July 5th, 2010
HVAC Project Adds Cooling Capacity to PEAK Data Center
The installation and environmental configuration of two additional Air Conditioning units was completed in June and has provided added cooling capacity to the PEAK data center, ensuring that PEAK’s network infrastructure will stay in operation in the event
The addition of two new AC units adds further redundancy to PEAK's data center cooling infrastructure
of thermal issue. Cooling and Heating Ventilation Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems are a crucial component in the mix of infrastructure required to keep a data center within constant operation. This post helps illustrate why all the recent emphasis and careful consideration has been dedicated to this area over the last 60 days.
At PEAK, there are hundreds of servers and various other networking devices operating 24-hours a day by 365-days a year, in high-density configurations. Each of these devices is constantly routing packets, processing email, serving web pages, and as a result churning out the bi-product of this process – which is heat.
Servers and other network devices are very sensitive to heat. To maintain constant operation, PEAK’s engineering staff must cool the data center and manage airflow to move heat away from the computers (see: hold/cold isles for data center). This is a critical operation and temperatures are monitored closely by network operation staff. Accordingly, as a part of PEAK’s ongoing quality infrastructure assessment the previous HVAC was configuration evaluated and it was decided to add additional units to the existing system.
The addition of two additional cooling units provides not only more capacity above what can be provided, but also gives the data center redundancy to operate if any one of the units fails during operation. This situation is technically called, “N+1,” where the system is still available and operating given a failure of one unit and requires that the independent back-up that is actively or passively participating in the system operation.
This upgrade was completed with no down time and will prevent any future outages related to cooling.
