06 Jun 2005 17:34
If we were to ask typical infrastructure managers to name the major elements of facilities management, they would probably mention common parts such as air conditioning, electrical power, and perhaps fire suppression. Some may also mention smoke detection, uninterruptible power supplies, and controlled physical access. Few of them would be likely to include less common entities such as electrical grounding, vault protection, and static electricity, among others.
Here's a comprehensive list of the major elements of facilities management:
Temperature and humidity levels should be monitored constantly, either electronically or with recording charts, and reviewed once per shift to detect any unusual trends. Electrical power includes continuous supply at the proper voltage, current, phasing and the conditioning of the power. Conditioning purifies the quality of the electricity for greater reliability. It involves filtering out stray magnetic fields that can cause unwanted inductance, doing the same to stray electric fields that can generate unwanted capacitance, and providing surge suppression to prevent voltage spikes. Static electricity affecting the operation of sensitive equipment can build up in conductive materials such as carpeting, clothing, draperies and other non-insulating fibres. Anti-static devices can be installed to minimise this condition. Proper grounding is required to eliminate power cuts, and potential human injury, due to short circuits. Another element sometimes overlooked is whether UPS batteries are kept fully charged.
Water and smoke detection are common environmental guards in today's data centres as are fire suppression mechanisms. Facility monitoring systems and their alarms should be visible and audible enough to be seen and heard from almost any area in the computer room and when noisy equipment is running at its loudest. If in an earthquake zone equipment should be anchored and secured to withstand moderate tremors. Large mainframes decades ago used to be safely anchored, in part, by the massive plumbing for water-cooled processors and by the huge bus and tag cables, which interconnected the various units. In today's era of fibre-optic cables, air-cooled processors and smaller boxes designed for non-raised flooring, this built-in anchoring of equipment is no longer as prevalent.
Emergency preparedness for natural or man-made disasters should be a basic part of general safety training for all personnel working inside a data centre. They should be knowledgeable about emergency powering off, evacuation procedures, first-aid assistance and emergency telephone numbers. Briefing data centre suppliers in these matters is also recommended.
Most data centres have acceptable methods of controlling physical access into their machine rooms, but not always for vaults or rooms that store sensitive documents, stock, or recorded media. The physical location of a data centre can also be problematic. At basement level it may be safe and secure from the outside but be exposed to water leaks and evacuation obstacles, particularly in older buildings. Locating a data centre along the outside walls of a building can sometimes contribute to sabotage from the outside. Data centres in classified environments are almost always located as far away from outside walls as possible to safeguard them from outside physical forces such as bombs or projectiles, and from electronic sensing devices.
Major physical exposures common to a data centre
Most operations managers do a good job of keeping their data centres up and running. Many workplaces go for years without a experiencing a major powercut specifically caused by the physical environment. But the infrequent nature of these types of powercuts can often lull managers into a false sense of security and lead them to overlook the risks to which they may be exposed. Here are the most common of these:
The older the data centre, the greater these exposures become. I have had clients who have collectively experienced at least half of these exposures during the past three years. Many of their data centres were less than ten years old.
Preventative maintenance, testing, inspections or any combination of these should occur at least once a year. I have worked with some workplaces who have annual maintenance contracts in place for their physical facilities, including onsite inspections, but choose not to exercise them. Un-tested safeguards, un-inspected equipment, undocumented procedures and un-trained staff are all preventable invitations to disaster.
Tips to improve the facilities management process
There are a number of simple actions that can be taken to improve the facilities management process. Here are some tips:
Establishing good relationships with key support departments such as the facilities department and local government inspecting agencies can help keep maintenance and expansion plans on schedule. This can also lead to a greater understanding of what the infrastructure group can do to enable both of these agencies to better serve the IT department.
Video cameras have been around for a long time to enhance and streamline physical security. Occasionally overlooked is the quality of the tape and recording. The playback mechanism should also be checked to ensure playback is actually possible. Another item to check is the environmental recording device. Many of these are quite sophisticated and collect a wealth of data about temperature, humidity, purity of air, hazardous vapours and other environmental measurements. The data is only as valuable as the effort expended to analyse it for trends, patterns and relationships. A reasonably thorough analysis should be done on this type of data quarterly.
In my experience, most workplaces do a good job of periodically testing the backup electrical systems such as UPS, batteries, generators, and power distribution units (PDUs), but less so on fire detection and suppression systems. This is partly due to the huge capital investment electrical backup systems require, and managers wanting to ensure a return on such a sizable outlay of cash. Maintenance contracts for these systems frequently include inspection and testing, at least at the outset. But this is seldom the case with fire detection and suppression systems. Infrastructure personnel need to be proactive in this regard by insisting on regularly scheduled inspections and maintenance of these systems. This also includes up-to-date evacuation plans.
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