Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1386104
28 I ICT TODAY 90 o F (32.2 o C) 85 o F (29.4 o C) 78 o F (25.6 o C) 73 o F (22.8 o C) 70 o F (21.1 o C) 65 o F (18.3 o C) 78 o F (25.6 o C) 77 o F (25.0 o C) 76 o F (24.4 o C) FIGURE 1: Inlet air temperature variations in a traditional hot aisle/cold aisle application (left) and a typical containment system (right). The much larger temperature variation is in the hot aisle/cold aisle application. All of this begins with strict separation of hot and cold air within the data center, using a complete containment system for both inside the cabinet and within the room (Figure 1). A reliable containment system inside the cabinet creates a strict front-to-rear or front-to-top pathway for airflow and includes: • Perforated doors to allow airflow front-to-rear when used with aisle containment. • Perforated front door and solid rear door to allow front-to-top airflow when used with a ducted exhaust. • Panel work that seals the sides, top, and bottom of the cabinet. • Grommets or brush seals over cable openings in top, bottom, and side panels. • An internal front/rear seal, including a perimeter seal between the mounting rails and the side panels and blanking panels in each unused rack-mount space. • A top-mount ducted exhaust or an overhead aisle containment to separate supply and return air within the room. CHALLENGE 3: ENSURING UPTIME Monitoring the power use and availability of power for each piece of equipment gives data center managers the ability to prevent issues before they result in downtime. For high-density environments, it is critical to continually monitor circuit-breaker status. Setting thresholds for all the electrical parameters being monitored (e.g., voltage, current, energy, temperature) ensures data center managers are proactively notified of alarming problems. CHALLENGE 4: OPTIMIZING EFFICIENCY For optimizing efficiency, the strategy is to focus on getting the highest return on power utilization for compute power at the lowest cooling cost possible. To ensure highly available power to IT equipment, all power components in the power chain need to have monitoring capabilities. This is where data center infr- astructure management (DCIM) software plays a key role. The DCIM software automates centralized data collection and reporting from monitoring devices and provides power capacity trends and analysis over time,