Unisys Corporation has announced that it has completed construction of an expansion to its data center in Eagan, Minnesota, creating an environmentally advanced outsourcing services facility. This data center's innovative development plan and sustainability features enhance service delivery for clients and emphasize protecting and enhancing the local environment and the surrounding community.
This expansion is designed to accommodate Unisys customers in public sector, financial services, transportation and other markets Unisys serves.
Work on the environmentally advanced data center began in May 2007, with extensive facility renovations. During the construction, Unisys recycled more than 150,000 pounds of building materials, including carpeting, ceiling tiles, conduit and electrical wire.
"By creating an energy-efficient data center in Eagan, Unisys is taking a strong stand for responsible resource usage and environmental stewardship, said Randal L. Peek, AIA, principal, Pope Associates, the St. Paul-based architectural firm overseeing the data center expansion. "Unisys is demonstrating how a data center based on best practices in energy efficiency can benefit both its clients and the larger community.
Peek is a member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), which advocates sustainable design as a way for companies to minimize their environmental footprint, enhance operations and reduce costs.
Unisys has integrated innovative, sustainable design elements into the building's interior, including a 30-inch raised floor that enables superior air flow around server computers to simplify maintenance and maximize cooling efficiency. Unisys also installed an energy-efficient glycol air conditioning system, which improves cooling efficiency by 44 percent over levels normally found in data centers. Other energy-saving equipment includes fluorescent lamps and ballasts, variable-speed fan systems and lower-emitting emergency generators.
In addition, a sophisticated monitoring and control system allows power usage to be continually balanced with fluctuating heating and cooling requirements. Unisys service personnel can check the system and make adjustments either locally or remotely in real time - from any Unisys outsourcing center in the world, if necessary.
These improvements complement the virtualized server environment that Unisys provides in the center. Virtualization technology enables computers to perform more tasks more efficiently. By using virtualization, the Unisys servers at the Eagan center reduce carbon emissions by 67 percent compared to computers dedicated to a single application at a customer site.
"We are committed to making our Eagan facility a benchmark for green' data center design within the IT community, said Don Liedtke, vice president, Global IT Outsourcing Operations, Unisys. "We intend to make ongoing changes to continually increase the energy efficiency of the building and make it a standard for all Unisys data centers, as well as those throughout the industry.
In addition to incorporating environmentally friendly construction processes, Unisys launched a number of "green land-based initiatives outside the facility, including a 3.5-acre oak savanna restoration, which incorporates the removal of buckthorn, an invasive, non-native plant species that overwhelms and kills native plant life. This also enhances security for the facility by improving views and reducing the risk of brush fire.