Home > Data Center News > Oracle CIO details new Utah data center at LinuxWorld/Next Generation Data Center
Data Center News:
EMAIL THIS

Oracle CIO details new Utah data center at LinuxWorld/Next Generation Data Center

By Bridget Botelho, News Writer
06 Aug 2008 | SearchDataCenter.com

Enterprise Linux headlines
Digg This!    StumbleUpon Toolbar StumbleUpon    Bookmark with Delicious Del.icio.us    Add to Google

This month, Oracle Corp. breaks ground on a new 200,000-square-foot data center facility in Utah that will incorporate Utah air for cooling, Oracle Grid Computing and Oracle VM technologies. The new facility is designed for Oracle's growing on-demand customer base but also provides data center infrastructure for Oracle's aggressive company acquisitions as well as for research and development.

On Aug. 6 at the LinuxWorld/Next Generation Data Center Conference in San Francisco, Mark Sunday, Oracle's chief information officer, gave a keynote address detailing the new data center, "Delivering Business Value with the Next Generation Data Center."

Oracle's new data center:
Virtualization and hot-aisle/cold aisle on tap

As is characteristic of Oracle, the keynote was Oracle-centric. Sunday discussed the company's success and its existing data center environments, including an award-winning data center in Austin, Texas. The new $285 million data center facility about to be built in West Jordan, Utah, is called Project Sequoia.

The company chose Utah for the 200,000-square-foot facility because of low energy and real estate costs, network availability, the pool of available employees and the state's pro-business political climate, Sunday said. The state will give Oracle $15 million in tax incentives to build its data center there.

And in similar fashion, the state's governor's office recently announced that eBay Inc. was offered an incentive of $27.277 million to build its data center there as well.

But Oracle's new data center will have a marginal impact on the state's employment statistics, as 65% of operations at the Utah data center will be managed remotely by employees scattered throughout the U.S., and the data center manager overseeing all operations is based in the U.K., Sunday said. Oracle will hire about 100 employees to man the data center, with wages at twice the Salt Lake County average, according to the state governor's office press release.

The data center will be built in phases using four separate modules – or "super-cells" – and will span one-quarter of a mile once completed. Operations are expected to begin in 2010, according to reports.

The data center will use outside air up to 85 degrees to cool the data center, which is feasible because Utah's climate is low in humidity, Sunday said. Oracle will also employ hot-aisle/cold-aisle containment -- a method of cooling data centers more efficiently by using a physical barrier to separate the hot-aisle airflow from designated cold aisles, generally in alternating rows.

The company will run Linux on commodity x86 servers and use its own Oracle virtualization software, Oracle VM, to minimize its power footprint and costs, Sunday said.

"Virtualization has changed the game for us," Sunday said.

The company also uses its Oracle Grid technology, which allows IT to add CPU and memory capacity on demand. With Oracle Grid, the company estimates it uses one-sixth the hardware it would otherwise to meet its compute demands, and has increased CPU utilization from 7% to 73%. In addition, the company estimates Grid has increased its revenue fivefold per server, while its server to administrator ratio is 10 times greater than it would be without the Grid.

According to Edward Screven, the chief corporate architect for Oracle, the company's long-term vision includes the continued use of Grid and Xen-based Oracle VM to deploy its application.

"When you are deploying new applications, you shouldn't be thinking, 'How many new computers do I need to buy?' You should be looking at your available resources" and using them to deploy apps via Grid or on virtual machines, Screven said.

The keynote session wrapped up with what appeared to be a scripted Q&A, with Sunday asking Screven questions about Oracle products and Screven explaining their use and value to promote the company's products.

Oracle also announced its new virtualization product, VM Templates on August 6.

Let us know what you think about the story; email Bridget Botelho, News Writer.

Also, check out our data center blogs; Server Farming, Mainframe Propellerhead, and Data Center Facilities Pro.



Tags: Data center power consumption and savingsData center coolingSearchServerVirtualization.comVIEW ALL TAGS

Digg This!    StumbleUpon Toolbar StumbleUpon    Bookmark with Delicious Del.icio.us    Add to Google


RELATED CONTENT
Data center power consumption and savings
L.L. Bean data center earns silver LEED certification: News in brief
Microsoft to open two mega data centers: News in brief
Dell launches Energy Star PowerEdge servers: News in brief
The TPC Energy Specification: Energy consumption vs. performance and costs
Measuring data center energy consumption in watts per logical image
Dell offers data center consulting, updates PowerEdge: News in brief
Data center managers plan for power density jumps
HP downsizes data center cooling monitor: News in brief
Schneider: IT and energy management control systems bring efficiency
Data center managers indifferent to Energy Star for servers

Data center cooling
Hot-aisle vs. cold-aisle containment: Liebert and APC face off
Core4 sells more efficient -- and costly -- CRACs
Grow a green business: Cut costs and improve energy efficiency with green IT
At colo data center, air mixing happens up high
Intel offers data center management software: News in brief
Data Center Facilities IT Handbook
IBM tightens ties with Cisco rival Brocade: News in brief
Lowering data center cooling costs with airflow modeling and perforated raised-floor tiles
Closing the green gap: Expanding data centers with environmental benefits
Green Grid tool assesses free cooling potential
Data center cooling Research

SearchServerVirtualization.com
Dell offers data center consulting, updates PowerEdge: News in brief
U.S. Bowling Congress moves data center, halves energy costs
Dell expected to unveil new servers
The Virtual Data Center e-zine
Sun Microsystems ships AMD Shanghai processor in x64, blade servers
AMD releases 45-nm Shanghai Opteron processor on schedule
Data center power consumption: Key theme at DCD
IBM revs Power Systems servers, software
AMD discusses CPU and virtualization at VMworld 2008
Server purchasing decisions in 2008 reveal virtualization's imprint

RELATED GLOSSARY TERMS
Terms from Whatis.com − the technology online dictionary
CADE (Corporate Average Data center Efficiency)  (SearchDataCenter.com)
economizer  (SearchDataCenter.com)
Energy Star  (SearchDataCenter.com)
fuel cell  (SearchDataCenter.com)
intelligent power management (IPM)  (SearchDataCenter.com)
LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)  (SearchDataCenter.com)
Modular Datacenter  (SearchDataCenter.com)

RELATED RESOURCES
2020software.com, trial software downloads for accounting software, ERP software, CRM software and business software systems
Search Bitpipe.com for the latest white papers and business webcasts
Whatis.com, the online computer dictionary



Efficient Management for Data Centers
HomeNewsTopicsITKnowledge ExchangeTipsBlogsMultimediaWhite PapersEvents
About Us  |  Contact Us  |  For Advertisers  |  For Business Partners  |  Site Index  |  RSS
SEARCH 
TechTarget provides technology professionals with the information they need to perform their jobs - from developing strategy, to making cost-effective purchase decisions and managing their organizations' technology projects - with its network of technology-specific websites, events and online magazines.

TechTarget Corporate Web Site  |  Media Kits  |  Site Map




All Rights Reserved, Copyright 2005 - 2009, TechTarget | Read our Privacy Policy
  TechTarget - The IT Media ROI Experts