Description
Corporate America is more dependent than ever on computing resources to handle everything from mission-critical financial transaction applications to storing vast amounts of patient information. Data center facilities are under increasing pressure to flawlessly add significant, reliable computing power whether the data center is experiencing rapid growth, consolidating from multiple locations or trying to extract more capacity out of an existing space.
While blade servers have addressed some of the challenges placed on IT staff, such as cramming more computational power into a limited amount of space, this new technology has also created its own set of problems. Today, both IT administrators and facilities managers are addressing questions like, “Am I getting enough power to the blades?” “Are there racks with excess capacity?” and “Am I getting enough cooling to those racks?”
The fact is, HVAC systems are now being routinely pushed to their operational limits. The amount of power required at the rack is increasing dramatically – in some cases growing by an order of magnitude from 2kW to 20kW per rack.
Plus, the sheer number of server units in a data center is making it more difficult for limited IT staff to manage – much less improve – uptime.
This white paper explores the challenges of increasing computing power in both an inflexible and resource-constrained physical space, as well as centers that are experiencing high growth. We also explore how companies can employ emerging support technology – like intelligent power distribution units (PDUs) – to help manage server uptime and capacity planning.
