Vertiv provides recommendations to data center operators
Record-breaking heatwaves are front page topics and are challenging economies around the world with no signs of lower temperatures in the foreseeable future.
In addition to impact on people's lives, extreme heat is having a significant impact on the operations and infrastructure of data centers, from blackouts and disruptions in UK data centers to reduced energy production in power plants in France, to concerns about the use of water in drought-affected areas around the world.
Vertiv has released its recommendations to data center operators and partner companies to help them overcome these challenges.
"Customers are increasingly aware of the challenges that extreme heat brings and are rightfully trying to mitigate the resulting risks to data center operations."| ); } “Our Service teams have proved invaluable in providing the necessary guidance and support, not only to manage the immediate impact of these changes, but also to analyze with customers how to develop resilient plans for the future ahead of time.”
To ensure system cooling and help ensure data center availability, Vertiv experts recommend the following actions.
Depending on the load on the data hall, you should use as many units can be used to reduce the load on each cooling unit.
In general, an organization should run all redundant units, but if the IT load does not reach the 100% threshold, enough drives should be used to obtain a cooling load as close to the desired level.
Schedule a regular maintenance plan. Vertiv recommends its customers to schedule quarterly preventive maintenance. For units with compressor (DX), Vertiv suggests cleaning the coils every quarter or even more frequently.
The absence of thorough and regular cleaning of these coils can cause a reduction in the overall heat capacity of each unit more than the ambient temperature itself.
In addition, maintaining the refrigerant charge level correctly helps to achieve design capability, operating efficiently and smoothly. Too low or too high a refrigerant charge can cause operational inefficiencies.
“The extreme temperatures we see around the world increase the pressure on data center operators and infrastructure providers, challenging their ability to maintain reliability and connectivity,” says Steve Madara, Vice President for Thermal Sales of Vertiv.
“Extreme weather events underscore the importance of a robust maintenance and preventive care plan, adapted to the specific conditions of each operator's region".
"Could be prepared to compensate for increases in capacity by reducing other operating expenses. Creating partnerships with a qualified provider of data center services is important to create a maintenance plan that can meet the needs dictated by today's heat waves and tomorrow's uncertain climate. ”
While the planet continues to heat up and the climate crisis intensifies, cases of extreme heat will become even more common. Measures taken in the short term will have to be coupled with more systematic and long-term changes across the sector.
“As a sector we should learn from regions such as the Middle East, Africa and Australia, as we they are already adapted to the high temperatures in their territory for most of the year, ”Madara added.
“When we do, it will be clear that the current standard will not lead us far. We need to review the roof space planning and design of our data center infrastructures to withstand higher heat loads, rethinking the positioning of the infrastructure systems as well as their capacity. ”
Among others best Long-term practices Vertiv's experts include: Considering different types of cooling systems, including immersion, waterless and evaporative freecooling systems, designed to offer reliability and efficiency in high temperature environments.
If you rely on solar panels as an energy source, consider that their efficiency decreases as ambient temperatures rise.
To determine the capacity of data centers, use predictive models rather than relying solely on historical data. that is, to data that cannot take into account the extreme temperatures of today.
