Fundamentals of Managing the Data Center Life Cycle for Owners

Fundamentals of Managing the
Data Center Life Cycle for
Owners
Schneider Electric
Data Center Science Center
White Paper 195
Schneider Electric – Data Center Science Center WP 195 Presentation – February 2014

Just as good genes do not guarantee health and well-being, a
good design alone does not ensure a data center is well-built and
will remain efficient and available over the course of its life span.
For each phase of the data center’s life cycle, proper care and
action must be taken to continuously meet the business needs of
the facility. This presentation describes the five phases of the
data center life cycle, identifies key tasks and pitfalls, and offers
practical advice to facility owners and management.

Introduction – Understanding the Big
Picture
The Five Phases of the
Data Center Life Cycle

Plan Phase
Determines key project parameters of the
physical system to be created, i.e., system
concept, site selection, and project process
● Ideal project process
● Often referred to as “programming”
● System concept
● Players at this stage
● Facilities and IT departments
● Executives
● CFO
● Real estate group within the company
NOTE: In this paper, only system planning is covered. System planning refers to the power, cooling, racks,
and other support infrastructure systems. Planning related to the IT equipment is not discussed here.

Plan Phase
Ideal project process
● Conduct project efficiently, reliably, and
understandably
● Have safeguards to eliminate missed handoffs, ambiguous
responsibility, and lost information
● Detail key stakeholders, responsibilities
● Include strategies to manage unplanned occurrences, i.e., project
changes and defects
● Be modular and configurable, adaptable to projects of different types
and sizes
White Paper 140, “Data Center Projects: Standardized Process”, offers a detailed
definition and description of a formal, standardized, and documented process.

Plan Phase
System concept
● A high level description of the
system
● Includes validated user preferences
and constraints, standards, codes,
resource assignments, deadlines,
and process requirements for
project
● These design requirements become
input for design phase
See white paper 142, “Data Center Projects; System Planning”, for more
information.

Establish
PROJECT PARAMETERS
1
Develop
SYSTEM CONCEPT
Make the six foundational decisions that will
control the system architecture and budget
2
Choose a model design for the system,
based on the six PROJECT PARAMETERS
Plan Phase
System System concept Planning Sequence
Incorporate
USER PREFERENCES
AND CONSTRAINTS
Identify, validate, and adapt user-specific
Determine
IMPLEMENTATION
REQUIREMENTS
3
4
details that will refine the
SYSTEM CONCEPT
Collect standards, codes,
deadlines, resource assignments,
and process requirements the
project must conform to
• Criticality
• Capacity
• Growth plan
• Efficiency
• Density
• Budget
•Reference
design
•Room
choice
•Concept
Adaptations
•Validated
Preferences
•Validated
Constraints
Implementation
requirements
The combined outputs
are the design
requirements for input
to the DESIGN phase

Plan Phase
System concept
Avoid Problems in
Project Process
● Right information > right decision
maker > right sequence
● Focus on shared understanding and
consensus: criticality, capacity,
growth plan, efficiency, density, and
budget
● Avoid detailed design work until
design requirements are validated
and agreed upon

Plan Phase
System concept Reference Designs
● Validated, documented high-level plan for
physical infrastructure
● Especially important in the absence of
design engineers in early planning phase
See white paper 147, “Advantages of Using a Reference Design” for more
information.

Plan Phase
Site selection
● Site must meet design requirements
● Site evaluation must consider availability risks
and financial benefits
● Key considerations
● Energy costs
● Tax preferences/incentives
● Labor costs
See white paper 81, “Site Selection for Mission Critical Facilities”, for more
information.

Design Phase
Involves detailed design work required to
translate Plan phase outputs into site-specific
schematics and buildable
construction documents, i.e., drawings and
specifications
● Approved documents used for permitting
by governmental authorities-having-jurisdiction
- AHJs
● Construction contractors evaluated,
selected
● Well-managed design/build model takes
about 4-6 weeks
● Well-managed design/bid/build model
takes about 8-10 weeks

Design Phase
Typical high-level overview
Owner’s Design Requirements from
Plan Phase (see Figure 2)
Architect & CE Firm
OR Design/Build Firm
Key Tasks:
Project management, meet budget, feasibility studies, preliminary
design, detailed design & specification, quotation, hire/bid general
Owner evaluates,
hires, and enters
into contract
with…
contractor and/or sub-contractors for build & commissioning phases
Detailed design outputs (approved by owner):
•Schematic
design (10%
complete)
•Design
development
(50% complete)
•Construction
documents
(100% complete)
General Contractor
Likely parties involved in
detailed design:
Owner/Owner’s Rep
Architect
MEP engineers
Structural, civil engineers
IT consultants
Energy/LEED consultants
Commissioning agent
Facility Operators
Electrical Contractor
Mechanical Contractor Low Voltage Contractor
Cycles of design iteration
typically take place as
requirements, preferences,
and constraints change.
If construction delivery
model is “design/bid/build”,
bidding by contractorsoften
takes place at each of the
design documentation
levels (10%, 50%, 100%
are common)
…hired by architect or design/build
firm
Networking Contractor

