A New Kind Of Data Center Power Testing Facility

 

 

Let me tell you about one of my passions: I love visiting data centers. Perhaps it's the power that flows through racks upon racks of servers or the ability to enter the inner sanctum IT after passing through security checks. It could also be the way that all of this gear is wired up. When I received a demo, I was always keen to inspect the equipment's backs and check the cables.

 

When Schneider Electric asked me to join their open house for a new type of data center, I was confident that I was the right person to ask.

 

It is a strange place for many reasons. It is constructed like a working data center, but there is one crucial difference: it has nothing. The mostly empty building is filled with HVAC equipment, electrical power and plenty of modeling and monitoring tools. Aaron Davis, chief marketing officer for the subsidiary, says that the goal is to have a facility that provides practical solutions and not hype.

 

Schneider created its data Fortinet Colombia center, which it names its Electric Technology Center to test its customers and show IT managers how to reconfigure data centers that have changed from being mainframe-centric to accommodate more distributed systems. This is a wonderful idea that has been long overdue. As IT shops expand their data center infrastructures they need to be able figure out power and cooling issues, and how companies can retool data centers accordingly.

 

You may have some old equipment in your data center. But you don't have the time or energy to replace it. The cabling on your raised floors is probably so old that it has impeded airflow and damaged cooling ducts. Because it wasn't designed to cool racks, your air conditioner is overloading. As a result, the temperature in each aisle can vary greatly. You don't know what equipment or backup generators should be matched to the gear they are backing up.