Intelligent Data Centres Issue 15 | Page 21

INDUSTRY INTELLIGENCE POWERED BY THE DCA INDUSTRY INTELLIGENCE POWERED BY THE DCA Protect our data centre powerhouses by mastering data centre monitoring Meeting the data centre challenges of today can be a struggle as an increase in data requires ever expanding capacity. Colin Dean, Managing Director, Socomec UK, discusses the ways we can master energy monitoring and consumption to ultimately protect data centres and enhance their reliability. The safeguarding of our data centres is more critical than ever as they provide the backbone for our most vital healthcare, industrial and communications facilities for every nation. With unprecedented volumes of online traffic and record-levels of data throughput, the careful management and mastery of our digital infrastructure can provide organisations with critical visibility and reliability – protecting against the downtime that we simply cannot afford. Greater granularity, increased functionality, informed corrective actions Granular power monitoring is a must – as not only does it account for all consumption, it breaks that consumption down according to key criteria – making it easy to uncover, analyse and correct problems early on. Simply relying on general data is not enough to support informed decision making or activity. By using devices that can harvest more than just the very basic energy readings, valuable preventive and corrective action can be taken that is rooted in robust information. By measuring harmonics and imbalance, weak points can be identified, preventing the constant deterioration of equipment and optimising maintenance operations. The monitoring of each individual protective device (on / off / trip) allows the user to perform a rapid reset in the event of a trip, minimising downtime and the direct and indirect cost associated with any loss of uptime. Whether associated with productivity losses, revenue losses, longer term customer attrition, system recovery costs or the long-term impact of reputational damage, the total cost of downtime can be financially crippling and life limiting – not an option in the operating context of today’s hard working electrical infrastructures. Where to start? Manage the metrics To be clear, implementing a power monitoring system within a facility enables every data centre manager to achieve a real grasp on both how much energy is entering via the mains as well as how much energy is being consumed – with that consumption broken down by each piece of equipment. www.intelligentdatacentres.com Issue 15 21