Five Tips For Organizing Your Business' Data Center

The best way to keep your data center organized is by planning ahead. Quarterly or even monthly cleaning is recommended, but an improperly-planned data center will only benefit so much from cleaning. Sticking with a solid plan and keeping up with a few industry tricks and trends will keep your data center organized and minimize hassle.

Organize Hot and Cold Aisles

Your data center layout should be founded on best practices, and the hot and cold aisle practice has been popular for over a decade. Plan on hot or cold containment and set up your racks to block the hot air from flowing into the cold aisles and vice versa, so you avoid having to completely redo your layout if you ever need to implement this strategy later on. In the long run, the aisle organization method will save a lot of energy and preserve your equipment.

Consolidate Your Hardware

Consolidation can be a lot of work, but it always makes data center organization easier. As virtualization technology continues to evolve, virtualized hardware consumes less and less power, so energy consumption is rarely still an obstacle. Consolidating multiple servers saves space, energy, and money. The extra space, of course, also reduces the amount of hardware that needs regular maintenance and cleaning, saving you time and hassle.

Create a Quarantine Area

Pick an area near your data center that is cleaned on a daily basis and use it as an airlock to your data center. This will help keep your data center free of contamination, and you can use the space to unpack, clean, and reorganize equipment. Doing so lets you control what gets in and out.

Trunking Your Cables

Over time, some data centers can start looking like messy bedrooms. Cables wind up under the floor or overhead as systems migrate around the center, and unused cables can take up space and build up heat. Trunking cables combines pre-terminated cables into a jacket, saving space and allowing unused cables to be removed.

Seismic Cabinets

One way to organize your data center is to implement seismic cabinets. These cabinets not only offer protection against earthquakes, they also keep rack-mounted servers and cables organized. Tested and rated cabinets are fundamental pieces of equipment that can be installed at any time.

Data center organization should begin with a plan founded on best practices. Doing so will make regular organization, cleaning, and maintenance much easier. A properly organized data center can save power, reduce risk to the servers, and save you time and energy.