Fire protection in the data centre

The risk of fire in data centres is primarily due to the heat IT racks produce and the high energy density of the electrical equipment installed. Most data centre fires are caused by technical defects in electrical equipment, which require an appropriate fire protection solution.

For most data centre and server room operators, however, potential fires are not the main issue. What they want to avoid at all costs is having to cut power to equipment and thus interrupt IT processes. This is because these data centres usually have contractual agreements with their customers regarding continuous availability of computing capacity and stored data, which also involves liability risks. Customers are dependent on digitally stored information, so no data centre can afford downtime. As such, data centre safety and fire-protection measures are focused on preventing any type of operational downtime, especially cutting power to the data centre—even in the event of a fire. At the same time, it is important that security and fire protection systems be as efficient as possible, in order to keep operating costs down.