Applying Darwin's theory to cooling technology

Is your data center able to adapt to fluctuating operating conditions? Or, does it requires lots of human intervention to accommodate temperature changes and cooling needs triggered by dynamic workloads?

In the spirit of Darwin's evolution theory -- the species that can adapt seamlessly to new conditions are the ones that will carry on -- SynapSense has come out with a new technology that adapts the fan energy and load depending on what's going on with data center workloads.

One of the many companies targeting the data center cooling space with the goal of improving efficiency, SynapSense claims that its Adaptive Control approach can save up to 35 percent on typical cooling costs. It uses wireless sensors throughout the physical data center environment to manage the temperature set points and fan speeds of computer room handlers.

The big plug here is that this process is automated, so it doesn't require manual intervention to make relevant adjustments. The technology is one piece of SynapSense's planned enterprise-level operating platform for data centers.

The product announcement comes on the heels of SynapSense's move to introduce a set of data center optimization services. These services include annual assessments that help you get a grip on airflow optimization, utility rebates that might be available, and so on. SynapSense said it helped a large financial institution (doesn't name the reference account) find approximately 18 percent savings in the energy it used for cooling. It did this by identifying four of 15 computer room air-condition units that could be turned off.

So, as you're turning off all those servers through virtualization, remember that your cooling technology needs to adapt, too.