Modern Data Centers: Designing for Future Modern data centers are typically designed to deliver two different levels of service: enterprise quality products designed around scalability, and commodity facilities designed to deliver immediate but not long term solutions. In fact, many data centers can become obsolete within ten years. Data Centers should therefore be designed with the future in mind. Will the facility be able to meet the needs of clients 15 years from now? Flexibility is key. It’s All About Efficiency Colocation providers for example, are always seeking to maintain a competitive advantage yet build out facilities with little thought to innovation. Currently, a lot of emphasis has been placed on cooling and energy efficiency. Facebook has been experimenting with immersion cooling, a process where a dedicated server is completely submerged in a conductive cooling liquid. The Green grid - an international non-profit dedicated to modular data center design and efficiency, recommends data centers run UPS (uninterruptible power supply) in Eco mode, a process that will prevent energy loss in backup power systems. Immersion cooling and UPC Eco Mode are just two perfect examples of efforts being made towards energy efficiency within new data centers. Servers that run cool require less power. Backup systems that prevent energy loss from occurring also conserve power. Utility costs are a huge factor for any existing facility. Old data centers are very power hungry and end up costing more money to operate. Which brings us to the idea of long-term scalability: Scalability Is Important….











