Feng Shui and the Art of the Data Center

by Julius Neudorfer, 14 Jan 2010

I am in the midst of designing a new data center for a client and have been trying to balance the requirements of costs, space limitations, maximum number of cabinets and the flexibility to meet the rising and ever-changing power density of the IT equipment loads. Of course, high energy efficiency is a given. In addition, the client is especially concerned about esthetics and how it will look when a visitor enters the room.

My wife was reading a book on Feng Shui ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feng_shui ) and suggested that I begin to incorporate it into my thinking. Not having enough time to become a Feng Shui master by the project's deadline, I did some quick reading and found this definition:

Feng Shui is an ancient art of placement to bring balance and harmony to a physical space. The loose translation of Feng Shui is 'wind and water.' Feng represents the wind that carries the chi (energy) throughout a space. Shui is the water that meanders underneath the earth transporting chi.

And while I don't think that they had a data center in mind when Feng Shui was first introduced hundreds of years ago, I found a strong parallel to the data center's infrastructure in the definition. The three elements that are mentioned, wind (airflow), water (chilled water) and energy (power), all apply to the operation of a data center and of course, we also want to bring "balance and harmony to a physical space".

So with those thoughts in mind, I began to look at the design with a fresh eye...

Read full article at: http://www.ctoedge.com/content/feng-shui-and-art-data-center