href="#ue581f9c9-5d73-5373-b817-21e0b92c5962">Chapter 4 – Mission Critical Electrical Systems Maintenance and Safety)
Terri Sinski, Strategic Planning Partners (Appendix A – Policies and Regulations)
Robert Sullivan (Chapter 11 – Data Center Cooling Systems)
David Taylor, Victaulic (Chapter 14 – Fire Protection in Mission Critical Infrastructures)
Kenneth Uhlman, P.E., Eaton/Cutler Hammer– Technical Discussions
Steve Vechy, Enersys (Chapter 10 – UPS Systems)
Thank you, Dr. Robert Amundsen, Director of the Energy Management Graduate Program at New York Institute of Technology, who gave me my first teaching opportunity in 1994. It has allowed me to continually develop professionally, learn, and pollinate many groups with the information presented in this book.
I'd like to thank two early pioneers of this industry for defining what Mission Critical really means to me and the industry. I am appreciative for the knowledge they have imparted to me. Borio Gatto for sharing his engineering wisdom, guidance and advice with me and Peter Gross, P.E. for his special message in his contribution all the book Foreword’s and well as expanding my views of the Mission Critical world.
I'd also like to recognize Joseph F. McPartland for his body of work with regards to educating industry professionals on the National Electrical Code.
Thank you to my good friends and colleagues for their continued support, technical dialogue, feedback, advice, etc.; over the years: Vecas Gray, P.E., Herb Tracy, Ron Schindel, Steve Davies, Mark Keller, Esq., Abramson & Keller, Joseph Cappiello, PMC Group One, LLC.
I'd like to thank my TAB board of directors and investors for their advice and guidance during the time I was building the framework for all the new technologies.
I would like to express gratitude to all the contributors, students, mentors, interns and organizations that I have been working with and learning from over the years for their assistance, guidance, advice, research, and organization of the information presented in this book: John Altherr, P.E., Nada Anid, PhD, Elijan “Al” Avdic, Tala Awad, Anna Benson, Charles Berry, William Callan, Harry Cannon, Nancy Camacho, Joseph Cappiello, Ralph Ciardulli, P.E., Charles Cottitta, Guy Davi, Kenneth Davis, Brad Dennis, Stephen Worn, David Dunatov, Andres Fortino, PhD, Ralph Gunther, P.E., Kevin Heslin, Patrick Hoehn, Lois Hutchinson, Al Law, John Nadon, P.E., John Mezic, P.E. John Montana, Jay O'Neill, Rey Parma, Shawn Paul, Arnold Peterson, P.E., Victoria Pierre‐Louis, Richard Realmuto, P.E, Michael Recher, P.E., Adam Redler, Edward Rosavitch, P.E, Christie Rotanz, Mike Sciroppo, Brad Weingast, Jack Willis, P.E, Anthony Wilson, Thomas Weingarten, P.E., Stephen Worn, Paul Yetman, and my special friends at 7x24 Exchange, AFE Region 4, Data Center Dynamics and Long Island Forum for Technology (www.lift.org), and Mission Critical Magazine.
Dedicated to and Brian K. Fabel, Al Baker, Bill Mann, Kenneth Morrelly, Terri Sinski, and Vecas Gray; six inspirational people who contributed vastly to the Mission Critical and Homeland Security Industries and enriched all of our lives. You will be missed.
Lastly, my deepest apologies for anyone I have forgotten.
1 An Overview of Reliability and Resiliency in Today’s Mission Critical Environment
“The best way to predict your future is to create it.”
Abraham Lincoln
1.1 Introduction
Continuous, clean, and uninterrupted power and cooling is the lifeblood of any data center, especially one that operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Critical enterprise power is the power without which an organization would quickly be unable to achieve its business objectives. Today, more than ever, enterprises of all types and sizes are demanding 24‐hour system availability. This means enterprises must have 24‐hour power and cooling day after day, year after year. One such example is the banking and financial services industry. Business practices mandate continuous uptime for all computer and network equipment to facilitate round‐the‐clock trading and banking processes anywhere, and everywhere, from any device in the world. Banking and financial service firms are completely intolerant of unscheduled downtime, given the guaranteed loss of business that invariably results. However, providing the best equipment is not enough to ensure 24‐hour operation throughout the year. The goal is to achieve reliable 24‐hour power, cooling, and processing at all times, regardless of the technological sophistication of the equipment or the demands placed upon that equipment by the end‐user, be it business or municipality.
Today most industries are constantly expanding to meet the needs of the growing global digital economy. The industry as a whole has been innovative in the design and use of the latest technologies, driving its businesses to become increasingly digitized in this highly competitive business environment. The industry is progressively more dependent on the continuous operation of its data centers in reaction to the competitive realities of a global economy. To achieve optimum reliability when the supply and availability of power are becoming less certain is challenging to say the least. The data center of the past required only the installation of standalone protective electrical and mechanical equipment main. Data centers today operate on a much larger scale, 24/7. The proliferation of distributed systems using thousands of desktop PCs and workstations connected through LANs, WANs, WLAN, SAN, VPN, etc. simultaneously use dozens of software business applications and reporting tools, makes each building a “computer room.” These computer rooms are also known as Intermediate Distribution Frame (IDF) and Main Distribution Frame (MDF) critical spaces. As we add the total number of locations utilized by each bank all over the world utilizing the internet, we now realize the necessity of a critical infrastructure and associated benefits of uptime, and reliability.
The reputation of Corporate America was severely harmed now almost two decades ago by a number of historically significant events: the collapse of the dot.com bubble and the high‐profile corporate scandals. These events have taken a significant toll on financial markets and have served to deflate the faith and confidence of investors. In response, governments and other global organizations enacted new or revised existing laws, policies, and regulations. In the United States, laws such as the Sarbanes‐Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX), Basel II, and the U.S. Patriot Act were created. In addition to management accountability, another embedded component of SOX makes it imperative that companies not risk losing data or even risk downtime that could jeopardize accessing information in a timely fashion. These laws can actually improve business productivity and processes.
Many companies, due to lack of awareness, a misunderstanding of reliability concepts, or other factors, fail to consider installing backup equipment or design their systems with the proper levels of redundancy commensurate with their risk profile. Then, when a major power outage occurs, these same companies suddenly discover that they will take a huge hit operationally and financially. Only then do they learn that the hit would have been avoided entirely or reduced in magnitude had they undertaken appropriate action beforehand. During the months following the Northeast Blackout of 2003, for example, there was a marked increase in the installation of UPS systems and standby generators. Small and large businesses alike learned how susceptible they are to power disturbances and the associated costs of not being prepared. Some businesses that were not typically considered mission critical learned that they could not afford to be unprotected during
