP systems. Capstone Turbine Corporation would supply microturbines and proved to be a key element in the Green Data Center success story. Thermax USA was selected to supply absorption chiller technology. The Syracuse University Green Data Center is now a reality and has been in successful operation for over three years. The GDC, at 6,000 square feet includes an adjacent power plant containing the CCHP system. (Data Center Knowledge published a photo tour of the facility here.) Syracuse CCHP System Explained The data center is powered by twelve (12) Capstone Microturbines, rated 780 kW and configured in two groups of six (6) in an A and B bus arrangement. The Microturbine engine exhaust stream is directed by insulated ductwork into two Thermax absorption chillers. These 150 ton chillers provide cooling water for the data center as a first priority and are interconnected with an adjacent classroom building. Two Cain, HRM’s, rated 4.0 MMBTU/Hr produce hot water for heating the adjacent building. Fuel efficiency exceeds the NYSERDA minimum of 60 percent annually. Hybrid UPS Turbine Replaces Traditional Solution Electric power purchased from the utility grid must be quality conditioned for use by the computers and must include back-up power sources to ride through any loss of the utility grid. The traditional solution is to use UPS technology to filter the utility power and to act as a switching point for storage batteries. The storage batteries provide ride-through for a utility grid loss, but must be recharged in one of two ways: by using stationary diesel-engine generators, or by the utility grid. At the Green Data Center, the traditional solution is replaced by the Microturbine CCHP system. This is possible because of innovation in multiple ways. Invertor Configured Power Electronics: To understand this innovation, it is helpful to first take a look at standard Microturbine invertor technology. Available for more than 15 years, the Capstone MicroTurbine engine, fueled by natural gas, and spinning at 98,000 rpm is TG in the diagram. The generator output is high frequency, alternating current that is converted to direct current at 765 VDC. The DC bus connects the generator to an external battery and the power output invertor, or LCM (Load Control Module). The output current is power conditioned in compliance with IEEE 519. Click to enlarge. Hybrid UPS: Capstone’s Patented Model C65 Hybrid UPS developed for and first used at the Green Data Center contains all the features of a traditional, double conversion UPS plus a gas turbine engine that is the source of electric power. The second load control module is the innovation: LLCM in the diagram. The Capstone Hybrid UPS provides continuous power to the data center critical bus in three ways: utility source in UPS mode, Microturbine engine in economy mode, and both batteries and Microturbine engine in emergency mode. At the Green Data Center there is no need for a traditional UPS with back-up diesel generator. Click to enlarge. Water is 3,400 Times More Efficient Than Air An IBM innovation, the rear door and side-car heat exchangers cool the air exiting from conventional computer racks using water. The result is quiet and efficient. The CCHP system is the source of chilled water for cooling. Thermal pictures, with doors open and closed, illustrate the magnitude of this cooling improvement. Click to enlarge. SU Green Data Center Energy Use: The Bottom Line In a traditional data center, only 50 percent of the electric power delivered is used by the computers and Power Utilization Effectiveness, or PUE = 2.0. The CCHP system at the Green Data Center is the game changer. First, absorption cooling technology substitutes for electric cooling with a reduction of 27 percent. Second, water replaces air cooling with a reduction of infrastructure that is dramatic. At the Green Data Center, a PUE = 1.28 is the result for three years. Environmentally Friendly The power plant consisting of 12 Capstone Hybrid UPS MicroTurbines is environmentally friendly. Compared with traditional grid power generation, a significant reduction in carbon footprint is possible. We breathe easier because of reductions in carbon dioxide by 61 percent and nitrous oxide by 98 percent. Construction begins – May 2009 Encouraged to explore new ideas, the project team was reminded that the ribbon cutting date would follow in only six months after breaking ground! Some features of the data center included: Buried Conduit contributed to holding the timeline. Our architect included sustainable construction technics in the plans such as prefabricated wall forms. Remaining in place as insulation after pouring concrete achieved cost and time reduction. Capstone Microturbines: Twelve (12) Capstone Model C65 Hybrid UPS Microturbines configured as an A and B bus for reliability. Mechanical Systems: Two exhaust-fired, double effect, absorption chillers by Thermax USA were installed, each rated 150 tons. Storage Battery System: Two 380 VDC storage batteries can deliver 500 kW for 17 minutes. BM Computer Room: Compared with traditional air cooling, the 6,000 square foot data center remains silent as a result of the use of efficient water cooling. On-time Completion – December 2, 2009 The Green Data Center is a success. The traditional methods and tried-and-true solutions are certainly safe and will not rock the boat. But, remember that we did not get to the moon riding a hot air balloon. If you are considering a new data center or planning a retrofit to an existing data center, then look to Syracuse University. Visit the campus, speak with the owners, and take time to kick the tires. In this way, you will quickly learn more about the CCHP advantage that includes innovations in energy reduction and reliability improvement. Industry Perspectives is a content channel at Data Center Knowledge highlighting thought leadership in the data center arena. See our guidelines and submission process for information on participating. View previously published Industry Perspectives in our Knowledge Library. (Comment on this)
