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Temperature Monitoring

Temperature Monitoring Feature


August 04, 2010

A Greener Way to Data Center Temperature Monitoring

By David Sims, TMCnet Contributing Editor


Compiled by a high-profile vendor in the field, a recent white paper concludes that organizations looking to become more efficient with their power usage in the data center have a number of options available. Mainly:

*Reconfigure the datacenter to a more efficient setup.

*Construct a new datacenter from the ground up.

Or…

*Replace all the equipment to less dense servers, and those which employ micro cooling, temperature monitoring technologies.

A recent white paper notes that "there is significant focus being placed on the IT Department to critically look at the way in which it operates," and tackles the questions of "what can be done to decrease the reliance on power, and thus help make the data center go green?”

The paper finds that "there are a number of strategies available to IT managers such as virtualization, redesign of the data center and exchanging power hungry servers with more energy efficient devices."

Yes we realize this is not a practical wish list for every company: "Clearly, for most companies, constructing a new datacenter from the ground up is not a feasible solution," the paper notes rather drily, adding hopefully that the long term savings may make up for the expense.

Sometimes just the setup can help: "It is important to create a logical flow of air throughout the datacenter that also separates the warm and cold air. An ideal arrangement would use a hot-aisle/cold-aisle methodology. Through doing this air segregation is obtained."

Another benefit of this configuration is the ability to monitor the temperatures of the exhausted air compared to the inbound cold air, the paper notes.

And you might want to look at something as basic as the lights: "Lights in the datacenter also produce a considerable amount of heat. It is important to not ignore this heat source in an overall green strategy. The IT manager should be cognizant of the times in which the lights need to be on, and either install motion sensors or automatic controls for the lights to help reduce costs."


David Sims is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of David’s articles, please visit his columnist page. He also blogs for TMCnet here.

Edited by Erin Monda