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U P T I M E I N S T I T U T E , L L C

Uptime Institute Annual Report: Data Center Density

By Vince Renaud, PE and Matthew Mescall, CFM

Copyright © 2011 by Uptime Institute, LLC

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UPTIME INSTITUTE ANNUAL REPORT: Data Center Density —2011 SURVEY RESULTS—

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INTRODUCTION

Data center owners and operators have been sternly cautioned about the imminent and meteoric rise in the power density of their computing equipment. And, the drastic consequences on the cost and complexity of power and cooling infrastructure to accommodate racks as high as 30 kW each. In Uptime Institute field experience, pockets of high-density equipment have been evident, but not pervasive in many data centers.

Based upon this apparent divergence between the longstanding dire predictions and limited deployments, the Uptime Institute determined to confirm actual owner experience in operational, high-availability data centers. Accordingly, members of the Uptime Institute Network in North America and EMEA participated in a survey on power density in their data centers.

SURVEY BASE

Information was received on a total of 59 data centers: 46 in North America and 13 in Europe. Some data centers reported their information by distinct areas (rooms, pods, etc.), which provided more granular detail. The entire survey base was 1,911,000 ft2 (177,536 m2) and consumed 70.9 MW of electricity.

The North American data centers totaled 1,522,000 ft2 (141,397 m2) of computer room and consumed 54.2 MW of electricity. The European data centers totaled 389,000 ft2 (36,139 m2) of computer room and consumed 16.7 MW of electricity.

The data centers ranged in size from 2,400-193,000 ft2 (223-17,930 m2). The median size was 29,000 ft2 (2,694 m2), with the middle 50% of data centers (25th-75th percentile) between 13,600-39,900 ft2 (1,264-3,707 m2).

By industry, 23 data centers were operated by Financial Services companies, 11 by IT, 5 by Healthcare and Retail, 4 Energy, 3 Colocation, and the remaining industries had 1 or 2 sites.

SURVEY PARAMETERS

For this survey, the area component of density is defined as the computer room floor (raised or slab) and includes the IT equipment, air handling equipment that resides in the space, and electrical distribution in that space. However, since the measurement of this space can vary from one company to another based on perceived definition or configuration differences (e.g., air handlers outside the computer room wall), Uptime Institute focused on the metric kilowatts per rack. To determine this, the survey asked respondents to clarify the makeup of the data center infrastructure. Acknowledging that many data centers contain a mix of server racks, mainframes, disk and tape storage, and network equipment, the survey provided an opportunity to breakout these types. Included in the rack quantity were populated server racks, and the equivalent measurement for mainframes and standalone disk storage. The survey excluded tape libraries and silos, and racks that were not populated or only contained network patch panels—due to comparatively low power use. Additionally, some respondents answered the survey by dividing their data center into smaller sections (high-density servers vs. tape vs. mainframes, etc.). This allows for a more granular analysis of the maximum average power use per rack.

SURVEY FINDINGS

The median designed power density was 68 W/ft2 (730 W/m2), with the middle 50% ranging from 51-95 W/ft2 (552-1,021 W/m2). The median of the current density (power currently used) was 41 W/ft2 (437 W/m2), with the middle 50% ranging from 27-48 W/ft2 (288-521 W/m2). A few smaller data centers were purpose built for high-density racks and had design densities over 150 W/ft2 (1,615 W/m2). When taken as a whole, the responding data centers are using 54% of their available power, with the middle 50% using between 45-73% of capacity.

The following charts show the distribution of designed power density and data center size. Although the data shows a general trend that data centers designed for a higher density are smaller than low-density data centers, this only holds at the higher end of the design density data. That is, only the high end of the data center size and the high end of the design density are consistent with the general trend. Note that 49 of the 59 data centers are less than 50,000 ft2 (4,645 m2) and have densities below 150 W/ft2 (1,615 W/m2), with a wide range of size and density combinations.

Figure 1A displays the data in International System of Units (SI) and U.S. units with axes aligned to show the conversion. Figures 1B and 1C show the data in SI and U.S. units separately.


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Figure 1A

Figure 1B

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Figure 1C

The survey revealed that the highest average power use was a data center in the United States at 9.2 kW/rack. However, this was reported by a small (13,400 ft2; 1,245 m2), high-density data center that appears to be built for that purpose. For all respondents, the middle 50% ranged from 1.9-3.2 kW/rack with a median of 2.4 kW/rack.

Figure 2A

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Middle 50%: 1.9 to 3.2

Max: 9.2


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When analyzing the data as a whole—by combining separately reported pods or modules—the averages declined. The maximum remained the same because that data center did not report by sections. The median declined to 2.1 kW/rack while the middle 50% range also declined to 1.7-2.7 kW/rack.

Figure 2B

The survey facilitated an analysis of power use per rack by industry. Breaking the sites down by industry, 23 were in Financial Services, 11 in IT, 5 in Healthcare and Retail, 4 Energy, 3 Colocation, and the remaining industries had 1 or 2 sites. The previously discussed 9.2-kW/rack data center was the only entry for the Transportation industry, which leads all industries. The industries with the next highest maximum average power use per rack were Healthcare at 7.8 kW/rack, Aerospace at 7.5 kW/rack, and Financial Services at 4.8 kW/rack. The two industries with the highest average power use per rack were Retail and Energy with 4.1 kW/rack. All other industries were less than 3.0 kW/rack. The complete results are shown in Figure 2C.

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Middle 50%: 1.7 to 2.7

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Figure 2C

When average kW/rack was compared to the size of the data center, the distribution was similar to the design density vs. data center size.

Figure 2D

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Figure 2E

To complement the energy use per rack, the survey gathered responses about the utilization of the racks, based on the number of rack units occupied. We found that 88% of respondents are utilizing more than half of their rack units. The middle 50% of respondents were utilizing between 58-96% of their rack units.

CONCLUSION

One of the core objectives of this survey is to provide ‘ground truth’ perspective and data to owners and operators as they plan for data center infrastructure to meet evolving IT power and cooling needs. Acknowledging that the data center industry evolves quickly, the 2011 findings are that 20-kW racks are a reality for a typical data center, but not to the degree forewarned. Such high density is not pervasive enough to have a widespread impact on most of the surveyed data centers.

Although respondents’ existing racks appear to be well utilized, there is still room to add equipment. As these rack units are filled, the power use per rack will increase. Assuming a trend that rack units are filled with higher powered servers that are well utilized, the Uptime Institute anticipates an increase in kW/rack in our next survey. Nevertheless, this survey demonstrates that the expectation for 20-kW racks throughout is not manifested. In fact, at an average density of 2.1 kW per rack, this is far from being true.

In an effort to provide trending data, the Institute will perform this survey annually.

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