The new role of IT departments in data center operations and management under the background of green energy conservation

Traditionally, the operation and management of data centers should be handled by the core facilities management team. However, if IT personnel are integrated into the data center team, IT personnel can understand the interaction between IT equipment and the data center MEP (mechanical, electrical, plumbing) system. By integrating IT expertise into the data center system, the planning and layout of IT system racks and stacks can be improved, and the MEP system infrastructure can be used more effectively to improve efficiency and better manage capacity.

Data center efficiency improvements are driven by corporate profits and social responsibility needs. Today, the scale and expenses of data centers have grown disproportionately, and energy conservation and environmental protection have become one of the main goals of data centers over the years. Last year, the U.S. government released a study on data center energy use, showing that U.S. data centers consumed 70 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity in 2014, equivalent to nearly 2% of the total U.S. energy consumption. In other words, a data center consumes as much energy as a medium-sized town.

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So, how can the integration of IT equipment and data center facilities be successful? According to the experience of industry experts, the IT department must have changed the most, but the staff of data center facilities must also adapt. First, the IT department must study and learn the infrastructure design of the data center and how their IT systems affect the MEP ecosystem.

IT departments must also develop or procure tools to simulate the interaction between IT systems and MEP infrastructure, deploying and stacking systems into locations that leverage existing infrastructure without violating established security thresholds.

This is the huge change and challenge facing IT departments, and if rack and stack locations cannot be easily selected, IT departments cannot pass the responsibility to staff members who are not aware of the unique requirements of various IT systems. Now, IT departments must be responsible for the positioning of systems to efficiently utilize mechanical, electrical, plumbing, space, and other systems, as well as network and cable infrastructure.

In turn, facilities staff must assist IT in selecting, deploying, and integrating MEP systems into IT infrastructure management tools and learn how to use those systems so that IT and facilities staff use and maintain the same digital toolset.

The traditional data center operation team, which is mainly composed of data center equipment personnel, must become a team combination of IT professionals and equipment personnel working together. Both are needed to succeed. Therefore, integrating IT and facility personnel into the data center work team can not only improve energy efficiency and management capabilities, but also enable enterprises to meet the requirements of sustainable development while maintaining normal operation.