UII UPDATE 88 | Q1 2021
Intelligence Update

Extreme cold — a neglected threat to availability?

In Uptime Institute’s recent report on preparing for the extreme effects of climate change (The gathering storm: Climate change and data center resiliency), there were over a dozen references to the dangers of extremely hot weather, which can overwhelm cooling systems and trigger regional fires that disrupt power, connectivity and staff access.

But the effects of extreme cold were discussed only in passing. The main thermal challenge for a data center, after all, is keeping temperatures down, and most data centers subject to extreme cold (e.g., Facebook’s data center in Lulea, Sweden, just outside the Arctic Circle) have usually been designed with adequate protective measures in place.

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