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A Customer Successfrom the Experts inBusiness-Critical ContinuityTM.

Background

The Clark School of Engineering, situated on the rolling,1,500-acre University of Maryland campus in College Park, Md.,is one of the premier engineering schools in the U.S., with graduateand undergraduate education programs ranked in or near the Top 20.The Clark School garnered research awards of $171 million in the lastyear. With emphasis in key areas such as energy, nanotechnology andmaterials, bioengineering, robotics, communications and networking,life cycle and reliability engineering, project management, intelligenttransportation systems and aerospace, the Clark School is leading theway toward the next generations of engineering advances.

Results

Doubled cooling capacity and physical capacity of data center

Optimizedservercongurationandairowformaximumefciencyand IT availability

Improved Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) by 5.5 percent

A. James Clark Schoolof Engineering at theUniversity of Maryland

Comprised of more than 4,500 studentsand nearly 200 faculty members, theA. James Clark School of Engineeringat the University of Marylands CollegePark campus consistently ranks amongthe Top 20 engineering programs in theUnited States. The school, which offers 13graduate programs and 12 undergraduateprograms, also is home to one of the mostrobust and thriving research programs inthe country.

Case Summary

Location: College Park, Maryland, USA

Products/Services:

Comprehensive Thermal Assessment with ComputationalFluid Dynamics (CFD) Modeling

SmartAisleTM technologies, including Liebert CRV Row-BasedPrecision Cooling Solution with Liebert iCOM Controls andremote monitoring facilitated by Lieberts Virtual NtegrityGateway (VNG)

Critical Need:Optimize an existing data center infrastructureforefciency,availabilityandspace-utilizationtopromoteavailability and accommodate future IT growth

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The Situation

Managing a data center designed to support the needsof more than 4,500 students and staff, the IT staff atthe University of Marylands A. James Clark School ofEngineering is charged with integrating the universitysenterprise IT infrastructure with the schools unique,engineering-focused IT needs. The 25-year-old data centeralso is used to provide redundant web service for universitywebsites and back-up services for several departmentalgroups, making IT system availability critical to theseapplications.

In recent years the data center had been tasked with

accommodating a number of resource-intensive ITapplications, including media streaming, advanced life-cycle engineering and mobile Web. As these IT needsincreased, the college added servers for greater capacity.

As new needs came, those needs were met in anincremental way, said Jim Zahniser, executive director ofinformation technology for the A. James Clark School ofEngineering. We did not have a master plan for laying outthe data center; it just evolved over time. When we needed toput up a new rack, we found a space and put up a new rack.

By 2009, the college had begun to surpass the compute

capacity of its servers and had run out of space to expand,makingitdifculttoaccommodategrowingcomputingneeds.

We have a very diverse data center, backed primarily by DellIT equipment, with web servers, login servers, DNS, domaincontrollers,lestorage,backendnetworks,videorecordinggearevery sort of server that the University hasandthe data center was close to physical capacity, said OmarSiddique,technologyofcerfortheA.JamesClarkSchoolof Engineering. We had run out of space to place anotherphysical rack. There were wires and cables everywhere, and ithad become nearly impossible to add or remove machines.

The Solution

When the team realized they lacked the time or budget for acostly facility build-out, they turned to experts from EmersonNetwork Power for a data center assessment. To begin theprocess,Emersonrstconductedanadvancedairowandcoolingassessmentthatidentiedhotspotswithintheracksthat were adversely impacting IT availability.

The assessment also uncovered a number of additionaldesign considerations that would enable the schooltoincreaseefciencyandavailability.Theseactionsincluded isolating the room above the ceiling and belowtheoor,installingblock-outpanelsinpartiallyfullracks,repositioningperforatedoortilesintothecoldaisle,removingobstructionsfrombeneaththeraisedoorspaceand streamlining the cabling of IT equipment for increasedairowandeasiermaintenance.

The assessments provided us with detailed modeling thatshowedusexactlywherethehotandcoldairwereowingin the room, essentially enabling us to capture the potentialefciencieswewerenttakingadvantageof,Siddiquesaid.WereorganizedourITequipmenttoincreasetheefciency

of our data center, and at the same time consolidatedequipment to make the best use of our space and our newcooling capacity.

Based on data uncovered by the thermal assessment,Emersonrecommendedahigherdensitycongurationofthe existing Dell equipment. This would enable the schoolto free up substantial space for future growthenough toaccommodate up to six additional racks of IT equipmentand to optimize for capacity, cost and availability.

Emerson Network Power was able to help theUniversity of Maryland achieve Efficiency WithoutCompromise in revamping a 25-year-old data centerinto a modern infrastructure that is very efficient andwill meet our growing capacity needs for the future.

