(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Syracuse University (www.syr.edu), in partnership with IBM (www.ibm.com) and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (www.nyserda.org), have gone live with the world’s greenest data center powered with direct current.
First announced last May, the $12.4 million, 6,000-square-foot data center uses 50 percent less energy than the average data center.
The data center’s energy efficiency has been greatly improved by using modern DC power technology that allows Syracuse University to run its systems at a fraction of the cost of a conventional AC-powered data center.
“Direct current power is native to all computers throughout the world,” says Christopher Sedore, vice president for information technology and chief information officer at Syracuse University. “By delivering power native to the computer we eliminate losses and equipment historically required to deliver AC to the server. Leveraging the Validus and IBM technology allows us to be much greener while improving overall systems reliability.”
The data center delivers direct current power at the appropriate voltage directly to the IBM System z10 server.
In SU’s previous data center, AC power was delivered throughout the data center and to the IT equipment even though all servers run on direct current.
Contrastly, the new green data center uses a system with Validus DC Systems technology that allows the AC power generated by micro-turbines and/or the utility to be efficiently converted only once to direct current.
This helps reduce energy losses, equipment components and real estate requirements, lowers maintenance costs, and improves end-to-end reliability.
IBM says it intends to showcase the green data center and its energy-efficient technologies to help clients design new data centers or improve their current operations.
