THE U

PTIME IN

STITUTE JO

URN

AL | Volum

e 1

May 2013 | Volume 1: ATD Annual

ATD Profi lesViaWest Attains Tier Certifi cationCompass Sets Course with Modular UnitsRostelcom Reorganizes Its Telecom NetworkDocumenting Underfl oor Conditions in an Operational Data CenterDon’t Pit Man Against MachineHow an ATD Met the Unique Challenges of SantiagoWhat the 2012 Uptime Data Center Density Study RevealsTopology and Operational Sustainability Considerations Must Drive Fuel System Design

The Uptime InstituteNew York • London • Seattle • San Francisco • Denver • Dallas Dubai • São Paulo • Singapore • Moscow • Taipei

THE UPTIME INSTITUTE JOURNAL

86613_Cover.indd 1 5/3/13 12:31 PM

6

U P T I M E I N S T I T U T E J O U R N A L

SPANNING THE GLOBEThree ATDs talk about their work and the ATD program

By Kevin Hesl in

talk about their work D program

n

6

86613_96pgText.indd 6 5/1/13 10:12 AM

7

S PA N N I N G T H E G L O B E

The Uptime Institute’s Accredited Tier Designer (ATD) program and its Tier Certification program have affected data center design around the world, raised standards for construction, and brought a new level of sophistication to facility owners, operators, and designers everywhere, according to three far-flung professionals who have completed the ATD program.

Adel Rizk of Saudia Arabia’s Edarat, Gerard Thibault, senior technical director, Design and Construction division of Digital Realty (DLR) in the U.K., and Michael Kalny, head of Metronode Engineering, Leighton Telecommunications Group, in Australia, have applied the concepts they learned in the ATD program to develop new facilities and improve the operation of legacy facilities while also aggressively implementing energy-efficiency programs. Together, they prove that high reliability and energy efficiency are not mutually exclusive goals. Of course, they each work in different business environments in different countries, and the story of how they achieve their goals under such different circumstances makes interesting reading.

In addition to achieving professional success, the ATDs each noted that Tier certification and ATD programs had helped them innovate and develop new approaches to data center design and operations while helping market facilities and raise the standards of construction in their countries.

More than that, Rizk, Thibault, and Kalny have followed career arcs with some similarities. Each developed data center expertise after entering the field from a different discipline, Rizk from telephony and manufacturing, Thibault from real estate, and Kalny from building fiber transmission networks. They each acknowledge the ATD program as having deepened their understanding of data center design and construction and having increased their ability to contribute to major company initiatives. This similarity has particular significance in the cases of Rizk and Kalny, who have become data center experts in regions that often depend on consultants and operators from around the globe to ensure reliability and energy efficiency. It is in these areas, perhaps, that the ATD credential and Tier certification have their greatest impact.

On the other hand, the U.K, especially London, has been the home of many sophisticated data center operators and customers for years, making Thibault’s task of modifying Digital Realty’s U.S. specification to meet European market demands a critical one.

Kevin Heslin has been a research manager at The 451 Group since January 2013. He served as an editor at New York Construction News, Sutton Publishing, the IESNA, and BNP Media, where he founded Mission Critical, the leading pub-lication dedicated to data center and backup power profession-als. In addition, Heslin served as communications manager at the Lighting Research Cen-ter of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He earned the B.A. in Journalism from Fordham University in 1981 and a B.S. in Technical Communications from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2000.

86613_96pgText.indd 7 5/1/13 10:12 AM

8

U P T I M E I N S T I T U T E J O U R N A L

On the technology front, all three see continued advances in energy efficiency, and they all see market demand for greater sustainability and energy efficiency. Kalny and Thibault both noted increased adoption of higher server air supply temperatures in data centers and the use of outside air. Kalny, located in Australia, noted extreme interest in a number of water-saving technologies.

Hear from these three ATDs below:

A Few Minutes with Adel RizkQ. Just tell me a little about yourself.

A. I’m a consulting engineer. After graduating from a civil engineering program in 1998 and working for a few years on public projects for the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) Outside Plant (OSP), I decided in 2000 to change my career and joined a manufacturer of fast-moving consumer goods. During this period, I also pursued my MBA.

After gaining knowledge and experience in IT by enhancing and automating the manufacturer’s operations and business processes, I found an opportunity to start my own business in IT consulting with two friends and colleagues of mine and co-founded Edarat Group in 2005.

As a consultant working in Edarat Group, I also pursued professional certifications in project management (PMP) and business continuity (MBCI) and was in charge of implementing the Business Continuity Management Program for telecom and financial institutions in Saudi Arabia.

Q. How did you transition from this IT environment to data centers?

A. One day, a customer who was operating a strategic and mission-critical data center facility asked me to help him improve the reliability of his MEP infrastructure. I turned his problem into an opportunity and ventured into the data center facility infrastructure business in 2008.

In 2009-2010, Edarat Group, in partnership with IDGroup, a leading data center design company based out of Boston, developed the design for two Tier IV and two Tier III data centers for a telecom operator and the smart cities being built in Riyadh by the Public Pension Agency. In 2010, I got accredited as a Tier Designer (ATD) by the Uptime Institute, and all four facilities achieved Tier Certification of Design Documents (TCDD).

