Toshiba and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) have collaborated to develop a new cooling technology for data centers to reduce their energy expenses by atleast one-third by enhancing their energy efficiency.
Front view of the Toshiba-NTU green modular data centre
The sophisticated info-communications technology (ICT) developed at NTU and the air cooling technology conceived by Toshiba have been integrated at a data center which is now the test bed for researchers. Data centers are storehouses for information technology (IT) systems functioning at the back-end, databases, servers and mainframes. The energy consumed by data centers is 100 to 200 times that consumed by offices. The United States Department of Energy pegs the energy cost of data centers to be 50% of office operating costs. In Singapore, where the annual growth rate of data centers is 15% to 20%, the energy consumption of the top 10 data centers is considered to be equivalent to the energy consumption of 130,000 households. The novel test bed endeavors to offer data centers located in the sub tropical environs of South-East Asia, a sustainable solution for cooling.
The new system combines an intelligent cooling system with an advanced modular structure that can either function as standalone modules or as combined system with higher computing power. Data centers typically cool their systems using air conditioners which generate huge energy bills as they keep recirculating the air and exerting more energy to cool hot air. The new cooling system however uses the outside air for cooling whenever the temperature of air outside dips lower than that of the air in the data center. The ICT technology optimizes server usage in data centers by merging multiple applications running on different servers onto just one server and switches the unused servers into sleep mode, thereby conserving power as well as energy that would otherwise be expended on cooling those systems.
Source: http://media.ntu.edu.sg
Disclaimer: The views expressed here are those of the author expressed in their private capacity and do not necessarily represent the views of AZoM.com Limited T/A AZoNetwork the owner and operator of this website. This disclaimer forms part of the Terms and conditions of use of this website.