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Server racks and data cabinets have become the go-to solution for housing servers, storage devices, network routers, patch panels and a host of other associated devices including uninterruptible power supplies, power distribution units and environmental monitoring systems. The choice can seem daunting but it is a relatively easy process to size, select and buy the right rack or cabinet for your installation online. This guide covers some of the general areas to consider.

Server racks are designed for one purpose and that is to provide an easy and secure way to house IT servers and their associated networking devices. Most organisations will have at least one server rack and the problem for many today is how to expand their existing installation to take advantage of new server technologies.

Overheating kills electronics including servers, network switches, IT peripherals and UPS batteries. As we all know heat rises and so it makes sense to put the most heat sensitive items at the bottom of a server rack. Within a server room or data centre environment, the amount of power being drawn is high enough for temperature hot spots to reach critical temperatures at which point there is a real risk of fire and catastrophic failure.

Many small businesses and especially those working from home, do not have a server room in which to house their server(s) and computer networking devices. Their IT systems are often run from a corner of their office, and this can lead to several issues including risks of accidental cable disconnection and trip hazards, security to prevent unauthorised access, noise pollution and heat generation.

Data centres and server rooms should be designed around the workload they have to support both from day-one and in the future. This is not always the case and many server room operations evolve from their initial concept, driven by changes in demands, workloads and technology. This can lead to inefficiencies and less than optimum design in terms of critical systems and resilience.

There are many challenges to installing the right server room racks and cabinets for your IT facility. If you don’t have a datacentre floor but have to focus on a small server room or back office or network closet, space in terms of footprint and ceiling heights can be challenging factors. These small data environments typically have less than ten or less server racks housing their servers (now virtualised), network hardware, telecomms and storage devices.

Computer and small server rooms tend to only have one or two server racks to protect from power outages. For these installations, a rackmount UPS if often the preferred solution. There are some factors to consider when planning to install an uninterruptible power supply in a server rack which do not apply to a floor standing tower system.

How you manage the air flow within your server racks can have a dramatic effect on the overall energy efficiency of your datacentre and specifically the server room area. The higher the temperature within the server space, the greater the need for cool air from your air conditioning system and its delivery to your server racks either via a raised access floor or general movement via fans within the room. The harder the air conditioning system must work, the greater the energy used and the higher the running costs in terms of electricity bills.

Server rack densities are increasing and have quadrupled over the last 9 years from 2011 to 2020. From 2.4kW/rack to 8.4kW/rack according to the latest survey by the Uptime Institute. What affect are these increasing demands having on server rack deployment, power protection and cooling system arrangements and what is the primary cause of data centre outages.

When it comes to room design, it is vital to ensure you make the right choices in the selection of your server racks and cabinets. There are several topics to consider, all of which can impact the overall layout optimisation, functional efficiency and the future scalability of your room design.

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