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Roundup: Cisco’s Space Router, AboveNet
January 25th, 2010 : John RathHere’s a roundup of some of some of this week’s headlines from the data center and hosting industry:
Cisco space router operates in orbit. On Monday Cisco announced that their Internet Routing in Space (IRIS) technology has achieved a major milestone with the successful in-orbit test of the Cisco IOS software’s networking capabilities and the company’s on-board router. The technology was aboard an Intelsat IS-14 commercial GEO satellite and launched November 23, 2009. The Cisco IRIS technology is a program to build a radiation-tolerant IP router for satellite and related spacecraft. Cisco vice president for the Global Government Solutions Group Steven Boutelle said “this milestone is another step in our strategy to expand borderless networks into space and redefine how satellite communications are delivered. This technology can help transform satellite communications around the world by reducing latency and increasing the efficiency.” Managed by Cisco and Intelsat the IRIS program is a Department of Defense Joint Capability Technology Demonstration (JCTD) and the payload will convert to commercial use following a three month JCTD in April 2010.
AboveNet connects all 20 Equinix U.S. data centers. Equinix (EQIX) and AboveNet (ABVT) announced that AboveNet has deployed operations to the Equinix New York-1 data center, marking the company’s deployment to all 20 of Equinix’s IBX centers in the U.S. AboveNet offers managed services, Ethernet, metro networks and a global Tier 1 optical IP network. Making use of the Equinix global services delivery platform, AboveNet will enhance peering capabilities with other Tier 1 networks. Equinix chief marketing officer Jarrett Appleby said “our partnership with AboveNet offers a strong Tier 1 network and high bandwidth connectivity solution options for the community of IBX participants while offering AboveNet significant new revenue opportunities and a national infrastructure for Tier 1 peering and future carrier Ethernet needs.” Equinix acquisition target Switch and Data announced that Lexent Metro Connect, a dark fiber network provider in New York, has become part of the Switch and Data GeoReach program. Lexent Metro Connect has also completed construction of a low-latency dark fiber network route to Switch and Data’s North Bergen site located in New Jersey. The GeoReach program is a select group of providers who have engineered their networks to meet the needs of the high-efficiency trading community.
Huawei to deploy DWDM platform for GlobeNet. Global telecommunications solution provider Huawei was selected to deploy a next generation DWDM (Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing) optical platform for network transport services company GlobeNet. The Huawei platform will connect GlobeNet’s cable landing station in southern New Jersey to its Point of Presence sites in New York city via two diverse paths. The diverse paths will allow GlobeNet to deliver services to their other sites in Brazil, Venezuela, Bermuda, Florida and others. The network solution provided by Huawei will support 10Gb per second, 40GB per second and future 100Gb per second wavelengths to competitively deliver advanced, high bandwidth services.
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Sun’s Cloud Chilling at Vegas SuperNAP
June 17th, 2009 : Rich MillerWhat lies ahead for the Sun Open Cloud Platform unveiled in March? That will likely be a decision for Oracle Systems (ORCL), which has agreed to acquire Sun Microsystems (JAVA) for $7.4 billion, with the deal is expected to close this summer. Until then, the Sun Cloud is chilling in the SuperNAP in Las Vegas, where its servers are housed in one of Switch Communciations’ custom high-density computing pods known as a T-SCIF (short for Thermal Separate Compartment in Facility). We had a look at the Sun installation during a recent tour of the SuperNAP. The racks are packed top to bottom with servers, creating a power load of up to 24 kW per rack. This video from Sun provides an inside look at the company’s operation at the SuperNAP and the cooling systems that manage that density for the Sun cloud platform. This video runs about 5 minutes.
For additional information, check out our SuperNAP Channel and Sun Microsystems Channel. For additional video, check out our DCK video archive and the Data Center Videos channel on YouTube.
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Custom Infrastructure Powers the SuperNAP
May 21st, 2009 : Rich Miller
Switch Communications CEO Rob Roy with one of the WDMD custom cooling units at the Las Vegas SuperNAP during a tour last year.
