IF EXTREME TEMPERATURES REMAIN OVER PROLONGED PERIODS , FACILITIES MAY OVERHEAT AND SUPPLEMENTAL TEMPORARY COOLING MAY BE NECESSARY . throughout Europe as increasingly hot summers have now become the new normal . If extreme temperatures remain over prolonged periods , facilities may overheat and supplemental temporary cooling may be necessary .
EDITOR ’ S QUESTION
GORDON JOHNSON , SENIOR CFD MANAGER , SUBZERO ENGINEERING
ata centre growth
D continues throughout the globe , with the IDC ( International Data Corporation ) predicting that the collective sum of the world ’ s data will grow to 175 ZB by 2025 . Along with this growth comes the existing challenge of energy efficiency and sustainability for data centre operators . Now there ’ s a new challenge that needs to be planned for sooner than later and that ’ s extreme weather conditions brought on in part by climate change .
Extreme weather patterns pose threats to servers , power and especially cooling operations , with the potential threat of long downtimes and huge financial costs .
For example , power grid supply failure is typically solved by backup generators when power is lost , but these can only be used for a short period of time which may not be long enough when an extreme weather event is involved .
Besides the power grid , flooding can also create potential issues with servers and cooling operations necessary to keep the servers running 24 / 7 . It ’ s not just storms that could increase our outages , droughts can also complicate access to water for cooling our data centres . It ’ s important that data centres , no matter where they ’ re located , have a plan in place to deal with these unexpected events since they have the potential to cut off both power and cooling for extended periods .
One particular area of concern continues to be reliably cooling the data centre brought on by climate changes . Just recently , two large data centres in the UK experienced cooling failures amid record heat temperatures in that country . Planning for cooling failure is crucial wherever the data centre is globally located , and recently this is especially
IF EXTREME TEMPERATURES REMAIN OVER PROLONGED PERIODS , FACILITIES MAY OVERHEAT AND SUPPLEMENTAL TEMPORARY COOLING MAY BE NECESSARY . throughout Europe as increasingly hot summers have now become the new normal . If extreme temperatures remain over prolonged periods , facilities may overheat and supplemental temporary cooling may be necessary .
It ’ s not just large , new data centres that need to be concerned . Older , legacy data centres typically are not as equipped as newer ones to deal with cooling failure due to weather and heat-related incidents . Many of these facilities have outgrown their critical cooling and power infrastructure and are having difficulties operating 24 / 7 as it is . They also tend to be more reactive and thus stand to lose the most . These especially need to prepare and perform regular extreme climate and weather risk assessments and have contingency cooling plans in place if and when needed .
Climate change will continue to impact data centre operations globally , including critical cooling operations . How we prepare now to deal with this may dictate whether our data centre is operational in the near future .
Whether extreme weather results in storms and flooding , extended heat waves , droughts , etc , data centre operators need to plan now to avoid costly delays and operational downtimes in the future . www . intelligentdatacentres . com
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