UNCOVERING THE LAYERS
Martin Williamson , Head of Commissioning – Middle East , AESG
operation of the facility . Outlined below is what a comprehensive data centre commissioning process should look like .
A day one priority
To be truly effective , the commissioning exercise should be undertaken from the very onset i . e . during data centre design . Comprehensive review studies conducted at this phase ensure the expected performance outcomes can be achieved . These design reviews follow an iterative process and include assessing cooling loads , system redundancy and operator usability in addition to reviewing system operability , sequence of operations and interface procedures .
Comprehensive functional performance testing
Design reviews must then be followed by rigorous , quality-focused performance testing of the entire data centre facility , including heat load testing of the data halls where the performance of the building envelope is as important as the performance of the building services equipment in providing a temperature and humidity controlled indoor environment .
Through this process , it ’ s important to bear in mind that despite the best planning efforts , there are always unforeseen issues that arise and these can be overcome by a quality-focused commissioning team to ensure the delivery programme is not affected , which is often quite tight for data centre projects .
IST testing
This next critical phase of the data centre commissioning exercise involves testing the complete data centre to ensure installed systems are configured to operate as an integrated facility .
This is done with the intention of ensuring smooth integrated operations during peak demand conditions , with various scenarios such as forced failure being simulated .
The overall IST demonstrates that the facility has met the overall performance requirements and is in full compliance with the design intent . Demonstrating the integrated performance , stability www . intelligentdatacentres . com
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