Data Center Handbook, 2nd Edition

23ARCHITECTURE: DATA CENTER RACK FLOOR PLAN AND FACILITY LAYOUT DESIGN

Phil Isaak

Isaak Technologies Inc., Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States of America

23.1 INTRODUCTION

The success of the data center floor plan design process is dependent on the participation of the facilities design team and the information technology (IT) design team. The facilities design team will consist of the building architect, electrical, mechanical, and structural engineers. The IT design team will constist of those responsible for the network topology, server and storage platform architecture, and network cable plant design.

The design of the data center layout must be developed with input from all the key stakeholders from the facility and IT groups within the organization. This integrated design approach will help to ensure that the data center will function and perform throughout the facility life cycle, providing operational efficiency to support the many technology life cycles that the data center facility will see.

23.2 FIBER OPTIC NETWORK DESIGN

23.2.1 Fiber Optic Network Interfaces

Legacy fiber optic network interfaces of 10 GB or less have been based on serial optical interfaces, requiring two fiber strands for each interface port. The first 40 GB fiber optic interfaces available were based on parallel optics that teamed four 10 GB optics into a single interface that required eight active fiber optic strands. This was the lowest cost solution to provide the 40 GB interface (at least ...