Anyone wishing to audit/assess data centres for resilience, energy efficiency, security and best practice.

There are no formal prerequisites for the course but attendees should ideally have a good understanding of data centre infrastructure including power and cooling. Attending the DCP or DCD course first is ideal.

• How to prepare and carry out an audit
• What to look for, how to interpret what you find through observation and measurement
• How to perform a gap analysis
• How to write a report and what should be in it
• What certification means and, who can certify and how to do it
• Understanding and assessing resilience, energy use, capacity and health and safety

• Introduction to data centres auditing:
  • How to prepare and carry out an audit
  • What to look for, how to interpret what you find through observation and measurement
  • How to perform a gap analysis
  • How to write a report and what should be in it
  • What certification means and, who can certify and how to do it
• Understanding Resilience:
  
  • Relevant data centre standards
  • Understanding reliability and resilience models
  • ‘Tiers’ and ‘Classes’ and ‘N’ models
  • Identifying Single Points of failure
• Understanding Energy Use:
  
  • Relevant data centre standards
    Understanding the key factors affecting energy consumption
    Methods of reducing energy consumption
    Measuring the effectiveness of energy saving methods
    Key Energy Metrics: PUE etc.
• Understanding Capacity:
  • Power
  • Cooling
  • Space
  • Connectivity
• Understanding Health and Safety:
  
  • Staying safe during the audit
  • Auditing for unsafe practices
• Preparing for the audit:
  
  • Managing the customer’s expectations
  • Informing the customer of their part in the process
  • Documentation Review
  • Auditing tools
• Physical Audit and Inspection:
  
  • Including assessment of Resilience, Energy Use, Capacity, Health and Safety, Location, Architectural, Power, HVAC, Environmental Conditions, Fire Detection and Suppression, Communications Cabling, Security and DCIM
  • The site visit step by step
  • What order to do things
  • What to record, when and where
  • Using a checklist
  • Tips from auditors with over 30 years’ auditing experience
• Writing the Report:
  
  • eport format
  • What should be in the report
  • Analysing the data collected at the site visit
  • Writing techniques to help with understanding
  • Producing a GAP analysis
  • Making recommendations
  • Verification of your findings and conclusion
• After the Audit, Certification and Compliance:
  
  • What is certification?
  • Who can certify?
  • Validity of certification?
  • Developing an action plan (short, medium and long term goals)