IBM's new data center turns heat up slowly

IBM opened a giant new data center in North Carolina on Feb. 4 that is trying a novel idea: It's relying on outside air for cooling and turning the heat up slowly on the inside.

The 60,000 square-foot center built in a renovated warehouse in the Research Triangle Park, N.C., includes thousands of sensors to monitor temperature, humidity, air flow and circuits. The data center will be supporting cloud platforms.

Big Blue also is adopting policies to reduce energy usage. For heating, IBM will start at 75 degrees and inch its way up over time instead of following an older recommendation to start the heat at 77 degrees.

"What we tried to do here is have a data center that is more instrumented, interconnected and intelligent than anything we have done before," Joe Dzaluk, IBM's vice president of infrastructure and resource management at the Global Technology Services division, tells Computer World.

The IBM data center could well be the model for other big companies that are building their own data centers to deal with increased demand for these facilities and running them efficiently to keep the cost down.

For more on IBM's new data center:
- check out this Computerworld.com article

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