Designing Data Centers for the Future

In January, we focused on data center design. We looked into design best practices and examined some of the most interesting new design trends. Here are the stories we ran as part of our data center design month:

Data Center Design: Which Standards to Follow? - Codes must be followed when designing, building, and operating your data center, but “code” is the minimum performance requirement to ensure life safety and energy efficiency in most cases. A data center is going to probably be the most expensive facility your company ever builds or operates. Should it have the minimum required by code?

Startup Envisions Data Centers for Cities of the Future - The Project Rhizome team is thinking of ways to design small urban data centers so they fit in urban environments functionally, economically, and aesthetically.

One of Project Rhizome's concepts is a community swimming pool heated by server exhaust heat from an integrated data center (Image/Concept: Project Rhizome)

Linear Programming Helps Groupon Optimize Data Center Design - Groupon may be the future of merchant discounts, but it uses a mathematical problem solving method formulated in the 1930s to optimize the data center design that supports its popular service.

ICTroom Unchains Capacity from Size in Modular Data Centers - The more you standardize, the faster you can deliver product and save on upfront costs usually sunk in high-capacity facilities that spend long periods of time underutilized.

An integrated modular data center by ICTroom (Image: ICTroom)

Equinix Turns to Fan Walls for Data Center Cooling - There’s been a lot of debate over the years about the various pluses and minuses of using raised floors for data center cooling versus simply dropping cold air onto the data center floor from ducts on the ceiling. But there’s a third option: the fan wall.