Turning green and Japanese
What might storage providers learn about cooling and efficiency from the Land of the Rising Sun? Fleur Doidge reports
Fans of Japanese design will admire the focus on simplicity and purpose. A solution that harmonises all the elements in its environment, including earth, air and water, can be most efficient. The same might be said of datacentres - and a slew of new Japanese case studies from the Green Grid may show a way forward for many storage providers.
Eiji Taguchi, senior specialist in the datacentre business development and cloud computing business groups at Intel, and head of a related technical work group at the Green Grid, says that green technology has become increasingly important to Japan and the Japanese.
"Over the past two years, we have seen some disasters that make it much more important," confirms Taguchi. "Also, we are at the head of the Kyoto Protocol commitment."
Japanese companies have been taking action on environmental issues for years, but recent events have pushed the environment further to the fore, exacerbating the risk of power shortages that hold the country back as well as problems with pollution. Taguchi agrees there are lessons here for technology providers around the world, as these are global issues.
"That is why we have produced the report," he says. "And we believe that even old or existing datacentres can improve their energy usage, as well as new datacentres."
Internationally, the nation is known for themes of conservation, harmony and design in areas from cuisine to art and architecture, as well as prioritising the needs of the community. Also, Japan has limited energy resources of its own - it can supply only four per cent of its total requirements.
"Traditionally, the Japanese culture has been into taking care of the environment. We do take care of the environment as much as possible, and we are leaders in energy consumption," he says.
The Green Grid says energy efficiency must be a strategic corporate initiative. Top-level executive sponsorship of datacentre energy savings organisation-wide - rather than siloed in, say, just the IT department - is essential. The highest importance was placed on demonstration of actual results, and all offered standout solutions regarding facility architecture, power and cooling, operation and overall improvements.
Taguchi says the most impressive new case study in his view, in environmental sustainability and efficiency terms, is IDC Frontier's hosting and services facility at Kita-Kyushu. IDC Frontier operates nine datacentres in Japan.
"It is using new technology, and using an existing datacentre," Taguchi says."But all these case studies are interesting."
The Kita-Kyushu facility was built in 2008 and has been singled out for its cost-effective use of external air to control temperature and boost efficiency, according to the Green Grid report.
"To improve cooling efficiency, IDC Frontier used a hot-aisle containment design to implement hot-air and cold-air isolation. The company also considered cold-aisle containment but selected hot-aisle containment because of cost and operational efficiency advantages," says the Green Grid.
Hot-aisle containment may not be effective at lower power density levels, such as six kilovolt-amperes (kVA) per rack, but does suit the much higher power density levels, which Kita-Kyushu will soon need. The company raised the floor height to one metre - higher than the floor height in typical Japanese datacentres, and left it free of underfloor cabling, to smooth the airflow.
"To optimise cooling efficiency, IDC Frontier is continuously improving airflow. For instance, it installed blank rack panels, provided free to its customers," says the Green Grid.
The project was complicated by the fact that there was no meaningful production data available about the use of dry-side economisers in Japan's climate, characterised by four distinct seasons including hot, humid summers and cold, dry winters.
A dry-side economiser proof-of-concept incorporated 100 racks with 6kVA loads, actual servers and alternative server emulation hardware. The company found it could optimise energy efficiency levels with external air as 10 per cent of the total cooling air capacity. The amount of power needed for cooling was reduced by 40 per cent, it said. Power usage efficiency is measured monthly to help it continuously improve and so it can respond quickly if efficiency degrades.
Dragon fruit and spices
IDC Frontier also balanced intake fan power consumption and external air temperature, tuning fan speed for greater efficiency and cost-effective operation. For example, at cooler times fans take in lots of air, gradually reducing the intake amount by careful control of fan speeds. Conversion of the hot air exhaust from the hot aisle into energy was considered, but instead it was decided to channel that hot air into a greenhouse built right outside that is now used for growing tropical produce such as dragon fruit and spices including paprika.
Another standout case study was by Itochu Techno-Solutions, using a sodium-sulphur battery system to update a 24-year-old datacentre. Most datacentres are more than 10 years old and were not designed to be green - so how do organisations update them, cost effectively, in situ?
Sodium-sulphur batteries can discharge and charge at about 300°C and are said to be efficient, energy intensive, and long lived. Ice thermal storage air conditioning systems were also used. It can use cool night air to produce cool thermal energy.
Itochu stores electricity during the night, when tariffs are lower, and uses that cheaper power during daytime to both spread the load and cut peak power use by 6.3 per cent. Night-time electricity is also less carbon intensive than daytime power, according to the Green Grid.
"It could be effective as an emergency generator as well because the facility does not involve any combu-stion and toxin emissions are not a concern," it adds.
Intel's Taguchi says that over time - even this year - more datacentres in Japan and elsewhere will embrace systems management tools and address challenges such as waste heat. Heat produced by facilities at one location or by one business could be used at another location or by another business, for example.
"These things will be happening around energy use collaboration and other trends," Taguchi says.
David Snelling, vice chairman of the EMEA Technical Work Group at the Green Grid, says the drive for energy efficiency is deeply ingrained into Japanese business and society, particularly because of the ever-present threat of natural disaster in its Pacific "Ring of Fire" location.
"Japan is a unique country in many ways, from culture and climate to economy and regulatory environment, and all these characteristics have a significant impact on the way its datacentres are designed, managed and operated," Snelling confirms.
"Natural disaster can decimate the country's power generation capacity in seconds. As a result, many Japanese organisations are at the forefront of resource efficiency and sustainability in the datacentre."
The newest case studies - all of which are available free online - highlight the latest innovations and best practices in Japan, and are a must-read for all datacentre operators who want to cut energy, carbon and costs, Snelling says.
Other highlights include a unique modular Hitachi datacentre which slashed power consumption by 67 per cent; @Tokyo's balancing of power demand using renewables; an NEC facility that cut energy use 30 per cent by using power control systems; and Fujitsu's award-winning energy visualisation project that gives full visibility of datacentre efficiency improvements. The aim is not just to boost resource efficiency but entire business computing ecosystems.