HP Installs First EcoPOD

HP has installed its first EcoPOD at its Next Generation Data Centre (NGDC) in Alpharetta, Georgia.

First introduced in 2011, the EcoPOD is a modular data centre design that can be deployed in 12 weeks, costs 75 percent less to build and cuts energy costs by 95 percent, according to HP’s figures.

Efficiency assured

The Alpharetta NGDC is one of six that HP originally planned to consolidate and replace 85 internal data centres. The installation of an EcoPOD at another Georgia-based data centre is almost complete. Construction of another two at data centres in Texas is also underway.

The 40 foot EcoPOD will host 2,000 ProLiant and Integrity servers, expanding compute space at the facility by the equivalent of 20,000 square feet of its existing NGDC space.

HP, which was named in November as the top ranked company in the Greenpeace Guide to Greener Electronics, claims that the EcoPODs are the “world’s most energy efficient data centres”. It says that they are more efficient than most similarly tiered data centres and are significantly more energy efficient. According to the company, the EcoPODs have a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) rating of just 1.05 compared to a traditional data centre’s 2.0 or more.

“This is a great example of HP’s Converged Infrastructure, covering everything from facilities to networking to servers to software in a self-contained powerhouse unmatched in the industry,” said HP’s Ken Gray. “One of the biggest pain points we hear from our customers is how to add compute space quickly and cost effectively—EcoPODs address that.”

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