Sun squeezes out cost, space and heat with new Colorado data center

Sun Microsystems has flipped the switch on a new data center in Broomfield, Colo., one that represents its largest consolidation project to date. The new facility will represent an estimated $1 million in energy savings plus the elimination of 11,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually. Overall, the project will help Sun reduce it's U.S. carbon footprint by 6 percent, according to the company.

As you might imagine, Sun used its own technology to pull this thing off.

The heart of the data center is the Sun Pod Architecture, which squeezes the real estate footprint. Specific products that are being used include the Sun SPARC Enterprise T5440 and M5000, the SunStorageTek SL8500 modular library, the Sun Fire X4500 storage server and Sun Storage 7000 Unified Storage Systems. Overall, the space being used to consolidate the systems in this facility was compressed by 66 percent compared with the previous footprint (126,000 square feet versus 496,000 square feet previously).

Other features of the data center; - Less than 700 square feet of raised floor space, compared with 165,000 square feet (saving roughly $4 million) - 7 megawatts of capacity - A flywheel UPS that doesn't need batteries, eliminating lead and other chemicals - The largest installation of the Liebert advanced XD cooling system, which supports rack loads of up to 30 kilowatts and has a more efficient chiller system