Steps to become a certified data center design consultant

There’s no denying that data centers are the core of many organizations and as a result, many aim to establish a resilient infrastructure within a data center at all levels to ensure less downtimes and losses.

Therefore, it is recommended to follow a commonly accepted quality-stringent standard as the basis for design and construction principles which is applied thoroughly by the ANSI/TIA-942 Standard for data centers.

The standard specifies requirements and guidelines compliant for a data center’s construction, where a certified ANSI/TIA-942 data center design consultant would possess a comprehensive understanding of the data center design embodying architecture, mechanical, electrical and telecommunications.

CTDC – Certified TIA-942 Design Consultant

Data center professionals involved with designing, building, maintaining and operating can attend the CTDC course to obtain certification on the fundamentals that is important to the successful implementation and sustainability of the data center.

Course participants will be given a comprehensive knowledge on the right approach to designing an ANSI/TIA-942 compliant data center with clear understanding of the standard’s prerequisites and possible implementation variations.

Suitable for all types of data center professionals that is attributed to either a single enterprise or multi-tenant data facilities, or even third party vendors; it encompasses co-location, managed services and cloud service providers.

Most CTDC qualified candidates would be able to:

· Select the best site to build a data center based on current and future needs.

· Describe all crucial components required for data center’s high availability.

· Possess the know-how to effectively set up the data center.

· Have comprehension of the name and application of the various industry requirements.

· Acquire knowledge in various technologies such as UPS, re-suppression, cooling, monitoring systems, cabling standards and other relevant tools while knowing how to apply them cost-efficiently to enhance the uptime of the data center.

· Assess electrical supply system to ensure continuous provision without downtimes

· Utilize existing and new techniques to enhance data center’s cooling capabilities for future expansion.

· Construct a scalable network architecture that’s highly reliable and comprehend which proper testing techniques that installers should apply.

· Administer effective maintenance with equipment suppliers by preparing contracts that provides the best ROI.

· Architect data center’s monitoring system to ensure effective communications.

· Protect valuable information in the data center with implementation of proper security measures.

Candidates that pass the exam would be officially given the Certified TIA-942 Design Consultant Certificate (CTDC) which is valid for 3 years, thereafter, recertification is required.

Why tier 4 rating is important for data centers?

Ensuring that a data center operates reliably is a never-ending journey and once a data center is built and operational, it is extremely difficult to change the fundamentals of the facility so designing the highest quality upfront before a data center is constructed is best for maximum uptime.

A standardized method used to define a data center’s up time is from Tier 1 to 4 that is used for measuring data center performance, investment and ROI (return on investment). The TIA-942 rating system that has a scale of Tier 1 to Tier 4, where a more robustly designed data center is indicated with the highest scale; is less prone to failures and downtimes.

Data centers with a Tier 4 rating is designed to accommodate mission critical servers, computer systems facilitated with fully redundant subsystems and independently structured security zones that is regulated by biometric access controls. Simply broken down, here is the Tier differentiation:

· Tier 1: Non-redundant capacity components (single uplink and servers)

· Tier 2: Tier 1 + Redundant capacity components

· Tier 3: Tier 1 + Tier 2 + Dual-powered equipment and multiple uplinks

· Tier 4: Tier 1 + Tier 2 + Tier 3 + All components are dual-powered and fully accountable including uplinks, storage, chillers, HVAC systems, servers, etc.

A Tier 4 site builds upon Tier 3 and adds on the requirement that all distribution paths are required to be active at all times and must be compartmentalized with continuous cooling system even with disruptions.

That’s why TIA-942 Tier 4 data centers can withstand any single failure crippling its capacity system, component and distribution element which will not affect computer equipment. Instead the system responds to a breakdown, preventing further impact to the data center and this is important to contain unexpected events such as breakdowns, fire, flood, explosion, etc.

How often should data centers perform data center audit?

What data center professional should know about Data Center Facility Audit Services?

What is a data center and why data center comply with ANSI/TIA-942 ?

Why is it important to validate a certified data center professional?

An internationally-recognized authority validating a certified data center professional confirms an organization’s emphasis on maintaining the best practices for its data center by minimizing the risk of service disruption and data security.

