Poor IAQ is typically associated with sick building syndrome (SBS), building-related illness, or general occupant discomfort. But IAQ impacts more than the human occupants of a space; it also impacts computers, servers, and other electrical equipment. Poor IAQ at data centers can impact the performance of IT equipment to the point of repeated equipment failure — as presented in the Uptime Institute article, “Solving Air Contaminant Problems in Data Centers.”
“A representative of an internet service provider (ISP) reported a number of equipment failures in one of its data centers. The primary IT equipment vendor determined that the majority of failures were due to sulfur creep corrosion, most likely caused by high levels of motor vehicle pollution.”