IN TOUCH : Green data

A new data colocation facility in Christchurch has reduced business costs with its power-saving cooling technology.
Jamie Cairns, director of The Colocation Company, says the centre’s power-saving cooling technology makes it much more affordable for users to locate servers and ICT equipment on the site.
The Christchurch facility uses the ambient air temperature to cool water in closed-circuit pipes, enabling micro-climate control for each of 14 data pods. “This free-cooling enables us to operate more than 80 percent of the time very economically and with greatly reduced energy demand. Clients pay for the electricity to run their gear, but avoid high cooling costs often incurred in older centres,” Cairns says.
Even the building is recycled. The former Lane Walker Rudkin clothing factory in Sydenham was turned into centre for The Colocation Company as part of multimillion-dollar project by the founders of Snap Internet.
Cairns says Snap, the TUANZ 2009 internet service provider of the year, is one of the centre’s first clients, along with local ICT integrator Computer Concepts and other high-profile local hosting and service companies.
“At $0.61 per kWh consumed, the cost of locating equipment in our facility is simple, transparent, and scales well,” he says.
“But this is not just about lowering costs. We’re aiming to create an ICT equivalent of farmers’ market. Once company is in the facility, it will be able to subscribe to services offered by providers at the location with very cheap connection costs. These could be internet, security, backup, integration or voice service providers, to name few.”
The Colocation Company’s manager, Ian Falconer, says there is capacity for 224 racks in 14 self-contained pods, each with individual air temperature and humidity controls. “Each pod houses client’s network, server and storage gear in totally protected state from below 5kW rack density up to 30kW.”