Data centers do not occur spontaneously. There is a person behind every humming server room ensuring the physical infrastructure does not collapse. Someone will usually have a Rack Panel Supplier who realises that a blank panel is not a piece of metal with holes in it.




The rack panels are not thought of by most people who are not in the industry. Why would they? The attention is paid to the servers. Budget discussions are made on the cooling systems. Panels are boring. Unless they have been lost, and all of a sudden you have a disaster in your airflow and your cooling expenses have gone up twice. Facilities managers begin to care very fast at that point.




What Does Rack panel selection really entail?




A Supplier of Rack Panels must carry dozens of variations. Various heights in rack units. Various materials such as simple steel up to brushed aluminium as the locations where the clients may actually view them. Vented panels, solid panels, cable pass-through panels. It is simple enough until you are attempting to equip a server room with three types of racks and you have to have everything there before the server installer crew arrives the next Tuesday.




The specifications are more than you think. Not all manufacturers have a 1U panel of exactly the same height. The holes in which the mounting is done may be slightly misaligned. The ease with which the panels scratch during installation depends on the quality of the powder coating. None of this appears material until you have an engineer cursing a panel that will not fit in exactly right.




Blank panels are important to temperature control than most individuals may think. Available rack space poses air recirculation issues. Hot exhaust air of one server may be blown directly into the intake of another. Your air conditioner is overworking to make up. The gap is bridged with a basic panel blocking and alters the entire equation. The temperature sensors are now indicating three degrees lower and the HVAC system is not operating at full blast all the time.




Why Should Various industries be Approached differently?




Healthcare providers do not have the same needs as financial institutions. Banks need panels that lock. The hospitals require panels that can be removed easily in case of emergency. Broadcasting plants require panels which do not interfere with radio frequencies. An excellent Rack Panel Supplier will also be aware of these variations and not attempt to sell everybody the same basic kit.




Telecommunications companies are frequently required to have outdoor installations that are weatherproof. Those panels are subjected to UV, water, temperature changes. The powder coating must be able to support. The structural hardware must be corrosion-resistant. It is not possible to pick up some typical server room panels and place them in a roadside cabinet.




What Has Remote Management Changed Requirements?




Edge computing has transformed requirements of facilities teams. Locating smaller installations in more locations implies that you have more rack cabinets in areas that do not have dedicated technical staff. The panels should be easy to install by a person who does not have the experience to install the servers in the room. That is an obvious thing, but you would be surprised how many panels need certain tools or techniques which would not be needed in a retail store back office, but would make sense in a data center.




Cable management panels are now considered as a necessity and not an option. Everybody is laying more cables. Monitoring sensors, power, networking, out-of-band management. A Rack Panel Supplier who simply carries blank panels has lost half the market now. Organisations require horizontal cable managers, vertical cable managers, pass-through grommeted panels. The cable infrastructure is becoming as complicated as the equipment it is attached to.




What About Standardisation Issues?




Various rack standards are occasionally used in different countries. A supplier in the international market must deal with 19 inch racks, 23 inch racks, metric differences. The patterns of mounting holes are slightly different. No big thing, but something serious when you are not attentive.




Mounting without the use of tools is popular. Clips instead of screws. That is convenient in the installation but raises new questions regarding the resistance to vibration. A server room is not a controlled environment. Equipment vibrates. People bump into racks. Those panels that are clip-mounted should remain in place. It is more about testing and quality control than when it was all just bolted down.




The Stock and Delivery Challenge.




Server projects don’t wait. A company approves new infrastructure and wants it to be in operation. When a Rack Panel Supplier is unable to supply panels in days the project will stall. That would be holding stock even of those items that may not sell in months. It is costly to hold dozens of variations of panels in stock, but it is worse to lose a sale due to the inability to deliver in time.




Nor is express shipping of metal panels cheap. They are not bulky in single units, but dozens or hundreds of them are required to have a decent-sized installation. It is possible to spend more money on shipping than on the products in case you do not pay attention to logistics.




Labelling and printing custom is becoming the norm. The facilities teams desire panel labels to correspond to their documentation systems. Different departments or functions colour-coded. This is provided by some suppliers and not bothered by others. The ones that receive repeat business by organisations that place importance on consistency.




Managing Obsolescence and Upgrades.




Racks of servers are not very frequently changed. Sometimes they are there ten and fifteen, twenty years. It may be difficult to find replacement panels that would fit 2008 racks. Products are abandoned by manufacturers. Colours change slightly. An excellent supplier is one who has contacts with manufacturers and retains the information concerning older products once they have been out of the catalogue.




Retrofit installations have their own headaches. You are operating within the framework of equipment that cannot be switched off. Panels should be installed without any disturbance. That needs to be carefully measured and in some cases even tailor made solutions that cannot be achieved by standard products.