Today’s data center managers face a variety of challenges. On any given day, they are expected to come up with ways to:
- Reduce costs
- Improve IT performance
- Improve efficiency
- Refresh hardware
- Right-size their support systems to match their IT systems
- Improve reliability
- Do more with less
As they work hard to meet these sometimes-competing objectives, many data center managers are looking toward co-location providers to enable them to accomplish some of their goals. Read More
Due to the increasing criticality of data centric spaces, it is ever more important to ensure that regular HVAC Preventive Maintenanceis a standard operating procedure. Today’s data centers are often densely packed with heat-producing servers, SANs and other devices. Those same sites must be equipped with a complimentary collection of high density cooling systems designed to extract that heat efficiently. Failure of one’s cooling systems can quickly lead to a catastrophic IT failure in a matter of minutes. For this reason, it is vital to select a service partner with the experience, technical capabilities and responsiveness that this industry demands. Read More
The 8.9 magnitude earthquake and the resulting tsunami in Japan serve as heartbreaking reminders that – despite all our technological advances – there remain events we are powerless to prevent. Rather, natural disasters require us to focus our efforts on preparedness and recovery.
The situation at the Fukushima nuclear plant offers a different lesson. As the crisis continues, some media outlets are beginning to examine the plant’s preventive maintenance records. An article published by MSNBC seems to question the operator’s safety record in light of what appears to be missed inspections on 33 pieces of equipment. Read More
Greener data centers are achievable and 10 simple steps can help you on your way to a smaller environmental impact, lower energy consumption and becoming a breath of fresh air in your community
1. Evaluate your energy efficiency.
Add up your energy bills, learn where your energy comes from, and how it’s being distributed in your company. Plan a road map for monitoring and reducing usage. Your initial evaluation can provide a baseline for calculating your ROI after implementing changes.
2. Redesign your cooling system.
Enclose your servers in hot aisles so you can concentrate your cooling directly onto the racks. Be sure to reduce airflow loss by sealing off holes in your walls, floors and ceilings, and make sure you have proper air ducts. Read More
In a recent survey released by Emerson Network Power, UPS battery failure was found to be a leading source of data center downtime.
A rather remarkable 65% of data center managers survey saw UPS failure as the largest cause of data center downtime. UPS capacity was seen as the culprit 53% of the time and human error was sited at 51%.
450 data center operation professionals were interviewed. They reported an complete outage occurred 2.48 times over a two year period. Even the big boys, centers with more than 20,000 square feet saw a total failure rate of 1.75 times over two years.
