There are many guidelines on how to design a data center for IT facilities but fewer for telecoms facilities. Beware because there are many differences between an IT facility and a Telecoms facility.

1. Telecom Operators –
The benefits of assessing
your Telecoms/Data Center
Facility

2. When thinking about Data Centers it is often IT computer Everyone has different reasons for wanting an assessment
room rooms which come to mind with hot aisle/cold aisle of their facility but the some of the most common include;
arrangements to make the cooling efficient and UPS and  To understand and certify the ‘Tier’ rating of their
generator systems to keep everything running in the event facility
of a power failure. With almost everybody’s job requiring  To overcome operational problems and start the
the use of a PC it is not surprising there is so much empha- improvement process
sis on getting the design of the data center right to keep  To understand their security vulnerability
these IT services running. However, just as crucial is the  To improve energy efficiency and improve running
communications infrastructure which enables both data costs
and voice communications from PCs, tablet and fixed and  To comply with other legislation
cellular phones. This is the realm of the Telecoms Opera-
tor. All of these issues can be addressed by a comprehensive
assessment of the infrastructure and, don’t forget, the
There are many guidelines on how to design a data center operational processes.
for IT facilities but fewer for telecoms facilities. Beware
because there are many differences between an IT facility However, when choosing someone to audit your site make
and a Telecoms facility. IT equipment generally runs off sure they have the experience and the qualifications to
100-240v alternating current supplies supported by UPS provide a comprehensive assessment and make sure they
systems whereas Telecoms equipment runs off 48v direct are independent with no affiliations to a particular manu-
current supplies supported by rectifiers. The consistency facturer or product. If the right auditor is chosen then the
in the airflow requirements of IT equipment makes use of result should be improved operational reliability and re-
hot aisle/cold aisle room layouts as the preferred option duced costs due to improved efficiency.
for efficiency whereas Telecoms equipment is supplied
with various different cooling airflow requirements mean- Edarat and their partners Capitoline audited 26 data cen-
ing greater thought needs to be put into the layout of the ter facilities for one of the largest telecom operators in
space to improve efficiency. Saudi Arabia. The timescales for the project were tight, but
our consultants worked to an intensive schedule to pro-
In reality many Telecom operators have sites which house vide a detailed evaluation of each data centre facility. We
both IT and telecoms equipment and so the problem of were able to complete the project in a time window be-
designing a reliable and efficient infrastructure is magni- tween October and December. Each of the data center
fied. This combined with the demand to roll out systems sites was audited and a comprehensive report was pro-
as quickly as possible means that basic design require- duced detailing and evaluating the suitability of;
ments are often overlooked. In order to a balance the two  The site location
requirements it is necessary to refer to a combination of  The architectural systems (Floor layout, access and
different standards such as the TIA942 Telecommunica- raised floor),
tions Infrastructure Standard for Data Centers or  The power systems (utility feeders, ATS, Genera-
EN506000 - Data centre facilities and infrastructures stan- tors, UPS, Rectifiers, PDUs),
dard (in development) and a series of ETSI standards  The cooling systems
(European Telecommunications Standards Institute).  Communications and Cabling systems
 Fire detection & protection systems
From auditing over 200 data center/telecom facilities it  Security systems (CCTV, access control)
has become clear that there are key design and layout  Floor plans and equipment layout
mistakes which are consistently made. An assessment of  Health and Safety
the site by a skilled consultant will identify these and pro-
 Energy rating (PUS DCiE)
vide recommendations on how to improve them. Typically
physical site assessments require only a day or two on site
The reports also included;
but the skill is in evaluating the information gathered and
 A GAP analysis evaluating the Tier level of each
assessing the best way to improve the site.
site against the TIA-942 data center standard
 Recommendations for closing all the gaps in order
The other lesson learned from auditing so many different
to meet the Tier level required.
data centers is that a great deal of money can be spent on
designing and installing an infrastructure to match Tier 3
The client now has a template for improved data center
or 4 requirements but if the good operational processes
infrastructure and a thorough understanding of what is
are not implemented then much of this money is wasted
needed to improve, reliability, security and efficiency at
as the site will only operate with the availability of a Tier 1
each of their data center sites.
site.
For more information about Edarat Group For more information about Capitoline
www.edaratgroup.com www.capitoline.co.uk
info@edaratgroup.com info@capitoline.org