Data Center Racks and Enclosures Key Terms

Terms for servers and data center racks and enclosures

The tech industry has started to embrace some pretty useful guidelines and standards for both server components and hardware and for data center racks and enclosures, which are basically the frame structures for holding server hardware in place. Learning about key terms around servers and data centers will help businesses figure out how to approach temperature control, compact design, and lots more when it comes to managing a whole lot of computerized information.

 

Server room

The server room is a dedicated space for servers and other high-tech hardware. The purpose of the server room is to keep data centers and servers out of harm's way. Server rooms are filled with data center racks and enclosures and often temperature controlled for safe data handling.
Try: Get news on building a server room from top to bottom from this page from SearchWindowsServer.

1U rack server

The 1U denomination seen so often on all kinds of hardware means that component will take up one unit of a standard 19-inch server rack. Making racks and data center components the same standard size leads to efficiency in design and a better system for storing data centers in racks and enclosures.
Try: Find out more about 1U server spaces at Tom's Hardware.

Modular data center

A modular data center is a design that lets IT managers add servers, KVM switch boxes and other gear one at a time in standard forms, so that everything fits together without a lot of extra work when dealing with data center racks and enclosures.
Try: Get schooled on the benefits of a modular data center at Network Computing.

Tower server

The tower server represents an alternative to the kinds of data center racks and enclosures mentioned above. The tower server is a bulkier computer design for dealing with lots of data.
Try: Find out about the pros and cons of tower server designs at WhatIs.com.

Tower-to-rack conversion kit

A server conversion kit allows for switching over from a tower design to a rack-mounted server setup. These conversion kits deal with the awkward task of physically calibrating your data center and server setups.
Try: Find an example of  tower-to-rack kits like this one from Dell at Discount Technology.

High density cooling

Because rack mounted servers and data centers are so much more compact, the danger of high temperatures is endemic. One way to approach the cooling of server enclosures is with a high density cooling system.
Try: Take a look at how a high density cooling system is set up at this Help with High Density Cooling page from PTS Data Center Solutions.

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