Development and Economic Evaluation of an IoT-Based Real-Time Monitoring System for University Server Room: ATBU Bauchi

Real-time monitoring of data centers and server rooms is essential in order to maintain service availability and reliability, prevent equipment damage due to adverse environmental conditions and hazards, and reduce operational costs. However, the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU) Bauchi server room has relied largely on manual inspections which is labor-intensive, time-consuming, reactive, and costly. This study aimed to assess the cost benefits of deploying an IoT-based real-time monitoring system at the ATBU Bauchi server room compared with the previous traditional monitoring approach, with an emphasis on economic benefits rather than the development process. A cost-effective monitoring system was designed, developed, and deployed using an ESP32 microcontroller and multi-sensors capable of monitoring key parameters including temperature and humidity (DHT11), smoke (MQ2), flame (infrared flame sensor), and AC voltage supply (ZMPT101B). Remote access and real-time monitoring were enabled through Arduino IoT Cloud, and automated SMS alerts for threshold violations were enabled using the Termii SMS API. A comparative cost analysis was evaluated in Nigerian Naira (₦). The IoT-based integration yielded substantial economic advantages, achieving 66.67% savings in annual labor and operations, 80% annual savings in energy inefficiency and wasted cost, and 90% annual savings in downtime and repair costs, corresponding to an overall cost reduction of 75.74% relative to traditional monitoring.