Liebert and Future Facilities announce CFD software agreement as well as joint collaboration effort to enhance datacentre design and operations software toolset.
Having carefully evaluated various computational fluid dynamics (CFD) based software tools available for the design and operation of data centres, Liebert, a division of Emerson Network Power, has signed a licensing agreement with Future Facilities Limited for its 6SigmaDC suite of software products.
6SigmaDC was introduced by Future Facilities to empower datacentre designers and managers to fully test the effectiveness of facility layouts using tailored and predictive 3-dimensional modelling that includes heat distribution within dynamic environments. Additionally, an IT inventory management module helps to ensure that the layout remains accurate as utilization changes over the lifetime of the computer room.
According to Fred Stack, VP Marketing, Emerson, Liebert Business “Proper planning for their power and cooling needs is the number one issue facing today’s datacentre managers. Future Facilities demonstrated success in integrating the complex strands of CAD, CFD and load capacity management has created a peerless tool for this datacentre lifecycle engineering. At Liebert, we consider this a compelling reason to use 6SigmaDC as our lead tool in our datacentre environmental assessment activities. These activities help our customers understand their current datacentre environmental status and provide them a change management tool to assist in analyzing changes as their datacentre evolves.”
Hassan Moezzi, director of Future Facilities said “Naturally we are delighted to reach this agreement with Liebert, a major global business with an established reputation. The integration of the Design and Operational aspects of datacentres has become increasingly mission critical as businesses around the globe look to ensure the long-term viability of their facilities. In using 6SigmaDC to create a single and holistic 3D view of the datacentre, which we call the Virtual Facility©, the thermal and environmental impact of equipment loads can be simulated prior to installation thereby reducing risk and cost.”
Fred Stack continued “Virtual prototyping is a required practice for proper design of most mission critical products from airplanes to medical MRI systems. With the levels of equipment density and complexity being demanded in modern datacentre facilities, it is not only appropriate but almost compulsory to extend the same design paradigm from chip to enclosure, to rack and room. The Virtual Facility© is a unique and powerful visualisation tool which enables design and layout assumptions to be evaluated throughout the lifetime of the datacentre.”
The Virtual Facility© is built up using Future Facilities 6SigmaDC Software Suite to design the physical properties of facilities. The 6SigmaDC package addresses two project phases; for design and construction of facilities, and for ongoing operation and change management within the facility. In the design phase, the Virtual Facility© allows the scientific validation of such considerations as room dimensions, floor void depth, rack layout, the proper location of air handling units and redundancy in cooling. The operational and change management capabilities of the tool helps to insure the optimal long life of the facility.
Commenting upon aspects of datacentre lifecycle management, David Kelley, Manager for Cooling Application Engineering at Emerson Network Power, commented “Ultimately, datacentre managers are looking for the most effective and efficient method of powering and cooling IT equipment. The 6SigmaDC CFD libraries contain precise mathematical models of IT and infrastructure equipment including Liebert cooling devices which allow our design team to evaluate accurately existing, as well as new, data centre ventilation performance.”
Moving forward, Liebert is collaborating with Future Facilities to develop additional applications within the 6SigmaDC suite to address the needs of this increasingly complex market. These applications are likely to include capital and operational cost analytical tools, as well as energy efficiency metrics for the power, cooling and space dimensions of facilities. These tools will take on added importance as datacentre managers are tasked with the need to optimize datacentre operational performance while enhancing the resiliency and flexibility of its design.
