Resilience - Tier 3 or Tier 4 Data Centre Facilities

Tiering

The BladeRoom system can be configured to Tier 3 or 4 levels of resilience, meeting full Uptime Institute specifications. Tier 3 or Tier 4 data centre specifications offer full concurrent maintenance with redundant components and dual distribution paths.

The mechanical and electrical design of the BladeRoom system was developed in conjunction with Red Engineering, world leading M&E specialists in the design of resilient data centres;

UK’s first Uptime Institute Accredited Tier Designers
Europe's first and only Uptime Institute Tier III certified facility
Europe's first and only Uptime Institute Tier IV certified design

Condensing units for back-up cooling

Back-up Cooling

A back-up mechanical cooling system is provided to cool IT on the rare occasions when ambient conditions are too hot and humid or the system is in emergency mode.

This back-up system is sized to cool 100% of the load with N+1 components and distribution paths for full concurrent maintenance.

VESDA system

VESDA

A VESDA system, backed up by independent smoke detection apparatus and suppression systems, integrates with the BMS and monitoring system to protect IT from smoke and dust.

UPS

BladeRoom data centres can be connected to any preferred UPS system.

An integrated battery UPS system can be incorporated within the power management room if required.

The back-up mechanical cooling system provides server room cooling on the rare occasions when outside air conditions are too hot and humid. It is also engaged when the system is in emergency recirculation mode, when there is a fire inside or contaminated outside air or smoke is detected entering the data centre.

In a temperate climate back-up cooling is required less than 1% of the year.

To maintain resilience during recirculation mode the mechanical cooling system has N+1 components and distribution paths.

Because the BladeRoom system requires mechanical cooling rarely, it is possible to remove condensing units from the mains power and run them on generators for the brief time they are required, enabling more site power to be dedicated to IT and reducing the cost of the site power infrastructure and the incoming HV supply.

VESDA sampling on recirculation damper

Two sensor circuits activate the system, one tracking early smoke or fumes internally and the other sensing external air quality.

When contaminants (such as smoke or dust) are sensed externally, the system will go into full recirculation mode and shut off all dampers admitting fresh air while commencing back-up mechanical cooling.

Once in full recirculation mode the data centre operates in a closed circuit, preventing any external contaminant entering the IT rooms. If a fire in the data centre is detected the server room fire suppression system will be activated.

Changing filters in live operation

When in full recirculation mode the BladeRoom data centre maintains N+1 resilience and full concurrent maintainability.

The system will stay in recirculation mode until acceptable external conditions have returned.

Activation of the internal VESDA system will also put the BladeRoom into recirculation. This will dramatically reduce the amount of fresh air passing through the space, which makes it less likely that a smouldering item will develop into a fire.

In the event that a fire does develop if both fire detection circuits (optical and ionisation detectors) are activated the inert fire suppression gas (IG55) will be discharged. Full cooling continues to be available after gas discharge.

The VESDA, smoke detection and server room fire suppression systems fully integrate into the monitoring system, providing the flexibility to set alarm responses and configure alerts and notifications to suit your standard practice.

This allows planned maintenance with no downtime through a fully concurrently maintainable design. Every critical system in the BladeRoom data centre is designed as N+1 or 2N.

BladeRoom facilities also deploy additional pipe work, cable and distribution paths with bypass switching to allow the 'hot swap' of all key system components.

This means that the facility can function at 100% capacity whilst maintenance or repair of any critical component takes place.

Maintenence on the Air Optimiser can take place while in live operation

Built to Tier 3 data centre standards, BladeRoom data centres can be upgraded to meet Tier 4 with little additional cost.

A Tier 4 solution can be delivered with two fully independent plant and power management zones - each designed to provide the critical load. This configuration offers full fault tolerance against unplanned failures.

A BladeRoom data centre can be easily zoned to create areas of different resilience.

Resilience levels of Tier 3 and Tier 4 can be designated in accordance with the needs of different functions within the business.

External UPS system

Any UPS system, including Diesel rotary, flywheel technology, rotary hybrid, static or Super Cap UPS systems can be connected to the BladeRoom facility.

Any UPS system can be used as long as it matches the specified Tier requirements of the BladeRoom data centre:

Tier 2: Single UPS-backed power distribution path - UPS configured to N

Tier 3: Dual A and B distribution paths, (at least 1 UPS-backed) - UPS configured to N+1

Tier 4: Dual A and B UPS-backed distribution paths - UPS configured to 2N

Integrated UPS system

If required an integrated battery based data centre UPS system can be provided within the BladeRoom data centre's power management room.

This provides a number of potential advantages over using an external system:

• Improved security and access control to the UPS
• Reduced overall site footprint
• Reduced programme risk
• Reduced cabling runs