Success Story
Healthcare Enterprise and Cadence
A North American healthcare provider successfully modernizes legacy data centers with digital twin technology
Overview
The Highlights
Key Challenges
One of America’s leading healthcare providers sought to minimize stranded capacity without compromising resilience. The enterprise realized it needed to modernize its legacy data centers to evolve at a rate that could satisfy the constantly changing business demands on IT.
The enterprise needed a predictive tool to help it overcome power, cooling, and space challenges brought on by the extreme demands of high-density systems. Given the significant and sensitive nature of its business, the healthcare enterprise needed a fail-safe way to accomplish these goals.
The Solution
The healthcare enterprise initiated a project to modernize its legacy data centers using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation capabilities of Cadence Reality DC Digital Twin (formerly part of Future Facilities 6SigmaDCX product line). The enterprise found that it could both streamline IT and Facilities Management and validate new configurations based on CFD data from Cadence Reality DC Digital Twin.
The solution’s simulation capabilities indicated that if high-density equipment was to be deployed without redefining installation strategies, then data center capacity would be significantly reduced. With the current data center operating at 40% capacity, the enterprise used Cadence Reality DC Digital Twin to test future deployments of IT. The study identified that if the enterprise continued to use the existing placement decisions, the data center would fail to operate safely at 100% capacity, and instead only manage to achieve 80% before risk of downtime escalated.
Using Cadence Reality DC Digital Twin, the enterprise’s design team created a methodology to determine the most optimal location for new IT, quantify decisions based on cost avoidance, and ensure that future deployments will not cause the data center to lose capacity.
This measurement process is triggered based on the power threshold of incoming IT load at greater than or equal to 10kW per cabinet.
Using Cadence Reality DC Digital Twin, the enterprise team examines three modeling scenarios where IT could be placed within the data center. Each scenario produces a score based on predetermined criteria, such as weight, real estate, power, cooling, and phase balance.
The test subject was a 96kW deployment of IT in three different areas in the data center, specifically areas which provide capacities of local infrastructure. Cadence Reality DC Digital Twin was used to evaluate each scenario and the resulting metrics. The test was a success and demonstrated the following:
Requirement | Option 1 | Option 2 | Option 3 | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Power deployed (kW) | 96 | 96 | 96 | 96 |
Cooling required (kW) | 105 | 105 | 105 | 105 |
Increase in airflow requirement (cfm) | 11260 | 11904 | 12307 | 11104 |
% of IT within thermal limits (%) | 100 | 91.7 | 9.75 | 100 |
% of IT at risk (%) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Option 3 demonstrates that the IT is well within its thermal limits for this deployment and uses less air than the other options. Therefore, this deployment scenario is not only safe, but a more efficient use of the data center infrastructure. From this result, the enterprise had found its link between day-to-day operations and long-term, high-level data center performance. This method has now become the standard business process to retrieve stranded capacity while ensuring IT uptime.
Enabling the migration of systems and services from colocation back to their data centers, the healthcare enterprise saved an estimated $300,000 a year.
Every deployment undergoes this type of examination to understand both the impact of the deployment on the surrounding area and installed IT, as well as on the data center as a whole. This process empowers the enterprise to continually reduce the inefficiencies at the heart of the problem of high-density deployments while still maximizing uptime.
In successfully completing this project, the healthcare enterprise:
Summary
A healthcare enterprise used Cadence Reality DC Digital Twin to modernize its legacy data centers, minimize stranded capacity, and overcome power, cooling, and space challenges brought on by the extreme demands of high-density systems. The enterprise was able to accomplish these objectives without compromising resilience by harnessing the virtual nature of simulation.
By enabling the migration of systems and services from colocation back to their data centers, the healthcare enterprise saved an estimated $300,000 a year.
The enterprise continues to use Cadence Reality DC Digital Twin in the day-to-day management of its data centers to plan future IT deployments, predict the impact of potential changes, and reduce risk in its on-prem facilities where power densities are constantly growing.