Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1386104
July/August/September 2021 I 45 Power Data models are simply not sustainable. The data center industry often wastes strands (allocated but unused) and roughly 60-75 percent of delivered power depending on the center's configuration and management of the supplied power. Power is easier to manage in a smaller environment, making EDCs prime for power enhance- ments, such as software defined power (SDP), microgrids, and onsite renewables. Newer advancements, like SDP, provide distinct advantages through advanced power resources management. Software defined power can control the power given to and the demand needed by the IT load. Since facilities and IT work together in this configuration, IT loads can be capped and moved to different machines or to other data centers as needed or desired based on AI (Figure 6). Edge data centers are not likely to be configured in the same manner as main or colo data centers. That is, they are not expected to have 2N+1, which is primary, secondary, and a spare for critical services, such as power paths and cooling. IT servers, networking, and storage failover, by design, eliminate much of the need for critical path multi-redundancy. If the IT applications can "self-heal" or failover and are distributed among several sites, no single event can take down the appli- cation. Edge data center configurations provide more of a mesh (fog) configuration. Critical data is distributed and/or backed up elsewhere. FIGURE 6: Illustration of microgrid power and some IoT edge applications. The fact that EDCs are likely to be placed in areas that are not adjacent to larger substations makes them uniquely attractive for fuel cells and alternative power sources like natural gas. While fossil fuels get much bad press, fuel cell technology has developed to allow for cleaner emissions, sometimes wholly carbon neutral. ANSI/BICSI 002-2019, Data Center Design and Implementation Best Practices, provides the essential details touched upon in this "building at the edge" section, including colo technical planning and design, modular and container data centers, electrical systems and power, redundancy models, and a host of other important information that designers and installers should follow.