2003 American Power Conversion. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be used, reproduced, photocopied, transmitted, or
stored in any retrieval system of any nature, without the written permission of the copyright owner. www.apc.com Rev 2003-1
9
Adaptability / Scalability Imperatives
Imperative
Underlying problems
Solution Requirements
Plan for power density and cooling
requirements that are increasing and
unpredictable
Industry projections of equipment power
density and related cooling requirements
show great uncertainty but new rack
systems must meet these requirements
despite equipment refreshes.
Rack design that can be easily adapted,
even retrofit, to house and allow proper
cooling for high density equipment now
and in the future.
Adapt to ever-changing power
requirements
Different power requirements, voltage
requirements, outlet requirements, even
the need for DC may occur at any time in
any rack.
A rack system that allows quick and
tool-less changeover for different
voltages, power capacities, outlets, and
DC.
Allow for rear mounting of power strips
for easy power cord management.
Power strips should provide up to 42
receptacles.
Adapt to changing data center and
network room layouts
Sometime racks filled with equipment
must be moved to locations that hamper
the original rack configuration with regard
to obstructions, and cabling.
Rack enclosures with field reversible
doors with quick-release hinge pins,
quick-release side panels, castors for
mobility, and scales up to 2,000 lb
(907.2 kg) capacity. Also, racks that
adapt to new overhead power and data
cabling systems.
Adapt to ever changing IT equipment
requirements
Telecom and Internet markets are
converging resulting in dynamic
enclosure requirements that leave "holes"
in racks. The cooling environment of
these rooms become unstable.
A rack manufacture that can quickly
modify their racks and provide tool-less
accessories to meet these
requirements.
Adjustable mounting rails.
The solution requirements to meet the Adaptability Imperatives are based on pre-engineered and
standardized rack enclosures whose doors, side panels, rails, etc. can be easily changed in the field with no
tools. To satisfy the rack imperatives identified in this survey, there are a number of changes required from
current design practice. Most of these changes arise by viewing the rack as the heart of the data center, for
it is at the rack level that a company's critical IT processes are ultimately carried out. No longer should the
rack be thought of as just a metal enclosure and specified based on little more then price. The rack
enclosure provides a highly available environment that, when designed properly, can add measurable
probabilistic uptime and cost savings to a company. Indeed the rack should be considered part of the data
center or network room infrastructure which requires it be an integral part of power, cooling, security,
management and fire detection systems. Only then will rack vendors have the foresight to provide solutions
to the problems identified by this survey as well as the problems yet to come.
