Cork Internet Exchange (cix.ie) are currently building a Data Centre in Cork (Ireland's second city).
Data centres are notorious for being heavy electricity consumers. In a time of ever increasing Web usage, and denser server racks the power requirements of data centres are increasing at a phenomenal rate.
To reduce these impacts CIX has developed several innovative technologies in the data centre design:
1) Utilise Free Cooling - By taking advantage of the of the low mean temperatures in Ireland.
2) Maximise Chilled Water Temperature
3) Eliminate Water Mixing
4) Eliminate Air Mixing - By utilising a cold aisle containment system (the opposite of the more common hot aisle containment system).
5) Utilising a low resistance slow speed air path - by taking advantage of the large under floor void and the high ceiling space.
6) Minimise humidification
As a consequence, on opening CIX will be one of the most energy efficient data centres in the world.
CIX has also developed an intriguing strategy to make data centres carbon neutral which will be discussed in this talk.
