Questions to Ask Your Data Center Partner to Ensure the Smartest Cooling Strategies

Data is on the rise. And so is data center construction. Data centers are expanding, as well, to house more computing power, which means these facilities often require more energy and cooling capacity to maintain performance.

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A new report from Trane asks — and aims to help answer — the following question: Is  your data center partner optimizing its efficiency and uptime by using smart cooling strategies?

“How a data center manages the climate inside its facility is critical to its mission to maintain 24/7 uptime, maximize energy efficiency and control overhead costs,” the report states. “Data centers must be equipped with the correct capacity to offset the heat generated by rooms full of computers and server racks to maintain the ideal temperature and humidity ”

When selecting a data center partner, it’s key to inquire what approaches your potential partner uses, as the answers can provide insights into the data center’s ability to meet your expectations and your company’s sustainability goals.

According to Trane, data center cooling is “all about the design.” And designing a cooling solution for a data center includes an an HVAC expert, consulting engineer and general contractor.

As a provider works with the data center team to customize a data center cooling solution, they often look specifically at the following:

• Data center architecture
• Average and peak rack density
• Redundancy
• Geographic location

“Developers design HVAC systems to address the data center’s heat load, expansion plans, and redundancy requirements.” — Trane

The report also points out that data center IT loads inform cooling solutions.

“The power requirement of a data center’s cooling system, or the total load, depends on the data center’s physical size, rack density and other load-bearing factors such as power distribution units and uninterrupted power supplies,” Trane shared.

The report provides this example: A large data center spread out horizontally over multiple acres requires an expansive cooling system, perhaps numerous systems, to maintain a reasonable temperature for the IT equipment.

Further, also impacting your data center cooling strategy is climate and location, of course.

When developing a cooling solution, experts consider the historical temperature and humidity of the outside air to determine what solution will cool most effectively and affordably.

Ultimately, companies have to consider the data center’s type, geographical location, architecture and load when deciding on the perfect cooling system for their facility.

Download the full report, “Is Your Data Center Partner Optimizing Its Cooling Strategy for Efficiency and Uptime?” courtesy of Trane, which explores the ins and outs of data center cooling, and how to ensure the most efficient solution.