The head of data center design for what is arguably the IT industry's most influential company has described the data center of the future as inspired by the Model T -- but in the most modern way possible.
In a blog post describing Microsoft's Generation 4 data center, Mike Manos said that first and foremost, the new design marks the end of the custom-made data center. To implement the most efficient, high-performance and cost-effective data centers, will "move data centers from a custom design and build model to a commoditized manufacturing approach. We intend to have our components built in factories and then assemble them in one location (the data center site) very quickly," Manos wrote.
Based on over a year's worth of development and prototyping, the new design ideas aim to make data centers modular, scalable, efficient and as low-cost as possible. By centralizing and standardizing the components of the data center, Microsoft says it will be able to deliver high performance data centers anywhere in the world quickly and cheaply.
Among the environmental benefits of the Generation 4 design are goals for a very lower PUE ratio: the Power Usage Effectiveness is a ratio developed by the Green Grid to determine how much of the energy going into a data center is powering computing hardware, as opposed to auxiliary functions like lighting and cooling. By 2012, Manos says Microsoft's Generation 4 data centers will have a PUE of 1.12, among the lowest ratios yet achieved.
Additionally, by working toward a chiller-free data center design, Microsoft hopes to make water conservation part of the plan: Manos says the data center of the future could conceivably eliminate the use of water.
This short video for Microsoft lays out the details of the Generation 4 data center design: