Why we can’t ignore Data Centre thermal risk any longer…
Why we can’t ignore data centre thermal risk any longer.
While everyone agrees that effective cooling is critical to optimise data centre performance, it’s surprising how little emphasis organisations actually place on precision thermal monitoring.
At the end of 2017, Mission Critical Power featured a major interview with EkkoSense’s Dean Boyle and Stuart Redshaw, that focused on the company’s strong belief that thermal risk is too serious an issue to be treated lightly.
With research conducted by EkkoSense suggesting that less than 5% of data centres are currently actively monitoring individual rack temperatures, organisations really aren’t taking advantage of the levels of data centre thermal optimisation that are achievable. Often we will find just a handful of sensors being used on pillars across the room – or perhaps one every ten racks or so. This isn’t much use, as the unsensored rack with the thermal problem could turn out to be your most critical server system. Similarly, if you can’t be sure of individual rack temperatures, there’s no way of being certain that you’re compliant with ASHRAE thermal guidelines.
With the upcoming introduction of EkkoAir 2 – the first true IoT-enabled wireless thermal sensor – organisations can start to get the levels of granularity for effective data centre cooling analysis. With the latest IoT sensors now costing dramatically less than traditional options, targeting greater cooling granularity can actually prove cost-neutral, with a fully-sensed data centre not only saving data centre energy expense but also coming in at a price that’s less than 20% of the cost of a single DC cooling machine.
In this month’s Newsletter we’re looking at how the DC Cooling Equipment market is set to double by 2024, reporting on the massive increase in bitcoin mining data centre energy costs, examining how augmented reality is set to reshape visualisation techniques, and also tracking an expected tripling in size of the Wireless Sensor Networks market.
- DC Cooling equipment market to double by 2024 – According to research from Global Market Insights, featured in Network World, the worldwide market for data centre cooling equipment will reach $20 billion by 2024 – up from just $8 billion in 2016. With many racks now consuming 50 megawatts of power or more, server cabinets are clearly getting more densely packed – confirming the requirement for rack-level temperature monitoring.
- Bitcoin mining already uses more power than Serbia – At one point in December the price of bitcoin cash jumped more than 40% in the space of just 24 hours, however the current bitcoin frenzy clearly also has environmental implications. According to New Atlas, bitcoin mining operations are now some of the most powerful supercomputing farms, running 24×7 to create new bitcoins. It’s estimated that bitcoin mining now consumers more energy than the whole of Serbia, and is set to overtake Denmark in early 2018.
- Augmented Reality set to take visualisation to the next level? – EkkoSoft Critical’s live 3D immersive views allow our customers to remotely walk through their data centre environment to check on specific racks and monitor air flows. The new Magic Leap augmented reality system takes visualisation a step further by projecting light directly into users’ eyes to trick their brains into perceiving virtual objects as part of their surrounding environment!
- Significant growth expected for Wireless Sensor Networks – New research from Research And Markets suggests that by 2018 Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) will embrace over 1 billion sensor units – a figure that will triple by 2022. Key growth markets will include smart cities, metering, smart buildings and the telecoms ecosystems through LoRa and LPWAN technologies.
EkkoSense solutions are available directly, or through the company’s expanding network of international partners across North and South America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific.
www.ekkosense.com
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Press Contact: Cheryl Billson, Comma Communications – PR for EkkoSense,
+44 (0)7791 720460
[email protected]
