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Views: 49 Author: Site Editor Publish Time: 2022-03-11 Origin: Site
Data centers have become an integral part of the modern computing infrastructure, housing business-critical applications and data. As they evolve from centralized local deployments to public cloud services to edge deployments, it is important to consider how to maintain their reliability and security over the long term.
Power outages, network disruptions and downtime are costly. According to Gartner, data center downtime costs an average of $5,600 per minute. Good asset intelligence combined with preventive and predictive maintenance can improve equipment reliability and system availability.
The sheer volume and structure of IoT data presents challenges in terms of security, storage management, servers and networks, but the IoT also creates new opportunities for optimizing data center infrastructure management. IoT sensors and wireless IoT connectivity are used to ensure optimal performance of critical data center equipment to maximize uptime, improve energy efficiency, reduce operational costs and, most importantly, protect stored data in particular. Below are 5 key IoT applications for data center infrastructure management.
Data center facilities operate 24/7, consume a lot of energy and generate a lot of heat. Temperature control within the data center is critical to avoiding overheating, regulating equipment cooling, and measuring overall efficiency.
Temperature sensors located in cabinets, data center racks, and key "hot spots" around the company's facilities, such as air conditioning intakes and exhausts, can monitor heat generation and output for decentralized, fine-grained control of HVAC systems and server room air conditioning units.
This is also a key feature in reducing energy costs, which are the largest operating cost of data centers. Data centers tend to over-cool their facilities by a few degrees, just out of an abundance of caution. According to Gartner research, environmental sensors can save up to 4 percent in energy costs for every 1 degree increase in baseline temperature. That's because temperature sensors at the rack entry provide a more accurate, real-time view of data center temperatures than individual CRAC readings. This information can be used to improve the efficiency of the cooling system, for example by shutting down CRAC units as needed.
In addition to temperature, humidity control is critical to avoid damage to critical equipment. High humidity can lead to equipment corrosion, while low humidity can lead to static buildup. Environmental sensors provide real-time insight to ensure optimal humidity levels throughout the facility.
Indoor air quality is another environmental factor that affects data centers. Maintenance operations, infrastructure upgrades, equipment replacement, and outdoor air used for ventilation, pressurization and/or cooling may introduce air contaminants into the facility. Indoor air quality monitoring solutions can proactively alert teams to contaminants and particles affecting electronic equipment, which can lead to costly data center downtime.
Water leaks are one of the biggest threats to data centers. Whether it's leaking air conditioning, condensate, groundwater or local plumbing, water damage can be quite costly.
Leak detection sensors will notify teams when there are signs of leaks, allowing them to take remedial action. For example, rope sensors can be placed in hard-to-reach locations such as around each CRAC system, around cooling distribution units, under moving floors, and any other source of leaks, such as pipes. Flood sensors can be used to monitor liquid spills in smaller rooms, cabinets, or any low points.
While environmental monitoring is critical to ensure proactive intervention and response to potential disasters, so is remote monitoring of batteries and uninterruptible power supplies. Having the ability to identify potential problems early and respond quickly to defects or degradation maximizes the reliability of UPS battery systems and provides enterprises with the resilience needed for today's dynamic data centers.
Physical security breaches in the data center can result in the loss of equipment, but the real danger has to do with data leakage. As companies collect personally identifiable information in many different forms, consumers are increasingly concerned about the protection of this data. Any form of threat to a company's data can have a significant impact on reputation and business, and lead to significant financial losses.
While the likelihood of stealing an entire server is low, an asset tracking solution can help companies manage and track any asset, large or small, in real time. It can also alert when assets are moved or tampered with, allowing personnel to respond quickly to any threat.
In terms of monitoring and restricting access to the data center itself, wireless sensors can be used for status detection and personnel counting in restricted areas, as well as suspicious activities such as opening and closing doors and windows. Likewise, IoT-enabled locks, card readers and keypads can further monitor personnel access for multiple layers of security.
Whether it is an enterprise, managed services, cloud or hosted data center, ensuring efficient performance of this critical environment is becoming increasingly important. IoT for data center infrastructure management provides a holistic view of current environmental conditions, resource usage and security to maximize uptime, improve energy efficiency, reduce operational costs and prevent data loss and leakage.