{"id":45311,"date":"2009-11-19T11:03:13","date_gmt":"2009-11-19T16:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.datacenterknowledge.com\/?p=18488"},"modified":"2009-11-19T11:03:13","modified_gmt":"2009-11-19T16:03:13","slug":"power-densities-likely-to-drive-expansions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/45311","title":{"rendered":"Power Densities Likely to Drive Expansions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"dcug-survey-Nov2009\"<\/p>\n

Average power densities continue to rise in data centers, and\u00a0are affecting the lifespan of existing data center facilities,\u00a0according to\u00a0new survey data\u00a0from Emerson Network Power<\/strong>. A majority of data centers say they will run out of\u00a0capacity within two years, suggesting\u00a0a wave of\u00a0expansions\u00a0is in the pipeline.<\/p>\n

Thirteen percent of\u00a0the members of\u00a0Emerson’s Data Center User Group (DCUG) said the average power density in their data centers was 12 kilowatts a cabinet or\u00a0higher, with five participants reporting average power loads exceeding 20 kw a\u00a0cabinet.\u00a0Eleven percent reported average densities between 8 and 12 kw, while the largest group of users – 36 percent – cited loads of 4 to 8 kw per rack.<\/p>\n

Short on Power, Not Space<\/strong>
\nThe\u00a0survey<\/a> reinforces the prevailing\u00a0wisdom that data centers are running out of power before they run out of physical space.\u00a0Thirty four percent of respondents cited power as the\u00a0primary factor limiting data center capacity, while just 14 percent cited floor space.<\/p>\n

<\/span>The results underscore the need for many data center operators to\u00a0expand their data center operations to add additional capacity. Fifty six percent\u00a0of DCUG members said they expect\u00a0to run out of data center capacity\u00a0by 2011, with another 18 percent projecting capacity constraints by 2013.<\/p>\n

But decisions about how to expand are being\u00a0shaped by the difficult economy and companies’ desire to conserve cash. This has boosted interest and colocation and wholesale “plug and play” data center space, while suppressing new data center construction.<\/p>\n

Smaller and Smarter
\n<\/strong>Emerson says\u00a0capacity-strapped data center operators are likely to respond by building smaller and smarter, while using hardware refreshes to improve their power density and squeeze more capacity out of a smaller facility.<\/p>\n

“Data center professionals are discovering the efficiency gains enabled by high-density environments,” Emerson notes in its analysis. “Sixty-three percent of the respondents to the fall 2009\u00a0DCUG survey indicated they plan to make their next data center new build or expansion a high-density (>10kW\/rack) facility.”<\/p>\n

Availability A Growing Concern<\/strong>
\nBut energy efficiency isn’t the only motivator. Emerson also said that a series of high-profile\u00a0data center\u00a0outages in 2009 have heightened the focus on uptime, and\u00a0are influencing decisions about tradeoffs between availability and energy efficiency.<\/p>\n

Fifty six\u00a0percent of\u00a0the members of\u00a0Emerson’s DCUG cited availability as their chief concern, up from 41 percent just six months ago, the company\u00a0reports<\/a>. Emerson attributes this\u00a0to media coverage of data center\u00a0outages in\u00a02009.<\/p>\n

“High availability is no longer considered an insurance policy,” said Chuck Spears, presidnet of Emerson’s Liebert product line in North America. “One significant outage can wipe out years of savings achieved through incremental efficiency improvements.\u00a0As we look ahead to the next decade, data center design and management must enter a new stage of maturity where organizations can reduce costs and improve efficiency without potentially risking performance.”<\/p>\n

In examining potential tradeoffs between availability and efficiency, Emerson highlighted\u00a0differences in uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), noting\u00a0the availability advantages of online double-conversion\u00a0UPS configurations. This emphasis is not without its competitive considerations, as\u00a0Emerson competitiors are\u00a0highlighting higher\u00a0efficiency UPS power efficiencies though the use of multiple operating modes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Average power densities continue to rise in data centers, and\u00a0are affecting the lifespan of existing data center facilities,\u00a0according to\u00a0new survey data\u00a0from Emerson Network Power. A majority of data centers say they will run out of\u00a0capacity within two years, suggesting\u00a0a wave of\u00a0expansions\u00a0is in the pipeline. Thirteen percent of\u00a0the members of\u00a0Emerson’s Data Center User Group (DCUG) said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45311\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}