HP completed installation of an HP EcoPOD at its Alpharetta, Ga, next-generation data center (NGDC).

The EcoPOD is located on-site and expands the compute space of one of the HP data centers that was a part of the company’s original transformation to consolidate 85 internal IT data centers worldwide to six NGDCs in the United States.

The 40-foot HP EcoPOD will hold 2,000 new HP ProLiant and HP Integrity servers, the compute-capacity equivalent to approximately 20,000 square feet of the company’s existing NGDC space.

“This is a great example of HP’s Converged Infrastructure, covering everything from facilities to networking to servers to software in a self-contained powerhouse unmatched in the industry,” said Ken Gray, vice president IT Infrastructure team. “One of the biggest pain points we hear from our customers is how to add compute space quickly and cost effectively—EcoPODs address that.”

HP also is nearing completion of the installation of a 40-foot HP EcoPOD in a second Atlanta-area data center operated by the HP IT organization, in Suwannee, Ga. HP EcoPODs also are under construction at the two data centers in Austin, Texas, the company said.

The additional compute capacity allows HP more flexibility to refresh the technology of the data center itself.

The EcoPODs in the Atlanta area were preinstalled with 500 terabytes of HP XP Storage in an HP P9500 Enterprise Storage Array, as well as HP networking and SAN switches. They also were 25 percent prepopulated with HP BladeSystem c7000 enclosures housing 500 HP Integrity servers. 

The rest of the HP EcoPOD will be populated with HP ProLiant Generation 8 (Gen8) servers to help operate the HP private cloud.

HP said the EcoPOD can reduce energy use by 95 percent when compared to a traditional facility, includes adaptive cooling technology that automatically optimizes the cooling modes between economization (free outside air) and direct expansion (DX) cooling modes.

The power usage effectiveness (PUE) rating, a measure of data center energy overhead, will be as low as 1.05, compared to a PUE of 2.0 or more for a traditional brick-and-mortar facility, said HP