You have probably heard the term data center infrastructure. But do you know everything it encompasses?
Here’s a look at the basics.
What is Data Center Infrastructure?
To provide a simple working definition, data center infrastructure includes every physical piece of a data center facility. This means servers and computers, but also racks, cooling, airflow management, uninterruptible power supply, and more.
How to Protect Data Center Infrastructure
Your data center is the heart of your business—it keeps everything functioning. If the data center goes down, your whole business is in trouble. Protecting your data center, then, is crucial. In addition to software cyber security, you need to consider physical security measures.
The International Society of Automation suggests thinking through natural disasters, burglary, theft, terrorism, or anything else that could cause damage. Your strategy will vary depending on your industry and physical location, but monitoring should be a big part of it.
Monitoring Data Centers
At Predictive Technology, Inc we offer customizable, vendor-neutral monitoring solutions, and most can integrate into your building’s automation system. Here are a couple examples.
Leak Detection
You need to know about leaks in your data center right away. Leaks can come from water, chemicals, fuel, or any other fluids around your data center and cause mold, equipment damage, and downtime. We can recommend a great water-sensing cable, spot detectors, and monitoring devices to safeguard your equipment.
Airflow Management
Airflow is another thing to keep tabs on. If equipment is not set up in a way that promotes good airflow, rising temperatures surrounding your equipment can cause damage. There are solutions that allow you to remotely monitor the temperature of every rack in your data center.
Backup Power
You should also be monitoring your backup power source to ensure it is ready to take over at any moment, protecting you from down time.
Backup Power for Data Centers
Uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) protect your business from power outages, surges, lightning strikes and more. PTI’s portfolio includes a variety of solutions to support any size facility.
It’s important to continually monitor the health of backup batteries so you can maintain working order. Monitoring allows you to detect issues months before a failure.
Lithium batteries are gaining some traction, though they are much more costly than the alternative. They do have several advantages over lead-acid—They are a fraction of the weight (try one-fourth!) and take about half the space.
Keep in mind that batteries are a temporary solution for backup power. Generators are crucial to keep your facility running in an extended outage, beyond what batteries can sustain.
Planning the Data Center Infrastructure
Once your infrastructure is set up, your plan needs to include room for adjustments. For example, as your business scales, your rack set up will have to change. Many times with small adjustments, you don’t need to increase cooling capacity, but can adjust the components inside the rack.
It’s a lot to think through, but you don’t have to figure it out alone. Planning and adapting are our specialities at PTI Solutions. Contact us to learn how we can support your data center’s unique needs.
