So many different considerations must go into the planning for a data center deployment, and one of those key choices is what type of enclosure you’ll use to hold your important IT equipment. That selection may be influenced by the type of cooling or containment that is best suited for your facility.
Datacenter Dynamics offers resources and guidance to help with understanding the options. In their recent supplement to the June issue of DatacenterDynamics FOCUS dedicated to racks and cabinets they included an article on the development of the Dell PowerEdge Energy Smart containment rack enclosure.
In this two-page article, principal engineer and inventor David Moss explains how he devised the integrated rack containment solution. He has received two patents for his innovative design, which directs airflow efficiently to the equipment installed within, while supporting high density deployments in excess of 30KW. He started with a rough prototype, and invested many hours in evaluating the optimal configuration of the internal plenum, measuring airflow versus pressure and charting the test results.
This extensive investigation has yielded a clean and simple design that provides impressive load capacity and energy efficiency for data centers that utilize raised-floor cooling. The passive plenum of the Energy Smart rack offers an easily-deployed form of containment that doesn’t impact fire-suppression systems or utilities. With this rack solution now available in production, Dave is now investigating additional rack-level cooling solutions, so be on the lookout for Dell’s next great rack infrastructure offering!