Apparently simply slowing down IT equipment in the data center solves the problem of the equipment overheating in all this summer heat.

Outages at universities can be especially catastrophic since some research projects that their facilities are working on may require continuous processing, and an outage can completely reset the whole affair.

Cooling in these facilities is pretty reliable, but in the intensive summer heat many data centers are at risk, especially as global warming heats things up.

The technique Purdue specialists have developed to take care of the extra strain on their systems means the equipment will operate at a less than perfect rate, but won’t completely crash.  It involves using normal power saving features but also limiting the energy and cooling everything requires to function.  It’s an adjustable system so as soon as the threat to cooling continuity is resolved, everything can go back to normal.

See the article at Campus Technology to learn more about why Patrick Finnegan, a campus sys-admin, is being hailed as a data center hero.


Elizabeth English

photo by agius under flickr creative commons license

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