Last week I attended a data center tour with Sun Microsystems’ Dean Nelson, Sr. Director of Global Data Center Design Services.

Nelson’s team consolidated four large Sun Microsystems campuses in California – consolidating over 200,000 square feet of data center down to 80,000 square feet, while still allowing capacity to grow.

This new data center, built into Sun’s existing office space in Santa Clara, is designed for modular growth and is very energy efficient (1.28 PUE in one of the rooms, according to Nelson)

In this first video, Nelson demonstrates the Starline Busway, a power component Nelson Describes as track lighting on steroids. These products allow Sun data center staffers to plug in anything from 120 single phase power to 100 amp 3 phase without an electrician, allowing for modular growth and flexibility. The busways also have IP connections that track power usage in real time.

In this second video, Nelson shows us the hot-aisle cold-aisle containment strategy Sun is using. It’s essentially a ceiling on the hot aisle that prevents hot return air from mixing with the cool intake air.