Q. What was the impact of the Tier certification?

A. Once we succeeded in achieving the Tier Certification, it was like a tipping

Adel Rizk serves as principal consultant in data consulting and engineering for the Edarat Group. He leads the engage-ment for state-of-the-art data center projects through all aspects, including planning, design and tier certification for leading telecom operators, banks and for technologically advanced cities in the King-dom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). To drive the success of these en-gagements (over 15,000 square meters [m²] of computer room area), he seamlessly coor-dinated workflow between clients, U.K.-based data center consultants and U.S.-based design and engineering firms, designed in compliance with Tier III and IV classifica-tion system, Uptime Institute Guidelines and Telecommuni-cations Industry Association Standard (TIA-942).

As program manager for the Business Continuity Man-agement (BCM) practice and Engagement Partner at Edarat, Rizk led the engage-ment and service delivery for implementation of the BCM program for the region’s larg-est telecom operator, Saudi Telecom, and for the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul). Mr. Rizk also contributed toward the development and implementation of the IT disaster recovery strategy for the Communication and Information Technology Commission (CITC).

86613_96pgText.indd 8 5/1/13 10:12 AM

9

S PA N N I N G T H E G L O B E

point. We became the leading company in the region in data center design. Saudi Arabia values certifications very highly. Any certification is considered valuable and even considered a requirement for businesses, as well as for professionals. By the same token, the ATD certificate positioned me as the lead consultant at that time.

Since that time, Edarat has grown very rapidly, working on the design and construction supervision of Tier III, Tier IV, and even Tier II facilities. Today, we have at least 10 facilities that received design Tier-certifications and one facility that is Tier III Certified as a Constructed Facility (TCCF).

Q. What has been your personal involvement in projects at Edarat?

A. I am involved in every detail in the design and construction process. I have full confidence in these facilities being built, and Uptime Institute Certifications are mere evidence of these significant successful achievements.

Q. What is Edarat doing today?

A. Currently, we are involved in design and construction. In construction, we review material submittals and shop drawings and apply value engineering to make sure that the changes during construction don’t affect reliability or Tier certification of the constructed facility. Finally, we manage the integrated testing and final stages of commissioning and ensure smooth handover to the operations team.

Q. Are all your projects in Saudi Arabia?

A. No. We also obtained Tier III certification for a renowned bank in Lebanon. We also have done consultancy work for data centers in Abu Dhabi and Muscat.

Q. What stimulates demand for Tier certification in Saudi Arabia?

A. Well, there are two factors: the guarantee of quality and the show-off factor due to competition. Some customers have asked us to design and build a Tier IV facility for them, though they can tolerate a long period of downtime and would not suffer great losses from a business outage.

Edarat Group is vendor-neutral, and as consultants, it is our job to educate the customer and raise his awareness because investing in a Tier IV facility should be justifiable when compared to the cost of disruption.

My experience in business continuity enables me to help customers meet their business requirements. A data center facility should be fit-for-purpose,

As head of Business Devel-opment and Government Affairs at SANITA sal, Mr. Rizk handled strategic plan-ning, new market and product development, international trade, operations enhancement, taxation, and fi nancial planning. He successfully implemented Business Process Manage-ment Solutions (BPMS) and IT change management initiatives and led the implementation of a full ERP solution based on J.D. Edwards platform.

Mr. Rizk holds an MBA from the Lebanese American University (LAU), as well as a Bachelor of Engineering from LAU. Mr. Rizk is also an Up-time Institute Accredited Tier Designer (ATD).

86613_96pgText.indd 9 5/1/13 10:12 AM

1 0

U P T I M E I N S T I T U T E J O U R N A L

and every customer is unique, each having different business, regulatory, and operational requirements. Every facility has unique challenges, and every business has different requirements. You can’t just copy and paste. Modeling is most important at the beginning of every data center design project.

Though it may seem like hype, I strongly believe that Uptime Institute certification is a guarantee of reliability and high availability.

Q. What has the effect of the ATD been on data

center in Saudi Arabia?

A. Now you can see other players in the market, including systems integrators, getting their engineers ATD certifi ed. Being ATD certifi ed really helps. I personally always refer to the training booklet; you can’t capture and remember everything about Tiers after just three days of training.

Q. What’s unique about data centers in Saudi

Arabia?

A. Energy is cheap; telecom is also cheap. In addition, Saudi Arabia is a gateway from Europe to Asia. The SAS1 cable connects Europe to India through Saudi Arabia.

Energy-efficient solutions are difficult to achieve. Free cooling is not available in the major cities, and connectivity is not yet available in remote areas where free cooling is available for longer periods during the year. In addition, the climate conditions are not very favorable to energy-efficient solutions; for example, dust and sand make it difficult to rely on solar power. In Riyadh, the cost of water is so high that it makes the cost of investing in cooling towers unjustifiable compared to air-cooled chillers. It could take 10 years to get payback on such a system.

Budget can sometimes be a constraint on energy effi ciency because, as you know, green solutions have high capex, which is unattractive because energy is cheap in Saudi Arabia. If you use free cooling, there are limited hours, plus the climate is sandy, which renders maintenance costs high. So the total cost of ownership for

A rendering (top) of the Information Technology Communications Complex (ITCC), in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. the Kingdom’s fi rst “smart city.” Construction shots (below) give a sense of scale.

86613_96pgText.indd 10 5/1/13 10:12 AM