No matter what your organization may call it—a data center, a server room, or a telecommunications hub—at the end of the day, the space that houses your company’s IT hardware serves as the central nerve center of your business operations. Therefore, solid data center infrastructure design is key and critical for guaranteeing efficient and smooth functionality of your IT assets… in both the short and long term.
However, a stark reality is also at play. Namely, many companies fail to create stable and effective data center designs. Ultimately, many mistakes can be made that end up presenting challenges when troubleshooting, managing, and expanding the data center as a company’s IT needs grow.
In this new blog, the team at Connectivity will outline the biggest data center infrastructure design mistakes so your organization can make it a point to avoid them.
3 Major Data Center Design Fails
As you consider your data center’s design, make sure to avoid these critical errors:
You fail to account for cable management: Many business leaders neglect to realize how important cable organization is—until it is too late. Ultimately, when an installation job is rushed, a data center can be left with disorganized jumbles of cables, which makes it incredibly hard to keep data center connections organized. In turn, this increases the time that will be needed when performing maintenance and troubleshooting, which can result in network outages and downtime, a loss of productivity, and a hit to your bottom line.
You underestimate the installation and maintenance budget: No data center should ever be considered a “one and done” expense. Rather, ongoing costs will be present. Why? Because active equipment in the server room will need to be repaired, replaced, or upgraded. Labor will be spent on managing the server room, and power and cooling costs will also be present. While spending a bit more on the initial design proposal for better cabling organization and other energy-efficient solutions will increase the up-front expenses, this can actually help minimize the total cost of ownership as time passes.
You forget to future proof your data center: Here at Connectivity, we talk about future proofing a lot because it is such an important component of effective data center and IT infrastructure operations. However, far too often, organizations fail to incorporate sufficient room for growth into their data center designs. This, in turn, limits what the server room can handle as well as a company’s ability to adapt to changing technology or systems that could improve their operations.
All of this being said, realize there is a bright side, too. Learn some simple tips for building a better data center.
Avoid Common Pitfalls with Connectivity
When designing a data center, firstly, conduct a thorough needs assessment. Answer some key questions such as: What equipment is being installed? How will the equipment be mounted and connected? What are the power and cooling requirements?
Then, start planning for your organization’s growth from day one. Start thinking about the future and create projections. This will make it easier to scale your data center and IT infrastructure while also keeping costs under control and preventing waste.
Next, devote some time to designing the cabling infrastructure. Knowing how equipment like switches, servers, routers, and the like will be interconnected is critical for maintaining an organized and functional area. And trust us when we say that keeping cables organized from the very start helps make maintenance and upgrades that much easier…which also controls costs.
Finally, make the decision to work with Connectivity. We can assist with your data center infrastructure design and help you avoid many common mistakes while offering solutions and recommendations to take the stress out of this process.
Interested in learning more? Our team would welcome the chance to schedule a consultation with you to discuss your data center needs. Reach out today.