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How quick were you to answer that question? Is it the tenant? Is it the colocation or cloud provider? Or, does it all need to be spelled out in an SLA? If you picked one of those responses, you’re not wrong. But you may need some clarification.Over the past few years...

The concept of liquid cooling in data centers has grown immensely in popularity over the last few years. Much of this has been driven by claims that liquid cooling is up to 2,000-3,000 times better than air cooling and is the only way to efficiently cool data centers...

Ten months ago, when I started this project of producing a series on algorithms for managing or planning a data center’s mechanical infrastructure, my thinking was that I could demystify the mechanical plant by breaking it down into discrete elements and making the...

I want to start with a really obvious statement: not all data centers are built the same. So why do I still see people deploying workloads that either their own data center or a partner’s simply can’t support? Some of it revolves around use-case definition, and some...

Sealing the open gaps in server racks is a well-known best practice when implementing airflow management improvements in a data center. After all, sealing these gaps (both within and along the sides of cabinets) often provides the greatest return on investment of any...

A set of Excel tools will not make us a certified PE or replace the need for a PE or architectural engineer to design our data center. Or, obviate the need for a mechanical facilities engineer to oversee ongoing operation; however, such tools can provide us with a...

Last summer I thought it might be interesting to explore the different elements that contribute to the cost of cooling our data centers and explore the feasibility of developing some easy-to-use Excel tools to help in comparing costs of different design options and...

The Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) metric is the most popular method of calculating energy efficiency in the data center. Although hotly debated for its limitations, its use is still very prevalent throughout the industry. Developed by the Green Grid, PUE is simply...

What does frying an egg have to do with data center efficiency? Well, nothing really, but when we’re looking at the concept of exergy, i.e. the measure of not only energy itself, but the usefulness of that energy, the example of frying an egg helps explain this...

According to the most recent AFCOM State of the Data Center Industry report, organizations continue to invest in solutions which help improve overall redundancy levels. For power, N+1 is still primary, but N+2 redundancy designs are expected to grow by over 40% over...

What is liquid cooling? To put it simply, liquid cooling is when the removal of a heat source is done by a liquid. Pretty straightforward, right? It should be, but there’s actually quite a few misconceptions as to what solutions are considered ‘liquid cooling’ and...

Is the time right for the 100 degree Fahrenheit data center? It sure seems like it should be with the ASHRAE TC9.9 guidelines allowing server inlet temperatures up to 95˚F for Class A2 servers, 104˚F for Class A3 servers and 113˚F for Class A4 servers. When we finally...