Sometimes the unimaginable happens. A fire can threaten to destroy a data center. To protect the valuable equipment and information housed in the facility, it is critical to install a fire suppression system adequate to the size, type and operational responsibilities of the complex. By definition, a fire suppression system is a combination of fire detection and extinguishing devices designed to circumvent catastrophic business loss as a result of a fire. This loss includes not only the cost of equipment replacement, but also the cost of recovering lost data or business-specific applications.

Detection Systems: The First Line of Defense

A critical component of any suppression system is smoke detectors. Depending on the application, they can be of the photoelectric or ionization type. Detectors perform several vital functions:

• Warn facility occupants of possible fire.
• Shut down all electrical service to the equipment so as not to “fuel the fire.”
• Activate the suppression medium.

If it is properly designed, the detection system can also be used to limit business loss due to power-off interfaces by detecting a system failure rather than an actual smoke condition.

A highly effective detection system is one we call an “intelligent” system. It uses a software-based early warning system to provide an accurate means of detection and verification at the ceiling plane and underfloor plenum.

Water and Clean Agent Gas: Common Suppression Media

Suppression medium is activated if a true emergency is detected. The two most commonly used media to put out a fire are water and clean agent gas such as FM200, Inergen, and NAFS-III.

Determining which type of suppression medium to use depends in large part on the requirements of local code enforcement authorities, building and/or landlord stipulations, and input from insurance underwriters. It also depends on user preference, which is influenced by such factors as cost, business risk relative to data recovery, existing systems, and so forth.

Water sprinkler systems

Water sprinkler systems are found in most buildings regardless of the presence of a data center. As a general rule, where sprinkler systems exist, it is less expensive to convert to a pre-action sprinkler system than to install a clean agent system. Pre-action sprinklers are the water-based choice for data centers and refer to systems that control the flow of water to pipes in the ceiling plane. Smoke and heat activate a valve that advances the water to the ceiling plane. That way, inadvertent damage to equipment from leakage or accidental discharge is prevented. (By comparison, with an ordinary sprinkler system, water is contained in pipes in the ceiling plane at all times.)

Water is highly effective at putting out fires and is well suited for areas like printer rooms that contain combustible materials like paper and toner. The downside of water-based systems is the messy and lengthy clean up and recovery time after a water discharge.

Clean agents

There are primarily three clean agents presently vying for acceptance in the marketplace, FM200, NAF S-III, and Inergen. These agents were developed in response to the phase-out of Halon and the development of NFPA 2001, which was adopted in the Fall of 1994.

Consideration of these agents as alternatives to CO2 in under floor applications is viable. The costs of these systems has dropped in recent years due to more competition in the market place with competing vendors offering these various gas options.

1. FM-200 (Heptafluoropropane – HFC-227EA) is a colorless, liquefied compressed gas. It is stored as a liquid and dispensed into the hazard as a colorless, electrically non-conductive vapor. It leaves no residue. It has acceptable toxicity for use in occupied spaces when used as specified in the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed Significant New Alternatives Policy (SNAP) program rules. FM-200 extinguishes a fire by a combination of chemical and physical mechanisms.

   FM-200 is an effective fire-extinguishing agent that can be used on many types of fires. It is effective for use on Class A Surface-Burning Fires, Class B Flammable Liquid, and Class C Electrical Fires.

   On a weight of agent basis, FM-200 is a very effective gaseous extinguishing agent. The minimum design concentration for total flood applications in accordance with NFPA 2001 shall be 7.0%.

2. NAF S-III is a clean, non-conductive media used for the protection of a variety of potential fire hazards, including electrical and electronic equipment. NAF S-III is a clean gaseous agent at atmospheric pressure and does not leave a residue. It is colorless and non-corrosive.

   NAF S-III acts as a fire-extinguishing agent by breaking the free radical chain reaction that occurs in the flame during combustion and pyrolysis. Like Halon 1301, NAF S-III has a better efficiency with flaming liquids than with deep-seated Class A fires.

   NAF S-III fire extinguishing systems have the capability to rapidly suppress surface-burning fires within enclosures. The extinguishing agent is a specially developed chemical that is a gas at atmospheric pressure and is effective in an enclosed risk area. NAF S-III extinguishes most normal fires at the design concentration by volume of 8.60% at 20° C.

