Tips For Setting Up a Data Center Lab Environment

Virtually every organization with in-house IT infrastructure has a use for a lab environment. For most IT organizations, the data center lab is much like an engineering lab — it’s the place where designs are proven out. The lab may be used to validate manufactured equipment specifications, system integrations or software upgrades before they are moved into production.

For manufacturers of server, network or storage equipment, the lab is used to validate the designs of products being sold, to test custom configurations and to troubleshoot problems. Organizations that push out mobile applications to their customers will also use a lab to test the software on various devices.

Within a small company, the IT organization may be one person with a bench in his or her office that is used as the “lab.” In that case, the individual has full control of all aspects of evaluation, which is typically focused entirely upon the performance or suitability of the hardware or software being proposed for a project or solution. The power requirement for IT equipment in a small company is typically a tiny percentage of the overall company power usage and therefore not evaluated.

On the other end of the spectrum, the enterprise data center has a tremendous focus on power efficiency, including cooling efficiency. The evaluation of hardware and software to be deployed at large scale is a project that will typically involve many people over a longer period of time than in the small company. The continual flow of equipment through the lab can be disruptive to an organization’s data center operations and may even reduce efficiency due to that disruption.

Planning of the lab then becomes extremely important to allow for convenience and speed of alterations to the design, especially with lean data center personnel resources. Organizations that use the lab for testing products must also consider long-term manageability and the efficient allocation of lab resources to engineers and developers.

The most critical aspect of the lab design is flexibility. IT personnel need the ability to install and remove equipment with ease and provide the necessary power and cooling for each item with minimal infrastructure work. This requires a well-designed infrastructure that includes heavy-duty cabinets, cable management accessories, power monitoring, and reliable cooling.

Flexibility speaks to long-term management as well. As time progresses, new equipment can bring surprises in terms of power needs. Overbuilding the lab beyond anything the data center is expected to see is an insurance policy against future equipment that might require localized data center upgrades.

As much as we would like it to be that there is one best way to design a lab, the fact is that organizations will always have varied needs. A lab could be dedicated to a single data center in a single location, or for a network of worldwide data centers. It may be within the same building as the data center, or within the engineering design building. It may be expected to live the life of the IT architecture or the life of the company. All these types of questions lead to different design criteria.

Enconnex has expert resources in-house and through strategic partners to provide guidance on your lab design. With cabinet, connectivity, cooling and power solutions, Enconnex can provide the total package to meet your needs.