The last few years have seen a monumental shift away from keeping server rack enclosures onsite to maintain an IT solution to tapping into the cloud. That said, as Forbes writes, many is the business that chooses to take the hybrid approach to modern computing. By using cloud servers to store certain types of data while sticking to onsite server rack enclosures to house more sensitive information, modern businesses can maintain complete control over their IT needs; walk the line between security and convenience; and effectively control how much they spend on IT from month to month.
While there isn’t much you can do to keep your cloud servers running, you do have complete control over your onsite technology. With these practices suggested by some of the top institutions in the world, you can keep your onsite servers running at the highest possible level.
Best Practices of IT for Running a Reliable Server Solution
- Regularly Inventory Each of Your Server Enclosures
- Don’t Make Your Server Rack Cooling System an Afterthought
- Redundancy, Redundancy, Redundancy
For the University of Michigan’s IT department, one of the best things you can do to protect your servers from unneeded wear and tear is to inventory them. Once a week, take an inventory of which systems are actually in use. Shutting down unused computers keeps you from needlessly wearing them down. As an added bonus, this will have a noticeable effect on your utility bills.
Running your servers too hot can have a number of detrimental effects on your hardware, to say nothing of the fire risks. That’s why, as the tech site CIO details, you need to set up your clean room in a well circulated, well air-conditioned room from the get-go. Additionally, buying server rack enclosures with a high quality built-in cooling system is a common sense move that too many businesses forget about.
To paraphrase the poet Robert Burns, “even the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” The unfortunate truth of IT is that no matter what you do, there is a chance something is going to go wrong. That’s why redundancy is so important. Backing up your data several times over is incredibly important to protecting yourself and maintaining business stability. Similarly, making sure you have multiple power backups should something happen to your clean room’s server means being able to function normally no matter what, as the University of California Davis writes.
Are there any best practices we failed to mention that you feel are crucial to keeping server rack enclosures and other server hardware running at peak efficiency? Share your advice in the comments below. See this reference for more: www.global1resources.com
