There are four kinds of cooling solutions you typically see in data centers.
If your company owns and maintains their own on-site data center, determining what cooling technologies are needed to help systems run properly can be difficult. You need something that is both efficient and reliable. You typically want to keep your data center between 64 and 81 degrees Fahrenheit—but as for what solution you choose to achieve that, there are four kinds of cooling solutions you typically see in data centers.
CRAC: Computer Room Air-Conditioning
CRAC-enabled setups involve a dedicated air conditioning unit, much like you’d see in your own home. This is typically only deployed in smaller data centers or standalone computer or server rooms. These systems can act independently of the building’s central HVAC system, allowing the site to maintain cool temperatures even if your main HVAC system goes down.
Cold & Hot Aisles
Modern servers typically have an air inlet. This allows cool air into a machine and then has an exhaust where warm air is released in turn. Typically you’ll see those two vents on opposite ends of the machine, one on the front and one in the rear. Data centers are organized such that servers in a row intake from the aisle in front and exhaust to the aisle behind. Sometimes cooling is optimized by pumping cold air in from your HVAC system into the intake aisle while the warm air gets rerouted from the exhaust aisle into that same HVAC setup.
CVC or Calibrated Vectored Cooling
The CVC method involves a design wherein airflow through and around servers is managed carefully and then analyzed. This smart approach uses data gathered to determine where equipment and fan placement ought to be in order to best cool data servers without driving up your costs too high.
Rack-Mounted Cooling Options
The equipment you see in data centers like servers or other computers are mounted in structures called racks. Those racks are capable of holding huge amounts of equipment, which is why some choose to have rack-mounted cooling for a more customizable cooling experience. Small HVAC units are mounted on the racks themselves, allowing for precise applications of cooling within data centers.
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