Data Center Assessment and CFD Analysis for Leading Financial Institution

When our financial services client was upgrading and adding more data center equipment to their facilities, the company convinced themselves they were running out of power and were set on colocation as the answer. To confirm their decision, they turned to us, their data center engineer, to assess multiple data centers.

By assessing and verifying what equipment was being used and how it was configured, we found they did not have a problem with capacity or space, but distribution. The distribution between mechanical, electrical and IT systems needed to be reassessed to allow the stranded power to be distributed. By making some upgrades at a fraction of the cost of moving to colocation, the client would be able to meet near-term growth projections within their existing data center footprint. With a data center assessment, our client learned they could extend their existing assets for several more years, saving millions while keeping them online and buying them time to secure their long-term digital future.

Once our client realized they had more capacity and space than they originally thought, Black & Veatch turned to Future Facilities’ CFD modeling software -6Sigma Digital Twin, to determine the best use of existing capacity and space. By running multiple modeling scenarios, the team could determine the best configuration to yield optimal mechanical system performance and Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE). Additional testing, including calculating transient times and failure rates, helped us understand what the future best and worst cases would be, so we could help our client take the right actions now to mitigate any future operational disruptions.

The financial services client was able to integrate their data center digital twin with existing DCIM and information systems enabling them to visualize and gain a greater understanding of their data center, including the power network and existing IT deployment. Their digital twin is automatically and seamlessly updated, without interruption to existing internal workflows and processes, to always give an accurate view of their data center. With this 360-degree view into their operation, the client is able to analyze and make day-to-day operational decisions more quickly and easily.