The most important aspect of a data center or telecom central office facility is to provide a physical environment that ensures reliable and uninterrupted operation of the data processing equipment. The Rack Cooling Index (RCI)™ is a measure of how effectively air-cooled IT/Network equipment is cooled and maintained within industry thermal guidelines and standards by the building's air-conditioning system and/or in-room air-conditioners.

Managing today's dense equipment environments is a challenge; out-of-bound environmental conditions may not only harm expensive electronic equipment but also interrupt critical and/or revenue generating services. A single blade server rack may cost well above $500,000 and loss of data processing services may cost significantly more.

There are many applications for the RCI; the following are just a few examples.

Design Equipment Environments. The RCI combined with CFD modeling provides a standardized way of evaluating and reporting the effectiveness of cooling solutions.

Provide Design Specifications. End users now have the opportunity to specify a certain level of thermal quality in a standardized way, e.g., RCI > 95%.

Monitor Equipment Environments. Real-time monitoring of the overall environment is feasible by using temperature sensors that mimics the server intake conditions.

Help Product Development/Marketing: The RCI demonstrates the benefit of a cooling solution. A product with an RCI near 100% should be marketed as such.

The link to the right allows free down loads of an ASHRAE paper discussing the Index in some detail. It describes the RCI for analyzing, reporting, and specifying the thermal environment in data centers, telecom central offices, and other mission critical facilities.