Data centers facilities should meet capacity and operational needs of the design. The aim should be design something that are top notch in terms of scalability and flexibility, keeping in minds of the building selection, floor layout, site location, electrical and mechanical system design and modularity. Achieving everything in the initial design concept is quite difficult, but is possible with the right plan and strategies. The introductions of latest technologies like blade servers, which need significant incremental power and cooling capacity, have made the job easier.
Strategic planning
The key to a booming data center design is that it should sustain in the long run. An integrated system for operations and equipment should be considered.
Rules of design for scalability and flexibility
While making the initial design, give importance to scalability and flexibility in all aspects, including site location, space layout, building and design. Keeping in mind of safety and security regulations, you need to purchase new equipments and depending on the cooling demands, there should be an option to make changes in mission and operational procedures.
Capacity Vs density
To build a strong facility, plan to design to scale from 50W to 100W per square foot on a modular basis. Consider trade-offs between power and space, while keeping extra space between racks for air flow.
The impact of new hardware technologies on facilities can’t be ignored. Data centres are designed for electrical capacity to meet the cooling and power demands. Architects should keep sufficient capacity space for intermediate distribution feeds. To handle any computer equipment, power capacity ranging from 30 watts to 70 watts is recommended, while additional electrical unit is needed for transformer losses, UPS (uninterruptible power supply), lighting, humidification, and air conditioning.
Data centre architects should focus on the impact of density over capacity, offering enough clearances between racks and be mindful of various measures, such as connected load to scale up modularly.
Rack layout
The Distribution of high-density racks all through the layout to lessen hot spots is recommended. Though dense-packing the layout with high-capacity servers can save some space, it can lead to severe heat issues that would need incremental cooling, which increases the electrical costs. Hence, architects and designers should combine low density racks with high density racks to mitigate heat effects of servers.
In case if you’re looking for data center designs, you can contact architecte usine Stendel Reich for more details.
