Sensor central

This is the control unit where data from various sensors comes in and the cooling systems are controlled. In addition to getting data on air temperature, sensors can also track temperature and flow rate of the water used in the water-cooling system. Getting the data is vital to understanding the overall thermal picture in the facility, but the bigger challenge is building analytical and visualization tools to help make sense of the reams of information, said Peter Guasti, program director for IBM's Green Innovations Data Center. In addition, responses to changes in temperature have to be automated. So when the temperature for a server rack goes up because it's handling a higher workload, the cooling system needs to compensate in that particular spot, he explained.

The center is beta testing an upcoming version of its Tivoli monitoring software, which can take the data and allow workers to manage energy required to cool and run the data center.