Sydney Data Centers Weather Dust Storm

The view of the Sydney Opera House is obscured by red dust from a major dust storm that has engulfed the city.

The downside to free cooling? It’s problematic in a major dust storm. Data centers in Sydney and Brisbane have shut off external ventilation systems after a major dust storm swept across both cities, reports Australia’s IT News. The red dust obscured visibility and coated the cities with dust.

Macquarie Telecom said it has shut off its ventilation systems to prevent dust from entering the data center, and also made some changes in the management of its fire alarm systems to prevent dust in the air from triggering a deployment of fire suppression gas. Colocation provider ac3 said it had also limited access to its loading dock to prevent dust from blowing into the facility.  Several providers said they expected to be thoroughly cleaning air conditioning equipment to address any dust accumulation. See IT News for the full story.   

Photo from Andy Tyler/ via Flickr (CC BY-ND 2.0)

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About Rich Miller

Rich Miller is the founder and editor-in-chief of Data Center Knowledge, and has been reporting on the data center sector since 2000. He has tracked the growing impact of high-density computing on the power and cooling of data centers, and the resulting push for improved energy efficiency in these facilities.