Data Center Post

- Jon Alcorn, business development with American Eagle Systems (www.americaneaglesys.com), says:

All data center environments, from the 100 square foot telco room to the 500,000 square foot raised floor research lab, require specialized cleaning.  If a janitorial firm is being used to service these critical areas, they may be potentially doing more harm than good by using products that create chemical and physical transformations at microscopic levels causing corrosion, rust, static, overheating and hundreds of other problems that can lead to downtime. 

It is imperative that the proper cleaning methods, chemicals and equipment are being utilized to properly care for all of the sensitive surfaces in the datacenter.  An experienced data center cleaning partner will offer numerous programs, including such services as sub-floor cleaning, concrete sealing, access floor cleaning, vinyl floor anti-static waxing, belt debris remediation, interior electronics detail cleaning, and post construction cleans. 

Why Clean Your Datacenter?

• Reduce electrostatic discharge, which can cause dust fires and serious damage to servers and other network and storage equipment.
• Promote a more efficient use of critical hardware intake and ventilation systems
• Reduce downtime risk due to particle buildup on circuit boards, servers and all other air cooled equipment
• Minimize the opportunity for dust to agglomerate inside disk drives to avoid read/write errors and head crashes
• Improve the indoor air quality of the data center and promote employee health

Budget constraints are always an issue, but the cost of preventative maintenance is a more acceptable cost than that of system downtime.  Detecting and preventing environmental threats to a data center is made even easier when your cleaning provider offers extensive environmental reporting.  A report would include information on air particle monitoring, sub-floor plenum, ferrous metal tests, microbial tests, black light subfloor contaminant testing, vapor barrier inspection, temperature and humidity tests, airflow quality, inspection of equipment, and access floor surface static-dissipative quality tests.   

All sites are different, and cleaning programs can be performed daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or yearly.  Data center managers may also want the area cleaned during off hours, and so your cleaning partner should be available to work at any time, any day of the week and be able to provide references upon request.

Data centers and clean rooms have unique dynamics and operations that are not found elsewhere in normal commercial building applications.  By ensuring that only trained cleaning specialists are maintaining these critical environments, and by adopting a pro-active cleaning program, data center managers can ensure they are meeting the Federal and ISO standards for data center cleanliness.