Can your Data Center Keep Up?

As organizations across the globe scramble to help stop the spread of COVID-19, most businesses found themselves with increased responsibility, particularly in safeguarding the welfare of their employees while ensuring continuous productivity. Consequently, their data centers had a crucial role to fill amid the new normal.

Over the past year, the reliance on data centers has grown even more as digitalization continues to accelerate, in large parts, as a response to unprecedented, pandemic-driven changes in data generation and usage.

In the Philippines alone, businesses rely on their IT networks and data centers to adapt to flexible working setups, such as working from home, to ensure business continuity. In a recent survey released by the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) and PwC Philippines, 73 percent of 161 Chief Executive Officer (CEO) respondents see their organizations implementing WFH as part of their post-pandemic operations.

This trend also caused a surge in internet traffic, particularly with the growing work-related online activities, such as video conferencing, video streaming, and social media networking, which contribute to the explosion of big data and computing needs.

Increasing need to ensure data center’s health

For Vertiv, a global provider of critical digital infrastructure and continuity solutions, this reality drives, even more, the need for businesses to maintain their data centers as they continue to serve as utilities.

“Over the past couple of years, we have seen how data quickly grow due to continued technological advancements. Accessing, storing, and retrieving of data has also increased, particularly amid the new normal where data center management and servicing became a crucial part of business continuity plans,” said Eric Tabunda, senior manager for service and projects at Vertiv Philippines.

Tabunda noted that just like our body, data centers need regular checkups to ensure its health to keep it running smoothly. This mindset is critical since an ailing data center can have disastrous effects on business operations.

While these facilities have become more reliable due to increased priority on uptime and evolving resiliency strategies, unplanned outages still occur. The implications of such downtime go beyond just the inconvenience in operations as it also opens an organization to potential security breaches, reputational damages, and huge revenue loss.

Keeping it ‘healthy’

Organizations must have a regular Preventive Maintenance (PM) for their data centers to prevent these things from happening and keep data centers healthy.

“Like a regular visit to the hospital, expert technicians can help diagnose possible issues within the critical infrastructure and resolve them promptly through systematic inspections, detection, and correction of failures. This routine also helps increase the lifespan of the equipment as it identifies needed repairs and upgrades,” said Tabunda.

A PM covers all aspects of critical infrastructure—from power, cooling, monitoring, to electrical systems. However, since an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) battery failure remains one of the leading causes of data center downtime, data center managers should give adequate attention to servicing UPS systems.

Tabunda added that a good PM strategy involves understanding the performance of each aspect of the critical infrastructure. For instance, the ideal PM for the UPS is four times a year, while thermal management units require more attention on PM, around six to twelve times a year.

This concern can be discussed with the expert technician to ensure proper care and, ultimately, achieve an increased Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) of all the pieces of equipment. A higher MTBF means a more reliable unit.

Providing support for Data Centers

To help organizations maintain their data centers, Vertiv provides services that ensure continuous uptime of critical operations so they can perform at their peak and maximize their resources.

Among Vertiv’s offerings include spare parts sales and spares management. This service ensures that all parts needed on-site and at the latest revision level are available to reduce unplanned downtime and keep systems up and running.

The company also designs and implements a maintenance strategy that will improve the facility’s availability and performance. It also offers holistic Performance Services that enable organizations to optimize critical equipment and data center life, resulting in lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for data center operators.

Furthermore, Vertiv helps ensure healthy critical systems through its remote services by relying on domain experts who use advanced monitoring to capture and analyze system data and turn it into action. Vertiv experts also help maximize investments, prevent delays, and avoid rework with effective project planning and execution.

The company also has PM offerings for organizations using industrial systems to ensure that these systems perform at optimal levels.

Vertiv also offers other solutions, such as remote monitoring, diagnostics, and data center optimization services. The company’s expertise extends from connectivity, racks, power, cooling, and services. It also brings together cutting-edge solutions to ensure uninterrupted operations, optimal performance, and the scalability of data centers, communication networks, and other critical IT facilities.

To learn more about how Vertiv supports the continuity of today’s vital business applications, visit Vertiv.com.