Uptime Symposium Innovation Award Winners
The Uptime Institute presented a number of innovations awards and I thought you'd like to learn a tiny bit about the winners. (Note: Uptime Institute is another business unit of The 451 Group.) Here's a list supplied by Uptime:
- Facilities Innovation Award -- Savvis NJ2 HVAC Upgrade Project -- A project was initiated to replace/upgrade the controls of the 12 year old chiller and pumping system. The project was completed without any impact to the IT function and the engergy savings will provide an 18 month return on investment as well as increased redundancy for the facility.
- IT Innovation Award -- Going Green at the US House of Representatives -- Approximately four years ago, the Chief Administrative Officer of the U.S. House of Representatives initiated the Green the Capital program. The initiative's cornerstone encompassed activities that would dramatically reduce power consumption, while allowing for enhanced House data center services. The resulting project not only achieved its goal earlier than expected, it surpassed expectations by reducing energy consumption for Information Technology and cooling by 70%.
- Data Center Design Award -- A Cool Low Energy Approach to Sustainable Data Center Design -- HP's Wynard Data Center takes advantage of a cool climate to reduce the energy required for cooling by using a large quantity of fresh air supplied by axial fans through high-efficiency filters. The building is an energy-efficient and sustainable design, incorporating recycled materials and rainwater harvesting.
- Best Facilities Project Award -- Orangeburg Data Center: Data Center Intelligent Cooling Controls -- Verizon Wireless implemented a project to provide an intelligent cooling control system that would reduce the electrical load of the cooling system by placing the redundant cooling components in a "Hot Stand By" mode that would seamlessly transition through utility interruptions and individual component failure without increasing risks to IT operations.
- Best IT Product -- Data Center Energy Efficiency Improvement -- Raritan undertook upgrading one of its client's (J.R. Simplot) data center, it seized the opportunity to create a green data center based on industry standards such as Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE), Data Center Infrastructure Efficiency (DCIE) and Rack Cooling Index (RCI).
- Beyond the Data Center -- The World's Most Eco-Efficient Computer Hall -- Helsignin Energia presented its new solution that utilizes the recovery of waste heat from the computers to heat nearby building and provide hot tap water in the City of Helsinki.
These organizations, as well as those who received runner-up and honorable mention certificates, each bravely looked at their IT and facilities operations and took unusual steps to create an improved environment.
Why do I say "bravely?" Although making changes in their facilities resulted in improvements, these changes could have just as easily created an outage. Doing something that brings down an organization's data center is a career move that either could move the project team forward or dash their hopes for career growth for a long time to come.
Rather than being frightened, the award winners tried something new and were successful. What these organizations learned could easily help others improve the efficiency of their operations.