Server racks should be essential to the success of our organization and it should provide a platform for any mission-critical equipment for our business. Proper server racks should help us cool, protect and power our equipments. We should make sure that we are able to keep our business running smoothly, especially if we can reduce downtime. So, it is clear that proper server racks have an effect to make our operations more efficient. We should be able to choose server racks with adequate available space so we could add any equipment and we should make sure that there’s enough space for any planned future expansion. We should also need to deal with any unplanned equipment purchase. Industry-standard measurement for server racks is “rack unit” and it is equal with 1.75-inch in height. We should keep in mind that there’s enough space for multiple accessories, such as backup battery, LCD monitors, power management devices and environmental monitoring units. The most important factor for server rack is internal height and identifies the tallest point within the rack.
The internal depth should be measured by the front and rear portions on the interior side of the rack. However, we should make sure that the outer dimension of the rack could make sure that the rack can be accommodated to any part of the room in our server center. It is also important that server racks can be dismantled, so they can be safely moved when necessary through any doorway. Placement should meet any safety regulations and we may need to use specific rack-loading techniques, so we need to consider this as well. In some cases, we need to place heavy things on top of the rack, so we should make sure that the rack is still perfectly stable even it is top heavy. Another thing to consider is the security of server center and this could be essential to the function and well being of our business. We should make sure that our server rack perfectly fits into our overall security planning and this is among the most essential things. We may need to take a number of measures to enhance the overall security factors. We should also consider whether additional equipments we put on the rack will contribute to the security level.
First of all, we should make sure that server racks are equipped with locks on the front and rear doors. Many models actually offer the same option and we should make sure that we could get models with the highest security features. It is also important to install environmental monitoring units that allow us to monitor our racks proactively. In addition, administrators should be able to continuously monitor electrical factors, such as amperage requirements per rack. Other variables to check are temperature, moisture and others. In some cases, we could also get server racks that send automatic alerts through email or text messaging, especially if the conditions have exceeded specific thresholds.