Essentials for Data Center Competence

If you thought shopping for daily amenities was a tough task, then you cannot even comprehend the factors and parameters which are to be considered while choosing a data center. Usually different companies have their own distinctive approach. They take parameters like Energy efficiency, cooling systems and the all important power supply into consideration. With the economic meltdown underway, it has become important to implement solutions which will save energy and moolah. But often, the goal of operating an energy efficient data center can get a little overwhelming to deal with. The reason is, the big data centers can operate with high failure risks when dealing with energy efficient methods as they can shift their operations to another facility in case of a failure, but the small ones cannot afford to mainly due to lack of resources.

So the question is how can these data centers which lack the perks of the large data centers achieve the requirement of being energy efficient data center without compromising on the quality and that too at low costs? Well, the key to this a list of top 3 essential pointers which you should consider while designing a data center which offers efficient performance without loading you up with long bills.

Go Back to Basics:

Industry experts suggest that designing the data center by structuring the different components can help in more efficient energy flow in the data center. Keeping everything organized will largely help you in tasks like data duplication.

Another method of lowering the power use is to implement the tiered storage method .In this method, older data is stored by archiving them in a storage device from where information can be retrieved as and when needed.

Cool the Facility with the Right Tools:

Usually, data center facilities implement the hot aisle/clod aisle method as a cooling strategy. In this method hot and cold air are contained separately. The process to keep these airs separate creates a considerable temperature difference which is sensed by the A/C system. As a result, less energy is consumed to fulfill the cooling needs.

The question which arises here is how to keep this air from mixing. A simple alignment arrangement of the servers in the same direction solves the problem i.e. all the backs of the servers in one direction and all the fronts face one direction thereby creating a hot and cold aisle.

Use Offline Power:

Though it is a controversial process, it is a method which has been repeatedly encouraged by industry experts to try out. The logic is sound. Data centers have UPS for offline power supply in case of a failure. Experts suggest that using the same emergency supply kit to operate the data center can reduce the power consumption considerably. This is because the system is dormant unless there is a power failure. So the power lag between the power outage and the UPS taking control is negligible and that is why the IT equipments don’t even pick up the power drop.

Now, this method completely depends upon the person implementing it. So whether the person is operating it at high or low efficiency, there is a risk factor which includes the safety and the performance of the data center.

Some Other Methods:

Also, minimizing the number of transformers will lower the number of UPS which will elevate the risk factor. But experts state that transformer provides isolation between input and output, which can be achieved with circuit breakers and other tools.

Switching to higher voltage equipment is also believed to offer decent energy savings as these equipments have smaller physical conductors. Though higher voltage is a little dangerous, once implemented, it can do wonders in the field of energy savings.

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