(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Helping the Minneapolis data center operator achieve its goal of making its servers seen and not heard, IPhouse (www.iphouse.com) re-carpeted its data center, not only beatifying the data center space, but more importantly increasing the lifespan of the storage subsystems by nearly eliminating the vibrations that affect the spindle wobble on high speed hard disk drives.
“The old carpet was really ugly and decrepit, like someone raided grandma’s house for old rugs and moved them here,” reads a company blog post. “The old carpet was beginning to fall apart, especially in high traffic areas, and the padding had exceeded the manufacturer’s recommended absolute maximum lifespan. The resulting reduction in pile height was causing a noticeable increase in ambient resonance.”
According to the company, there were many benefits in the installing the new carpet, which uses a technology called HushWeave to reduce noise in the data center. Principal among the benefits is the dampening of vibrations, which can cause equipment to more quickly deteriorate. Also, the visible wear pattern of the old carpet could, in fact, be a cause for security concerns because wear patterns could give black hat operators an idea of which racks have the heaviest traffic, and therefore the largest Ethernet.
Needless to say, carpeting a data center is considerably harder than a weekend home reno. IPhouse had to put its network, power, and HVAC on its redundant systems during the data center carpeting, where full bolts of carpet, 99 yards long and 12 feet wide, were laid. The long, wide stripes of the new carpet let staff estimate the height and dimension of each user in the data center for tracking using the company’s new targeted individual recognition system.
The company said that its service contract for its Roombas (a brand of autonomous robotic vacuums) forced it to consider installing a higher pile carpet because the previous carpet was too short and worn for Roombas to be efficient in their routes, and they would sometimes choke. The maker of the Roomba, iRobot, suggested the company replace the aging carpet.
“This renovation makes our data center a truly world-class facility, but we’re not standing still,” the company said. “We will be looking at repainting or possibly wallpapering the walls next, to make the environment even more server-friendly, supportive, and conducive to growth.”
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