EMC COE Recognized by Uptime Institute

SMMA and EMC Corporation were selected as finalists for the 2012 Green Enterprise Information Technology Awards, presented by the Uptime Institute, recognizing energy achievement and design innovation on EMC’s new Center of Excellence in Durham, NC. The annual Uptime Institute GEIT Awards showcase organizations that are pioneering energy-efficiency improvements in data center design and operations.

An awards ceremony was held on May 14 at Uptime Institute Annual Symposium at the Santa Clara Convention Center to recognize the Durham project team and present the award. SMMA’s Dana Watts and EMC’s Senior Manager of Data Center Operations Reynaldo Gomez co-presented a case study on the Durham Center of Excellence at the Symposium.

The Center project is an adaptive reuse of a vacant warehouse building into a 450,000-square-foot, 100% virtualized data center, designed by SMMA for EMC Corporation. As EMC’s Design Partner, SMMA provided a flexible design solution incorporating several innovations including cold aisle containment, air-intake plenums providing over 5,500 hours of free cooling per year, flywheel technology and a stormwater capture and reuse system. The project is designed to meet the requirements of a LEED Silver certification for sustainable design.

A principal objective of the GEIT Awards is to educate the data center and IT industries in effective ways to reduce energy and resource consumption by highlighting innovation and best practices. The Awards are open to applicants in all countries, and entries are reviewed by an international committee of independent judges.