Virtual reality in the design of data centers
Recently, artificial, or virtual, reality (VR) is increasingly spreading in the field of consumer electronics, as well as in manufacturing, healthcare, education, etc. But in the data center industry, this area is practically not used, despite the fact that servers are responsible for the visualization of the content displayed by most virtual reality headsets.
A data center is characterized by several indicators and coefficients, the values of which are subject to change during its optimization. Having information about the values of data and indicators, it is possible to plan measures that will help improve the energy efficiency of the data center. But such actions are quite time-consuming and dangerous, because errors can lead to data center malfunction and even data loss. In order to change the location of the server racks also need a lot of time and effort. But with the help of virtual reality, all these manipulations can be optimized and made more reliable. It is enough to create a virtual model that will determine the correctness of the air flow and measure the necessary indicators. Thus, it will be possible to conduct all computational processes, monitoring and design in complete security in relation to the efficiency of the data center.
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Virtual reality has a huge potential - it can be used for the design and construction of server farms. According to the CEO of colocation provider Aegis Data Greg McCulloch, it is data centers that are able to maximize the use of such technology. And opportunities for this abound. In particular, VR is particularly useful in the design and construction of the actual premises under the data center. After all, with the help of virtual reality, it will be possible to visualize the useful internal space and see how the building itself will look. Also, potential customers will be able to independently, remotely “visit” the machine halls in which they are going to rent space. It is convenient, saves time and money. In addition, a comprehensive study of the visualization of the data center model will help make a more solid decision in choosing the storage location. And remote partners will be able to view the physical security system of the data center, which includes video surveillance cameras, biometric identification systems, locks, and many other elements.
Despite the fact that the technology in question is still at an early stage of its development, McCulloch is confident that VR gadgets are already quite useful and effective tools to meet the needs of the data center industry. They are successfully used in the design of commercial buildings, so nothing prevents to adapt them for the design of data centers.
Below is a video from Google, which shows the use of virtual reality to demonstrate the data center. This is a virtual tour of the data center of the search giant in Dallas (Oregon, USA).
This video represents one of the safest places on the planet. With its help, Google managed to show its data center to a wide audience, helping consumers understand how Internet services work, such as search engines and cloud storage.
Virtual reality gadgets can be very effective tools for the promotion of commercial data centers, their design and infrastructure expansion. In addition, virtual reality opens up new opportunities for training server farm personnel or optimizing the interaction between several data centers. For example, conducting joint virtual conferences with the participation of operators from several data centers of the same organization located in different geolocations.
But at the same time with obtaining benefits, data center operators need to realize that the virtual reality market will continue to grow. And according to forecasts, in 2016 the number of VR-gadgets sold will reach 9.6 million units. Such a trend in demand for audiovisual media content for virtual reality gadgets will sooner or later lead to new challenges for owners of data centers. They will be forced to increase the number of data storage systems and servers, properly expanding the supporting infrastructure of their corporate or commercial server farms.
A data center is characterized by several indicators and coefficients, the values of which are subject to change during its optimization. Having information about the values of data and indicators, it is possible to plan measures that will help improve the energy efficiency of the data center. But such actions are quite time-consuming and dangerous, because errors can lead to data center malfunction and even data loss. In order to change the location of the server racks also need a lot of time and effort. But with the help of virtual reality, all these manipulations can be optimized and made more reliable. It is enough to create a virtual model that will determine the correctness of the air flow and measure the necessary indicators. Thus, it will be possible to conduct all computational processes, monitoring and design in complete security in relation to the efficiency of the data center.
')
Virtual reality has a huge potential - it can be used for the design and construction of server farms. According to the CEO of colocation provider Aegis Data Greg McCulloch, it is data centers that are able to maximize the use of such technology. And opportunities for this abound. In particular, VR is particularly useful in the design and construction of the actual premises under the data center. After all, with the help of virtual reality, it will be possible to visualize the useful internal space and see how the building itself will look. Also, potential customers will be able to independently, remotely “visit” the machine halls in which they are going to rent space. It is convenient, saves time and money. In addition, a comprehensive study of the visualization of the data center model will help make a more solid decision in choosing the storage location. And remote partners will be able to view the physical security system of the data center, which includes video surveillance cameras, biometric identification systems, locks, and many other elements.
Despite the fact that the technology in question is still at an early stage of its development, McCulloch is confident that VR gadgets are already quite useful and effective tools to meet the needs of the data center industry. They are successfully used in the design of commercial buildings, so nothing prevents to adapt them for the design of data centers.
Below is a video from Google, which shows the use of virtual reality to demonstrate the data center. This is a virtual tour of the data center of the search giant in Dallas (Oregon, USA).
This video represents one of the safest places on the planet. With its help, Google managed to show its data center to a wide audience, helping consumers understand how Internet services work, such as search engines and cloud storage.
Virtual reality gadgets can be very effective tools for the promotion of commercial data centers, their design and infrastructure expansion. In addition, virtual reality opens up new opportunities for training server farm personnel or optimizing the interaction between several data centers. For example, conducting joint virtual conferences with the participation of operators from several data centers of the same organization located in different geolocations.
But at the same time with obtaining benefits, data center operators need to realize that the virtual reality market will continue to grow. And according to forecasts, in 2016 the number of VR-gadgets sold will reach 9.6 million units. Such a trend in demand for audiovisual media content for virtual reality gadgets will sooner or later lead to new challenges for owners of data centers. They will be forced to increase the number of data storage systems and servers, properly expanding the supporting infrastructure of their corporate or commercial server farms.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/304052/
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