Data Centres
Data centres are critical to the successful operation and strategic direction of businesses in all sectors. This brings the planning, construction, running, and optimisation of data centres into ever sharper focus. The regulatory landscape governing data centres is also constantly evolving, with tighter rules and requirements in areas like energy use and overall sustainability.
It’s in the name – data centres are about data. However, it is often the case that the data used to plan, manage, and optimise data centre facilities and operations could be improved. Construction data is an example, where facilities are often planned using construction drawings that are almost always incomplete and inaccurate.
There is also often a lack of clear, up-to-date, and accurate data on the current state of a data centre facility, from the precise location of a unit in a cabinet and rack to accurate computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modelling information to health and safety information to correct data on the facility’s hidden cabling infrastructure.
The Power of Data for Data Centres
At Tantek 4D, we work with data centres to provide accurate geospatial, construction, and facility data that drive cost savings and productivity gains across the entire data centre lifecycle:
- Works planning and construction
- Facilities management and ongoing optimisation
- Hardware refresh phases and infrastructure modernisation
Our facility integration services come under three main headings depending on your objectives and requirements – geospatial surveying, BIM consultancy, and facility digital twins. However, the overarching theme throughout everything we do is providing you with accurate, up-to-date, and complete data about your building, everything it contains, and the surrounding area.
This includes everything from the serial number of a unit in the most inaccessible rack location to the layout of the underground utilities feeding into your facility to the airflow around all areas as your HVAC system works to keep the equipment at the correct operating temperature.
Construction, Expansion, and Modernisation Projects
From getting accurate information during site selection for your data centre through geospatial surveying to ensuring architects, engineers, contractors, and other stakeholders collaborate efficiently through BIM consultancy, we can help data centre construction, expansion, and modernisation projects run more smoothly.
Having accurate site and construction data via a single source of truth eliminates double work, minimises costs, reduces delays, and mitigates site health and safety risks.
The final layout and design of the data centre will also be improved down to the precise position of each rack and the design of the cooling system.
Ongoing Facility Maintenance and Operation
Our digital twin solutions can optimise and improve the ongoing maintenance and operation of your data centre facility, as well as improving oversight, compliance, and health and safety. A digital twin will also help future-proof your facility against new sustainability and energy use regulations as you will have accurate data to optimise operations and make informed decisions.
Digital twins enable the real-time monitoring of all aspects of your facility, including equipment performance, airflow, energy consumption, and environmental conditions. You will also have access to accurate and complete facility data, from CFD modelling data to rack layout information to cabling design and more.
Benefits of Complete and Accurate Data
- Better rack layout and overall data centre design with a focus on performance, cost, and sustainability.
- Improved energy efficiency through better design and ongoing monitoring and modelling to improve performance.
- Reduced downtime through real-time environment and equipment monitoring, the latter of which enables predictive maintenance to ensure downtime is planned rather than unexpected.
- Significantly reducing the human error that occurs in data centre operations, further reducing unplanned downtime and performance issues.
- Enhanced oversight, including remote monitoring of all aspects of the facility.
- Enhanced capacity planning and strategic decision-making.
- Improved collaboration during construction with the elimination of double work, on-site errors, construction delays, project overruns, and unnecessary costs.
- Reduced health and safety risks during the lifecycle of your data centre through training and access to marked-up georeferenced information designed, at least in part, to keep workers, contractors, and other stakeholders safe.
- Reduced operating costs.
Book a Consultation
To get accurate data about your planned or existing data centre facility and to find out more about our digital twin, BIM consultancy, or geospatial surveying services, please get in touch. A member of our team will get back to you as soon as possible to arrange a consultation.
