Data centres

Information technology distributes vital knowledge across organisations, and system availability ensuring that the business process workflow is uninterrupted is critical. Data centres, the facilities that drive these IT services, are often outsourced, physically external and out of view to the end user. However, most businesses recognise the need to manage them more effectively to minimise the risk of potential business disruption.

Data Centres are predominantly 'mission critical'. Fundamental to this type of facility is an explicit understanding between the quality and reliability of the facilities service provision, its cost, and more importantly how that quality directly and indirectly supports data centre activities. A data centre is one of the cleanest examples of where a penny-wise cost saving that compromises reliability too much can quickly become pound foolish! The following information is intended to help organisations assess whether their data centre facilities are costing approximately the right amount, and more significantly to understand whether they are providing an appropriate level of service quality for that cost. The material includes a profile of the data centre building being analysed, and similarly a description of the assumptions relating to how it is being used. Cost performance data is then presented for a range of facility services relating to differing grades of service.

Occupancy profile
Sole tenancy of building; 20 site staff responsible for the computer software environment; IT density 1:1 for office staff (one computer per office based person – generally client/server architecture using a corporate intranet with email service); site operation 24 hours, 7 days a week, 365 days a year; office hours 8.30am to 5.30pm; one site entrance; 15 car park spaces in medium landscaped surroundings with manicured borders and water feature; security swipe card access system installed.

Cost profile
All costs exclude VAT rents, rates/local taxes, service charges, insurance, depreciation, small project work, information technology and any capital investments/purchases (e.g. new build construction, refurbishment, furniture). Some multi-tasking has been considered between the services and is highlighted later within the article. No facilities management function is included in any of the costs.

Performance findings summary
The analysis of service performance serves to emphasise the range of costs that are possible within a facility. These are summarised above with respect to the varying grades of service. It is interesting to observe that:

• although most services demonstrate cost reductions (at least in the short term) by reducing the service grade, several, for example, utilities and stationery actually increase due to the reducing influence of good management practices
  
• the overall spread from the lowest service grade level 5 to the highest level 1 is an additional 9.3 per cent
  
• the overall spread from the mid-point service grade 3 to the highest 1 is an additional one per cent

These apparently modest variances are due to the counter cyclical changes to utilities and stationery all but cancelling the reducing cost of the other services as services grades diminish. If utilities and stationery are excluded then the overall spread from service grade 3 to service grade 1 is an additional 41! When the extremes of performance are considered by taking the highest absolute cost for each service, and introducing procurement and productivity variance (see charts, page 27), then an even broader spread of cost is achieved. Overall, these show that, at its most expensive, the model facility would cost £1,085,814 a year, which compares to £482,038 at its cheapest.

Although this degree of variance can have a modest impact on the bottom-line performance of the business, as mentioned previously this will be nothing compared to the impact of any significant failure. It is also interesting to observe the changing relative proportions of the functional costs between grades 1 and 3 (see charts, page 27). Both demonstrate the relative significance of utilities.

General commentary
Maintenance includes HVAC, electrical systems, water and sanitary systems, fire alarm and extinguishing systems, UPS systems, standby generators, general fabric repairs. It excludes technology systems maintenance, small or large capital expenditures, or any security system maintenance. The grades of service reflect increasing facility reliability. As service standards rise, therefore, occupiers need to assess the most appropriate balance between decreasing risk to business operation continuity and affordability. It should also be noted that at the lower service grades, especially five, the cost performance reflects the short-term impact of reduced maintenance activity, and not the longer term cost penalty of maintenance backlogs and increased equipment replacement costs through shorter operational life. The critical nature of the data centre facility would most probably see major maintenance activity undertaken outside main local business hours. Although this is often not possible due to the global nature of many technology infrastructures. In such circumstances 'N+1' installations are critical allowing major work to be carried out without the need to isolate systems.

Any out-of-hours working will usually be at a premium predominantly requiring two men working. A documented process approved by IT user groups is often used to ensure an awareness of maintenance risk in relation to business criticality. It is doubtful whether an organisation would operate below a grade 3 service level due to the potential business impact of failure.

