What is Open Rack?

The open rack specification is an open practice for server rack design in the hyperscale data centre environment ( hyperscale is a distributed computing environment in which the volume of data and the demand for certain workloads can increase exponentially, yet still be addressed in a cost-effective manner). The term Open Rack is the first rack standard, designed for data centres. It is a part of Open Compute Project “grid to gates” trend, that facilitates the integration of rack in the data centre infrastructure. Addition to this, it is a kind of holistic design process that constitutes the interdependence of everything from power grids to the gates in the chip set of each motherboard.

Open Rack differs from the traditional 19- inch rack width by incorporating a 21 inch wide slot. Open Rack outlines specification for single and triple rack design in a data centre. As per the Open Rack charter, the design elements covered by the open rack specification include:

• Power distribution
• Physical design
• Battery backup
• Thermal design and server density
• Cable organization
• Flexibility
• Service efficiency
• Scalability