Kens Korner

Data Center Fire Detection - VESDA Uptime is paramount in mission critical facilities. Therefore the earliest detection and warning of a potential fire allows for investigation and intervention to prevent damage, downtime, or unwanted agent release. Fire risks in data centers are especially high due to electrical ignition sources and the abundance of combustible materials in an environment of cables and...

  Maximizing Data Center Cooling Efficiency An efficient cooling system minimizes the energy needed to generate cool air used to direct heat away from sensitive computer equipment.  The process of optimizing airflow management involves proper placement of Computer Room Air Conditioners (CRAC), hot and cold air delivery and returns, intelligent rack configurations and cable management. Cable Management Each data center...

Tips for Assessing and Addressing Airflow Problems Tips for retrofitting a legacy data center with airflow management techniques designed to reduce cooling energy costs and increase equipment density capacity. Types of airflow problems • Hot spots – an area, related to a rack or set of racks, where ambient air temperature is above acceptable levels. Typically caused by poor airflow...

Do You Trust Occam's Razor? Occam's (or Ockham's) razor is a scientific principle attributed to the 14th century logician and Franciscan friar William of Ockham. The principle states that "Entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily". Occam's razor claims that, "Simpler explanations (solutions) are, other things being equal, generally better than more complex ones". Apply Occam's razor to the problem below...

Even the Government Agrees! U.S. Department of Energy suggests you first address the simple solutions to airflow problems in legacy data centers A recent study by the U.S. Department of Energy on Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory suggests that as data center energy densities increase, measured in power-use per square foot, energy savings for...

CIO’s will Love You!  Improved Airflow Management Saves Real $$$ I’ve been trying to get caught up on my reading lately and I came across some interesting articles that put numbers to what we already know, sealing cable cutouts in a data center’s raised floor saves money.  How, by limiting airflow bypass in hot/cold aisle environments through reduced energy consumption...

Basic Air Flow Management Tips With summer here, we all think about warm days ahead and all the fun activities that go along with the season; but summer heat is NOT something we look forward to for our computers. To protect computers, data centers should be well insulated with no windows to the outside to keep summer heat away from...

12 Tips for Improved Data Center Cable Management For many data centers managing cables is an afterthought.  Not having a plan or scheme in place prior to running cables, makes troubleshooting problems difficult.  Companies should develop cable management plans and guidelines prior to any cable installation. There are a number of low cost, easy to implement cable management solutions for...

Why use Dual Corded Servers? Let's face it - a facilities greatest challenge is to keep servers up and running 7x24, even during maintenance on the critical power paths that feeds the equipment. Even if you are one of the lucky sites that allow you to shut down all the servers on an annual basis you are still faced with...

15 Tips for Successful Data Center Power Whip Installation Looking for something to read that is both entertaining and enlightening, how about “The Checklist Manifesto” by Dr. Atul Gawande. A book about checklists might not sound too enthralling, but Dr. Gawande manages to introduce enough interesting stories and case history around the use of checklists to hold your attention.  More...