Validation of these certified data center professionals provides more than just focus on your core business, it also helps minimize costs associated with your own audits. Improving data center efficiency while reducing or avoiding downtimes are top priorities, therefore, being able to rely on skilled personnel remains a key factor for all data center operators worldwide.

There are many different roles that are vital in a data center project ranging from consultants, internal auditors and external auditors. Below, we have a short take on various roles and its prerequisites for validation.

Certified TIA-942 Design Consultants

Providing professional advice to businesses, consultants help to achieve compliance to the requirements of the ANSI/TIA-942 standard by serving a variety of roles in a data center construction project such as technical advisor, designer, administrator and manager, among other important roles. A TIA-942 certified consultant possesses the CTDC (Certified TIA-942 Design Consultant) qualification.

Certified TIA-942 Internal Auditors

Assisting the organization whether they are employed or from another establishment, internal auditors prepare the data centers for compliance to the ANSI/TIA-942 certification standard. They understand the complete cycle of audit involved to help the organization assess all non-conformities and make certain that all documentation and resources for certification are well organized and distributed. A TIA-942 certified internal auditor possesses the CTIA (Certified TIA-942 Internal Auditor) qualification.

Certified TIA-942 External Auditors

External experts assisting organizations to assess the data center for ANSI/TIA-942 compliance, the external auditors understand the full technical requirements of the standard in detail, recognizing the audit process and are skilled in seeking evidence for compliance verification. The external auditor is able to produce non-compliance documentation and review the possible fixes for its conclusions. A TIA-942 certified external auditor possesses the CTEA (Certified TIA-942 External Auditor) qualification.

Validate a TIA-942 Certified Consultant and Auditor now.

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2 Types of Data Center Audit all Data Center professionals should know

How often should data centers perform data center audit?

Data Center Audit allows your business to understand the capabilities and limitations of your current data center and it is often essential if you are considering expansion or upgrade works as it gives you the whole picture of your existing facility.

Once your data center is audited, you are able to make sound decisions in terms of upgrading or refreshing your equipment or even adjustments to your operational procedures. A data center audit is often the starting point of assessing a business’ strategy and has a significant impact on the success of an organisation.

These critical processes must be in place to ensure that your data center is secured with preventive measures and maintenance services. Remember, it is often less expensive to invest in mitigating a risk of downtime than to recover from the event after it occurs.

Data Center should be perform audit annually

Therefore, an annual data center audit is recommended. Data Center Audit Company are able to provide a comprehensive review of your existing data center which is designed to help identify both good and bad components and this helps your business reduce the risk of downtime. Company performing the data center audit conforms to TIA-942 Standard where it is focused on assisting customers to concentrate on the fulfillment of data center’s “best practices”.

Detailed recommendations and implementation within the data canter audit will help increase reliability, reduce human error and deliver the best value for your business by decreasing total cost of ownership through reduced capital, operating and resource costs.

Now we know how often data centers perform data center audit, it is also important to know the 2 types of ANSI/TIA-942 Certification.

ANSI/TIA-942 Design Certification
ANSI/TIA-942 Site Certification

ANSI/TIA-942 Design Certification

This design certification assists data center operators in validating their data center design which is developed either in-house or through third party consultants, verifying facility design against applicable standards and expected redundancy levels.

The ANSI/TIA-942 Data Center Design Certification is generally done before locating the facility to confirm that the data center design and specifications are all correct. You can also apply this certification when revamping existing data centers.

Avoid costly mistakes by using this certification so that a correctly constructed data centre conforming to ANSI/TIA-942 is designed where certified auditors will conduct a thorough review of the design documents with reports indicating concerns that need to be addressed before construction so that the data centre will pass the ANSI/TIA-942 audit.

ANSI/TIA-942 Site Certification

This site certification reviews the physical implementation of the data center so that it complies to the chosen ANSI/TIA-942 standard with proper workmanship by evaluating all design documents of the facility whether the data center is newly built or have been in operation for many years.

Site certification audits often reveal that data center still have some non-compliance issues that are either due to misinterpretation of the ANSI/TIA-942 standard or due to bad workmanship or cost-cutting corners by contractors.

The audit will verify whether the data center is conforming to standards which have proven to be valuable many times to both new data center as well as existing ones where business organisations want to understand the potential risks in the infrastructure of their data centers.

