Data Centre Design and Optimal Performance
In today's modern world, data is at the heart of all modern businesses. Great data centre design and performance is the key for hitting your business goals long into the future. In this blog, we’re going to highlight the importance of a well designed data centre, how it can impact your business and what the key considerations are to make during a build or expansion.
The Importance of an Efficient Design
Data centres store incredible amounts of data, much of which is crucial to a business's running and development. It is for this simple reason that they cannot afford to go down, even in the event of a power outage. Data losses can be catastrophic for businesses of all sizes and can cause loss of sales, unnecessary downtime, or in many cases can spell the end altogether. Good planning and strategy is the key when designing or upgrading your data centre. Designers must take careful consideration of multiple factors to ensure that the data centre can handle the required volume of data and keep working efficiently for years to come.
Things to Consider When Planning Your Data Centre
Power Supply
Good data centre design and performance is nothing without a reliable power source that can cope in the event of a power outage. As mentioned previously, the effects of this can be devastating, so it’s crucial to protect your data. A UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) or generator will ensure that your business remains powered up and supported at all times.
Which of these systems you choose will depend on the type and size of your data centre and there is no definitive right or wrong solution for everyone. Talk to our team today - we can help!
Consider Different Types of Cooling Strategy
Since a data centre uses up such a large amount of energy, their heat output can be very significant. An effective cooling system is crucial to ensuring that temperatures are kept low, which will mean your equipment lasts longer. There are multiple different types of cooling systems available so it pays to have an understanding of which is right for you.
Air cooling systems are the most common way to keep data centres cool and work by using a system of mounted fans to draw warm air away from the servers. For this system to work optimally you need to have a hot aisle / cold aisle setup in place. Cooler, conditioned air travels down one side of the rack (the cold aisle) and warmer air travels down another (the warm aisle) and leaves the area. Whilst this is the safest way to cool your centre, it is less efficient at larger scale cooling than water.
Liquid Cooling Systems are more effective than air systems and work by pumping water through coils that cools the air in the centre down. The heated water is then chilled and the process starts again. Whilst this method offers a higher thermal conductivity level than air, any leakages in your system can be catastrophic.
Optimise Airflow
Just like your cooling systems, optimising your airflow is crucial to keeping temperatures low and boosting the overall efficiency of your data centre. PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) is the metric used to measure the overall effectiveness of your energy efficiency, and fully optimised airflow is a great way to keep it down. Your airflow is also a useful way to stay on top of humidity that could cause issues with electrical equipment.
Plan for the Future
Planning for the future is crucial for a successful data centre design and build. Having a design that can easily be scaled up or down is a great way to safeguard yourself should your future load requirements change - which they almost certainly will. A modular UPS will allow for additional modules to be added as your data centre grows and provide you with a flexible model that promotes success long into the future.
Keep the Design Simple
A key aspect of good data centre design and performance is not to overcomplicate things. Complex designs can mean more equipment, which means more can go wrong and there is a higher risk of errors. It also ups your cost during the build and for everyday running, which includes things like more maintenance costs and energy bills. It’s not difficult to see how your budget could begin to get stretched quickly.
Great data centre designers will know that an overly complex system can cause downtime and seriously jeopardise safety - that’s why at Infiniti IT we will always build with future maintainability in mind.
Think About Security
The data that is kept in a data centre should be protected at all times with a dependable security system that keeps a company's assets secure. This is after all why many businesses will choose to use a data centre in the first place. Serious considerations should be made on security equipment such as biometric scanners and security cameras, as well as security staff. It is also important to only have a select group of workers who have access to key areas such as server rooms.
Infiniti Data Centres
Infiniti IT offers high-quality data centre design and build services from our expert in-house team. We also provide consultancy services for guidance and support during a build to ensure that your data centre keeps running smoothly long into the future.
Our data centre design and performance consultancy services aim to create energy-efficient and cost-effective data centres that are built to your exact specifications, budget and timeframe.
INFINITI is a one-stop data centre solutions provider with an eye for detail and outstanding customer service. With decades of experience, IT Operations Managers and Engineers return to us time after time, due to our high levels of expertise, efficiency, and knowledge. We cater to all aspects of mission critical IT environments with products and a service that is second to none.