LAS VEGAS -High on a narrow catwalk alongside the massive cooling units at the SuperNAP, a security guard stops to open one of the four doors lining the side of the unit. As the door opens, a powerful blast of air streams out. “You have to remember to hold on to keep from getting blown off,” said Melissa Young, the Executive VP of Sales Engineering at the SuperNAP, a 407,000 square foot data center facility built by Switch Communications.
The cooling unit is a WDMD – short for Wattage Density Modular Design – a custom-built unit housed outside the data center that can automatically switch between four different cooling options to deliver the most efficient cooling for current conditions. Young says the WDMDs are “built by Switch, for Switch” and not available from any vendor.
The units are part of the customized power and cooling infrastructure at the SuperNAP, where Switch also builds its own power distribution units (PDUs) and remote power panels. Young says the SuperNAP’s generators are also customized to Switch’s specifications by Detroit Diesel.
At a time when many large data center builders are focused on the industrialization of data center construction using standardization and bulk purchasing from vendors, Switch is charting a different path, building custom equipment to fit its vision for high-density data centers supporting power loads of 1,500 watts a square foot and beyond. It’s a philosophy also seen at Google, which builds its own servers, containers and networking gear.
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Sun Cloud Will Live at the Vegas SuperNAP
March 10th, 2009 : Rich MillerSun Microsystems isn’t yet saying what its new cloud computing service will look like, but at least we know where it’s going to live. Sun will host its new cloud offering in the SuperNAP, Switch Communications’ new mega-data center in Las Vegas, according to Sun CTO Greg Papadopoulos.
“We now have thousands of cores at the SuperNAP,” Papadopoulos said in this morning’s keynote address at AFCOM’s Data Center World conference at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas. “It’s a really fascinating facility.”
The hosting arrangement extends the relationship between Sun and Switch Communications, which is already hosting Sun’s Network.com operation in a high-density section of SwitchNAP 4 in Las Vegas known as a T-SCIF heat management system (short for Thermal Separate Compartment in Facility). The T-SCIF uses containment systems to fully separate the hot and cold aisles, allowing the Network.com racks to run at 1,500 watts a square foot. See this video for a closer look at the Network.com T-SCIF installation at Switch.
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Switch: 1,100 Cabinets Sold at SuperNAP
December 18th, 2008 : Rich MillerWe’ve been tracking the progress of the SuperNAP, the enormous new data center built by Switch Communications in Las Vegas. The 407,000 square foot facility, which opened its doors in September, will hold up to 7,000 cabinets when it is completely built out. How’s business so far? In a presentation earlier this month at the Gartner Data Center Conference, CEO and co-founder Rob Roy reported that Switch has now sold more than 1,100 cabinets.
We had an inside look at the SuperNAP this summer, and shot video of our tour of the massive facility while it was under construction, as well as two of the key technologies featured at the SuperNAP: the T-SCIF containment system and WDMD cooling units. Switch Communications and APC by Schneider (a major vendor for Switch’s facilities) recently put together a video offering a look inside the completed SuperNAP facility. This video runs about 9 minutes.
For more news about the SuperNAP, visit our Switch Communications channel. For additional video, check out our DCK video archive and the Data Center Videos channel on YouTube.
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A Look Inside the Vegas SuperNAP
August 11th, 2008 : Rich MillerEight hundred racks is a lot of servers. For most data centers, having orders for 800 racks before a facility even opens would create a capacity problem. But not for the SuperNAP, 407,000 square-foot data center in Las Vegas built by Switch Communications Inc.
When the first phase of the SuperNAP opens on Sept. 1, it will be one of the world’s most unique data centers, with the ability to cool racks exceeding 20kW of power load. When the facility is completed, it will cost more than $300 million and be able to host 7,000 customer servers.
The SuperNAP will have no raised floor, no computer room air conditioning units (CRACs) inside the data center, and no use of liquid cooling – in fact, virtually no water in the entire building. The massive facility is the ultimate expression of an alternate view of high-density data center design, formulated by Switch Communications CEO and co-founder Rob Roy.
“My feeling is that when people see this, they’ll say that this is the answer going forward,” said Roy. “With our new design, we may be able to get to 2,000 watts per square foot. We’re very excited about what we’re doing.”
