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Hot / Cold Aisle Containment

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Overview

Hot & Cold Aisle Containment

Secure I.T.Environments Ltd offers a range of hot aisle containment and cold aisle containment solution From out-of-the-box partial containment solutions to fully bespoke aisle containment solutions that are fully flexible and customisable for use in new build Data Center projects or retro fit applications. All of our bespoke cold aisle containment and hot aisle containment systems are independent of cabinet manufacturer and can be designed to fit any rack configuration including aisles with varying rack heights, widths, depths and alignment. Where budget is a concern Secure IT also offer a Thermal Curtain solution.
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What Is Cold Aisle Containment?

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To achieve the highest levels of energy efficiency in your data centre or server room it is critical to get the layout of your sever 19″ cabinets and cooling correct. One of the most widely recognised data center cooling systems, cold aisle containment system or a hot aisle containment system, manages air flow by restricting the loss of cold air and preventing the mixing of cold and hot air.
Designed for server and network cabinets located within server rooms and data centres, cold aisle containment maximises cooling predictability, capacity, and efficiency. Our range of containment solutions offers the option to include containment for cabinets of all sizes and by all manufacturers.

What Is Hot Aisle Containment?

Hot aisle containment systems has the advantage that the room as a whole is at a comfortable temperature. It introduces a physical barrier that guides hot exhaust airflow back to the air conditioning return. Hot aisle containment within server room environments takes advantage of the natural properties of warm air rising.
The system directs the upward airflow to an air conditioning return system such as a drop-ceiling void and by installing this containment system can increase cooling efficiency by 30% or more and greatly improve energy costs.

Lower Carbon Emissions

Significant Reduction in Energy Cost

Improvement in Airflow Management

What Is the Importance of Air Containment Systems?

Whether you ultimately decide to implement hot aisle containment or cold aisle containment within your data centres, one thing is for sure: Containment of the different temperatures is essential. You’ll be able to tell if your returns are not positioned properly by first observing them, and second by looking for hot or cold spots. If there are hot or cold spots, the CFM (cubic feet per minute) airflow may need to be adjusted. An HVAC professional may be needed to help you find out how much CFM your cooling unit is putting out and adjust the airflow output . Different servers are rated with different CFMs, and will require different volumes of air for optimal efficiency. If these hot or cold spots cannot be controlled by a CFM adjustment, hot aisle containment or cold aisle containment is your best option.
Aisle containment in data centers is essential for any organization or business that have a substantial amount of servers, because in addition to keeping your equipment running at its peak performance levels, containment can help you save on your energy bills—as much as 50 percent!
When you are making updates to your data center, or you’re starting to build yours from the ground up, it’s a perfect time to consider data center and building security. Check and double check things like keyed access to the room (versus it being open and available for anyone to access) and adjust accordingly

The Benefits of Hot and Cold Containment Solutions

  • Eliminating “Hot spots”
  • Reducing air volumes so saving on fan energy
  • Preventing the mixing of cold supply air with hot air so immediately improving energy efficiency
  • Allows increased return temperatures which will further reduce cooling energy
  • Improvement of PUE
  • Lower carbon emissions
AI

How Does Cold Aisle Containment Work?

Although it might look like most data center just line up racks because that is the easiest way to fit them in, there is actually a lot more science behind the reason for this configuration and getting it right will lead to huge energy savings in running costs and improve air flow management efficiency.
The easiest way to provide data center cooling in the most efficient way possible is to segregate hot and cold air using the hot aisle / cold aisle configuration. The hot aisle / cold aisle configuration conserves energy and lowers cooling costs by managing the hot air or cold air flows. This is common practice in every data centre and may seem obvious to most people, and although not always adopted it is still just as important in smaller server rooms.
The idea is quite simple, it involves lining up rows of server racks (front to front) so the IT equipment air intake (usually at the front of the device) faces the cold aisle where your air conditioning equipment delivers cold air and the hot air expelled from the device (usually at the rear) faces the rear of the row of server racks next to it (back to back). The hot air exhausted is then returned to the air conditioners return ducts.
This layout eliminates the direct transfer of hot exhaust air from one system into the cold intake air of another system. It is the first step towards achieving the highest levels of data centre efficiency and eliminating dangerous hot spots in your data centre or server room.
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Built for You

Installing an aisle containment system is an effective way of improving airflow management within Data Centres and IT rooms.
By separating the hot and cold aisles it reduces the risk of hot and cold airflow patterns from mixing. This segregation not only improves the delivery of conditioned cold air but also the hot air return path. As well as aisle containment systems reducing the hot and cold air mixing, they also reduce the risk of by-pass airflow and air re-circulation – all of which contribute to cooling optimisation. With these improvements it enables the potential energy efficiency gains at the CRAC unit level by raising set points, lowering fan speeds or it some cases turning CRAC units off.
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Hot and cold aisle containment
AI Is Critical for the Future of Data Centres

What Is the Difference Between Hot Aisle and Cold Aisle Containment?

