From Data Center Knowledge yesterday: Rackable Turns up the Heat, we see the beginnings of the next class of server innovations. This one is going to be important and have lasting impact. The industry will save millions of dollars and megawatts of power ignoring the capital expense reductions possible. Hat’s off to Rackable Systems to being the first to deliver. Yesterday they announced the CloudRack C2.  CloudRack is very similar to the MicroSlice offering I mentioned in the Microslice Servers posting. These are very low cost, high efficiency and high density, server offerings targeting high scale services.

What makes the CloudRack C2 particularly notable is they have raised the standard operating temperature range to a full 40C (104F).  Data center mechanical systems consume roughly 1/3 of all power brought into the data center:

•       Data center power consumption:

–      IT load (servers): 1/1.7=> 59%

–      Distribution Losses: 8%

–      Mechanical load(cooling): 33%

From: Where Does the Power Go?

The best way to make cooling more efficient is to stop doing so much of it.  I’ve been asking all server producers including Rackable to commit to full warrantee coverage for servers operating with 35C (95F) inlet temperatures.  Some think I’m nuts but a few innovators like Rackable and Dell fully understand the savings possible. Higher data center temperatures conserve energy and reduce costs. It’s good for the industry and good for the environment.

To fully realize these industry-wide savings we need all data center IT equipment certified for high temperature operations particularily top of rack and aggregation switches.

                                                --jrh

James Hamilton, Amazon Web Services

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