Jim Zahniser, Executive Director of InformationTechnology, A. James Clark School of Engineering at theUniversity of Maryland

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Thedatacenterwasreconguredintoasinglerowof

high-density server racks housing a total of 18.6 kW of ITequipmentinahot-aisle/cold-aisleconguration.Thesewere supported by a new Liebert CRV row-based precisioncooling system with Liebert iCOM controls. The Liebert CRVusesenergy-efcientvariable-speedfansandvariable-speedcompressors, while Liebert iCOM controls continuouslymatchcoolingandairowtochangingrackloads.TheLiebert CRV also provides cooling redundancy, in additionto increasing the data centers capacity, availability andefciency.

Adding redundancy to our cooling infrastructure meansthat our operations continue unaffected, even if there is a

hardware failure, Siddique explained. We previously didnot have any sort of redundancy and when there was anHVAC issue, we essentially had to shut our servers downinterrupting service and access to critical systemsordamage them by running them out of spec with essentiallysuperheated air cooling them, putting our systemsat increased risk of catastrophic failure and extendeddowntime.

Because the Liebert CRV is row-based, cooling is deliveredclosertotheheatload,increasingefciency.TheLiebertCRVs digital scroll compressor and variable-speed EC fanswhich consume up to 50 percent less power compared totraditional perimeter cooling technologiesalso providehigherefciency.

Our department is very interested in power saving andvarious green technologies, Siddique said. This is anappealing way to advance both our tech and our greencredentials.

Equipped with Liebert iCOM controls, the Liebert CRV alsogave the schools IT staff the ability to leverage a solutioncapable of precisely adapting to changing room and rackconditions granting a level of cooling agility and scalability

previously unseen. Sensors installed within the racks enablecooling to be continuously scaled to rack loads.

The University of Maryland chose the Liebert CRV becauseofitsefciency,exibilityandadaptability,Zahnisersaid.We never know when we are going to get a large researchgrant to do something where were going to have to quicklyramp-up what we need to do in our servers, and the LiebertCRVallowsustodynamicallyandefcientlyscaleas-needed.

The Liebert iCOM controls also provided the schools ITstaff with enhanced visibility into the cooling infrastructure,with the addition of remote monitoring capabilities madepossible by the Liebert Virtual Ntegrity Gateway (VNG).

Historically we only had a single control point on ourcooling system that allowed us to just know when we hita threshold and sent out alerts that way, Zahniser said.The Liebert CRV provides a great deal more in terms ofmonitoring for the room, real-time reporting as well asmultiple points of input.

The university is becoming a 24/7 operation, but werenot staffed to be here 24/7, Zahniser continued. Theautomatic alerts and remote monitoring capabilitiesavailable with the Liebert CRVs intelligent controls enableus to monitor the status of our data center 24/7 andprovide support without any dependencies on the localinfrastructure.

The Liebert CRV is a major leap forward from ouroriginal cooling solution. Its smaller, its quieter, itsmuch more energy efficient. Its also easier for us towork with. With the digital controls and web interface,were able to monitor it without having to go inspect itpersonally. Essentially its a huge leap forward in thisvery basic but essential part of data center operations.

Omar Siddique, Technology Officer, A. James Clark Schoolof Engineering at the University of Maryland

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Emerson Network Power.The global leader in enabling Business-Critical ContinuityTM. EmersonNetworkPower.com

AC Power

Connectivity

DC Power

Embedded Computing

Embedded Power

Infrastructure Management & Monitoring

Outside Plant

Power Switching & Controls

Precision Cooling

Racks & Integrated Cabinet

Services

Surge Protection

Emerson,Business-CriticalContinuityandEmersonNetworkPoweraretrademarksofEmersonElectricCo.oroneofitsafliatedcompanies.2011EmersonElectricCo.CH-00022 (05/11)

By reconfiguring the data centers existing ITinfrastructure and replacing traditional perimeter coolingwith a row-based solution, the A. James Clark School ofEngineering at the University of Maryland doubled itscapacity, increased the availability of critical systems andenhanced the data centers overall efficiency.

The Results

By using the Liebert CRV and reorganizing its serverinfrastructure, the college has nearly doubled thedata centers available space and it now has enoughcooling capacity to double its server capacity withoutcompromisingefciencyandavailability.TheinstallationoftheLiebertCRValsoledtonotablegainsinefciency,witha5.5 percent improvement in the data centers Power UsageEffectiveness (PUE).

The Liebert CRV is running at approximately 40 percent

capacity, so we now could easily double the number ofmachines we have without doing anything else from acooling perspective, Siddique said. Essentially wevegottenagreatdealmorecapacityandexibilitywithasingle standalone unit.

Weve gone from squeezing things into corners andspots in the existing racks to having the ability to buildout the entire additional equivalent of our infrastructureagain,essentiallybyoptimizingourservercongurationand deploying the Liebert CRV, Siddique continued.As a university, we have budget constraints and wereexpected to lead by example, and weve been able to dothat by demonstrating that an old space can be mademuchmoreefcientandmuchcheapertorun.Andweareextraordinarily pleased with the results.

For more information on Emerson Network Power andLiebert solutions, visit: www.liebert.com

For more information on Marylands School of Engineering,visit: www.eng.umd.edu