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Power and Cooling Study

DICE teamed up with IDC to conduct a special study on the current power and cooling practices in HPC as well as plans for future power and cooling innovations. The report, Power & Cooling Practices and Planning at Data Centers, was conducted in two phases. Both Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the study are complete.

Power and Cooling Practices and Planning at Data Centers

TO DOWNLOAD EXECUTIVE SUMMARY, click on the report title below.

Phase 1 Overview - pages 1-5 of complete report (pdf)
Phase 2 Overview - pages 1-6 of complete report (pdf)

FOR A FULL COPY OF ONE OR BOTH REPORTS, please click here.

Overview

Avetec, in conjunction with the IDC HPC group, conducted a two-phase study on power and cooling issues, solutions and trends in data centers. The first phase focused on HPC data center sites, HPC hardware manufacturers and cooling manufactures. After analyzing the Phase 1 data, it was clear that the scope of the research needed to include large-scale commercial Enterprise centers as well as resource management software vendors. The inclusion of the information technology (IT) centers is important in that these centers and the HPC centers are beginning to use the same, commodity-based hardware and cooling solutions. In the past, there were a significant number of special purpose processors and manufacturers focused on HPC needs.

Avetec has learned through this two-phase study that both the HPC and IT communities are struggling with power consumption and meeting ever-increasing cooling needs. We trust this survey will spur the creation of best practices to deal with the power and cooling issues. In this report, Avetec felt it was important to communicate to the hardware and cooling manufacturers that a new series of approaches is required in order to meet the growing needs of the community. Finally, we hope the results of the survey will initiate a public policy discussion. If the status quo continues, it appears that our country’s reliance on technology to enhance productivity, increase research and discover innovative solutions is at risk. Soon America’s power infrastructure will not be able to support the growth in computing to maintain, let alone grow, America’s competitiveness in the world-wide community.

KEY NEEDS VALIDATED BY THIS REPORT

1. High Performance Computing (HPC) is critical to the future of the United States to maintain American competitiveness in science and technology.

2. Energy efficiency is critical to the future growth of HPC data centers.

3. The United States needs a capability where vendors and data centers can openly test and evaluate emerging power and cooling technologies while protecting intellectual property.

4. A strong HPC-community wide (government, industry and academia) partnership needs to be established to research, develop and deploy more energy efficient power and cooling solutions.

5. Since federal and state governments are the largest buyers of HPC systems, they must take a leadership role in establishing policies and research directions that will allow for the growth and expanded application of HPC solutions while encouraging innovation in power and cooling solutions.

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