SERVER ROOM DESIGN SERVICES

FROM ADVANCED POWER TECHNOLOGY

At Advanced Power Technology we have over three decades of experience in data centre and server room design which enables us to provide our clients with a wide range of resilient, cost-effective and energy saving technologies.

Our guide to small server room design and layout

We work with businesses and organisations of all sizes, from small businesses up to Multi-nationals, Universities and NHS Trusts. Thanks to our strategic relationship with Schneider Electric – we are Schneider Elite Data Centre Partners – we are able to offer our clients complete solutions designed to eradicate compatibility issues sometimes experienced when using equipment from multiple vendors. In addition, our independent status means we can also select the very best products from market-leading manufacturers to provide a solution designed to match your individual requirements.

Read Our Case Studies

Newcastle Civic Centre Data Centre Refresh
Serving 300,000 local residents
Manchester Met Uni Case Study
Energy cost reduction of 30%

Data centre design and build is a cornerstone of our business, with over 30 years experience – there isn’t a better placed team to manage your project.

We have a team of highly skilled and experienced server room design engineers who can design systems and recommend products which meet your performance specification in terms of energy efficiency, sustainability and resilience, whilst staying within your budget and timescales. Our server room design services are based upon industry best practice, alongside the wide-ranging experience we have in server room and data centre design and build, critical cooling and power, DCIM, UPS power, racks, PDUs and more.

Small server room design

In situations where data management is crucial to an organisation or business, it will be necessary to plan a server room layout which facilitates efficient data management, including network capabilities and storage. The only way to achieve this goal is by ensuring that every aspect of the layout of a server room meets best practice as this, in turn, will ensure that every component in a system is running consistently and is fully optimised. In addition, it is also necessary to ensure that appropriate levels of redundancy are in place to eradicate any possible risk of downtime; a vital consideration in both small office server room design, and the design of large-scale server room facilities.

Lighting is another important consideration in server room design and all server spaces should be well lit with energy efficient LED lighting, whilst providing a comfortable working environment for employees and sub-contractors. Furthermore, it is sensible to control access to server rooms and data centres; with this in mind, installing security features such as access controls is a practical solution for high security facilities or in shared location environments.

Air flow and cooling in server rooms

Managing temperature and humidity is essential in server rooms and data centres of all sizes. As such, when designing a server room, close consideration should be paid to the optimisation of cooling and air flow. In practice, this means that server racks should be positioned to align the hot server exhaust air preferably to create a hot and cold aisle configuration. Sufficient cooling should be provided to match the power density of each rack, whilst also allowing for redundancy and future expansion.

Human error, accidental cable disconnections and misidentifications are easily prevented by implementing network cable management. Structured network cables require well-organised routes away frow power infrastructure, uniform colours, clear labelling and connection maps which are readily available for access by technicians.

Server room design: options for environmental controls and remote monitoring

A range of conditions can be monitored by an environment monitoring system including humidity, temperature, vibration, tampering and leaks. Alerts and alarms can be issued in different ways, including such as email notifications, SMS texts, directly to a building management system control panel, or through a smartphone app. It’s important to bear in mind that without sufficient server room monitoring in place, a potentially dangerous build-up of heat inside a server rack can quickly damage valuable IT equipment.

Protect server rooms, racks and servers with a fire suppression system

Ensuring adequate protection from fire is vital, as is the need to make sure that the system you choose is appropriate for your requirements and correctly serviced and maintained. The average server rack will generate up to 30KW of heat which means that a fault in a cooling system can result in a potential fire risk in as little as 5 mins. Furthermore, this risk becomes even greater when you take into consideration that anyone working in the server room, computer room or data centre will need to evacuate before inert gas is released from the fire suppression system.

Power supply protection in the server room environment

Choosing the best way to protect server rooms from mains power supply failure is a critical infrastructure design decision. Uninterruptible power supplies should be part of any power protection strategy and can be installed at either server rack or facilities level.

The most energy efficient option is to install a large, centralised UPS system, designed to safeguard an entire facility. For longer outages, power can be provided from a standby generator. Whichever approach you choose, systems need to be monitored via remote monitoring systems and IP/networkSNMP systems.

Our approach to server room and data centre design

We offer a client-focussed approach to server room and data centre design. Only once we have fully understood your requirements will we use our extensive knowledge and expertise to explore and identify and the best technologies for your needs.

Our services and solutions are able to support your IT requirements in virtually any environment and we’ll guide you throughout the process of selecting the levels of capacity, redundancy, energy efficiency and visibility you need.

Following the consultation and concept creation stages we will develop a solution which meets your budget, requirement, and timescale. We aim to go over and above what you would expect and will provide a flexible, clearly communicated approach throughout.