Data centers, especially hyperscale data centers, are power-hungry monsters with an insatiable appetite for electricity. In fact, after buying the land, constructing the building, installing all the racks and servers, and staffing it, the number one operating expense for any data center is utility power. Their carbon footprint is as big, if not bigger, than many manufacturing operations.
Over the years Snake Tray has solved many problems for customers in the process of building, retrofitting, or expanding commercial structures. Engineers, architects and contractors come to us with unique challenges, and together with our engineers, we design and build specialized cable conveyance, enclosures and power distribution systems with minimal labor and material costs. Our ability to innovate, combined with our nimble in-house manufacturing capabilities and flat management style, has earned Snake Tray a reputation as the go-to vendor for customized solutions, quickly solving problems larger companies cannot address.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is an enormous collection of sensors, gateways, switches, and routers embedded into other products or structures that merges the physical and the virtual worlds to create smarter environments. By Gartner Inc.’s count, there are as many as 26 billion devices currently connected to the IoT with no end in sight. The IoT helps businesses make better decisions, reduce waste, and save energy, either autonomously or after some analysis.
This side mounted cable dropout offers ultimate support for the high capacity data center cable runs while not compromising the cable tray itself.
The concept for the generic wire basket tray originated in Europe about 50 years ago. Its rise in popularity paralleled the growth of computer networks and the need to convey relatively small loads of low voltage data cables across building interiors.
This IS your father’s Oldsmobile. Steel cable runways have been a staple of telecommunications rooms, data centers, and other highly-cabled facilities for generations. While other cable management solutions have since arrived on the scene that offer more flexibility and higher loading capacities while requiring less labor and lowering costs, (like the Snake Tray 801 Series Mega Snake®, a topic for another blog), steel cable runways remain popular in many telco installations. Why? Because that’s the way it has always been.
Actually, yeah, they kinda are. Aluminum cable ladder trays or racks have been around since the dawn of manufacturing automation. You’ll find them wherever there are industrial-class environments and electricity—which means basically anywhere: factory floors, chemical plants, offshore oil platforms, power substations, distribution centers, hyperscale data centers, sports stadiums, and the like. Made from extruded aluminum, they are very lightweight, weather-resistant, and strong enough to handle tremendous loads without sagging. They can be used indoors or outdoors, installed on rooftops, on top of rows of server cabinets, attached to walls, or suspended from ceilings. They are also more expensive than heavier generic steel cable runways, for example.
Have you ever compared the time it takes to fabricate a ninety-degree turn using generic wire basket cable trays versus the Snake Tray® Mega Snake®? We have, and we made a video about it.
In Part 1 of this blog we discussed how Snake Tray’s hand-bendable wire basket cable trays support COVID-19 restrictions on the job site by allowing electrical contractors to finish jobs faster with a minimal workforce. It’s easy to see the value of Snake Tray products when overhead turns and transitions are completed in 15 seconds by a single installer rather than 15 minutes by a team. But what about installing power distribution systems and network cables underneath raised-access floors in modern office buildings? Well, it turns out Snake Tray has a couple more solutions that can improve profitability and speed installation while maintaining proper social distancing practices down there, too.
Dig a trench end-to-end to bury cables, or dig holes to plant above ground pilings?
Guess where a buried cable failure point may be, or easily access cables for repair and replacement?
Use thicker conductors to compensate for underground de-rate, or carry all the PV energy the array can produce on 50% less cable size?
