Guidelines to design an Ideal Datacenter

In literary meanings, a datacenter is a physical place used to store computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunications and storage systems that includes redundant or backup power supplies, redundant data communications connections, environmental controls (e.g., air conditioning, fire suppression) and security devices. It is very complicated job to design an ideal datacenter. Here, in this feature a guideline is given to design an idealistic datacenter.

Design factors

Beginning with perfect data center, the first thing to take care is the design of the datacenter should be perfect with every aspect like its height, area covered, strength etc. Ideal design of a datacenter should be flexible enough in terms of expansion and should be able to last for at least ten years. . The height of the datacenter room should be between 14-15 feet; 3 feet below raised floor rising up to 9.5 feet from the raised floor to false ceiling and 2 feet from false ceiling to shell. Dedicated space to store UPS and generator needs to be created adjacent to the core datacenter.

Power Supply

Planning for the power supply is another key vicinity that one should consider while designing the datacenter. A datacenter require power supply not only for the server and other nodes but, also for air-conditioning, networking equipment, security system, UPS etc. More so, make suitable arrangements in case of power cuts. A power logic management system can help you in this regard.

Redundant infrastructure

A datacenter must have some amount of built-in redundancy from server’s storage to power; everything should be made redundant. All this of course doubles the cost, so make sure this is planned out very carefully. Keep the most critical elements redundant.

The arrangement for Hot air exhaust

The equipments in the datacenter are supposed to produce a lot of heat, which can damage equipment and reduce overall performance. Hence, it's very important to keep your entire datacenter cool. A datacenter should be well ventilated to supply fresh air. This can be achieved by installing a dedicated cooling plant for your datacenter and arrangement for the hot air exhaust return paths control. Proper cooling of a datacenter leads to improved performance and lesser down time.

Fire prevention

A general saying says, “ Hope for the best, but prepared for the worst”. It is always advised to take a precautionary step to avoid any superfluous circumstances fire. Nobody can predict fire, as in when and how it can & will cause disasters. So you should install a full-fledged fire prevention system in the datacenter. This can be in the form of fire alarms, smoke and fire detectors. It is advised to use fireproof material to build the entire datacenter.

Physical security

Physical security is needed to safeguard the datacenter from any external attacks. A datacenter carries the critical business applications and data of an organization and hence I become an important job to secure datacenter. Door security techniques like Swap Card Access and Bio-Metric Authorization devices can help in this regard and as an add-on, you can put up motion detectors or a guard inside the main datacenter area to ensure security.

Reduce Energy Consumption

It is always advised to use equipments, which are supposed to save energy requirements in a datacenter. Use of multiple-core microprocessors can save energy as in m Multiple-core processors run at slower clock speeds and lower voltages than single-core chips but handle more work. Always look for features such as dynamic frequency and voltage scaling. As a general assumption, it is better to divide load on more than one server. It may consume little more power, but it will keep your equipment well and safe.

General guidelines for designing an Ideal Datacenter

· Keep it simple.

· Keep the design flexible for amendments

· Think modular while designing

· Label everything. Particularly cabling, it becomes easy to troubleshoot bad cables

· Plan ahead for future expansion

· Take weight consideration of Servers and storage equipment for datacenters

· Hope for the best, plan for the worst