Easy tips for optimizing power and cooling
We all know the importance of doing regular, preventative maintenance on our cars. Proper maintenance not only keeps vehicles running reliably, but practices such as maintaining optimal tire pressure and replacing old air filters can also improve gas mileage and overall performance. There are some equally simple steps that can be taken in Data Centers to reduce their energy consumption, thereby lowering their operational costs and making them greener. And, just as you don’t need to be a mechanic to do some basic automotive upkeep, you don’t need to be a Facilities engineer to help optimize your Data Center’s cooling and power consumption. Here, borrowing a bit of automotive vernacular, are a handful of good practices to follow regularly to keep your Data Center running efficiently. Check your air pressure. Data Centers obviously don’t have tires, but air pressure is a concern because it affects how effectively cooling gets to your IT hardware. Seal the gaps in your notched floor tiles, install blanking panels in empty cabinet spaces and check perforated floor tiles to make sure they’re closed where cooling isn’t needed and fully open where it is. Turn off your lights. Leaving the lights on in your Data Center overnight won’t drain your battery like in a car, but it does waste energy. Turning off the lights at night is a good first step. An even better one is to install timers and motion sensors so that non-emergency lighting automatically shuts off when no one is in the Data Center. Remove junk from your trunk. Hauling useless stuff in your car not only cuts fuel efficiency and performance, but also deprives you of cargo space when you find something that you really do want to transport. In a Data Center, useless stuff takes the form of non-essential hardware. Regularly remove old, poorly utilized systems so they doesn’t consume power and cabinet space. Can you suggest any other regular practices to add to this list?
