Hitachi Data Systems today announced the opening of its green data center in Yokohama, Japan. The Yokohama Third Center is one of the most robust and reliable in the industry and occupies 10,000 square meters of total floor space. The newly opened green facility incorporates power-efficient data center technology designed to achieve a benchmarking rating of 1.6 PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness), while offering among the industry’s highest level of reliability, availability and data security.

To maintain a competitive edge, today’s businesses demand technology infrastructure with a 100 percent uptime. With machines running constantly, businesses quickly find that such high levels of energy usage are not sustainable and have a negative impact on the bottom line. To meet customer needs for security, cost management and efficiency, the new data center has been established with the objective of helping businesses adopt a ‘greener’ and more sustainable approach that enables them to streamline operations and lower operational expenditures.

Hitachi’s Yokohama Third Center is as robust and reliable as a Tier IV data center, providing customers a full range of flexible operations management services, including storage management, with a centrally managed and prompt troubleshooting service to help enterprises align the operation and management of information systems in a way that lowers the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), streamlines operations and contributes to the overall business strategy. Equipped with the latest storage technologies ranging from Hitachi Storage Virtualization to Hitachi Dynamic Provisioning, the green data center is well poised to cater to the ever-changing corporate needs.

“Hitachi Data Systems is focused and committed to delivering green data storage technology that infuses eco-friendly innovation across the entire portfolio of products,” said Asim Zaheer, vice president of product and competitive marketing, Hitachi Data Systems. “Many of our products like the Hitachi Universal Storage Platform V and VM and Hitachi Dynamic Provisioning, and today with the Yokohama Third Center, provide significant improvements in capacity utilization, while lowering customers’ power and cooling consumption rates.”

With Hitachi Data Systems, organizations require fewer storage devices and ultimately, less electricity and space, which results in immediate improvements to the overall economics of managing storage. The new data center marks another milestone in support of Hitachi’s ongoing green projects like the IT Power-saving Plan and Eco-friendly Datacenter Project which are aimed at reducing 330,000 tons of carbon emissions and cutting down power consumption by as much as 50 percent by 2012.

Key Features of Yokohama Third Center

• Environmentally Friendly Data Center: The achievements made by the Eco-friendly Datacenter Project, the Hitachi Group's data center power-saving project, and power-saving IT equipment from the IT Power-saving Plan for reducing IT power consumption, together create a new environmentally friendly data center that incorporates the collective efforts of the Hitachi Group.
• Integrated Control Center: The integrated control center centrally monitors the operational status of IT equipment, server room environments, and building facilities 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, enabling the visualization of systems and prompt response to trouble.
• Energy Efficient Facilities: The data center uses a series of power source facilities, including a three-dimensional thermal hydraulic simulator called AirAssist to optimize the cooling and layout of hardware and a new air-conditioning control technology, interlocking the air conditioning system with the energy load of the information technology equipment.
• Natural Cooling Systems for Lower Environmental Building Load: A rooftop garden provides the building with shade that contributes to the lowering of summertime indoor temperature by as much as three degrees Celsius. Nitrogen gas fire extinguishers and cooling systems using outdoor air, both of which have zero ozone depletion and global warming potentials, are installed as measures contributing to the improvement of regional and global environments.
• Robust Structural Design: A foundation spread over solid ground combined with a seismic isolator provides a structural design capable of withstanding most earthquakes of the magnitude that can reasonably be expected to occur in the region. The floor load bearing capacity of the server room will be 1 t/m2, which is strong enough for the installation of highly integrated blade servers.
• Security: High-level security environment is achieved with a fully redundant electrical power source, finger vein authentication system, IC card access control system, alarm sensors linked with cameras and tailgating prevention system.

Web Resources:

For more information on Hitachi Data Systems green initiatives, visit: http://www.hds.com/solutions/storage-strategies/eco-friendly.html