The server room – or data center – is the most important critical environment in nearly every business. Employees and customers rely on the data center’s performance 24/7, 365 days per year.
As such, any downtime seriously disrupts the flow of business. Looking for ways to keep your data center running longer?
Consider a qualified professional cleaning service. Cleanliness is of the utmost importance in a critical environment like a server room. Dust and debris can wreak havoc on your server room hardware. Therefore, for maximum efficiency and performance, the server room needs to be spotless.
Here are five reasons you might consider a commercial cleaning service for your data center:
1. Cleanliness Improves Performance and Longevity of Equipment
The hardware in your data center runs continuously, with each machine drawing in air to cool internal components. When dust and debris are present in the air, it gets drawn into the machines during the cooling process.
This can cause significant damage. For one, accumulating dust insulates the machines, and reduces natural heat transfer. As such, equipment in dirty server rooms is much more likely to overheat. Additionally, dust and debris are naturally corrosive. Over time, dust corrodes internal components and circuitry, which can reduce equipment lifecycles.
2. Regular Cleaning Reduces Downtime
When machines need to be replaced, or can’t cool efficiently, businesses experience more lengthy downtimes and delays. Any business knows that downtime can be costly.
According to Gartner, data center downtime costs business an average of $5,600 per minute in lost productivity, lost revenue and repairs. Fortunately, regular critical environment cleaning can help to reduce downtime. A few reasons why:
- Regular cleaning improves equipment performance/efficiency
- Reducing dust improves equipment life cycles
- Removing dust/debris can help detect issues before they become problematic (e.g. a frayed wire)
A Solution: If keeping up with regular cleaning in-house is too difficult, hire a professional cleaning service with data center cleaning experience. This will ensure scheduled cleaning is never missed.
3. Dirt and Dust Clog Filtration Systems
Your data center’s air filtration system constantly filters dust, debris, and contaminants from the air. Unfortunately, when the filter becomes dirty or clogged, the CRAC (Computer Room Air Conditioning) must work harder to compensate and may struggle to properly cool your critical environment.
In short, there are two reasons how a clean server room helps:
- Fewer filter changes
- More effective filtration in between filter changes
Ultimately, ensuring minimum dust is in the environment will help you maximize the efficiency of your server room’s cooling system.
A Solution: Regularly change the air filters in your server room’s air conditioning system. CRAC and HVAC cleaning will also help reduce dust.
4. Unclean Environments Attract Rodents
Rodents are a huge source of contamination in server rooms, and they can often cause costly damage and downtime. In 2012, for example, Yahoo’s data center spent several days offline due to a squirrel infestation.
One area to pay close attention to is the underfloor plenum. This area can become a “highway” for rats, mice and other rodents, which causes contamination, as well as damage to equipment (e.g. chewed wires and connections). Learn some tips for cleaning raised floor, here.
Regularly cleaning the underfloor area eliminates contaminants from the underfloor and can help you detect rodent issues earlier.
A Solution: Underfloor vacuuming should be a regular part of your data center cleaning program. Be sure whoever is responsible keeps a watchful eye for evidence of rodents.
5. Data Center Cleaning Promotes Workplace Safety
A data center fire is a nightmare for any systems administrator or IT professional. Serious fires can put lives in peril, but, even smaller fires cause downtime, data loss, and lost equipment.
Fortunately, server room fires account for just 6% of commercial infrastructure failures, according to NetworksAsia. But this type of fire has much more significant cost compared to other types of workplace fires.
The main cause is operator error, but contamination is another significant cause of a fire. Statically-charged dust can lead to short circuits while overheating is another source of critical environment fire.
A Solution: Use anti-static cleaning solutions and non-corrosive chemicals when cleaning data center hardware.
Foreman Pro Cleaning Is Your Source for Data Center Cleaning
Need a trusted partner who can ensure the cleanliness of your data center? Foreman Pro Cleaning can help. We offer professional cleaning services to businesses throughout Maryland, Washington D.C., and Virginia, and we have extensive knowledge of data center cleaning best practices.