Project analysis and facility audit

We also audit facilities. An audit provides complete information and conclusions together with recommendations how to maintain information processing continuity in a facility. The conclusions are based on a series of tests to verify the correct and secure operation of technical infrastructure.

The audit service is mainly conducted in the existing facilities in order to identify operational errors and gaps in their infrastructure. The audits are usually carried out when a building is supposed to be purchased, leased or substantially refurbished. The scope of the audit depends on the general condition of a building and its systems; however, a standard report includes the analysis of a building, of HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning), power supply, wiring, telecommunications, fire protection and plumbing systems, and of the effectiveness of data center infrastructure.

A power supply audit focuses on the measurements of basic components of energy consumption at a data center: UPS, IT and HVAC systems, and losses in transformers and UPS units. Measurement results allow for the determination of energy consumption effectiveness, expressed either with the power usage effectiveness (PUE) ratio or the data center infrastructure effectiveness (DCIE) metric.

During our audits and consultations, we use guidelines laid down by:

• Uptime Institute,
• TIA-942 Datacenter Infrastructure Standards,
• ASHRAE,
• The Green Grid power effectiveness standardisation,
• ANSI/BICSI 0002-20101 Data Center Design and Implementation Best Practices.

Thanks to our audit, your data center will meet your needs not only today, but also in the future.

BCA Group Ltd cooperates, on a permanent basis, with an Uptime Institute Accredited Tier Specialist (ATS). For our Clients, we offer an option to prepare documentation with guidelines to be followed by a given facility in order to be awarded relevant certification, and to review the existing documentation. Further, we guarantee the presence of a specialist during the tests, and the development and preparation of appropriate deliverables upon test completion.

Uptime Institute is an unbiased independent organisation operating in the data center research, education and advisory sector which in its business activities conducted worldwide (it renders services in over 50 countries) focuses on improving the efficiency and effectiveness of data center facilities. Uptime Institute serves all stakeholders related to the data center market, including enterprise organisations, operators, manufacturers, providers and engineers. As the only entity of such type, it issues certificates of compliance with the Tier and Operational Sustainability Standards.

The Tier classification defines design and investment standards for data centers worldwide. It is a normalised methodology used to determine the availability and reliability of a facility. This gives companies a manner of measuring their return on investment (ROI) and efficiency. The certificates are available in two forms:

• Tier Certification of Design Documents,
• Tier Certification of Constructed Data Center Facility.

The Tier Certification refers only to the physical topology of infrastructure in data centers directly affecting the operation of a computer room. Certificates are awarded on four levels:

• Tier IV – it consists of numerous active power supply installations, has redundant components and is resilient to damage, ensures 99.995% availability. End users will be in no way affected by downtime;
• Tier III – it consists of numerous active power supply installations, but only one of them has elements ensuring redundancy and is maintained on a competitive basis – it ensures 99.982% availability;
• Tier II – it consists of a single power supply distributing line with redundant components, it ensures 99.741% availability;
• Tier I – it consists of a single power supply distributing line without redundant components, it ensures 99.671% availability. With scheduled maintenance time on top, it can be assumed that a system’s annual downtime will be at least 24 hours.