Modern data centers continue to evolve at a rapid pace. While methodologies and techniques for cooling continue to advance, some of the basic lessons that have proven themselves over time continue to be underutilized. New technology and techniques can often be helpful, but without employing fundamental airflow management metrics the full benefits of advanced cooling methods cannot be realized. Fundamental data center metrics have been the basis of many publications and presentations since the industry’s founding, but emphasis on the fundamentals has dropped off over the last several years because advances in cooling methods such as containment, free cooling, and evaporative cooling have held the spot light. However, applying the fundamentals is crucial to getting the best results, regardless of having a legacy cooling configuration or the latest advanced free cooling methodology. Therefore, experts in the field have placed a renewed focus on fundamentals and have recently broached the topic at many of the industry’s biggest events.
Airflow management (AFM), in a nutshell, is about improving data center airflow so the least amount of conditioned air at the highest supply temperature can be used to effectively cool IT equipment. The following metrics discussed can help you identify which fundamental items can be improved, thus increasing your data center’s cooling capacity, IT performance, and energy savings regardless of the configuration of your room or the cooling methodology being used.