Over 50 per cent data centres to incorporate 'high-density zones' by end-2015

Mumbai: The fastest-growing segment of the server market is the high-density blade sector, meaning that high-density zones will need to be incorporated into most data centres during the next five years, says technology market researcher Gartner, Inc.

Through 2015, 50 per cent of data centers will have a high-density zone, up from fewer than 10 per cent in 2010.

Traditional data centres built as recently as five years ago were designed to have a uniform energy distribution of around 2 kilowatts (kW) to 4kW per rack. With the increasing use of high-density blade systems, this design envelope is no longer sufficient.

Gartner analysts said that high-density zones will provide the best method to balance the power and cooling requirements of different IT equipment (servers, storage and networking boxes) in the same physical data center, leading to energy cost optimization.

Gartner defines a high-density zone as one where the energy needed is more than 10kW per rack for a given set of rows. A standard rack of industry-standard servers needs 30 square feet to be accommodated without supplemental cooling, and a rack that is 60 per cent filled could have a power draw as high as 12kW. 

Any standard rack of blade servers that is more than 50 percent full will need to be in a high-density zone.