Question

Data center rack protection against earthquakes

DataCenter, Data center design, Physical security, Space/structure, Data center operations, Disaster Recovery, Backup & recovery

A SearchDataCenter.com member recently asked:

I am looking for the industry best practices regarding California data center rack protection against earthquakes. Many locations bolt the racks to the floor. Has there been any studies or industry acceptance of seismic isolation platforms? What is the industry best practice in CA. Specifically San Francisco.

We have implemented both practices in the Bay Area - it really comes down to a question of how the site is constructed and which municipality(ies) have jurisdiction over the site.

The seismic isolation platform work best when you are dealing with facilities without a raised floor, but we have used them in a raised floor environment in San Jose with pretty decent success. It just was a bit more involved.

The standard practice that we've been successful with across all of the various code enforcement people involves using 5/8" threaded rod (or bolts) through the rack bottom into either anchors in the floor or Unistrut which has been mounted to the floor. We see this implementation in probably 90% of all facilities throughout the Bay Area. Let me know if you need particulars, and I can send you a PDF with the drawings of how we do it.

Fred McCoy
NetStructures