Data Center Journal

VOLUME 52 | OCTOBER 2017

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THE DATA CENTER JOURNAL | 9 www.datacenterjournal.com O nce neglected, the importance of opera- tions to the success of the business is now clear, although budget restrictions are still common and operations teams oen must also rely on vendors and consultants. Realizing this importance, the design-engineer- ing consultant and vendor community has evolved to support operations. While not entirely there yet, vendors and consultants now supplement and advocate for operations in a number of areas, including some that were uncommon just a decade ago. Ideally, operations is consid- ered at every phase of the project life cycle. From owner's project require- ment (OPR) development to design, construction, commissioning and occupancy, vendors and design consultants help create the best-func- tioning operations. We'll examine here specific support they provide in each of these phases. DESIGN PHASE Oen in the early stages of design, the focus is on the physi- cal components, and corresponding day-one costs, of the building—to the exclusion of operational consider- ations. And all too oen, the consul- tant approach has been to primarily consider similar traditional elements as well and to neglect the "operational mindset." OPR development, however, considers vital tradeoffs with regard to space allocation, equipment types and configurations, and automation. For this reason, it's essential that these tradeoffs occur not just in the context of financial-first costs, but also in consideration of building operational costs and total cost of ownership (TCO). By truly considering facility operations from the start of a proj- ect, design consultants can empower operations personnel to efficiently op- erate the building across the facility's life cycle. Furthermore, considering facility operations during OPR de- velopment is at the heart of properly planning for TCO. During pre-design, OPR consid- erations can be as simple as provisions for adequate equipment spaces and configurations that take into account not only normal operations, but also routine maintenance and repairs. In these instances, equipment and system configurations in the mechanical and electrical rooms can be crucial to ef- ficient building operation. An example is the many times an operator must travel around switchgear to observe two related but separate graphical interfaces. Another important but oen ne- glected element related to the design is nomenclature used by designers when first designating equipment. Intui- tive naming that clearly indicates the nature of the equipment, and its rela- tionship to upstream and downstream gear, makes operator understanding and troubleshooting of these systems much simpler, saving time and money. It's also important that these same relationships be maintained across disciplines, including control designations and programming. e naming scheme should be a funda- mental part of the OPR process and should carry through the project specifications as well as the equip- ment-vendor designations. is simple yet important process can yield savings through greater op- erational understanding and reduced errors for years to come. Automation An important subset of the design process is automation. Speed, with precision, is of the utmost importance in the mission-critical environment—hence, the infrastruc- ture for virtually all such facilities is automated. Understanding these auto- mation capabilities can be extremely important to implementing a critical facility that's not only reliable but also efficient. In all cases, the programming of the automation system must reflect the naming and tag nomenclatures discussed earlier as well as the alarm notification and purpose. is step is essential to effective maintenance and modification of the automation sys- tem. Operators should be involved in the programming-nomenclature pro- It's easy to argue that in the mission-critical data center industry, no group works under greater pressure with fewer resources than facility operations. All day and all year, this group is ultimately accountable for ensuring the facility stays online while juggling upgrades, capacity- planning support, budgeting, community relations and business- development tours (to name a few).

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