Miscellaneous

General data center articles and posts not covered in other categories.

  1. It sure sounds impressive, but upon closer review...

    One of our AirGuard customers pointed out that a company he'd never heard of was advertising their version of a data center cable floor seal. I visited their website, and found them promoting rubberized vinyl foam that resembled a rough textured anti-fatigue mat that is glued over cable openings. You have to cut holes or slits in the rubber with...
  2. Predicting the Future

    As we approach the new year one tradition I'd be happy to do away with is...FUTURE PREDICTIONS. When you consider that we can barely predict the weather a day or two out, how can we predict what new technologies will take hold in a dynamic industry. People are bad at making predictions and that includes experts. Humans tend to overestimate...
  3. KEN'S KORNER - Data Center Environmental Monitoring

    Selecting a Monitoring System Monitoring can range from electrical power equipment supporting critical load such as UPS systems, diesel generators, PDU/RPP’s down to individual branch circuits within power panels. When evaluating a monitoring system consider what type of graphics are desired and available.  Pictorial diagrams displaying individual monitored components are helpful, especially ones that change color or light up in...
  4. Worker Electrocuted

    That was the headline five years ago when an electrician was working in a data center accidentally touched a high voltage live terminal and was killed while installing an uninterruptible power supply. Five years later the courts have found the electrical contractor negligent in the accident because of failures in communication and management. The electrical contractor claimed to have been...
  5. KEN'S KORNER - Data Center Facility Staff Duties

    Every data center is different; size, structure, and complexity vary from site-to-site. The goal of facility management is to keep the site up and running, to avoid outages and maintain uptime. Where much of facility management’s energy is devoted to monitoring the system, it takes considerable time and resources to install and maintain equipment. Where monitoring needs to be owned...
  6. KEN'S KORNER - Disaster Recovery Planning

    Disaster Recovery Planning Click here to view, print and share a pdf of this article. The average cost of an unplanned data center outage is $7,900 per minute, a 41% increase since 2010.  The average outage lasted 86 minutes resulting in an average cost per incident of $690,000.  Ponemon Institute: 2013 Study on Data Center Outages With data center downtime...
  7. KEN'S KORNER - Data Center Physical Security

    Data Center Buildings - Physical Security   Security needs vary based on the size, location and data housed in your data center. Data Center security is a lot like an onion.  Not only does it make you cry, you need to have it in multiple layers built up from the area you’re trying to protect. …Anon. View, print and share...
  8. KEN'S KORNER - Commissioning with Load Banks

    Commissioning with Load Banks   Click here for a pdf to view, print and share Commissioning is defined by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) as a quality-oriented process for achieving, verifying, and documenting that the performance of facilities, systems and assemblies meets the defined objectives and criteria. When building or upgrading your data center...
  9. KEN'S KORNER - Improving Energy Efficiency

    Improving Data Center Energy Efficiency   Click here to view pdf of this article and print and share. Huge gains have been made over the past few years to improve energy efficiencies.  Implementing best practices such as preventing airflow bypass, installing blanking panels, sealing openings in the raised floor, and utilizing hot-cold aisle configurations have helped many data centers lower...
  10. KEN'S KORNER - Safety Tips

    Data Center Safety Tips   Click here to view, print and share a pdf of this article. Even though a data center appears to be a quiet, safe, unassuming environment there is safety risks all about.  Electrical ircuits, acids, gases, flammable materials, and fuels are just some of the areas that represent potential safety hazards. Poor safety can lead to...

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