A study of physical infrastructure design and photovoltaic implementation in a green data center

From bibtex.

Abstract

The 21st century is a booming era of digital technology; it is also the age of cloud computing where internet-based data is handled from remote places. Data is being entered, stored. Processed, deposited and backed up all at the central information infrastructure located in specific buildings that we called Information Technology rooms or data center. Data center is a place where all the information technology servers, the storage and network facilities are gathered in compliance with the art of technology, in which the equipment requires 24 /7 continuous operation. Data centers are becoming as important a part of business operations as office, retail, and industrial assets due to four concerns: Big Data, Internet of things, Industry 4.0 revolution and smart-cities. These are all trends that will increase demand for computing power, thus making data centers grow on an exponential rather than linear scale. The design of critical infrastructure of the data center such as mechanical and electrical infrastructure, information technology equipment infrastructure in an economically optimal way, ensuring safe and reliable operation is always a rather complicated topic. Besides, data centers are becoming a significant energy consumer. Server workload, cooling, and supporting infrastructure represents large loads for the grid. Along with the term of sustainability development, it is shown that green data centers are emerging which incorporate renewable energy sources to cap their carbon footprint. Two strategies to achieve these goals: (i) - improve energy efficiency by implementing best practices in design and operation and (ii) use of renewable energy sources like solar and wind considered as on-site generation. This thesis intends to present a comprehensive literature review that accounts for definition, basic concept design requirements, application, and infrastructure topology of data centers. Based on this information, the main goal is the basic infrastructure design of a small data center at USTH. This primary design is based on the best practices and international reference standards for data center infrastructure design such as Tier-3 level recommended by Uptime Institute and ANSI/TIA-942 standard, with a scale geared towards the current use of IT equipment as well as the ability to expand in the next 10-years of USTH. The design will be concluded by describing key components and challenges for future research on constructing effective and accurate data center infrastructures. An important part of the thesis deals with the possibility of utilizing a rooftop solar system as an on-site generation solution to reduce the data center's energy consumption from traditional energy sources, making a base ideal from there towards the development of green data center in the future.