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A Three-Tiered Approach to Data Center Fire Protection
Justin S Gonsalves, Enterprise Security Mag
The three data center fire protection levels are Building Level Fire Protection, Room Level Fire Protection, and Rack Level Fire Protection.
Every tier level has a point of failure, and fire can greatly impact downtime. Data centers, large and small, present numerous fire risks. Digital equipment, wires, cables, HVAC equipment, suspended ceilings, and other combustibles can catch fire in data centers. Data centers address fire protection at three levels - building level, room level, and rack level (in cabinet).
Building Level Fire Protection: Fire protection begins at the building level. Keeping the building and employees safe from fire is the main objective. Fire sprinklers and handheld extinguishers are the most common types of fire protection. When class A combustible materials such as cloth, wood, paper, rubber, and plastics are present in the workplace, there must be one handheld fire extinguisher for every 3,000 square feet. Passive fire protection, which involves installing firewalls and fire-rated floor assemblies, can also be used in a building to delay the spread of fire.
Fire protection at the room level: Standards for room-level fire protection are set by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). To avoid penalties, data centers must comply with the NFPA 75 fire code. Fire sprinkler systems are required, either wet pipe sprinklers or pre-action sprinklers. As soon as the alarm is activated, a wet pipe sprinkler system will disperse the water already present in the piping. In this type of sprinkler system, the pipe can leak and drip onto equipment. Pre-action systems are the most common fire protection system for rooms. Sprinklers must be activated by at least two points of fire detection. Sprinklers will only activate in the quadrants that have been activated in some systems. The least expensive option for protecting data centers from fire is fire sprinkler systems. Data centers prefer gas systems because water can cause as much damage as a fire to servers and hard drives.
Fire protection at the rack level: The rack level is the last level of fire protection in a data center. Fire protection is essential for protecting specific equipment and limiting damage. Buildings and rooms must be protected from fire by fire sprinklers, but the equipment, worth 57 percent of the room's cost, is not unprotected. In order to protect the investment, it is necessary to protect the equipment from the fire at the rack level. Pre-engineered automatic fire suppression systems protect the equipment by detecting fires within seconds and suppressing them before the flood or sprinkler system is activated. This prevents equipment damage caused by water-based sprinklers and avoids the need to refill expensive total flood cylinders.
