December 2014

  1. Occam’s Razor

    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...
  2. U.S. DOE and Airflow Management

    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...
  3. KEN'S KORNER - Improved Airflow Management

    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...
  4. KEN'S KORNER - Airflow Management Tips

    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...
  5. KEN'S KORNER - Improved Cable Management

    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...
  6. Dual Corded Servers

    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...
  7. KEN'S KORNER - Power Cable Installation Checklist

    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...
  8. KEN'S KORNER - UL Listed Power Cables

    Why UL Listed Power Cables By using UL Listed and Hi-pot tested power cable assemblies, data center managers can be certain that the power whip code requirements are met and that there are no weak links in the material used to fabricate the power feeds to the critical servers. If your data center is hosting outside customers; you can feel...
  9. KEN'S KORNER - Rack PDU Power Strips

    Tips on Selecting Rack PDUs "Power Strips" The term PDU refers to two major classes of hardware power devices. The first and typically most common one in the data center facility world refers to the higher-cost floor mounted power distribution devices that transform large capacity UPS power output feeds into distributed power feeds within a server room. These floor-mounted PDU...
  10. KEN'S KORNER - Testing & Exercising Branch Circuit Breakers

    Testing and Exercising Branch Circuit Breakers A slow tripping circuit breaker will not only result in unnecessary disruptions to electrical service, but maintaining high fault currents for extended durations can stress the network and cause damaged to equipment.  Defective circuit breakers can allow extensive damage, personal injury, or make an outage more widespread and expensive when a fault occurs. Any...

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