3 Sustainable Themes: Belden Data Center Stories

This blog post details 3 sustainable themes from a recent LinkedIn Live discussion, during which several Belden Data Center experts shared case studies, and provided insight into how these cases could have improved their approach.

A Balancing Act

Sustainability is a balancing act. Who is the metaphorical trapeze artist in question? For the sake of this conversation, data centers. In current day, data centers are a source of critical information and energy consumption alike. They must supply the audience with certain expectations and demands. They must aim to reduce waste and save energy, while at the same time never throw away too much, over-provision, or impact operations and risk the act entirely.

This idea was unpacked in a recent conversation between data center experts from Belden, as they wanted to find the secret behind achieving a sustainable environment. According to the participants of this discussion, opportunities to invest in sustainability are hidden in plain sight. The following stories do help, however, to illustrate just where and when a well-hidden opportunity might arise.

Key Theme #1: It's Not That Deep
The first story, like any good one, begins in an office. One afternoon, a few of its employees noticed a single failed server. Who could have done this? The scene was thoroughly investigated, but no one was to be found. The next day, the team still couldn't seem to find the fugitive unplugging the data center server. 

After spending several afternoons of monitoring the server in suspect, the team finally discovered the truth. Can you guess what was causing this break in productivity?

The custodial staff was coming in every night, and plugging in their vacuum cleaner.

The Belden team reassures the listeners and readers that silly situations like this are common. The custodial staff was just doing their job. So, how could this data center have approached operations differently, to avoid this kind of miscommunication and confusion? 

According to the experts, if they had utilized a data center infrastructure management (DCIM) solution, the team would have been alerted the very first time there was unauthorized access. Had the IT staff had more insight into the initial event, they could have avoided such unnecessary, puzzling investigations, afternoon after afternoon.

The main point of this case? Before you start digging at a single incident, make sure there's not a more proactive, holistic solution. Human error is a more common barrier of productivity than one might think, so sometimes it's simply not worth jumping to conclusions.

It will likely always be a better use of time and money to just make sure systems are in place to reliably communicate with each other, and to alert users of any unauthorized access... the first time. 

Key Theme #2: Count Your Slices of Pie
A data center is like a living ecosystem. It requires energy, climate, and many combined elements to function together seamlessly. Similar to how the Amazon rainforest needs more than just trees and sunlight to operate, data centers need more than just cables and cabinets.

There need to be accommodating features like airflow, access control, and surveillance systems to create a sustainable ecosystem. These elements make up the flora and fauna of the data center.

Belden's second case story is about a data center team that got so excited about a deal on in-room air chillers that they purchased over 20 in one day. Immediately afterwards, all 20 in-room air chillers were installed together in the middle of their main data center room. They were left there for several days, idling. Sounds like one really, really cold room.

Can eye spy the unsustainable? 

Deploying in-room air chillers was a great idea, but the Belden crew admits there were a few more sustainable methods of doing so. It is understandable from a distance that keeping that many air chillers in one room is unnecessary, and that rationing out these products across the entire ecosystem would been more cost-effective.

Instead, the data center team could have:

• Cycled chillers in and out as needed
• Stored backup chillers 
• Partitioned the white space so each air chiller could cool a specific area

The main point? Count your slices of pie. Don't give them all to one person. Divvy them up with balance in mind. Installing random separate parts and pieces without thinking about the implications won't achieve true sustainability... that only comes from systems designed to work together harmoniously.

Key Theme #3: Take a Couple Steps Back
The last case story takes place in a maximum security prison. According to the discussion, the prison's security team was searching for a cable management software to alert them when cables were moved.

Belden experts informed them that this type of software was fairly expensive and out of the prison's budget, so they probed for more details.  

That was when the operator specified that, in order to secure the prison's network at all costs, they wanted to see if a prisoner ever disconnected a cable. Hmm, let's take a couple steps back. 

While the prison at least had a goal for security improvement, their team was missing the bigger picture. If one of the prisoners ever got inside of the data center at all, the prison's network control would already be far lost. 

Instead of the expensive cabling solution that sends re-patching alerts, Belden recommended investing in a network management system. This all-encompassing solution would alert security as soon as there's a bypass in access control, making it the more affordable and sustainable way to secure the data center in question.