Data Center Expert and Simplex Draw Record Crowd to AFCOM Chapter Meeting

Data Center Expert and Simplex Draw Record Crowd to AFCOM Chapter Meeting

Eugean H acopians, a recognized expert on data center design for efficiencies and cooling, drew a record crowd at the AFCOM Chapter meeting on May 12, at the offices of nGenX, in Brookfield , WI.

The event was sponsored by Simplex Isolation Systems, designers and manufacturers of the AirBlock li ne of data center curtains and partitions for effective hot aisle/cold aisle isolation. Hacopians is the senior systems engineer at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, a NASA project based at Caltech in Pasadena, CA.

Because so much of what Ha copians does in volves storing information in data center s , he has developed expertise in data center operations . He founded ARNETech to carry that information to other data center managers. Hac opians' presentation emphasized a holistic approach to design ing data centers.

"As computer engineers we were concerned with computer cycles, memory usage and input and output," said Hacopians. "What we didn't pay attention to was the sheer volume of heat generated by the processors in these data centers. We jus t poured in more air conditioning." "But e nergy c osts are expected to double in th re e years ," Hacopians added.

" Carbon dioxide emissions from electricity used by computers accounts for 2% of al l emissions worldwide . There is a limit to how much power is available for data centers." Hacopians emphasized that the solutions revolve around p ower utilization and distribution, CRAC unit efficiency , a ir flow , r ack placement within the data center , h ardware placement within racks , and effective hot and cold aisle isolation . 2 "Hacopians recently worked with Simplex at Caltech to install a hot and cold aisle isolation system in a data center using the AirBlock line of data center partitions ," said Duane McKinnon, president of Simplex.

"The result of that proj ect was a 50% decrease in air conditioning requirements and a substantial increase in system stability. " "Hot aisle/cold aisle isolation is an important part of reducing the energy needs of data centers," said Hacopians. "Simplex is doing this better tha n anyone out there. But they also understand that data centers are like a living organism. They are very complicated and many components and factors come into play. Good data center management requires a holistic approach that takes into consideration al l factors."

Founded in 1979, Simplex Isolation Systems designs and manufactures custom cleanrooms that are modular and expandable, as well as a number of products for use in process isolation and contamination control. Simplex data center customers includ e NetAPP, AT&T, Walt Disney Studios, Raytheon and more.