1:20p	Intel Capital Invests $65 Million in Cloud Technology Arvind Sodhani, president of Intel Capital, unveiled $65 million in investments in global technology companies. (Photo: Intel Capital via Flickr) At the Intel Capital Global Summit, the investment arm of Intel (INTC) announced investments in 16 new technology companies around the world, totaling $65 million. The 14th annual summit will create growth opportunities for Intel Capital portfolio companies, and drive innovation in the cloud, datacenter, mobile technologies and consumer-related services. “The annual Intel Capital Global Summit brings together our vast worldwide network of decision-making Fortune 1000 executives with our portfolio company CEOs to network, exchange ideas and kick start partnerships and business deals,” said Arvind Sodhani, president of Intel Capital and Intel executive vice president. “We are also excited to announce new investments in these 16 innovative companies and look forward to supporting them with our unmatched company-building programs like the Intel Capital Technology Days.” Intel invested in Foster City, California-based Cloudian, an Amazon S3-compatible object storage platform that enables service providers and enterprises to deploy reliable, affordable and scalable storage clouds on-premise. Cloudian is actively partnering with leading cloud computing environments including Citrix Cloud Platform, Apache CloudStack and OpenStack, along with cloud on-ramp providers and the vast ecosystem of tools and applications afforded through true S3 compatibility. The company will use its funding to expand it’s sales and support capabilities as well as accelerate the company’s growth in enterprise storage. In Singapore Intel invested in in CloudFX, a company that provides cloud strategy consulting and implementation services. CloudFX has transformed some of Asia’s largest companies by re-architecting entire IT infrastructures, streamlining IT operational management processes and providing advanced cloud service management, automation and integration services. In China Intel invested in CSDN, which  provides knowledge, career and development services and owns several leading brands including Chinese IT technology online communities CSDN and ITeye, Chinese IT professional journal Programmer, China IT senior managers community CTO Club, China mobile developer community CMDN, code hosting and social coding cloud platform CODE and IT recruiting website Pongo. Finland’s SkySQL received funding from Intel Capital. The company is a global software vendor specializing in high availability and high-performance SQL. While still heavily involved with mySQL, SkySQL also embraces the rapidly expanding open source branch of mySQL – MariaDB. It was recently reported that Google was switching its preferred database from mySQL to MariaDB. Other investments included DotProduct – a real-time 3D data capturing software, Wayz Japan (Fileforce), Israel-based Interlude, Taiwan-based Lintes Technologies, business continuity and disaster recovery platform Perpetuuiti TechnoSoft Services in Singapore/India, Prism Skeylabs, Reduxio Systems (Israel), Rocketkick, Savaari Car Rentals, SBA Materials, and WiTricity. (Comment on this)
3:51p	Seagate Launches Kinetic Open Storage Platform Seeking to redefine cloud storage infrastructure, Seagate Technology (STX) developed its Kinetic Open Storage Platform, which simplifies data management, improves performance and scalability, all while lowering total cost of ownership (TCO) of average cloud infrastructures. The company announced the platform Tuesday. “With the Seagate Kinetic Open Storage platform, our internal R&D teams have designed an unique, first-of-its-kind storage architecture to enable cheaper, more scalable object storage solutions that free up IT professionals from having to invest in hardware and software they don’t need,” said Rocky Pimentel, Seagate executive vice president and chief sales and marketing officer. “This technology optimizes storage solutions for a new era of cloud storage systems, while drastically reducing overall costs.” In the new platform, applications to speak directly to the storage device, eliminating the storage server tier of traditional data center architectures. The platform leverages Seagate’s expertise in hardware and software storage systems to integrate a new key/value API – which will be open sourced – and Ethernet connected with Seagate hard drive technology. It can be deployed across a range of storage devices enabling system builders and software developers to design new solutions that will deliver against a full array of cloud data center use cases. With the Kinetic Open Storage platform, applications can now manage specific features and capabilities and rapidly implement and deploy in any cloud storage software stack. “At Yahoo, we’re always looking for new ways to improve efficiency and simplicity of our infrastructure and we’re excited about Seagate’s Kinetic Open Storage platform,” said Kevin Graham, principle storage architect, Yahoo Infrastructure Group. “Industry has proven time and again that Ethernet always wins, seeing this down to the drive level is a fantastic optimization.” Industry Support Showing support for the new technologies, several companies have announced that they are developing on the platform. “We are excited to integrate this technology into our products as we believe that an open platform such as this is the future of storage,” said Steve Ichinaga, senior vice president and general manager for Hyve Solutions. “Implementing Seagate’s new Kinetic technology means we can design and build industry-leading platforms that deliver truly optimized solutions for our web-scale customers.” Aaron Sullivan, principal engineer at Rackspace, said, “We are excited about Seagate’s Kinetic Open Storage platform and the potential it has to make open storage technology even more compelling. There is tremendous growth in the cloud storage solutions market and it is great that Seagate shares the same passion for open standards that Rackspace does.” “Dell is the leader in hyperscale data center solutions because we’re intently focused on delivering cost-effective solutions, tailored to address our customers’ workloads and maximize application performance, and the Seagate Open Source Kinetic platform helps us on that mission,” said Tracy Davis, vice president and general manager of Dell’s Data Center Solutions group. “By implementing Kinetic technology into our customers’ hyperscale environments, we are providing them with highly scalable solutions that reduce storage complexity and cost through increased integration.” (Comment on this)
