Data Center Journal

VOLUME 50 | JUNE 2017

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THE DATA CENTER JOURNAL | 27 Data centers don't receive enough admiration. Since the dawn of the Internet, these infrastructures have been the "backbone" of businesses, keeping them running smoothly and positioning them for growth. But keeping data centers functional is no easy feat. Not only does it take compute power, but it also requires manpower to have the proper procedures and compliances in place, as well as standardization across data center facilities in different locations. g artner forecasts that 8.4 billion connected things will be in use worldwide in 2017, up 31 percent from 2016, and that this number will reach 20.4 billion by 2020. At this rate, data center usage will hit an all-time high, and maintaining these infrastructures to handle this amount of data and power will be crucial. is demand will ignite a new series of best practices, methods and procedures (MOPs) and stan- dard operating procedures (SOPs). Standardization is critical when working in data centers across sev- eral geographical areas. Having uni- versal MOPs, SOPs and compliance procedures in place throughout all data centers keeps "things" consis- tent for customers, allowing them to solely to focus on their business and not the day-to-day duty of manning their data. your BeSt liNe of defeNSe: your team ere are many steps data cen- ters can take to standardize opera- tions, but the most important is the team of individuals that keep the data center up and running. From technical to operational support, a data center team should be on site 24x7x365 and should be able to respond at a moment's notice. A good, diverse team is equipped to handle a multitude of items related to space, power, cross- connects and network products for installation or removal, as well as coordinating new customer builds and implementations. When working across several facilities, local customer support is critical. Local reps oversee day-to- day operations by maintaining 100 percent availability to power, cooling and physical connectivity. ey perform customer remote-hands requests and product installations. ey also monitor the infrastructure equipment and respond to any alerts or alarms, all the while perform- ing daily facility and security inspections. Facility operability, such as sustaining all critical electrical and mechanical cooling-distribution systems as well as performing risk assessments of all infrastructures, also requires a team of experts. ese people coordinate all preven- tative maintenance and electrical/ mechanical-infrastructure upgrades. For data centers across locations to have operational symmetry, these three teams must work together cohesively. www.datacenterjournal.com

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