Today's IT managers face a completely new set of cooling and...

Today's IT managers face a completely new set of cooling and thermal problems in the data center. In a traditional data center environment higher temperatures are addressed by supplying an over-abundance of cooling to the room, which is extremely wasteful and ultimately cost prohibitive. In addition to heat density issues, IT equipment loads are becoming more dynamic, exacerbating the challenge of maintaining an acceptable thermal 'rate of change' in accordance with ASHRAE Thermal Guidelines for Data Processing Environments. Simply put, cooling IT equipment too quickly can be just as dangerous as allowing it to run too hot. To effectively address these new realities, cooling solutions must not only minimize the mixing of hot and cold aisle airstreams and deliver dynamic cooling and airflow performance, but also properly match the fluctuating IT equipment heat loads and airflow.