IBM To Help Orange Data Center Go Green

The Syracuse Orange are looking to go green with Big Blue. Syracuse University's Office of Campus Planning, Design, and Construction says IBM "will sponsor the development and construction of a first-of-a-kind Green Data Center."As part of the corporate sponsorship with Syracuse University, IBM also is sponsoring a $1.8 million three-year research program with a multidisciplinary university research team that will analyze IBM's other data centers' performance, compare them with the South Campus Green Data Center, and develop new ways to optimally operate the next-generation of data centers, according to the university.

The new data center will use natural gas-fired microturbines and absorption chillers as the primary source for the facility's electricity, heating, and cooling, says the university. Excess heat and chilled water will be used in an adjacent facility to reduce that building's energy requirements.

With the data center, the university will use IBM water-cooled cabinets around computer racks. "Rather than cool the large room in which the computers will be located, these cabinets will allow each rack to be cooled independently of its neighbors, dynamically matching the cooling delivered to the current IT load of each rack," says Syracuse's Office of Campus Planning, Design, and Construction.

Although IBM did something similar at Bryant University -- where it deployed its Rear Door Heat eXchanger to reduce heat coming off the servers -- the design in Syracuse will be unique enough that the university and IBM will jointly approach New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) for project support.

Last year, NYSERDA agreed to fund as much as $550,000 to the university's Syracuse Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems (Syracuse CoE) to develop designs for six high-performance homes.