Class leading energy efficiency, greater resilience and the ability to support high density computing was the requirement set by the University of Brighton for its new data centre build. Through innovative data centre design, Future-tech provided a data centre solution that achieved all three whilst maintaining live services to the existing IT equipment.
THE BRIEF
To design, build and maintain a data centre that adheres to current best practice and European Code of Conduct for energy efficiency guidelines. To support fluctuating and dynamic cabinet densities of up to 25kW using an autonomous management system. For the facility to have a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) ratio of under 1.22 at full load and below 1.45 at 25% load. For all refurbishment works to be completed around live, business critical IT equipment.
CHALLENGES AND CONSTRAINTS
The location selected for the Data Centre build was a busy occupied campus building that was to remain operational throughout the works. Any impact on adjacent areas had to be kept to an absolute minimum with very close attention to health and safety and access control during the construction phase. The building housing the data was not designed to contain such a facility with the result of the external plant space being very limited. The refurbishment had to happen around live, business critical IT system where no downtime could be accommodated.
THE FUTURE-TECH SOLUTION
Future-tech, data centre specialists, provided an innovative and resilient data centre solution that autonomously flexes and adapts to the live IT load in the facility in real time. This ensures maximum energy efficiency at all times.
In order to address the high density cooling requirement of the data centre design, and keep foot print minimised, rear-door heat exchangers were selected paired with dry air coolers and chillers. The dry air coolers provide 100% free cooling when external ambient air is 16°C and below. Partial free cooling starts at 21°C. The resulting PUE is 1.18 at full load and 1.41 at 25% load.
The power and cooling solution ensures an energy efficient and flexible infrastructure platform that can flex and adapt to accommodate the University of Brighton’s changing IT requirement on a short and long term basis.
The data centre solution houses 28 cabinets that can support up to 25kW each. The facility is remotely monitored and maintained by Future-tech.
If your data centre needs refurbishing to accommodate higher densities and a changing requirement, please contact one of our team on 08459 000 127.