Industry Insight
GreenBay?
Like many well-
By Richard Romano
Published: March 7, 2012
When planning its Phoenix data center, eBay stated it wanted a facility with a PUE of 1.2 and used that goal to guide its decisions. (Lower numbers indicate higher effectiveness.) The company said that the data center had a site average PUE of 1.35 during one week in January, with a 1.26 PUE at its best. Partial PUEs around 1.04 have also been recorded. ... The data center is also using its environment to receive free, year-round cooling in the form of a hot-water cooling system that uses cooling-tower water to chill containers and racks in the center. While computers use only 57 percent of the power in the average U.S. data center, the air conditioning and other equipment gobbling the rest, computers use at least 78 percent -- and up to 95 percent -- of the power in eBay's Phoenix facility.The new data center was also designed to be scalable and accommodate up to five new generations of technology. One question, though: Phoenix? Really? Not, say, Minnesota, where it would be decidedly easier to cool the servers? Actually: “Phoenix lies in an arid desert, with summer temperatures peaking at 49°C, yet has an estimated 6,000 hours of free-air cooling available per year; tower water can be delivered at 31°C all year without using chillers.” Ah. Also, too: Facebook's new data center.