Internet Solutions, a wholly-owned division of Dimension Data Middle East & Africa (MEA), is making moves towards an enhanced sustainable data centre model, with the development of its new Tier3 facility in Johannesburg.

This new data centre, which is scheduled for completion in Q4 of 2011, is the first African facility of its kind to be designed and equipped with KyotoCooling technology, which provides a world-class solution for efficient and reliable autonomous cooling for data centres.

Internet Solutions was introduced to the KyotoCooling concept via Dimension Data Advanced Infrastructure in the last quarter of 2010. Internet Solutions and Dimension Data representatives attended a KyotoCooling seminar in the Netherlands recently, where they experienced a live simulation of the technology at the KyotoCooling test facility, as well as within a live data centre environment.

Nicholas Shaw, general manager for Advanced Infrastructure at Dimension Data MEA, stated that once the new Internet Solutions facility is complete, it is forecast that it will be one of the most energy efficient data centres in South Africa, with the highest free cooling continuity for any Tier3 data centre.

Nicholas Shaw, general manager for Advanced Infrastructure

“Our calculations show that the use of KyotoCooling will equip the data centre with an average annual mechanical Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of below 1.2. This has been guaranteed by KyotoCooling, subject to efficient management of heat and airflow in the data centre. A conventional cooling system generates a PUE of around 1.8 or higher,” Shaw explained.

This improvement results in a 93% saving on cooling costs and 41% saving on power bills. These savings are driven by the unique KyotoCooling concept, which delivers ‘free cooling’ for approx. 75% of the year. The balance is powered by a mix of the Kyoto wheel ‘free cooling’ and mechanical DX cooling.

“The KyotoCooling Cells allow Internet Solutions to offer its clients a greener, more cost effective data centre than anything seen before. We anticipate KyotoCooling will reduce the costs required to power a rack for clients by up to 40%, which we will pass directly onto our clients,” said Greg Montjoie, executive for Cloud Services at Internet Solutions.