The climate is a weird, weird thing… and when you introduce it to your critical business tech, things only get weirder. Extreme temperatures are harmful to technology at whichever end of the spectrum you’re talking about, hot or cold.
In short, the wrong temperature conditions can kill your tech prematurely.
This makes it essential that your business IT is properly prepped for such extremes, regardless of which end of the spectrum seems more likely. That’s where we can help.
There’s a reason that modern IT requires significant cooling measures… actually, to be totally honest, there are a few. Tech can effectively suffer from heatstroke, and as a result, fans speed up, power supplies strain under the loads, and CPUs are forced to slow to a crawl to prevent damage.
What’s worse, this is just the start. Once the temperature in your server room exceeds 82°F/28°C, the real problems begin.
There are two primary issues heat poses to a computer system of any size: expansion and failure.
The circuit boards that allow modern technology to work actually expand when subjected to extreme heat. While this expansion is microscopic, it is enough to cause errors and crashes that are difficult to identify. Most of the time, these crashes will seem completely random. On a larger scale, uninterruptible power supplies and other batteries are also impacted. If your server room gets too hot, the batteries and other power sources simply won’t work when you need them to.
This is exactly why we are so concerned about airflow and general system cleanliness… trapped heat can cause serious trouble for your business infrastructure at every level. A too-hot, cluttered server room can seriously impede your network, but a computer filled with dust can slow to a crawl, preventing additional heat from being generated but also preventing the user from accomplishing their goals.
Of course, your first impulse may be to simply keep your technology as cold as you can… after all, if heat is the issue, removing all of it must be a good thing, right? Unfortunately, this is not the case.
In fact, tech can also feel the impact of too little heat, creating some equally bad circumstances.
Let’s say the weather outside is excessively cold, well below freezing. A laptop that’s been exposed to this cold will accumulate moisture in its internals when brought into a warm environment, such as the workplace or home. Turning it on straightaway then exposes your rig to this internal condensation, so it’s important that you give it a chance to come to temperature, so to speak.
In the same vein, this kind of cold will weaken your components. Let’s say you try to power on a frozen hard drive. It could easily seize up, leading to mechanical failure. After all, there’s a surprising amount of liquid in modern computers and peripherals. LCD screens (literally liquid-crystal display screens) can freeze and shatter if you aren’t careful.
According to the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air Conditioning Engineers, the recommended temperature and humidity levels for your servers range from 65 to 80°F (18°C to 27°C), with optimal humidity falling between 40 and 55%. The humidity is particularly important—too high, and your equipment can corrode and short-circuit, too low, and static electricity can cause some severe damage.
The same standards can, to some extent, apply to all your technology. If it's too cold, let the device sit at room temperature for a while before pressing the power button. If it is running hot, make sure your workspace is properly ventilated with clear airflow.
By leveraging IoT, we can implement tools that alert our team to potential problems… including environmental issues. That’s not all, either… we can help you back up your operations to the cloud, allowing you to continue working even if your local infrastructure is unavailable due to climate control issues, and we’ll equip your team with the tools that help moderate the impact the environment has on their devices.
Why let the weather dictate your ability to work? Reach out to First Column IT for a complete network audit at (571) 470-5594.
