A localised data centre is in the same location as the users. There are a number of terms used to describe these data centres, including on-premise, Edge and micro. Localised data centres can range in size from 1-2 MW to as little as 10- 20kW. As enterprises outsource more and more of their business applications to cloud or colocation providers, these data centres are trending towards the smaller end of that range, with sometimes only a couple of racks left in a small room or closet.

Challenges.

In many of these down-sized data centres today, the design practices often equate to a Tier 1 design, with little thought to redundancy or availability. It is not uncommon to see the following in these small on-premise data centres:

• Lack of security – Rooms are often unsecured; racks are often open (no doors)
• Disorganised racks – Cable management is an after-thought, causing cable clutter, obstructions to airflow within the racks, and increased human error during adds, moves and changes.
• No redundancy – Power (UPS, distribution) systems are often 1N, which decreases availability and ability to keep systems up during maintenance.
• No dedicated cooling – These small rooms and closets often rely on the building’s comfort cooling, which can lead to overheated equipment
• No DCIM monitoring – These rooms are often left unmanaged, with no dedicated staff or software to manage the assets and ensure downtime is avoided.