THE HIDDEN, EVERYDAY THREATS TO THE SME SERVER ROOM

Petaling Jaya, 30 April - The server room is the heart of the business network especially for SMEs. It is imperative to keep it up as not only are valuable hardware assets lie within but also large amounts of invaluable information and data that every company has.

Unfortunately, while there are no firm industry figures, it is estimated that for as many as 80 per cent of SMEs locally, the important elements needed for a safe server room are missing.The rule of thumb when getting started is to know the important elements that make up a server room before tackling any problem that may occur within. Irwin Hon, Senior Solutions Engineer of APC by Schneider Electric highlights that power-hungry server rooms require uninterrupted power supply (UPS) alongside a proper Environmental Monitoring System (EMS). SMEs need to be aware that without UPS backup for their servers, they will need to wait for Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) or the generator set to resume operations. These elements are imperative to avoid hardware failure of the server as uninterrupted power ensures a stable IT operation while Environmental Monitoring System (EMS), guards and monitors the physical infrastructure of the server room.

It doesn’t take an engineer to know that our hot, sweltering equatorial climate is less than ideal to keep data safe. Hon recommends that server room temperatures be kept constant at the optimum temperature of 20 to 25 degrees Celsius for data safety. Without proper cooling techniques, servers can overheat and crash resulting in lost data, network and hardware failure.
Highlighting his experience onsite at several SMEs server rooms, “I’ve been called into more than one location where poor cooling caused a thermal shut down and temporary ventilation solution had to be applied to get rid of the hot air. When these shut downs happen, it takes two to four hours to get the server room back up – it is such a disaster for an SME when half your working day is gone because the server room got too hot.”

“I’ve seen SME server room managers putting stand fans inside the server room to no avail. The hot air is not neutralised but just circulated around inside the server room instead. That is not much better than opening the server room door. You need to cool things down to the optimum temperature,” he added.

Gone are the days when you had to chill an entire room to keep the server cool. Targeted solutions such as APC InRow cooling system are now deployed by SMEs to solve the cooling issue with better energy efficiency. Through standardization and integrated components of APC InRow, SMEs will have more control over power and cooling, which is exactly the tool needed to avoid server meltdown.

Overheating is not the only problem that can occur to your server room. A whole host of threats including power trips, unstable and fluctuating power, humidity, fire from short circuits, water drips and leakage (from air conditioner piping) and internal or external intrusion may cause servers to go haywire. With the right sizing of UPS, Cooling, coupled with the Environmental Monitoring System (EMS) and vigilance – SME server rooms can become much safer, explained Hon.

To all SME server room managers out there, here’s a checklist of server room essentials from APC by Schneider Electric to prevent everyday threats and ‘small scale disasters’ at hand.

1. Make sure you have the backup power (UPS, generator set) to temporarily support your operation or provide sufficient time to shut down the server properly upon TNB power failure.
2. Make sure you have alternative cooling backup or a standby unit in case the duty cooling system encounters a problem.
3. Make sure you have the 24-hour EMS system that is able to send any short messaging system (SMS) or email alert to signal a problem at an early stage so that you are able to mitigate it before it leads to bigger problems.
4. It is always good to have a remote Disaster Recovery (DR) site that can automatically take over the IT operation in case a problem occurs.
5. Engage your organization with a trusted advisor in setting up the right environment and maintaining the right operation system for the server room. DIY is great for small projects, but not for operationally sensitive server rooms!