Читать книгу Maintaining Mission Critical Systems in a 24/7 Environment - Peter M. Curtis - Страница 48

The average human heart beats approximately 70 times a minute, or a bit more than once per second. Imagine if a heart missed three beats in a minute. This would be considered a major power line disturbance if we were to compare it to an electrical distribution system. Take the electrical distribution system that feeds your facility, or better yet, the output of the UPS system, and interrupt it for 3 seconds. This is an eternity for computer hardware. The critical load is disrupted, your computers crash, and your business looses two days’ worth of labor or worse, is fined $10 to $20 million by the federal government because they did not receive the quota of $500 billion dollars of transaction reports by the allocated time.

All this could have been prevented if electrical maintenance and testing were performed on a routine basis, and the failed electrical connections were detected and repaired. Repairs could have been quickly implemented during the annual infrared scanning program that takes place before building maintenance shutdowns.

What can the data processing or facility manager do to ensure that their electrical system is as reliable as possible?

The seven steps to improved reliability and maintainability are:

 Planning and impact assessment

 Engineering and design

 Project management

 Testing and commissioning

 Documentation

 Education/training and certifications with annual re‐certification

 Operations and maintenance

When designing a data processing center, it is important to hire competent professionals to advise each step of the way. If the data processing center is being installed in an existing building, you do not have the luxury of designing the electrical system from scratch. A proficient electrical engineer will design a system that makes the most out of the existing electrical distribution. Use electrical contractors who are experienced in data processing installations. Do not attempt to save money using the full 40% capacity for a conduit; because as quickly as new, state‐of‐art equipment is installed, it is de‐installed. Those same number 12 wires will need to come out of the conduit without disturbing the working computer hardware.

Have an experienced electrical testing firm inspect the electrical system, perform tests on circuit breakers, and use thermal‐scan equipment to find “hot spots” due to improper connections or faulty equipment. Finally, plan for routine facility shutdowns to perform preventative maintenance on all critical equipment. Facility managers must not underestimate the cost‐effectiveness of a thorough preventative maintenance program, nor must they allow senior management to do so. Critical system maintenance is not a luxury; it is a necessity. Again, do you want electrical outages to be scheduled or unscheduled?

Integrating the ideal critical infrastructure is just about impossible. Therefore, seek out the best possible industry authorities to solve your problems. Competent consultants will have the knowledge, tools, testing equipment, training, and experience necessary to understand the risk tolerance of your company, as well as recommend and implement the proper and most advanced proven designs.

Equipment manufacturers and service providers are challenged to find and retain the industry’s top technicians. As 24/7 operations become more prevalent, the available talent pool will diminish. This could cause response times to increase from the current industry standard of 4 hours. Therefore, the human element has a significant impact in risk and reliability.

No matter which firms you choose, always ask for sample reports, testing procedures, and references. Your decisions will determine the system’s ultimate reliability, as well as how easy the system is to maintain. Seek experienced professionals from both your own company, and third parties for information systems, property and operations managers, space planners, and the best consultants in the industry for all engineering disciplines. The bottom line is to have proven organizations working on your project. Systems that are not designed, installed, and operated optimally by your operations team will only hurt the operations of your company and cause discontent down the road.