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Data Center CFD
by John Herbert | Director
Power and cooling are the top priorities a recent survey indicates, with increasing DC loads, managers are facing increasing overheating problems.
are several options to procure your data center facility, there are three primary routes namely self-built, hotel, or partnership. Within each option there are variations on a theme, but these represent the majority of tried and tested options.
Self-built - as the nomenclature suggests, procuring and building the
entire facility. Importantly this includes site selection comprising identifying and validation of the
proposed facility. Once
the property is procured, next is the development of the necessary E&M
infrastructure, and finally fitting-out of the space to suit your business needs.
lets not forget the purpose of the date center is to further your business, not
detract from it.
Facilities
Essentially the critical issue for management is business continuity, and from that stems the reliance on hardware, software and the facility infrastructure. But one word in any context, causes headaches and sleepless nights - downtime.
Whichever procurement method is chosen, if the facility E&M infrastructure
fails, no matter the reason, the cost both financially and business wise are
difficult to accept.
There are several opinions on the real cost of downtime, and it would varies by
sector to sector, but often US$ 1 million per hour for a
financial institution is cited. Perhaps more depending on which way the market is moving
at the time. Notwithstanding the exact value of the loss, and the cost of
additional resources to handle an incident, and the post-mortem - downtime is
never desirable or cheap.
One method many organizations chose to mitigate the risk - an infrastructure audit.
is commissioned, that like driving your car year in - year out, and expressing surprise after it breaks down, often at an very inconvenient time. For cars there is a mandatory annual inspection, yet the data center infrastructure often escapes attention until it is too late, downtime hits operations hard.
A data center project is not like other projects, they evolve over time with the
equipment regularly refreshed, and a few years after opening bears will
resemblance to the original.
New technology including the latest blade servers conspire to defeat the existing infrastructure pressing increasing loads in an environment that was perhaps designed many years before.
So how can IT managers avoid downtime? an annual health check or audit is
essential to manage the risk. After a failure it is too late, and the first
question arises when was checkup.
Risk
An audit helps you manage the risk, a fresh pair of eyes can point out simple fixes to potential downtime
avoid data center downtime
before they occur. The Uptime Institute (USA), creators of the Tier I-IV data center classification recommend an annual E&M infrastructure audit.
Further Information
If you need any further information regarding Kelcroft's datacenter solutions and consulting for planning, design, auditing, CFD, power or thermal analysis of a data center, server room or mission critical facility contact John Herbert at our Hong Kong office, the telephone number is +(852) 2335 9830, the fax number is +(852) 2335 9862 or simply email us.