Just like a homeowner is familiar with the steady increase in utility bills during the hot summer months, so are data center managers. Data centers use a lot of energy to maintain proper temperature and maximize uptime through properly running infrastructure. The hot summer months make it more difficult to keep things cool without going bankrupt. As we move into the fall and enjoy cooler temperatures, it is a good time to take a look back at the cooling measures implemented in the data center and see what improvements can be made to make it as efficient as possible.
To begin identifying where improvements can be made you must first identify what exactly is using the most energy. By determining, for instance, where hot spots are you can begin to see where cooling measures must be directed. Rather than uniformly increasing or decreasing temperatures, seek first to locate and contain high temperatures. What works best for a data center will depend on certain factors like data center size, infrastructure, and specific needs. What works for many is to implement a hot aisle/cold aisle containment system or even a completely contained room. By doing this you can direct cooling to the specific area you need it without wasting those efforts on areas that are not hot to begin with.
While this is a good starting point, to better manage a data center and adjust management strategy on a regular basis it is imperative that a data center implements continuous monitoring. Without continuous monitoring, making adjustments will often be based on guess work. With the help of continuous monitoring you can have real time data that shows what is happening so that you can make adjustments on a month by month, day by day, hour by hour and even minute by minute basis. This will not only improve your ability to improve energy efficiency but also help prevent downtime. Continuous monitoring will also allow you to begin to recognize patterns in the data center and anticipate what your data center can handle. Armed with this information and a more targeted approach to cooling, you can operate comfortably at warmer temperatures – even one degree can have a significant impact on utility bills – and be able to make appropriate adjustments should they be needed. By the time the temperatures begin to warm up again next year you will be well-seasoned at understanding what is happening in your data center and will be able to make informed decisions for how to better approach cooling during the hot summer months.
