Partnering With 2bm to Drive Data Center Efficiency
Highly complex technology and increasing thermal loads generated by modern information technology (IT) equipment are creating ever-evolving challenges for data centers including high demand for efficient data center cooling. All IT equipment is required to be operated below a specified temperature threshold to maintain maximum network and service availability. Many older data centers were not designed to accommodate the high-density racks that enable higher power data processing to be delivered. At the same time, regulatory pressure is increasing on data centers as they are seen to be significant power users.
Retrofitting for Efficiency and Capacity
2bm is a custom data center design and build specialist in the United Kingdom. It specializes in leveraging the industry knowledge and skills of its staff to add value and drive a positive environmental impact through the deployment of cutting-edge data center technologies. 2bm prides itself on staying vendor neutral and offering first class independent advice.
Recently, nVent and 2bm worked together to retrofit an existing data center for a large broadcasting company with new equipment that would support high-density infrastructure and reduce carbon footprint. The broadcast company wanted to be able to reduce its power draw while meeting its IT needs and increasing server density without undertaking inefficient and costly construction that would completely alter its data center infrastructure.
This was a difficult project to win, with a very technical selection process. The collaborative partnership approach taken by nVent and 2bm helped produce a detailed and informative response to the broadcast company’s needs that clearly showed our combined technical knowledge and experience.
To execute the data center retrofit, 2bm and nVent used an nVent rack-based containment solution featuring the nVent RackChiller Rear Door Cooler (RDC). This solution works by bringing liquid cooling technology into the data center by replacing the rear doors of server racks with energy-efficient cooling. Since server heat is removed before it exits the server rack, rack-level cooling stabilizes room temperatures and prevents the end customer from needing to cool the entire room to keep servers at the correct operating temperatures. This efficiency allowed 2bm’s customer to achieve a higher cooling capacity while reducing the number of units in the space, resulting in a lower capex requirement.
“The nVent rear door cooling solution is efficient, easy to install, and on top of that both us and the client think it is the best-looking rear door cooling solution available,” said Mark King, managing director of 2bm. “We have not had any issues with nVent rear door cooling solutions, and the project was completed on time and on budget.”
The system is more predictable, precise and easier to control compared to cooling the entire room with air cooling. Additionally, the retrofit project provided material savings by extending the lifespan of the equipment inside the center and allowing much of the existing infrastructure of the data center to be modified and reused instead of replaced and thrown away.
The project achieved significant energy savings for the data center from nVent’s RDCs and increased cooling efficiency. This lowers maintenance costs for the customer and drives reduced power drawn from the local grid. nVent and 2bm were also able to complete the project with minimal disruption to customer operations—an important consideration for the end customer.
“We are excited to support our customers in developing innovative and efficient solutions to challenges faced by many data center operators,” said Marc Caiola, Vice President of Global Data Solutions at nVent. “Introducing the efficiency of liquid cooling into air-cooled infrastructure is an important capability for nVent, and critical to our customers who need to prioritize uptime while increasing capacity. Our RDC solution is a great choice for these kinds of applications.”
As 2bm continues to grow its business building and retrofitting data centers to support next-generation IT equipment and drive efficiency in customer operations, nVent solutions can support these efforts in critical applications.