ANCIS mainly designs indoor environmental and energy solutions for electronic equipment spaces. Our services are a unique synthesis of design, computer modeling, and standards writing expertise. We have developed and used advanced modeling tools for more than 20 years, and we have written guidelines and standards for industry bodies such as ASHRAE, BICSI, and NEBS.

Most electronic equipment spaces can be organized in three main groups: Telecom central offices, data centers, and computational research facilities. These different facilities have a number of common characteristics but also a number of important differentiators. As an introduction to our project examples, typical features of each facility group are outlined below. The Telecom, Data Center, and Research pages provide brief descriptions of six representative projects.

 Telecom Central Offices                                                                                                                                       

The telecom companies have more equipment facilities than any other single industry. The switching and routing of voice, data, and video services take place in "central offices." The main network systems originate from a few manufacturers, including Alcatel-Lucent, Nortel, and Cisco. The network equipment is environmentally robust allowing relaxed operating conditions. The equipment is mounted directly on a concrete slab rather than on a raised floor, and cooling is provided by air from overhead ductwork and diffusers. Finally, a central air-conditioning system provides the required cooling capacity.

 Data Centers                                                                                                                                                         

Data centers are a diverse group of equipment facilities. They range from small equipment rooms with only a few equipment racks to facilities with many hundreds of racks. Depending on the industry, they provide different types of services. The electronic equipment originates from a number of vendors and is less robust compared to network equipment. Data centers are generally cooled by air from a raised-floor plenum and perforated floor tiles. Multiple computer room air-conditioning (CRAC) units supply the cooling capacity. However, some data centers are designed with a more telecom-centric solution.

 Computational Research Facilities                                                                                                                        

Computational research facilities are a small but important group serving government or private research needs. Although these facilities may look similar to data centers, they differ in some important ways. The facilities tend to be large to house computer "systems" rather than individual computer racks. These costly systems are only developed by a few manufacturers such as IMB, HP, and Sun. The utilization rate is more constant and significantly higher than for data centers. The equipment often have specialized ways of ensuring adequate cooling. Combined, these characteristics require some special considerations.