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Kool-IT™ Technology
Control and Balance in the enclosure and across the datacenter for improved service delivery and cost savings
Overview
To meet the challenges of high-density heat dissipation and thermal management in real-world datacenter environments, AFCO built a server enclosure system fundamentally different than everything the industry had seen before. The concept was powerful — the execution seamless — the result is AFCO’S patented Kool-IT™ Technology.
With a clean sheet of paper and a customer’s challenge, AFCO evaluated cabinet design in conjunction with studying the entire datacenter environment and discovered that with some minor changes to the raised-floor environment and a new generation of enclosure design, dramatic efficiencies and control are possible.
AFCO started from the position that the server enclosure needs to be an integral component of the datacenter cooling system that would intelligently facilitate CRAC’S supply and return air with server inlet and exhaust temperatures. This divergence from the traditional “passive-rack hot-aisle/cold-aisle (HA/CA)” approach, which focuses more on the aisle, caused AFCO to focus on overall, balanced thermal condition in the datacenter. This, in turn, enables a more consistent temperature throughout each enclosure, all while maximizing the efficiency of the cooling plant. This is why a Kool-IT™ Technology-enabled datacenter has dramatically different and better thermal characteristics than HA/CA.
To achieve this balance throughout the datacenter, AFCO saw the need for a greater level of control; a system to bring the cool air to where it’s needed while reducing the impact of the hot and super hot air being expelled from the equipment. The result is consistent temperatures and no hotspots. And with a balanced thermal condition there is less risk because both the server enclosure and the datacenter are much less affected by changes in the environment. This next-generation, server enclosure technology, brings three critical benefits to every organization: savings, increased performance and reliability.
How it works
The AFCO solution replaces the majority of perforated floor tiles in the datacenter with solid tiles and seamlessly connects the enclosure directly to cool air plenum under the raised floor through a patented Plenum Plate in the base of the enclosure. This makes the enclosure an extension of the cooling system and fully integrated into the datacenter.
The air flow is further controlled by variable speed fans driven by the Thermal Management Module (TMM) in the enclosure, which has intelligence and a thermal sensor network to continually monitor the temperature of the cabinet and automatically adjust the airflow as needed to deliver optimal thermal performance. The TMM also manages all local alerts through audible alarms and serves as the communication hub to AFCO’s K3 Resource Manager.
Another key component is the patented Door Baffle System, which further enhances the thermal performance by preventing short cycling and directing the airflow to create a 3D air pattern in the enclosure. The Door Baffle System also allows Kool-IT™ Technology-enabled enclosures to utilize cool ambient air to mix with raised floor very cool air, increasing the CFM of air available to the equipment while increasing the overall capacity of the datacenter. This increased CFM is due to Kool-IT™ Technology controlling the hot exhaust air of the equipment and maintaining cooler room air to be reused by the system.
Like any well-engineered product, the execution appears so simple it’s almost difficult to conceive. To recap the easiness of Kool-IT™ Technology, there are three unique features working all together enabling this management system to be so effective and deliver twice as much cooling with half the tonnage of HA/CA. It begins with controlling static pressure and regulating airflow from the plenum floor. Secondly, Kool-IT™’s technology utilizes variable speed fans and sensors to control exhaust temperature, delivering the optimal desired temperature to the return air of your CRAHs. In doing so, we have a thermally well-balanced room, allowing a Kool-IT™ Technology-enabled enclosure to blend room air in a controlled manner from the lower half of your room for increased heat dissipation. Again and again, Kool-IT™ Technology-enabled enclosures have successfully been deployed in hybrid environments and still deliver much increased performance to server inlet temperatures.
Different Enclosure Platforms
Kool-IT™ Technology’s three-prong approach is utilized a little differently in each of the three K3 enclosure platforms. While the physics of control remain constant each is applied a little differently in order to optimize performance for different applications. To view the way Kool-IT™ works with these K3 enclosures, select the following:
Savings
Power consumption and availability around the world is at crisis levels. Limited resources, rolling blackouts and price escalation threaten the stability of critical systems in every industry. Companies are faced with the need to conserve energy and reduce operating costs. Kool-IT™ Technology provides reliable cooling while reducing installation costs and slashing operating costs in datacenter environments, and here’s why:
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