Data Center Knowledge recently got an inside look at Switch Communications’ Las Vegas operation, including the ultra-high density hosting area of its existing SwitchNAP facilities, where several prominent Internet companies are running banks of racks at 1,500 watts a square foot using Switch’s high-density T-SCIF heat management system (short for Thermal Separate Compartment in Facility). See this video for a look inside a T-SCIF for Sun Microsystems, which hosts its Network.com utility computing platform at Switch.
We also had a tour of the SuperNAP facility, which was in the late stages of construction, and got a look at the custom central cooling units that Roy says will take air cooling to unprecedented levels of efficiency and flexibility. The units, known as WDMDs (for Wattage, Density, Modular Design) have four coils to allow different approaches to cooling in different conditions. See videos of our walk-through at the SuperNAP and a closer look at the WDMD cooling units.
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A Look Inside the Vegas SuperNAP (Part 2)
August 11th, 2008 : Rich MillerThe dry Vegas climate is also critical to the efficiency of his facilities cooling operations. “You can really efficiently cool very dry air,” said Roy. “It’s hard to create efficient cooling in places where it truly human. And blending hot and cold air is ridiculous.”
So is Switch a unique, location-specific opportunity? Or can others apply parts of these approaches to improve high density data center design? Roy says Switch has filed 26 patents covering the innovations in its Las Vegas operations.
The company’s T-SCIF design builds upon several existing approaches, combining a slab floor and overhead cooling (a design option seen at Equinix facilities) with complete hot-air containment and a ceiling plenum for hot air return (similar in concept to Oracle’s design of its Austin data center). Switch’s design combines the best of both those approaches, and adds its own refinements. In NAP4, the ceiling plenum returns air outside the data center into a “heat aisle” between server rooms. The CRAC units are inserted into openings in the wall, but turned backwards so they draw air from the heat aisle, cool it and return it into the server area.
“We contain all the heat from day one,” said Roy. “Heat is 100 percent contained and processed into heat ceilings. Cold air is dropped past all 42U servers. We’ve tested and proven this by thermal imaging. The size on the (cold air) duct work can support 24kW of CFM for each rack. It’s completely modular and can be adjusted to suit lower density requirements.”
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Cooling the SuperNAP: A Look at WDMD
August 11th, 2008 : Rich MillerThe cooling for the huge SuperNAP data center in Las Vegas is provided by unique custom cooling units designed by the facility’s operator, Switch Communications. Known as WDMD (short for Wattage Density Modular Design), these are located outside the building, a different approach than the computer room air conditioning (CRAC) units. In this video, Switch CEO Rob Roy provides a closer look at the WDMD, which has four coils to provide difference cooling options in different weather conditions, and explains how they will be used at the SuperNAP. This video runs about four minutes.
For more news about the SuperNAP, visit our Switch Communications channel. For additional video, check out our DCK video archive and the Data Center Videos channel on YouTube.
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1,500 Watts A Square Foot? A Look at TSCIF
May 27th, 2008 : Rich MillerSwitch Communications says it is successfully cooling a section of its Las Vegas data center running at nearly 1,500 watts per square foot using air cooling. How are they accomplishing this?
The key to Switch’s high-density cooling is a design known as Thermal Separate Compartment in Facility (TSCIF), according to company co-founder Rob Roy. The ingredients in this approach include high-capacity AC units placed outside the data center area, and a tightly integrated hot aisle containment system for the racks. Here’s an overview:
- The cabinets are set on a slab, with no raised floor.
- Chilled air is delivered into the cold aisle near the ceiling rather than through the floor, and enters the cabinets through the front.
- Each cabinet fits into a slot in the TSCIF unit, which encapsulates the rear and sides of each cabinet, while the open front extends beyond the enclosure.
- The hot aisle containment system delivers waste heat back into the ceiling plenum, where it can be returned to the chiller.
Some photos of the TSCIF system can be seen here, and more images and diagrams are available on the Switch web site. A number of data center providers forego a raised floor for overhead cooling, most notably Equinix (EQIX). Heat containment systems are also becoming more widely used.
Switch says the combination of those techniques, along with custom cooling equipment, enables it to handle unusually high power and heat loads. Roy says the data center cold aisle is maintained at 68 degrees, while the temperature in the hot aisle reaches well above 100 degrees, creating a heat differential of nearly 40 degrees.
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