raceway is an important part of the
overall cable management system and
is usually configured in a grid format –
coloured blue and red – providing two
separate paths to each cabinet to achieve
diverse route, or to house two parallel
fibre optic and copper cabling systems.
Although it might not be an obvious
issue, one of the big mysteries of the
data centre world is why cabinets
continue to be specified in black. While
it is true that black can hide scratches,
scrapes, minor dents, and even dirt and
dust, a white polyester epoxy powder
coat finish increases visibility, reflects
up to 80 per cent of the light and, as a
result, can help to save around 30 per
cent on the total lighting in a typical
data centre. A white cabinet is also easier
for installers to work in and the fact that
it does show up imperfections should act
as an early warning system for potential
problems down the line.
Size Matters
As a rule of thumb, it is always better
to over-specify than under-specify, as
any extra space will almost certainly be
utilised by the next generation of server
technology. However, some data centre
designers are taking this attitude to the
extreme by requesting cabinets that can
accommodate weights over one and a
half tons.
This is, ridiculous unless the cabinet
is for a UPS or battery rack. Finding
enough equipment that weighs this
much to test such a cabinet is difficult.
To put this into perspective, the massive
Huawei CE12816 core data centre
switch only weighs 290kg, the biggest
Cisco, fully stacked just under 450kg.
Then there’s the issue of where to site
over a ton’s worth of equipment – how
will the building and floor support that
level of weight, especially in a multifloor environment?
With ever-higher active equipment
densities, perhaps the most important
role that a cabinet performs is to mount
kit in a way that allows it to be cooled
efficiently. A cabinet plays a vital
role in maintaining the integrity of a
cooling system and by controlling the
air temperature, server components
at the board level are kept within a
manufacturer’s specified temperature
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and/or humidity range.
It’s an issue that’s not going away
any time soon. Research from DCD
Intelligence, a division of Datacenter
Dynamics, found that the number of
high-density cabinets and servers – those
over 10kW per cabinet – as a proportion
of total cabinets rose to 25.2 per cent
in 2014. That is quite substantial, but
includes the IT service provision sector
and an increasing number of end users
deploying cloud or virtualisation within
their own systems. This means that a
handful of hyper-powered