Data Center: Risks, Power and Air Conditioning

High availability of applications and business continuity begins with a robust data center. Increasing availability by using application and base server clusters, using redundant servers (including redundant power supplies, ECC memory and RAID drives), data storage, and network equipment is not enough if the computing equipment itself lacks adequate support at the data center itself. A brief overview of the issues and solutions for the data center is provided. External risks (fire, flood and human risks) and plant risks (power, air conditioning) are mentioned. The focus of the lecture is on reliable data center power infrastructure and air conditioning (HVAC). This includes monitoring of electricity supply (voltage, current, consumption, protection from voltage spikes), continuous UPSs, and redundancy and monitoring of the air conditioning system.