3 Ways a Strong Data Center Operations Program is More Important Than Your Data Center Design
Posted by Sara Beth Duyck on Thu, Aug 18, 2011
With your data center design in place, shouldn’t your data center run smoothly? As some of you may already have discovered, anything can happen to your data center, no matter how good (or bad) its design. The following article discusses how a strong data center operations program is more important to the smooth functioning of company than the design of their data center.
1. A solid data center operations program will maximize your data center design
No matter how old your data center design, a strong data center operations program will help optimize its performance. A strong data center operations program can take an old data center and increase its efficiency and capacity, saving your company serious money. Even if your data center design is unreliable, consistent operations and maintenance can keep the data center running. Without a strong data center operations program, however, your dated data center is at risk for an outage.
Even if you have recently invested in a new data center, a strong data center operations program is vital. A newly designed data center without a strong data center operations program is like a Ferrari without a driver, it will not go anywhere. Having a strong data center operations program will allow you to take full advantage of your new data center’s potential. As many people know, the number one cause of problems in data centers is due to human error. Your data center design is only as good as the people who work it.
2. Strong data center operations will decrease the likelihood of an Outage
No matter how new or efficient your data center design, it is still at risk of experiencing an outage. And when it occurs, what then? Significant downtime will jeopardize your company’s investments and reputation. Having a strong data center operations program will decrease the likelihood of an outage. If an outage does occur, your data center operations staff will have their carefully constructed EOPs to help fix the problem and have the data center running efficiently again in no time. Without the data center operations program, your data center could be down for quite some time. For many companies, taking downtime can cost millions of dollars per minute, and there’s no such thing as a one minute outage.
3. Strong Data Center Operations Will Help Protect Your Capital Investment in Your Data Center
You may have spent millions on your data center design. Without a strong data center operations program, however, this investment could quickly waste away to nothing. As noted above, without a strong data center operations program, you will not be able to take advantage of everything your data center has to offer. In addition, however, your data center will not be maintained properly, allowing its value to slip away. Having a strong data center operations program will help take care of the capital investment that your data center is.
Although you may think you are taking a short cut by not investing in a data center operations program, not doing so will cost you money, time, and your reputation. Take care of and make the most of your data center by developing a strong data center operations program.
For more information on a good data center operations program, please check out our white paper:
