Your data center is an essential component of your company’s everyday business. With so much output energy, though, it could easily become too hot, overheat and malfunction. See why proper air flow containment benefits  your company in a variety of ways:

Prevention of Equipment Malfunction

Your data center equipment is an invaluable asset to your business. An overheated system could be disastrous—not only would the equipment itself be costly to replace, but you would also lose valuable and potentially irreplaceable, information from the server units. To keep your data center running smoothly, you’ll have to enact an air flow containment plan. Both hot and cold aisle containment plans are effective, and you will probably choose whichever model works with the position of your air flow units and return duct works. Whichever you choose, you’ll be able to reduce the heat on your server racks, greatly preventing any kind of system overheating.

Manage Air Flow as a Safety Measure

When equipment overheats, you’re faced with costly malfunctions, as well as the possibility of harmful fires. Fires don’t always occur if equipment becomes too hot, but they are always a possibility. Without some kind of containment system, your system could overheat. To keep temperatures at a low, safe level,  you can use an air flow management system to inhibit your data center. A lanyard drop track system, for example, can detect if temperatures around the data center reach become too hot (around 135 ˚F). It will then drop 18″ below and engage sprinklers if necessary. Depending on which model you choose for your air flow containment, you may incorporate fire-resistant doors for increased safety. Many systems even have sensors that detect when a data center becomes too hot and will then deploy panels to reduce the temperature.

Reduced Cost through Containment

By assessing your data center air flow and implementing the right data center air flow management system in place, you can greatly reduce the total energy output costs for your data center. Hot and cold aisle containment systems work to lower the temperature of your data center, which, in turn, lowers the amount of energy it takes to power your system. Energy Star has even reported that containment systems could save companies anywhere from 5 to 10 percent savings on the overall cost for energy output. With an effective management system, you can keep your data center safe and reduce the overhead cost to keep it functioning.