Maybe GUNKO’s Micro Data Center is the exact solution your business communication network needs!
Every successful company (especially one that’s growing) sooner or later reaches this critical point. You started almost as a joke, gradually got deeper into the field, learned a lot, tried different strategies, and finally, your efforts began to pay off. At some point, you start thinking a little more long-term and realize that not only have you grown during this time, but also the mess of cables and equipment that brought you here, and now threatens to undermine your progress and drag you back to where you started.
If you’re one of the few lucky ones who managed to leap straight from size S to XL, the solution is obvious and requires little thought—only financial resources. It’s called a data center, and it can cover all your needs regardless of your business specifics and your future growth rate. But what if you’re not? What if you’re one of the 95% who move forward step by step, at the cost of many sacrifices and compromises?
GUNKO’s Micro DC was created precisely for such cases. It offers you a convenient and secure path forward until the day comes when money is no longer the problem and only imagination limits you. The system integrates the power supply, cooling, and security of all your equipment into a unified yet compact solution, allowing you to focus on your current business challenges without being weighed down by plans that are still out of reach.
What is Micro DC and how do you make the right choice?
Let’s first look at one of the most critical features of traditional data centers—cooling. It’s probably the most important factor when you have a large concentration of networking and communication equipment in one place. In a data center, temperature management is achieved through so-called HOT CONTAINMENT and COLD CONTAINMENT. The main principle is to prevent mixing of the cold air used by the air conditioners to cool the equipment with the hot air generated by the equipment itself during operation. This is the cornerstone of maintaining good energy efficiency and is usually achieved by arranging the devices so that their front panels face a cold aisle, while their rear sides open into a separate, isolated hot zone.
In this sense, there are two main strategies:
· a cold aisle in the intermediate row between racks and a hot zone in the surrounding space (left);
· a hot aisle in the intermediate row and a cold zone in the surrounding space (right).
Depending on air-flow management, systems can be further divided into two categories: those where hot air directly enters the air conditioners for cooling, and those where it is vented outside. All this places serious demands on the architecture of rooms designed for data centers and requires significant investment.
What is the advantage of Micro DC?
GUNKO’s Micro DC combines the equipment space and the HOT and COLD CONTAINMENT aisles into one integrated solution, saving both money and space. Its modular design allows you to combine from 2 to 8 modules (up to 6 server racks and 2 network 19-inch racks), which is sufficient for most small and medium-sized companies. All modules are made of steel and can withstand loads up to 1500 kg. In addition, Micro DC provides integrated power solutions and can include a dedicated cabinet for UPS, batteries, fire suppression and security systems, cameras, and other auxiliary equipment.
What should you consider when choosing a Micro DC?
First of all—the space you have available. The total length of the system depends on you and the amount of equipment you want to accommodate, but as we said, its design limit is 8 modules. For example, 6 server cabinets, 1 network cabinet, and 1 energy cabinet plus 2 precision ACs (one on each side) will require about 590 cm.
Top view of the system:
As for height, the standard options are 42U (~2000 mm), 45U (~2100 mm), and 47U (~2200 mm). If you need a plinth, that will add another 150–200 mm to the height. The same applies if you decide to run cables above the racks. The need for a plinth depends entirely on whether your room has a raised floor and whether it is high enough to allow proper cabling to the racks.
Regarding side clearances, the system can be installed directly against a wall, but it’s advisable to leave at least 600 mm of free space on one side—otherwise, it will be impossible to move between the front and back.
Depth is a bit more complicated. You need to allow at least 600 mm between the rear of the racks and the wall behind them, and 900 mm between the front and the corresponding wall. To this you must add the depth of the Micro DC system itself, which depends on whether you place it in a dedicated room or in a shared workspace.
· In the first case, you only need an internal cold aisle of about 250 mm, making the total system depth 1350 mm.
· In the second case, you must also provide a hot aisle at the back so the cooling modules can capture residual heat and prevent it from being released into the workspace. This increases the depth by another 150 mm—to 1500 mm in total.
Top view of the system:
Another key factor in choosing is the power requirement of each rack. Accurately determining this value (with the appropriate reserve) will give you peace of mind and protect you from unwanted restructuring of your network in the future. However, if defining your current and future needs is not possible at the moment, you can always rely on GUNKO’s standardized options: 4–6–8–10 kW per module.
· 6 kW is the company’s standard base value and is usually sufficient for countries with temperate to subtropical climates.
· 8 kW and 10 kW per module are needed for virtualization and cloud services, where higher levels of processing and image rendering are involved.
· For simpler applications and especially network racks, 4 kW or even 2 kW may be completely adequate.
Also, don’t forget to account for the power needs of backup systems for your critical network infrastructure. This includes backup cooling, if you have it. In general, Micro DC offers N, N+1, and 2N redundancy for both power supply and cooling.
Cooling
When it comes to cooling systems, the golden rule is that data centers emit almost as much residual energy as they consume during operation. All this heat must be reliably removed from the racks or reprocessed by the air conditioners into cold air. The optimal operating conditions for most communication and networking equipment are about 18–25°C and 40–60% relative humidity.
Unlike standard cooling systems, which are not designed for continuous operation, Micro DC’s coolers are special industrial INROW units with a capacity of 15–30 kW, running nonstop—24/7. Each cooling module includes one indoor and one outdoor unit, with the outdoor unit necessarily placed outside the building.
For the system to work efficiently, the connection between the two units (2 copper pipes and 1 electric cable) must follow the shortest possible route, with a length not exceeding 20 m. All of this must be considered when planning the placement of the Micro DC in the room.
INROW cooling system (left); INRACK system (right)
In conclusion
It should also be noted that GUNKO’s Data Center Solution is not just a compromise, but a real alternative to traditional data centers, specifically aimed at small and medium-sized businesses. It allows you to integrate all your key network systems in one, while keeping investments reasonable. And the best part is that Micro DC can be entirely tailored to your needs and can even be implemented with just a single rack. Which means that if your IT shoes still feel too tight after all this, maybe the problem isn’t entirely with the “shoemakers.” Maybe you just haven’t yet found the right cobbler to adjust them to your feet.
This is definitely an idea worth considering when planning the future of your business.
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