Hot or Not: Data Center Experts Decide

Expanding networking systems, reduced size but increased capacity of the multiple processors used in the data center racks have created a new problem – controlling the temperature. This involves maintaining the cooling around a certain temperature to avoid overheating. Not only does overheating damage the equipment and cause eventual data loss, but it is also hazardous to the people who work in and around the data center infrastructure. Well, that has been the understanding of the Data center experts so far. With the huge amount of research taking place just to investigate the effects of various temperatures on the data centers, there haven’t been any results showing how higher temperatures may adversely affect data centers.

There has been lot of disagreement and confusion when it comes to setting the temperature at which the data center’s computer room AC must start, and that is quite a key aspect to think about. Most of the times, this temperature is decided by the equipment manufacturers, and it is without any scientific data backing it.

That’s why effective temperature management – or as it also known as now, airflow management – techniques need to be employed to manage the safety and performance of the data center.

Why is colder not better?

While overheating is an issue in the data centers, the opposite – overcooling – is not really a solution either. In fact, recent studies have shown that too much cooling hampers the performance of the equipment as it requires a certain amount of heat to operate optimally. Also, it takes more power to cool the equipment than to run the equipment.

 However, on the other hand, it may seem like an easy way out to raise the operating temperature of the data center by one degree – just to save on the power spent on the cooling system. That again is likely to affect the system’s performance in terms of reliability.

So where do we draw the line? And how do we decide? There have been so many contradictory opinions about the temperature management such as:

· Raising the inlet temperature can make a very difficult environment for the personnel to work in.

This is a very valid human argument, as the temperature in the data center aisles can get as high as 150 F (65 C) which is almost an inhuman condition to work in. Not to mention, the resulting noises of fans and air conditioners which can increase the noise level, making it even more intolerable.

Yet, if the right steps are taken, then the businesses can manage the worker comfort and the device performances in the data center by the means of clever construction material and remote operations. Also, not all the equipment in the data center is noisy.

· Instead of cooling the data center, raising the temperature of data center will save more energy.

The experts in favour of this opinion justify it with calculations proving that an increase of one degree can lead to energy saving up to 4-5%. However, there is no guarantee that raising the temperature will not cause undue expenditure of energy and money in the form of extra fans and pump. Also, the effects of downtime due to the raised temperatures may cost more than the savings.

· Reducing the temperature of the data center increases the warranty of the equipment along with its reliability.

It is a common notion that a data center should be kept cool so that the overheating doesn’t hamper its performance. This is to offset the inlet air and exhaust air that get mixed in the data center. However, increasing the temperature in the data center can disturb this balance of cool air and warm air. Another supporting argument to this point would be that if the data center is already cool, it gives the data center officials to gracefully shut down the systems in case there is a AC failure.

This notion has been countered with the view that raising the temperature increases the efficiency of the data center. If the proper guidelines are followed, then the raised temperature can control the mixing of the hot and cool air to maintain a safe and workable environment.

· The modern hardware can withstand the raised temperature and is not very delicate. In fact, there are some models that can perform better with an increased temperature.

Now this statement has been tried and tested by Microsoft and there have been positive results to prove its veracity. However, it would be worth noticing that Microsoft has a huge data center footprint and better ways of managing failures. Their supporting argument may not be applicable to smaller data centers.

But then again, many other data centers have been tested and operated in a higher temperatures and humid conditions, yet within the ASHRAE guidelines and there has been only a marginal chance of failure. Conversely, working in an environment with raised temperatures and then having it increase more because of the server fan speeds and overtime can reduce the device’s life.

The winds of change seem to bring in a new thought process that higher temperatures in data centers are the “in” thing, but not with little protest. Even if the experts may not agree on the temperature management strategy for a data center, they do agree on one thing – hot or cold, reliability and performance of the data center without compromising on worker safety is what matters the most.