When constructing and designing a data center, it’s important to know the best options to ensure efficiency, especially when it comes to choosing hot or cold aisle containment. You’ll want to consider energy efficiency, the climate you live in, how much infrastructure you will be putting into the center, and other aspects of the facility. Learning the differences between cold and hot aisle containment is the first step in deciding which one is the right choice for your data center
Cold aisle containment systems work by efficiently directing cold air to the front of the servers, where it is pulled through the servers into a warm aisle or a space near a warm air return to be re-cooled. They are ideal for cooling specific parts of the room, such as where the servers are installed, which can save a lot of energy.
These cold aisle containment solutions work by the server cabinets which are placed with the heat-generating backs to the outside of the enclosure, and the cooled air is contained at the front of the server racks controlling airflow management Mounted panels or doors create an enclosure filled with cooled air. By containing the cooled air at the front of the server rack, there is less chance for overheating. When using data center or curtain/panels in your aisles, you’ll be able to count on the cold and hot air staying separated.
With hot aisle containment in data centres the servers are positioned not with their backs to the outside of the enclosure, but back-to-back. This setup creates an aisle between the servers where heat can escape. With hot aisles, the hot air is efficiently captured and channeled back to the computer room air conditioning, or CRAC, system. This setup also prevents “over cooling” of areas, because it minimizes the short-cycling of cold air. In turn, this model also allows you to use less air conditioning.
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Case study

Ensuring the Health of NHS IT

The demands being placed on current digital infrastructure has led to a need for greater storage and processing power. Given the rapid growth of picture archiving and communication systems and medical imaging, most healthcare organisations need more data centre capacity. The data centre is at the heart of the operation, from CCTV to phone equipment, to life-saving equipment and vital patient data.
Yet Secure I.T. Environments is seeing a trend where communications and server hardware cabinets are being located in what can only be described as the ‘broom cupboard’ as the existing data centre does not have the capacity. In some cases, the incorrect infrastructure – power, cooling and no fire suppression – has been installed, resulting in inefficiencies.
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Ensuring the health of NHS IT

WHAT TO KNOW

What to Consider when Building A Data Centre

Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE)

PUE is an important measurement of energy efficiency in Data Centres, providing the metrics needed to make informed green efficiency changes in Data Centre infrastructure. With the cost of power rising, an efficient Data Centre Design not only delivers cost benefits to your organisation but is considerably less damaging to the environment.

Many low capital cost approaches in energy efficiency with often just small changes can save businesses thousands of pounds a year. PUE efficiency compares the total power energy used by a facility with how much is used by the IT components. The closer the figure is to 1.0, the more efficiently the facility is operating.
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Planned Preventative Maintenance

To ensure all equipment is in working order and will perform as designed in both normal operating conditions and an emergency, regular maintenance inspections must be planned and completed according to the manufacturer’s recommendations. The service inspections provide the end user with the confidence that their Data Centre is operating at its best.
We provide a range of UPS, generator, air conditioning, and fire suppression maintenance services, ranging from simple repair to 24/7 support contracts with guaranteed response times.
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Remote monitoring

An early warning alert can prevent a situation from reaching a critical point of no return. Our support team offers customer UPS monitoring that detects any changes or errors in your system. Our automated management system monitors the environment and identifies even minor problems, sending alerts immediately and informing relevant personnel. Many monitoring systems can be remotely monitored via global operations architecture, via the cloud.
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How to build a Data Centre for your business?

Whether traditional, containerised or modular our energy-efficient scalable approach to any challenge is developed to align with the overall strategy of each business client, ensuring we optimise every data centre design and future fit-out at every stage.

With an in-house data centre design and build team of engineers, we fully support our customer-preferred architecture solution, working closely with you to ensure your data centres are running seamlessly and meeting your requirements. Utilising the latest efficient data centre cooling systems and infrastructure industry standards, we ensure no disruption to mission-critical services or business continuity operations, giving you peace of mind when working with Secure IT Environments.

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Everything You Need

Design And Build

From initial concept through to handover, we deliver turnkey data centre solutions tailored to your needs.

Maintenance

Our expert teams provide ongoing maintenance to ensure your data centre remains secure, efficient, and fully operational.

Modular Data Centres

Fast, flexible, and scalable — modular builds help you adapt to changing business demands with minimal disruption.

Containerised Solutions

Self-contained, portable data centres built for rapid deployment and optimal performance in any environment.

