Load bank testing: With an ever-expanding remit of applications, containerised, or mobile, data centers are rapidly becoming the go to solution for meeting today’s dynamic, high volume data processing and communications demands. But is the temporary nature of these transportable data centers leaving them susceptible to poor maintenance practices and potential power failure?

Here, Paul Brickman, Commercial Director for Crestchic Loadbanks, a leading manufacturer of state-of-the-art load bank technologies asks ‘Is load bank testing necessary for containerised data centers?

Typically housed within shipping containers, containerised data centers can be deployed easily, powered up quickly and scaled without delay in line with changing requirements. For the data center sector itself, containerised solutions are widely used to accommodate surplus demand for data centers that need to grow but cannot yet do so, and often deliver continuity of performance when a primary data center needs critical maintenance or refurbishment.

In other sectors they are equally as important. They provide “pop up” IT and communication services for music festivals and sporting events, support office relocations and major construction sites, and are a staple resource for the military, as well as complex industries such as offshore oil and gas, where data and communications demands are often remote and temporary.

Temporary by name, essential by nature

The temporary nature of these data centers often results in them being commoditised and overlooked when it comes to the maintenance procedures and performance best practice that would be considered essential for a bricks-and-mortar data center.

But when in operation, these mobile data centers are just as much a necessity as their permanent counterparts, safe housing the same valuable data, and preventing the same financially catastrophic losses engineers so dread when maintaining their primary data centers.

It is important to remember that a data center, is a data center, whether that is a purpose built hyperscale campus, a colo or a temporary solution in a shipping container, and that means the same risks apply, and the same preventative measures are required.

No matter the type of data center being used, the primary cause of unplanned downtime is power failure, something that the Uptime Institute calls “common, costly and preventable”. In fact, in its most recent Risk and Resilience Report, the Uptime Institute calculated that power failure accounts for around 36 per cent of all outages.

It is essential therefore that backup generators for containerised data centers are regularly tested, the same as permanent data center facilities.

Critical applications require guaranteed resilience

Music festivals and sporting events aside, the vast majority of containerised data center applications are critical. Military communications, major construction sites, data center refurbishments and a temporary expansion of primary data center capacity may all have a clear expiration date, but the situation is already fragile – risking a power outage in an already difficult environment could be catastrophic.

Although mobile data centers are designed to provide facilities with the perfect mix of temporary generators, networking essentials, cooling equipment, servers and UPS, the fact remains that a single point of failure can immobilise the entire data center. This is an important consideration when deciding which maintenance procedures to uphold, and which if any, can be overlooked.

With power outages proven to be the biggest point of failure, correct load bank testing should be maintained at all times to provide reassurance that if required, the backup power system is capable of accepting the required load and maintaining uptime in the event of a power failure.

Understand the possibilities, prevent downtime

If it is not the temporary nature of a containerised data center that prevents the required maintenance, then it is often the location, and the assumption that access will be impossible. Afterall, these small, highly portable load banks are often located in areas that have not been specifically constructed for such essential kit.

That said, leading load bank manufacturers have created backup generator testing equipment that can meet the testing demands of containerised data centers.

One example is Crestchic’s trailer mounted load bank solution that combines the powerful testing capability of its traditional resistive-only load banks, with the flexibility of a heavy-duty trailer for applications that require exceptional levels of manoeuvrability.

With load bank testing still achievable for mobile load banks, the risk of downtime is, as the Uptime Institute put it, preventable.

For More Information:

To read more about Crestchic’s experience within the data center sector, download out handy guide and information leaflet.

To buy or hire a load bank for your facility, contact our team here.

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