Doubling rack densities and increasing operational efficiency

Xfernet, a rapidly growing colocation, hosting and managed service provider based in Los Angeles, needed to migrate into a data center space with shallow raised floors, low ceilings and limited footprint for new cooling equipment. The company turned to Chatsworth Products (CPI), a pioneer in airflow management for data centers and creator of Passive Cooling® technology, to solve its challenge.

Friday, 14th June 2019 Posted 5 years ago in by Phil Alsop

Before the migration, Xfernet’s data center setup included uncontained hot/cold aisles, which limited the company’s ability to support increased demand for higher rack densities. The convenient, but inefficient solution, of adding more air conditioning to the room was not an option for Sam Scott, Xfernet’s CEO.

“I was determined I was going to find someone out there thinking about this problem in a different way. Without question, this has been the case,” Scott says.

In searching for a solution that would approach cooling more effectively within the architectural limitation of the facility, Scott learned about CPI and its experience with data center airflow management, including CPI Passive Cooling technology. Passive Cooling completely segregates hot and cold air, and can be applied at the cabinet or aisle level, providing increased equipment cooling performance in all elements of the data center mechanical plant, thereby reducing overall energy costs. In an existing space, such as the case for Xfernet, cabinet-level Passive Cooling is typically the ideal solution, because it allows for airflow to be effectively managed regardless of architectural constraints.

Passive Cooling was provided through the patented Vertical Exhaust Ducts attached to F-Series TeraFrame^® cabinets. The ducts channel the hot exhaust air out of the cabinet and up into the drop ceiling, segregating the

hot air out of the room, and ducting it back passively into the Computer Room Air Conditioner (CRAC) units. The cooled air from the CRAC units is then redistributed under the floor, into the room and through the racks. This

cools the equipment without the need to overprovision the room, drastically reducing cooling costs.

“We saw the improvement immediately once we implemented the cabinets. It allowed us to fully service our clients. Clients pay per footprint of the cabinet space. When the limitation is compute power and ability to cool that power—if you can’t support that—they’ll look elsewhere,” Scott explains.

The ability to have energy-efficient cooled air in its data centers allowed Xfernet to keep ideal temperatures on doubled rack densities, while still having room for growth.