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How Can I Determine a Data Center’s Power Density, and What Factors are Used in That Evaluation

Ben Gonyea
March 3, 2014

Just the other day, we weighed in on flood zoning and how it can affect your decision to work with or house your data in a specific data centre "Data Centre Flood Zones". But as we mentioned, flood zoning isn’t the only factor to consider when choosing a data centre that suits your needs for reliability and performance.

In the world of data centres, power density is also very important.

What is Data Centre Power Density?

Power density is generally measured in Watts per Square Foot (W/sq.ft.)—“the IT load rating in kW and the physical size of the IT and equipment rooms.” As Data Centre Journal notes, “Given limitations on space and the need for more-efficient operation to counter the effects of rising power demand and cost, packing more resources into each rack is an obvious solution.”

Thinking back to the W/sq.ft. measurement, the more resources per rack and/or square foot, the more power dense a facility is. Because there’s only so much space available, a higher power density generally means more efficiency—which is great for consumers and businesses seeking to make the most out of their leased rack space. When paying per cabinet, cabinet power density is important, too; the more power available per cabinet, the more servers you can use per each cabinet leased. There’s lots of value in high power density.

High Density Benefits & Factors

Aside from the measurement itself, there are a few other factors to think about in the evaluation of power density:

  • Cooling. High power density brings more servers per cabinet, which comes at the cost of increased heat output and a need for more cooling power. Having high power density is great—but only if your data centre provider also provides sufficient cooling.
  • Efficiency. As we hinted at above, higher power density data centres are more efficient. They make better use of the space available, and give customers the opportunity to use each cabinet to its max potential instead of being limited by the power cap of a cabinet.
  • Cost. Finally, as you can imagine, power density has a great effect on cost. The higher the power density, the less space there is that’s wasted, an essential concern when renting floor or cabinet space. High power density and the increased efficiency that results leads to decreased costs for the end user.

Moving towards the future, many data centre service providers—Digital Realty included—are making the move towards high power density to offer greater efficiency and lower costs to customers. And here at Digital Realty, we realize that cooling becomes a concern with higher power density, which is why all of our data centres offer premier air-conditioned space. Our PRT1 Digital Realty data centre, for example, provides an overall power density of 325 W/sq.ft., with cabinets between 5 and 10 kW power densities and our SCL2 Digital Realty data centre provides an overall power density of 425 W/sq.ft. with cabinets at 8 kW power densities—efficient specs for even the most demanding users.

It can be difficult to sort through all the terminology surrounding power density in data centres, but we’re here to help answer any questions you may have. If you do have any questions about power density in our data centres, feel free to reach out to us via the contact page of our site. We’d love to hear from you.

How much power does a data centre need?

The power requirements of a data centre vary widely based on its size, capacity, and the number of servers it houses. Small data centres might consume a few hundred kilowatts, while large hyperscale data centres can require tens to hundreds of megawatts of power.

What is the power density of a hyperscale data centre?

Hyperscale data centres typically have a high-power density, ranging from 15 kW to over 100 kW per rack. This high-power density of these data centres [AA3] allows them to accommodate a large number of servers in a relatively compact space.

What is a high-density vs. low-density data centre?

High-density data centres are designed to pack more computing power into a smaller footprint, often with power densities of over 10 kW per rack. Low-density data centres, on the other hand, have lower power densities and are designed to provide more space between racks and servers.

What are low-density data centres?

Low-density data centres are facilities that are designed to house servers with lower power requirements. They prioritize spacing between racks and servers to ensure efficient cooling and minimize the risk of overheating.

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