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Cirrascale: Appliance Deployment Options to Meet Data Center Demands

By Susan J. Campbell, TMCnet Contributing Editor

Electricity usage accounts for an estimated two percent of overall power costs in data centers across the United States. The financial impact on these businesses is likely to increase, and identifying a solution is more critical than ever before.. 

Cirrascale has developed a patented vertical cooling technology to eliminate the drain on data centers. An appliance deployment solution that offers an effective power and cooling design is a much needed tool within the industry.

Because heat rises, traditional cooling racks for servers aren’t designed for optimum performance. Those front-to-back racks draw in the cool air and force it out the back. Eventually that cool air turns to warm air and reenters the hardware. 

Both the microprocessors and the power supplies generate the largest amount of heat within the server. Despite attempts at improving power efficiency in Intel (News - Alert) processors, high temperatures still impact performance. Nearly 75 percent of that heat still needs to be addressed; fortunately, Cirrascale has a solution.

According to a recent NEI (News - Alert) blog post, VCT, or vertical cooling technology, takes appliance deployment away from the traditional racks by taking high velocity cool air to force out performance-robbing hot air. The solution is ideal for those larger data centers that utilize floor cooling that is ventilated through the ceiling ducts. 

The VCT draws the cooler air up from the floor and drives it throughout the entire server rack as it makes its way to the ceiling. This creates a constant flow of cool air. Doing so eliminates hot spots that can lead to data center system failure. In addition to system failures, traditional racks can also lower reliability and mismanage power usage. 

Cirrascale has also incorporated more thermal capacity into the design of its appliance deployment. Hot, swappable fan trays as well as modular options are able to channel cool air around the entire system as well. The entire process does, however, mimic the traditional cooling rack concept. The VCT option, like the front-to-back method, draws the cool air in the front and on either side of the rack, around the server, and pushes the hot air away. 

Unlike VCT, traditional racks don't have the ability to keep the air cool, forcing the hot air up to the ceiling. No other appliance deployment solution uses the floor cooling concept with an added high velocity output. It takes the original idea of cooling the servers to an entirely different level, as the cool air is forced out at such a rate that it surrounds the equipment and interacts with every component before the air has time to warm. This keeps critical components cooled and running effectively.

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Edited by Jamie Epstein

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