   NAF S-III is stored in high-pressure containers and super-pressurized by dry nitrogen to provide additional energy to ensure rapid discharge. At the normal operating pressure of 360 psi (24.8 bar) or 600 psi (42 bar), NAF is in liquid form in the container.

   Once the system is activated, the container valves are opened and the nitrogen propels the liquid under pressure through the pipe work to the nozzles, where it vaporizes. The high rate of the discharge through the nozzles ensures a homogeneous mixture with the air. Sufficient quantities of NAF S-III should be discharged to meet the concentration required and the pressure at each nozzle must be located to achieve uniform mixing.

3. Inergen is composed of naturally occurring gases already found in Earth’s atmosphere (nitrogen, argon, and CO2). Inergen suppresses fire by displacing the oxygen in the environment. Inergen, however, is not toxic to the occupants because of the way it interacts with the human body. The level of CO2 in Inergen stimulates the rate of respiration and increases the body’s use of oxygen. This compensates for the lower oxygen levels that are present when Inergen is discharged.

   Inergen is stored as a dry, compressed gas and is released through piping systems similar to those utilized in other gaseous suppression systems.

4. FE-25 fire suppression agent is environmentally acceptable replacement for Halon 1301. FE-25 is an odorless, colorless, liquefied compressed gas. It is stored as a liquid and dispensed into the hazard as a colorless, electrically non-conductive vapor that is clear and does not obscure vision. It leaves no residue and has acceptable toxicity for use in occupied spaces at design concentrations. FE-25 extinguishes a fire by a combination of chemical and physical mechanisms. FE-25 does not displace oxygen and therefore is safe for use in occupied spaces without fear of oxygen deprivation.

   FE-25 has zero ozone depleting potential, a low global warming potential, and a short atmospheric lifetime.

   FE-25 closely matches Halon 1301 in terms of physical properties such as flow characteristics and vapor pressure. The pressure traces, vaporization, and spray patterns for FE-25 nearly duplicate that of Halon 1301. The minimum design concentration for FE-25 systems is 8.0% meaning that about 25% more of FE-25 agent will be required. Fe-25 requires about 1.3 times the storage area of Halon.

   When retrofitting existing Halon 1301 system, the nozzles and cylinder assembly will need to be upgraded, however, the piping system likely will not need to be changed, which is cost-effective retrofit that minimizes business interruption.

5. FE-13 is a clean, high-pressure agent that leaves no residue when discharged. FE-13 efficiently suppresses fire by the process of physiochemical thermal transfer. The presence of FE-13 absorbs heat from the fire as a sponge absorbs liquid. FE-13 is safe for use in occupied spaces up to a 24% concentration. Design concentration for total flood application is 16%.
6. Novec 1230 is the newest clean-agent gas available on the market. It is marketed as a long-term sustainable alternative to FM-200 and Halon. Novec 1230 has a 0.0 ozone depletion potential (equivalent to FM-200), but has an atmospheric lifetime of only five days, compared to FM-200’s half life of over 20 years. Novec 1230 has a zero global warming potential. Novec 1230 is designed to a concentration level of 4-6%, which will require less gas than other clean agent. Novec 1230 extinguishes the fire by heat absorption, and is heavier than air, so the gas will sink in the room. Novec 1230 is also safe for electronic equipment, so the data center may not have to be shut down in the event of a gas discharge.

   Novec 1230 will require the same amount of tanks as FM-200, and is stored as a liquid under pressure. Under normal atmospheric conditions, it will exist as a gas. The system is approximately 5-7% more expensive than FM-200.

