When you’re first outfitting your data center, you’ll need to juggle a lot of factors. It’s important to keep power distribution, HVAC power generation, and layout configuration in mind when you’re building one. However, one of your most important decisions will involve whether or not you should get a server rack or cabinet outfitted for your data center. Figuring out the difference between a server rack and a data cabinet is tricky, but we’re here to help. Read on to find out more.
What’s a Server Rack?
A server rack is an electronic equipment rack designed to organize IT equipment effectively. Because companies generally need to fit more than one server in the data center to perform several functions, racks are the perfect solution. They allow servers to stack on top of each other neatly, and since server racks are open the servers have plenty of ventilation. This keeps the equipment from overheating, which is a serious problem in many data centers.
What’s a Data Center Cabinet?
You can use data center cabinets to mount all of the same equipment as you would in a server rack. Data center cabinets have doors on the front and rear and a side panel on each side. Cable management options and tool less mounting of PDU’s are available for both server racks and datacenter cabinets.
What Are the Differences?
Server racks and cabinets use accessories that host server and network equipment. For the most part, you can use the same internal accessories in a rack or a cabinet and both are available with casters. The primary difference between a server rack and a data center cabinet is that the cabinet is completely enclosed. This provides a higher level of security for your hardware and also helps prevent hot air from mixing from cabinet to cabinet.
Overall, there are not a lot of differences between data racks and cabinets. We recommend you use both for your purposes. If you’re interested in data cabinets, check out our selection at AMCO Enclosures. Here at AMCO, we take pride in the quality of our products. Shop AMCO today!