Data Center Management Gotchas

As the complexity of IT infrastructure continues to increase in data centers, managers must look ahead to avoid unexpected downtime. A list of 10 common surprises for data center/IT managers was released by PTS supplier, Emerson Network Power, at AFCOM Data Center World Spring 2012.

According to a Ponemon Institute study, an outage can cost an organization
an average of about $5,000 per minute. That’s $300,000 in just an hour.

The 10 common surprises include:

1. Those high-density predictions finally are coming true
2. Data center managers will replace servers three times before they replace UPS or cooling systems
3. Downtime is expensive
4. Water and the data center do not mix – but we keep trying
5. New servers use more power than old servers
6. Monitoring is a mess
7. The IT guy is in charge of the building’s HVAC system
8. That patchwork data center needs to be a quilt
9. Data center on demand is a reality
10. IT loads vary – a lot

For complete details on the Emerson list, click here.
As a Diamond Solutions Partner for Emerson, PTS Data Center Solutions leverages our engineering and architectural experience in designing and building data centers with our IT network, storage, virtualization expertise to avoid the surprises mentioned in the article before they result in significant downtime. To learn more contact PTS today.

CFD Modeling for Data Center Cooling

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling is a valuable tool for understanding the movement of air through a data center, particularly as air-cooling infrastructure grows more complex. By using CFD analysis to eliminate hot spots, companies can lower energy consumption and reduce data center cooling costs.

Mark Fontecchio at SearchDataCenter.com has written a great new article on the subject, entitled “Can CFD modeling save your data center?”. Fontecchio examines the use of CFD analysis as a tool for analyzing both internal and external data center airflow.

In the article, Carl Pappalardo, IT systems engineer for Northeast Utilities, provides a first-hand account of how CFD analysis helped in optimizing their data center’s cooling efficiency. Allan Warn, a data center manager at ABN AMRO bank, also shares his thoughts on the value of renting vs. buying CFD modeling software. Fontecchio also includes insights from industry experts, including Ernesto Ferrer, a CFD engineer at Hewlett-Packard Co., and from yours truly, Pete Sacco.

For more information on data center cooling, download my White Paper, “Data Center Cooling Best Practices”, at http://www.pts-media.com (PDF format). You can also download additional publications, like Vendor White Papers, from the PTS Media Library.

To learn more about how PTS uses CFD modeling in the data center design process, please visit: http://www.ptsdcs.com/cfdservices.asp.