Servers, Power and the Modern Datacenter

In, Building a data center circa 2007, Dan Farber & Larry Dignan talk about Jon Vander Hill who has built two data centers since 2000 and is on his third. Common DC design theme emerge:

• The revenge of Moore’s Law – you have to pay for the power consumption
• Hosted data center billing – real estate vs. power metering – expect to be charged for power consumption - it's no longer bundles with the rack space
  
• Cooling system are challenged. Look for innovations to deal with the different requirements of new, hotter systems
• Rack density & blades - demand more power per rack and better cooling
• Befriend your utility. novel business relationships with Data centers - who can be amongst the utilities largest consumers - are worth exploring

Sun had to consider all of these factors in the design of their new data center, described in an excellent muti-media tour.