About Environmental Monitoring and Building Automation by SilverServers

Before we operated our own Kamloops data centre, SilverServers hosted servers in a third-party facility. These centres do their job well, but as one of many clients, we couldn’t count on real-time updates when something went wrong. Issues were usually reported after the fact—through tickets, scheduled updates, or even the news.

That’s understandable—real-time environmental monitoring isn’t something most data centres offer to individual clients. But for us, we needed more.

So we built our own solution: custom sensors that tracked temperature, humidity, pressure, transmit power, and battery level—right at the rack. Over time, they got smaller, smarter, and more accurate.

Eventually, our sensors were spotting problems before the data centre did. More than once, our calls asking “what’s going on?” were the first alerts to potential problems. What started as a side project became an essential early-warning system—for us, and often for the facility too.

Expanding Sensor Monitoring

Fast forward to today, and SilverServers has brought its infrastructure home to the Lorne Street data centre that we operate in Kamloops. Here, our team has complete control—not just over server management and hosting services—but over the very environment our systems live in.

Our custom environmental sensors are now deployed throughout the facility. We've even expanded beyond basic measurements to monitor:

• HVAC refrigerant pressure and temperature
• Soil hydration (for landscaping and interior plants)
• Door positions (open/closed status)
• Generator status (is it running? for how long?)
• CRAC unit activity (which cooling systems are running and how well?)
• Facility power consumption
• Network traffic

These sensors don’t just collect data—they drive real-time automation. We've integrated them into our building automation system so alerts are pushed instantly to our mobile devices. Whether it’s a server going offline, a website going dark, the generator kicking in, or someone ringing the bell at our front gate, our team knows immediately.

Use Cases for Environmental Sensors Outside the Data Centre

While our primary use for these systems has been within the data centre environment, our testing and deployments have gone further. We’ve used our sensor network to monitor:

• Attics and crawlspaces
• Distributed locations across a city for location-specific weather updates
• Animal enclosures
• Outdoor gardens and soil conditions

This flexibility makes our monitoring and automation system ideal for more than just IT infrastructure. If you're running a data centre, managing colocation services, operating agricultural operations, maintaining remote or unmanned facilities, or even overseeing public infrastructure, our monitoring platform can help.

Why Real-Time Environmental Monitoring Matters Across Industries

Monitoring isn’t just about gathering data—it’s about having the right information at the right time to make better decisions.

Whether you're managing a remote facility, maintaining equipment across a property, caring for animals, or simply trying to keep plants alive through a dry summer, real-time environmental awareness gives you an edge. It means knowing when something changes, being able to act quickly, and avoiding surprises.

That’s why we built this system. We needed answers faster than traditional processes could provide. Now, we use our sensors and automation tools to spot issues early, track long-term patterns, and respond to events in the moment—not after the fact.

And while we originally built it for one specific challenge, the system has proven itself useful in ways we never expected. It’s flexible enough to monitor buildings, backyards, enclosures, infrastructure—and more. If there’s something you care about that can be measured, chances are we can help you keep a better eye on it.

Interested?

Whether you're looking to improve environmental awareness, automate facility responses, or explore custom sensor solutions, we’d love to talk. Our system is flexible, field-tested, and built to solve real-world problems—large or small.

Want to see it in action? Contact us for a conversation or to book a tour of our Kamloops facility.