Quality standard for data center

The ANSI/TIA-942 standard specifies quality requirements for data centers and overall, both certifications mentioned above is applicable to any size data centers and reviews all important fields covering site location, construction, electrical, mechanical, telecommunication, safety, security, fire detection and suppression, etc.

Searching for TIA942 Certified Data Centers?

Find out more here http://www.tia-942.org/datacenter

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7 tips on how to choose the right data center for your business - Part 2

Welcome back to the Data Center Standard blog. Yesterday we covered the first part of 7 tips on how to choose the right data center for your business: Location, Scalability, Reliability, and Security. Today we will continue sharing with you the remaining 3 tips on how to choose the right data center for your business.

Implementation

Prior to selecting a data center, you need to know how quickly the facility can get your system up and running as most businesses want their infrastructure efficiently set up as fast as possible. Speedy data center deployment is crucial for your business timelines so make sure potential vendors communicate their timelines to you clearly.

Financial stability

Ideally you should check on the financial stability of your data center provider because you won’t want to spend endless amounts of time and money into the facility, only to find that the data center cannot support you after a few years. To get an idea of how viable the data center is, look at press releases, financial reports and financial history.

Lemming Effect

A good gauge for anyone looking for data centers is to get an idea of how many providers there are in that area. If many providers have converged in the same location, odds are that location is geographically sustainable with good networking access, reliable power and water utilities. This could help narrow down your search in choosing the right data center.

Should you have any questions about the various data center related issues, you are most welcome to click here to find out more.

7 tips on how to choose the right data center for your business - Part 1

Welcome back to the Data Center Standards blog, today we will learn on how to choose the right data center for your business. We will also be learning the potential risks and rewards of using the services of a data center. Here, we made it simple by showing you 7 tips to look for the right data center.

Data Centers are critical for businesses today. To ensure data center operate at peak performance, you need to perform data center audit to inspects all key elements of your data center comply with TIA-942 standard.

Before you start selecting a data center for your business, there are a number of criteria you should take into consideration to house your mission-critical infrastructure outside your organization’s base.

For the first parts, here's 4 criteria to take note of before committing to a data center

Location

Location is one of the most important factors that influence your decision. There are a few factors to contemplate, for instance, the ease of getting your employee to the data center in case of emergencies, facilitating upgrades or equipment service, disaster-proof from natural occurrences such as hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, etc. A stable supply of interruption power source, cooling and IT systems should also be taken into account. Next we will look at the issue of scalability.

Scalability

Different data centers offer different levels of flexibility in terms of meeting your current and future needs as some will provide out of the box solutions that sometimes succeed or fail in providing your business’ expansion needs. Therefore adaptable scalability is what you need to look into; in terms of additional space, power and connectivity. Don’t choose a data center provider that can’t scale over time.

Reliability

Besides location, and scalability, we will also look at reliability. Data center reliability is measured by its up-time in the world and a reliable one should have the five 9s, that is, they should have a proven reliability record of 99.999% up-time. Other factors contributing to high reliability include staff certifications, customer feedback and on-site support.

Security

Security is important. Your data center should provide security measures that your organization is comfortable with, that includes security surveillance, pass code entry to servers, security checkpoints, unauthorized data access prevention, malicious attack response, etc. Ensuring that your selected data center is professionally certified and industry-compliant is definitely a positive indicator as well.

Should you have any questions about the various data center related issues, you are most welcome to find out more here.

Stay tune for Part 2, we will walk you through the remaining 3 tips on how to choose the right data center for your business.

Have a nice day.

8 factors all Data Center Should Know before optimizing its data center to reduce unnecessary expenses

Welcome back! Previously we learn about "What data center professional should know about Data Center Facility Audit Services?" Today you will learn how to optimize your data center easily. But before we go directly on the topic for the day, let us learn now on why a data center should optimize its data center operations an the benefit of it.

Why should a data center optimize its data center operations?

By optimizing data center operations, data center can reduce energy bill, create efficiency within the workforce, improve the IT department’s workload, save the environment, cut ancillary costs and improve network security. It is also about meeting the most up-to-date best practice guidelines, saving money and driving efficiency within your sales, customer relations, storage and security processes.

