A data center is a facility that houses servers and other computing equipment for large-scale applications. For example, a data center may house the computers that act as web servers, file servers, e-commerce servers, search engines, databases, etc. In many cases, data centers are built from modular components. Modularization of data center components allows data centers to be made larger or smaller, depending on the demands being placed on the center. Modularization also allows a data center to be assembled in one location and deployed at another location.
A data center module may take the form of a container that houses, among other things, Information Technology (IT) equipment (such as servers, routers, etc.) and cooling equipment. One problem with this type of modularization is that the IT equipment and the cooling equipment typically have different useful life spans—often fifteen years for the cooling equipment, but three years for the IT equipment. The relatively short useful life of the IT equipment is often a limitation on how long a module can be used. Once the IT equipment has become obsolete, the module is often retired, including the mechanical assets relating to cooling whose useful life has not been exhausted. Similar issues may apply to electrical power equipment, fire suppression equipment, or equipment that performs various other functions and whose useful life has not been exhausted. Disposing of mechanical assets whose useful life has not been exhausted is expensive and wasteful.
A data center may be constructed from modules in a way that decouples the IT equipment from other mechanical assets, such as the cooling equipment. IT equipment, such as servers, routers, etc., may be placed in an IT cartridge, without supporting equipment such as cooling equipment, electrical equipment and fire suppression equipment. In one example, the IT cartridge may take the form of a shipping container, which allows the IT cartridge to be transported easily from one place to another. A docking station may be built, which contains supporting equipment. For example, the docking station may be a building or consolidated equipment arrangement that contains air conditioners, electrical equipment and fire-suppression equipment. The IT cartridge may be coupled to the docking station. In the example where the docking station is a building and the IT cartridge is a shipping container, coupling the IT cartridge to the docking station may involve driving the shipping containers into bays in the building, and plugging the IT equipment into electrical and network connections provided by the building.
The physical structure of the docking station may be such that the IT cartridge can easily be connected and removed. For example, the cooling equipment in the docking station may be arranged in such a way that it can perform the cooling function for the IT equipment in the cartridge without interfering with the cartridge's removal. In this way, when the IT equipment in the cartridge wears out or becomes obsolete, the IT cartridge can be removed from the docking station, and a new IT cartridge can be inserted. Thus the longer-lived mechanical assets in the docking station (e.g., cooling equipment, such as fans and mechanical refrigeration devices) may continue to be used throughout their useful life, even when the shorter-lived IT equipment is refreshed.
This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.
Data centers are facilities that contain servers and other equipment. Data centers may be used to perform various functions, such as hosting web servers, hosting databases, providing back-end support for finance or e-commerce, or any other function that can be performed by computer. Data centers contain large numbers of servers and other IT equipment, as well as mechanical support for that equipment. Mechanical support may include cooling equipment, fire suppression equipment, utility power, backup power, data connectivity, and any other infrastructure that is used by the IT equipment.
Data centers are often modular, in the sense that the center is built out of modules that contain the equipment to perform various different functions. Modularization makes a data center scalable, since the capacity of the data center can be increased or reduced by adding or removing modules. Additionally, modularization allows the components for the data center to be assembled in one place and deployed in another place, since the modules may be relatively easy to move. In one example, the modules are built in shipping containers, since such containers can easily be carried over land or water nearly anywhere in the world.
There are various different ways to modularize a data center. One way to modularize a data center is to build self-contained modules that include electrical equipment, IT equipment, cooling equipment, fire suppression equipment, and any other equipment that is involved in operating a data center. Each such module could operate as a data center on its own. Another way to modularize a data center is to build various function modules—e.g., an IT module that houses servers and other IT equipment, a cooling module that houses refrigeration equipment, a fire suppression module that houses fire suppression equipment, an electrical module that houses distribution panels, Uninterruptable Power Supplies (UPSs), transfer switches, backup generators, etc. These modules can be connected to each other, thereby allowing a data center to be built out of function modules. In a simple example, an IT module that contains servers, routers, disk drives, etc., can be connected to a cooling module that contains the refrigeration equipment to produce chilled water. The IT module can then be connected to the cooling module, so that the cooling module keeps the equipment in the IT module cool.
