Data and communication centers are the heart of most companies today. Environment monitoring in computer rooms, data centers and other facilities has become a critical part of disaster prevention for IT managers across industries.

 

Monitoring critical issues like temperature, humidity, smoke and airflow can help minimize financial loss in the face of disaster and reduce the time required to restore operations, which are key to business continuity.

 

AVTECH has pioneered some of the most popular environment monitoring solutions and has been developing computer room monitoring products since 1988. The Warren, R.I.-based computer software and hardware manufacturer specializes in providing Windows NT/2K/XP/2K3 products to monitor multi-OS computers and network issues throughout a department or an entire enterprise.

 

In a recent interview with Michael Sigourney (News - Alert), senior product specialist at AVTECH, he explained some of the benefits of taking a proactive approach to monitoring IT environment issues, which include always-on service, increased productively and perhaps one of the most important things – peace of mind.

 

“The primary benefits of using IT environment monitoring products like AVTECH’s room temperature include things like improved continuity – making sure your Web sites, networks and IT departments are always on, always running, and that of course supports the entire business,” he said.

 

The average data center has 72 percent of their cooling capacity entirely bypassing computer equipment, according to the Uptime Institute. In fact, last year, 23 percent of all data centers experienced downtime more than five times as a result of IT environment issues. Temperature, power, humidity, flood, smoke, air flow and room entry are considered the “big seven” in terms of IT environmental threat factors.

 

“Obviously ongoing cost reductions are important. You’re getting better utilization of your equipment and you’re keeping people and systems working – that’s critical. Improved responsiveness is obviously a primary benefit for the IT manager and the staff – knowing what’s happening, being able to respond immediately allows them to do their jobs better and again supports the whole organization,” Sigourney said.