Air Plenums - A Hot Solution for Keeping Your Data Center Cool
Nov 27th 2018
Hot Equipment Means Higher Costs
While utility budgets are one of the harder costs to maintain in a data center, proper airflow management can be a make-or-break endeavor.
Improper airflow can mean data centers are literally spewing hot air around the facility, the results of which, among other issues, can exhaust your HVAC budget pretty fast.
With today’s front-to-rear airflow required for equipment, how data centers circulate that air within the rack cabinets themselves is, until now, an untapped opportunity to maintain temperatures and costs. Then the light bulb moment happened when we developed a solution for Cisco.
According to a 2015 survey conducted by the International Data Corporation (IDC), data centers reported that up to 24 percent of their budgets are spent on cooling.
Cooling Solutions
To augment a well-designed hot and cool aisle system, Gaw Technology’s air baffle and air plenum systems support air containment strategies. Within the air plenum, there are angled partitions that channel hot air out and cool air in. The partitions are able to isolate hot and cold air streams for optimum performance. These devices are designed to save energy and are compliant with Telcordia requirements.
When Cisco, Juniper and F5 needed a solution, they turned to Gaw to solve the problem. The answer: a device that diverts the air, to help keep the equipment cool.
“Working with Cisco, our team designed a plenum to divert cold air from the front of the cabinet through the air intake of the router and then diverts the hot air out the back of the cabinet. We helped them solve their problem,” said Chuck Gaw, vice president and co-owner of Gaw Technology, a leader in server rack cabinet solutions.
Because data centers have their own configurations, Gaw’s air plenums can be designed to fit a variety of rack mount types (ETSI, WECO and EIA 19” and 23”).
“Depending on the weight and depth of the router, our air plenum baffles can be designed to fit 2-post or 4-post racks. And like our server cabinets, our airflow plenums accommodate a wide variety of brands,” Gaw said.
Data centers can stabilize its utility expenses in a variety of ways, said Gaw, from using an arsenal of temperature control systems and adjusting room layouts, to consolidating sensitive equipment in cool zones.
Keeping the temperature stable within the rack itself is simply another detail in ensuring the center operates efficiently at all times.
Looking for more information on how Gaw’s air plenum solutions can improve the airflow at your data centers? Contact Chuck Gaw