Much has been written about “big data,” but should we be asking whether our industry is missing the boat?

I recently participated in a discussion on LinkedIn about the best, most energy-efficient way to control temperature: either the classic sensor in the return of each individual CRAC/CRAH or supply air either by under-floor sensors or sensors in the cold aisles.

In the early years of data centers, when computing technology was costly and temperamental, protecting hardware with critical power and cooling capabilities was the top priority.

In the Jan/Feb issue of Mission Critical, Zinc Whiskers focused on how the “cloud” operates as an automatically virtualized environment that creates very high power densities in processing areas.

United Parcel Service, Inc. (UPS) built its name on more than a century of efficient distribution.

High temperatures make data center managers break out in cold sweats. Even though the thermostat may read a comfortable 76ºF, customers at colocation facilities say, “There must be a problem here, this room is so hot.”

For the last five years, data center owners and operators across the globe have been very focused on improving the energy efficiency of our data center power and cooling systems and reducing PUE.

Most popular movies spawn a sequel, and it looks like the widely accepted power usage effectiveness (PUE) has achieved a similar distinction. 

Over the course of the past decade, organizations have begun to rely significantly more on information technology (IT) systems to support business-critical applications. Organizations such as banks, telecommunications companies, internet service providers, and cloud/co-location facilities rely heavily on the availability of their data centers as many of their customers are paying a premium for access to a variety of IT applications. 

Are the issues of tomorrow’s data centers anything like they are today? A recent study by the Uptime Institute found that many of the expected challenges in 2016 are very similar to present issues, although some will be substantially different.