What is Raised Flooring?

Raised Flooring is a framework of horizontal and vertical bars mounted on the Data Center's true floor, creating an elevated grid. Flat panels are placed in these grids to create a raised floor surface. A typcial raised flooring in a modern data center is about 24" to 30" in height.

A raised floor provides flexibility in electrical and network cabling, and help control cooling inside data center. Alternatie to raised flooring is to lay power & network cabling on the floor while cooling can be delivered through ducts in the false ceiling. There are both pros and cons of having raised flooring and not having it.

Pros and Cons of No-Raised-Flooring in Data Center.

• In ISP/CoLolocations wire fencing can be installed to physically seperate cages that can go floor to ceiling and prohibits people from crawling beneath the raised floor and gain unauthorized access.
• Loss of cooling to one cage closer to the HVAC unit having many open tiles decreasing subfloor pressure is ruled out.
• Inefficient cooling as it can not easily be rerouted to other areas
• Problems associated with exposed power and network cabling

Pros and Cons of Raised-Flooring in Data Center

• Dedicated space allows to channel cooled air through by strategically placing perforated or grated floor tiles.
• Network and Power cabling beneath raised floor is safe and less prone to accidents.
• Provides easy accessibility to network and power cables lying beneath raised floor.
• The drawback is associated with the cost of raised flooring in a small data center admeasuring less than 1000 Sq.Ft.