One issue that arises when modules implement separate functions is that an IT module often has to include equipment to support its ability to receive another function from one of the functional modules. For example, a cooling module might house the refrigeration equipment that produces chilled water. But, in order for an IT module to be cooled by that refrigeration module, it may have to have piping to receive and circulate the chilled water, radiators to convert the chilled water in to cold air, and fans to distribute the cold air to the severs. Thus, even when the cooling function has been nominally segregated in a separate module, an IT module often has a significant amount of cooling-related hardware in order to use the cooling function provided by another module. In other words, in the function module paradigm, separation of function between the modules is often incomplete.
A problem that arises when equipment to support different functions is in the same module is that the useful life of equipment is often characteristic of the function that the equipment supports. In a simple example, IT equipment may have a three-year lifecycle, while refrigeration equipment may have a fifteen-year lifecycle. Putting refrigeration equipment and IT equipment in the same module presents a complication, because—when it is time to retire the IT equipment—the cooling equipment may still have many years of useful life ahead. Therefore, either the refrigeration equipment has to be reused and repurposed for a new IT module with new IT equipment, or the refrigeration equipment has to be discarded. Either disposition of the refrigeration equipment is an expense.
The subject matter described herein may be used to build a modularized data center on a docking station paradigm. A docking station may provide various support functions for IT equipment—e.g., cooling, fire suppression, power distribution, backup power, etc. An IT cartridge may contain IT equipment, such as servers, disk drives, routers, etc. The IT cartridge may be couplable with the docking station, so that the combination of a docking station and one or more IT cartridges may be able to function as a working data center. In one example, the docking station may take the form of a building with bays that can receive the IT cartridges. Moreover, in one example, each IT cartridge is a shipping container that contains IT equipment, and that can be driven into the bays. The IT cartridges may contain little or no non-IT equipment. In this way, the equipment in the cartridge generally follows an IT equipment lifecycle, thereby eliminating or reducing the amount of equipment that has to be disposed of early, or that has to be repurposed, when the IT equipment in the cartridge is retired at the end of its useful life.
There are various ways to connect an IT cartridge to a docking station. One way, as mentioned above, is to have each IT cartridge be a container that can be driven into the docking station. In another example, the docking station may have an opening, or other type of connection point, that allows IT cartridge to be brought next to the docking station, and to receive support such as cooling, fire suppression, power, etc., from the docking station without having to be brought inside the docking station. In one example, a rubber seal may be provided at the connection point, in order to keep both the inside of the docking station and the inside of the cartridge dry, even when the cartridge is not fully brought inside the docking station.
It is noted that a system in which the IT cartridge has little or no cooling infrastructure (or other non-IT infrastructure) is different from, and is not an obvious variant of, an IT module that contains substantial mechanical support to receive support functions from another module. In the former case, retirement of the IT cartridge leads to little or no loss of the useful life of non-IT equipment. In the latter case, there may be substantial non-IT equipment that has to be repurposed or discarded when the IT module is retired. For example, a scenario in which an IT cartridge can be driven into a docking station, where the docking station has equipment to cool whatever is inside the docking station, is different from, and is not an obvious variant of, an IT module that has chilled water pipes, radiators, fans, etc., to cool the air using chilled water provided by another module. In the later case, the water pipes, radiators, fans, etc., represent a significant investment in non-IT equipment (cooling equipment) that would have to be disposed of or repurposed when the IT module is retired. Moreover, a docking station that receives a cartridge that contains the IT equipment for use in a data center is not the same as, and is not an obvious variant of, a laptop docking station. In the case of a laptop, a detachable docking station helps the laptop to be used effectively in both mobile and non-mobile settings. Moreover, the docking station—being a form of IT equipment itself—often has roughly the same useful lifespan as the laptop. In the case of a data center docking station, the docking station might exist not so much to facilitate mobility as to facilitate disposal or retirement of the IT equipment without also disposing of longer-lived cooling equipment, or other longer-lived equipment.
