Networking giant Cisco Systems recently unveiled its new state of the art, energy efficient data center in Allen, Texas. In keeping with Cisco’s green minded approach to technology, the new data center is outfitted with a multitude of energy efficient features and was designed to achieve a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE ) of 1.35!

The new data center will be is roughly 15 miles from another Cisco facility in Richardson Texas. Combined the two data centers will function as active-active mirrors of each other. The data at each site will be in constant replication, in the event a failover is required.  Cisco has coined this approach to data center implementation as Metro Virtual Data Center or MVDC. As part of Cisco’s consolidation initiative, Cisco plans to combine all of its data centers into three pairs of MVDC’s worldwide. These new MVDC’s will serve as the foundation for Cisco’s cloud, IT Elastic Infrastructure Services.

Below are some of the more prominent architectural and energy efficient features of the new MVDC’s:

• The building was designed for the geography for which it is located and is able to withstand tornado force winds up to 175 Mph.
• The UPS room in the 5 megawatt data center makes use of rotary flywheels, which require very little energy to continue in motion and kick off the diesel generators in the absence of convention al utility power.
• Each data center will be cooled by an air side economizer design, which lowers the need for mechanical chilling by using the outside fresh air when outside temperatures allow. Through calculations Cisco touts that the new data center can use air from the outside 65% of the time, achieving a significant savings in its energy usage and cooling costs! The company estimates a $65,000 per year cost savings.
• In a move away from the old raised flooring style data center, Cisco has opted to use the overhead “cool aisle” design and raised cable management instead. The overhead cooling process forces air in to each cold aisle where it cools the equipment then is returned to the rear of the enclosure via a chimney type system.
• On the landscape side, Cisco has includes a pond that captures rainwater and is then used to irrigate the various drought tolerant plants surrounding the facility.
• Solar cells mounted on the roof are estimated to generate 100 KW of energy for the offices located in the building.

John McCool, senior vice president of Data Center Switching and Services Group states, “Our new data center showcases Cisco’s innovation leadership and data center architectural flexibility to deliver any application in any location and any scale, in a secure and open manner”

Soni Jiandani, vice president Server Access and Virtualization states; “As critical business assets, data centers today are undergoing rapid technology and architectural  changes to meet and respond more rapidly to evolving business goals” Soni goes on to say “Innovative Cisco technologies like Cisco Unified Computing System and Nexus product families are helping data centers transform into an agile and efficient networked environment that helps deliver information from any device to any content anywhere, anytime.

It is quite clear Cisco is serious and taking aggressive steps toward incorporating the latest Green Technologies into the design of their data centers of the future.  Cisco has even submitted the new data center design for Gold Certification by LEED or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. LEED provides builders and architects a framework for measurable green building design, construction, operation and maintenance.

Folks, I think we have a gold medal winner here!