System planning is the Achilles’ heel of a Data Centre physical infrastructure project. Planning mistakes can magnify and propagate through later deployment phases, resulting in delays, cost overruns, wasted time, and ultimately a compromised system. Much of the trouble can be eliminated by viewing Data Centre System Planning as a data flow model, with an orderly sequence of tasks that progressively transform and refine information from initial concept to final design...such system planning for Data Centre will result in a much more efficient and longer lasting end solution.
Data Centre System Planning remains a major challenge for small and large IT facilities. Data Centre build and upgrade projects are typically planned using methods resembling art more than science, in a process often perceived as intimidating, unstructured, and difficult. System Plans are poorly communicated among the various business stakeholders within the organisation. System Planners may be presented with proposals that are presented in excruciating technical detail, yet still lack the information they need to make decisions. Small changes in Data Centre System Plans can have major cost consequences or create downstream surprises and disasters.
Consulting engineers have traditionally carried the burden of system planning for Data Centres, with great care focused on the unique requirements and design of each Data Centre project. This accumulated experience of decades of Data Centre planning now offers an opportunity to consolidate that knowledge and evolve toward a more standardised approach that can provide increased quality and economies of scale for both provider and consumer.
In a Data Centre construction or upgrade project, it is the early system planning activity that offers the greatest potential for mistakes. Most defects that turn up in the later stages of a Data Centre project are caused not by problems in the physical components of the system, but rather by oversights or misinformed decisions during Data Centre System Planning. Fortunately, it is possible to avoid many of these problems by having the right people making the right decisions in the right sequence.
Process system planning includes such things as assigning responsibilities, configuring project management, making outsourcing decisions, budgeting, and scheduling. Data Centre System Planning addresses the hardware configuration that is the tangible outcome of the project. Data Centre System Planning transforms the original project concept into a detailed construction design. To support the Data Centre System Planning effort, a clearly structured model of data flow, dependencies, and design strategy provides essential guidance.
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