Updated: August 24, 2022
Originally published: March 3, 2011
We recently ordered new data center cabinets (cooling cabinets, to be exact) for our Data Center. To say “We’re excited!” is an understatement:
We also just mounted the cabinets (as seen in the photo above). Right now, we’re starting to install additional cool water canalization to the top of our Data Center in addition to setting up electricity and power surge protection and redundancy.
Cooling hot cabinets is nowhere as easy as you’d imagine it (it’s similar to installing a water cooling system in your PC if you build PCs, but imagine doing so for hundreds of racks and making sure there aren’t leaks). The good thing is that there’s an entire cottage industry dedicated to data center cooling systems and technologies.
Why Do Data Centers Need Cooling?
Short of visiting a data center, it gets pretty hot and stuffy in server rooms because all kinds of servers (VPS, dedicated servers, and so on) are running 24/7. So, you need proper cooling, ventilation, and temperature control to ensure every bit of equipment operates smoothly. Not to mention, servers are expensive, and all of the tech in them (e.g. memory, processors, fans) can get slagged if they aren’t taken care of.