Green HPC Podcast Episode 5: Turning up the heat

Green HPC Podcast Episode 5: Turning up the heat

In episode four we talked about the ways that we’re pampering our server processors — introducing a little tough love can dramatically cut costs without cutting into operations. But where to start? In this episode we talk with leading data center managers, and vendors, about how to go about tweaking your environmentals without voiding warranties.

Learn more about the series.

We are proud to have this episode sponsored by Convey Computer

Listen to Episode 5: Turning up the heat [audio:http://insidehpc.com/media/GreenHPCJune09/GreenHPCEp5.mp3]

Download Episode 5

Typical machine rooms today operate between 20 and 25 degrees C, about 68 to 77 degrees Fahrenheit, an operating range comes from a time when it was the people in the room that needed cooling, not the computers. And even experienced datacenter managers spend a lot of time and energy building clusters out of servers with components they don’t need, in buildings that are way cleaner than they need to be.

In this episode we talk with Argonne’s Pete Beckman and Microsoft’s Christian Belady about the specific ways in which their organizations are working with their datacenter and computer hardware vendors to improve operations efficiency. These guys are using a proactive, measurements-based approach to guide them toward more effective operations without voiding their warranties or impacting operations. And speaking of warranties, we also talk with Steve Cumings of HP to find out whether one of the world’s largest suppliers of servers is really ready — and willing — to work with customers to redefine how datacenters are run.

Listen to Episode 5: Turning up the heat! [audio:http://insidehpc.com/media/GreenHPCJune09/GreenHPCEp5.mp3]

Download Episode 5

Guest Bios and Links

Christian Belady, Microsoft

Christian BeladyChristian Belady is Microsoft’s Principal Power and Cooling Architect for Global Foundation Services’ Infrastructure Services team where his role is to improve both efficiency and cost in their online services infrastructure. In addition, his responsibilities included driving initiatives for sustainability in the data center and infrastructure space.

Prior to Microsoft, Christian was Server Hardware Architect driving the technology directions of HP’s servers from a power, cooling and packaging perspective where he gained recognition as an industry leader in the area of server and data center efficiency. With over 60 US patents, Christian is an ASME Fellow, an IMAPS Fellow and a founding member of ASHRAE’s TC9.9, which is responsible for developing data center guidelines. He was one of the early architects of the Green Grid, and continues to participate actively with the group. He also works closely with government agencies globally to define efficiency metrics for data centers and servers. Christian has published several dozen papers and is a featured speaker on power and cooling trends at events across the industry.

Links

Pete Beckman, Argonne National Lab

Pete BeckmanPete Beckman is a recognized global expert in high-end computing systems. During the past 20 years, he has designed and built software and architectures for large-scale parallel and distributed computing systems. Pete joined Argonne National Laboratory in 2002, as Director of Engineering, and later as Chief Architect for the TeraGrid, where he designed and deployed the world’s most powerful Grid computing system for linking production HPC computing centers for the National Science Foundation. In 2008 he became the Director for the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility, which is home to one of the world’s fastest and most energy efficient supercomputers for open science. He also leads Argonne’s exascale computing strategic initiative and explores system software and programming models for exascale computing.

Steve Cumings, HP

Steve CumingsSteve Cumings leads an HP team focused on data center infrastructure solutions. His responsibilities include defining and managing portfolios for data center energy and infrastructure, and introducing new solutions to the market – the most recent of these is the HP POD, HP’s flexible and highly capable datacenter container. Steve’s focus is on solutions that expand HP’s datacenter portfolio, supporting customers’ needs for increased data center energy performance.

In twelve years with HP Steve has led multiple product and business activities across HP’s Industry Standard Server division, and has been involved in key initiatives ranging from large-scale x86 platforms to the HP/Compaq merger team. He also speaks and leads sessions at industry events, including in the recent past Gartner Datacenter, HP’s TechForum, CIAB (Brazil) and Emerson DCUG.