Benefits of Optimizing Data Center Operations?

Although it might represent extra workload and more money initially, in the long run optimizing your data center will pay for itself. Optimization will involve changes to your storage facility, upgrading your equipment - and perhaps adapting your management strategy and methodology. Completed optimization of your data center operation and maintenance could drastically reduce your company’s overall IT bill – and that could reap rewards for years to come. Below are 8 tips all data should know before optimizing its data center operations.

Get 8 tips to optimize your data center operation now!

1. Conduct a general audit to review costs

One tried and tested method to review costs is to have a specialist review your current data center operational procedures to determine where you might add efficiency, which will assist in reducing budget requirements.

2. Audit and measure power consumption

Unless you know what you are currently using in terms of total power consumption and space you can’t work out how much you could save or where improvements can be made, so auditing is vital. Data Center auditor can conduct data center audit using specialist software to measure power consumption on a frame-by-frame basis.

Power consumption monitoring is an important part of such an audit. Specialist data storage companies have tools that go beyond conventional rack energy monitoring tools, and they even use a needle to visually display power usage in real-time. This enables regular power reporting and also lets administrators set power usage caps on particular servers.

3. Implement power-saving technologies

One metric used to determine the energy efficiency of a data center is PUE, or Power Usage Effectiveness. It’s defined by dividing the amount of power entering a data center by the power used to run the computer infrastructure within it.

Inefficient data centers have a high PUE ratio, in that operating expenses of the facility (cooling, lighting, auxiliary power) are higher than they should be – so optimization will be necessary.

Operators with a low PUE ratio have lower running costs, and the key to achieving this is by implementing the power-saving technologies that are available.

4. Use Direct Current (D/C) supply to save more power

Your data center might flicker between alternating and direct current (AC/DC), which wastes energy by emitting waste heat and increases the need for an expensive cooling system. It’s more efficient to power servers directly from a central DC (Direct Current) supply, and that could save 10 to 20 per cent of the data center’s total energy consumption.

Or you could deploy higher-voltage air conditioning within the data center, if it’s needed. In some cases this can reduce energy loss by up to 10 per cent.

5. Go virtual to reduce predicted costs

According to recent industry figures over half of businesses measure their power usage in their own data center operating procedure, and almost all of them believe that being able to measure power consumption is incredibly valuable.

Server visualization is a hot topic in optimization, mainly because of the predicted cost reductions and energy savings it can create. In the long run, visualization should decrease hardware costs and lead to massive energy-saving – but initial costs are high.

Virtualisation involves putting virtual servers on a single device, but potentially although this will result in less servers overall, you might need bigger and more powerful servers because of the increased demand.

6. Compartmentalize and segregate

Mechanical and electrical (M&E) systems in data storage operations are designed around variables like temperature or humidity, but paying attention to your data center's total capacity versus how much you actually use is more important at the start. If, for example, you can work out how to turn off the air-conditioning to a whole computer room at once, you could save a huge amount in energy and costs.

7. Turn off servers when it’s not needed

Software products are available that can analyse data center activity and turn off servers that aren’t needed, such as development servers still turned on at midnight that don’t need to be. Work out exactly when your data center servers can be turned off during periods of low activity and schedule in when certain servers can be turned off.

8. Find a low-cost data center location

The next thing we will focus at is finding a low cost data center location.

If your business is using an off-site data center facility it should make sure it’s close by to your company. And consider that three of the main deciding factors influencing data center locations are accessibility to major transport hubs, the technical talent of the local workforce and access to high-speed communications like broadband and telecom networks.

Tech giants Apple, Google and Facebook are taking advantage of relatively low land and power costs by locating their data center hubs in smaller city areas where the appeal of intangible benefits, tax and property breaks are enticing high-tech companies to relocate their data center operations.

Consider these eight factors if you’re figuring out ways to optimize your data center operations - reducing unnecessary expenses can only be good for business in the end.

Thank you for reading, if you find this article interesting, feel free to share it out to your business associates, data center professionals.

Should you have any additional you are most welcome to submit your questions here.

What data center professional should know about Data Center Facility Audit Services?

