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Inside Oracle's Next-Generation Data Center
Oracle has broken ground on Project Sequoia, a pioneering green data center in Utah that will bring together the latest advances in virtualization, Linux, grid computing, and energy efficiency.
The new facility is expected to serve as a model for data centers of the future—from dramatically lower energy consumption and modular design to sheer computing power and efficiency.
Growing On Demand
"Oracle On Demand is already powered by our state-of-the-art Austin facility," explains Mike Beck, senior vice president of Global On Demand Operations, Oracle. "But with annual growth in Oracle's On Demand business exceeding 25 percent, it was clear that we already need to break ground on a next-generation facility."
The Utah facility will be based on a modular design, so it can grow and adapt quickly and efficiently to evolving computing and business needs.
At the same time, the facility will leverage the latest advances in virtualization, Linux, and grid computing to maximize computing power even as it reduces energy consumption and overall environmental impact.
Virtualization, Linux, and Grid Computing
According to Oracle CIO Mark Sunday, the data center of the future will consist of "a number of virtual machines that not only span a single data center but in fact are managed as an elastic grid across multiple data centers."
Virtualization is key to Oracle's strategy, explains Sunday, providing dramatic efficiencies, from space and equipment to energy and systems administration.
Virtualization is enabled by two key strategic technologies Oracle has long championed: Linux and grid computing.
"By separating computing resources and compute needs, grid computing makes computing resources fungible," explains Oracle Chief Corporate Architect Edward Screven.
Linux, in turn, has been a key enabler of grid computing, providing a common operating system that can unite any number of smaller, less expensive machines.
Green from the Ground Up
Designed to be green from the ground up, the Utah facility combines highly efficient equipment with cutting-edge design features that, for example, dramatically reduce heating and cooling needs.
As a result, the new facility is expected to use half the support energy of Oracle's Austin Data Center—which itself uses about half the support energy of comparable facilities, according to Sunday.
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