Deploying efficient server cabinets

By David O’Coimin and John MacDonald, Kell Systems

As a result of these recessionary times IT executives are constantly seeking alternatives to reduce the cost of traditional server environments and the impact of equipment and power consumption on the environment. The impact is evidenced by analysts Gartner who recently identified that in 2009 the cost of all IT decreased worldwide by 4.6% on 2008’s figure.

“Another widely held belief is that servers have to be located in a dedicated computer room. This is a fallacy as servers are in fact designed to be placed in the ambient temperatures contained within an open office environment”

Traditional Approach - Dedicated Server Environments

The cost of building a 9ft² air conditioned server room used to house numerous server racks will typically cost between $15,000 and $31,000 with an ongoing energy usage often exceeding 3000w's, which as demonstrated in the table below can cost nearly $1,000 per annum in terms of electricity alone.

In environmental terms the power draw of 9,824.2 Kw/h is the equivalent of the electricity produced by nearly 5 electricity generating windmills or the same power draw of running 167,000 60w light bulbs for an hour.

An often overlooked aspect of the cost associated with a server room is also the rental cost of the space itself again running to an additional $900 p/a. Therefore, it is clear that traditional setups located in custom built air conditioned server rooms are not only expensive to install but also expensive to run.

There is an additional requirement, for new builds and in an ideal world, existing buildings, to also centrally locate server rooms or data closets as far as possible to minimize cable lengths and twists and turns and maintain data transfer speed. Once constructed, these server rooms if not planned in advance and expanded on an ad-hoc basis can generate hot spots which can cause premature equipment failure, need to be secured to avoid casual visitors and offer no flexibility in deployment having zero portability and no scalability. An overcrowded server room will also be extremely prone to overheating, which can lower the efficiency of, or destroy components, and typically take between 4 to 6 months to construct.

Perhaps more alarmingly is that 50% of the total energy consumed by traditional server environments is used to cool the server environment and not to power the IT systems themselves despite the developments and success of more power efficient Blade systems and server manufacturers constantly striving to produce servers that consume less power. With all the developments, the industry is still struggling to break out of the widely held belief that for every $1 spent on computing equipment and services, it is likely to be required to spend an additional $1 on power and cooling to keep the equipment running.

The Alternative Approach - Kell Systems Server Cabinets

Another widely held belief is that servers have to be located in a dedicated computer room. This is a fallacy as servers are in fact designed to be placed in the ambient temperatures contained within an open office environment. The by-products of noise and heat generated by computer equipment, combined with security, however, has until now necessitated the requirement for a computer room.

One solution to the high energy costs associated with traditional server environments is to deploy passively-cooled server cabinets, for either traditional server set-ups or small Blade server configurations. Kell units require only 0.9m2, again saving on cost of space, and are cooled by the surrounding air without the need for dedicated air conditioning. Air is drawn through the bottom of the cabinet, where the air is coolest in a typical room, into the front of the quiet server cabinet, channeled through the equipment and then extracted out of the back of the unit -something air-conditioning from above a rack in a server room fails to do adequately.

These cabinets are acoustically sealed and therefore virtually silent and each quiet server cabinet is fully portable and can easily be relocated should the need arise. More importantly, they cost far less to own than dedicated server rooms and often consume less than 60w, a huge saving of over 90% p/a in terms of power requirement and cost as quantified in the table below.

Kell plug-and-play units feature front office looks and can be easily deployed in any office environment. By virtue of the fact that they come in numerous finishes and the high technical quality of build and acoustic engineering it is often difficult to distinguish them from standard office furniture. such is the finish and sound dampening effectiveness of these units.

The scalability of a Kell Cabinet is enhanced by their range of sizes, the ability to be placed virtually anywhere and that they can be bayed together, meaning they have true flexibility and can be implemented directly into the office environment wherever the requirement and are free from existing constraints of location and set-up.

Furthermore, the PSEi range of cabinets offer the additional benefits of containing an optional remote management module, meaning that they can truly be monitored from anywhere in the world with an internet connection, an ideal solution for multi-location businesses with a centralized IT function, within the same office, nationally or internationally.

Cost Comparison: a dedicated 9ft x 9ft Server Room and a Kell Systems PSE38 Cabinet

	Server Room		Kell PSE38		Saving $
	Kw/h per year*	$ per year**	Kw/h per year	$ per year
Electricity for 1 Year	9,824.2	$982.42	762.12	$76.21	$906.21
Rental Space for 1 Year		$903.02		$120.00	$783.02

* assuming a power draw of 2.4 Kw/h 
** assuming a lower end cost of 10 cents per kilowatt/hour

Conclusion

Due to the volatile nature of current fuel markets it is likely that energy costs will continue to rise. This in turn will place the responsibility of finding more efficient server environments in terms of both cost and environmental impact firmly on the desk of both the IT and facilities departments. Combine this with the ethical pressure companies are now experiencing to reduce their carbon footprint and despite the continuing development in server technology, it is likely that the demand for energy efficient alternatives to traditional server environments will increase.

Further information on cooling and acoustics can be found at www.kellsystems.com.