Standards for the Telecommunications Industry: IA 942 vs. BICSI 002-2010

The fast-paced developments in the world of business force data centers to expand capacity by the day and assume complex prepositions. Meeting the increasing needs of efficiency and optimal utilization requires complex designs. This has its impact on standards and compliance. A data center complying with an existing standard may no longer be adequate to demonstrate competency to handle the latest and emerging applications. The way out is for standards itself to be subject to frequent revisions, or for new standards to complement existing standards.

BICSI’s new standards for the telecommunication industry, BICSI 002-2010, Data Center Design and Implementation Best Practices is written to complement existing standards such as TIA-942 and ISO data center design standards, offering additional information outside the purview of the earlier standards, without duplicating content or reinventing the wheel.

BICSI 002-2010 standards define best practices for design and implementation of data centers. It draws from standards already prevalent in external organization, such as those from the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers.

While TIA-942 mainly confines to cabling infrastructure, reliability, layout and environmental considerations, BICSI 002-2010 extends the scope to the mechanical, electrical and telecommunication systems, besides thermal systems, layout, and security in the data centers as well. It also goes into greater in-depth detail than the TIA-942 standards, and may be regarded as the next level in compliance.

Unlike the Up-time Institute and TIA-942 standards, BICSI standards do not invoke a tier rating system. However, the standards for the electrical systems section do define five classes based on the availability of electrical systems in data centers. The FO class denotes absolutely no measures to protect the IT load from failure, or data centers with just a single path with no UPS. The other levels are progressively higher.

Businesses looking to host their data and processes in data centers need to look beyond statutory compliance, which may be minimum required standards, or even industry best practices, which may not be relevant to them. They would rather do well to gauge their specific requirements and evaluate the extent to which the data center delivers on this front. Lifeline Data Centre offers comprehensive depth to meet your specific requirements and we are compliant in all areas. Contact us today.

Alex Carroll

Managing Member at Lifeline Data Centers

Alex, co-owner, is responsible for all real estate, construction and mission critical facilities: hardened buildings, power systems, cooling systems, fire suppression, and environmentals. Alex also manages relationships with the telecommunications providers and has an extensive background in IT infrastructure support, database administration and software design and development. Alex architected Lifeline’s proprietary GRCA system and is hands-on every day in the data center.