Once a data center is built, commissioned, and goes online, the operations team takes over, and day-to-day facility management becomes the foundation for its reliability, performance and uptime. Data center operations teams are the backbone that keeps data center systems running smoothly, minimizing downtime that could disrupt businesses, online services, and even critical infrastructure.
As companies’ dependence on digital infrastructure increases, the costs and impacts of data center outages are skyrocketing, with more than two-thirds of all outages costing upwards of $100,000, according to Uptime Institute’s Annual Outages Analysis 2023. Several outages last year cost firms more than $150 million. Based on a quarter of a century of data, Uptime estimates that human error plays a role in approximately 67-80 percent of all outages.
The decision to choose between internal and third-party data center operations teams ultimately comes down to a customer’s specific needs and priorities. Here are some considerations to take into account:
Expertise
Hiring a third-party data center operations teams can mean minimized or a complete lack of control overhiring, and limited visibility into the competency, quality assurance and professionalism of the personnel responsible for oversight of equipment and proprietary data. This can affect data center customers from both an operational and security perspective.
Moreover, the level of customer service can become compromised since third-party operations staff members, absent any enduring connection to the host data center provider as a facility operations team member would possess, comparatively lack a sense of accountability to the end user. Under these circumstances, it’s not uncommon for a company’s communications with onsite operations personnel to become a game of tag when requesting support.
Operational Excellence
At Aligned, data center operational excellence starts with individual ownership and hiring the right professionals with strong technical aptitudes and a passion for customer service.
Aligned’s Operations teams includes everyone on our hyperscale campuses who provide security for our buildings as well as the technicians trained in mission-critical environments who respond to alarms, manage maintenance, and provide high-touch support for our customers at our facilities. Hiring and staffing our own operations teams enables our organization to directly supervise and train personnel in all aspects of data center maintenance and management, across our entire portfolio of facilities.
Each Aligned Operations Management Team member has 10 to 15 years of data center experience, while our Critical Facilities Technicians (CFTs) have five to seven years of critical environment experience. Our in-house training program allows us to hone the skills of veterans from all branches of service, electrical and mechanical trades people, and equipment specific technicians. All Operations team members complete OSHA 10 during the first month of onboarding and complete job specific qualifications within the first six months
A Cut Above
While Aligned hires our own data center operations teams, we also have a centralized technical arm of operations that conducts an internal audit called AMMO, or the Aligned Maintenance, Management, and Operations audit. AMMO is performed by an additional team of security, technical, operational and quality assurance/quality control subject matter experts on top of our full-time Aligned operations professionals.
This specialized team diligently visits all sites across our data center portfolio and conducts continuous procedural audits, QA/QC for Aligned’s Asset management program, and a full annual audit to identify areas of improvement in operations, processes, maintenance practices and training to ensure 100% uptime and operational excellence.
AMMO ensures that the Operations teams are operating and following Aligned’s Runbook to properly maintain Aligned assets, and supports the growth of our industry, ensuring that any risk is avoided or removed. AMMO is administered to not only drive significant improvements to daily critical operations, but also to enhance the customer experience. By conducting regular reviews, Aligned maintains and further supports a culture of continuous improvement, and keeps data center operations running effectively and efficiently. AMMO will drive Aligned’s data center operations to exceed service level agreements (SLAs) with zero SLA violations.
As the Uptime Institute has pointed out, because human error and management failures contribute to a considerable number of outages, the business case for investing more in data center operations training has never been stronger.
Aligned’s AMMO program answers that call.
