Episode 102 – Achieving sustainable data centres and the next Moore’s Law trends, with Prof. Ian Bitterlin, Leeds University

Presenting at DCD Australia in Sydney, Ian Bitterlin discusses the developments in data centre design, energy use and heat generation and increasing adaptability of Moore’s Law type technology trends with the transition from silicon based chips to graphene.

We discuss the key aspects of data centre transition with removing comatosed, legacy servers, increasing equipment utilisation, frequently refreshing ICT hardware and adapting to technology leaps possible with graphine and photonics. References mentioned during the discussion are provided below.

Professor Bitterlin has a BA in mathematics, a first-class BSc(Hons) in technology, a postgraduate diploma in design & innovation and an honorary doctorate in management. Ian’s career has been varied and extensive. Seven years in engineering with Schindler Lifts led to 14 years with Mannesmann Demag (rotating machines and variable speed drives) – during which time he wrote numerous technical papers on the subject of variable speed drive systems in the material handling industry, and presented them at conferences across the globe. By 1990 he had reached the position of Divisional Manager. A move to Anton Piller (UPS) – where he served as UK Director for 7 years – was the start of Ian’s long involvement within the critical power and cooling industry and led to several posts within the Emerson organisation, culminating in Managing Director of Emerson Network Power. Since 2001, appointments have included VP EMEA and AsiaPac for Active Power Inc, International Sales Director for Chloride and CTO of Prism Power Ltd – the exclusive provider of dynamic-rotary UPS systems manufactured by KST of Belgium. An active speaker and author, his technical papers on critical power and cooling have been presented at numerous European conferences and he has made conference presentations and keynote speeches across the globe. Ian is a co-author of 2 chapters in the CIBSE publication, ‘Guide K: Electricity in Buildings’ – ‘UPS Systems’ and ‘HV Switchgear’. Ian is a Member of several UK Engineering Institutions, including CIBSE, IET, the British Computer Society and the British Institute of Facility Managers, as well as being a member of AFCOM and the IEEE.

REFERENCE LINKS

http://spec.org/ Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC) is a non-profit corporation formed to establish, maintain and endorse standardized benchmarks and tools to evaluate performance and energy efficiency for the newest generation of computing systems

Futurist Ray Kurzweil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Kurzweil

Graphene is simply one atomic layer of graphite – a layer of sp2 bonded carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal or honeycomb lattice. There are no operational graphite mines in Australia. In 2017, China was the largest graphite-mining nation by a wide margin, followed by India and Brazil. Reference https://investingnews.com/daily/resource-investing/critical-metals-investing/graphite-investing/top-graphite-producing-countries-china-india-brazil-canada/

Chris mentions Lithium mining is active in Western Australia – Reference http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-04/wa-in-box-seat-lithium-boom-new-refinery-kwinana/9728552

Interview recorded at ICC on 23 August 2018 at Data Center Dynamics – DCD Australia, Sydney #DCDAustralia

ALSO stay tuned for a subsequent interview with Greg Sherry, CEO of Varceti.com recorded at #DCDSingapore where we continue the discussion on leading and emerging DC design.

For the full series of DCD Data Centre Podcasts visit https://australiancybersecuritymagazine.com.au/data-centre-deep-dive-with-dcdaustralia-dcdsingapore/