Table – Relative Cost Comparison of Extinguishing Methods
Scenario Characteristics: Occupied Room Housing electrical equipment 10,000 cu-ft room volume Room fully enclosed and building is fully sprinklered			Design Basis: (1) Total flooding. (2) Does not include the cost of fire alarm and detection system. Probable cost < $4,000. (3) Assume a fully sprinklered building and (4) Includes the cost of the extinguishing agent.
Extinguishing Agent	Design Concentration, Density	Agent Quantity	Installation Cost (4)	Recharge Cost	Design Basis
FM-200	7.44 % by volume	364 lbs	20% more than Inergen	Almost twice the cost of Inergen	(1) + (2)
FE-25	96% by volume	335 lbs	Parallel to FM-200 less gas	20%-25% less than FM-200	(1) + (2)
Inergen	37.5 % by volume	4780-cu-ft			(1) + (2)
NAF S-III	8.60 % by volume	___	___	___	(1) + (2)
Pre-Action Sprinklers	0.1 gpm/s.f water	N/A	1/4 the cost of Halon or Inergen	N/A	(2) + (3)

Note: NAF S-III does not appear to have the market presence to be a viable alternative.

How Cloud Computing is Driving Mobile Data Growth and a Next Generation of Data Center Strategies.

At the 2010 Techonomy Conference in Lake Tahoe, Eric Schmidt quoted a figure that most data professionals can relate to:

Every two days, there is as much ‘data’ produced globally as was produced from the dawn of civilization up to 2003 —  approximately five exabytes every 48 hours.

Certainly, the rapid growth in user-generated content is a major driver of the expansion. But, user-generated content is really a reflection of a bigger shift in the IT landscape that is being driven by changes in the way business interacts with customers in both B2B and B2C markets, and an attendant revolution in the tools that consumers and businesses use to interact with applications and data.

According to Gartner, data growth remains on the top of list of IT’s biggest challenges for 2011, with 47% of respondents to a summer 2010 survey of over 1,000 large enterprises citing data growth in their top three challenges. (i)  (N.B.  37% of listed system performance and scalability and 36% cited network congestion and connectivity issues.) Gartner’s research uncovered data growth rate between 40% and 60% y/y. For enterprise IT professionals this includes rapid expansion in unstructured data, such as e-mail and regulatory and compliance documents. But that is just part of the story.

In November 2009, technology writer Robert Cringely wrote:

“We’re in the middle of a huge platform shift in computing and most of us don’t even know it.  The transition is from desktop to mobile and is as real as earlier transitions from mainframes to minicomputers to personal computers to networked computers with graphical interfaces.”  (ii) 

According to ABI Research, quoted in IEEE Spectrum, monthly data transmission by mobile computing devices, including cellphones, tablets and portable computers, will increase 1400% by 2014, with the number of people subscribing to cloud-based applications increasing from 71 million to just under 1 billion in the same timeframe. (iii)  Cloud applications, in this case, are defined as applications that are delivered with data storage or processing power not primarily resident on the mobile device. The leading applications in this shift include consumer-friendly utility software (such as maps), but also business productivity tools (especially for sales, data sharing, and collaboration), rapidly growing social networking applications, and now-ubiquitous search functionality.

From consumers to business professionals, we are rapidly becoming addicted to real-time access of all forms of data. Rich-media (audio, video) garners the headlines, but today, we expect to log on to find order status, place new orders, make stock trades or bank deposits, explore real-time inventory, or review engineering designs — all through a growing array of mobile devices.

What does all this mean to data center professionals?

Mobile applications carry new demands on data types, access control and traffic management, especially in cloud architectures. In the cloud, network resources are consumed by virtual machines, and network management and monitoring must intelligently correlate virtual machine traffic with physical network components and resources. Rapidly increasing demand on transactional resources dictates completely new QoS approaches to bandwidth allocation and traffic shaping. And data resources must be dynamically provisioned and carefully mirrored to ensure durable performance under widely varying loads.

BRUNS-PAK Cloud Computing Programs

BRUNS-PAK engineers are acutely aware this dramatic evolution in the IT market.  Our cloud computing team helps clients:

• Organize and document objectives
• Understand data center implications for both private cloud deployment or public cloud integration
• Plan for long-term optimized data center performance though load modeling for high-utilization, virtualized deployment architectures
• Develop a data center deployment model that is adaptive to rapid growth in both network access and data volume and can respond to the need for capacity expansion on a rapid basis through either increased site utilization or modular expansion

For more information on our Cloud Computing capabilities and offerings, click here to access our Contact Us page and call or request information.

