University of Bath - Data Centre Cooling
Graham McNally – Data Centre and Operations Manager, University of Bath
“When we built a second data centre, we looked at all the technologies to cool the data centre and we were looking at the closer we could get the water to the IT load the better. But we were very concerned about having water and the IT in the same space. We found Aqua Cooling and their Leak Prevention System. It was very interesting and we looked at it and it ticked all the right boxes.
One of the other reasons we looked at water cooling was the data centre was being built within an existing building and it was a very tight space and the plant space was within a compound. The easiest way to get the pipework there was using the water cooling system rather than an air cooling system.
We had one leak in the past,it was on the valve that was actually sucking air into the system as it was designed to do, so we had no water leaks, we had the air leak into the system and we had no down time on that at all – not even on the door. We just opened the door, changed the valve, the other doors took up the cooling load and that was done very, very easily.
The green status is very important to us within computing services, and the University as a whole, because we want to be seen as green IT and we have been striving to get the most efficient data centres possible. Our existing data centre is on a 1.2 PUE or less, compared to our old data centre on a range of about 2.
We’ve worked with Aqua Cooling for the least 6 years in our existing data centre and been very happy with the efficiency gains that we’ve had there. When we tendered for the new data centre we were very confident in their solution, that it would work and fit exactly what we wanted in the new data centre. It’s working with a slightly different Leak Prevention System, it’s updated and we are looking to push that PUE of 1.2 in our existing data centre down and closer to 1.1 if possible.”