Welcome back! We learn about How Data Center Design Validation can help you avoid costly and devastating mistakes? yesterday. Today we will walk you through the importance of Data Center Facility Audit Service and what data center professionals should know about it.

What is a Data Center?

A data center is a space to store and operate information and communication infrastructure. In a data center, there will be power quality controls and backup power system, data communications connections, cooling controls such as air conditioning and fire detection infrastructure and also high levels of security protection. A data center can be just a simple rack with computer equipment or it could be a room or even a building with many cabinets of equipment depending on the scale of business. Hence, depending on the size of the data center, a bigger data center will require higher consumption of power and energy.

Why the need for a third party data center service company?

To stay competitive today, one has to be flexible and scalable to manage their data center infrastructure. The question arises, ‘How can you ensure that your data is protected and secure?’ Many companies today employ a third party data center audit service company to help assess, audit, design and certify the data center according to a set of data center standards to ensure all data are protected and secured. Besides ensuring data being protected and secured, third party data center service company assist in cost management, optimizing application performance, overseeing risk and regulation, as well as uptime/availability are upheld accordingly. The third party data center audit service company also helps the data center conform to ANSI/TIA-942 standard.

How can data center professionals ensure that all its facilities conform to the requirements of ANSI/TIA-942 standard?

It is through the Data Center Facilities Audit that helps identify any non-conformities due to misinterpretation of ANSI/TIA-942 standards or sometimes due to cutting corners and bad workmanship. Data Center Facilities Audit is a thorough audit that helps verify facilities to adhere to ANSI/TIA-942 standards.

What can data center facilities audit review?

site location
architecture
electrical
mechanical
telecommunications and many more

Any data center audit on the ANSI/TIA-942 standard must be conducted by a certified auditor who holds CTEA (Certified TIA-942 External Auditor).

Validate the External Auditor here now.

Is your data center certified with TIA-942 standard?

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How Data Center Design Validation can help you avoid costly and devastating mistakes?

Welcome back! Let’s recap. We talked about 2 types of Data Center Audit all data center professionals should know previously. The 2 types of data center audits are Data Center Design Validation and Data Center Facility Audit Service. Today we will walk you through on how Data Center Design Validation can help you avoid costly and devastating mistakes.

Data Center Design Validation: The Costly Mistakes

Before directly going into how Data Center Design Validation can help you avoid costly and devastating mistakes, let me first address the underlying mistakes faced by many data center owners or data center operators. There have been many cases where many data center owners have experienced data center being design by self-proclaimed ANSI/TIA-942 consultants and are implemented to be non-conforming with the actual design requirements and data center standards of ANSI/TIA-942. When data center owners find out, the consequences is limited physical and time to address the situation due to the constraint of budget. Hence, how can data center avoid this costly and devastating mistake?

Data Center Design Validation: How Does It Function?

Data Center Design Validation is the answer to help prevent these costly and devastating mistake. It is a service conducted by TIA-942 Certified External Auditor. The auditors will provide a non-conformity report indicating any concerns that arises. This is to ensure that after the data center is built, it will pass ANSI/TIA-942 audit. The aim of Data Center Design Validation is to review the various design documents to ensure that the built data center conforms to ANSI/TIA-942 standard. Click here to know more about ANSI/TIA-942 standard.

Have you encountered any self-proclaimed ANSI/TIA-942 data center design consultants or auditors? Click here to validate now.

2 Types of Data Center Audit all Data Center professionals should know

Welcome back! Our last post talks about the roles of a consultant, internal auditor, and external auditor in a data center. Today we will be learning on the 2 types of data center audit all data center professionals should know.

2 types of Data Center Audit all data center professionals should know

While we understand the importance of conducting data center audit, what are the two most important data center audits?

1. Data Center Design Validation (DCDV)

2. Data Center Facility Audit Services (DCFA)

What is Data Center Design Validation (DCDV)?

DCDV audit helps a data center operator or owner to validate their data Centre design which they have developed in-house, or through third-party consultants and/or suppliers.

The validation is conducted against applicable standards and expected redundancy levels. Data Center Design Validation is generally done before the procurement phase to ensure that everything is correctly designed and specified. DCDV can also be applied to renovation projects of existing data centers.

