The French Atomic and Alternative Energy Commission (CEA) tasked Ingenova with supplying and installing a 20-rack Cube at the Very Large Computing Facility in Bruyère-le-Châtel shared by several research laboratories.
Following the public bid for tender in August 2018 and thanks to the quality of our technical and economic proposal, the CEA awarded the project to Ingenova, considering our solution the most relevant.
Why Ingenova ?
With strong experience in designing and installing data centers, as well as in operating and monitoring them, Ingenova assists their clients throughout the life cycle of their data centers.
Thus in their proposal for the CEA, Ingenova highlighted how their technical solution fulfilled the following requirements:
- Homogeneity and integration
- Energy performance
- Resilience and security
- Operability
- Sustainability
- Agility and scalability
- Strong capacity to integrate IT equipment and personalize racks depending on their function
- Excellent economic positioning of the proposed products and services
The CEA deemed the coherence and relevance of Ingenova’s solution to be the best adapted of all bids received.
Mission context and schedule
The Cube targeted the following capacities :
- 20 IT racks
- 200 kW in IT power
- 1 in-row hot aisle corridor
- Schneider Electric PDPM power distribution and installation of an energy monitoring tool
- PDU supply and installation
Following market notification, Ingenova reached out to the CEA project team.
The first meetings were devoted to design workshops to define and validate all the principles and plans for installing the products and implementing the proposed solution.
When designing an IT room, it is important to understand that the same products installed differently can either perfectly meet requirements or be completely inadequate for the job.
That is why Ingenova begins all projects with a careful analysis of the solution to be implemented, to ensure it is a perfect fit for the client’s requirements, in terms of data center design and end-user needs.
The success of this kind of project is largely based on the custom-design of layout and accessories.
More generally, the products selected were :
- Racks & Containment: The Minkels solution from LDCS for Racks and top performing containment, which is also adjustable, simple and flexible in operation.
- Cooling: The Stulz N2 CyberRow CW with web interface. Provides a reliable, durable, resilient, energy-efficient solution which can be controlled remotely, and is user friendly, simple and adaptable.
- Electric panel: With Schneider Electric providing the electricity distribution for the center, 2N InRow PDPM racks and associated distribution modules were installed.
- Power strip: For PDUs requiring outlet level metering and switching, the Raritan product line PX3 5000 series was the obvious choice.
- Energy management: For perfect integration and energy management of the sensors and PDUs, Power IQ by SunBird was a given.
All of these elements were deployed in accordance with the design plan established upstream.
Following the installation phase, a series of load and commissioning tests were carried out on the rack load to simulate 200 kW of computing power and test the POD HVAC and power distribution systems at scale.
Ingenova took the site specificities into account, and met the provisional project schedule.
All tests were compliant, expenditures validated without reserve and deliverables approved; the project was completed.
Another project illustrating successful collaboration between Ingenova and the CEA
In the final project report, the head of the CEA IT department expressed full satisfaction with the collaboration with Ingenova, notably the constructive approach and quality of the solutions provided by the Ingenova teams.
The Ingenova teams particularly appreciated the spirit of efficiency, friendliness and drive of the CEA teams working on the project.
