- The data centre: its importance and causes of downtime
- Data centre standards and best practices
- Site, construction and fit-out of a data centre
- Selecting suitable sites and buildings and where the pitfalls and stumbling blocks lie
- Important structural components of an effective data centre
- Ceiling and floor construction
- Definition of uniform, concentrated and distributed load
- Applicable standards
- Raised floor guidelines
- Rack grounding, grounding grid
- Regulations and implementation of accessible access
- Suspended ceiling: requirements and design
- Lighting
- Standards and guidelines
- Types of light source and placement
- Emergency lighting, emergency power supply
- Power supply
- Planning the power supply from the data centre feed to the rack
- Transfer switches: ATS (Automatic Transfer Switch) and STS (Static Transfer Switch)
- Redundancy levels and techniques
- Three-phase and single-phase use
- Power supply options in the server and data centre room
- Comparison of power cabling and busbar systems
- Bonding versus grounding
- Asymmetric disturbances and isolation transformers
- Power distribution units and IP protection ratings
- Supply quality: IEC and other standards
- Explanation: rated power and apparent power
- Calculating supply power in the data centre
- Emergency generators, NEA (backup power system)
- Static and dynamic UPS systems: selection criteria, how they work and how energy-efficient they are
- Battery types, correct selection and monitoring
- Thermal imaging monitoring for electrical installations
- Electromagnetic fields and EMC (electromagnetic compatibility)
- Electric fields and magnetic fields: definitions and units of measurement
- Sources of EMF
- Effects of EMF on human health and equipment
- EMP (electromagnetic pulse)
- Standards and guidelines
- EMF shielding solutions
- Rack equipment
- Rack standards, characteristics and selection criteria
- Safety considerations
- Power strips and outlet strips
- Cooling infrastructure
- Recommendations for temperature and humidity in server and IT rooms
- Cooling capacity measurement and conversion units
- Sensible and latent cooling capacity
- Differences between comfort cooling and precision cooling
- Overview of various air conditioning technologies
- Raised-floor cooling versus other cooling methods
- Placement of air conditioning units and possible restrictions
- Additional cooling options
- Cold aisle containment versus hot aisle containment
- Water supply
- Importance of the water supply and areas of application
- Planning scalable network infrastructure
- The importance of a structured cabling system
- Planning considerations
- Copper and fibre-optic cabling: technology and standards
- ANSI/TIA-942 cabling hierarchy and recommendations
- Testing and verification
- SAN cabling
- Network redundancies
- Connecting and linking buildings
- Network monitoring requirements
- Fire protection
- Standards for fire-fighting and preventive fire protection
- Hazard detection systems (e.g. fire alarm systems)
- Various fire protection systems and their advantages and disadvantages
- Hand-held fire extinguishers
- Signage and safety regulations
- Organisational requirements and best practices
- Supporting systems
- Requirements for data centre monitoring
- EMS, BMS and DCIM
- Detecting water leaks
- Alarm notification
- Operational considerations
- Service level management
- Organisation
- Security
- Building maintenance
- Monitoring
- Governance
