If everything goes well, small businesses will eventually become medium-sized companies. Medium-sized companies become large. As your business grows, you will need to account for network growth. This could be possible with new services or servers. You might find yourself in the server room scratching you head as HR decides where to place the new desks. That’s fine.
You can make a strong case for a larger budget and authorization to purchase new equipment if you experience any kind of growth. It might be a good opportunity to reset the cabling situation, replace the old UPCs, or move the Christmas tree from the server room.
These are some tips to help you grow your server room and your business.
Keep your cables clean and tidy
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Start training. Growing your server room (or cabinet), will likely mean more racks, switches and wires. Oh, joy, more wires. It’s great if you have processes in place to keep your server room organized and neat. If not, now is a good time for a server room clean-up project. Schedule downtime to clean up the mess.
In case you were curious, cleanliness is important in a server room. Jeremy from IT Expertise Nugget Rack and Stack says he can see the cables in a server room and immediately tell what he is dealing with. “If you see a messy server area, chances are that the management and configuration of that network will be also messy.”
Growth is a good thing. You can at least start over, rebuild your network, and then put into practice the basic cable management processes that you learned in Network+ or CCNA.
Things are heating up
You might want to consider better heat dissipation methods as your business grows (and server room). One MDF mounted on a wall mount produces heat, but not as much as an 18U cabinet with 12 1U servers blasting into an unventilated area. Plan for your space.
The best scenario is to have your own space with air-conditioned racks and water-cooling systems. For serious racks, there are many options. We understand that sometimes you have to be realistic about your budget. Growing your server room means moving to a location with adequate ventilation and cooling so it doesn’t reach a unitfrying temperature of 90 degrees Fahrenheit. (And, yes, that’s high. Servers don’t like temperatures that are too high for human beings.
But how much AC and ventilation do you need?
Consider the power your servers will draw. Math shows that 1 watt hour equals 3.14 BTU per an hour. If you have 12 1U servers that draw 250 watts max, you need cooling power of 9.420 BTU/hour. Don’t forget to add AC, lights, and accessories. You are probably looking at a cool 10,
Keep your servers clean to prevent them from going up in flames. Do you have a Disaster Recovery Plan? Proper ventilation and cooling will keep your server room thriving and growing with your business.
You have the power
Don’t burn your equipment when you turn it on. Servers, NASs, as well as the spare PCs in the rack, draw a lot of power. They are, as you know, much more delicate than we would like to admit.
To help you choose the right UPS and the number of UPS units that you require, use the wattage you calculated from your AC calculation. This part doesn’t require any math. Add up the watts each device uses at full load and factor in gear y
