By Kevin O’Brien, President - Mission Critical Construction Services Division, EEC

With growing costs of energy in their facilities, energy conservation seems to be on the top of the priority list for many data center operators.  According to Datacenter Journal and other industry sources, today’s data centers consume approximately 3% of global electricity and produce 200 million metric tons of CO₂.  And with the imminent growth of the Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, social media and cloud computing, our reliance on these energy hogs shows no signs of subsiding.  While companies strategize new ways to reduce the astronomical cost required to power today’s data centers, they now also have to factor in a more long-term concern – their facilities’ impact on the environment.  One quick way to improve data center efficiency is through the optimization of environmental parameters, specifically Computer Room Air Conditioning (CRAC) / Computer Room Air Handler (CRAH) units.

By Kevin O’Brien, President, Mission Critical Construction Services, EEC

My experience in the data center industry goes back to the nineteen-eighties while working as a facilities manager for a large financial services company headquartered in NYC. Data centers were commonly located in New York City in the same building where their trading and office spaces were located.

The 1980s and 1990s
In 1988, we built our first remote site data center facility outside NYC, dedicated to only data and telecommunications. The site was an old ITT communication HUB in New Jersey that used to house the link for the ‘Hot Line’ between Washington DC and Moscow. Everything was pretty much analog in those days. Having the remote site allowed us to increase the redundancy and reliability of the electrical and mechanical systems. There was no Tier-certification system back then, but we were able to meet what would now be considered an equivalent of a Tier II standard on the electrical and even went to the equivalent of 2N on the UPS. The load-in data centers back then ranged from only 35 to 50 watts per square feet maximum. More and more companies began choosing remote sites throughout the 90s as fiber and demands for more computers at a higher reliability grew. It was not surprising that in 1989, the 7x24 Exchange started to publish articles and share common experiences on how to improve reliability. Then in the early 90s, The Uptime Institute was born, as was the creation and administration of the widely adopted, “Tier certifications”.

EEC clients that run efficient, reliable data centers tend to have one thing in common: Management buy-in.

Here are five data center management tips:

The barge floating in the San Francisco Bay that was discussed last week is likely a mobile showroom with a party deck. This way, the facility can be taken anywhere around the world (by land or by sea) and show the company's wares.