The picture that looks like a car vending machine is Volkswagen’s new car storage facility in Wolfsburg, Germany. I bet they must have to make sure the whole facility is kept at an optimal temperature and humidity level at all time. They must have some way to be notified if said temperature and humidity drops below a certain threshold. Now you can do that too.

You  can use a temperature and humidity monitoring sensor to keep tabs of the environment in a local car storage facilities or even your own garage. This way when the temperature and humidity reaches a certain threshold you can be notified via SNMP.

For an added measure you can even put a water sensor in your storage facility to ensure that cherished vehicles are not water damaged. The water sensor is a rope that is placed throughout a facility. When water is detected along it’s length you can also be notifies via SNMP.

As we see the future of cars evolve so must the methods of storing them.

After the strike Amazon lost power and their backup generators did not kick on, it didn’t take long for the reserve battery to quickly deplete. You may not lose your power from something as monumental as a lightening strike, but being preventative is imperative. Losing data due to environmental catastrophes should not be “occasionally expected”. These things can be prevented.

Environmental sensors can be a huge investment for the future of your data center. With a water sensor you can detect any water leaks in the length of the rope. With a temperature and humidity sensor you can prevent both overheating of the servers and condensation. With an airflow sensor you can also prevent overheating of your hardware. The list goes on and on.

The most amazing thing about these sensors is that they are all network capable. You can connect all of these to sensor probes and start to track events through SNMP. With a centralized log management tool you can set notifications through email and SMS to stay on top of any disaster. Now you are ready to tackle the world of databases.

The first thing to monitor is, of course, the temperature. Our company sells accurate Temperature Sensors that connect to any of our sensor probes. This ensures your servers will not overheat from the hot summer days. According to Data Center Knowledge, Data Center temperature can run hotter than you expect. If you are trying immitate companies such as Google(TM) who has already implemented this energy saving strategy,  A good Temperature Sensor can save you even more money.

Humidity as explained in Angela’s post about data center environment can wreak havoc on your hardware investments. Too much humidity can cause condensation and short out the electronics. Not enough humidity could lead to electrostatic charges which could shut down electronics. Translation:  added financial expense. Try our dual sensor, it can save you big bucks.

It is hard to stay cool during the summer months without air conditioning, data centers are no exception. But having air conditioning units can run the risk of leaking and drippy units can cause water damage to your electronics. Pick up a rope sensor as it can detect any form of water throughout its length.

We are only scratching the surface of the disasters we can help you prevent in your Data Centers. Don’t forget to catch Part 2 for this ongoing series.

Fortunately, we can have that sense of trust with a Ravica environmental sensor.  Ravica security monitors placed in your property can alert you to the presence of property hazards like smoke and water.  While you are away, you can still feel secure knowing you will be alerted to hazards as soon as they happen.

A Ravica team member just received an alert at work this past week from his home’s system.  He was notified of unauthorized access to the house.  Fortunately, the culprit was his extremely mischievous Dachshund.  But what if it hadn’t been?  Wouldn’t you want to know immediately if someone is in your home?

First alerts are extremely important to prevent serious damage.  An early alert from a smoke detector can make the difference between very minor damage and total destruction.  If caught early enough, proper authorities can be notified and damages can be minimized.

But what good is a smoke detector if you can’t hear its alarm?  What happens when your home is in Boca Raton, but you are on vacation in Venice?  Ravica’s devises are extremely versatile and can use various mediums to send alert notifications.  Just imagine having the freedom to travel knowing you will receive an instant alert about any power outages, smoke, or water leaks.  These alerts can be sent through email, mobile phone text, or Skype.

During the work day and during extended absences and vacations, you can feel confident that your property is protected, even without the Mayberry police force.

~Angela
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Sadly, this type of water damage is fairly common.  Not as common as the Old Spice Guy videos on YouTube, but common nonetheless.  

This type of accident can severely cripple a business and shouldn’t be expected or taken lightly.  My associate’s story serves as a glowing example of the importance of environmental sensors.  A Ravica SensorProbe would have notified him immediately of the situation.  He could have received notifications through email, Skype, Twitter, or texts on his cell phone, and the damage could have been dramatically reduced or potentially totally eliminated.

The SensorProbe is a versatile device to alert on the presence of water, temperature fluctuations, and smoke before the damage is crippling to a business.  The sensors can be placed virtually anywhere and aren’t limited to just data centers or offices. 

Environmental monitoring sensors are more than just fancy smoke detectors.  Devices from Ravica can prevent the need to repair damaged facilties and recreate lost data, saving you tremendous amounts of money.  They are versatile devices designed to keep you in control. 

