Arch Rock's Latest Energy Optimizer Helps Data Centers Go Green

Arch Rock, a provider of Internet protocol-based wireless sensor network technology solutions, has unveiled its latest wireless monitoring system, called “Arch Rock Energy Optimizer-Data Center Edition,” or “AREO-DC,” which provides incessant updated information about a data center's electrical usage and thermal status.

 

Company officials said that its latest offering facilitates users to take energy-conservation measures with precise knowledge - by measuring both power and cooling system efficiency in the data center, using non-disruptive IP-based wireless sensor networks.

 

Based on Arch Rock's PhyNet enterprise-class IP-based wireless sensor network, or “WSN,” technology, the AREO-DC mainly works with the help of wireless sensors, which measures electrical, thermal, flow and pressure conditions on power circuits, server racks, computer-room air conditioners, or “CRACs,” or air handlers, or “CRAHs,” chillers and underneath the raised computer-room floor.

 

The sensed data collected are transmitted through wireless sensor networks to a graphical, multi-window dashboard.

 

This dashboard displays - electricity load of various equipment, electricity usage by physical or functional area over user-selected time intervals; temperature and humidity data from CRACs, CRAHs, server racks and chillers over time; chiller water-flow rates; "heat maps" superimposed on a floor plan; and key performance indicators, including the Green Grid organization's Power Usage Effectiveness, or “PUE,” Level 3 standard.

 

Moreover, the system is capable of generating alerts when heat- and energy-use thresholds or user-defined financial thresholds are exceeded. All these measurements and alerts from the wireless monitoring system not only maximizes the operational efficiency, but also increases reliability of their servers as well as other computing equipments.

 

Further more, AREO-DC can be utilized to securely monitor as well as centrally manage multiple data centers and/or other facilities that are located in remote locations, as part of the corporate IT infrastructure, said officials with Arch Rock.

 

Incorporating different components, such as IPthermal-XT nodes, HT nodes, CF nodes, IPpressure nodes, IPpower nodes, energy portal, and PhyNet router, the latest Energy Optimizer-Data Center Edition is actually an addition to company’s original Energy Optimizer, which was introduced in April 2009. The latest Data Center Edition includes upgraded software as well as new thermal, flow and pressure sensor nodes.

 

The Energy Optimizer-Data Center Edition allows data center managers to take energy-conservation measures by identifying the factors that cause energy waste and correct these problems to reduce existing power consumption or enable the facility to support more equipment.

 

In addition, the latest offering, which baselines the data center against American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), also allows data center managers to optimize available capacity for new servers based on the actual electrical/cooling consumption of equipment, rather than the overstated nameplate ratings.

 

The PhyNet Router present in the AREO-DC is an IP router that connects to the portal over local- or wide-area network links and to the sensor nodes over IEEE (News - Alert) 802.15.4 low-power radio links using the IPv6 over low-power wireless personal area networks standard.