How Data Center Integrations are Different

The data center industry has experienced huge growth over the past 10 years and it doesn’t show signs of slowing down anytime soon.

According to The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the Department of Energy, there are already three million data centers in the United States – this includes those that are on-site at businesses large and small, plus the free-standing warehouse-sized data centers that rent halls to some of the largest internet companies in the world.

The state of data centers today

Internet businesses are booming and the amount of data that is stored and transferred all over the world is growing exponentially, especially as cloud computing becomes more trusted and deployed across industries. As a result, commercial real estate watchers can continue to expect data centers to be a growth sector.

In many cases, data centers contain mission critical infrastructures or are themselves mission critical in their entirety, meaning they require 100% uptime and multiple redundancies in order to meet operations targets. Other mission critical infrastructures include power grids and communication networks. As such, data center integrations are a bit different and much more sensitive than the mechanical systems integrations done in other types of commercial buildings like office buildings or shopping centers.

What’s different about a data center integration?

From OTI’s MSI experience on the ground in data centers from Portland, Oregon to Ashburn, Virginia, fiber networks for operational systems with redundant switches and IP-enabled devices allow for high levels of monitoring for critical data points related to power usage, power usage efficiency, temperature, loads and more at central plants in throughout tenant-rented halls.

Integrated mechanical systems and energy analytics can also make data centers more attractive to bigger customers by helping tenants achieve and document their energy efficiency progress while also ensuring the uptime and redundancy requirements are met.

Data center tenants are pretty much any internet company you’ve ever heard of. The big names like Google, LinkedIn, Facebook, Spotify and Pandora are pushing data centers into more energy efficient territories as these companies look to enhanced data center energy management strategies to keep costs and consumption down as their data center needs expand. The opportunities are there for master systems integrators to help these companies achieve their energy efficiency goals while also supporting the data centers in their missions to create newer, more reliable infrastructures for their most innovative customers.

For those of you attending Realcomm-IBCon in June, be sure to join us at the Case Study Showcase first thing Friday, June 14 to talk about our latest data center integration.