How to Monitor Data Center Cooling System Effectiveness

Wireless sensors and data loggers are revolutionizing data center monitoring at the rack level

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Data Centers...

We all have more in common with these modern information management facilities than you think! (Virtual files, servers, and client information) When it's your job to protect businesses' and personal data...keeping your cool counts, literally.

With the exponential growth in cloud-based servers and systems, data management centers exist worldwide to compute, store, and be the network hub for businesses, providing the massive tech lifts needed to safeguard and serve up data for infrastructure, employees, and customers—sometimes around the world.

For even just one company, a data management center needs to ensure lightning-fast access to its information assets and infrastructure, as well as protect them: web applications, network files, software, and security platforms, to start. Multiply that by the number of employees. Then, add to THAT the company’s overall network needs: accounting, human resources, operations, custom websites with information on hundreds of products, sales…and so on. 

Data centers are the mothership to manage it all. And the heat is on. 

24 hours a day, 7 days a week, data centers are making sure data stays secure and is safeguarded in a temperature-controlled environment. The equipment in data center halls that does all of that heavy data lifting, organized into racks and aisles, needs to stay cool, and last.

With the flood of demand from AI and IT,  data centers are burgeoning, and the quest for the most cost-effective cooling systems evolves. Rack servers, network-attached-storage (NAS) devices that archive images and videos, network routers, firewalls, power subsystems, Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS), backup generators, equipment, fire suppression systems…all are part of the data center web.

To battle the massive heat that’s generated by the “brains” of business, a variety of cooling methods have been used:

Types of Data Facility Cooling Systems

• Free cooling systems

• Raised floors

• In-aisle cooling units

• Evaporative cooling systems

• Chilled water systems

• CRAC (Computer Room Air Conditioning) Units

   

Is Your Data Cooling System Doing Its Job? 

Despite the data center cooling systems that have been installed, if left unchecked, excessive heat and/or humidity from any of the center’s equipment can potentially exceed the ASHRAE recommended temperature standard for data processing environments (64.4 to 80.6 degrees Fahrenheit) and wreak havoc on the efficiency and lifespan of the processing hardware.

And the higher energy consumption and even larger carbon footprint that results? Not good for a data center’s bottom line, nor for the environment. 

To prevent overheating and its consequences, monitoring temperature and relative humidity to ensure conditions remain optimal is a logical necessity. Unfortunately, traditional wired monitoring systems can be complex to install, expensive, and difficult to scale as data centers expand. 

Easy-to-Deploy Products to Monitor Data Center Cooling Systems 

Rack- and Aisle-Level Temperature and Humidity Loggers

Forward-thinking data center management companies recognize the importance of ensuring its cooling systems are doing their job. A checks and balances solution at the rack and aisle level, HOBO Data Center Monitoring Solutions offer affordable, scalable monitoring systems comprised of wireless data loggers that connect with your device and the cloud with the addition of a remote station and data plan. 

Remote Wireless Sensor Network 

Data center managers can even expand monitoring across facilities using a HOBOnet wireless sensor network. With the ability to connect up to 50 wireless sensors to a single station, a HOBOnet remote monitoring system allows you to strategically place wireless sensors in racks, along aisles, and throughout a facility and connect it to the LI-COR Cloud analysis platform, which provides real-time alerts and insights into environmental conditions remotely. This robust remote monitoring platform's alerts deliver time-critical information that help them make informed decisions, adjust proactively, and react quickly to prevent a catastrophic failure.

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Built with precision and accuracy in mind, data center monitoring solutions provide data center stakeholders with their OWN reliable data: to identify hotspots, optimize cooling systems, monitor energy use and efficiency, and maintain a consistent and optimal environment for their equipment. Not only does this enhance operational efficiency—it also bolsters the company's overall sustainability goals and bottom line.

The rest, as they say…is browser history. 

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