With today’s economic crisis, it’s becoming more important than ever for computer rooms and data centers to run more efficiently this year. But, as I’m sure you know, this isn’t a new issue. Raising energy efficiency in the last few years has been a major point of focus in both the public and private sectors, and this year is no exception. If you can successfully raise your energy efficiency, you will help to not only produce much greater energy savings and enhance your company’s data reliability, but you’ll also be cutting down on carbon emissions in the environment by minimizing the load on the electric grid.

To obtain these goals, equipment suppliers are inventing more energy-efficient equipment and technology every year, and computer rooms are decreasing their energy consumption in their buildings. The US Department of Energy (DOE) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have also focused on this issue by creating a national energy efficiency information program for data centers.

With the economic crisis in full effect right now, the financial impact of high energy use in server rooms is becoming an ever increasingly important issue for most companies. Because of today’s energy situation, you should read an article from Wall Street & Technology, titled “5 Tips to Cut Data Center Energy Use.” In the article, there are 11 server room ideas for practices recommended for cooling that can help dramatically improve computer room energy efficiency. Here are the top five from the article:

1. Plug Holes in the Suspended Computer Room Floor
2. Install Blanking Panels
3. Coordinate CRAC Units
4. Improve Underfloor Airflow
5. Implement Hot Aisles and Cold Aisles

A dedicated computer room creates a huge benefit, even for a small server room with little equipment. Small servers can cause terrible noise and can make even a large room’s temperature to greatly rise. There are also serious security concerns that must be considered if your servers share the room with other people or if they’re easily accessible to people just walking by in the hallway.

A large server setup, on the other hand, will quickly surpass tolerable and/or regulatory noise levels (which can be varied in each state or country). The heat reducing demands will also be significantly higher. Standard air conditioning cannot handle such high demands. Plus there will be waste heat from computer room ac. The only option is to allow for a dedicated computer or server room with specialized air conditioning that will cater to your specified ideal server room temperature. If you’re unsure about what would work best for you, check into server room air conditioning companies. A dedicated area will also make limiting personnel access much easier to handle. It’s probably a good idea to implement electronic badge or card access, and maintain a log of who has entered or exited the room.

In addition to the server itself, generally a dedicated computer room will also contain disks, back-up devices, cables, and, most likely, spare disks, peripheral cards, blades, fans, and other vital equipment. You will probably be able to provide server administration remotely, but a local console in the server room is also crucial, which will allow personnel to perform functions like maintenance and administration locally.

Environmental Issues to Consider during Computer Room Design

In addition to storing the equipment in your computer room, you will also need enough room to move and rearrange it as needed. Part of this includes changes in air conditioning and electrical power. You’re also going to need enough room to store backup replacement devices such as peripheral cards, fans, disks, and backup tapes.

If you’re not careful when estimating your current and future demands, you may be forced to move your servers to a new room or location, which will cause a major disruption in your company’s services. You’ll also end up with huge direct and indirect costs. Your direct costs might include obtaining, building, and provisioning a new computer room or even an entirely new building. Indirect costs may and probably will arise, for example, when a lack of storage causes an inability to work efficiently and properly and respond effectively to competitors.

Do not store any of your backups in the server room. If there is a computer room fire, it could, and probably will, damage or destroy both the hardware and the backups. Ideally your backups should be stored offsite at a secure location. It may cost, but it’s worth it.

Ensure that your power supply is large enough to meet today’s demands as well as the demands of the future. Don’t be frugal when it comes to your server room. Also make sure you install enough lighting and electrical outlets.

If you will do all of the above correctly the first time, ensuring a correct computer room layout,  it will make futre maintenance and enhancements that much simpler, not to mention cheaper.

One design issue that get overlooked quite often when creating a data center is when you’re building in or renovating an existing building. Check into how to build a data center and computer room construction management if you’re not sure about something. There are some specific and unique physical requirements, as well as obstacles, that must be addressed first before you move on to the building or renovating stage. Building or renovating for a server room or data center in an already heavily-populated area includes a number of problems. However, they are not impossible to overcome. Especially important is checking into server room construction standards for your local area. This is a list of ten basic guidelines to get you started:

1. Remember that, according to TIA-942, cables must be run to accommodate growth. That just means that you need to lay your cabling according to your needs today and according to what you estimate your needs will be in the future. You’ll want to lay cables for speeds that will probably be used in the next 10 years. A 10-gigabit system will likely be used during that time, if not something even more advanced.

2. Make sure you check up on your local codes regarding abandoned cables. Chances are, in order to be compliant, you’re going to have to remove all abandoned cable. You’ll want to have all of them out of the way before you start putting in your own. After all, more cables always means more restricted air flow and less space, which can make cable organization a disaster, not to mention the hazard of computer room fires.

3. Ensure that your data provider will be able to install conduits that can accommodate your electricity and other cable demands. It will be a very expensive mess if you have to go back and pay to have additional conduits drilled/installed, for example, under existing roadways.

4. Check into local laws and codes for fire suppression and specific cable coating requirements. Does the cable need to be limited combustible? Does it need to be run in special conduits? Make sure you have the correct server room specifications.

5. Heating and cooling in your server room are extremely important. Check your HVAC requirements. Depending on your servers, your requirements may increase substantially, so look into a variety of server room cooling units. You may also want to install a server room temperature alarm, just in case you don’t have the ideal server room temperature.

6. Although you may not think of it at first, seismic activity and flooding are always a possibility. Check into local building codes and standards and regulations.

7. You’ll also want power redundancy. Check with your local power company to see what they can provide you with.

8. Something you must consider is how accessible you will be to the local fire department and hydrants. Hydrants should always be close, and the fire department shouldn’t have to cross any railroad tracks to get to your building. If they do, it’s going to cause your insurance rates go up. Strange, but true. You may also want to consider your computer room layout – will all the equipment be accessible to help teams?

9. Is your building secure from outside forces? For example, are you going to need to build barriers on the South side of your building adjacent to the road to prevent drivers from accidentally crashing directly into your server room? Keep anything in the outside environment that are not in your control in mind.

10. Pay careful attention to current and future floor loads. It’s often the case that high rise buildings can’t support heavy loads, like large computer room equipment, without expensive structural modifications and fortifications.

If you’re unsure about any of the above information, be sure to check into data center designing services. There is a great number of companies out there that can help you.