Much in the same way as humans, IT equipment struggles to operate at high temperatures and faces a greater risk of failure or thermal shutdown to prevent damage.
If you have on-premises servers and networking equipment, unlike cloud data centres, these comms areas often lack adequate cooling.
It is imperative that you take some steps to keep your IT infrastructure from overheating during this period of extreme heat.
Here are some things to consider:
- If the comms area has air conditioning, it should be turned on and set to its coolest setting with the oscillating function turned on.
- If you don’t have air conditioning, then consider a fan or portable air conditioning unit.
- When using the room to store items, please ensure that the airflow to the communication equipment, servers, switches and phone systems is not obstructed. Consider temporarily removing stored items.
- If your IT or telephony equipment has recently been replaced, redundant equipment may remain in the cabinets, which no longer needs to be turned on. Before turning off any equipment, please contact your IT or comms provider for advice.
- It is best practice to always secure the comms area. However, we understand that an excessive amount of heat may prevent some businesses from operating without opening windows or doors to let in more air and lower the ambient temperature. In this case, a trusted employee should be nearby to ensure that no malicious actions are taken.
- Finally, ensure that you test your backup solution and make sure that any key data and systems are protected.
Please review your situation now and take action to help protect your IT infrastructure.
For further information or to discuss your own situation please email us or call us on 01625 613 633.
