The
articles below represent
a small sampling of data
center design information
that is available on-line. Please
click on the links below
to find out what others are
saying about RAF data center
environments.
|
Cool
Rules for Hot Computing
Designing a
new data center or retrofitting
an old one to be greener
is a complex process, but
our six ideas will get
you started in the right
direction....Think
About the Floor Tiles: It's the Little
Stuff that Matters. |
Africa:
Apc-Mge Addresses Cooling Problems
High-density
servers present a significant
cooling challenge, with vendors
now designing servers that
can demand over 20 kW of
cooling per rack. APC-MGE
has put together ten steps that
address the root causes of cooling
inefficiency and under-capacity,
listed in rank order, with the
simplest and most cost effective
presented first. |
Raised
floor Bests Overhead Cooling
Ditching your raised floor in favor of newer overhead cooling technologies might
not be such a good idea, according to a study by two researchers at IBM. |
Underneath
Your Feet In The Data Center: Don’t
Take Your Flooring System Lightly
Flooring seems like a fairly prosaic
item, but savvy data center administrators
understand its importance. The raised floor in a data center is critical to ensure
good airflow—and thus cooling—and is also the main path for routing
the miles of cabling any good-sized data center is likely to have. |
Managing
The Data Center Subfloor: Sometimes
It's What You Don't See That Matters
Most
Today's
data centers require flexibility in the distribution
of power, voice, data, and HVAC resources.
In many cases, the old method of drilling
through walls, concrete floors, or ceilings
and running cables to fixed locations is
no longer viable or cost-effective. The most
cost-effective means to support changing
demands and flexibility in cabling, services,
and access requirements in the workspace
is a configurable raised floor. |
Measuring
and Managing Data-Center Energy Use
With annual energy costs per square
foot that are 10 to 30 times those
of typical office buildings, data
centers are an important target in
energy-saving efforts.
Energy-efficiency
best practices can hold the key to significant savings, while improving reliability
and yielding other non-energy benefits. Improving "air management" , or
optimizing the delivery of cool air and the collection of waste heat, can involve
many design and operational practices. This
article provides key points for improving air cooling. |
Control
Strategies for Plenum Optimization
in Raised Floor Data Centers
This paper studies the flow domain
of the underfloor plenum in a raised-floor
data center. Based on the analysis, flow control strategies were proposed and
implemented in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations. The results demonstrate
the possibility of optimizing airflow distribution in raised floor data centers. |
High-Density
vs. Low-Density Data Centers
One common belief is that the TCO of a new DC is lower with a low-density design
because it doesn't require as advanced of a design, nor as elaborate of power
delivery and cooling systems. |
Thinking
Green: Data Center Aims for LEED Certification
The data center hosting company 365 Main
Inc. has committed to building all future
data centers under U.S. Green Building Council
(USGBC) guidelines for Leadership in Energy
and Environment Design (LEED) certification. |
Cooling
Planning: Tools To Improve Your Data Center
Air Flow
Using
CFD software, data center administrators
can model airflow and temperatures within
a data center. The result of this software-enabled
CFD modeling is usually a graphical depiction
of air flows and temperature differences
across different portions of a data center. |
Revamping
Your Data Center? It’s Time To Think
About Raised Floors, Racks & More
Perhaps
one of the most compelling reasons to build
a new center rather than spend budget money
trying to make do with an older center is
the flooring. During construction, you can
install a raised floor that has plenty of
space for electrical and network cables and
can be air-conditioned to prevent shortages.
Raised flooring also reduces static. |
Raised
Flooring: When Is It Time To Repair, Replace,
or Resurface?
Although
it might be tempting to start fresh with
a new floor, repair and refurbishing services
can easily return your existing floor to
like-new status, even if most of your floor
is showing its age. |
Maintaining
Flooring, Racks & Furniture: Don’t
Neglect The Basics In Your Data
Center
When most data center experts
think of doing maintenance to
the data center, their thoughts
usually gravitate toward server
updates and patching.... Underneath
it all, though, is the item that
is most likely to see wear—the
flooring. |
Ask
The Data Management Expert: Questions &
Answers
Raised access flooring is generally used to
provide both a place for the quantity of power
and communications cable necessary to a data
center, and a plenum to convey cool air to
the cabinets. |
Data
Center Floor Plans
A broad spectrum of technical and strategic
concerns must be taken into account when
drafting a data center floor plan. The biggest
factor to be considered when creating an
effective data center floor plan is the
power and cooling density to which the equipment
is deployed. |
Green
Data Centers Tackle LEED Certification
With the completion of two Leadership in
Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)-certified
data centers in recent years, IT professionals
are beginning to see the green building's
movement adopted by their sector. These types
of projects provide a blueprint for environmentally
responsible buildings that may save companies
money in the long run. |
Overhead
or Underfloor Installation?
This chapter outlines the benefits and drawbacks
of running power, data connections and cooling
into the Data Center by way of the ceiling
versus installing a raised floor system and
routing it underneath. |
