Solution
The consultant determined the approximate base load of the equipment in the
proposed data center and suggested a raised floor design.
The floor area was divided into functional areas such as NOC area, equipment staging area, networ room, and data center area, which would have rack rows containing
servers, storage, and other devices. Some floor area near the entrance was
marked for large floor-standing servers and storage subsystems (which are not
designed for racks).
The consultant suggested a redundant three-phase UPS system and powerdistribution
unit, backed by a diesel generator. The generator was located just
outside the data center with exhausts facing away from the building.
For redundancy, the data center had two power feeds from different grids.
The HVAC unit was designed to be redundant.
It had two units and subfloor air distribution systems. The return-air ducts were located in the ceiling plenum. The two units were located on diagonal sides of the data center.
The electrical and mechanical infrastructure was designed in such a way as to be
able to double the amount of UPS protection and precision cooling seamlessly
should it become necessary.
The network room had switches connecting the servers to the intranet and
ISPs.
The racks in the data center were grouped into sets.
Each set of racks had POD racks that contained patch panels, terminal servers, and subswitches.
The POD patch panels were connected to the patch panel in the network room.
The fire-suppression system included a preaction sprinkler system, smoke detectors at various locations and plenum areas, and temperature-based firesensing
devices.
The entire data-center construction project took 8 months from concept to
completion.
The close cooperation and partnership of all critically involved
parties (such as the customer, engineers, and contractors) was vital to the accomplishment
of the overall project.