The Raritan Blog

Government Security, Compliance and Remote Access

Anthony Bonaventura
August 23, 2010

IT administrators in the government space are concerned about three things when they arrive at their place of work: security, security and security.

With the recent, and not so recent, cyber attacks on military and civilian agency networks, the government is constantly looking to the OEM and system integrator communities for new solutions to insure the lock-down of federal information system networks and servers that carry and hold information critical to the security of our nation.

Couple this daily challenge with compliance directives issued in large part by executive orders and shrinking budgets, data center managers hands are full. Not to mention that these folks have some of the busiest days out of anyone in the federal IT space.

Raritan will be at DatacenterDynamics in Washington, DC on August 31st

Dorothy Ochs
August 11, 2010

Come visit the Raritan booth at DatacenterDynamics in Washington, DC on August 31st to learn about our intelligent energy management solutions.  For more information and to register, visit https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/conferences/.

ASHRAE - Colder is Not Better for a Data Center

James Cerwinski
August 10, 2010

If colder is not better and we agree you can save energy by increasing the temperature — why are data center managers still over-cooling? The reason is that many data center managers don’t have the information to safely increase the temperature. The following Gartner quote adds an important new element — the need to monitor for hot spots.

Gradually raise the temperature at the server inlet point to run up to 24 degrees Celsius (75 degrees Fahrenheit), but use sensors to monitor for hot spots - Gartner – 29 July 2009

ASHRAE recommends you measure and record temperature and humidity at the geometric center of the air intake of the top, middle and bottom racked equipment at 50 MM( 2in.) from the front of the equipment. For example, if there are 20 servers in a rack, measure the temperature at the center of the first, tenth or eleventh, and twentieth server as shown in the following picture.

Source: ASHRAE Thermal Guidelines for Data Processing Environment

Are you monitoring your temperature and humidity according to ASHRAE’s recommendation?

James Cerwinski

Who was the SECOND man to walk on the Moon?

August 4, 2010

Ok, it’s July 20th, 1969 and America had finally realized JFK’s dream and commitment that we would land a man on the moon and return him safely within the decade of the 60s. Everybody remembers Neil Armstrong’s first few steps, and his famous first few words. (Although there is still some controversy as to the actual words he used, even when listening to the audio tape). Neil was pioneering the manned lunar exploration era. He became synonymous with the space program and his role became one of leadership and understanding.

Eighteen minutes later, Buzz Aldrin walked down the same ladder and walked on the same landscape, ultimately uttering the words, “Beautiful, beautiful. Magnificent desolation.”  Buzz was walking the exact same steps but was doing so in the context of Neil’s 18-minute old path.  Who remembers this detail about Buzz (not just his fun name, but the fact that he was the second person to walk on the moon)? 

Very few people do. In fact, in every new adventure mankind has embarked upon, it is the pioneers that are remembered. The first one to do something. The leaders who take ownership and set direction. Ultimately these pioneers are the leaders who set the tone in which all others must operate.

ASHRAE - Colder is Not Better for a Data Center

James Cerwinski
August 4, 2010

In my last post, I explained that “it is widely accepted that you can save energy by avoiding over cooling a data center.”  That seems like a fair statement to accept, but have had one person question this statement — explaining that the fans on the servers might have to run more often. 

Let us look at what ASHRAE and Gartner have to say on this.

ASHRAE’s takes the following position in their book titled “Best Practices for a Datacom Facility Energy Efficiency”

“Environmental conditions have a substantial impact on energy efficiency and total cost of ownership in a datacom facility.”

“Moving away from a “colder is better” philosophy can result in significant energy savings due to greater refrigeration cycle thermodynamics efficiency and increased economizer hours.”

“Allowing for increased temperature and humidity dead bands will eliminate “fighting” between adjacent supply air units, which is a significant source of inefficiency in some existing facilities.”

David J. Cappuccio, Gartner managing vice president and chief of research for the Infrastructure teams has made the following position — “Data center managers can save up to 4 percent in energy costs for every degree of upward change in the baseline temperature, known as a set point. The higher set point means less frequent use of air conditioning, which saves the energy used to run cooling systems”

Tell me about your experiences.

James Cerwinski

Page 82 of 94 pages ‹ First  < 80 81 82 83 84 >  Last ›