Environmental Monitoring Channel Feature

Capacity Planning, Environmental Monitoring Solutions Can Help Data Centers Protect IT Investments

To successfully compete in the current economic conditions, organizations need to make IT investments with the utmost care and planning. Not spending IT dollars wisely can unnecessarily deplete a company's budget or prevent them from reaching their full potential.

In an effort to help organizations identify areas of critical importance, Processor.com recently put together a list of tips for capacity planning in a data center.

The first thing that experts suggest companies do is analyze their data center in its current form. This can help IT managers better evaluate what systems or software they might need down the road.

Michael Petrino, vice president for PTS Data Center Solutions, recommends investing in software that can provide redundancy planning and 3D graphics for space, power and cooling capacity.

"With an accurate room model, we are able to take information regarding new systems and run multiple room and rack cooling capacity and redundancy planning scenarios as to where in the room the heat generated can be most effectively dissipated without impacting other systems," Petrino told Processor (News - Alert).com.

One of chief areas of concern for a data center manager is keeping the temperatures in the server room and cabinets at a static level. Without proper controls in place, networking and computing equipment can produce temperatures capable of damaging or even destroying highly sensitive and critical IT components.

Petrino said that energy efficiency analysis can help IT managers recognize underperforming cooling systems and identify assets that may be needed in the future.

“[It is then possible] to begin the process of making improvements to increase the return temperature, which is most often accomplished by reducing air mixing," Petrino told the news source.

Another good capacity planning tip is to conduct analysis on daily energy usage patterns, says Charlie Mayne, president of ITWatchDogs, a leading environmental monitoring solutions provider.

Mayne says that understanding daily power usage trends can help an organization modify electrical loads when some servers are not in use and can be powered down. This can be accomplished by recording electrical-current usage data from individual outlets in power-distribution strips, he says.

“By determining which circuits are using the most power [during the day], you can better balance their loads,” Mayne told the website.

Furthermore, data center managers should implement real-time environmental monitoring solutions and make certain that they are being used to full capacity. In addition to helping mitigate the ramifications of power-related malfunctions and adverse environmental conditions, effectively monitoring a data center can help IT managers conduct predictive analysis, said Petrino.

For example, ITWatchDogs' SuperGoose II monitors for temperature, relative humidity, dew point, airflow, light, sound and other adverse conditions.

One final piece of advice for IT managers is to resist overestimating the company's bandwidth requirements. The thirst for more bandwidth is often misjudged by data center managers, leading to unnecessary and extremely costly investments.

Most small- and medium-sized organizations don't need costly high-speed LAN connections, mostly due to the fact that user workstations can't take advantage of them, Roger Hockaday, director of marketing for EMEA at Aruba Networks (News - Alert), told Processor.com.

"While instantaneous traffic flows can be higher, in practice the user does not benefit from the ability to burst at 50Mbps or more because the time taken to [execute a file] is usually limited by the PC, not the network’s ability to deliver the file,” Hockaday said.

Beecher Tuttle is a TMCnet contributor. He has extensive experience writing and editing for print publications and online news websites. He has specialized in a variety of industries, including health care technology, politics and education. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Carrie Schmelkin