Data Center Physical Plant in a Changing Equipment Times
How do we best address the increasing power densities that are available now and further increases being talked about?
Before we go jumping into 15 watt to 30 watt densities we need to understand the overall consequences that this means. Yes, manufacturers are coming up with ways to meet these loads but are they fully thought out and are they worth the cost? With the higher capacities of the new processing equipment do you want to continue to load your facility or look at spreading your risk to multiple sites? The cost of upgrading your existing facility might turn out to be more costly than to build a new facility.
Facility and equipment life cycles must be considered along with projected growth. If your present physical plant equipment still has many remaining years of good operational life why make changes?
Let us look at some of the things that will need to be considered in increasing cabinet and system capacities:
v Most of the new cabinets, because of the side, top or back cooling modules, change the footprint of your equipment rows and/or feed points. This could be a costly change. Not only are you going to have to modify cabling but in many cases change the floor system itself.
v Local power distribution for cabinets and the new accessories. This is part of that gray area where adding fans, which are motor loads, into your conditioned power system. What effect is this going to have on system harmonics and grounding systems? The systems with chilled water to them could cause even bigger problems and just more exhaust fans.
v The chilled water cabinets need even more scrutiny in that you have introduced water into your Data Center. Should this piping be sleeved to contain leaks? Is this going to require a condensate drainage system to remove condensate water? How and I going to control humidity and what is the cost of this going to be.
v Using forced air cabinets to increase airflow. Do I have the type of floor system needed to handle the air balancing requirements needed for this type of operation? Do I have sufficient volume under floor taking into consideration all of the cabling I have?
v What is all of this going to do to my redundancy capabilities. Am I going to have to add power and cooling?
This is just the start of a long list of items that must to be considered before making a decision as to how best do I meet my needs for IT present and future. Centeriem can help you through this maze of questions so you are able to make a wise financial decision.