CSC — IT Center for Science Ltd realizes average PUE as low as 1.04 with CommScope’s Modular Data Center solution.In less than three years, CSC has trimmed its PUE level to a new low. And one of its CommScope data centers consumes less water annually than a typical family house.

When the Finland-based Center for Scientific Computing (CSC) needed to expand its data center infrastructure, it turned to CommScope and its Data Center on Demand™ (DCoD) family of prefabricated modular data centers.

Managed under the auspices of Finland’s Ministry of Education and Culture, CSC is a major research resource for the country. It has developed and maintained a comprehensive IT infrastructure, providing IT services and research management for libraries, museums and other cultural entities across Finland.

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“ Adopting a modular data center strategy was a logical choice for us. It eliminated the planning risks associated with the traditional monolithic build projects while allowing us to take advantage of future improvements in server and switch technologies.”

—Tero Tuononen, director ICT platforms, CSC

CSC’s challenge: Big data had become a big dealIncreasing data processing demands from research centers throughout Finland had placed untenable strains on CSC’s existing data center facilities in Espoo, near Helsinki and Kajaani in the north of the country. CSC’s current facilities, while substantial, were fully utilized, and data demands from research departments continued to increase.

“We were facing increasing demand for processing resources from our country’s universities,” said Jukka-Pekka Partanen, head of data centers for CSC. “More and more research work was requiring compute power that can only be provided by high-performance computer (HPC) facilities necessitating power loads in excess of 30 kW per data cabinet. The challenges arising from loads of this size are twofold: providing the energy to drive the servers, switches, and storage; and cooling the IT equipment operating at these high power levels.”

Given the demand for increasing amounts of reliable compute power, CSC’s existing facilities were neither capable of providing the new levels of service expected by CSC’s customers, nor aligned with the organization’s green agenda. As a result, CSC decided to build new data facilities.

While researching the relevant options, a traditional brick-and-mortar data center was dismissed due to costs and operational inefficiencies.

“Our existing brick-and-mortar template would not work,” conceded Tero Tuononen, director of ICT platforms for CSC. “We simply couldn’t afford to continue down that path while, at the same time, running our old data centers with the same personnel. We needed a more cost-efficient approach with a properly prepared site that could accommodate multiple data centers, with the ability to scale on demand as our needs changed.”

CSC’s solution: Data Center on Demand™ from CommScopeAfter an exhaustive vendor search, CSC chose CommScope’s DCoD solution with its prefabricated modular design. “Adopting a modular data center strategy was a logical choice for us. It eliminated the planning risks associated with the traditional monolithic build projects while allowing us to take advantage of future improvements in server and switch technologies,” said Tuononen. “Our new data center is half the size of a football pitch and can be expanded as required, module by module.”

Traditional brick-and-mortar facilities are typically “overbuilt” at great expense to accommodate future projected capacity needs—an inefficient allocation of financial resources. DCoD, on the other hand, can be built to fit current needs and then scaled as needed, allowing companies to build only what they need, when they need it, while retaining the ability to expand in step with future demand.

Equally important, deployment of DCoD is quick and easy—capacity can be added in 14 to 20 weeks rather than the two to three years it takes to build a typical brick-and-mortar facility. DCoD merely requires access to power, water and ventilation—a process that offers significant commercial and operational advantages over traditional data center solutions.

Intelligent, agile cooling technologyCSC was also drawn to CommScope’s SmartAir™ Intelligent Cooling System, a highly flexible and efficient cooling solution that minimizes energy consumption and is currently delivering, for CSC, an average power usage effectiveness (PUE) as low as 1.04. “It’s a very low PUE,” said Partanen. “It makes it one of the world’s most energy-efficient data centers.”

SmartAir technology accomplishes this by monitoring over 200 parameters within the DCoD and then determining the most effective way to meet the prescribed operating parameters using outside air and adiabatic (evaporative) cooling. This is especially important in supporting CSC’s HPC requirements.

“ CommScope’s super efficiency has trimmed our cooling costs to less than 5 percent of our IT energy costs—a huge saving from other options, where the number can exceed 60 percent.”

—Jukka-Pekka Partanen, head of data centers, CSC

Finally, as DCoD is purpose built to CSC’s specific needs—and arrives pretested—much of the risks associated with the implementation are removed. “With a traditional brick-and-mortar approach, you need to account for the complexities associated with construction and bespoke design costs, such as architects and mechanical-and-electrical design services, said Partanen. “But, with DCoD, you basically buy a system that integrates with an existing infrastructure. You don’t need to be an expert in cooling or power. You can invest your time in developing operationally efficient processes rather than getting distracted by the minutiae associated with bespoke design and construction.”

DCoD is a precision-engineered modular solution offering a unique cooling strategy that efficiently addresses today’s most pressing operational challenges. “As data centers become larger and more central to all aspects of business and life in general, their cooling and operational efficiency becomes ever more critical,” said Ciaran Forde, vice president of global data center solutions at CommScope. “The most effective way to maximize efficiency is with intelligence. A typical CommScope DCoD modular data center intelligently monitors hundreds of parameters and analyzes the data in real time to make the right operational decisions and minimize cooling costs.”

Bottom-line benefitsCSC deployed its first CommScope DCoD modular data center in 2012, adding a second at the end of 2014. In less than three years, DCoD has delivered significant bottom-line benefits to the organization, including:

• PUE reduction: While the average PUE for a typical data center varies from 1.8 to 2.9, the DCoD installation at CSC averages 1.03 to 1.06. This is all the more significant, noting summer-winter temperature swings from +30°C to -35°C.

• Water savings: One DCoD unit consumed roughly 120 cubic meters of fresh water in a year—less than the amount used by a typical family house.

• Sustainability: Reduced energy consumption and costs demonstrate CSC’s commitment to leading-edge technologies that reduce their carbon footprint and complement their ecological credentials.

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“ Our design objectives were met and exceeded by CommScope. We needed to add efficient capacity in a short amount of time. And we needed a cost-effective modular solution. These were all realized with CommScope’s DCoD.” said Tuononen. As CSC’s compute and data demands continue to rise, we expect DCoD to deliver even better results in the future. “We’ve adopted CommScope’s advanced data center infrastructure management software suite, iTRACS® DCIM, which delivers supremely efficient provisioning, risk mitigation and enhanced asset management of both IT and facilities. We’re extremely optimistic that our operations will continue to realize further operational efficiencies as a result of the granular infrastructure management that iTRACS allows.”

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CO-109081-EN (09/15)