Cooling for Single Server Cabinets and Micro Data Centres
Server cooling is always essential, especially now with the increase in edge computing, AI, the IoT and 5G within businesses and the development of automation and manufacturing 4.0 in factories. Businesses are changing the relationship between cloud computing and the traditional centralised data centre, which will impact server rack cooling. The development of hybrid cloud computing has increased demand for micro data centres as some data is on the cloud, and some are on local servers. This trend necessitates choices in server cooling for individual server cabinets and micro data centres.
A micro datacentre is a single or series of server cabinets close to the data users. The components of a micro data centre are cabinets and cooling. Micro data centres offer rack space from 18 to 42U and can provide a modular data centre. These units are flexible and portable; cooling solutions are up to 10kW. The portability and flexibility of a micro data centre are helpful if your business is a tenant within a business lease or is a tenant or the owner of a listed building and could add value to a property for a landlord. Micro data centres are suitable for businesses that process and collect and hold confidential data. Localised server racks are also suitable for factories where the servers are close to the automatic handling and for growing businesses where expanding operations require hardware flexibility and iterations.
Micro data centres are an advantage to businesses as they provide increased autonomy over hardware that supports the business software and also on the immediacy of the information available. In-house server racks offer increased control over monitoring and maintenance and more involvement and immediacy in responding to problems. Micro data centres allow businesses to reduce their carbon footprints by limiting their stake in a large data centre and a reliance on cold and hot aisle containment. Micro data centres’ precision cooling design provides maximum efficiency as cooling systems cool each rack.
The first important step to creating an effective micro data centre is choosing the right size server cabinet and the right cooling system for the equipment in the server cabinet. The second step is to demarcate a space to put a server cabinet in the office or factory floor. Locating server cabinets in a wide range of spaces, such as stairwells and alcoves in large cupboards, is possible. The only limitation is that the area must have some ventilation for airflow.
At Maxi-Cool, our cooling systems are suitable for creating a micro data centre in an office and a factory. Our top-mount cooling system is integrated into each server rack and can be bayed to develop a bank of server cabinets. The Gemini system is also suitable for a mini data centre as the cabinets can have a larger capacity and have split system cooling. Both options are energy efficient and capable of 5kW of cooling per cabinet and back up cooling systems offering redundancy are available. Maxi-Cool cooling facilitates adding or removal of cabinets at any time. Maintenance of the cooling systems is straightforward and the Gemini system has a hot-swappable feature.
Providing cooling that is as effective and low impact as possible is Maxi-Cool’s mission. If you would like to discuss efficient cooling solutions for edge computing or in micro data centres, please get in touch at info@maxi-cool.co.uk, 01733873262 or visit https://maxi-cool.co.uk for more information about energy-efficient server cooling.
