With consistent intake temperatures, data centers can increase cooling set points, creating a warmer data center, which lowers cooling costs

For decades the idea of running a hot or warm data center was unthinkable; driving data center managers to create a ”meat locker” like environment – the colder, the better.

Today, the idea of running a warm data center has finally gotten some traction. Major companies like eBay, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft are now operating their data centers at temperatures higher than what was considered possible only a few years ago.

Why? And more importantly… How?

The “why” is easy.
For every degree the set point is raised, the cost of cooling the servers goes down 4%-8% depending on the data center location and cooling design. Additionally, some data centers can take advantage of free cooling cycles when the server intake temperatures increase. This is of course taking into account the manufacturers recommended temperature settings, and not surpassing them.

Now on to the “how”. Or we might ask why now? What changed?
The answer has to do with the ability to provide a consistent server intake temperature. Inconsistent intake temperatures are a result of return and supply airflows mixing. When this happens it creates “hot spots”, which causes cooling problems. Without a consistent supply temperature the highest temperature in those “hot spots” would determine the data center cooling set point temperature, resulting in a lower set point.

A few years ago containment was introduced to the data center industry. Containment fully separates supply and return airflow, which eliminates “hot spots” and creates a consistent intake temperature. Containment is the key to accomplishing consistent intake temperatures. With consistent intake temperatures data center managers can increase cooling set points, creating a warmer data center. A warmer data center means less money spent on cooling costs.

Stop the madness — Rack hygiene is a must for every data center!

We’ve all heard of personal hygiene, and perhaps you’ve heard of mental hygiene, but what about rack hygiene? 

Please don’t look this up in a dictionary it will only confuse you. The word hygiene is now associated with data center cabinets or racks; which is a good thing. Why? Because the word hygiene makes people think of practices that maintain health and prevents disease. The word cleanliness also comes to mind. We all want clean bodies and minds. What about your data center racks?

Think about it this way… What happens to your mental state when you must make a cable change and the cable management system looks like a bowl of spaghetti? How’s your mental health now? Is it possible that your thoughts are moving to the dark side, unclean? Would you like to meet the guy in purchasing that saved the company $200.00 per cabinet who has no clue about the time lost in network cable mining?

Stop the madness! Rack hygiene is a must for every data center. Saving a few dollars on cabinets without cable management systems is nothing short of crazy.

The time wasted on unmanaged cable during the life of the cabinets will easily outweigh the additional costs for cable management.

What we’ve learned over the years is that asking technicians to mastermind a cable management program without the proper tools is like going into battle with a slingshot instead of a rifle.

My mom use to say in her lilting voice, “A place for everything and everything in its place.” Mom was borrowing an expression that came from the 1800s that has been attributed to many sources. My favorite is the quote from Masterman Ready, or the Wreck of the Pacific in 1842 that uses the expression in a nautical context “In a well-conducted man-of-war every thing is in its place, and there is a place for every thing”.

Boats don’t have much room, so its imperative to stow everything is such a way that it can be easily found and ready for use.

The same can be said for cabinets, there is no room for clutter. A properly organized cabinet goes a long way in new equipment deployment, as well as tracking down outages.

The point we want to make is that rack hygiene and cable management begins during the purchasing phase of the racks and the cabinets. Not all cable management systems are created equal, nor for the same purpose. Here are some important variables to consider:

• Vertical cable managers
• Horizontal cabling systems
• Backbone cable installations
• Copper
• Fiber
• Maintenance holes
• Bonding & grounding
• Support facilities such as raceways, cable trays holes coring, slot and sleeves
• Fastener types
• Wireless systems

Take the time to design a cabinet that makes cable hygiene easy. Without it your technician’s mental health will be anything but clean!

Subzero Data Center cold and/or hot aisle containment is the best way to lower intake temperature to IT equipment.

What the Evidence Shows in Real Time

The IBM data center efficiency group in New York wanted the same proof. Gerry Weber an engineering consultant at IBM along with other monitoring technicians recorded a time-lapse video that shows the containment install along side of the temperature changes.

In the video, you can see the temperature dropped nearly 14 degrees in a 5 hour period! What the video does not display is that the temperature across the face of the IT intake did not vary more than one degree.

Subzero Engineering has similar data from numerous data centers with an average of a 10 degree in supply temperature. At the same time the intake Relative Humidity Levels were increased by over 20%.

What does this mean for data center operators?

1. Consistent supply temperatures
2. Increase use of rack space due to consistent supply temperatures at the top of the rack.
3. Predictable supply temperatures make it easy to anticipate cooling solutions when an increase of thermal load or kW is introduced to the space.
4. Maximize cooling efficiency by adopting ASHRAE increase in temperature.
5. Convert cooling energy to IT equipment.

By Subzero Engineering CEO, Larry Mainers

There is a correlation between a data center’s attention to industry best practices and its ability to rebound from the disaster

A significant part of my career has been spent responding to, and assisting with data center disaster recovery. I have witnessed some rather spectacular disaster recovery situations, from the Bank of New York adjacent to the fallen World Trade Center towers, to the government offices that were affected by the Oklahoma City bombing and the river that flowed through the Estes Trucking data center in northern Virginia.

Through the years, I have noticed an interesting trend in the ability to recover high tech sites from disaster: there is a correlation between a data center’s attention to industry best practices and its ability to rebound from the disaster. A company that had instituted a cable management strategy had a greater ability to recover from a flood than a company who hadn’t prioritized cable management.   Similarly, the company that employed airflow management prior to an event was more prepared during recovery efforts than those that had no defined cooling strategy.

When disaster strikes a data center, one of the most profound effects on employees is the changed appearance of their site; nothing looks the same. Instead of clean walls, floors and ceilings, the facility is often extremely dirty, with missing tiles and computers covered in disaster residue. I have noticed that such stark changes can initially cause managers to delay key disaster recovery decisions, negatively affecting the recovery effort.

In contrast, those managers who are up to date on industry best practices are better able to react during disaster recovery. Such managers are better attuned to the condition of their data centers, and don’t require extra time to recreate the conditions of the data center prior to the disaster. Adhering to industry best practices reduces the reaction time to a disaster, making the recovery process faster more efficient.

When data center managers stay up to date with important best practices, it will benefit them in being prepared for the unexpected.