Data Center Operations, Maintenance, and Risk Reduction

• Data center IT managers
• Data center facility managers
• IT and facility operations staff members
• Business managers
• Project managers
• Finance managers
• Data center clients
• Data center service support vendors
• Data center designers
• IT architecture designers

• An understanding of why data centers are necessary in meeting a business strategy
• An understanding of how important applications are to meeting the business strategy
• An understanding of how the IT architecture supports the business applications
• An understanding of the importance of the data center facilities infrastructure in achieving the degree of availability required to meet the business strategy supported by the data center
• Familiarity with electrical and mechanical infrastructure used to provide power and cooling to IT equipment in the data center
• Familiarity with a data center environment and its typical operational needs

After completing the course, the student should be able to:
• Outline the key strategic elements in facility infrastructure operations that deliver high availability data center performance.
• Identify the resources required to execute the action plans in a cost effective manner.
• Explain the critical considerations essential to managing the electrical systems to optimum performance.
• Identify related infrastructure systems (such as fire detection and suppression systems) which contribute to data center reliability.
• Explain what a Single Point Of Failure (SPOF) is, and why it is important.
• Explain why an investment in developing sound operational practices contributes to data center availability.
• Develop an action plan that incorporates the key strategic elements of sound data center operations practices.
• Identify the facility infrastructure electrical systems in a data center and explain their purpose in achieving high availability.
• Explain the critical considerations essential to managing the electrical systems to optimum performance.
• Explain the difference between reliability and availability and why both are important metrics for successful design.
• Describe how the use of reliability engineering reduces risk and improves data center designs.