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(i)  “Data Growth Remains IT’s Biggest Challenge, Gartner Says.”  Computerworld Online.  http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9194283/Data_growth_remains_IT_s_biggest_challenge_Gartner_says. November 2, 2010.

(ii)  Cringely, Robert X, “Pictures In Our Heads.” I, Cringely. 11/17/2009.

(iii) “Cloud Computing Drives Mobile Data Growth”.  IEEE Spectrum Online. http://spectrum.ieee.org/telecom/wireless/cloud-computing-drives-mobile-data-growth. October 2009

In a Nov 2012 survey by IDG Research Services¹, CIOs got yet another wakeup call regarding the price for being non-responsive to increasingly demanding line-of-business owners in the enterprise. In the study, the majority of respondents indicated that line-of-business teams control over 20% of the IT budget. Further, 20% of respondents indicated that these teams now dictate the majority of IT spending. For CIO’s used to having rigid control of their IT infrastructure, this is a discomforting reminder of the changes being wrought on IT by rapidly growing demand for agility that supports greater alignment with business operations.

The accessibility of software as a service solutions, growing acceptance of mobile applications running on personally or company owned devices, and shortening time to market for new services-oriented applications are combining to make it easier than ever for non-IT professionals to identify lightweight solutions to business problems that can be deployed without IT assistance and charged to company credit cards. The trend may have started in the shadows, but it is a mainstream approach, with applications like Salesforce.com, Workday and Evernote now mainstays in enterprise operations. The upside? Speed, reduced capital costs and flexible deployment options. The downside? Greater enterprise risk, compliance concerns, and barriers to sharing data across application environments.

How can IT adapt? In today’s market, CIOs must eschew old strategies favoring tight management of infrastructure and services, in favor of a new services-driven orchestration model in which the IT department focuses on the delivery of strategic value from IT assets, independent of where those assets reside and who owns them. This model makes concepts like just-in-time IT a focus, and forces the integration of new strategies for enterprise IT delivery, including:

• cloud computing
• containers/PODS/ultramicro data centers
• advanced networking techniques for minimal latency
• SDN (software defined networking)
• OPEX/CAPEX rebalancing

Making sense of these trends and technologies can be confusing. BRUNS-PAK Consulting Services is an integral part of BRUNS-PAK’s comprehensive data center services offerings. Our consulting services team is expert at helping customers to plan and implement complex strategies for alternative infrastructures and dynamic IT deployment. By helping IT management understand and optimize the following critical infrastructure considerations, we can make it easier to align IT strategy with business needs, and reduce the rise of shadow IT initiatives:

• Value of current facilities renovation/expansion (CAPEX vs. OPEX)
• New data center build options (CAPEX)
• Alternative financing options/leaseback (OPEX)
• Co-location design and optimization
• Cloud integration
• Containers/Pods
• Network/WiFi design and management
• Migration/relocation options
• Hybrid computing environment design and deployment

To learn more about how BRUNS-PAK Consulting Services can help you address emerging challenges in your data center strategy, contact Paul Evanko, Vice President at 732-248-4455, or via e-mail at pdevanko@bruns-pak.com.

[1] IDG Research Services, “Clouds, business issues and time management dominate the CIO’s world in 2013”, Nov. 2012 http://www.enterprisecioforum.com/en/whitepaper/it-and-cios-2013-will-look-awful-lot-201

While winter temperatures make it a little easier to distract yourself from the costs of data center cooling, the realities are that for many companies, data center cooling remains a topic of high importance. At BRUNS-PAK, we have long championed design options that can make significant difference in your data center HVAC costs, including:

• Airside Economization: the use of “free” outside air in your cooling plan
• Heat Wheel Integration: integration of heat wheel exchange systems for optimizing energy efficiency
• Higher Data Center Ambient Temperature: following the guidelines in ASHRAE 9.9 means real savings
• Hot Aisle/Cold Aisle Configuration: reducing hot/cold mixing can produce measurable improvements in cooling efficiency

However, one item that companies do not take regular advantage of is CFD Modeling. Computational Flow Dynamics is often used in data center design projects, but its use in understanding airflow and cooling efficiency in existing data centers can yield measurable improvements in the optimized configuration of your data center assets, along with recommendations for HVAC improvements.