Upgrades and Refurbishments

We help modernise existing infrastructure, improving performance, security, and energy efficiency.

Secure Environments for Critical Infrastructure

Specialist design and implementation for high-security, mission-critical environments across government and commercial sectors.

FAQ

Answers to the Most
Common Questions

A data centre design and build service provides end-to-end solutions for creating a data centre. This includes planning, designing the infrastructure, and actual construction, ensuring an efficient and functional facility.
There are three key areas to consider when planning to build a new data centre to ensure the project meets the needs of the organisation it’s designed to serve: existing facilities, the organisation’s business needs, and the data centre technology environment. Having answers to specific questions in these three areas will put your organisation in a position to make the best choice for design, build, installation, and start-up of your new data centre.
Key to understanding how to plan and build a new data centre is knowing the details of your existing data centre setup and capacity, whether that is your own facility, a colocation provider, or a cloud service.
Getting a clear picture of what already exists helps determine if building a new data centre is indeed the right option. In this digital age It’s possible that colocation, outsourcing, or a cloud or hybrid model could best meet your organisation’s data centre needs.
As part of this evaluation process, it’s also critical to understand the goals of the business, and how the data centre meets the needs of the company. A key part of this is understanding the scale of IT in the organisation, as well as how the data centre and its operations align with the business. That requires looking closely at how much data the business deals with, how it is gathered, stored, and accessed, what contact uses the data and how, and the relevant industry standards the data centre must comply with.
After getting a good sense of organisational goals and how the existing facilities are serving the business, and could you scale this down. it’s also critical to understand the company’s technology and data center physical environments.
Data centre projects are complex undertakings. When it’s done right, a brand new data center will support your business objectives and meet current and anticipated future needs. The way to set up your organisation for success with this project is to understand existing data centre facilities, know the business needs of the organisation, and have knowledge of the necessary data centre and technology environment.
Buildings used as storage facilities are most often located in the suburbs, areas with uninterrupted power supply. The centres are built in a fenced area that is protected from unauthorised intrusion. Data centres are located in one- or two-storey buildings, in buildings using modular construction techniques or containerised units. They can also be built internal or external of a main building
The data center houses switching routing and storage hardware. The function of that hardware depends on the type of data center. There is also generally a large amount of power and cooling equipment as well as admin space. Some data centers are for access from a customer to a business’s serve
Sometimes they can be found in the city centres, refurbishing industrial buildings, storage facilities, and hangars. Buildings must meet strict requirements, must be selected based on the load-bearing capacity of walls and floors, and the materials used for construction.
To ensure an uninterrupted power supply, two mains from different substations, battery packs and emergency diesel generators are normally used. Switching to the emergency power supply is performed in milliseconds, so the risk of losing company data is minimised.
The timeframe can vary based on the size, complexity, and specific requirements of the project. Generally, smaller data centres might take a few months, while larger or more complex projects can extend to over a year.
Several factors are considered, including the client’s capacity needs, scalability, redundancy, cooling and ventilation systems, energy efficiency, and security measures. The geographical location and potential natural disaster risks are also evaluated.
We adopt the latest technologies and best practices, such as using energy-efficient hardware, advanced cooling systems, and renewable energy sources when possible. Regular energy audits also help in maintaining efficiency.
Absolutely. Our designs often incorporate modular elements that allow for easy expansion, ensuring the facility can evolve with growing data needs.

Costs can vary widely based on the size, location, technologies used, and other factors. We recommend reaching out with specific project details for a tailored estimate.

Data Centres

Case Studies

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What are the requirements to build a data centre?

Glangwili Hospital – Carmarthen Wales

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Queen Elizabeth Hospital Kings Lynn

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Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust

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Testimonials

What Our Clients Say

Opus Trust Communications

We would like to thank Secure I.T. Environments for delivering during a challenging time, as well as in a short turnaround. We are very pleased with the results

Hayden Savage, – CEO

EPUT

Our migration went smoothly and we went live in the new location as planned on the Monday morning. Thanks to the careful planning of Trust IT projects and estates teams, working in close partnership with Secure I.T. Environments, we were able to plan for the challenges of working on a tight timeline.

Jannette Leonard, Director of IT

Opus Trust Communications

We would like to thank Secure I.T. Environments for delivering during a challenging time, as well as in a short turnaround. We are very pleased with the results

Hayden Savage, – CEO

EPUT

Our migration went smoothly and we went live in the new location as planned on the Monday morning. Thanks to the careful planning of Trust IT projects and estates teams, working in close partnership with Secure I.T. Environments, we were able to plan for the challenges of working on a tight timeline.

Jannette Leonard, Director of IT

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