CSR: Small: Improving Data Center Water Efficiency via Online Resource Management

大型数据中心每天可能消耗数百万加仑的冷却水;此外，数据中心还间接消耗大量的水，这些水嵌入在场外发电中。因此，在全球水需求激增的预期下，节水成为数据中心的一个关键问题。如果不加以控制，数据中心不断增长的水足迹可能对数据中心的可持续性构成严重威胁，甚至可能阻碍服务的可用性，特别是对于水资源紧张地区的数据中心。现有的用于保护的机械解决方案，例如使用再循环/工业用水和直接使用外部冷空气，通常是昂贵的和/或受到外部因素的限制，例如位置，气候条件等。作为行业和学术界为实现数据中心可持续性所做的整体努力的一部分，该项目独特地将水足迹作为虚拟化数据中心资源管理的重要组成部分。它利用了随时间变化的水效率的固有但鲜为人知的特性，并优化了资源管理，以最大限度地降低运营成本和水足迹，而不影响服务质量。为此，该项目调查了三个互补的研究重点：（i）在存在大量未知动态的情况下，在线计算资源管理以实现水的可持续性（ii）探索数据中心用水效率对冷却系统的依赖性，并联合优化冷却和计算资源管理，以实现水的可持续性; ㈢在系统原型和软件模拟相结合的基础上进行试验和验证。除了对环境的影响外，该项目还具有巨大的社会影响，因为它有可能有效和经济地减轻数据中心水足迹日益增长的压力。 该项目将加深对数据中心水耗、电力/能源消耗和资源管理之间相互影响的理解，为绿色数据中心的可持续发展奠定坚实的基础。新的研究结果和技术将随时纳入教材。该项目还包含一个重要组成部分，通过鼓励少数民族学生，特别是西班牙裔学生，从事计算机科学研究，促进多样性。

A large data center may consume millions of gallons of cooling water each day; in addition, data centers also indirectly consume an enormous amount of water embedded in offsite electricity generation. As a result, water conservation is surfacing as a critical concern for data centers, amid the anticipation of surging water demand worldwide. Left unchecked, the growing water footprint of data centers can pose a severe threat to data center sustainability and may even handicap availability of services, especially for data centers in water-stressed areas. Existing mechanical solutions for conservation, such as using recycled/industry water and directly using outside cold air, are often costly and/or very limited by external factors such as locations, climate conditions, among others. As part of the integral efforts from both industry and academy to enable data center sustainability, this project uniquely integrates water footprint as an essential part of resource management in virtualized data centers. It exploits the inherent yet little-known characteristics of time-varying water efficiency and optimizes resource management for minimizing operational cost as well as water footprint without compromising service quality. To this end, this project investigates three complementary research thrusts: (i) Online computing resource management for water sustainability in the presence of large unknown dynamics (such as highly volatile outside temperature); (ii) Exploration of the dependency of data center water efficiency on cooling systems, and joint optimization of cooling and computing resource management for water sustainability; (iii) Experimentation and validation based on combined system prototyping and software simulation. In addition to its environmental impacts, this project has large societal impacts for its potential to alleviate the growing pressure on data center water footprint effectively and economically. This project will enhance the understanding of interplay among water consumption, power/energy consumption, and resource management in data centers, and lay a solid foundation for sustainable evolvement of greener data centers. New findings and techniques will be readily incorporated into teaching materials. The project also contains a significant component to promote diversity by inspiring minority students, especially Hispanic students, to engage in computer science research.