Data centres must prepare for summer

Data centre operators must prepare their facilities for the warm summer months by implementing the correct level of temperature control and power generation equipment, following confirmation that 2019 was Europe’s hottest ever year on record.

Wednesday, 29th April 2020 Posted 4 years ago in by Phil Alsop

As data centres continue to see an unprecedented increase in demand – due to more people working from home - added pressure is being placed on critical infrastructure within facilities, according to leading temporary solution provider Aggreko. However, the forthcoming rise in temperature – as seen across Europe during the Easter weekend – must also not be overlooked when it comes to protecting equipment in data centres and preventing downtime during critical periods.

In order to prepare for the summer temperatures, data centres must ensure that they have a robust HVAC and electrical infrastructure to cope with the additional demand, if they haven’t already. The message from Aggreko is that while many companies believe they have a contingency plan in place, quite often this is not regularly updated and therefore may pose further risk in the event of an emergency. Any recent change to personnel or building extension, for example, could jeopardise any existing plan in place

Temporary solutions offer an opportunity to alleviate any potential issues that a data centre may encounter for the exact duration it is required. Saving large amounts of capital cost for building, operating and maintaining permanent supplementary critical infrastructure, data centre operators can take advantage of a cost-effective alternative for the summer months.

“We have seen huge increases in data centre usage over the recent months, as more people work from home and stream media in their homes, and organisations in all industries are working with crucial data for their important work,” says Nick Osbourne, Data Centres Specialist at Aggreko. “This high demand is likely to continue and, with temperatures already on the rise and set to continue to do so, we want to make sure data centre operators globally have prepared their facility as we approach the summer.

“At Aggreko, we already work with many data centres across the globe to ensure they have plans in place to mitigate the changing weather and that suitable temporary equipment is in place to alleviate it,” he adds. “Whether it is cooling systems in place to supplement the existing infrastructure for the summer months, or generators to make sure there is enough power to ensure the facility doesn’t reach its limit, we can provide the exact level of equipment for the time that a data centre needs it, making sure there is no downtime in this critical time.”