subject: The Features Of A Data Center Facility [print this page] . It commonly includes backup or redundant power supplies, environmental controls (e.g. fire suppression), security devices and redundant data communications connections. This article will discuss some features of a data center facility.
Data Center Facility Space Options
A high-quality data center facility should offer individual full cabinets, build-to-suit cages and suites to meet your colocation bandwidth needs. They should also provide the cabinet enclosures and have options for customer-provided enclosures.
- Their standard cabinet should be at least 42 RU, 24" wide and 42" deep
- Their steel cages should be built to suite and designed specifically to the power density requirements that the customers infrastructure requires in accordance with the data center facility design
- They should also have private suites starting at 1,000 square feet of space available in each facility
Cooling
A high-quality data center facility should feature N 1 design. A data center service provider should control the climate by way of precision air conditioning systems. High-quality data centers commonly have 20-ton and 30-ton Computer Room Air Conditioners (CRAC) units located in each colocation room. These CRAC units are piped to cooling tower, chillers or condensers located in a secured exterior area.
These CRAC units are set to 72-degree set-point, and continuously monitor the data center environment within a 2-degree tolerance, and add humidity, cool or heat as needed to maintain that set point condition.
A high quality data center facility infrastructure also has temperature and humidity sensors located in each colocation rooms to ensure that environmental conditions are appropriate and stable.
A number of methods that can be used to handle higher densities, and sound operational practice:
- A high-quality data center facility's infrastructure is designed, engineered and operated based on industry best-practices
- All customers should go through a data center design review once requirements are gathered.
- Hot-row, cold-row data center infrastructure configurations
- 42" deep cabinets not only allow the necessary room for today's deeper servers, but also allow for better cable management to ensure that airflow from the servers is not blocked
- Blanking panels in all open RU space to prevent bypass-air and hot air recirculation
- Under floor plenum with minimal to no obstructions
- Metered PDUs are used to ensure no circuit loading goes unnoticed, as well as provide critical input for capacity management
- Higher than standard density requirements are met with either passive cooling methods, such as those available from Chatsworth (Vertical Exhaust Duct System), or active supplemental cooling methods, such as those available from APC (in-row cooling)
Network
A high-quality data center facility should maintain carrier-neutral data center network. This allows customers to directly contract with major telecommunication and Internet carriers for service. These facilities should also offer a blended bandwidth offering for customers who choose not to operate their BGP Internet service.
These are just a few of the features of a high-quality data center facility. It is important to do your research before you choose a data center service provider and hopefully this article has provided you with a little information about what to expect from a data center service provider.
