Fresh start
Syracuse University’s new green data center, set to open this November, will save the university up to 50 percent more energy than the old center.
SU officials said they consider the building will set a precedent in energy efficiency.
‘It’s supposed to be a model for the whole world,’ said Mark Weldon, SU’s director of corporate relations.
SU teamed with IBM on the $12.4 million project, with IBM currently installing new equipment in the building. The center will hold administrative data, ranging from e-mail accounts to student records. SU officials said it will benefit both students and faculty, since most activities today are supported by an on-line network.
Construction began in May at the South Campus location, and the exterior has been completed.
The decision to construct a green center came down to whether the university wanted to spend money updating Machinery Hall or build a new data center, said Eric Beattie, director of the Office of Campus Planning, Design and Construction.
Robert Hanson, IBM’s program manager, estimated SU’s center would produce energy savings of up to 50 percent, although part of the experiment would be to see how much is actually saved. Neither SU nor IBM officials would comment on exactly how much money will be saved.
SU is creating ways to analyze the energy production and savings of the green center. Hanson said IBM would use these methods to analyze the energy efficiency of other customers’ data centers.
The 6,000-square-foot center will replace the outdated data center in Machinery Hall, which opened in 1907.
‘(Machinery Hall) was built in an era, obviously, when computers didn’t exist,’ said Beattie, who added that even with the opening of the center, most staff will remain in Machinery Hall, which could used as a backup data center.
The building will solve the problem of data centers being energy hogs, something that Weldon says data centers are notorious for.
‘There is plenty of evidence that other universities’ data centers are as tired as Machinery Hall’s,’ Weldon said.
The Environmental Protection Agency reported that data centers consumed 1.5 percent of the nation’s electricity in 2006, more than of all of the color televisions in the United States. If the trends continue, data center energy consumption could double by 2011.
‘There’s a tremendous amount of energy savings with this,’ Hanson said.
The center will create its own power, heat and air conditioning. Twelve low-emission power generators, called microturbines, will power the center. When winter hits, hot water for nearby buildings will be produced from the waste heat of the microturbines. Water, as opposed to air, will cool the computers in the building.
The microturbines will run on natural gas, Hanson said. He said this could be a detriment to other interested companies that might not have natural gas near them.
SU will not be the only university with green data activities in the near future.
Metropolitan Community College in Omaha, Neb., is working with IBM as well, creating a green data center management degree, according to a September article from Reuters.
Others are watching the production of the new center. IBM, which gave SU $5.3 million for the center, plans to use it as a showcase for its clients, Hanson said. The goal is to push clients toward a service engagement with IBM, which would allow the company to help design the clients own data centers, he said.
‘We want to create a showcase in the industry,’ he said. ‘We expect it will help drive business for IBM, as well as for SU.’
Published on September 8, 2009 at 12:00 pm
