rack power question

Sun Mar 23 03:50:07 UTC 2008

At 10:02 PM -0400 3/22/08, Patrick Giagnocavo wrote:
>Hopefully this classifies as on-topic...
>
>I am discussing with some investors the possible setup of new datacenter space.
>
>Obviously we want to be able to fill a rack, and in order to do so, we need to provide enough power to each rack.
>
>Right now we are in spreadsheet mode evaluating different scenarios.
>
>Are there cases where more than 6000W per rack would be needed?

10K per rack | ~ 400 watts/sqft is a common design point being used
by the large scale colocation/reit players.  It's quite possible to exceed
with blade servers or high-density storage (Hitachi, EMC, etc) but it'd
take unusual business models today to exceed that on every rack.

>(We are not worried about cooling due to the special circumstances of the space.)

So, even presuming an abundance of cold air right outside the facility,
you are still going to move the equipment generated heat to chillers
or cooling towers.  It is quite likely that your HVAC plant will could be
your effective limit in ability to add power drops.

>Would someone pay extra for > 7KW in a rack?  What would be the maximum you could ever see yourself needing in order to power all 42U ?

Again, you can find single rack, 30" deep storage arrays/controllers
that will exceed 20KW, but the hope is that you've got a cabinet or
two of less dense equipment surrounding them.  Best thing to do is
fine someone in the particular market segment you're aiming for and
ask them for some averages and trends, since it's going to vary widely
depending on webhosting/enterprise data center/content behemoth.

/John