DailyMorningCoffee welcomes Kristina Louis for her second guest post on this blog. Earlier she had written about How Technological Innovation has changed Data Storage Options.
A small company doesn’t always have the capital or the space to have a data centre of its own. Sharing data storage capabilities can be a great way for two or more companies to combine their resources. It all starts with a multi-use server rack.
Server racks that have multiple accesses are effectively miniature server rooms for the co-operating companies. Each company has its own key or combination and its own part of the server rack to occupy. All servers enjoy the benefit of safe storage and proper cooling. If you are very enterprising you might even consider sharing the costs of offsite IT support.
Sharing or not, you should certainly consider having the contents of your server rack monitored regularly. If you don’t have the IT support network to do that, you can sign up for some very reasonably priced packages with data companies that offer remote monitoring of your servers and critical data systems.
A server rack itself should have a reasonable amount of security built in, both in terms of physical access to the servers (as noted above) and in terms of keeping the hardware cool. Heat, as we have all learned in the past to our cost, is the enemy of data. The job of the systems manager is as much to do with ensuring everything is kept cool as it is with designing your data storage system in the first place.
Your server rack should have a ventilated back and side panels. The side panels should be removable and the internal shelves should all be vented. In addition, you will be able to install, or specify the installation of, roof mounted fan trays, which extract the heated air from inside the cabinet and pump it out into the atmosphere.
If you are sharing a server rack then the expense of all the extra cooling accessories you may need can also be shared. You will be able to specify the best cooling system the rack can support by splitting the capital outlay between two or more companies.
Consider installing an environmental monitor directly into the rack. The environmental monitor is built to be the same width as a standard server or piece of communications hardware and is 1U high for easy installation.
An environmental monitor has sensors built in. It relays information to an on screen web interface, from which you can manage the product as well as receiving its reports. It also has an audio alarm, which sounds if environmental conditions in the server rack exit pre-described boundaries.
Data loss is a catastrophe for an organisation of any size. For a small company, which can have all of its data stored on one or two servers, a compromised server rack can be an unmitigated disaster. Top level equipment to prevent such disaster is therefore an excellent investment to make, particularly if you can afford the outlay because you are sharing the unit. Think about it now, rather than later, when it may be too late.
About Author: Kristina Louis is a freelance content writer by profession.Gadgets & Internet technology are her topics of interest and she finds immense pleasure in writing articles on Internet technology and server rack.
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