Ran Out of White Space? UPS and Cooling for Non-Traditional Data Center Space: Gray Space Solutions
By Molly Gross, Principal, Power Solutions, LLC
Gray space, warehouse floors, remote closets, outdoor enclosures — IT equipment ends up everywhere. Protecting it requires a different approach than traditional data center design.
Traditional white-space data centers are expensive to build and run out of room faster than anticipated. As IT equipment migrates to gray space, network closets, edge locations, and even outdoor enclosures, the challenges of temperature variation, dust, humidity, security, and monitoring multiply. This whitepaper reviews the unique challenges of non-traditional data center environments and identifies the product categories best suited to address them: modular UPS, rugged/harsh-environment UPS, outdoor UPS, and micro data centers with integrated cooling, backup power, monitoring, and security. Power Solutions is a vendor-neutral supplier for all of these categories.
Whitepaper Summary
Q: What is ‘gray space’ in a data center context?
A: Gray space refers to non-dedicated IT areas — warehouse space, manufacturing floors, network closets, or other areas not designed for IT equipment. These environments typically lack climate control, have dust and humidity, and may have limited monitoring.
Q: What type of UPS is recommended for harsh or industrial environments?
A: UPS for harsh environments are purpose-built to withstand dust, vibration, wide temperature swings, and liquid splatter. Standard UPS equipment will fail prematurely in these conditions.
Q: Can UPS systems be deployed outdoors?
A: Yes. Outdoor UPS systems are ruggedized enclosures designed for access control, telecom, public utility, and security applications in extreme outdoor conditions. Power Solutions offers custom-engineered outdoor UPS solutions.
Q: What is a micro data center and when is it the right solution?
A: A micro data center is a self-contained enclosure integrating cooling, backup power, monitoring, and physical security in a single unit. It is ideal when dedicated IT space is unavailable or when a complete containerized solution is needed.
Q: What monitoring considerations apply to gray space IT deployments?
A: Remote monitoring is critical for gray space because these locations often lack on-site personnel. Environmental monitoring (temperature, humidity, access) and UPS status alerts are essential to catch problems before they cause failures.
Download this whitepaper.
For more information about How to Deploy IT Equipment Safely Outside the Data Center,
call 800-876-9373 or email [email protected].