Data center facilities equipment and design stats from Gartner conference

Matt Stansberry Profile: Matt Stansberry

At this week’s Gartner Data Center Conference in Las Vegas, research VP John Phelps asked users a series of questions about their data center facilities technologies. Here are some of the stats:

What type of data center fire suppression system do you have?

-Water sprinkler only 21%
-Water plus clean agent 50%
-Clean agent only 21%
-Don’t know 8%

“For those of you with water-only systems, if those sprinklers go off you will be in a world of hurt,” Phelps said. “The goal of a sprinkler system is to protect your building, a clean agent is supposed to protect your equipment.”

If you use a clean agent for data center fire suppression, what type?

-Halon 12%
-CO2 or inert gas 12%
-FM200 or other Fluoride based suppressant 64%
-Powered aerosol 1%
-Don’t know 11%

In which budget does data center power reside?

-Facilities 62%
-Facilities but will probably move to IT 16%
-Budget has recently moved to IT 8%
-Always part of IT 12%
-Other 1%
-Don’t know 6%

Do you measure PUE and if so, what is it?

-Do not measure PUE 49%
-Measure PUE, but don’t know what it is 11%
-Measure PUE and it is greater than 2.5 3%
-Measure PUE and it is between 2.0-2.5 9%
-Measure PUE and it is between 1.75-2 10%
-Measure PUE and it is between 1.5-1.75 12%
– Measure PUE and it is between 1.3-1.5 6%

What computer room cooling system do you use?

-Room cooling 46%
-In-row cooling 4%
-In-rack cooling 1%
-In-row and in-rack cooling 2%
-Room and in-rack cooling 20%
-Room and in-row cooling 15%
-Room, in-rack and in-row cooling10%
-Don’t know 2%

Do you use hot or cold aisle containment?

-Yes, cold aisle containment 22%
-Yes, hot aisle containment 15%
-Not currently, but plan to use cold aisle in 2 yeas 22%
-Not currently, but plan to use hot aisle in 2 years 13%
-No plans 23%
-Don’t know 5%

Do you make use of free cooling?

-Air side economizers 13%
-Water side economizers 12%
-Both 6%
-Nope and no plans 48%
-No, but plan to install in two years 17%
-Don’t know 4%

Would you build a data center in five years without a raised floor?

-No way, you have to have a raised floor? 18%
-Might consider, but not convinced 35%
-Yes, considering it 35%
-Yes, I am going to build a data center without a raised floor 6%
Yes, already built a data center without a raised floor 6%

Phelps said by 2015 more than 50% of new data center builds will not use raised floor.

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Uptime Institute accepting nominees for its green IT awards

Ryan Arsenault Profile: Ryan Arsenault

The Uptime Institute is accepting applications for its 2011 Green Enterprise IT (GEIT) Awards for innovative products that improve data center energy efficiency.

Categories include “Audacious Idea,” “Innovation in a Smaller Data Center,” and “Joint IT and Facilities Innovation.” Uptime is increasing this category field to 10 next year versus eight for past awards. 2010 winners included Microsoft, who’s “Audacious Idea” was a containerized data center in Chicago that reduced PUE from 1.6 to 1.15, reduced building costs by 33% and reduced time to deployment by 30%.

You’ve got a bit of time to get the applications in – they’re not due until February 18, 2011. You can learn more about the application process and the awards right here.

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Top ten data center facilities stories of 2010

Matt Stansberry Profile: Matt Stansberry

Here is a list of the top data center facilities stories and tips from SearchDataCenter.com in 2010:

NFPA drops data center EPO requirement
The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) worked with data center industry leaders to come up with an alternative to the data center emergency power off EPO button.

Uptime Institute rolls out data center Operational Sustainability standard
The Uptime Institute unveiled a new data center standard, Data Center Operational Sustainability, which will help data center pros benchmark their team’s staffing, processes and more.

Getting started with hot or cold-aisle containment
Is containment right for you? Should you do hot-aisle containment or cold-a