Telecommunication cabinet or server rack (theory in practice)
According to Yandex statistics, the number of requests for renting server racks is 4 times more than similar requests with the word “cabinet”. The only strange thing is that after calling the client, it turns out that he needs to rent a telecommunication cabinet, not a rack.
Here the questions arise:
1. And what are they actually looking for?
2. Do they know the difference between a rack and a cabinet?
3. Why are they looking for one and choosing another?
4. What do you want to get in the end?
1. "What are they actually looking for?"
The answer to the first question seems obvious - racks. But if you dig a little deeper, it turns out that customers for entire cabinets / closed drains, as a rule, are representatives of medium and large businesses, less often small companies. For such clients, the conditions of equipment maintenance (safety and protection, isolation from other clients, placement parameters), the data center system (energy supply, fire extinguishing and video surveillance, air conditioning, power supply, etc.) are important.
Racks for placing equipment with such requests will obviously not be enough, you need a cabinet.
2. “Do they know the difference between a rack and a cabinet?” The
answer to the second question also seems quite obvious. Just look at the pictures:
Well, in addition to external differences, there are a number of other, no less important, but less noticeable factors:
- Cooling . Cabinets allow you to control the process of uniform cooling of equipment, to establish a directed flow of cold and outflow of hot air
- reliability - Safety. Each cabinet can be additionally equipped with an alarm system, access password and other means of access protection. From the standard: each cabinet has an individual lock and key to it.
- Durability (Everything is commonplace. The contents of the cabinet will remain untouched, even if you touch it. It is closed and protected from prying hands, eyes and emergency).
Of course, racks in some cases are more justified. For example, in rooms without a raised floor, where the rack is placed directly on the cement floor or for the placement of passive equipment. In cases of savings for small budget data centers. After all, the cost of a telecommunications cabinet is several times higher than the cost of a rack.
3. “Why are they looking for one thing and choosing another?”
The third question is rather rhetorical, but important!
If I systematize all the analytics I have collected, we get the following distribution:
1. they don’t bother much about terminology (the word rack is more commonly used than a cabinet)
2. they are looking for the best option within a very limited budget, which initially eliminates the option of placing in cabinets
3. do not know the difference between the rack and the cabinet / do not know what they really need / are guided by other selection criteria and goals.
4. “What do they want to get in the end?”
And finally, the fourth question.
Here, too, there are several options for decreasing:
1. Expensive and stupid
2. Cheap and cheerful
3. Search and find what is really needed and optimal.
The market trend is such that few choose the optimal third option the first time, but sooner or later (especially for commercial organizations) they come to this decision. It is a pity that the method of trial and error. The rest, I think? do not need comments.
For dessert, some statistics.
From the first 20 data centers, cabinets / racks offer:
Racks 72%
Cabinets 12%
There is no clear
Positioning 16%
At the same time, the websites of 80% of the companies contained photographs exclusively of telecommunication cabinets.
Who is confusing whom?
Actually like this, I would like to discuss on this issue!
Here the questions arise:
1. And what are they actually looking for?
2. Do they know the difference between a rack and a cabinet?
3. Why are they looking for one and choosing another?
4. What do you want to get in the end?
1. "What are they actually looking for?"
The answer to the first question seems obvious - racks. But if you dig a little deeper, it turns out that customers for entire cabinets / closed drains, as a rule, are representatives of medium and large businesses, less often small companies. For such clients, the conditions of equipment maintenance (safety and protection, isolation from other clients, placement parameters), the data center system (energy supply, fire extinguishing and video surveillance, air conditioning, power supply, etc.) are important.
Racks for placing equipment with such requests will obviously not be enough, you need a cabinet.
2. “Do they know the difference between a rack and a cabinet?” The
answer to the second question also seems quite obvious. Just look at the pictures:
Well, in addition to external differences, there are a number of other, no less important, but less noticeable factors:
- Cooling . Cabinets allow you to control the process of uniform cooling of equipment, to establish a directed flow of cold and outflow of hot air
- reliability - Safety. Each cabinet can be additionally equipped with an alarm system, access password and other means of access protection. From the standard: each cabinet has an individual lock and key to it.
- Durability (Everything is commonplace. The contents of the cabinet will remain untouched, even if you touch it. It is closed and protected from prying hands, eyes and emergency).
Of course, racks in some cases are more justified. For example, in rooms without a raised floor, where the rack is placed directly on the cement floor or for the placement of passive equipment. In cases of savings for small budget data centers. After all, the cost of a telecommunications cabinet is several times higher than the cost of a rack.
3. “Why are they looking for one thing and choosing another?”
The third question is rather rhetorical, but important!
If I systematize all the analytics I have collected, we get the following distribution:
1. they don’t bother much about terminology (the word rack is more commonly used than a cabinet)
2. they are looking for the best option within a very limited budget, which initially eliminates the option of placing in cabinets
3. do not know the difference between the rack and the cabinet / do not know what they really need / are guided by other selection criteria and goals.
4. “What do they want to get in the end?”
And finally, the fourth question.
Here, too, there are several options for decreasing:
1. Expensive and stupid
2. Cheap and cheerful
3. Search and find what is really needed and optimal.
The market trend is such that few choose the optimal third option the first time, but sooner or later (especially for commercial organizations) they come to this decision. It is a pity that the method of trial and error. The rest, I think? do not need comments.
For dessert, some statistics.
From the first 20 data centers, cabinets / racks offer:
Racks 72%
Cabinets 12%
There is no clear
Positioning 16%
At the same time, the websites of 80% of the companies contained photographs exclusively of telecommunication cabinets.
Who is confusing whom?
Actually like this, I would like to discuss on this issue!