Meeting the demands of today’s data centers requires experts who deliver end-to-end solutions, accelerating deployment while ensuring scalability and consistency. As a trusted partner to leading data centers worldwide, Johnson Controls addresses the industry’s most critical needs.

Uptime: Ensuring uninterrupted performance
In data centers, unexpected downtime is not an option. Over two thirds of outage incidents cost $100,000 or more, with 25% costing more than $1 million.¹ Because outages can be devastating to a business’s bottom line, ensuring service availability and business continuity are primary concerns for data center customers.

Operational continuity in data centers hinges on the interplay of uptime, resiliency, and redundancy. Resiliency refers to the data center's capacity to withstand and quickly recover from disruptions, such as extreme weather or power fluctuations, ensuring minimal impact on operations. Redundancy, on the other hand, involves deploying backup components and systems -across power, network and equipment layers -to maintain uninterrupted service even if a primary component fails. Together, uptime, resiliency, and redundancy form a foundational triad that enables data centers to deliver reliable and continuous performance in an increasingly complex digital landscape.

For data centers, we know that your building is your product. Don’t let it fall victim to preventable issues. Four in five respondents in the 2023 Uptime Institute data center survey said that their most recent serious outage could have been prevented with better management, processes and configuration.² You can effectively manage, upgrade and enhance your data center’s performance with Johnson Controls. We offer the equipment, digital tools and human expertise to help you maximize uptime.

Thermal management: Innovation for optimal efficiency
How warm are data centers? To put things to scale, in a data center environment the heat densities can be up to five times higher than in a typical office setting.³ This immense heat generation makes data centers extremely warm and unlike an office building that might need just one or two chillers, a data center requires significantly more.

Because cooling makes up roughly 40% of total energy consumption in data centers⁴, efficiency is a top priority. Unlike traditional repurposed cooling systems, Johnson Controls purpose-built cooling technology is designed specifically for data center environments and achieves the same cooling while cutting the energy required by as much as 49%.

The Johnson Controls York YVAM Chiller is engineered to meet the exacting demands of modern data centers, setting a new standard in reliable, efficient cooling. This chiller is rigorously tested to ensure continuous operation and enhanced redundancy. Its flexible design features advanced magnetic bearing technology, employing a variable-speed compressor that minimizes friction and eliminates the need for lubricants, reducing maintenance demands. The YVAM’s low sound power level supports a good neighbor approach, making it ideal for urban data center installations. Built on a scalable global platform, it adapts to both local customer needs and operates effectively at real-world data center design conditions, including chilled water reset capabilities. This combination of innovation and robust performance makes the YVAM an ideal choice for data centers prioritizing uptime, flexibility, and sustainability.

Safety and security: Protecting what matters most
We understand that safety and security in data centers are about more than protection, they’re about preserving trust. Data centers are a unique end user market with specific and distinctive needs when it comes to security. As the heart of the digital world, data centers are repositories of vast amounts of sensitive information, including financial data, personal information and valuable intellectual property.

Data centers also support critical infrastructure such as power grids, transportation systems and healthcare. In short, a compromised data center poses threats that span from personal security to national security.

Fire detection and suppression are critical components in safeguarding data centers. Advanced fire detection systems quickly identify potential threats, while fire suppression solutions effectively control and extinguish fires. Our advanced fire detection and suppression solutions are designed as highly efficient, clean agent system architectures, specifically for data centers, offering rapid fire extinguishment within seconds to protect critical equipment without leaving residue. With a compact storage footprint and safe application for occupied spaces, Johnson Controls Ansul FM-200 minimizes disruption, preserves operational continuity and ensures swift response to fire hazards.

A variety of technologies are involved in securing a data center, from radar to cameras to gates and barriers. There is no typical system for a data center – each customer is unique. Installing new systems starts with a discussion of the security needs of the specific facility. Discussions must encompass both hardware and software and include topics such as use of integrated video, mass notification, redundancy and potentially use of cloud technologies.

Johnson Controls provides a combined package and a turnkey solution to meet a data center’s security and broader technology needs. Gain insights into effective strategies for securing your data center, ensuring compliance and mitigating external and internal threats by downloading our new white paper.

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Discover how Johnson Controls can support your data center with integrated solutions for uptime, cooling, safety and security. With a holistic approach that delivers resilience and efficiency, we can help you redefine the standard for data center performance.

References

¹ Uptime Institute, Annual Outages Analysis 2023
² Uptime Institute, Annual Outages Analysis 2024
³ Bhatia, A., HVAC Cooling Systems for Data Centers
⁴ Energy.gov., “DOE Announces $40 Million for More Efficient Cooling for Data Centers”