Data center cooling assessments to quantify cooling performance and enable your business service delivery

1. Assessment Services using
the Performance Indicator
Data center cooling assessments to quantify cooling
performance and enable your business service delivery

2. © 2016 Future Facilities www.6sigmadcx.com
Performance-Based Operational Planning PI Assessment Services
Maintaining a data center that is reliable and
cost efficient - all the while with the agility to
accommodate shifting business demands and
technological innovation - is a must. But these
requirements can pull in opposing directions.
A focus on efficiency will affect resilience, and
flexibility can be inefficient; potentially with
adverse effects on data center performance.
The industry is now recognizing the need to better
quantify performance, and assess the effects of
changes in operation.
Quantifying Performance
Adoption of the power usage effectiveness
(PUE™) metric as a measure of energy efficiency
has positively impacted the industry from both an
environmental and cost effectiveness standpoint.
However, PUE is often extrapolated to be an
overview of a data center’s performance, and the
lack of other metrics means that vital aspects of
true performance have long been overlooked.
To develop a more complete view of performance,
we can look towards some key data center
objectives in conjunction with energy efficiency:
adequate cooling throughout the facility’s lifetime,
and resilience in those unlikely but possible cases
of cooling failure. These can be quantified by The
Green Grid’s (TGG) calculations for IT Thermal
Conformance and IT Thermal Resilience.
The generation of new metrics alone is not
enough. Using isolated metrics to quantify data
center performance can be misleading, so we
needtoconsidertheirinteractionwithoneanother.
Striving for improvement in one area is likely to
impact the others – possibly to their detriment,
and at a cost to the business.
Facility performance targets are set during design
and commissioning. Since few things perform
exactly as intended, be it down to assumptions in
Future Facilities uses a combination of measurement and simulation techniques to calculate the PI
metrics. These can then be used to evaluate your current data center performance and visualize the
effects of future operational plans. Carrying out a PI assessment during the design phase can validate
intended performance, helping you to define the PI target range and compare design configurations.
There are four levels of PI assessment, as defined by The Green Grid in the Performance Indicator
whitepaper. The infographics show the information needed and deliverables available for each level.
designorgradualchangesovertime,wecangauge
a lot by acknowledging this loss in performance.
The Green Grid’s Performance Indicator
The Green Grid has brought together industry
experts to create the Performance Indicator (PI) -
a novel approach to assessing data center cooling
performance.
The spider diagram displays the uniquely defined
metrics:
• PUE ratio (PUEr) – expressing PUE in relation
to intended operation in the form of energy
efficiency ratings (A-G).
• IT Thermal Conformance – ensuring the IT
operates at suitable air inlet temperatures.
• IT Thermal Resilience – minimizing the risk
of equipment overheat in the cases of cooling
failure and planned maintenance.
Using the PI, we can:
• Visualize the balance between the metrics and
show how they interact in your facility.
• Set target ranges for each metric based on
business needs, IT criticality and facility design.
• Track performance over the facility’s lifetime in
relation to your predetermined targets.
• Test and compare your operational plans
before real-life implementation.
Uses basic on-site measurements (sensors and thermal imaging) to quickly determine current state.
Good simple starting point for rack level assessment.
TGG Level 1
Deliverables
3D Model Current PI ReportMeasurement Site Survey
Requirements
TGG Level 2
Uses refined measured data to calculate current state.
Good starting point if equipment level monitoring is in place.
DCIM
Monitoring Site Survey
Requirements Deliverables
3D Model Current PI Report
TGG Level 3
Uses engineering simulation and client data to assess current and future states.
Good starting point for assessing operational plans at a rack level.
DWG
CAD Drawings Simulation
Requirements
Model & Results Current PI
Deliverables
January
Predicted PI Report
TGG Level 4
Uses a calibrated 3D simulation model - verified against measured data - to calculate current and future states.
Good starting point for a complete and accurate view of performance at an equipment level.
Calibration Simulation
Requirements
Site Survey
January
Current PI
Deliverables
Predicted PI ReportAudit Model & Results
An example PI (above) displays the three calculated
performance metrics compared with the target range.
IT Thermal
Resilience
PUEr(A)
IT Thermal
Conformance
70%
80%
100%
90%
Target Range

3. © 2016 Future Facilities www.6sigmadcx.com
Future Facilities KK
S2 bldg. 5F, 2-15-22 Shinjuku
Shinjuku-Ku, Tokyo 160-0022
Japan
Tel: +81 (0) 3 5312 8070
Fax: +81 (0) 3 5312 8071
jp-info@futurefacilities.com
Future Facilities Inc.
2055 Gateway Place, Suite 110
San Jose, CA 95110
USA
Tel: +1 408 436 7701
Fax: +1 408 436 7705
Email: info@futurefacilities.com
future facilities ltd.
1 Salamanca Street
London, SE1 7HX
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7840 9540
Fax: +44 (0) 20 7091 7171
Email: info@futurefacilities.com
Since 2004, Future Facilities has provided computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software and
consultancy services to the world’s largest data center owner-operators and to the industry’s
leading consultancies. With global offices, our managed engineering services and modeling
software are relied on to deliver unique insight into the current and future performance of our
clients’ mission critical data centers. We call our approach ‘engineering simulation’.
About Future Facilities
For more information about the Performance Indicator and our service levels, contact your
local Future Facilities representative.
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