As reliance on information technology grows, the significance of data center facilities and the expected performance criteria from them become increasingly critical. In today’s information age, the production of information occurs within the critical facilities of data centers, where data is collected, stored, and processed physically. These facilities, housing servers, storage, and networking devices, have the primary responsibility of ensuring the high availability, performance, and reliability of these devices throughout their expected service lifetimes.
Foreign consulting firms providing design, suppliers offering modern and innovative technological solutions, and large-scale construction and electro-mechanical contracting companies positioning themselves in this crucial sector are providing solutions for their customers’ data center facility infrastructure needs.
This challenging and arduous construction phase spans between 8 months to 2 years, encompassing design, construction, procurement, and implementation, and concludes with the testing and commissioning phase. An investment in a data center’s critical infrastructure is made for a usage period of at least 20-30 years. While everyone focuses on the construction of data center facilities and believes that all problems are resolved within this period, the reality is quite different.
At the commercial level, once the construction phase, comprising system, material, engineering, and labour sales, concludes, a high-tech infrastructure emerges. Everyone involved sees themselves as protagonists or heroes. Success stories of all parties contributing to this phase are written and become references for future triumphs.
But is this reality? The first criterion for the success of a Data Center Critical Infrastructure is ‘Business Continuity,’ and the true ‘heroism’ story is ensuring a performance above all IT applications and network business continuity for 20-30 years of the data center’s lifespan. Managing the risk 24/7 in a duty system, without neglecting maintenance, during weeks-long energy or water outages, human errors, or environmental disasters, is not for the faint-hearted. Especially, design errors made without considering ‘Sustainable Operations,’ incorrect field applications, and documentation or calculation deficiencies make operations extremely complicated, intensifying these struggles for 20-30 years.
While the number of layoffs during the construction phase is kept to a minimum under the logic of ‘don’t change horses midstream,’ many people can be fired or suffer health problems due to stress in the ‘Sustainable Operations’ phase caused by a mistake made.
Let’s simplify it with numbers. During the testing phase in construction, artificial heat loads are used instead of IT devices, and they can be shut down at will. Interruptions are a natural part of the testing process. Temporary ‘Sensational Heroes’ step back, and the ‘Real Heroes’ take their place. In the facility where IT devices that should no longer be subject to interruptions are present.
If the team experiences a 2-hour outage in the first year of operation, ‘Business Continuity’ drops instantly to 99.97%. If ‘Business Continuity’ is aimed to be maintained at the classic 99.999% level, after this interruption, the operations team needs to operate the Data Center Infrastructure without any interruptions for at least 8 years. Consider that this 2-hour outage might naturally stem from a mistake in design or implementation, which is beyond the responsibility of the operations team.
Hence, achieving the fundamental goal of Data Center Facilities, which is ‘Business Continuity,’ lies in the hands of the ‘Unsung Heroes’ – the ‘Sustainable Operations’ team. They silently bear all design and implementation errors, take precautions, and try to overcome them. Unfortunately, in most organizations, their true value remains overshadowed. Acknowledging their contribution is a crucial point that every organization delivering high business continuity services should never forget.
