Waiting for a problem to occur and then dealing with its impacts is not an option that should be considered in any situation, but if we are talking about data centers, we must undoubtedly exclude it right away. If the data center stops operating, all services are at risk of failure, causing numerous losses. It is essential to invest in preventive maintenance of the data center to ensure the availability of the systems.
What is preventive maintenance?
Preventive maintenance is a schedule of planned maintenance actions, aimed at preventing malfunctions and failures. It is a regular and systematic inspection, which includes cleaning and replacing worn parts and updating software/firmware. Preventive maintenance helps to prevent failures of parts, materials and systems, ensuring that they are in good working condition.
What are the biggest risks of not performing preventive maintenance?
- Long periods of downtime
- Increased likelihood by using obsolete equipment that impair global performance
- Greater difficulty in recovering after an incident
How to perform an effective preventive maintenance?
Preventive maintenance involves performing a thorough inspection, measuring the values of the equipment and performing tests that aim to gauge the capacity of each equipment. It encompasses, in general, 3 main areas: energy, air conditioning and security.
Energy: maintenance of electrical panels and UPS’s. The UPS works as a secondary electrical power supply system, which is activated when there is an interruption of the primary energy, supplying all the necessary devices to keep the business running. It is extremely important equipment, so its correct maintenance is essential, to avoid downtime and unplanned costs. Replacement of batteries, replacement fans and cleaning are ways to prevent the deterioration of UPS and to extend their useful life.
Cooling: cooling systems are crucial for the functioning of IT solutions. Insufficient ventilation, or cooling, caused by higher density IT equipment, causes overheating, which results in premature equipment failures, poor performance and system breakdowns. Regular maintenance is necessary in order to find anomalies in a timely manner.
Security: the area of security maintenance concerns the analysis and implementation of corrective measures in terms of fire detection and extinction, access control, CCTV and intrusion.
To monitor in real time what is happening in the data center, constant monitoring is necessary, as this is the only way to ensure that nothing is out of control. Thus, whenever an anomaly is detected, it is possible to immediately take corrective measures. To meet the needs of data center managers, Maxiglobal created 3 monitoring solutions.
ModSecur® EMS: it allows keeping any data center or technical installation, under permanent surveillance, by monitoring temperature, humidity, smoke, intrusion, flooding, improper entry and power failures.
ModSecur® DMS: allows monitoring of temperature and humidity; air flow measurements; state of electrical circuits; current, power and voltage measurements and PUE index measurements with a history of quantities.
ModSecur® BMS: allows monitoring of HVAC systems, lighting, energy, access control, video surveillance, fire detection and extinguishing to create a comfortable, safe and sustainable environment.
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