Your server room is essential to your company’s daily operations and connectivity. Unfortunately, it is eating away at your company’s budget as well. One of the biggest money-guzzling features of your server room is energy costs. When you put that much equipment in a room, it is going to heat up, eat up power, and send your energy costs through the roof. Follow these three tips to help reduce server room costs for your organization.
- Cool it down
Many companies constantly keep their server rooms much cooler than the rest of the building. That is not necessary. In fact, much of the equipment can withstand higher temperatures. What you need to do is increase airflow. Consider spot cooling instead of trying to cool an entire room. Make sure the airflow pattern in the room is front-to-back. An easy method is to open the door to the server room, remove a ceiling tile, and to place a fan where near the equipment releasing the heat. You can also consider a portable cooling system that can be moved around the room and is inexpensive to operate. If you have the capital, air conditioned racks and cabinets are an option as well, or air conditioning systems that are dedicated solely to the server room. Finally, a ceiling mount A/C system is an option that can be installed in the ceiling.
- Rethink the space
As we said before, you can rethink the entire setup of the server room space. Common obstacles companies face include lower IT budgets and even smaller server rooms, so how can your company overcome that without cutting corners or breaking the budget? One of the easiest and most affordable ways is to rethink the server room space. When you are reconfiguring the room, make sure the machines are front to back. You can also consider hot aisles and cold aisles. Hot aisle/cold aisles are necessary if your company has a large data center, however. This design is not suitable for servers with Plexiglas or glass doors.
When you are rethinking the space, remember to condense and consolidate. Do you need all the equipment you are hanging on to, or is there an opportunity to retire outdated, inefficient and unused equipment?
- Go online
Give the room a break and go online. Consider speaking with an IT professional about not only the configuration of your server room but its overall operational goals as well. One way companies are saving money on server room costs is by virtualizing the data center. Allow someone else to house your data. This is where companies decide to make the shift to the Cloud. Virtualization reduces downtime, cuts energy costs, protects your company’s data in an off-site location, and allows users and business owners to scale and deploy according to the business’s unique needs.
