Is Your Enterprise Hot Or Not?Humidity's Impact On The Data Center
Written By Chris A. MacKinnon - Processor Vol.31 Issue 13
A hot data center is bound for trouble. But what about a data center with too little or too much vapor in the air? You don't hear as much about humidity as you do about cooling in the data center, but most data center and IT managers in small to midsized enterprises believe that humidity can have just as detrimental an impact on data center equipment as insufficient cooling.
The Impact
Harry Schechter, founder of Temperature@lert (www.TemperatureAlert.com) agrees that humidity has a large impact on data center equipment. "It's true that humidity was becoming less and less of a problem for the modern data center." Schechter says. "However, the problem of humidity is about to come back into play. The name of the game today is cost cutting. One way that data center managers are cutting costs is by raising the temperature on the thermostats. For each degree of increase, you can get back about 4% of your energy bill."
Schechter says most equipment is rated at temperatures far above what a normal data center exists at, but there does come a point of diminishing returns for pushing up the thermostat. "If you experience an AC failure, there's less time to react," he says. "Also, maintaining a data center at 80 [degrees Fahrenheit] (which seems to be about the optimal temperature for electricity savings) increases the air's ability to hold moisture. This is why humidity will start to pop up on the radar screen again."
Bob Douglass, vice president of sales and marketing at Sensaphone (www.Sensaphone.com) says humidity can affect the reliable operation of computers and other IT equipment in more than one way. "All electronics are sensitive to over-voltage, and one of the most common sources of over-voltage is static electricity," Douglass says. "When the humidity is too low, it significantly increases the occurrence of static electricity discharge. Grounding and bonding of the racks, frames, and cases will help to lower the risk of static damage, but none of that will help when moving or carrying a piece of networking equipment." Douglass says static electricity can weaken circuits or completely destroy them, and a humidity level that is too low will increase these risks. Having humidity too high poses a completely different risk.
"High humidity, on the other hand, can cause condensation, and that translates into electrical shorts," Douglass says. "Higher-density electronic designs use components with smaller and smaller gaps between electrical leads. The smaller these gaps become, the higher the risk of electrical shorts from condensation caused by high humidity."
The Concern
So should IT and data center managers in small to midsized enterprises be as concerned about humidity as some experts think? Douglass says most definitely. He explains, "Both high and low humidity levels will increase the risk of server crashing, lockups, and even permanent damage-all of which cause downtime and cost money."
Richard Grundy, director of engineering at AVTECH Software (www.AVTECH.com) says IT and data center staff do need to be concerned about humidity's impact on the data center. "Unlike temperature or power issues, which can result in immediate and sudden downtime or damage to equipment, high or low humidity can result in longer-term equipment damage," he says. "Running equipment in a high-humidity environment can result in the slow corrosion of internal system components and electronics, resulting in eventual equipment failure and unplanned downtime."
In Grundy's opinion, when compared to a proactive environment monitoring approach, unplanned downtime and equipment replacement can be extremely costly for any organization but especially for small to midsized organizations whose budgets are already stretched to the limit. He says for many existing data centers, it costs roughly the same to cool the data center as it does to power the computers and equipment inside it.
Maarten Van Laere, CEO at ServersCheck (www.ServersCheck.com) says getting SMEs to monitor temperature in their server rooms is already a big challenge. He explains, "Doing environmental monitoring in small and midsized companies is very often done after they have faced environmental damage and don't want it to happen again. Companies should monitor it proactively - before the damage is done. It's like insurance: You should have insurance so the thing you are insured against doesn't happen to you. The cost of doing environmental monitoring is so low compared to the cost of the equipment running in the room."
The Reality
Douglass says the good news for IT and data center managers is that they should be able to screen humidity levels with the same monitoring systems that they use to alert them to potentially harmful conditions. In many instances, he says, it is just a matter of including an additional sensor dedicated to measuring the room's relative humidity. He adds, "When tens of thousands of dollars are at stake, it makes sense to monitor every potential threat. We've received feedback from many customers that their monitoring system paid for itself after detecting a problem that prevented a single instance of downtime."
It appears that humidity is indeed a bigger deal than some experts are purporting. "If you're sticking with the traditional cool temperatures in the data center, it's not much of a worry anymore," Schechter says. "However, if you decide to outfit your staff with Bermuda shorts, it's time to start watching humidity."
AVTECH Software, Inc.