The Top Tier Products Awards are back again to recognize the most critical mission-critical products on the market today.
“There are so many sides to the mission-critical story,” said Sarah Harding, group publisher for Mission Critical.
So, from power systems and products to cabinets and thermal management systems, Mission Critical has done the research, and the judges have spoken.
Check out this year's Top Tier Products.
Power systems/products
ZincFive’s new BC series UPS battery cabinet generates a 50% increase in current compared to its predecessor.
Image courtesy of ZincFive
Power systems/products
BC 2 – 500
ZincFive
The new ZincFive BC Series UPS Battery Cabinet, the BC 2 - 500 nickel-zinc immediate power solution (IPS), offers backward and forward compatibility with megawatt-class UPS inverters. The BC 2 - 500 now features an ultra-high-rate Z5 13-90 nickel-zinc battery and an upgraded power path to support the increased current and power output, delivering an overall footprint reduction of up to 60% compared to other battery solutions.
The ZincFive’s 90Ah ultra-high-rate nickel-zinc battery is optimized for run-times of 5 minutes or less. Maintaining the same case size, this ultra-high-rate battery now generates a 50% increase in current compared to its predecessor. It is specifically designed to work with MW class UPS inverters for backup in data centers.
Lead-acid batteries are the most common battery chemistry used to backup data center facilities worldwide with lithium making incursions into the market. ZincFive has innovated beyond the battery by designing the BC 2 Battery Cabinet to be electrically compatible with lead-acid battery-based backup systems, thereby becoming a drop-in replacement for lead-acid battery cabinets. Users can retrofit ZincFive’s BC Series cabinets without modification to their existing UPS.
It is packed with ZincFive’s new Z5 13-90 USF battery and an optimized power path design that now offers a 25% smaller footprint than ZincFive’s standard BC 2 battery cabinet. Nickel-zinc batteries can support artificial intelligence by providing high power density and efficiency, which are crucial for AI applications that require rapid and continuous processing of large amounts of data. Moreover, the lightweight and compact nature of nickel-zinc batteries make them well-suited for applications where space is limited.
Thermal Management
Iceotope’s KUL RAN (2U) chassis was developed in partnership with Intel and HPE.
Image courtesy of Iceotope.
KUL RAN (2U)
Iceotope
Iceotope's KUL RAN (2U) is a 2U chassis solution in a 19-inch, short-depth form factor featuring HPE ProLiant DL110 Gen11 servers with 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors. By incorporating Iceotope’s Precision Liquid Cooling technology, KUL RAN (2U) reduces server power consumption by up to 20%, enhancing energy efficiency.
According to STL Partners, advanced sustainability solutions such as Iceotope’s can enable a typical large group telco operator to save up to $40 million a year in energy costs, significantly reducing Scope 1, 2 & 3 emissions in the telecoms market.
A key aspect of the KUL RAN (2U)'s success lies in the strategic partnership between Iceotope, Intel, and HPE.
Leveraging HPE's experience in creating robust server architectures and Intel's advanced 4th Gen Xeon Scalable processors, the collaboration focused on optimizing these components within Iceotope's proven Precision Liquid Cooling framework. This synergy allowed for the design of a custom 2U chassis that integrates seamlessly and ensures enhanced thermal management and energy efficiency.
Throughout the design process, the team undertook extensive simulations and real-world testing to validate the cooling efficacy, the resilience of the servers in varied environmental conditions, and the overall operational improvements in energy use. These efforts resulted in a highly configurable, reliable, and scalable solution, making KUL RAN (2U) suitable not only for demanding RAN and edge computing applications but also environmentally sustainable.
IT Equipment
Novva Data Centers has a second iteration of its water waste-free, closed-loop system running at its recently retrofitted Colorado Springs data center.
Image courtesy of Novva Data Centers
Water-free cooling system
Novva Data Centers
Novva Data Centers’ proprietary water-free cooling system utilizes a combination of elevated floors, surrounding air, and heat exchange coils to cool its data center servers to avoid massive waste of water during cooling.
The system recycles heated air from the data centers through heat exchange coils to convert it back to cold air, or uses refrigerant to cool the air as part of a closed-loop system. By doing this, Novva saves hundreds of millions of gallons of water per year at its Colorado Springs data center, where the second iteration of the water-free cooling system was recently launched as part of a retrofit project.
Focusing on the cooling aspect of data center energy use, Novva researched the best ways to use chilled water pipes to avoid the energy use and water waste of typical cooling systems. Based on their research, Novva's CEO Wes Swenson and his team created a proprietary system that uses a small amount of water in a closed loop system to prevent wastewater. Although the chilled water pipes used in Novva’s system aren’t new, the manner for pulling hot air under the floors of the data center is unique to Novva’s system, and required thoughtful planning for execution.
Cooling starts with a fan pushing cold air into the data center. Air flows through the cabinet and servers, to prevent them from overheating and then hot air is forced downward toward open grating in the raised floor. A pressure differential helps create a vacuum that pulls the hot air under the floor to be recycled through a fan wall, which features eight fans and coils filled with chilled water. The closed loop system design ensures no water is wasted or lost to evaporation.
Cabinets
This corrosion-resistant enclosure is designed for indoor or outdoor use, including offshore applications. It can withstand windblown dust, rain, and more.
Image courtesy of Schneider Electric
NEMA 4 micro data center enclosure
Schneider Electric
The NEMA 4 Enclosure for Micro Data Centers is a strong solution to protect and secure IT equipment in any environment. The corrosion-resistant enclosure is designed for indoor or outdoor use, including offshore applications. It can withstand windblown dust, rain, splashing water, and hose-directed water.
The enclosures come in 33U and 42U heights with one, two, and three bay options. They are AC available in a variety of sizes up to 60000 BTU. Schneider Electric’s NEMA 4 Enclosure ensures that micro data centers stay protected nearly anywhere, making it ideal for harsh IT applications at the edge.
The NEMA 4/4X rated enclosure comes with environmental monitoring and security, which sets this product apart from others. A NEMA rating of 4 indicates that the enclosure is water-tight and dust-tight, for indoor or outdoor use. In addition, customers can configure this solution for each application. The enclosure can be equipped with cooling and plinth options, making it even easier to deploy in harsh environments.