Utilities includes all energy consumption (electricity and gas) and water. Here the grades of service reflect changing management competence and practice. This results in increasing consumption levels and costs as management expertise and control diminishes. The management of utilities consumption and ensuring its constant availability to allow operational continuity of the data centre is critical. Electricity by far has the biggest impact on the cost. The effective procurement of electricity and a high focus on energy management would be two key objectives to ensure best value was being obtained.

The facility's age can also have an impact on costs, particularly with respect to maintenance and utilities where cyclical equipment replacements, decreasing service intervals and inefficient energy consumption (compared to latest standards) can increase cost levels. Legacy issues such as persistent neglect can also be significant.

Cleaning includes the general cleaning of all office, internal floor areas, periodic cleaning (e.g. 'deep' cleans), external window cleaning, general non-toxic waste removal, under floor cleans and pest control. Cleaning quality will also be critical to minimise dust in such sensitive environments, periodic under floor cleans will often be necessary.

Awareness training for staff to ensure they are familiar with the critical nature of the facility will be paramount to ensure inappropriate practices do not lead to increased risk to business continuity i.e. plugging a cleaning appliance into the wrong socket outlet. A focus on pest control is often necessary as vermin can often find refuge in such facilities and decide to chew on the odd cable.

Security comprises general guarding, control room operation, and all maintenance to security systems (e.g. CCTV and access control and barrier systems). As with cleaning, increasing service standards are generally achieved by increasing the amount of resource deployed in providing the service. There is also a similarity with maintenance, in that occupiers need to determine the most appropriate compromise between affordability and risk. The biggest jump in costs occurs between 3 and 2 service grades, when the sophistication of the systems increases.

Reception services & switchboard Reception service cost performance tends to increase relative to the number of full and part-time receptionists needed.

For switchboard services, as with reception services, costs tend to vary in steps relative to the number of full and part-time operatives needed. This is influenced by the call answering response times required and the volume of calls going through the switchboard as opposed to direct-dial. No call charge costs have been included in this model.

External landscaping includes serviced areas such grass areas, shrubbery, provision of seasonal bedding plants, weed control, snow removal, sweeping of roadways and paths. The degree of landscaping is variable. The facility, when situated in grounds will usually have approximately 60/70 per cent grassed area with the remainder shrubbery and a low proportion of seasonal planting i.e. five per cent.

Reprographics includes equipment leasing, consumables and paper. The grades of service reflect the varying sophistication of equipment and its degree of convenience and availability. The reprographics costs will usually be very low in comparison to pure office-based facilities.

Stationery includes all of the typical consumables of office work such as paper, pens, envelopes, folders, dividers, computer disks, flip pads, overhead projector film etc. The grades of service relate to varying management practice which as it improves reduces the unit rate cost of purchases.

Post room services All grades of service assume a constant volume of mail being dispatched and received. Costs include the postage charge, courier charges, and the mail room resource. Equipment depreciation is not included. Aside from the postage charge, a major cost driver within this function is the frequency of deliveries and collections, and number of drop-points. This has a significant impact upon the number of mailroom operatives required. Postroom service grades are often at the lower end of the scale, with the role being combined with security due to the low volumes involved.

Catering/food services Costs are gross and include the provision of hot/cold drinks facilities and snack vending. It is typical for this type of facility to have minimal catering facilities with probably no more than drinks and snack vending available considering the low occupancy level.

Grades of service descriptions
Each of the facility services that have been profiled shows a range of cost performance levels relative to varying grades of service: 1 relates to the highest service grade / quality level, and 5 the lowest.

Maintenance
1 Full risk/reliability centred maintenance regime, which embraces planned preventative maintenance and which uses database support, dynamic building control system monitoring, condition and/or time based maintenance, and reactive/run to failure maintenance, all as appropriate to maximise business value in the context of manageable risk
2 Full planned preventative maintenance
3 Condition and/or time based monitoring
4 Periodic inspections of major plant and equipment
5 There is no formal preventative maintenance strategy – all reactive

Utilities
1 All utilities consumption and costs continuously monitored, controlled, and performance managed. Trending reports regularly analysed. Energy audits regularly undertaken and recommendations implemented
2 Utilities consumption and costs continuously monitored and trending reports regularly analysed. Some energy audits
3 Utilities consumption and costs reviewed periodically
4 Utilities consumption/costs reviewed yearly
5 Utilities consumption not managed

