Data Centre’s today hold vast amounts of sensitive and critical equipment carrying an infinite quantity of data and information all kept operational by a life line of power, cooling and other related services fed to it 7 days a week, 365 days a year. The cost of an “outage” to financial, telecommunications, and co-location Data Centres is huge, and all necessary precautions should be followed to prevent such incidents happening.
We all understand why the capture, containment and safe removal of contamination and particulates are paramount within a Data Centre environment, or do we?
Ask a Data Centre Manager or Facility Manager “to what standard a Data Centre should be cleaned?” and “how a Data Centre should be cleaned?” and they should have the relevant knowledge on ISO air cleanliness standards, service requirements, process management and risk control factors.
Financial and Procurement teams should be aware that a selected “cheap” route for cleaning projects is not necessary the best option for the business nor the critical space itself. There is a huge risk associated with contract awards to inexperienced specialised cleaning companies when it comes to the cleanliness of a critical and vital part of any organisation’s infrastructure.
Data Centre Managers see contamination control and Data Centre cleaning as a necessity, whether this is an annual clean or a weekly clean of the space, it is one of several key preventative maintenance provisions within a critical environment. The environment, footfall traffic, activity, make-up of the room, are just some of the criteria points that should be analysed when implementing a cleaning regime for the Data Centre.
Operational and Financial divisions must work in conjunction and ask the following questions when sourcing a Data Centre cleaning service provider – Can they evidence their knowledge, experience, training, expertise, quality control, service delivery and operational capability? Do they fully understand the critical importance of the facility? Do they understand operational conditions for a Data Centre and how their work can affect these conditions? Do they provide an adequate, precise, and relevant service delivery risk assessment and process methodology? All knowledgeable specialised cleaning companies will have an in depth understanding of what is required to make the Data Centre safe before and during the cleans such as gas suppression system isolations for example.
Vetting and obtaining client references from previously delivered projects by a specialised cleaning company should also be undertaken to build up a picture of the business. By letting non-specific Data Centre cleaning companies into your critical space could be catastrophic.
In today’s economic climate, we all strive to extract as much value from services/products as possible. We have all at some point opted for the cheaper service or product, only to find it failed and did not deliver to expectation.
We can all agree that contamination within a Data Centre can impact operational functionality and cause unpredictable outages, down time and other related problems, inevitably so can the personnel employed to remove it, so carful though and consideration should be given when sourcing the services of a cleaning organisation.
The key message is to check all aspects of any Data Centre cleaning provider’s operational credentials and follow strict due diligence processes, inexperience and cheap labour could be costly
“Vetting and obtaining client references from previously delivered projects by a specialised cleaning company should also be undertaken to build up a picture of the business”
If you have a cleaning requirement for your Data Centre, please contact Critical Facilities Solutions UK.
Operations Director, Critical Facilities Solutions LTD
