If you know how much energy one server consumes, you know it’s not a joke that data centers eat up plenty of it. In fact, a typical data center’s biggest expense is in its electric bill. That’s why Trane (News - Alert) and GE are making a move to help reduce data center costs by introducing chilled water cooling systems and full automation.
Trane’s automation experience and GE’s data management capabilities have made the Tracer XT possible. Tracer XT is a product that integrates automation systems for energy management in a data center, allowing an administrator to have central control of all cooling and essential services, ensuring quick and efficient assessment of running energy costs.
The Tracer XT dashboard will show you data from your cooling system, your lighting, and your security systems. When something needs your attention, the dashboard will show you the problem immediately and allow you to solve it from behind a desk. There’s no longer any need to walk up to a unit and adjust it.
“You can look at power consumption as it relates to chiller load, you can look at what your server temperatures are doing, and modulate all the data together in a unified solution set,” said Jon Summers, Trane’s portfolio manager for systems controls. A prototype was already installed in a datacenter owned by GE.
The GE data center consumed approximately 24 million kW per year. Tracer XT helped reduce this figure by 11 percent, while also saving the company 20 percent of its water consumption. Considering that the total cost of running all of America’s data centers is $3.3 billion per year, Tracer XT can make a difference of at least $300 million.
Miguel Leiva-Gomez is a professional writer with experience in computer sciences, technology, and gadgets. He has written for multiple technology and travel outlets and owns his own tech blog called The Tech Guy, where he writes educational, informative, and sometimes comedic articles for an audience that is less versed in technology.Edited by
Jennifer Russell
