f ire supression FACILITIES
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http://www.dcseurope.info/n/wjfo
Integrated fire safety solutions for data centres
Data centres and server rooms are at the heart of the modern business world. Millions of servers worldwide process ever-increasing quantities of data throughout a global network of several billion devices. Losing data can be devastating for companies - the potential consequences range from losing money and sustaining damage to their reputations to having to close down. In the event of a fire, every second counts. That is why a solid fire safety concept is essential. By Emelie Andrén Meiton, Fire Safety, Siemens Building Technologies Division.
IN THE DATA CENTRE INDUSTRY, the main concern is business continuity. In other words, companies rely on their information systems to run their operations. If a system becomes unavailable, company operations may be impaired or stop completely. It is therefore necessary to provide a reliable infrastructure for data centre operations in order to minimize any chance of disruption. Information security is also a concern, and for this reason a data centre has to offer a secure environment which minimizes the chances of a security breach.
A data centre must maintain high standards to ensure the integrity and functionality of its hosted computer environment. In addition, it has to be designed, implemented and operated in such a way that a high level
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www.dcseurope.info I Winter 2013
of availability (business continuity) can be guaranteed. This means an error-tolerant IT environment with redundancy and maximum availability of 99.995% per year.
Perfect interaction
The most important objective in a data centre is maximum availability (99.995% per year). Simply put, the central task of a fire safety system is to keep the business going even in case of a fire. Early detection plays an integral part. This is because the earlier a fire can be detected, the earlier the operators can be notified of the event and the earlier the required technical and organizational measures can be initiated.
Furthermore, analyses show that a major cause of fire safety failure is the interface
between detection, alarming, control and extinguishing. For this reason, perfect communication between all products is essential for the effectiveness of the complete system. In other words, an integrated fire safety system from a single source is crucial for success.
Early, reliable detection is key Heavy power loads or a defective component in data centre equipment can quickly lead to overheating or a short circuit. A typical fire will start slowly with a long period of overheating and smouldering before erupting into flames. To detect overheating and avoid the onset of flames, very early smoke detection is required. If smoke is greatly diluted by high ventilation, aspirating smoke detection (ASD) will provide the earliest
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