Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1107553
May/June 2019 I 9 inside the facility or in a shared manhole damages the conduit system cable or connections while installing another's cables? Mayhem can happen. Critical facility power and cooling, as well as backup systems, are always a requirement, but a defined ICT cabling infrastructure commissioning plan is often overlooked until reaching the higher Classes, Ratings, or Tiers. This can be attributed to newer buildings having higher-tech equipment, fuller redundancy in all power and cooling services, as well as incorporating into the design a more secure and redundant ICT cabling infrastructure. Downtime is a data center owner's worst fear, but it means little to the people and businesses it does not affect; that is, until it happens. Is it mission-critical? Consider the recent crashes with Wells Fargo financial services, Southwest's operations centers, Apple's iCloud music, and Google's Gmail? What is the customer's opinion of the company now? When people do not hear about a cloud service's mayhem failure, this can be attributed to a proper dynamic commissioning plan at work! In case of an unscheduled downtime, a proper commissioning process should contain this same accountability and preparation for immediate resolution. PLAYING BY THE RULES: THE COMMISSIONING GUIDELINES The commissioning plan guidelines are the foundation for a data center's "Commissioning 5-Phase (Test) Process" from inception to turnover and includes: 1. Program or Pre-design Phase 2. Design or Planning Phase 3. Construction or Build Phase 4. Acceptance Phase 5. Post Acceptance Phase Typically, the client or "end user" of the data center white space hires either a commissioning authority (CxA) or commissioning agent. This can be a person, company, or agency that plans, coordinates, and oversees the entire commissioning process. Commissioning agents have legal authority and direct control over decisions. Alternatively the commissioning authority is more advisory, providing professional guidance and recommendations to the client who makes the decisions. When limited to a specialized discipline, such as cabling infrastructure, an ICT consultant may be a preferred choice. The ICT consultant or the commissioning team should be comprised of experienced and certified subject matter expert (SME) project managers having engineering, tech support, and CAD support staff. The culture should be one that creates a cohesive environment between the end user's commissioning stakeholders. The commissioning plan commonly encompasses the many disciplines as covered in the ANSI/ BICSI 002-2014 Data Center Design and Implementation Best Practices standard and listed in Table 1. TABLE 1: The disciplines in a commissioning plan according to ANSI/BICSI 002. Electrical power and backup Fuel/oil containment and pumping systems HVAC and computer room air conditioning (CRAC) Inventory monitoring systems BAS control systems Lead detection Fire protection and suppression Grounding and bonding Security IT infrastructure