Servers like it here

Storing digital infor­ma­tion reli­ably and easily is crucial to the survival of every busi­ness. But for small and medium-sized compa­nies, it is usually not cost-effec­tive to have dedi­cated server rooms or data centers. NTS Work­space AG, with several loca­tions in Switzer­land, offers an elegant solu­tion for this problem. It rents server space in large data centers to its customers, taking care of the entire infra­struc­ture such as redun­dant systems for cooling and power supply. The customers only provide the server hard­ware.

Added effi­ciency for the data center

“As in all data centers, cooling is respon­sible for a consid­er­able part of our energy consump­tion,” says Niklas Hug, managing director at NTS Work­space AG. So he decided to improve energy effi­ciency at the NTS data centers as part of a devel­op­ment program. An impor­tant action was to upgrade the older air condi­tioning units. “The old air condi­tioners blew a constant amount of cool air into the cold aisle, no matter how much was really needed,” says Dr. Jan Meyer, who advises NTS in energy-related matters. “So we needed fans that are easy to control and can be inte­grated into the existing system without a lot of effort.” NTS found what it needed at ebm-papst, which supplies smoothly adjustable EC fans that save a lot of energy in compar­ison with AC fans thanks to their design.

As much as needed, as little as possible

NTS decided to take advan­tage of the great poten­tial and converted the air condi­tioning units at its loca­tions in Bern and Zürich. “Since we rent server space in our racks, there’s always a certain amount of fluc­tu­a­tion. So it’s a big help that we can control the fans exactly now.” The fans now run according to the prin­ciple “as much as needed, as little as possible.” Thanks to the measures taken to increase effi­ciency, NTS has reduced its energy costs by 1,000 Swiss francs per month. The company saves even more by using waste heat from the servers to heat its offices in the winter. NTS now saves around 100,000 liters of heating oil annu­ally.

Since we rent server space in our racks, there’s always a certain amount of fluc­tu­a­tion. So it’s a big help that we can control the fans exactly now.

Niklas Hug, managing director NTS Work­space AG

In addi­tion to effi­ciency, the low noise emis­sions from the EC fans are another welcome benefit. “Some­times our customers work in the server rooms them­selves, like when they install their hard­ware. And that’s a lot more pleasant when the room isn’t just cool but also quiet,” says Hug. To help make the heat exchangers on the roof just as quiet, NTS is now equip­ping the facil­i­ties in Bern and Zürich with AxiTop diffusers from ebm-papst. They increase the effi­ciency of the installed fans and also reduce the noise emis­sions. Not only NTS bene­fits, so do their neigh­bors in the nearby resi­den­tial area.

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