Design Phase
Construction delivery models
Design/bid/build
Traditional approach. Contractors bid during design
development. Lowest priced responsible bidder meeting
requirements is selected Construction begins.
PROs:
● Possibly lower cost if design change
orders are well-controlled
● Typically presented with more choices
from more vendors for a given design
CONs:
● Bid process can add months
to project schedule

Design Phase
Construction delivery models
Design/build
Owner or architect hires team responsible for both design
and construction. Selection based on merits and price.
Price is guaranteed. Change orders typically not allowed by
contractor.
PROs:
● Shortens schedule by months.
Eliminates time needed for bidding
process. Construction starts in parallel
with design documentation development
● Owner more likely to get exactly what is specified
● Enables early contractor involvement in design, possibly reducing risk and
number of design iterations
● Fosters close cooperation between designers and contractors
CONs:
● Likely not the lowest cost

Design Phase
Owner’s contract
● Important tool for ensuring
right people > right time > right focus
● Defines key stakeholders roles, responsibilities by
phase
● Defines compensation and insurance requirements
● Describes
● Cost of work
● Change resolution methods
● Change order process, limitations
● Termination grounds and processes

Build Phase
Information gathered and approved during
Plan and Design phases is used as a basis
for Build phase.
● Construction documents used
● To bid for contractors
● To secure building permits
● As basis for what is actually built at the chosen
site
● Construction begins according to project plan
● Perform regular audits, quality assurance
● Weekly progress meetings
● Opportunity to train owner and facility
operations team

Build Phase
Complete when
● Quality assurance confirms
work is complete to project
requirements
● Final certification of
completion is issued to owner
by construction team lead
● Passing score on
commissioning test, if part of
project
● Owner issues letter of formal
acceptance of project

Build Phase
Commissioning
● Defined as a reliability science that
documents and validates the result of a data
center’s design and build processes
● Addresses Data Center complexity by testing and documenting overall
system’s response to real world inputs and changes
● Ensures design and implementation in construction phase are sound
● Commissioning agents develop
commissioning plan and schedule
● Work with design and
construction teams

Build Phase
Commissioning
Output Documents
● “As built” script report
● Provides line-by-line report on what
passed/failed
● Component error log report
● Describes what failed and what was
impacted
● Trending report
● Executive summary of performance
trends

Operate Phase
Time during which physical infrastructure
does what it was intended to do: house,
power, cool, and secure IT servers, storage,
and networking gear.
● A properly designed,
implemented, and supported
O&M program will
● minimize risk
● reduce costs
● provide competitive
advantage for the overall
business the data center
serves

Operate Phase
Mission Critical Mindset
● Focuses on risk mitigation
● Grasps interconnectedness of facility
and IT systems
● Analytical, process-driven approach to
risk avoidance and problem solving
● Commitment to continuous learning and
process improvement
Owners & management must
imbue the Ops team with this
philosophy and mindset

Operate Phase
12 Essential Elements of
Data Center O&M Program
● Environmental health and safety
● Personnel management
● Emergency preparedness and response
● Maintenance management
● Training
● Change management
● Documentation management
See white paper 196, “Essential Elements of Data Center Facility Operations”, for
more information.
● Infrastructure management
● Quality management
● Energy management
● Financial management
● Performance monitoring and review

Operate Phase
Facilities-IT cooperation
● Cooperation will
● Make capacity planning more accurate
and day-to-day operations more
efficient
● Minimize impact to SLAs and the
business when problems occur
● Reduce disruption caused by facility or
IT equipment moves, adds, changes
It is the responsibility of owners and management to
foster this cooperation!

Assess Phase
Concurrent with Operate phase, gives
visibility to how operators and physical
infrastructure systems are performing on
an on-going basis.
● Yields useful, actionable information including…
● Degree to which the design intent and facility objectives are being
met by current infrastructure in operation
● Energy efficiency of physical infrastructure in supporting IT
● General health and current risk profile of physical infrastructure
● Current power, cooling, and space capacities and use trends
● Effectiveness and experience levels of personnel
● Facility operations & maintenance program maturity and
effectiveness

Outsourcing Services
Advantages
● Benefit from experience and
expertise of others
● Frees up internal resources to focus
on other key tasks and
responsibilities
● Avoids learning curve and mistakes
resulting from first time tasks
● Provides alternative to internal
resources that lack
bandwidth/resources required to
learn new skills or perform certain
functions

Conclusion
●Provided owners, management
teams with basic understanding
of mission critical facility projects
and operations in the context of a
Data Center Life Cycle
●Described phases, their
interconnection, principal
players, key areas of focus

Resources
Data Center Projects: Standardized Process
White Paper 140
Data Center Projects: System Planning
White Paper 142
Data Center Projects: Advantages of Using a Data Center Reference Design
White Paper 147
The Top 9 Mistakes in Data Center Planning
White Paper 145
Site Selection For Mission Critical Facilities
White Paper 81
Data Center Projects: Commissioning
White Paper 148
Ten Errors to Avoid When Commissioning a Data Center
White Paper 149
Essential Elements of Data Center Facility Operations
White Paper 196
Avoiding Common Pitfalls of Evaluating and Implementing DCIM Solutions
White Paper 170
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