Everything has to run smoothly in data centers. There is a lot to cover, so you have to be prepared to wear many hats. Developers and researchers have made many strides in information protection, safety, and maintenance. Professionals must learn as much as possible about emerging data center tools.
What new technology is out there? How can you use it to manage your facility? Here are some things data center operations should consider to improve their workplace.
Why Good Data Center Operations Are Vital
You might find yourself constantly explaining why maintenance and upkeep are so important. You can see the consequences of not caring for the materials housed in your data centers and point anyone to these facts and statistics.
Internet traffic grew by nearly 40% in 2020 due to COVID-19. The highest growth is from social, video and gaming platforms. These all experienced significant activity during the height of the pandemic, thanks to proper data center operations. It allowed for quick and easy streaming and sharing. Poorly managed centers could have led to significant slowdowns, buffering times and security issues.
Data centers require tools and procedures to protect information in our increasingly online world. About 91% of IT professionals said they trusted employees to follow safe practices. However, nearly half of workers surveyed said they did not because they knew IT teams weren’t watching them. This is why proper operations are so critical.
Information theft can cost companies millions of dollars in retrieval and time expenses. Breaches could also result in a loss of customers. Recovery plans and preventive measures will help data centers stop ransomware attacks.
Human error is the cause of 70% of data center outages — other places say as high as 75%. This can cause severe financial losses for businesses. The same research found that 10% of center owners said their latest outage lost over $1 million. The stakes are high, and data centers need tools to effectively and confidently manage their operations. The various processes can lead to mistakes, but you can reduce financial burdens and protect information with better procedures.
5 Data Center Tools That Benefit Professionals
You can use these data center tools to improve your workflow for safer and easier operations.
- Environmental Controls
Overheating is a significant problem in data centers. Because of the required electricity, servers and computers can create quite a high temperature. It might be nice to hang out there in the cold months, but heat can damage machines. Centers that get too hot could experience outages, system failures and data loss. Therefore, they need to find efficient ways to keep the electronics cool.
Air compressors provide an excellent solution. Certain two-stage machines use water to cool the air they take in. They then cool servers down with this air while fans blow out what the technology heats again. This creates refreshing air circulation, effectively cooling down everything located in the data center. Environmental control tools will ensure your operations remain up and running.
- Artificial Intelligence
AI and machine learning prove extremely useful for data center operations. Some facilities are using artificial intelligence to cool their centers more efficiently. Data centers use a lot of electricity to power cooling systems, so using a machine to adjust the temperature could save on power bills. Google reduced energy use by 40% when it started using DeepMind to cool its facilities. AI could help data centers effectively cool themselves with less power when used with air compressors.
Machine learning can also detect problems before humans notice them by finding breaches and locating intruders. Using AI to minimize risk and patch security flaws will help data centers reduce human error.
- Cable Managers
Organizing your cables is essential to data center operations. Finding the right one quickly is imperative if something happens to the server’s connections. Therefore, you should look into tools that efficiently organize your cables. It could be as simple as zip ties or as in-depth as a management kit. You could also purchase different-colored cables with clear labels. Having a defined organization plan will help your facility run smoothly.
- Network Equipment
All data centers require computers to function. However, how often is your center replacing its servers? Nearly half of data centers say they change their network equipment every two or three years. Newer technology can process faster, which makes it a crucial tool. Take a look at your servers and see how long they’ve been operating. It may be time for an upgrade sooner rather than later.
- Monitoring Software
Monitoring software is an excellent choice if you need to check on your data center remotely or in person. It utilizes the simple network management protocol to gather information on devices and other data. From there, it can analyze and track the health of a facility. You can also set up important notifications, such as increasing bandwidth use.
Research monitoring software options to see what kinds of services they offer. Ensure it includes the alerts you need and see what kind of mapping it performs. Additionally, look at how it could improve your server efficiency and protect against breaches. Only your team knows which software is best for your data center.
Final Thoughts
Run your facility safely and conveniently with these data center tools. Some may seem simple, but they are still pivotal to better management. All it takes is some research on emerging technology and software to boost your operations.
