Cloud PrimerS-POD Cooling – breaking the mold
With few exceptions, most rack-mounted servers are designed to draw air in at the front and exhaust it out at the back. Each row of server racks is placed so that its back side faces the back side of the opposing row of server racks. This way cold air can be blown into the "cold aisles" from underneath the raised floors, after which the cold air will travel through the ventilation systems of the servers into the “hot aisles”. Since hot air rises, it will travel into the return air plenum back to the HVAC system, which blows cold air through the raised floors to the servers again. Unfortunately, this is based on 30 year old technology that was great in its day but with the revolution of the Internet we must find new and innovative ways to break the standard mold.
Cooling is the most unique feature of our Server-POD design. Everything we build is based on a bottom-to-top cooling methodology. A standard 36" x 44U cabinet based on front to back cooling has a very hard time cooling the top part of the rack based on the CFM exhausted from the perforated raised floor, this will account for much cooler servers at the bottom and hot servers towards the top of the cabinet. If you try to load a 44U cabinet 100%, the odds are you will have major issues with cooling this type of configuration. Most cabinets can support about 35U based on a 1U server configuration before heat can create many issues for the servers. This is only if proper steps are taken to stop all blow-by "Blanking Plates" and Hot row back feed.
Bottom-to-Top Cooling – A Better Way
With the S-POD’s, the above is not an issue for a number of reasons.
1.) Segmenting Power Supply from Server
2.) No return air can be re-fed back into the server
3.) The Fan pulls air from the center of the S-POD and Pushes through the second S-POD
4.) Ability to cool servers and power source according to manufacturer’s specification
5.) No issues with perforated floor CFM control.
With a 2 year deployment we have thousands and thousands of servers currently configured in this design. We have seen a 20% increase in efficiency based on the amount of air needed referenced against power calculations we have seen in our other Colocation Facilities. The bottom line is cost savings which in-turn creates a better and more affordable machine for the end user.
View the S-POD cooling system in action!
As you can see, air is drawn vertically through the entire S-POD, with minimal “leakage” or waste. Nearly all of the air that the A/C unit puts out is used to directly cool servers.
