what’s going on – the ultimate in hive
mind connectivity. If one of the coolers
has a problem, the other units are aware
and, importantly, pre-empt the impact.
The critical point is that there is no lag
in the system – compensatory measures
begin before the temperature rises.
Controlling Security
The Micro Data Centre is simply the next step in rack design.
an innovative way of cooling the units
that remains efficient over a wide range
of loads and duties. Next, the attention
turned to control, where the advantages
of Delta systems and the choice of
BACnet as the native communication
protocol allow the unit to operate as a
standalone system. A set of protocols
sits inside the controllers, monitoring
the environment and doing only what
is required to satisfy the conditions,
nothing more.
The choice of BACnet is key; it is
a worldwide standard fast becoming
the protocol of choice for building
management systems. Its main
advantage is that it runs a line of
compromise between the speed of
data transfer and accuracy. High speed
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transfer at a high cost is a level of
complexity that is simply not necessary
for this kind of system. BACnet
transfers data very reliably across a wide
variety of network systems, providing
a secure, efficient and cost-effective
way to transmit data – especially for
remote control, a unique feature of the
Dataracks MDC.
The Hive Mind
At the next level of control, BACnet
also brings advantages of connectivity
between these multi-functional racks.
Proprietary CoolFusion technology
allows customers to simply add MDC
units as they require more capacity. The
difference is that they all ‘understand’
For the last 20+ years, the industry has
used cheap and readily available locks
for racks. As a result, if you actually
checked, your keys might easily fit a data
centre down the road! It’s perhaps not
surprising then that 80 per cent of data
theft happens in the building where it is
held. Biometrics is the obvious next step,
and the MDC offers this at a cabinet
level – the same level of physical security
that you could buy in a co-location
centre, but on site in your office and at a
fraction of the cost.
The trend towards many SMEs and
some larger companies putting low
criticality computing out into the cloud
has made security even more topical.
On the face of it, cloud computing is an
easy option – there is an oversupply and
prices are coming down – but security
and sovereignty of data held abroad are
important issues. Even if organisations
do not have security concerns, most
will have, at the very least, a core of
operations, data handling and storage
that they want to keep in house.
Evolution or Revolution?
The Micro Data Centre is simply the
next step in rack design. With all the
constituent elements scaled down, but
still of an excellent standard, you can
start small with the potential to build as
your needs change. And, by combining
world-class biometric security with the
highest efficiency cooling and the best
resilience – all in a standard 19” format
– there is no compromise to going small.
NETCOMMS europe Volume V Issue 5 2015 23