Thermal imaging for safeguarding data centres

Data centre maintenance teams have a big share in safeguarding the critical resources that customers and businesses depend upon. Fortunately, they have one secret weapon that enables them to spot issues in an early stage before they turn into big problems: FLIR thermal imaging.

The data centre market has seen huge growth in recent years. Spurred by the growing adoption of cloud technologies, AI, IoT, 5G and big data, new data centres are being built across all continents at a fast pace. Whether they are in-house data centres for some of the largest and most influential companies or built by specialised vendors offering infrastructure services, data centres fulfil a critical role in maintaining the continuity of a business. Downtime of a data centre can have an enormous economic impact and needs to be avoided at all costs. In addition to financial loss, reputational damage can be equally impactful, especially when the data centre supports customer-facing services.

Ensuring uptime has become increasingly complex for data centres. With so much mechanical, electrical and electronic infrastructure under one roof, overheating is a major concern, not only because the infrastructure is not using the energy efficiently but also because overheating can cause a complete shutdown of servers, impacting users around the world or even data or equipment loss. One of the most reported incidents is the 2013 overheating of a Microsoft data centre operating some of its cloud services, including Outlook, which led to services being lost for 16 hours.

Today, the maintenance of a data centre involves much more than IT operations. Power distribution systems and cooling infrastructure are also essential for keeping the data centre up and running and preventing mechanical or electrical failures and resulting outages.

Many systems that are critical for the data centre's operation heat up before they fail. Temperature is an important indicator of energy consumption and equipment operation, which is why infrared thermography (thermal imaging) is an ideal tool for inspecting power consumption, electrical installations, cooling equipment and computing hardware.

Periodic inspections with a thermal imaging camera have become indispensable in predictive and preventive maintenance programs. Thermal cameras help maintenance staff detect problems in electrical switchgear, motors, HVAC infrastructure, UPS, PDU, batteries, generator equipment and all electrical devices that feed the server systems before these problems turn into serious failures or downtime.

With cloud computing becoming the new normal, and as data centres are growing to great scales, the need for higher computing density and power efficiency is growing as well. Data centre owners are seeking ways to increase their capacity, but they also want to reduce costs and energy. Thermal imaging can give them important information on how to optimise energy and space requirements without causing overheating.

FLIR thermal imaging cameras are powerful and efficient. Unlike IR thermometers or thermocouples, thermal imaging cameras allow users to scan large areas for hot spots or temperature differences. Without a thermal camera, it's easy to miss critical parts like air leakages, areas with insufficient insulation or water intrusion. A thermal imaging camera can scan entire electrical installations, buildings, heating or HVAC installations. It never misses a potential problem area, no matter how small it might be. They also allow you to compare the temperatures of components in the same environment more easily.