As Canadians dig in for a long, cold winter, here’s one silver lining to the colder weather: it can help data centre operators reduce their cooling costs.
The folks at IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM) sent along this photo from their data centre in Barrie, Ont. near Toronto. The Barrie data centre uses new technologies, such as the pictured water side economizer, to help cool its data centre with water evaporation.
Another cooling technique IBM uses in Barrie? The colder winter air. It all helps to reduce Big Blue’s reliance on electricity-driven chillers, and has helped the Barrie facility manage 210 free days of cooling annually.
Are Canadian winters really that long?
IBM’s Barrie data centre.
Author: Jeff Jedras
A veteran technology and business journalist, Jeff Jedras began his career in technology journalism in the late 1990s, covering the booming (and later busting) Ottawa technology sector for Silicon Valley North and the Ottawa Business Journal, as well as everything from municipal politics to real estate.He later covered the technology scene in Vancouver before joining IT World Canada in Toronto in 2005, covering enterprise IT for ComputerWorld Canada. He would go on to cover the channel as an assistant editor with CDN.His writing has appeared in the Vancouver Sun, the Ottawa Citizen and a wide range of industry trade publications.