Utilities and Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC)
The utility services for most facilities generally include electrical, telecommunications, water, sewer, natural gas, steam, and hot and cold water supply for HVAC. Compromise of any of these systems could render the facility unusable, or significantly degrade its usefulness. Utilities and security and or safety protections include:
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Appropriate redundancy
Risk assessments of utility services should identify when multiple separate service entrances are necessary for redundant communication channels and or mechanisms.
Building controls should detect failures in the critical systems with appropriate sensors
Monitoring for water or gas leaks, sewer overflow or HVAC failure should be integrated into the building control environment, with appropriate alarms to signal appropriate response by the organization's staff. Contingency plans to respond to the compromises should prioritize the systems in the building so that supplies are available to minimize the impact of a major system failure on people, operations or other infrastructure.
Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) control
Well-established standards for the operation of computer equipment exist and equipment is tested against these standards. The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASH RAE) publishes the ANSI/ ASH RAE Standard 90.4-2019, Energy Standard for Data Centers, which establishes the minimum energy-efficiency requirements for the design and operation of data centers, with special consideration to their unique load requirements.
The range that ASH RAE recommended for optimized maximum uptime and hardware life is between 64° to 81 ° F (18° to 27°C). While vendors may have specific requirements for their equipment, the ASH RAE recommendations are widely accepted as best practice.
High density equipment and equipment within enclosed spaces requires adequate cooling and airflow
ASH RAE further recommends that a rack have three temperature sensors, position at the top, middle and bottom of the rack, to measure the actual operating temperature of the environment. Since the cost of cooling in many data centers is more than half of the entire operating cost of the facility, proper management of data center cooling is essential.
However, cooling is not the only issue with airflow. Contaminants, particularly dust and noxious fumes, must also be addressed with appropriate controls to minimize the impact on the equipment. In other parts of traditional data centers, to ensure air quality they must have sufficient airflow for the number of human occupants and sensors for carbon dioxide levels to be integrated with the fresh air intakes.