Mistakes to Avoid In Data Center Design

Data center uptime contributes to the success of online businesses. And, for years, data industry experts have accepted that human errors contribute to data center downtime. It is becoming a requirement for data centers to scrutinize their operations to minimize human errors and maximize operational efficiency. Here are some crucial things you should be doing in relation to data center design in order to increase uptime and decrease downtime.

Have the Operations Team Involved in Facility Design

Most businesses fail to acknowledge that the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) approach is necessary to balance expenditures and improve working efficiency of their data centers. At times, operations teams are excluded from the facility design, which requires continuous modifications and repairs. By including operations in the design phase, businesses can have a higher operating efficiency.

Don’t Avoid Software or Tools Because of Cost

Many businesses avoid maintenance software for cost-saving reasons. However, enormous documentation is required to manage data center operations. A well-managed Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) helps assign, schedule and track all facility maintenance activities. The CMMS reports help data center architects to analyze vital statistics for program effectiveness, facility health and resource utilization. A Document Management System or DMS is another software which helps to store and retrieve important facility documentation. Either way, using these tools can help you save time and money.

Implement the Right Processes and Procedures

Change Control processes should be implemented to ensure everything is working properly within the data center. Ideally, all work conducted in data centers should have a written procedure, and any implementation should be conducted only after seeking an expert opinion. Some of the commonly used procedures are the Standard Operating Procedure, the Method of Procedure, the Emergency Operating Procedure, Vendor Management and Emergency Response. All of these procedures provide foundation for the quality of the data center.

Ensure Proper Quality Management

Many companies assume that their processes are perfect and require no further upgrades. They forget that no procedure or process will work forever; processes need to change and adapt. In order to make this more efficient, every procedure and process should be documented and a feedback section should be added at the end to measure variances and suggest improvements. This approach will help companies to optimize their quality efficiently.

Don’t Ignore Staffing Requirements

Companies try to save on TCO by ignoring their staffing requirements. In a data center environment, underestimating staffing can be risky. It is important to employ a workforce for emergency response, maintenance of equipment and managing vendors.

Lifeline Data Centers strives to offer maximum uptime by avoiding the above mentioned mistakes and ensuring that clients have total control and total management. Get in touch with our data center architects to learn more.

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.