There are many reasons for data center downtime, but other than human error, natural disasters and outdated equipment are fairly common causes. Regardless of the reason, it always leads to a loss in productivity that affects companies and customers. A data center outage can cause companies to experience revenue drop, data loss, and software and management downtime.
So, how do you overcome data center failures and avoid them in your organization? Keep reading to learn the most effective ways to prevent data center running outage.
What Types of Failures Can Occur in the Data Center?
An unplanned data center failure or outage can cost your business a lot of money. Identifying the main types of hardware issues can help plan ahead and avoid problems.
To prevent equipment failure, here are the most common causes of data center failures:
Cybersecurity issues
Online security problems have been causing most hardware failures They may be caused by a hacker trying to access sensitive data or an employee’s mistake.
Getting top-notch data security standards helps secure your server room and avoid software failure. Make sure to implement intelligent reporting and monitoring programs to track all movements in your data center.
Human error
Some mistakes committed by employees can occur in the installation or layout itself. Data center outages are also linked to human mistakes due to poor training, no labeling, lack of routine maintenance, and illogical unplanned design.
A simple oversight can lead to serious data center downtime, which is costly and difficult to recover from. Some human mistakes include circuit overloading, temperature adjustments, and emergency power-off switch activation.
Cabling issues
A cabling system is an important component in building high-performance data centers. If the system has a function failure, the data will be at risk.
Some of the potential issues that cause cabling failure include crooks in the cables, wrong cables used, poorly constructed cabling systems, and tightly jammed cabled bundles.
Cooling failures
Overheating is another common cause of a data center outage. Any components in the system such as the wet fire suppression systems that get too hot will cause a shutdown in order to protect the equipment from further damage.
Cooling problems can be caused by a lack of airflow, lost cooling system redundancy, and a lack of cold air entering the cold aisle. Some cooling solutions include backup cooling procedures, maintenance windows, and other preventative measures that must also be in place.
What Happens If a Data Center Goes Down?
Data center facilities that go down or experience software failures are not just inconvenient but also dangerously expensive. According to Uptime Institute, one in six data centers with major outages incurred more than $1 million loss.
Moreover, 48% of outages cost organization administrators from $100,000 to $1 million. Some data center managers don’t record small losses, while many operators admit that they experience fewer outages with improved data center infrastructure management resiliency.
How Do Data Centers Protect Against Power Outages?
Data centers can protect their systems from outages with proper and regular testing as well as using correct procedures in daily operations. It’s important to focus on the most common mistakes to prevent equipment failures.
The following are the best ways to prevent data center outages:
- Minimize human errors by conducting training programs for the staff so they keep up with the best practices on data center operations and maintenance.
- Invest in UPS or an uninterruptible power supply to keep it running despite power interruptions and other energy-related problems.
- Get the disaster recovery plan ready for severe weather conditions or any natural disaster with a backup power supply.
- Regularly inspect the hardware through power failure tests to avoid equipment failure and make sure outdated machines are replaced with newer and more efficient systems.
Get a Reliable Asset Liquidation Solutions Provider
To optimize your data center performance and facility, working with a reliable turn-key supplier of corporate asset recovery is the key. Liquis Inc offers comprehensive asset liquidation solutions in order to help free up space in older data centers. If you need to declutter your data center equipment, feel free to contact us today.