Contact us today for more information.  At the very least, contact the Old Spice Guy.  He seems to have all the answers.

~Angela
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Winter requires some special preparation for the inside of your facility as well.  With snow and ice  comes the threat of water pipes bursting and power outages.  Make sure that your facility is protected by having a back-up generator in place.  You should also be sure that the main water pipes and any pipes that are running along uninsulated walls have been winterized.

You also might want to think about installing an environmental monitoring system that can automatically alert you to any water leaks or other cold-weather problems that might occur.  Ravica’s line of Sensor Probes and plug-and-play Intelligent Sensors can help to prevent major weather-related damage to your property and data.  Whether it is a water sensor to monitor for leaking pipes; a temperature sensor to make sure that your data center is cool enough and your employees are warm enough; or a camera to monitor the street outside to see if the snow plows have shown up yet, you can create the system that meets your needs this winter and will work for you during the rest of the year too.

Seeing all the news footage of flooded streets made me think about how  important it is to be prepared for water infiltration due to flooding.  According to the Red Cross, floods are among the most frequent and costly natural disasters, causing more than 90% of the damage related to natural disasters.  On average, floods cause more than $4 billion in damages worldwide, per year.  Proper preparation is equally important for businesses and homeowners.

There are a lot  of preventative measures that can be taken to avoid water damage, such as  moving vital electronics to higher levels and raising mechanical equipment off the floor.  But what if a flood occurs after hours or while a homeowner is away?  How can you make sure that your equipment is as safe as possible?  One way is to have a water detection sensor in place that is connected to your network and set up to alert you via SNMP or email, when a water leak is detected. With automatic notification, you can get to the problem fast or at least call someone to check on the situation.

Ravica provides water detection solutions that can be scaled equally well for a large data center or a single family home. If you’ve got a location where flood damage is a danger, we’d love to help you design a water leak monitoring system that can help protect your data and valuables.

~ Jessica

• Monitoring for water leaks
• Voltage monitoring for electrical brownouts or complete electrical loss
• Motion detection and automated photo delivery
• Airflow monitoring

The Ravica solutions include appliances which support all of the above intelligent sensors and include SNMP access to the data. A web interface to configure or review the data is also available.

And in case you are curious on where the expression “soup to nuts” originates from. I found this interesting.

- Mike

Prevention
It all starts at the building planning level. Having an initial survey, to know if your building is in or near a flood zone, sounds like a no brainer, but it’s surprising how many people I speak with on a weekly basis that are in the heart of a flood zone with no water monitoring system in place. Once you know the situation your server room is in, it is important to take the necessary precautions by having the proper drainage installed, including a sump pump. This protects you in the event flooding becomes present.

Awareness
The second part to the equation is being aware of what is going on in your data center. We’ve already discussed the security side of data center awareness by monitoring your data center with cameras, security sensors for doors and windows, as well as motion detectors. However, as I mentioned, knowing of any present water leaks is equally important.

Placing a water leak sensor in trouble spots can be incredibly informative. Where are these trouble spots? Typically, network administrators want to watch for water leaks, first and foremost, directly beneath server racks. Obviously, we hope we are already aware of any present water before it gets anywhere near the server racks, but this gives us the last ditch baseline type of alert – the dam is breaking (no pun intended) and something needs to be fixed immediately. After we have our racks covered, we want to put water sensors near any nearby windows, doors, AC units or HVAC systems, as well as any open ventilation.

The Ravica line of SensorProbes offers key alerting features like email and text alerts, even alerting via Skype. Using the Sensor Controled Relay, a user could even turn on a sump pump system when a water sensor goes into alert.

So, while it is important to keep tabs on the temperature and humidity of your data room, it is also important to make sure you protect the expensive equipment that occupies that facility from water damage.

~ Jon Mills
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Joe, the Admin for an ISP,  had purchased multiple water sensors and temperature sensors for his six data rooms. Around 3:20am on a Sunday he got an alert from his SensorProbe. Apparently, the temp in one of the server rooms was rising. Since he was on call, he decided to get into his truck and see what was going on. On his way to the building, he received another page. The water sensor had triggered. He was now very concerned.

Once he reached the data center, it was obvious to him what had happened. One of the valves of the heating system started to reached its limit. This quickly caused the temp of the pipes to rise, which is what triggered the temperature sensor.

The relief vales reached their breaking point and started to spray water all over the first data room. He was quick to let me know that he shut down the water and saved the other data rooms from being soaked, since they were in line and showed signs of having the same behavior.

That means the investment in the temperature monitoring probes saved them thousands of dollars. If that isn’t the best reason to buy then I don’t know one that is!

- Jimmy D