Your servers play a critical role in the operations of your business. Therefore, you must take steps to protect them.
There are many ways in which you can ensure your server room is safe and hazard-free. They include:
Guard Against Fires
Fires can start anywhere. This includes server rooms. If a server room isn’t properly cooled and ventilated, it can get particularly hot. As such, fires may be more likely to occur in server rooms than in other spaces.
You can guard against fires by emphasizing thorough ventilation and cooling. However, fires can still occur even if you take these steps. That’s why it’s important to also have fire suppression systems installed.
Just make sure you use the right systems. Traditional sprinklers can damage servers. They’re not ideal for data centers. Instead, use a fire suppression system that relies on compressed gas (such as Halon) to extinguish fires safely.
Emphasize Security and Video Surveillance
Hazards such as fires aren’t the only threats to your server room. There may be individuals or groups who, for various reasons, wish to access or damage your servers.
You need to ensure your server room is in a safe location, that it remains locked, and that the servers themselves are kept in locked racks. It’s also a good idea to set up a 24-hour video surveillance system. If you have the budget, you might even want to dedicate an entire security team to protect your server room.
Backup Your Power Supply
You don’t want a power outage to negatively impact operations or leave your server room vulnerable to threats. Prevent this by installing a backup power supply.
Use Water Detection Systems
Again, you can’t use traditional sprinkler-based fire suppression systems in a data center because the water from sprinklers can and likely will damage your servers. With that in mind, you should also make a point of ensuring your server room is leak-free.
Additionally, inspect it regularly for signs of water. You may even consider using water-detection tools when doing so. Even the smallest of leaks have the potential to cause a short circuit that could damage numerous servers throughout your data center.
Dehumidify
Water doesn’t just come in the form of leaks. If your server room gets too humid, condensation can build up. Minimize the chances of this happening by following standard industry best practices for dehumidifying a server room. Just as you should routinely check for leaks, you must also check humidity levels regularly.
Carefully Determine Access Rights
Unless your business is specifically based around providing services such as cloud computing or IT support, odds are good the number of employees who need access to your server room regularly is fairly low. Thus, to ensure maximum protection, you should be very careful when deciding who is and is not deserving of access. Give access to the wrong person, and an incompetent, inexperienced, or disgruntled employee could cause damage, whether intentionally or unintentionally.
None of this is meant to worry you. It’s simply meant to remind you that your servers play a critical role in your operations. Following the advice here will help you protect them.
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