Your Guide to Data Center Best Practices

Over the next few years, the global data center industry is expected to be worth more than $280 billion. With so much value associated with data centers, it’s important that best practices are maintained so that problems and breakdowns don’t take place.

Thankfully for you, we’ve done the research and come up with some data center best practices that you need to know about. So keep on reading, and we’ll show you everything that you need to know!

1. Measure PUE

When it comes to data center management, you want to measure everything that you can. After all, if you don’t measure it, then you can’t manage it.

Keep track of your energy use so that you can get a good sense of the energy performance. One helpful statistic is Power Usage Effectiveness, also known as PUE. This is useful because it can help you reduce the energy that you use for non-computing, like power distribution and cooling.

To use PUE effectively, you want to measure it regularly. It’s also very useful to track your energy data over the whole year because seasonal weather can impact your PUE.

2. Manage Airflow

In order to make your data center infrastructure as efficient as possible, you’ll want to have a lot of airflows. Start by minimizing cold air from mixing with hot air via containment.

You can use thermal modeling to optimize your airflow without disrupting the organization of your computing room. Get rid of hot spots, and make sure that you use blanking plates for empty slots in your rack.

You should also size your cooling load to your IT equipment. If you’re adding more capacity, then make sure that you take your cooling approach into consideration.

3. Change the Temperature

You’ll be able to reduce your building’s energy use by raising the temperature for the cold aisle. Try to keep your cold aisle at around 80F or hotter.

If you’re using an economizer, then you want to run higher cold aisle temperatures so that you can take advantage of “free cooling” days.

4. Use Free Cooling

Free cooling is when you get rid of heat in your building without using a chiller. You do this by using cool ambient air or evaporating water. This is one of the most effective ways to save energy and money.

5. Use High-Quality Products

You want to use high-quality equipment, like that from Certus Erasure Solutions, to make sure that your data is safe and stored properly. This is going to keep your business efficient and productive.

Use These Data Center Best Practices Today

Hopefully, after reading the above article, you now understand some of the most important data center best practices that you need to know about. By keeping lots of measurements, optimizing your energy usage, and using good machines, you’ll be able to increase your chances of success.

Make sure to check out the rest of our site today for more helpful articles!