The Unexpected Impact of Raising Data Center Temperatures

Raising IT inlet temperatures is a common recommendation given to data center operators as a strategy to improve data center efficiency. While it is true that raising the temperature does result in more economizer hours, it does not always have a positive impact on the data center overall.

In this paper, we provide a cost (capex & energy) analysis of a data center to demonstrate the importance of evaluating the data center holistically, inclusive of the IT equipment energy. The impact of raising temperatures on server failures is also discussed.