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10: Green IT Case Studies for Universities and a Large Company 161

For Bryant, it’s more than cheap or even clean power. Previously, most
power outages would shut down the network. The last power outage before
Bryant opened its new data center took out the air conditioning, but not the
servers themselves. Bryant was forced to use portable air conditioners just to
get basic apps up and running. Alarms that register poor power or problem-
atic temperatures went off all the time, but the university could do nothing
about them because there was no managed air conditioning distribution sys-
tem. Now the data center has a closed-loop cooling system using ethylene
glycol, chilled by outside air when it’s cold enough. On a cold December day,
the giant APC chiller sits encased in snow, cooling the ethylene glycol. Mitch
Bertone, a Bryant technical analyst, estimates a 30-percent to 40-percent sav-
ings on cooling costs compared with more common refrigerant-based air con-
ditioning.
Consolidation was one of the main goals of Bryant’s data center upgrade.
The initial strategy was to get everything in one place, so the university
could deliver on a backup strategy during outages. Initially little thought
was given to going green. However, as Bryant worked with the data center
consultants, going through four designs before settling on one, saving energy
ptg
emerged as a value proposition.
The final location was the right size, near an electrical substation at the
back of the campus, in a lightly traveled area, which was good for the data
center’s physical security. Proximity to an electrical substation was key
because the farther away the power supply, the less efficient the data center.
Bryant has also deployed software that automatically manages server clock
speed to lower power consumption. Now, APC technologies monitor and
control fan speed, power level used at each outlet, cooling capacity, tempera-
ture, and humidity. Power is distributed to server blades as they need it.
When power goes out, Bryant no longer has to take the data center offline
or bring out the portable air conditioning. A room near the data center hosts
an APC Intelligent Transfer Switch that knows when to switch power
resources to batteries, which can run the whole system for 20 minutes. If
power quality falls out of line, the data center automatically switches to gen-
erator power and pages Bertone. The generator can run for two days on a full
tank of diesel.
Because Bryant doesn’t now have to worry constantly about data center
reliability, it can focus on new strategic initiatives. It’s working with Cisco,
Nokia, and T-Mobile to set up dual-band Wi-Fi and cellular service that will
let students make free phone calls on campus. The university is also home to
the Cisco IPICS communication center that links emergency responders in