A project to help data centers reduce their carbon footprint by using fiber optic cables as heat sensors has been awarded almost £1 million ($1,556,700 USD) in government funding.
The investment, from the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC), will be used to help Cambridge-based start-up Alquist further develop its Celsius technology and test it at two London data centers owned by Verizon and Schneider Electric. According to the company, Celsius provides data center operators with a real-time “heat map” of the data center by analyzing refraction in a network of fiber-optic cables installed around the facility.
Access to real-time temperature data from the entire facility would enable data center operators to spot developing issues and address them before they become major problems, says Alquist founder Toby Burton.
“Processing occurs at different points across a data center floor, especially with virtualized systems,” Burton told Information Age. “This means equipment can get hot quickly, potentially invalidating warranties and causing problems with other equipment nearby, or even starting fires.”
“This can cause downtime, which is the dread of any data center manager.”
In addition, Burton says, the detailed view provided by the network of fiber optic cables will allow data center operators to reduce the cost of cooling by allowing them to raise operating temperatures slightly. Most data centers run cooler than necessary in case there is an unexpected spike in temperature that is not identified or addressed immediately.
The results from the London data center testing will be used for further development of Celsius to help reduce data center electricity usage and carbon emissions.
