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The costs of cooling data centers in the summer
August can bring hot weather, not just for average citizens but for data centers as well. For companies operating these centers, keeping things cool is a serious concern that can prove costly in its own right. Bloomberg recently reported on the way data centers are using large amounts of water to keep temperatures manageable.
Data centers can use as much as 200 million gallons of water per year, chilling them to acceptable levels, according to the Bloomberg brief. In California, the recent droughts and water shortage concerns have made this a particularly important issue. Businesses may have to balance the needs of their own infrastructure with the most sustainable choices.
In some cases, the best way to prevent overheating can vary for each company. Google has taken its own steps to address cooling efficiency, as The News reported earlier this month. According to that source, Google is using the machine learning of its DeepMind program to respond to changing patterns.
While this is the culmination of years of research, the company is still in the testing phase and could be the start of more work in the future. This system so far was able to reduce the amount of energy used during cooling by 40 percent.
Despite these advances, the risk of overheating data centers could still affect even major companies. In the past, Microsoft and Wikipedia have had to deal with the repercussions of overheating. Even when there are failsafe measures in place, sometimes a minor temperature change is enough to stop productivity.
Get better power interruption protection to avoid the inconvenience of data center downtime. Custom Networks will give your business the tools to prepare for downtime. Contact us today and start learning what you can do to improve.
