Hosted storage: Too hot to handle?

By Linda Gail Christie

Many companies are finding that it's more cost effective to purchase storage as a service from an SSP than to make the huge investments necessary to build a large data storage infrastructure. When you're doing your planning and choosing of a service provider, however, don't overlook heat.

"When we're planning for the square footage and air conditioning we need, we plan for enough space to host our hottest-running platform times the number of boxes we plan to deploy," said Mike Tardif, senior VP of Technology and Engineering for StorageNetworks, Inc.

Beyond monitoring room temperature and performing physical walk-throughs, a hosting service provider (HSP) like StorageNetworks remotely monitors heat, power supply temperatures, and fan operation to address a heat problem before it damages equipment or interrupts customer service.

Storage management tips are written by Linda Gail Christie, a contributing editor based in Tulsa, Okla.