By Joseph DuTemple, RCDD, and Charles DuTemple
Published in the February 2010 issue of Today's Facility Manager
The relentless demands of technology have created workplace conditions that can literally be sweating for employees. Filled with monitors, servers, and other heat producing technology, these cluster computing environments—particularly in manned situations like trading floors, emergency command and control centers, broadcast studios, and industrial control terminals—must comply with design requirements and ASHRAE standards that govern both human comfort and equipment cooling.
Removing heat generating components is at the core of the solution, and employing blade PC workstations is one of the most viable ways to accomplish this goal. (Facility professionals who are unfamiliar with this terminology can refer to Wikipedia definitions for “Blade PC,” “Blade Server,” and “Thin Client” to get a better sense of the energy saving aspects of these technologies.) By taking away the majority of the processing power from the user’s desk and transferring it into blade workstations located in the telecommunications room or data center, facility managers (fms) can reduce processing power and cooling requirements by up to 80%.
While the use of blade workstations does not entirely eliminate power and cooling requirements, it does shift these demands into the data center, where they can be more readily and efficiently handled. [For more information on equipment closet cooling strategies for small and medium sized organizations, see the accompanying sidebar.] Remaining at the user’s desk is a thin client device which communicates with the blade workstations and the desktop equipment, requiring less power and cooling.
Blade Benefits
Blade workstations are gaining popularity because of their ability not only to remove a significant heat source from the user’s desk, but also to fulfill a number of additional functions within the critical computing environment. The benefits can include the following:
- Less disruption. PC or monitor repairs can be disruptive to any worker. But in a critical location where downtime is not an option, there can be significant repercussions.
- When the processing power is relocated to the data center, blade workstations can be used remotely, without requiring the user to stop work and relocate. As a result, maintenance response times can be significantly reduced. Furthermore, blade workstation solutions can allow employees to access information from their blade from any thin client location.
- Aid disaster recovery efforts. Thin client devices can access the blade workstations from any location regardless of proximity to the blade that serves it. Therefore, during an emergency, employees can access their blade workstations from an offsite location, reducing the time to recovery.
Thin client technology also allows critical computing environments to install their blade workstations in more robust facilities that may be remotely located, such as a corporate data center or co-location facility.
- Electrical redundancy and energy savings. Unlike standard PCs (which only have a single power supply), blade workstations have the ability to connect to redundant power supplies. This allows each blade workstation to be powered from separate electrical sources, providing increased reliability.
While it is not very significant in comparison to the amount of energy expended in the overall electronic environment, moving to a blade workstation can result in a slight reduction in power usage, due to the use of high efficiency power supplies employed in the blade workstations.
- Improved acoustics. The combined noise from multiple PCs, desk-mounted exhaust fans, and associated room air conditioning units can result in an undesirable working environment in critical computing environments. By removing these noise generating elements, blade workstations can improve local acoustics for employees. While the thin client remains, it generates minimal noise and doesn’t require significant cooling.
- Reduced infrastructure requirements. In critical environments, a typical desk setup requires a minimum of one cable between each PC and the telecommunications room. Most thin client devices can support two or more blade workstations using a single cable between the user’s desk and the telecommunications room. When employing blade workstations, the structural cabling requirements for PCs are cut in half, at the very least.
- Greater space efficiency. Removing PCs from critical environments allows more effective use of real estate. Desks no longer need to house multiple PCs, so the size can be reduced up to 40%. Additionally, the power distribution is simplified, requiring less space for electrical distribution equipment. This allows most, if not all, of the supplemental cooling to be removed from the environment.
When used at the desktop, blade servers can decrease supply loads and cut air conditioning requirements. Meanwhile, in the data center, these efficient devices can also cut expenses, since they consume significantly less power than more traditional equipment. Add this all up, and fms are left with efficient, quiet spaces that require less infrastructure. Meanwhile, users benefit from a cool climate, where the only things that can make them sweat are the demands of he day.
Joseph DuTemple is principal and vice president and Charles DuTemple Environmental Systems Design, Inc. in Chicago, IL. (cdutemple@esdesign.com) is senior associate with Chicago, IL-based
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Increasingly, small to moderate sized companies are housing their electronics equipment in converted closets. Such equipment is susceptible to malfunctioning or damage due to overheating, so keeping it cool is essential.
