Technology

Validus Goes DC for More Energy-Efficient Datacenters

This seems possible, since telecoms use DC power on the same grounds

By Bogdan Botezatu, Hardware Editor

28th of January 2008, 10:29 GMT

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Datacenters will ultimately be able to produce their electricity needs

The IT industry has started wearing green colors some time ago, but it seems that all the progress is not enough yet: hard-disks shutting down when not in use, energy-efficient processors

and so on. What if we managed to achieve computers that would merely take less power?

Start-up Validus claims to be able to solve this issue by reverting to Thomas Edison's favorite: the direct current (DC). The small company alleges that using DC instead of the standard AC will make data centers more energy efficient. Of course, this will involve the availability of a specially tailored DC distribution system, but that is not a problem, according to Validus CEO, Rudy Kraus.

The company's approach is hardly news, as the direct current has been successfully used in powering the telecommunications industry, in order to keep the energy consumption to a minimum. However, the company spent the $10 million in venture funding for researching on methods to reduce the power consumption inside the datacenters.

According to Kraus, Validus made power distribution equipment suitable for "high density" data centers, that piled power-starved racks of servers, blade servers or network-attached storage gear. These devices eat up a whole lot of electricity and dissipate heat in the tiny free space inside the datacenter. Switching to DC would allow companies cut down their energy and cooling gear costs up to 40 percent. Validus also estimates that in a short time frame, datacenters will be self-sufficient and will be able to produce electricity locally, through solar panels, wind mills, or fuel cells.

The company produced a devices that converts and distributes the power from the grid as high-voltage direct current. The power conversion unit lowers the initial current down to 48 volts. Kraus also alleged that data center equipment vendors offer an option for direct current power supplies, that would be the ideal choice for DC power usage.

Using direct current will reduce the number of voltage changes and conversions between AC and DC and will improve the efficiency of the whole system. If they switch to DC, datacenters will become more efficient and will be able to pack more equipment inside the same space.

TAGS:

Validus | AC | DC | Datacenter | environment

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