Are you looking to take your Telecom business to the next level? One of the best ways to do that is by ensuring your captive Data Centres are reliable and operating efficiently. Let’s work together to assess and improve their performance so you can focus on growing your business.
Case Study: Data Centre Performance Assessment
Objectives:
Assess and improve captive Data Centres’ reliability and operational efficiency for Telecom business.
Terms of assessment service:
• One hundred thirty-eight telecommunication data centers located across geographical regions were to be assessed by a 3rd-party subject matter expert team.
• Make a physical assessment of Data Centre building infrastructures. Perform Condition Tests and evaluation of significant equipment to establish end-of-life management against baseline life expectancy.
• Perform a reliability study of the building’s critical systems comprising major equipment.
• Establish Reliability-centered Maintenance procedures to plan, prioritise maintenance, and roll out investment grade improvements.
• Assess compliance gaps with governing standards ISO 50600, ANSI/TIA-942 and NFPA 76 for the telecommunication infrastructures.
• Assess the skill gap in the Operating team and chart out an up-skilling program.
• Present improvement program to stakeholders, oversee implementation of approved projects and perform post-implementation assessment.
Challenges:
• Poor Competency Proficiency Levels-
o Need for adequate knowledge and understanding of best practices and global standards.
• Poor Performance Indicators –
o Many buildings are older than 25 years, housing legacy infrastructure design. Key Performance Indicators on Energy, Utilization, and Financial were well below the industry benchmark.
• Inadequate or no governing standards –
o Localised bespoke solutions for improving Key Performance Indicators of Financial, Energy, and Utilization management were adopted.
• Frequent breakdowns and low Reliability –
o In the past five years of operations history, fire mishaps, power interruptions, equipment and component breakdowns, and operators’ mistakes were recorded.
• Inadequate reporting framework –
o The sustainability Reporting framework is adopted in various ways across all Data Centres.
Approach to Performance Assessment:
• Assess Competency Proficiency Levels of key Managerial and Engineering positions and roadmap for improvement.
• Walk-through survey, gaps assessment and setting target KPIs.
• Perform Condition Assessment of building fabric, Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing, and Fire Alarm and Suppression systems.
• Perform Indoor Environment Quality checks.
• Conduct a Reliability study of Critical building systems.
• Establish a standardised sustainability reporting framework for all data centres across business units.
• Develop an investment grade improvement program for the Data centres aligned with sustainability principles.
• A follow-up review of the post-implementation of the corrective and improvement program is carried out.
Outcome of Performance Assessment:
• Competency Management:
o A comprehensive competency management program helped up-skilling Managers and Engineers engaged in Operations and Maintenance services.
• Business Risk Acknowledgement:
o Stakeholders of the Data Centre were presented with a comprehensive report on the Condition and Performance of the Data Centre infrastructure that highlights gaps compared to established industry best practices and standards.
o Risk and reliability assessment of the Data Centre presented scope for improvements.
• KPI improvement:
o Standardised KPIs aligned with sustainability principles were set out for all Data Centres.
• Information sharing:
o The sustainability reporting framework adopted across all data centres improved transparency and data-driven decision-making processes.
• Performance Improvement:
o Overall improvement in the performance of the Data Centres resulted in improved cost efficiency.
