Data Center Facilities

Hey folks! How you doing?

In today’s post we will be talking about facilities in a Data Center. This point is as important as all other we have talked about since the beginning of this blog. But why is THAT important?

At the beginning of the IT race, computers and servers were placed all over the places, without taking care about environmental issues, that both could affect the Data Center itself and nature.

Nowadays, the thing has changed quiet a lot. It has turned into a big and complex case study to plan all facilities related to Data Centers. Taking them lightly could bring, in an immediate future, big expenses to the company holding the DC, as well as environmental impact for the earth.

The most important facilities to take into account when planning to mount a Data Center are:

• Geographic location
• Cabling system
• Electrical System
• Room ventilation (air-conditioning)
• Anti fire System
• Access control System
• Surveillance system

Choosing a proper location for the DC is really important. Inexperienced users could think that the best place to construct a Data Center should be as close as possible to the location it has to give service. But nothing further from reality: placing a Data Center in the wrong place may result into natural disasters razing facilities: earthquakes, floods, storms, hurricanes, tornados, volcanoes, etc. So it is important to study where natural disasters tend to be less frequent, and place the DC there. Besides from avoiding natural disasters, location has a lot to do with energy consumptions of the Data Center, but this point will be treated in the following point Room ventilation.

The cabling system is also important, as cables should pass somewhere, the best way to hide them is using under floor cable runs. So we have all the rooms tidy, and no one could end tripping up with them, getting injured, and breaking configurations.

A lot of energy, and therefore a lot of money, can be saved by placing the DC in a place where it gets cool air (for air conditioning purposes). So, Room ventilation can get really favoured by placing installations in cool countries, where the temperature from de outside is lower than the temperature that can reach the inside of a Data Center. Any Data Center should be provisioned by big fans, as well as a powerful air conditioning system capable of cooling (or warming, depending on the case) the installations, either injecting air from the outside or from some cooling machine.

It is also important to hire an electrical backup line, in case the main one comes down, just to make sure that no connections are lost, and therefore, no money is lost. Obviously, the second hired line must be independent from the main: that is, hiring both lines from different companies, just to minimize risks. In the next post, we will discuss the use of UPSs, which provide electrical power in case of electrical line failure.

Another important point (or the most important point, in fact) is physical security. If physical access is not regulated, there is no purpose to build a Data Center. It is important to have all devices and rooms locked up, so there is no one that can touch/modify any device, neither a device configuration. Also, and related to physical security, it is important to know what is happening in your DC, so having a surveillance camera system can avoid unexpected visits (intruders).

Last, but not least, we should consider fire detection systems and all the equipment needed in order to fight a fire. Cooling systems may fail and that could produce a fire in the building due to high temperatures, and installations should be provided the needed anti fire systems. That is: fire detection sensors, fire extinguishers, fire alarms, etc.

So, we hope that you have enjoyed our advices in Data Center facilities.

See you in the next post!