As leaders in the use of CFD modeling, BRUNS-PAK can provide expert consultation on ways to leverage this technique to support both short-term energy efficiency optimization modifications, and long-term strategic options for improving your data center sustainability profile.

For more information, contact Paul Evanko, Vice President at 732-248-4455, or via e-mail at pdevanko@bruns-pak.com.

The rising reliance on real-time, data-informed decision making in the enterprise, is placing new demands on the CIO to increase capacity and quality of service to knowledge workers throughout the enterprise. The CIO challenge in many organizations, however, is how to deliver that increased capability, capacity and quality of service while dealing with rising pressure to cut costs or forego major capital expenditures.

Traditionally, this has meant a strategic decision between:

• Renovation of existing data center facilities (dominantly OPEX)
• Expansion of existing data center facilities (balance of OPEX and CAPEX)
• Building new data center facilities (CAPEX program)

BRUNS-PAK Data Center Design/Build Leaseback Programs offer a secure way to finance new data center capacity through allocation of operating dollars instead of capital dollars. Backed by one of the nation’s leading financial services institutions, BRUNS-PAK leaseback options are integrated with the BRUNS-PAK design/build methodology which offers both the data center owner and the financing organization, a clear, well-documented, fixed price plan for data center construction projects. Financing options are available for both large-scale and moderate-scale programs.

If you are looking to evaluate OPEX options for an upcoming data center project, contact Paul Evanko, Vice President at 732-248-4455, or via e-mail at pdevanko@bruns-pak.com.

Cloud computing is a top-of-mind initiative for organizations in all industries. The promise of scalable, on-demand infrastructure, consumption-based pricing that reduces capex demands, and faster time-to-market for new solutions constitutes an intoxicating potion for requirements-challenged, cash-strapped IT executives.

However, for many IT executives, the migration to the cloud is not a simple decision for one big reason security. When you own and manage your own infrastructure or employ traditional colo or managed hosting services, there are established policies, practices and risk mitigation strategies that are widely accepted. In the murky waters of the cloud, entirely new risks emerge, including:

• Less transparency on infrastructure security practices, especially in below-the-hypervisor assets
• New multi-tenancy considerations that are not as well documented or understood
• Greater delegation of governance, risk and compliance demands to the cloud services provider

Despite these considerations, the financial lure of the cloud is inescapable. Public cloud services providers (CSPs) like Amazon and Microsoft have created massive economies of scale and are increasingly focused on segmented private cloud services that set a new normal in terms of cost-effectiveness, scalability and the ability to deliver truly agile IT infrastructure.

This has forced many IT departments to begin to look at workload segmentation in a new light. Beyond the questions of transactional vs. archival or batch vs. real-time workloads, organizations now need to look at applications that are “cloud adaptable”, both in terms of performance/technical readiness and in terms of governance, risk and compliance. New, business-driven applications like social CRM, human capital management, collaborative procurement and predictive analytics are all strong candidates for migration to on-demand cloud architecture.

This leads to another ‘new normal’ in IT infrastructure hybrid architectures. Hybrid IT infrastructure bridges public and private clouds, managed services providers and on-premise data centers. This composite fabric needs to be secured and managed for optimized performance, compliance and risk, opening up entirely new challenges and ushering in whole new classes of automation and management toolkits, such as internal cloud services brokers. It also forces greater emphasis on internal plans for virtualization or on-premise cloud deployments that can be integrated seamlessly in these complex architectures.

Making sense of this trend and its associated technologies can be confusing. BRUNS-PAK Consulting Services is a growing part of BRUNS-PAK’s comprehensive data center services offerings. Our consulting services team is expert at helping customers to plan and implement complex strategies for alternative infrastructures and dynamic IT deployment. By helping IT management understand and optimize the following critical infrastructure considerations, we can make it easier to align IT strategy with business needs, and reduce the rise of shadow IT initiatives:

• Value of current facilities renovation/expansion (CAPEX vs. OPEX)
• New data center build options (CAPEX)
• Alternative financing options/leaseback (OPEX)
• Co-location design and optimization
• Cloud integration
• Containers/Pods
• Network/WiFi design and management
• Migration/relocation options
• Hybrid computing environment design and deployment