{"id":10704,"date":"2017-12-04T09:00:04","date_gmt":"2017-12-04T17:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2017\/12\/04\/news-4476\/"},"modified":"2017-12-04T09:00:04","modified_gmt":"2017-12-04T17:00:04","slug":"news-4476","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2017\/12\/04\/news-4476\/","title":{"rendered":"Facing a Hidden Truth: Running Data Centers Is Not Your Core Competency"},"content":{"rendered":"

Credit to Author: Anthony DeSpirito| Date: Mon, 04 Dec 2017 16:00:27 +0000<\/strong><\/p>\n

At Schneider Electric, we work with companies that own and operate dozens of data centers worldwide as well as some of the largest in the world. In working with these companies, we\u2019ve uncovered what appears to be a hidden truth: running data centers is not typically a core competency for these folks.<\/p>\n

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That won\u2019t be a surprise to any enterprise company. If you\u2019re in finance, retail or just about any other vertical industry, your core competency lies in producing and selling whatever it is your company is all about. Running the data center is simply a critical supporting function, not a core competency.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s much the same even for colocation companies, many of which operate like real estate companies at heart. They\u2019re focused on buying buildings and selling space; it just so happens the space houses data centers. Often, they grow through acquisition, which means they may have data centers in their portfolio coming from companies with wildly divergent views on best practices in data center operations \u2013 practices that aren\u2019t going to change overnight. The result is a single company with many data centers that share little in common in terms of how they\u2019re operated.<\/p>\n

This is by no means a knock on any enterprise or colocation provider. Rather, it\u2019s about recognizing the challenges they face in running a data center, because they are many.<\/p>\n

If you were to consider running a data center to be a core competency, it goes way beyond having IT expertise. It would mean you\u2019d have expertise in electrical, plumbing, HVAC, project management, scheduling, and identifying the dependencies between interconnected systems.<\/p>\n

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A lack of a formal but continuously evolving data center maintenance and operations program with standardized, well-documented processes and procedures adds to the challenge. Without such a program risk of downtime from human error is heightened, emergency response is slowed, vendors can\u2019t be held accountable and data center personnel won\u2019t benefit from shared knowledge.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s just for starters.\u00a0 Here are some additional competencies required to operate your data center effectively:<\/p>\n