How to Design a Data Center with Resiliency at its Core

Why Data Centers Must Consider Climate as Part of Their Design?

Data centers have become one of the most important aspects of our infrastructure. Nearly all businesses rely on data centers to keep operations running. When systems work seamlessly in the background, it can be easy to forget the importance of well-designed data centers, but if a data center fails, it can be a major incident.

Building resiliency into data centers to ensure constant uptime is among the highest priorities for operations. However, climate change and rising temperatures are increasingly challenging this resiliency. This summer, London learned first-hand how detrimental overheating can be when critical data centers failed during an unprecedented heatwave.

Considering data centers are being built in places where extreme heat and lack of water are the norm, these types of unprecedented events are likely to become increasingly common. For large installations with many chillers, the immense amount of heat rejected can create a microclimate where the temperatures reach even higher.

The good news is, consulting with trusted thermal management during the design phase can help ensure your data center will withstand drastic temperature shifts while using minimal water and maintaining efficiency and sustainability. We need to design our data center infrastructure for any extreme weather events – our businesses, communities, and society depend on it.

How to Incorporate Data Center Resiliency into Design

Understand the location climate and plan for the worst. The first step in designing a data center with climate resiliency at its core is to understand the environment where it is located. You need to consider every aspect of the climate throughout the entire calendar year. Things like altitude, humidity, water availability, and more all impact what heating and cooling equipment are best for your operations.

Spend time anticipating how the region’s climate might change and plan for the worst-case scenario. We are seeing temperatures rise much faster than ever anticipated, so we are already meeting – and in some cases surpassing – the worst-case scenarios from 5 years ago.

For large installations with many chillers, the immense amount of heat rejected can create a microclimate where the temperatures reach even higher.

Determine the best equipment for your operations. Technology for maintaining optimal temperatures within buildings has advanced rapidly and there are numerous options you can configure to create a solution that works best for your operations. A dedicated Trane engineer can work with you to thoroughly assess your operational goals and develop a customized thermal management solution for your entire facility.

Located in a drought-ridden climate where there isn’t a lot of available water? Air-cooled chillers don’t use water for cooling, making them some of the most sustainable options on the market. Alternatively, a water-cooled, closed-loop system recycles the same water, again and again, so it doesn’t require a lot of water to operate.

Want to create more efficiency? Install dry coolers for day-to-day operations and then supplement with trim chillers that can be used on the hottest days to help reduce overall costs while still preparing for the occasional heatwave. Optimize your free cooling for use in higher temperatures, increasing the amount of time the system runs without mechanical cooling.

Limited space for HVAC equipment? 1-phase immersion dry coolers are built horizontally, thus requiring up to 60% smaller footprint.

Add controls for better management and added efficiency. Getting the right equipment for your specific climate and operations is a great start, but to create a truly resilient data center, you need advanced controls to ensure equipment is set up to run optimally at all times while maximizing efficiency and helping to reduce operating costs.

Configuring the system to run exactly when and where you need it, means that you’re only using the energy required to maintain the infrastructure. Being able to make changes remotely means you won’t be caught unprepared if an extreme weather event unexpectedly arises.

You can also build contingency planning into your control settings so that the system automatically adjusts to predetermined thresholds to maintain optimal operating conditions. Having this added layer of security for worst-case scenarios provides peace of mind that your operations are built to withstand climate fluctuations.

Once your equipment is set up, there are two important items to ensure the system is configured for resilience:

• Ongoing maintenance keeps everything running. Mechanical systems require cleaning, upkeep, and service. Equipment maintenance ensures an installation can function at the level it should every day and can prevent unforeseen component failures.
• Rental services are the parachute owners always forget. Having rental unit availability for emergency scenarios in high ambient conditions adds another level of redundancy.

Trane’s world-class team of engineers, technicians, and experienced energy specialists have helped data centers around the world design their operations for sustainability, efficiency, and resiliency. We take our job of protecting the world’s vital infrastructure while increasing the sustainability of the planet seriously. We understand the nuances that data centers face and how to build solutions for the world’s largest hyperscale and colocation companies in extreme conditions, particularly high ambient climates.