{"id":14768,"date":"2019-06-13T09:31:48","date_gmt":"2019-06-13T13:31:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/avtech.com\/articles\/?p=14768"},"modified":"2023-12-06T16:44:27","modified_gmt":"2023-12-06T21:44:27","slug":"protect-data-center-during-heat-wave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/avtech.com\/articles\/14768\/protect-data-center-during-heat-wave\/","title":{"rendered":"Protect Your Data Center During A Heat Wave"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A prolonged heat wave can be disastrous for your business. Environmental conditions can lead to health concerns for your employees, reduced office productivity due to the heat<\/a>, and power outages due to overworked power grids can lead to server failure, hard drive crashes, and data loss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heat waves occur all over the globe and regardless of where\nthey happen, it\u2019s important to make sure that organizations are monitoring their\nfacilities to protect against the problems that heat waves bring. Temperature,\nhumidity and power outages are the biggest concerns when a prolonged heat wave\narrives and environment monitoring is critical to have in place before\ntemperatures rise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Temperatures rise quickly when HVAC goes down<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Data centers and server rooms should have their own dedicated HVAC to help cool them and provide a humidity-controlled environment. The proper temperatures and humidity levels help prolong server and hard drive life<\/a> while providing cushions against elevated heat or moisture in the event HVAC and\/or power is lost. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During a heat wave it\u2019s not uncommon for power outages to\noccur when power grids become taxed due to the excessive use of air\nconditioners in homes and businesses. Every data center and server room should\nhave UPS units protecting equipment against sudden power loss, and some also\nhave dedicated backup generators in the event power is lost for a longer period\nof time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While UPS units allow you to gracefully power down servers and devices before the batteries give out, if your HVAC is not tied into a backup power source, the temperatures in your server room will rise quickly. With external temperatures already on the higher end, any HVAC loss during a heat wave will cause those optimal temperatures to quickly rise into the danger zone when it comes to hard drive health. While your hard drives may not fail immediately, it\u2019s proven that just temperatures just a few degrees above optimal operating ranges will cause errors<\/a> when data attempts to write to the hard drives in your facility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even if power isn\u2019t lost, HVAC units work overtime during\nheat waves. If an HVAC compressor gives out due to the high amount of use, your\ndata center is immediately put at risk of data loss. This is especially true if\nyour facility is unmanned or the HVAC goes down during a window that you don\u2019t\nhave staff onsite, such as weekends or after normal business hours. Being alerted\nto a sudden spike in temperature is the difference between taking temporary\nmeasures to reduce temperatures to a more manageable level and replacing\nthousands of dollars of ruined drives and appliances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some smaller businesses operate a server room in an area\nthat wasn\u2019t specifically designed to host servers and mission-critical appliances.\nPerhaps it was an unused office, storage space, or even a closet that was designated\nas the \u201cdata center\u201d when they moved into that particular facility. As a\nresult, cooling and ventilation most likely wasn\u2019t designed to handle the\nexhaust heat that servers and computers give out in a smaller space. When a\nheat wave hits and power or HVAC is lost, those areas are quickly overwhelmed\nwith heat and humidity that\u2019s catastrophic for sensitive devices and hard\ndrives. It\u2019s even more critical to be notified immediately by environment\nmonitoring when power is lost or conditions change to help prevent downtime and\ndata loss that can cost thousands in lost revenue, not to mention customer confidence\nif their services or data are unreachable for a while.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Protect against sudden power loss<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Sudden power loss in your data center or server room is an even more critical concern during a heat wave. With an overtaxed power grid<\/a>, suddenly losing power can lead to hard drive crashes than can cause data corruption or even total loss if your drives aren\u2019t being backed up on a regular basis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As mentioned earlier, UPS units can help provide a short\nwindow to keep servers up if power comes back momentarily. If power is going to\nbe lost for a prolonged period, UPS backup power can allow you to gracefully\npower down servers and devices to protect against crashes. Proactive environment\nmonitoring will notify you of a power loss so you can immediately address the\nissue to prevent data loss, either by manually powering down devices or by\nhaving corrective actions automatically kick in, such as shutdown scripts being\nsent across the network; this is especially helpful for those off-hours power\nloss situations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Immediate notification of power loss can also help you and\nyour team recover in the event servers do crash or there\u2019s hard drive failure. Knowing\nthe exact time power was lost can help you recover data from offsite backups in\norder to restore services as soon as possible once power is reliably restored.\nPower fluctuations can also cause physical damage to devices, so constant power\non\/off reports may result in taking additional actions to ensure a power surge\nor constant fluctuations don\u2019t cause costly damages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Don\u2019t let a heat wave leave you in the cold<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Heat waves, storms, power loss and more are inevitable for\nmany geographic areas. If your organization is in a region that\u2019s prone to high\nheat and heat waves, having proactive environment monitoring will let you\nrespond to any issues immediately to help prevent downtime and data loss in\nyour data center or server room. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether you have 2 servers or 2000, any data loss you suffer\ncan be disastrous. Enhance your business continuity plan and prepare for heat\nwaves and other extreme weather by installing proactive monitoring before\ndisaster strikes. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A prolonged heat wave can be disastrous for your business. Environmental conditions can lead to health concerns for your employees, reduced office productivity due to the heat, and power outages due to overworked power grids can lead to server failure, hard drive crashes, and data loss. Heat waves occur all over the globe and regardless […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[328,20],"tags":[161,39,77,91,139],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n