12Nov

Data Center Capacity Planning — An Alternate Approach

Jim Weynand, Chief Revenue Officer, GRC
On: November 12, 2020 Comments: 0
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When it comes to accurately and reliably undertaking a data center capacity planning initiative, the challenge can be daunting. Do you recall how much planning, effort, and time went into your last attempt? You needed to forecast the necessary compute to meet your mid-term business needs, as well as project your long-term growth requirements, while trying to keep budgets in line. Skillfully and successfully doing all this is no simple task.

When we talk immersion cooling, we talk single-phase immersion cooling, not two-phase.

The Risk: Capacity Projections
Gone Wrong

Aligning today’s needs with tomorrow’s predicted growth is like hitting a moving target. Traditionally, you had to build with future capacity in mind and hope that your projections were correct. That decision also had a financial impact — forcing you to incur CAPEX today for demand that could be years away. When these five to ten-year projections don’t end up materializing, your data center ends up being either over- or under-provisioned.

The Bottom Line:

Capacity planning is nearly impossible to accurately estimate given increasing demand velocities and the progressively dynamic nature of technology and the applications driving it.

So, Move to the Cloud?

You could just move to the cloud, but in addition to properly migrating data, potential security, and compliance issues, moving to the cloud means you’re losing operational control and might not have desired access for support. Also, depending on terms of use, the cloud can be expensive (up to $500/kWh) and require long lease agreements (up to 15 years)*. This means you’ll be relying on your cloud services’ physical architecture to always remain ahead of latency issues and the tech curve.

Data Center Capacity Planning — Cloud Expenses

Immersion Cooling: All the Rewards, None of the Risks

Instead of precarious data center demand forecasting or moving compute to the cloud, there is another alternative — single-phase liquid immersion cooling. This flexible, cost-effective technology makes planning and provisioning for compute a much simpler process, providing controlled growth, easy management, and proven reliability with less complexity (only 3 moving parts).

Benefits That Go Beyond Capacity Planning
and Hyper-Efficient Cooling

You can’t simply add hundreds of killowatts of IT capacity in a traditional air-based or liquid-augmented solution data center unless you’ve already provisioned, or are ready for a large capital outlay for the additional cooling and power for grey space infrastructure like CRACs, CRAHs, containment structures, or raised floors. With immersion cooling, you have the flexibility to retain control of your operation, revise projections, and adapt to changing business needs on an asneeded basis — quickly.

CAPEX:

There’s no real need for grey space infrastructure at all, only power, water, and Internet. Add compute as you need to grow, not before — no additional racks or cooling support — up to 100 kW/rack at a time or even up to 200 kW/rack if you use chilled water. process.

OPEX:

Since no energy is wasted on legacy DC technology such as air conditioners, handlers, server fans, or extra power supplies, you can reduce power costs by as much as 50%. And, because of immersion cooling’s amazingly small footprint, facility size and the associated expenses are greatly reduced.

Greater Server Reliability:

Immersion cooling also increases the lifespan of your IT equipment due to eliminating server vibration and airborne contaminates. Our ElectroSafe® single phase liquid coolant is compatible with virtually any OEM server that undergoes GRC’s conversion-to-immersion process.

Even More Savings:

Costs can quickly add up if you’re being charged per core software license fees, or by the kWh for cloud services. Because of immersion cooling’s high-density racks with no thermal or power constraints, your data center can run virtual processes faster and use fewer processors, reducing licensing costs.

Support Sustainability Initiatives:

Our ICEraQ® and ICEtank® immersion cooling systems allow you to improve your operation’s carbon footprint by reducing energy use 50%, lowering water usage up to 89%, decreasing carbon emissions 21%, and attaining an mPUE of <1.03.

Quick, Anywhere Placement:

In addition to being easily and rapidly placed into your new or existing data center (raised floor or not), GRC’s immersion cooling systems can be placed practically anywhere — a spare office, dusty arid desert, hot humid outdoor loading docks, parking lots, basements, or on the 100th floor of a downtown high-rise, even in containerized data centers at the edge — wherever close compute is needed most. And, installation takes only days with fewer logistical headaches.
Data Center Capacity Planning — Deploy in Varying Environments

Flexible & Successful Data Center Capacity Planning is Within Your Reach

As you can see, immersion cooling relieves you of all the pain points associated with yesterday’s outmoded capacity planning by providing an alternate approach better suited for today’s world, It allows you to pragmatically expand your data center’s compute on an on-demand basis, alleviate large up-front budget constraints, and increase overall operational efficiency. We think that’s pretty cool.

*https://www.nreionline.com/alternative-properties/investor-interest-data-centers-growing-step-tech-demand-and-increasing-roi

Ready to Learn More?

Take the first step to simplifying capacity planning — contact a GRC data center expert at info@grcooling.com or +1.512.692.8003. Then, dive
deeper into immersion cooling by watching When “When” Becomes Now: Overcoming Today’s Top Data Center Challenges.

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