Data393, a managed data holdings company and leading provider of colocation, managed hosting, disaster recovery and IP network services, has announced the completion of "Green initiatives to decrease the facility's carbon footprint. Data393's Green initiative also follows in the footsteps of the City of Denver's efforts to leave an enduring legacy of sustainability programs in the Denver metro area.
Resulting from the expansion of its multi-million-dollar, 30,000-square-foot data center, Data393 has implemented technological advances and infrastructure upgrades at its Englewood datacenter, just south of Denver, that reduce its environmental impact.
Data393's Green advancements include: Highly efficient power system components: Data393's new high density colocation suite features a string of six parallel Generac 600kw generators at N+1 redundancy and increased capacity of 3MW of power, with expansion capability to 6MW at N+1 redundancy. The new, more efficient generators use a greater number of smaller capacity units, which operate at the high end of their rated capacity, increasing efficiency and ultimately reducing emissions.:
Use of DC power: Data393 also uniquely uses DC battery power systems, delivering higher efficiency with reduced heat production and saving energy wasted on power conversion and cooling. Also, the purchase of advanced 20-year-rated, UPS batteries increases time between battery replacement, reducing environmental impact of applicable power systems;
Implementing virtualization: To increase efficiencies for its customers, Data393 has implemented managed hosting that takes advantages of blade servers and virtualization. Data393's Cisco ACE firewall operates at reduced power consumption over legacy firewall technology. Data393 also implemented Compellent storage arrays which reduce space and power requirements over traditional data storage architecture;
Environmentally friendly building: By installing specialized materials, Data393 has reduced the demand on cooling for the entire facility and alleviated power demands. For instance, Data393 removed aggregate roofing rocks, which act as a heat sink by absorbing heat and releasing it only at night. With white PVC installed on the roof, the building now reflects sunlight and heat rather than absorbing it, reducing the cooling load of the building by as much as 15 percent;
LEED's approved cooling components: Data393 implemented a Dolphin Cooling Tower purification system, which eliminates harmful chemicals in water discharge making it safe and possible for repurpose. The cooling system is eligible for credits towards LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) building certification.
Data393 is also considering additional green investments to reduce energy consumption, including the use of biodiesel for standby generators, the viability of air or water side economizers for cooling, adjustment of CRAC fan speeds and the use of wider range of cooling and humidification to match ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers) specifications.
"The introduction of Green technologies in the facility not only answers the call to action for environmentally friendly datacenters, but it provides a new opportunity to customers to take advantage of the cost savings that consolidation, high density space, and virtualized environments provide, added Needles, director of datacenter operations at Data393.