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ASHRAE Journal for Jan 2014

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COLUMN  DATA CENTERS
This article was published in ASHRAE Journal, January 2014. Copyright 2014 ASHRAE. Posted at www.ashrae.org. This article may not be copied and/or distributed electronically or in paper form without permission of ASHRAE. For more information about ASHRAE Journal, visit www.ashrae.org.

Donald L. Beaty

Global Data Centers
BY DONALD L. BEATY, P.E., FELLOW ASHRAE

Although there are many single-site data centers, many data center companies are multisite and spread over multiple countries. Multisite and multicountry data center infrastructures require a different focus and careful balance of “standardization” versus “localization.” When combined with how rapidly data centers evolve and their needs change, this poses significant challenges for the data center designer.
In recognition of this, ASHRAE Technical Committee (TC) 9.9, Mission Critical Facilities, Data Centers, Technology Spaces and Electronic Equipment, has produced publications that permit flexibility for localized standardization and performance based approaches. The global harmonization of IT manufacturers used to produce the Thermal Guidelines is a prime example. TC 9.9 has 67 international members (of 260+) in 17 countries. data center design from location to location, the reality is that each design must be adapted to the local conditions.

Data Center Design Adaptation—Local Climate
There is a direct aspect of this adaptation in that the local climate can result in changes in the cooling system design in terms of overall cooling capacity and economizer design. While there are a total of 17 climate zones globally, all of them present in the U.S., many of them are not normal locations for data centers. Depending on the global location, there may also be unique humidification challenges, air quality/filtration considerations, microclimates and/or extreme hot/cold weather conditions to plan for. ASHRAE TC 9.9’s 3rd Edition of Thermal Guidelines for Data Processing Environments includes metrics for annualized hardware failure rates for national and global locations based on the climate to provide the data to help data center designers account for the impact of the local climate when making business decisions on the level of risk associated with the design of the cooling system capacity and economizer usage.

Data Center Design and Planning
With any single data center project, there is a finite design and construction process that can be controlled from beginning to end. All of the variables that are dependent on the local climate are, to a certain degree, controlled (although, as with any project, changes can always occur). The associated design conditions and criteria remain consistent throughout the project along with the construction resources/workforce, materials and methods. This consistency allows for strong planning to occur. However, many companies that have data center-dependent businesses are actually globalized firms and have multiple data centers located around the world. Both the volume and type of information (e.g., multimedia streaming) being shared over the Internet has constantly been on the rise. This trend created a need for constructing data centers that were geographically closer to the target audience to address the challenges associated with latency of data delivery. With each new global location comes unique challenges presented by the climate and other localized conditions (materials availability, workforce, labor markets, etc.). Although there may be a strong desire to standardize the
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Data Center Design Adaptation—Local Conditions
Local conditions can be the more difficult challenge to understand and quantify the impact on costs, schedule, quality, reliability, etc. Data centers are often very specialized projects in terms the density of resources needed for power and
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.

COLUMN  DATA CENTERS

cooling. In addition, the mission critical nature of data centers requires an increased complexity of parallel and redundant systems, equipment, and infrastructure along with an equally complex controls system to monitor and operate the facility. In the United States, there can be a significant variation in types of construction. Often, a type that is common in one region is not common in another. For example, timber construction in a commercial building is common in the Northwest, but not in other areas of the country. ƒƒNorthwest: timber structural system (timber availability and earthquake resistance). ƒƒNortheast: steel structural system (steel plant and trained labor force proximity). ƒƒSoutheast: concrete structural system (sand availability and labor force proximity). Another example is the variation in the percentage of work typically performed by union labor in the various parts of the United States. Outside the United States,

the variation is even greater. This variation can greatly impact: speed of construction, cost of construction, quality of construction, and quality of operation. In the case of data centers, these variations are even more impactful due to many data centers having at least some portion being mission critical (uninterruptible). As a result, it is very important to understand the local environment and conditions. One general trend (including in the United States) is a decline in the availability of craftsmen workers that have gone through mentoring or an apprentice program. As a result, data center designs cannot simply be based on owners’ project requirements (OPR), but they must consider workforce capabilities and availability as well. In today’s global environment, the basis of design (BOD) takes on a much larger scope. It needs to include: technical requirements, operational requirements, business requirements, and local conditions (global variations). Engineers tend to disproportionately focus on the technical requirements. Most engineers do consider

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JAN UARY 2014  ashrae.org  A S H R A E J O U R N A L

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operational requirements, but not sufficiently to meet the challenges of today’s operational environment. In the case of data centers, there is a continued trend to “do more with less.” Part of this is accomplished with various types of automation techniques such as: autodiscovery, auto-configuring, and auto-healing. The automation can certainly compensate to some degree for the shortage of high-skilled, well-trained operators but frequently that is just a partial solution. This is compounded by the fact that the refresh rate or life cycle of IT equipment is typically three to five years. Each time the equipment is refreshed, conditions can vary significantly on the requirements for that equipment as well as how it is operated. As a result, the data center operational requirements need to include significant depth and breadth. An important aspect is to consider, from a practical perspective, is the profile of the typical operator for that site. The business requirements can vary greatly and include things such as: image impact, data center

infrastructure management (DCIM), carbon footprint, green, agility, total cost of ownership (TCO), and exit strategies.

Data Center Industry Vendor Response
Depending on the location, a balance must be struck between how much to standardize versus localize. Standardization is important from the perspective of consistency in terms of business operations that are enabled with the data center design. To that extent, standardization versus localization could also be described as balancing performance criteria with prescriptive direction. These challenges have pushed the data center industry to lead the way by creating modular and prefabricated designs. Prefabrication permits a standardized approach while eliminating reliance on localized constraints. The prefabricated data center solutions range from a large scale comprehensive kit of parts that is assembled on site all the way to a complete data center built within the confines of a shipping container for example and only requiring an onsite plant and/or utility connections. Other granularities of prefabrication involve modules that are at the multi-row level with airflow containment or various packaged assemblies for plants such as modular chiller plants. In addition to addressing the standardization question, another driver for vendors to meet is speed to market and the combination is fueling even more modular and prefabricated products and solutions.

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Closing Comments
Global expansion requires recognizing that you don’t know what you don’t know. The local conditions can include all kinds of variables. As a result, it is very important to develop techniques and expertise for learning local conditions. By further embracing global participation in the development of industry requirements, ASHRAE can create a roadmap for global expansion of its membership, similar to TC 9.9’s model. As the world continues its trajectory toward more connectedness, the geographical and industry society boundaries become less and less prominent. Global harmonization is a recipe for global expansion as demonstrated by the data center industry and TC 9.9.

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