What is Data Center Facility Audit Services (DCFA)

The aim of DCFA is to review the physical implementation of the data center to ensure compliance to the standard chosen and to ensure proper workmanship. An experienced auditor will review on-site all the design documents and will review each area of the facility under scope. DCFA is valuable for both newly built data centers as well as data centers which have been operated for many years.

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Still have questions in mind on the 2 types of Data Center Audit, drop your comments below.

Additional Related Content:

The roles of a consultant, Internal Auditor, And External Auditor in a data center

What is a data center and why data center comply with ANSI/TIA-942 ?

The roles of a consultant, Internal Auditor, And External Auditor in a data center

Hello everyone, welcome back to the Data Center Standard Blog. Our last post talks about "what is a data center and why it should comply with ANSI/TIA-942?"

Today we will walk you through the various roles in a data center. They are the

- Data Center Design Consultant
- Internal Auditor
- External Auditor

Data Center Design Consultant

In a data center project a consultant is known as the data center design consultant. The consultant is the expert who is asked for professional advice by companies that are looking to conform to the requirements of the ANSI/TIA-942 standard.

This consultant may be a technical designer, project manager, an advisor or even an implementer. A certified data center design consultant normally holds the title of Certified TIA-942 Design Consultant (CTDC). In order to be a certified data center design consultant, data center professionals are required to go through a 3 day course.

CTDC is worldwide accredited by EXIN. EXIN was created in 1984 to provide accreditation and independent examination. EXIN has been contributing towards the improvement of quality of the ICT area of expertise and the development of the ICT Professional together with its partners and contacts for 30 years.

In order for a data center project to complete successfully, a number of experts have to come together. These are the consultants, the internal auditors and the external auditors. Let’s find out more about these experts below:

Internal Auditor

The role of an internal auditor is to ready an organization’s data center to confirm with the ANSI/TIA-942 standard. The internal auditor has to not only understand the complete audit cycle, but also to help the company to assess what are the major non conformities that it needs to fix. He will also ensure that all necessary documents and resources that are required for the external certification audit are prepared properly. A Certified Internal Auditor normally holds a Certified TIA-942 Internal Auditor (CTIA) certification.

External Auditor

The External auditor understands the complete technical requirements of the standard, the process of auditing and is also an expert in seeking evidence to check for conformity. He is external to the organization whose data center needs to be assessed for conformity to ANSI/TIA-942. In light of the information found during audit, the external auditor will write a non-conformity report as well as review the potential fixes to the non-conformities

Now that you know the different roles in a data center project, it’s important to validate whether they are certified professionals or not. Click HERE to validate now.

Search for Certified Data Center consultants and Auditors here.

What is a data center and why data center comply with ANSI/TIA-942 ?

Data Centers are spaces companies use to store and operate a majority of company information and communication technology Infrastructure that helps with the business. Depending on the scale of business, data center could be a simple rack, a room or a building with computer equipment that consumes a high level of power. The ability of the data center to operate at peak performance and at the highest possible efficiency levels without service interruption is crucial for business continuity. In order for the data center to operate at peak performance level, it must adhere to a quality standard. The quality standard for data centers today is ANSI/TIA-942.

What is ANSI/TIA-942?

Let us first look at what is ANSI, and TIA-942?

ANSI stands for American National Standards Institute. The Institute is responsible for everything from the formation to the announcement and further use of thousands of guidelines and norms. These norms directly affect several business sectors from construction to manufacture to dairy to energy distribution and others.

TIA stands for Telecommunications Industry Association. The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) is the leading trade association that represents global information and communications technology (ICT) industry in the form of policy initiatives, market intelligence, business opportunities etc.

ANSI/TIA-942 is an established quality standard issued to data centers. This standard stands for a worldwide consensus from industry experts in the context of data center design and build.

Why is ANSI/TIA-942 chosen?

The ANSI/TIA-942 standard is chosen because of the following factors:

The standard is available to the public and hence considered transparent
This standard encompasses every element of the physical data center from its architecture, fire suppression, safety & security to its site location and telecommunication amongst others.
This is a genuine standard that has been issued by a NGO
This is an ANSI accredited standard

The ANSI/TIA-942 standard acts as a measure for data center professionals to refer when building a reliable data center.

Find out more here.