1. CSC — IT Center for Science Ltd
realizes average PUE as low as
1.04 with CommScope’s Modular
Data Center solution.
In less than three years, CSC has trimmed its PUE level to a new low.
And one of its CommScope data centers consumes less water annually
than a typical family house.
When the Finland-based Center for Scientific Computing (CSC) needed to expand its
data center infrastructure, it turned to CommScope and its Data Center on Demand™
(DCoD) family of prefabricated modular data centers.
Managed under the auspices of Finland’s Ministry of Education and Culture, CSC
is a major research resource for the country. It has developed and maintained a
comprehensive IT infrastructure, providing IT services and research management
for libraries, museums and other cultural entities across Finland.
SUCCESSSTORY/CSCinFinland
“ Adopting a modular data center
strategy was a logical choice for us.
It eliminated the planning risks
associated with the traditional
monolithic build projects while
allowing us to take advantage of
future improvements in server and
switch technologies.”
—Tero Tuononen, director
ICT platforms, CSC

2. CSC’s challenge: Big data had become a big deal
Increasing data processing demands from research centers throughout Finland had placed
untenable strains on CSC’s existing data center facilities in Espoo, near Helsinki and Kajaani in
the north of the country. CSC’s current facilities, while substantial, were fully utilized, and data
demands from research departments continued to increase.
“We were facing increasing demand for processing resources from our country’s universities,”
said Jukka-Pekka Partanen, head of data centers for CSC. “More and more research work was
requiring compute power that can only be provided by high-performance computer (HPC) facilities
necessitating power loads in excess of 30 kW per data cabinet. The challenges arising from
loads of this size are twofold: providing the energy to drive the servers, switches, and storage;
and cooling the IT equipment operating at these high power levels.”
Given the demand for increasing amounts of reliable compute power, CSC’s existing facilities
were neither capable of providing the new levels of service expected by CSC’s customers, nor
aligned with the organization’s green agenda. As a result, CSC decided to build new data
facilities.
While researching the relevant options, a traditional brick-and-mortar data center was dismissed
due to costs and operational inefficiencies.
“Our existing brick-and-mortar template would not work,” conceded Tero Tuononen, director of ICT
platforms for CSC. “We simply couldn’t afford to continue down that path while, at the same time,
running our old data centers with the same personnel. We needed a more cost-efficient approach
with a properly prepared site that could accommodate multiple data centers, with the ability to
scale on demand as our needs changed.”
CSC’s solution: Data Center on Demand™ from
CommScope
After an exhaustive vendor search, CSC chose CommScope’s DCoD solution with its prefabricated
modular design. “Adopting a modular data center strategy was a logical choice for us. It eliminated
the planning risks associated with the traditional monolithic build projects while allowing us to take
advantage of future improvements in server and switch technologies,” said Tuononen. “Our new
data center is half the size of a football pitch and can be expanded as required, module by module.”
Traditional brick-and-mortar facilities are typically “overbuilt” at great expense to accommodate
future projected capacity needs—an inefficient allocation of financial resources. DCoD, on the
other hand, can be built to fit current needs and then scaled as needed, allowing companies to
build only what they need, when they need it, while retaining the ability to expand in step with
future demand.
Equally important, deployment of DCoD is quick and easy—capacity can be added in 14 to
20 weeks rather than the two to three years it takes to build a typical brick-and-mortar facility.
DCoD merely requires access to power, water and ventilation—a process that offers significant
commercial and operational advantages over traditional data center solutions.
Intelligent, agile cooling technology
CSC was also drawn to CommScope’s SmartAir™ Intelligent Cooling System, a highly flexible
and efficient cooling solution that minimizes energy consumption and is currently delivering, for
CSC, an average power usage effectiveness (PUE) as low as 1.04. “It’s a very low PUE,” said
Partanen. “It makes it one of the world’s most energy-efficient data centers.”
SmartAir technology accomplishes this by monitoring over 200 parameters within the DCoD and
then determining the most effective way to meet the prescribed operating parameters using outside
air and adiabatic (evaporative) cooling. This is especially important in supporting CSC’s HPC
requirements.
“ CommScope’s super efficiency has trimmed
our cooling costs to less than 5 percent
of our IT energy costs—a huge saving
from other options, where the number can
exceed 60 percent.”
—Jukka-Pekka Partanen, head of
data centers, CSC

3. Finally, as DCoD is purpose built to CSC’s specific needs—and arrives pretested—much of the risks
associated with the implementation are removed. “With a traditional brick-and-mortar approach, you
need to account for the complexities associated with construction and bespoke design costs, such
as architects and mechanical-and-electrical design services, said Partanen. “But, with DCoD, you
basically buy a system that integrates with an existing infrastructure. You don’t need to be an expert
in cooling or power. You can invest your time in developing operationally efficient processes rather
than getting distracted by the minutiae associated with bespoke design and construction.”
DCoD is a precision-engineered modular solution offering a unique cooling strategy that efficiently
addresses today’s most pressing operational challenges. “As data centers become larger and
more central to all aspects of business and life in general, their cooling and operational efficiency
becomes ever more critical,” said Ciaran Forde, vice president of global data center solutions
at CommScope. “The most effective way to maximize efficiency is with intelligence. A typical
CommScope DCoD modular data center intelligently monitors hundreds of parameters and
analyzes the data in real time to make the right operational decisions and minimize cooling costs.”
Bottom-line benefits
CSC deployed its first CommScope DCoD modular data center in 2012, adding a second at the
end of 2014. In less than three years, DCoD has delivered significant bottom-line benefits to the
organization, including:
• PUE reduction: While the average PUE for a typical data center varies from 1.8 to 2.9, the
DCoD installation at CSC averages 1.03 to 1.06. This is all the more significant, noting
summer-winter temperature swings from +30°C to -35°C.
• Water savings: One DCoD unit consumed roughly 120 cubic meters of fresh water in a
year—less than the amount used by a typical family house.
• Sustainability: Reduced energy consumption and costs demonstrate CSC’s commitment to leading-
edge technologies that reduce their carbon footprint and complement their ecological credentials.
CommScope (NASDAQ: COMM) helps companies around the world design, build
and manage their wired and wireless networks. Our network infrastructure solutions help
customers increase bandwidth; maximize existing capacity; improve network performance and
availability; increase energy efficiency; and simplify technology migration. You will find our
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trains, and tunnels. Vital networks around the world run on CommScope solutions.
“ Our design objectives were met and exceeded by CommScope. We needed to add
efficient capacity in a short amount of time. And we needed a cost-effective modular
solution. These were all realized with CommScope’s DCoD.” said Tuononen. As
CSC’s compute and data demands continue to rise, we expect DCoD to deliver even
better results in the future. “We’ve adopted CommScope’s advanced data center
infrastructure management software suite, iTRACS®
DCIM, which delivers supremely
efficient provisioning, risk mitigation and enhanced asset management of both IT
and facilities. We’re extremely optimistic that our operations will continue to realize
further operational efficiencies as a result of the granular infrastructure management
that iTRACS allows.”
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This document is for planning purposes only and is not intended to modify or supplement any specifications or warranties relating to CommScope products or services.
CO-109081-EN (09/15)