Chapter 4. Determining Data Center Capacities

Chapter 4. Determining Data Center Capacities

"Everything is connected to everything else."

” Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

Designing a data center involves many different variables that include the housing structure, all of the utility and network feeds necessary to keep the center operational, and the storage and processing power of the hardware. Balancing all of these variables to design a data center that meets the project scope and keeps the center in constant operation can easily become a hit or miss operation if not carefully planned. Using older methods , such as basing power and cooling needs on square footage, gives inadequate and incomplete results. A newer method looks more closely at room and equipment capacities using rack location units (RLUs) to plan the data center.

This chapter contains the following sections:

• "Data Center Capacities"

• "Purpose of Rack Location Units"

• "Data Center Evolution"

• "Determining Criteria for RLUs"

• "Creating RLU Definitions"

• "Using RLUs to Determine In-Feed Capacities "

• "Planning for Equipment Layout"