According to who you are, and what you need, the term “data center” can have a few different meanings. For the sake of commonality, a data center is most closely associated with being a large room under high security that houses a lot of very expensive boxes with lights - the nerve center of your business.
Let’s look at some industry definitions.
TIA 942 defines a data center as “a building or portion of a building whose primary function is to house a computer room and its support area.”
The EU Code of Conduct defines a data center as “all buildings, facilities and rooms that contain enterprise servers, server communications equipment, cooling equipment and power equipment, and provide some form of data service (e.g. large scale mission critical facilities all the way down to small server rooms located in office buildings).”
With these two definitions, it kind of makes you think…. hey, we have one of those!
Some important things to remember about data centers:
· There is no set size or complexity for a data center - it can range from a single equipment room (ER) all the way up to a large complex or campus with multiple computer rooms, each one containing equipment.
· Each data center needs a proper design and a good plan for future growth.
· Do not only consider the size of the room, but also the supporting facilities required to properly operate and safeguard it.
Keep in mind that the data center is a complex group of systems all gathered in one place and each system needs to work together and not negatively impact another system.
Contained within the data center, you’ll find power, lighting, cooling, security, grounding and bonding and fire protection, all physically supporting the equipment and network infrastructure. Each one is critical to the proper operation and safety of your data center.
So what does all this have to do with CPI? Quite simply, we can assist you with the following products and services:
• Planning your data center (including thermal design and considerations through a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model - both Greenfield and Brownfield)
• Power Management products at the rack and cabinet level (with basic, metered, monitored, and controlled power strips and PDUs)
• A wide range of racks and cabinets to meet or exceed your needs (from two-post racks that will fill your MDF, XLBET, high-density patching requirements to cabinets that offer passive cooling technology, as well as traditional cabinets with fans)
• Cable Management within the racks and cabinets to properly route and protect your copper and fiber cables, as well as your power cords (from the basic to the highly specialized ANSI/TIA/EIA 6A requirements)
• Cable Pathway around the room and over/under the racks and cabinets (we offer runway, trough runway, OnTrac™ Wire Mesh Cable Tray, and all supporting hardware to make your installations complete)
• Grounding and Bonding solutions for the equipment and the room (bus bars, grounding lugs, #6 wire)
• Zone Enclosures (for patching solutions inside the data center that do not require a rack or cabinet)
• KVM Systems and Software that offer maximum control over your data center
• Environmental Monitoring and Security systems and products (that ensure proper operation and security of your valuable equipment)
• Seismic Protection systems for those areas that are prone to earthquakes or require these type of products
Best of all, CPI’s dedicated team of experts (regional sales teams, customer service, field applications, tech support just to name a few) will work hard to insure you have the very best data center solution. Tom Bradley, Technical Support Supervisor