Achieve More Efficiency from Your Data Center with Air Flow Management - NetRack

Apeksha Sandesh Network
Nov 22, 2021  
Achieve More Efficiency from Your Data Center with Air Flow Management - NetRack

Bangalore, Karnataka, India: Data centers are at the heart of today’s IT solutions and need to be working at optimum efficiency at all times. Hence, the gamut of IT infrastructure thrusts its functioning on strategic airflow management to increase the efficiency of the data center itself.

In simple terms, it is the ventilation system of every server rack installed in big or small data centers and how the entire cold and hot air streams are managed to increase the efficiency of the data center and its equipment.

The critical function of airflow management is to isolate hot and cold airstreams by positioning all the cabinets in parallel rows with the inlet sides of the servers while facing each other across an aisle (this forms a cold aisle). This marks the initial phase of airflow management, where the mixing of the thermal environment within the data center ecosystem is prevented. Also, the process can be empowered with customized airflow management solutions designed to cater to specific data center requirements.

There is no ‘one size fits all’ with airflow management in data centers. Each data center varies in its equipment and hence needs a strategic, logical, and customized approach to ensure that the airflow is maintained appropriately. Owing to the years of experience in curating airflow management strategies, NetRack is one of the best in the industry. NetRack uses only a tried and tested method of first studying the data center, planning a perfect solution so that there is no risk to the data center.

Strategy is the accelerator to the solution but the fulcrum to ensure efficiency is the quality of products used in the application.

Some key aspects to consider for the strategy:

  1. Isolate hot and cold airstreams by arranging the racks and cabinets in parallel rows with the inlet sides of the servers. And make Hot or Cold aisle containment.

  2. Check for irregular floor tiles to ensure an even surface and brush tiles to avoid cold air leakage.

  3. Securing all cabinets with Plinth, Rack Side Thermal Sealing with air seal kit and Blanking Panels between the equipment, thus, forcing the cold air to pass only through the equipment while the hot air released at rear side with minimal or complete isolation.

Connecting multiple pieces of equipment across the data center through a complex cabling system is a work of expertise. This ensures protection from short circuits and helps manage airflow appropriately.

 

Below are the highlights that aid in smooth airflow management through cabling:

 

  1. Cold and Hot air Containment - A small data center with fewer racks can go with hot air containment. However, for large data centers, cold air containment is recommended due to several racks and larger area.

  2. Air Seal Kit, brush model, and blanking panels- helps in reducing airflow leakage, thus ensuring a consistent flow of cold air through mission-critical equipment.

  3. Air Diverter Solution kit - aids in effectively managing cooling requirements of the equipment’s side airflow with two systems, one for cold air suction from the front while the other for hot air exhaust at the back.