Inside ServerDomes: What makes it more efficient than traditional data centers

This may look like, some sort of futuristic greenhouse, but what you're actually looking at, is a data centre, and has the potential to disrupt the industry, as we know it. [MUSIC] If you know anything about data centres, you probably know that, what the most important things to consider when you're building one Is heat specifically, what do you do with all that heat those computers generate when they're operating? Companies spend millions of dollars on air conditioners, water cooling systems, and other equipment to keep those racks and racks of servers from overheating. Not only is that expensive [MUSIC] It uses a ton of energy. Enter server dome. This is an 18,000 square foot data center on the Oregon Health and Science University campus. And I'm gonna get right to the obvious question. Why is it a dome? It is the strongest structure in the world and holds more creates more space than using fewer materials than any other design. So that is john Warwick of server down. I had a chance to chat with him and CEO Alan Resnik, who told me the benefits of the dome go far beyond just space Everything about this design has nothing to do with the looks it every element of it has to do with efficiency with sustainability with admin flexibility. All right, so before we get into how all that works, let's just take a closer look at the structure. This is the first one built back in 2014 280 feet in diameter with a height of 48 feet. circling the dome, there's a vegetative bio swell that helps filter outside air. Before it's brought inside for cooling. Inside the server sit in five groups of two pads circling on 11th pad which is the network distribution pad. The structures pop by this [INAUDIBLE] which serves as a hot air exhaust port and that brings us to what make server down so different Its ability to keep the server's cool using minimal energy. The fundamental concept behind it is called biomimicry, which means mimicking nature. And because one of the biggest problems in data centers is the heat that it generates The dome is designed in a way to take advantage of the buoyancy of heated air and remove that air not through artificial means, like chillers and air conditioners, but to allow it to escape using the design of the dome. [MUSIC] So let's take a look at how that works. During the warm season, outside air is pulled in through slats on the outside walls and pass through a filter wall that uses water to cool the air about 20 or 25 degrees Fahrenheit. After reaching the servers, that's when that thermal buoyancy Allen just mentioned comes in The hot air discharging the server's rises and escapes through more slots in the cooler. So think of a pie looking at it from overhead a pie with five large slices. each slice brings in air from the outside into that wedge, and the air then passes through the equipment and then goes up into the upper part of the dome. Is he here? During cooler temperatures, those outer slots to bring air in are closed, and the discharge heat from the servers is mixed with a controlled amount of outside air to bring it to that ideal temperature, then it's just sent back to the servers. A server [UNKNOWN] also says it's designed provides more flexibility. One of the biggest challenges in data centers is when you're bringing in new equipment and an often comes in and racks that are pre configured. Data Center operators don't know where to put the equipment. They don't know where the cooling is, they don't know the optimum location in their data center to place that equipment and often when they put it you know by guessing. It runs the risk of overheating and causing business impact. In this data center, you can place equipment and any rack in any of the five wedges and it will be properly cooled. So it completely eliminates what some some data centers have one to two people that work full time trying to figure this out. It eliminates the need for that.>> Now, not only the server does not rely on air conditioners and humidifiers, dehumidifiers Or even air ducts. It uses much less water than a traditional data centre does. Where the average centre uses about 1.8 litres of water for every kilowatt-hour of electricity it consumes, ServerDome uses just .14 litres, and that is huge. According to the Department of Energy, US data centres use more than 600 billion gallons of water a year. And that number is growing. And yes, Silverdome is made of recyclable materials. So they can be reused at the end of the building's lifecycle, which by the way, the company estimates that around 30 years or more conservative admits this isn't going to be the solution for everyone. I mean, it's not designed to compete with those massive data centers. But our demand for data is growing like crazy. A study out last year found the workloads on data centers across the globe increased more than six fold between 2010 and 2018. Acibadem says it wants to be on the forefront of efficiently dealing with this trend. We as an industry must take responsibility to build Highly efficient and sustainable data centers. We cannot continue down the same path with old inefficient data centers and then spending huge amounts of money and time patching those buildings to try to make them efficient. Now, there is good news. That study I just mentioned also found that power used by data centers during that period. Basically held steady. Essentially, the industry got a lot more efficient, but there's no guarantee that that trend is going to continue. Particularly as networks continue to roll out 5G coverage, things like self driving cars get, you know, more commonplace. Our demand for data is going to continue to skyrocket. And as that happens, we're gonna need more of these smaller data centers on the edges of those networks to get data to everybody. So do you think server dome is the answer for that? If you think so give us a thumbs up in the comments.