Computer room air conditioning in the previous utilized common air conditioning units - comparable t...

1. The Basics Of Crac Units
Computer room air conditioning in the previous utilized common air conditioning units - comparable
to what you have in your home or work. These legacy units worked adequately but there were
environmental gaps in the climate in the computer rooms.For example, in colder months the
humidity levels in the computer rooms commonly dropped and high levels of static electricity
occurred.
In recent times, CRAC units have become the main stay in big system data centers. Modern day
CRAC units provide active climate quality management. Modern CRAC systems are a combination of
3 systems; air conditioner, heater and humidifier. The various systems work in unison to maintain
the air quality within the data center is maintained at adequate levels as per the setting specified by
the data center personnel. These systems also provide active alerting and monitoring. For instance if
fault conditions exist, these units are smart enough to communicate with the data center manager /
network operations team and alert them of such conditions.
Computer Room Air Conditioners (CRAC) in today's computer rooms, typically force conditioned air
into a raised floor cavity. The raised floor is pressurized with the air volume emitted by these units
and is directed out into the data center room via perforated floor tiles. This type of air management
is very efficient and allows the data center manager to adequately vent the conditioned air in the
correct areas of the computer room environment.
To ensure adequate levels of air conditioning and systems redundancy, abundant data centers at this
point utilize several CRAC units acting either in tandem or in parallel configurations. One reason is
to condition ample cooling capacity to amply cool the server infrastructure within the designated
area and the other reason is to provide levels of redundancy in the event one of the CRAC units were
to fail. Typically data centers over compensate cooling capacity to ensure the cooling infrastructure
exceeds current requirements and ensures true levels of HVAC redundancy.
As with all fundamentals of technology, computer room cooling technology will continue to evolve
over time as greater intelligence will be implemented within these intelligent cooling systems.
By: J.M. Miller
Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com
J.M. Miller is a technology writer located in Toronto, Canada. J.M. focuses these days mainly in the
server colocation marketplace, working with various data center operators in the Canadian area.
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