SERVICE & MAINTENANCE
PPM pays its own way
Aermec’s Paul Osborne outlines how planned preventative maintenance can pay for itself.
D
atacentres are a vital part of many businesses’ infrastructure. Consumers, retailers, banks, and a whole raft of organisations are heavily reliant on
data centres. Whether they are enterprise data centres, cloud based, co-location, hyperscale or edge facilities, the common denominators are data and the need to address energy costs and reduce usage of finite resources such as power and water. Data centre operators are constantly evaluating ways to
reduce costs whilst addressing environmental concerns. When it comes to mission critical sites supporting the banking and financial services industries, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has a watchful eye when it comes to IT failures. So, maintaining uptime takes priority and having guaranteed levels of service and maintenance is essential.
When the Uptime Institute, famed for its datacentre tier
standards and an established authority that benchmarks data centre performance presented its 12th Annual Global Data Centre Survey at the end of last year, one of the areas it highlighted for attention was costly outages and the greater prevention strategies. Although many data centre operators go to great lengths
to reinforce their facility’s resiliency and work very closely with manufacturers, Uptime expressed concern that outages are still too frequently occurring, and they are also becoming more expensive. There’s no question that Covid has had an impact over the last few years and there are still persistent supply chain issues across the globe, but regular maintenance inspections and preventative measures will help minimise the risks of issues that could comprise a critical asset. No business can afford to have their data centre assets fail because they overlooked maintenance. The cost of an incident be it interruption to power or equipment overheating can have a serious impact as many modern data centres support critical websites and cloud applications.
Scheduled maintenance programmes can be viewed as an insurance policy or initiative-taking initiatives to reduce unscheduled equipment failure. Those data centres without a PPM increase the risks of their assets failing and a reputation to manage.
18 May 2023 •
www.acr-news.com
It makes sense to have a plan in place. Many mission critical customers know exactly what they expect from their service and maintenance providers, producing their own playbooks outlining not just procedures but their expectations. These often include their service and maintenance provider aligning with their own corporate values including environmental strategies. We all know the importance of a good service and maintenance strategy. Routine inspections will ensure there are no issues before problems occur. Good maintenance not only provides security and reliability but establishes resiliency so that the customer’s business can function. Assets in a data centre are high value and a substantial investment, so data centre operators look for longevity of products, which can only be achieved through a planned approach to their overall maintenance. Aside from the long- term financial benefits, supporting vital systems such as cooling are fundamental.
Cooling Data centres generate significant amounts of heat, and they are continually under the spotlight to reduce reliance on energy, water and cut running costs. So, it is imperative that the cooling equipment is not just correctly specified but commissioned and maintained to avoid equipment failure because of overheating. PPM on chillers, CRAC and CRAH units can help head off disruptions and minimise financial risks and reputations. For many businesses data centres are a mission critical infrastructure and they are reliant on reliable sources of power – consistent access to the national grid with equipment able to handle and interruptions to the main power and water. Uninterrupted power supplies may comprise generators, batteries, and related switching equipment, however any built-in redundancy can be negated if due diligence is not deployed, and the equipment is not regularly monitored but also tested.
Types of maintenance Maintenance can be broken down into three categories of preventative maintenance: Q Scheduled maintenance Q Predictive maintenance Q Condition based maintenance.
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