Better Data Center Design

Better data center design requires in depth analysis of a variety of factors. While designing a data center, you mush consider the number and type of servers, the expectation of the usage of power, cooling, airflow, layout, foootprint and many more considerations. As data centers are designed and built, the engineers designing those data centers will need to take these issues into a consideration as different customers will have different needs. As you build your data center, consider the following basic factors.

Space In Your Data Center

As everything keeps shrinking, conventional wisdom says that space needs will be less, though that could hinder repairs and upgrades. The more physical space is available, the faster your team will be able to perform those repairs and upgrades. Remember that maintenance staff will be in your data center, as well as your IT staff, so the more space you have, the less likely it will be that they’ll be able to accidentally cause a problem

Cooling Your Data Center

Cooling your data center comes down to keeping your equipment running at its most efficient level. Making sure that you minimize restrictions to airflow and simplifying your piping design can help maximize the efficiency of your fan and pump motors.

Data Center Energy Efficiency

IT equipment should always have some type of power management that can lower the power requirements of idle servers or even turn them off completely. The UPS (uninterrupted power supply) tends to be the largest power loss in data centers. Low efficiency designs are reliable but typically have the highest losses – estimated between 12 – 15 percent. Higher efficiency systems may be less reliable but the power loss can be much lower estimated to be between 5 – 10 percent. These are estimates but can be used as indicators at the beginning of a data center design project.

Data Center Security

The perimeter of the data center and the boundaries of the site should have some sort of physical security. It needs to be protected from weather, power outages, fire and flooding.  Lastly, organizations will need a disaster plan with an off site data center in the catastrophic event that the primary center is destroyed.

This article obviously only scratches the surface of the various needs of data center design. If you’d like to more information on designing your data center, fill out our contact form here.