Cleaning
1 All areas cleaned at least once every working day. Common and customer areas cleaned twice every working day. General duty janitors available throughout the working day
2 All areas cleaned at least once every day
3 Common and customer areas cleaned at least once every working day. Other areas cleaned at least on alternate days
4 Common areas cleaned at least on alternate days. Other areas cleaned at least once a week
5 All areas cleaned once a week or less

Security
1 Complete access control to site and/or all buildings at all times using personal ID badges. Use of CCTV and other security systems
2 Complete access control to site and/or all buildings during business hours, using personal ID badges. Use of CCTV and other security systems. Round the clock guarded presence
3 Access control to buildings during business hours using personal ID badges. Round the clock guarded presence
4 Access control to buildings for visitors during business hours using ID badges. Out-of-hours guarded presence
5 No formal access control during business hours. Limited or no 'out-of-hours' guarded presence

External landscaping
1 Dedicated full-time resources with design capability
2 Dedicated full-time maintenance capability
3 Periodic planned maintenance service
4 Ad-hoc maintenance
5 No formal attention

Communications/switchboard
1 Direct dial facility, with all central exchange calls answered within a maximum of 10 seconds, and to an average of 5 seconds or less
2 Direct dial facility, with all central exchange calls answered within a maximum of 15 seconds, and to an average of 10 seconds or less
3 There is no direct dial facility, with all central exchange calls answered within a maximum of 10 seconds, and to an average of 8 seconds or less
4 No direct dial facility, with central exchange calls answered within a maximum of 15 seconds, and to an average of 12 seconds or less
5 No standards regarding telephony

Reprographics
1 Assisted bulk and specialist copying service with colour and digital printing available. Distributed photocopies available within 20m of most of the staff and on same floor
2 Assisted bulk copying service monochrome only. Distributed photocopies available within 20m of most of the staff and on same floor
3 High output distributed photocopiers available within 20m of most of the staff and on same floor
4 Photocopiers available within 30m of most of the staff and on same floor
5 Photocopiers exceeding 30m from at least 50 per cent of staff and may not be on same floor

Stationery
1 Dedicated department delivering on demand, computerised inventory tracking
2 Dedicated department delivering on demand manual inventory tracking
3 Account with stationery company for next day delivery through single source in company
4 Weekly or regular delivery of stationery that staff order in advance through single source
5 Ad-hoc/devolved purchase as and when required with minimal storage on site

Reception
1 24-hour uniformed (but non-security in appearance during main working hours) receptionists with automated security badging facilities. Spacious waiting area with plentiful seating, up-to-date, tidy casual reading, beverages and toilet access
2 24-hour receptionists/security with security badging facilities. Waiting area with plentiful seating, up-to-date casual reading, access to toilets
3 24-hour receptionists/security with security badging facilities. Some seating/reading in waiting area
4 Working hour receptionists/security with security badging facilities. Some seating in waiting area
5 No formal reception service

Post room
1 Delivery and collection of all mail at times to suit individual groups/functions, mainly delivered to local workgroup or individual drop points. Fully automated franking. Computer access to special delivery/overnight services. Dedicated messengers and couriers equipped with vehicles to suit package size and delivery location
2 Delivery and collection of all mail at least five times a day mainly delivered to local workgroup or individual drop points. Fully automated franking. Dedicated messengers
3 Delivery and collection of all mail at least three times a day predominantly delivered to local workgroup or individual drop points. Manual franking. Formal courier arrangements with contract suppliers
4 Delivery and collection of all mail at least twice a day delivered to centralised, local workgroup or individual drop points. Manual franking. No formal courier arrangements
5 Centralised sorting and dispatch of post, but no formal delivery or collection to/from recipients. No formal courier arrangements

Catering/food services
1 Full waited lunch. Service provided during business hours. Varied range of hot and cold food. High quality vending/'tea' service
2 Staff self service. Optional waited service for guests in 'private' dining areas. Varied hot and cold food. High quality vending/'tea' service
3 Self service for all users at lunchtimes only. Reasonable range of hot and cold food. Vending, 'tea' service or kitchenettes provided
4 Self service for sandwiches/snacks etc. Vending, 'tea' service or kitchenettes provided
5 Drinks vending or kitchenettes only