Safeguarding Server Rooms:
Comprehensive Monitoring with LoRaWAN® Sensors
Challenge
Server rooms serve as the nerve center of modern businesses, housing critical infrastructure and sensitive data. Maintaining optimal conditions within these environments is critical to ensure uninterrupted operations and data integrity. Equipment needs to be kept at proper environmental conditions and potential water damage needs to be identified quickly and communicated without using the current IT infrastructure to send the status of the server room —The separate LoRaWAN communications network keeps the monitoring and reporting data on a separate network so even if the main server has a communication malfunction, the LoRaWAN network will continue communicating statuses.
LoRaWAN Wireless Solution
Employing a suite of wireless LoRaWAN sensors—temperature, humidity, water leak, and door access—provides a proactive approach to mitigate risks, enhance security, and preserve the reliability of these vital spaces. LoRaWAN has the advantage of long distance, low power consumption and low cost. Its transmission distance can reach up to 5 kilometers in urban areas and its low-power consumption extends the service life of the battery. The unlicensed frequency band, infrastructure and the low cost of the node/terminal all reduce the communication costs.
Temperature and Humidity Sensors
• Equipment Reliability: Fluctuations in temperature and humidity can compromise the performance and longevity of server hardware. Monitoring these parameters ensures an environment conducive to optimal equipment operation, reducing the risk of overheating and hardware failures.
• Preventing Downtime: Early detection of temperature spikes or excessive humidity levels allows for preemptive measures, averting potential system failures. This proactive approach minimizes downtime and
Water Leak Sensors
• Mitigating Water Damage: Water leaks pose a significant threat to server rooms, potentially causing irreparable damage to equipment and data loss. Placing water leak sensors in vulnerable areas helps in immediate detection and swift response, minimizing damage and ensuring business continuity.
• Risk Mitigation: Rapid identification of leaks prevents the escalation of minor incidents into major crises, safeguarding against costly repairs and disruptions in operations.
Door Access Sensors
• Enhancing Security: Unauthorized access to server rooms compromises data security. Door access sensors provide real-time monitoring, triggering alerts upon unauthorized entry attempts, bolstering physical security measures.
• Compliance and Accountability: Tracking access logs through these sensors ensures compliance with security protocols and aids in identifying potential security breaches or internal policy violations.
Integrated Approach and Benefits
• Mitigating Water Damage: Water leaks pose a significant threat to server rooms, potentially causing irreparable damage to equipment and data loss. Placing water leak sensors in vulnerable areas helps in immediate detection and swift response, minimizing damage and ensuring business continuity.
• Risk Mitigation: Rapid identification of leaks prevents the escalation of minor incidents into major crises, safeguarding against costly repairs and disruptions in operations.
Best Practices and Implementation
• Mitigating Water Damage: Water leaks pose a significant threat to server rooms, potentially causing irreparable damage to equipment and data loss. Placing water leak sensors in vulnerable areas helps in immediate detection and swift response, minimizing damage and ensuring business continuity.
• Risk Mitigation: Rapid identification of leaks prevents the the escalation of minor incidents into major crises, safeguarding against costly repairs and disruptions in operations.
Results
Monitoring server rooms using temperature, humidity, water leak, and door access sensors is indispensable for maintaining optimal conditions, safeguarding against potential risks, and fortifying security measures. This proactive approach not only preserves the integrity of critical infrastructure but also ensures uninterrupted operations, contributing to the resilience and efficiency of businesses in an increasingly digital landscape.
Benefits
Increasing uptime and reliability
An environmental monitoring system allows IT administrators to monitor the working status and operating parameters of the server room in real-time, which provides an effective guarantee for the server room monitoring management and safe operation, thus enhancing the security and reliability of the server room.
Minimizing response time
Through the real-time detection of temperature, humidity, water leakage, and door access in the server room, IT administrators can not only remotely monitor the environmental parameters of the server room, but also can find the causes of the server room failure in a short period of time when abnormal situations occur, thus shortening the response and maintenance time.
Extending equipment lifespan
The server room equipment run all day, every day, consuming huge energy and processing performance, which affects the life expectancy of the equipment. The monitoring of temperature and humidity helps to maintain the service life of the
equipment and extend its service life. Temperature and humidity sensors help to prevent temperature deviation and reduce the possibility of the equipment being exposed to unnecessary heat.
Reducing costs
Server room equipment is costly. The LoRa-enabled server room monitoring solution reduces the management cost of the computer room, and creates a desired operating condition for the equipment, thus saving the operation and maintenance cost of the equipment and creating direct and indirect economic benefits.
Strengthening compliance to industry standards
Compared to traditional manual periodic inspections, server room monitoring makes
it easier for IT management teams to adopt industry standards and regulations.
It also simplifies compliance audits for server room facility management by keeping the temperature and humidity to the appropriate temperature in accordance with the ASHRAE standard range.
Reduced greenhouse gas emissions
Data center annual greenhouse gas emissions were reduced by 542 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year.
Risk Mitigation
Leveraging a separate LoRaWAN® network can help mitigate risks, provide peace of mind, and allow for additional security options.
• Server room downtime costs an average of $9,000 per minute
• If your system was down for just one hour, the downtime cost would be over $500,000.
• Tracking entry and exit with door sensor into the server room using the same LoRaWAN network would provide additional oversight into room access.
Wireless Solution Components
Wireless Probeless Temperature and Temperature + Humidity Sensor
LoRaWAN | RBS3010EU19BN00 | RBS3010EU0EBN00 These EU/UK sensors
measures the temperature of the air surrounding the sensor without any
external probes such as a thermocouple or thermistor.
Wireless Leak Detection Sensors
Wireless Water Rope Sensor in 1M and 10M lengths
LoRaWAN | RBS301-WR1M-US | RBS3010EU0ABN08 The water rope sensor uses
a water rope to detect the presence of water or other liquids. When the presence
of water or another liquid is detected, an alert is sent to the wireless network.
Wireless Water Leak Sensor
LoRaWAN | RBS301-WAT-US | RBS3010EU0ABN00 The water leak sensor uses a
water/liquid sensor probe to detect the presence of water or other liquids. When the
presence of water or another liquid is detected, an alert is sent to the wireless network.
Wireless Door & Window Sensor
LoRaWAN | RBS301-DWS-US | RBS3010EU01BN00 The door/window sensor uses
a magnet to detect open/close events for doors, windows, or other applications that
use a magnet to detect close proximity.
MultiTech Conduit® AP 300 Series
Indoor LoRaWAN 8 Channel Gateway providing superior in-building wireless penetration with optional cellular 4G LTE Backhaul. Seamlessly connect thousands of sensors wirelessly within smart buildings to meet the demands of Retail Operations, Quick Serve Restaurants, C-Stores, Grocery, Expo, Higher Education, and Commercial Real Estate.
Ready to learn more about how MultiTech products can take your business to the next level? Contact our team of experts online at MultiTech.com today!
For additional information, contact: sales@multitech.com
