Today’s data center designers mostly say, “That’s how it was supposed to be,” rather than “That’s better.” A New York Times article titled “Power, Pollution, and the Internet” reviewed a few small events from the early 20th century, when automobile assembly lines began mass-producing cars. There was widespread skepticism, with many believing that cars replacing horse-drawn carriages and railways would inevitably bring danger, pollution, chaos, and unsustainability. However, even so, in the 100 years since the transition from steam engines to internal combustion engines, the energy efficiency of switches has increased by 300%, and fuel efficiency per mile per gallon has increased by 300%.
The Second Industrial Revolution, also known as the Internet Age, has been fueled by millions of data centers supporting this data revolution. The data center industry has significantly improved energy efficiency over the past decade, far exceeding this benchmark. Simultaneously, the internet and its infrastructure have permeated virtually every aspect of our lives, dramatically transforming everything from banking and shopping to how we communicate.
In the US, millions of cubic bytes of data are generated daily, and people need uninterrupted access to this digital content anytime, anywhere. Despite continuous technological advancements, servers continue to consume enormous amounts of power, and data center designs are inefficient, particularly in the physical infrastructure: power and cooling. The fundamental challenge facing the industry is to break this paradigm. We need to rethink traditional designs, and more specifically, the design of power infrastructure, which has existed for decades—highly inefficient and failing to meet the performance requirements of today’s mission-critical facilities.
ancient tradition
Many industries still treat data center design and construction as a craft, passed down through generations of engineers. They often have their own design preferences, resulting in no two data centers looking alike, and no two data centers operating or being maintained in the same way. Many people are extremely risk-averse, completely lacking the courage to embrace new things. They ignore the rewards of innovation because they fear failure.
We often see Request for Proposals (RFPs) or quotations based on data center specifications that are 10-15 years old, and these even come from a 20-year-old design. Once on paper, the specifications are rarely questioned. What follows is multi-layered implementation, from the client’s clients, to the client, architects, engineers, contractors, and finally to the vendors. Questions or alternative solutions are never addressed.