Turning now to the drawings,
It is noted that the docking station 102 shown in
At 706, the docking station receives an IT cartridge The IT cartridge may be supplied, for example, by a third party vendor who is distinct from the vendor that owns, operates, and/or builds the docking station. In another example, the IT cartridge is supplied by the owner, operator, and/or builder of the docking station. The IT cartridge that is received may lack cooling equipment and/or a cooling infrastructure to distribute cool liquid. At 708, the IT cartridge is coupled to the docking station. Coupling the IT cartridge to the docking station may be performed using any appropriate techniques and/or structures described above, and/or any appropriate combination of those structures and/or techniques. For example, if the docking station has the structure of docking station 102 (shown in
After the IT cartridge is installed, some amount of time passes. The amount of time that passes is sufficient to allow the IT equipment in an IT cartridge to wear out and/or become obsolete (block 710), but not enough time to allow the cooling equipment in the docking station to wear out or become obsolete (block 712). In one example, the useful life of cooling equipment may be fifteen years, and the useful life of IT equipment may be shorter—e.g., three years. After enough time has passed so that the useful life of the IT equipment has expired but the useful life of the cooling equipment has not, the IT cartridge may be replaced with a new IT cartridge, while reusing the docking station (at 714). In this way, the IT equipment may be disposed of, or otherwise retired, when it has reached the end of its useful life, while allowing the cooling equipment (which may not have reached the end of its useful life) to continued to be used. It is noted that the reuse of the cooling equipment is not mere recycling of the cooling components. In theory, coolers and fans can be uninstalled from one location or component and installed in another location or component; in the techniques described herein, the coolers and fans (and any other appropriate cooling equipment) can be used in place without reconfiguration or relocation, simply by replacing an old IT cartridge with a new IT cartridge. In other words, the equipment in the IT cartridge can be reused; it does not have to be disposed of, and does not even have to be dismantled to allow it to be reassembled in another location or component.
Computer 800 includes one or more processors 802 and one or more data remembrance components 804. Processor(s) 802 are typically microprocessors, such as those found in a personal desktop or laptop computer, a server, a handheld computer, or another kind of computing device. Data remembrance component(s) 804 are components that are capable of storing data for either the short or long term. Examples of data remembrance component(s) 804 include hard disks, removable disks (including optical and magnetic disks), volatile and non-volatile random-access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), flash memory, magnetic tape, etc. Data remembrance component(s) are examples of computer-readable storage media. Computer 800 may comprise, or be associated with, display 812, which may be a cathode ray tube (CRT) monitor, a liquid crystal display (LCD) monitor, or any other type of monitor.
Software may be stored in the data remembrance component(s) 804, and may execute on the one or more processor(s) 802. An example of such software is data center software 806, which may implement some or all of the functionality described above in connection with
The subject matter described herein can be implemented as software that is stored in one or more of the data remembrance component(s) 804 and that executes on one or more of the processor(s) 802. As another example, the subject matter can be implemented as instructions that are stored on one or more computer-readable media. Such instructions, when executed by a computer or other machine, may cause the computer or other machine to perform one or more acts of a method. The instructions to perform the acts could be stored on one medium, or could be spread out across plural media, so that the instructions might appear collectively on the one or more computer-readable media, regardless of whether all of the instructions happen to be on the same medium. The term “computer-readable media” does not include signals per se; nor does it include information that exists solely as a propagating signal. It will be understood that, if the claims herein refer to media that carry information solely in the form of a propagating signal, and not in any type of durable storage, such claims will use the terms “transitory” or “ephemeral” (e.g., “transitory computer-readable media”, or “ephemeral computer-readable media”). Unless a claim explicitly describes the media as “transitory” or “ephemeral,” such claim shall not be understood to describe information that exists solely as a propagating signal or solely as a signal per se. Additionally, it is noted that “hardware media” or “tangible media” include devices such as RAMs, ROMs, flash memories, and disks that exist in physical, tangible form; such “hardware media” or “tangible media” are not signals per se. Moreover, “storage media” are media that store information. The term “storage” is used to denote the durable retention of data. For the purpose of the subject matter herein, information that exists only in the form of propagating signals is not considered to be “durably” retained. Therefore, “storage media” include disks, RAMs, ROMs, etc., but does not include information that exists only in the form of a propagating signal because such information is not “stored.”
Additionally, any acts described herein (whether or not shown in a diagram) may be performed by a processor (e.g., one or more of processors 802) as part of a method. Thus, if the acts A, B, and C are described herein, then a method may be performed that comprises the acts of A, B, and C. Moreover, if the acts of A, B, and C are described herein, then a method may be performed that comprises using a processor to perform the acts of A, B, and C.
In one example environment, computer 800 may be communicatively connected to one or more other devices through network 808. Computer 810, which may be similar in structure to computer 800, is an example of a device that can be connected to computer 800, although other types of devices may also be so connected.
Although the subject matter has been described in language specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the subject matter defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims.