4 Types of Environmental Factors to Consider for Maintaining Network Availability

Quick Answer: Environmental factors are physical conditions that can impact the performance, reliability, and longevity of IT equipment. The four key environmental factors to monitor are temperature, humidity, electrical conditions, and flooding risk. 

If you work in IT, you know network availability is the most critical infrastructure for any company. Everything goes through your network, from SaaS applications in the cloud to your file server on the local network. The scary part is that even the most advanced networks can fail due to a threat that we don’t often think about: environmental factors.

The physical conditions that our IT equipment lives in have the potential to seriously impact the performance and reliability of our systems. Even the shelf life of our network devices can degrade quickly if they are not kept in proper operating conditions. That’s why we need to monitor so many different factors. As IT professionals, we can prevent unnecessary downtime and extend the life of our hardware, all while maintaining network performance by monitoring and managing environmental factors.

Luckily, there are standards that we can follow to manage them. We will look at four important environmental factors that you need to consider and how environmental sensors can help. 

What are Environmental Factors in IT?

Environmental factors in IT are the physical conditions that our network infrastructure and equipment are placed in. These factors can have a serious impact on the performance and lifespan of your hardware. Even more important to IT teams, these can directly affect your network's availability and reliability.

Incorporating environmental monitoring into your disaster recovery plans is not just a good idea, it's a requirement. You need to keep a close eye on environmental factors so that you can prevent issues before they become a disaster. Now we'll explore the four most important environmental factors to monitor. 

1. Temperature

This is a big one. Temperature is arguably one of the most critical environmental factors impacting IT equipment. Proper temperature control needs to be in place for any critical hardware to extend its lifespan and performance.

• Temperature’s Impact on Hardware Performance: High temperatures can cause processors to thermal throttle, reducing performance as CPUs lower their speed to cool down. On the other end of the spectrum, extremely low temperatures can cause condensation, which potentially damages electronic components with corrosion and moisture. 

• Ideal Temperature Ranges for IT Equipment:

  The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers outlines the following temperature guides for different classes of IT equipment. These guidelines categorize IT spaces into different classes, each with specific temperature and humidity ranges tailored to the types of equipment and the level of environmental control available.

• Risks of Overheating and Undercooling: Overheating is no joke. It can lead to hardware failures and data corruption, as well as the already mentioned reduced lifespan of equipment. Surprisingly, excessively cold temperatures can lead to cooling system inefficiencies. Cooling systems that are designed for warmer operational ranges work harder to maintain a higher temperature when it is too l

  ow. This can lead to unnecessary energy consumption and higher operational costs.​

• Temperature Sensor Placement: The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) recommends placing at least six temperature sensors in each server rack. They should be mounted in and around your racks in specific locations. You should place sensors at the top of the racks, middle section of each rack, and at the bottom of them. You should also place sensors both the front and back of the racks to help monitor temperatures for maximum accuracy.

2. Humidity

Humidity sounds like a negative environmental hazard to electrical components, but like most things the secret is moderation. Humidity helps to maintain a stable working environment for your IT equipment, and is needed to prevent ESD (Electrostatic Discharge), which is fatal for electrical components when zapped. If you aren’t careful about maintaining a moderate level of humidity then your equipment can fall victim to too much or not enough.

• Effects on Electronic Components: High humidity usually leads to condensation on surfaces, which can corrosion. When condensation comes into contact with dust inside a computer it can form clumps of moist dirt that clogs up fans and vents inside your equipment. 

• Optimal Humidity Levels for Data Centers: ASHRAE recommends that the relative humidity in a data center should be between 40% and 60%. This is a little higher than the standard commercial humidity specification for most electronics, which ranges between 30% to 50%. Interestingly enough, some electronic equipment like servers and network switches can temporarily withstand up to 95% non-condensing humidity without damage, but it isn’t recommended.

• Correlation with Static Electricity and Equipment Damage: As mentioned before, low humidity environments increase the risk of electrostatic discharge (ESD). Have you ever shocked yourself while touching a door handle? That seemingly tiny spark is enough to catastrophically damage some micro components in electronics. This is why you should always wear a grounding strap when handling sensitive electronic components. 

• Humidity Sensor Placement: A good rule of thumb is to place one humidity sensor for every five racks. They are generally placed in the front of a rack because of the airflow, but more can be used if you need to monitor levels more closely.

3. Electrical

Networks hate power disruptions. As with all IT electronics, stable and clean power is needed for your networking equipment to perform at its best.

• Power Surges and Fluctuations: If your equipment experiences sudden changes in voltage, it can damage or destroy electronic components inside your network devices and servers.

• Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) Systems: Data centers rely on UPS systems to provide temporary power during outages and help regulate and filter voltage during rough electrical supply. A UPS is only supposed to keep your equipment running long enough for your power to be restored.

• Ensuring Stable Power for Network Devices: Proper grounding, surge protection, and power conditioning are all needed to maintain a stable power supply to network devices.

• Power Monitoring Sensors: These sensors are great for tracking power consumption, the quality of the power, and potential issues with your power supply from the grid.

4. Flooding and Water Detection

Flooding in a server room or data center can be catastrophic for a network. While it doesn’t seem like a probable threat to most organizations, water damage can cause massive damage to IT infrastructure.

• Water Damage to Equipment: Flooding isn’t the only way that water can damage your equipment. Small amounts of water like a leak in the ceiling can cause short circuits and permanent damage to electronic equipment if it finds its way into your racks.

• Early Detection and Prevention Measures: Water leak detection sensors can help detect excessive moisture and water if it finds its way into your data center. These sensors are fantastic because they provide an early warning of potential disasters that could be caused by air conditioning leaking,  excessive condensation, burst pipes, or plumbing issues.

• Impact on Infrastructure Resilience: Flooding has a cascading effect on your IT operations, and can affect your secondary infrastructure like cooling systems and power distribution units. Water and power are never a good combination.

The Role of IT Sensors

Environmental sensors are rockstars for maintaining network availability. These devices continuously monitor environmental factors and provide IT teams with real-time data and alerts.

Common types of environmental sensors include: 

• Temperature Sensors: One of the most common sensors, temperature sensors monitor ambient room temperatures and more specific temperatures like those of equipment and server racks.

• Humidity Sensors: When placed correctly, humidity sensors can track the relative humidity levels in your environment, letting you know when something has changed.

• Water Leak Detectors: These are usually placed on the floor, underneath floor panels on raised platforms, or below AC units. They detect the water and issue early warnings and alerts.

• Power Monitoring Sensors: If you need to build a historical profile of electrical supply and quality, then power monitoring sensors are very useful. They also act as great real-time indicators by monitoring power consumption, the quality of your power supply from the grid, and potential issues with your power.

• Airflow Sensors: If you are running hot and cold aisles in your data center, then airflow is a big factor to monitor. Proper airflow helps you to avoid hot spots and is important for maintaining stable temperatures in large areas filled with IT equipment.

• Pressure Sensors: If you have ever wondered how hot aisle/cold aisle setups are monitored then look no further, the answer is pressure sensors. They monitor the differential air pressure between aisles and make sure that air is flowing freely through the room.

Where You Place Sensors Matters 

Where you place sensors and how you integrate them into your equipment will vary based on your specific setup. However, following these best practices will help protect your network: 

• Strategic Locations within Data Centers: Sensors are of little use if they are not placed correctly. Ideally, they should be placed near your IT and networking equipment, especially in areas where environmental fluctuations can cause network downtime.

• Integration with Network Management Systems: Modern sensors are great because they can be integrated with many existing network management tools for centralized monitoring. They usually run on SNMP, HTTPS, and other common networking protocols for better visibility. 

• Remote Monitoring Capabilities: Some environmental sensors allow you to monitor remotely, which allows your teams to respond to issues even when nobody is on site.

• Connectivity Options: Sensors can be wired or wireless, which allows you to choose the right fit for your situation.

Best Practices for Real-Time Monitoring and Alerts

No matter how many sensors you have or where they're located, they won't do you much good if the alerts aren't optimized to help you take action. Here are a few best practices for setting and managing alerts: 

• Use Real-Time Monitoring to Take Immediate Action: Real-time monitoring allows for quick responses to environmental changes, allowing you to catch issues before they turn nasty.

• Use Automated Alert Systems: Automated alerts are great for when environmental factors go over or under your predefined thresholds. This allows your team to receive alerts even when they are not actively monitoring a system.

• Proactive Maintenance and Troubleshooting: Sensor data allows you to identify potential issues before they cause downtime. With this data, you can schedule maintenance and pick up faults that you can troubleshoot and resolve preemptively. Preventing a failure ahead of time saves you time and money.

• Regular Calibration and Maintenance of Sensors: Your sensors are only valuable when they are properly calibrated and maintained. Dirty and damaged sensors do not provide accurate readings, so they need to be tested, calibrated, and, when necessary, replaced.

Integration with Artificial Intelligence and Predictive Analytics

Advanced environmental monitoring systems that generate enough data can be used with Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning systems to predict failures. Forecasting potential issues using these types of predictive analytics will help you optimize environmental conditions so that you can take action.

What are the Benefits of Environmental Monitoring in IT?

We’ve covered a lot of ground and looked at a lot of features that different environmental systems are equipped with. Here are some benefits your organization can expect when implementing environmental monitoring:

• Better Reliability and Availability: By creating ideal environmental conditions for your IT infrastructure, you reduce the risk of hardware failures and network downtime. This makes your systems more reliable and allows your organization to operate 24/7.

• Prevention of Downtime and Data Loss: Finding environmental issues and dealing with them quickly helps prevent expensive downtime, costly repairs, and disaster scenarios like data loss.

• Predictive Maintenance Saves Money: If you can Identify potential issues early it allows your teams to coordinate and carry out planned maintenance. If you have a regular maintenance schedule then you can expect to see a reduction in unexpected repair costs over time.

• Compliance with Regulatory Standards: Many IT systems are governed by specific regulations and standards. Some of these have strict parameters for environmental conditions for IT equipment in order for you to meet regulatory standards.

• Energy Efficiency and Sustainability: Environmental conditions can help to reduce energy usage and means that your IT operations will leave a smaller carbon footprint.

• Identification of Equipment Vulnerabilities: Monitoring your systems over extended periods can help you to identify specific makes and models of equipment that are more prone to cause network failures. This will help you to refine your environments and tailor them to your existing hardware deployments.

Conclusion

Understanding environmental factors makes maintaining network availability and the overall health of your IT infrastructure much easier. By monitoring factors like temperature, humidity, electrical conditions, and flooding risks, you'll improve the reliability and lifespan of your network equipment.

By keeping a close eye on the environmental factors we covered, you're not just maintaining equipment but also saving your business from unnecessary downtime and costs. As the old saying goes, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” and this is especially relevant in networking and IT infrastructure monitoring. 

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