Brit Mott

“It is a breeze up here!” said Plano City Manager Tom Muehlenbeck as he stepped to the front of a very chilly room in Plano’s newest data center called The Planet. “Today is a proud day for the City of Plano, and if you listen very carefully, you can hear the water meters turning,” he joked, instigating an even louder chuckle from spectators.

The Planet hosted a ribbon-cutting and luncheon Tuesday, June 16 for employees, family and friends to tour its 106,000-square-foot facility. The chill in the room was seeping from the tiny holes in the data center’s floor; a cool environment is necessary to keep 32,000 servers running.

The Planet currently hosts more than 20,000 businesses and 17.8 million Web sites around the world (42 percent of its customers are outside of North America). The IT hosting company operates seven data centers between Houston (its headquarters) and Dallas and also has a London colocation facility. Plano is its eighth facility.

Overall, The Planet boasts an on-demand IT infrastructure backed by complete redundancy in power; (HVAC) Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning; fire suppression; networking connectivity; and 24/7 security. But perhaps what’s most impressive is its “green” architectural design systems.

Chairman & CEO Douglas Erwin received a round of applause from guests when he told them the data center’s “green” infrastructure received a 1.3 “coefficient of efficiency” rating by the Environmental Protection Agency, which is below a “good” rating of 2.0, and even an “ideal” rating of 1.6.

The system uses the latest modular cooling technology from Turbine Air Systems, including six large air-handling units and chilled-water pipes that are strategically placed outside the data center floor in a wide-open equipment galley. The data center floor is elevated and punctured with holes, so if there ever were a leak and water reached the data center floor, it could drain to the bottom.

The cooling and power systems are backed by five on-site diesel-powered generators with a minimum three-day fuel supply and two 30,000-gallon water-storage tanks for the facility’s chillers.

Jeff Lowenberg, vice president of facilities, said the infrastructure is “very energy-efficient” and added, “We’ve received substantial interest from customers looking to expand their IT infrastructure capabilities. This new space enables us to accommodate the rapid colocation market growth we’ve seen in the Dallas area.” View a Slideshow