The Threat of Data Centre Contamination

Data Center Knowledge (Sep 14 2010) Carbon Footprint

1. Contamination is an ever-present threat to sensitive data centre equipment. Its potential effects range from impaired power efficiency to catastrophic equipment failure. However, with the right expertise, prevention is entirely possible. This column discusses the risks and how to prevent them. Contamination affecting ICT comes in two forms—particulate matter (PM) and gaseous. These cause problems for many reasons. If PM blocks equipment cooling fans and heatsinks, they must work harder to keep equipment within operating temperature limits. This can increase a data centre’s power demand by 2% or more, as well as potentially shortening equipment lifetime and causing hardware failure due to overheating. Zinc whiskers and other PM can bridge between conductive tracks within electronics equipment, causing short circuits and hardware failures—a growing occurrence as ICT equipment shrinks in physical size, correspondingly reducing track bridging distances. Fibres longer than 5 mm have been found inside data equipment ... (Read Full Article)

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