Maintenance: Think You Can Do It Yourself, Think Again!

Finding ways to cut costs seems to be priority for some companies, but does doing something on the cheap really save you money in the long term? How many times have you opted for a less expensive household appliance only to have to replace it less than 12 months later? Or decided to fix a problem yourself only to have to call in the experts afterwards to fix not only the initial problem but the additional damage you have inadvertently caused?

Data Centres are complex infrastructures, when they go down it can have drastic consequences. With a plethora of critical equipment that is interconnected, the complexity of understanding how to fix it is not for the faint hearted. Maintaining the equipment is also just as complex.

A typical data centre will contain an air conditioning system, fire suppression system, UPSs, a generator and monitoring & management software. These all need to be regularly maintained, and on some occasions on a quarterly basis.

Sound simple?

Taking a typical data centre you would require at least five specialist suppliers to maintain all the equipment. That’s five different maintenance regimes that you will have to manage, with each piece of equipment often requiring differing frequency of visits, add to that unforeseen remedial works, and you are lumbered with a whole lot of time consuming administration.

OK it might still seem manageable at this time. However, each visit needs a Risk & Method Statement creating for the engineers attending. That’s more time that you need to allocate. Then just when you think you have got it all in hand the engineer coming to service the generator has called in sick and needs to rearrange another date and then the engineer for the UPS has been called out on an emergency and whilst all this is happening your boss is screaming for that report you promised him a week ago!

How are the stress levels now? Probably not that great.

After a relaxing weekend, you get to work at 9am on Monday and the air conditioning alarm is going off, the data centre is overheating, you need to get an engineer out fast. First you find the correct supplier’s contact number and you wait for an operative to take your call. They’ll get back to you with an ETA. They inform you of an ETA and you wait. They fix the problem, but more work is required. They’ll send you the report and quote. You chase the report and quote whilst feeling the stress levels rising.

Now imagine that you are holiday and the above scenario happens. Do you really want a call from the office in panic when you are relaxing on a beach drinking your morning coffee on your balcony? Probably not!

There is of course a much easier and simpler solution, yes, it can appear, at first pass, to be more expensive than doing it yourself, but what cost do you put on your health and time? Workspace Technology offers Maintenance & Support Services providing a single point of call for all your data centre equipment. Your contract will be managed by a dedicated member of staff who will arrange all your maintenance visits, produce all the RAMS, take your emergency fault calls and ensure that you are kept informed of any remedial works required. Time has a habit of passing us by unnoticed and important tasks get missed, Workspace Technology will ensure that your data centre is kept in tip top condition reminding you of those all-important maintenance dates and outstanding remedial works.

Think you can do it yourself, think again, think Workspace Technology!