Together. Free your energies
Capgemini UK Infrastructure Outsourcing
Project
Arthur
–
Improved Data Centre Efficiency
Paul Feeney – Capgemini
Project Arthur
The Toltec data centre, in the west country was fast approaching it’s 1990’s design capacity limitations. The infrastructure therefore required upgrading to meet existing and future customer demands as well as to maintain and improve its resilience and efficiency.
Arthur is the £9m project to refit Capgemini's existing Toltec data centre in Bristol with 'Merlin' and other new technology in order to achieve significant advances in efficiency, sustainability, capacity and flexibility.
The 9-month project was completed in October 2011 and measured impacts (including PUE reduction from 1.88
to 1.45) are already meeting the ambitious objectives that were set
.
Reasons for Refurbishment
Before Arthur, measurement of energy consumption was cumulative, so that it was not possible even to distinguish between office and data centre, or between IT equipment and the underlying items of basic plant supporting the IT.
To fully understand our power consumption and to adhere to the TGG metrics, electrical separation and measurement was identified and implemented as part of the upgrade programme.
In addition, we adopted the 'enclosed cold aisle' principles, with elevated return air temperatures using pressure based fan speed controls, to minimise energy consumption.
Reduced Toltec’s infrastructure energy consumption and
CO2 emissions in line with corporate objectives.
Ensure the infrastructure can support the planned growth
in new business.
Increase the infrastructure resiliency to comply fully with
Tier 3 requirements.
Reduce energy bills and thus enable Capgemini to offer
more cost-competitive services to clients.
Enable synchronous connectivity with the new Merlin
data centre in Swindon.
What we set out to achieve:
20% by 2014
750w/m
2– 1000w/m
2Fault tolerant infrastructure
Removal of 2x900kw chillers
Operationally Live, Mission Critical, Business
Reasons Why Arthur should WIN – No1
Toltec is a live, operational data centre, with thousands of servers running 24x7x365,
serving 100’s of clients from government departments to major multinationals.
Unplanned downtime to services was not permitted at any point during the project.
Reuse, Refit, Reorganise
Reasons Why Arthur should WIN - 2
Efficient data centres are not always brand new projects. Arthur achieved the successful transformation of a live data centre from an inefficient legacy to a modern efficient one. This should inspire future projects by demonstrating what can be achieved without the need for an expensive, risky IT migration to a new location.
Nitrogen
Pipe
Freeze
(200mm)x 84
Top Down Thinking
Reasons Why Arthur should WIN – No3
Driving greater efficiency through the use of fan speed as well as temperature control. Reduced Peak Ambient Return Water Temperature (Adiabatic Water Spray Assisted) Re-use of such proven Merlin technology enabled significant cost savings to be achieved.
Fans @ 100% ALL YEAR
Free Cooling for Approximately 2300 Hrs p.a (27%)
Mix Mode Cooling For Approximately 6360 Hr p.a (72%) Full Compressor Run Approximately 100 Hours / Year ( 1% p.a)
Supply Air Into Floor Void 23C
Return Air From Data Hall 36C
Free Cooling Achievable With Return Condenser Water up to 14.5C
Operationally Complex, Client Challenging
Reasons Why Arthur should WIN – No4
The sheer scale and complexity of the project, which involved the re-engineering of 1000sqm of existing IT floor space into hot & cold aisles to enable energy efficiencies, and moving 1000’s of servers and 100 of racks.
New Electrical 1.0MW upgrade. Complex system engineering integration and test.
Best Practices
Redundancy = N+N Cooling solution, N+N Power solution, N+1 BMS Load efficiency = Flywheel UPS, Thermal load balancing
Cost minimization = By maximise free cooling within the CRAC units and running the Dry Cooler fans at 100% Management = New BMS system monitoring and reporting upon all critical plant
Electrical cost separation of IT and non-IT load ( via metering)
•Energy efficiency to be improved by 20% - achieved!
•No batteries – achieved!
•Green Grid annual PUE of 1.5 or better when fully loaded and from Day 1 – achieved!
•Cooling load of 1000w per sqm, with ability to expand to 2000w per sqm without disruption to
service – achieved!
•Maximum use of free/mixed cooling, at least 99% of yearly operation – achieved
•Concurrent maintainability, no breaks to service for standard maintenance activities –
achieved to date!
•Significant ( 20%+) cut in water use – achieved!
•Environmental certification in ISO 14001- achieved!
Design & Technical challenges V Requirements
Cooling Upgrade & Cold Aisle Impact
0 200,000 400,000 600,000 800,000 1,000,000 1,200,000 1,400,000 1,600,000 1,800,000 01/0 1/20 10 01/0 3/20 10 01/0 5/20 10 01/0 7/20 10 01/0 9/20 10 01/1 1/20 10 01/0 1/20 11 01/0 3/20 11 01/0 5/20 11 01/0 7/20 11 01/0 9/20 11 01/1 1/20 11 01/0 1/20 12 01/0 3/20 12 01/0 5/20 12 01/0 7/20 12 01/0 9/20 12 01/1 1/20 12 Total Kwh use by Data Centre Total Kwh used by Technical Floor Total KwHours (cooling, lighting, losses etc.) Costs
Change over point from old to new Cooling
Completion of Cold Aisle no 9
Cost Reduction Profile
0 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000 70,000 80,000 90,000 Ja n-10 Mar -10 M ay-10 Jul-1 0 Sep -10 N ov-10 Ja n-11 Mar -11 M ay-11 Jul-1 1 Sep -11 N ov-11 Ja n-12 Mar -12 M ay-12 Jul-1 2 Sep -12 N ov-12 month £
Total costs for IT(cooling, lighting, losses etc.)
Change over point from old to new Cooling
Advice to another organisation planning a similar facility
Strong governance in place to ensure effective business representation communication and input
to the project
Rigorously applied change process to ensure appropriate impacting to remove risk of change
Reiterative migration review process to identify and drive out risks from the project
Appointing a prime contractor who embraced our requirement for service continuity and who
worked with Capgemini from design through to final IST to ensure we met our goals without
disruption to our business or our clients.
CAPGEMINI – TOLTEC DATA CENTRE
Full Compressor Run Approximately 100 hrs / Year ( 1% p.a)
Approximately 494,040 kWhr / Annum Energy Saving During The Free Cooling Period
(No Compressors Running, Dry Cooler Fans At 100% Run)
2300hrs
227,259 kg CO
2Emissions Saved During The Free Cooling Period (Based On an Average of 0.46
kg CO
2/ kWhr). 6300hrs
Approximately 165,810 kWhr / Annum Energy Saving During The Mixed Mode Cooling Period
(Partial Compressors Running, Dry Cooler Fans At 100% Run)
