Data Center Sustainability

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As critical facility infrastructure matured and evolved over the last few decades, it has progressively become more complex and specialized.

A picture is worth a thousand words. There is a lot of truth in this old saying, and this is why when handed a set of construction documents the drawings are typically the first part to be scrutinized. Reading a set of drawings provides a quick understanding of a construction project.

When I first set out to write this article it seemed a fairly straightforward topic.

Perhaps the most critical equipment and systems in any critical facility are the monitoring and control systems.

The staff that’s entrusted to operate and maintain critical facilities are the most critical and valuable assets there are in the overall scheme of sustained continuous operations.

We often measure data centers and other critical facilities in terms of capacity. Capacity is used to measure power, cooling, and of course space. Saying a facility has 50,000 sq ft of computer room space doesn’t really describe its actual capacity.

There are industries where typical sites have accurate and comprehensive documentation.

In or around November 2006, I co-authored a white paper with Vali Sorell (vice president, Syska Hennessy Group) that calculated and compared the energy efficiency of cooling strategies employed in most data centers.

Many corporations and other large operations that previously would only consider owning and operating their own data centers are now considering moving at least parts of their enterprise into collocation sites.

The dictionary defines emergency as “an unexpected and sudden event that must be dealt with urgently.” It defines preparedness as “readiness for action.” So, emergency preparedness is being ready for sudden, unexpected events.