Sun has teamed up with APC, a leader in integrated critical power and cooling services, to design part of Sun's new energy efficient datacenter in Santa Clara, California. The datacenter, commissioned as part of Sun's Eco Innovation Initiative, features a rack-based datacenter that leverages a flexible, scalable APC InfraStruXure InRow cooling solution that will enable Sun to effectively reduce the cost and environmental impact of maintaining its high density IT systems. Integrated APC software will monitor environmental disruptions within the datacenter, allowing Sun to ensure the highest possible efficiency and to eliminate costly downtime.

The 13,000 square foot software research datacenter will feature 18-aisle APC InfraStruXure Hot-Aisle Containment Systems that use a total of 450 enclosures, which include 230 APC NetShelter VX and 220 Sun racks. Each hot-aisle containment system operates at an average of 5 kW of heat load per rack and utilizes APC's innovative InRow cooling solutions to cool the load. Because cooling capacity is pre-piped placement of additional InfraStruXure InRow RC cooling units into each datacenter system is possible, bringing the overall cooling capacity to a 9 kW average per rack.

Although this implementation can sustain an average of 9 kW per rack, much higher density racks can be incorporated with lower density racks to take full advantage of the flexibility of the InfraStruXure Hot-Aisle Containment System, which works with any type of rack. With this design, Sun can easily and quickly add or subtract racks from each datacenter system. In addition, an overhead flap system helps to contain the hot aisle air, which is necessary because of the differences in enclosure heights.

To meet the energy efficiency demands of the Sun Eco Innovation Initiative, Sun installed three APC 800kW Symmetra MW uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) across two lab buildings. These UPSes offered Sun up to 97 percent efficiency, and projections suggest that, over a 10-year period, the possible energy savings to the company could exceed $1 million on the three installed UPS systems. The Symmetra MW scales from 400kW to 1.6MW.

"Given the remarkable pace with which our company's computing environments are evolving, we are challenged with the need to effectively and efficiently power and cool our datacenters," said Michael Ryan, staff engineer in the WR Global Lab and Data Center Design Services group at Sun. "APC has created modular, scalable cooling systems and UPS units that fit the flexible and adaptable nature of our next-generation datacenter demands and enable us to easily accommodate future growth."

Because Sun is committed to the consistent distribution of power and the ability to maintain and monitor conditions within the datacenter environment, the company has elected to include two APC switched Rack Power Distribution Units (PDUs) and an APC Environmental Monitoring Unit within each enclosure. As an additional safeguard, the datacenter room is monitored by APC Netbotz surveillance cameras that tie into APC's InfraStruXure Central management platform.

Rob Johnson, senior vice president and president of North America at APC-MGE, commented, "The new Sun Microsystems datacenter in Santa Clara is an ideal example of the kind of next-generation architecture that can and will help alleviate some of the environmental and economic strain that today's high density computing is placing on the industry." [...read more...]

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