ASSESSMENTS
PLANNET has performed detailed onsite assessments of hundreds of data centers and other critical facilities. Whereas no two facilities are alike, a professional assessment should readily highlight concerns relative to other data centers supporting similar functions. PLANNET’s assessment deliverable typically includes:
- A concise, executive summary with recommendations and financial considerations.
- A definition and a model of your current and future data center requirements / demand.
- A detailed assessment of the current-state of your facility and its effectiveness in meeting your current capacity and reliability requirements. Some key areas:
- Geographic location risks, location in building risks
- Usable spaces
- Equipment current operating condition and maintenance practices
- Equipment usable capacities with redundancy fail-over
- Power and cooling efficiency
- Equipment loading and available capacity (many operators think they have more in reserve than they actually have)
- Local and remote monitoring and controls
- Equipment labeling and signage, as-built construction drawing accuracy, operating procedure effectiveness
- Operator coverage based on the site-specific needs, qualifications
- Repair/maintenance and operating costs
- Desired future-state scenarios, with design options, to address expected changes in requirements. These may involve expansion, downsizing, rightsizing, hardening, refreshing equipment or allowing low-risk, online maintenance
- Detailed cost estimates for future-state options
- Block diagrams, sketches or other documentation developed to effectively convey current and future state details.
Data center assessments need to be kept current and should be refreshed at least every few years. Equipment ages, problems develop, loads change, available technology improves, including energy efficiency, which directly affects power costs (the highest ongoing operating cost of data centers).
PLANNET references key elements of established assessment and design guidelines, including those by ANSI/TIA-942. However we apply experience and client/site-specific understanding to avoid rigid adherence to one-size-fits-all guideline requirements that may deliver little bang for the buck.
PLANNET sometimes represents owners and landlords evaluating real estate suitability or managing tenant spaces. In other cases we represent tenants evaluating co location data centers or dealing with landlords.
