IT@Intel Data Center Blog

Free Cooling for Data Centers - video and whitepaper

DonAtwood — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 18:20:06 GMT

Hi I’m Don Atwood, author of the newly released white paper and video that discusses our proof of concept (PoC) that tested cooling our Data Center with outside air. The topic of humidity control and if this would work in an ultra high humid climate keeps coming up. Most OEM spec’s allow for a wide range of humidity and it’s our belief that this cooling methodology could be used almost everywhere globally. Our only uncertainty comes around trying this near the ocean with high levels of salty corrosive wet air. We know it would negatively affect the servers at some point but the question is how quickly and is it within our refresh timetable. During a trip to ASIA last week I discussed trying a small scale “near the ocean” PoC to test this theory.. Does anyone thing this would add value to your company?

Before you throw it away....make sure you know where it is going.

Ilene — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 16:44:49 GMT

I'd like to introduce myself--my name is Ilene Aginsky and I'm the new site community manager for the IT@Intel zone on Open Port, Intel's online IT community site. I started out in IT about two years ago and got very interested in the green aspect of IT.

We have had quite a few discussions out here in the community on green versus efficient Greening Data Centers or Make 'em Efficient? and I'm not as concerned by what it is called but rather what we must do to ensure we don't damage the environment.

The issues are not simple and require a balancing act. It is important to look at the picture holistically, from cradle to grave. For example, Intel IT will be refreshing approximately 20,000 servers this year with new servers that will consume less energy and reduce our carbon footprint. This begs the question: what happens to the old equipment and what are we doing to prevent it from ending up in a landfill?

I asked my colleague Robert who is the Secure Data Control Program Manager for IT and he told me that all end-of-life (EOL) servers at Intel follow the same process. We make sure that we secure all the data by removing and sanitizing the hard drives.

Once the data has been sanitized there are three possible paths:
Resale - we prioritize re-sale
Donations - some organizations need servers, even without disks
Scrap - anything deemed worthless to resale or donations is sent to scrap vendors for material reuse and recycling

What does your organization do with old equipment?

Intel IT Deploys Virtualization - How we did it!

BillSunderland — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 17:58:16 GMT

As this is my first blog on this forum, I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Bill Sunderland and I have been working at Intel for 12 years primarily working on Server Hardware Engineering and the last three years of which I have focused my efforts on Program Managing the Virtualization Engineering release for Intel IT. I have recently published a WP demonstrating the methodology used as described below.

Intel IT planned, engineered, and has begun deploying a virtualized business-computing production environment at several data centers, a rollout that will continue through 2008. Our initiative has already confirmed anticipated virtualization benefits such as faster, more automated deployment. We are initially consolidating older servers running applications that are not mission-critical; we see opportunities to achieve 16:1 consolidation ratios.

Click here to read the WP: Implementing Virtualization in a Global Business-Computing Environment

I would be interested in hearing your experiences and/or questions regarding virtualizing IT environments!

Is the Data Center Green or is it Efficient?

Brently Davis — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 18:03:32 GMT

I won't go into a long dissertation, but I would like to hear what the masses are thinking about Green or Efficient efforts for the Data Center landscape.

As you all know Green is taking off -- our world is becoming concerned with the legacy we'll leave for our children and their children. I admire that because it identifies how we're a caring nation in the U.S. as well as a compassionate world.

But I believe we're mixing the messages down at the lower levels; In my opinion, "Green" means giving something back to mother earth. It means offsetting your carbon impact by planting trees (as I learned from one of the earlier companies I worked for ), or it means buying energy from alternative means such as wind power -- the direction Intel and other companies are moving towards. Those are green efforts from my point of view. However "Efficiency," is defined by Encarta's North America dictionary as this.. "The ability to do something well or achieve a desired result without wasted energy or effort."

Those are two different directions as I see them, and companies running programs to enable more efficient Data Centers must understand how to correctly identify their approach.

So, what does everyone else thing about Green vs. Efficient?
Share your opinion Greening Data Centers or Make 'em Efficient?

Data Center Efficiency

Alan Ross — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 17:26:00 GMT

Hello All, my name is Alan Ross and I'm a Principal Engineer in Intel's Information Technology division and currently leading our Data Center Architecture initiative. Our mission is to transform the way we do enterprise computing, which is easier said than done because there is a lot of history in this domain. Over the next several months I will be expanding on these ideas and providing insight into our approach to this transformation. To start things off, here is a short video where I speak about the topic of data center efficiency:

http://www.podtech.net/home/4660/virtualization-and-enterprise-architecture-the-security-architect

Here are the guiding principles that are being used to help us define the "To-Be" reference architecture for the data center:
1. Evolve our corporate data centers based on architectural governance and capability maturity-based methodologies
2. Enable a multi-tier service management and service delivery operational framework
3. Enable a service-oriented data center architecture
4. Enable a high-performance computing mindset for application environments
5. Design and build DC facilities modularity for flexibility, scalability and managed capital investment
6. Keep Intel legal and secure
7. Transform enterprise operations and scale TCO through innovation
8. Continuously optimize TCO and unit cost
9. Provide an environmentally friendly foundation

I would appreciate any input, feedback or questions you have and am looking forward to the discussions.