5:45p	CoreXchange: Colo Online Ordering Has Been a Boon For Us A look at the three 1.5 MW generators supporting the new CoreXchange data center in Dallas. Offering online ordering for colocation has helped CoreXchange expand its customer base to include clients in more than 23 countries and 41 states, as well as greatly shortening its sales cycle. The company launched online ordering for colocation 3 years ago and has since filled more than 1,300 orders online, both from new customers and existing ones looking for an easy way to upgrade existing space. “It turns out that only 20 percent of our customer base is actually within the region due to instant pricing and affordable rates,  ease of ordering online, local around-the-clock support, positive reviews – without sacrificing performance,” said Julia Morgan, Founder and President, CoreXchange. The diversity of its customer base is impressive, given that CoreXchange’s space is located completely in Dallas, Texas. CyrusOne recently brought its flavor of online ordering to the marketplace. CoreXchange’s experience is proof that online ordering can work for colocation. The company says that, in addition to month to month, it allows customers to sign longer term annual, or multi-annual contracts, and that customers like the security of a longer term to secure the rate. CoreXchange was founded seven years ago by industry veterans from The Planet, Rackspace, NTT/Verio and Exodus Communications. One of those veterans was Peter Pathos from The Planet, which was acquired by GI Partners and merged with SoftLayer. The Planet, which was known for dedicated hosting by the time of its acquisition, was actually started as a colocation company. CoreXchange rose out of those foundations as The Planet moved away from colo, borrowing some of the online ordering mojo that has worked so well in the dedicated server industry. Orders can be customized by upgrading from the bundled offerings. The company also offers unmetered bandwidth options, and up to 10 Gig capacity is available with a customer quote. “There are so many complexities present with ordering colocation solutions that you might expect it to be impossible to offer customizable online ordering, but it is very possible and we’ve been doing so seamlessly for over three years,” said Morgan. CoreXchange raised funding in 2011 to enhance its data center infrastructure in its two colocation facilities at the Dallas Infomart and The Connection at 8600 Harry Hines. (Comment on this)
6:50p	Wikipedia On The Hunt For More Data Center Space The cage for the Wikimedia Foundation’s servers inside an Equinix data center in Ashburn, Virginia. (Photo By Victorgrigas , via Wikimedia Commons) The Wikimedia Foundation is looking to expand its data center infrastructure, and is seeking a site in the western United States to support the growth of Wikipedia, which is one of the most visited destinations on the Internet, with mind-boggling traffic. The Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit which operates the online encyclopedia,  put out a request for proposal this week, looking for a location from Chicago and points west. It’s seeking capacity for at least 32 enclosures initially with expansion possibilities, with the right of first refusal for adjacent or nearby cage area for another row of eight racks. Wikipedia has a long history of data center expansion. Last January, it made Ashburn its official home, in addition to data centers in Tampa (its original home) San Francisco and Amsterdam. Last January, the group talked of adding a server farm in Asia to support its global traffic. Last August, a fiber cut knocked Wikipedia Ashburn offline. Despite its low-budget approach to supporting a high-traffic site, the Wikimedia Foundation made reliability a priority in 2010, when it began expanding its U.S. infrastructure. The foundation’s public RFP requires carrier neutral space, with diverse carriers. “The access and capability to join a large (100 members or more) Internet peering exchange will be an important consideration for site selection,” according to the RFP, a requirement that will narrow the scope of locations. Environment considerations are also in play, as the environmental impact of cooling efficiency, reclaimed water etc, will be an important consideration for final site selection. Other requirements include: The capability for redundant 30A * 3 Phase 208V circuits in each enclosure, with a usable power density of 8.6kW per enclosure. Redundant cooling, with a maintained inlet/cold aisle temperature of 65-80F, and 40 to 60 percent relative humidity. The site should have power redundancy systems that are adequate and well maintained at a minimum of N+1 Any organization meeting the requirements outlined are invited to submit a proposal for review. The term of the contract is not to exceed three years, with an option for annual renewal later. If this so far sounds like a good fit, The RFP is publicly posted and expected to be open until November 8. (Comment on this)
7:40p	Closer Look: Wikipedia’s Internet Infrastructure A close look at some of the servers powering Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia that is the sixth-busiest web site in the world, according to Alexa. (Photo By Victorgrigas, via Wikimedia Commons) As a non-profit running the world’s sixth-busiest web destination, The Wikimedia Foundation has historically adopted a frugal approach to infrastructure. That began to change in 2010, when the foundation made reliability a priority in 2010 and shifted Wikipedia’s primary data center from Tampa into space within an Equinix data center in Ashburn, Virginia. This week the foundation said it is seeking space for another U.S. data center. For a closer look at the online encyclopedia’s infrastructure, check out Inside a Wikipedia Data Center, a collection of photos from inside the Wikimedia facility in Ashburn. (Comment on this)

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