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Utilities and HVAC Transcription

Welcome to our Environmental Controls, Utilities, HVAC and Water Issues module. It is important to make sure that you have reliable utilities in the area where you will have your facility. Underground utilities are generally considered to be more reliable than above ground. You should attempt to find a supplier that will provide you with a service level agreement or SLA, which is a service contract guaranteeing you a certain amount of uptime.

Supply redundancy is always best. So if possible, you should have two pinternet service providers. That way, if one goes down, you will still have a connection through the other ISP. You should also attempt to accomplish this for your electrical system where you can have an alternate line to your facility from a different transformer.

This way, if electrical power goes down on one grid, you will still have electrical power from the other grid. You should also consider redundant lighting, redundant HVAC systems and a redundant infrastructure, so that your business can continue to function even if you lose utilities. You should make sure you have sufficient water for drinking, washing and flushing toilets and also make sure that your sewer system flows away from the building not towards the building.

You should make sure that you have redundant communication systems, such as landline phones, cellular phones and perhaps internet-based or voice over IP phone systems. It is important to make sure that you have heating and cooling systems in place to keep your employees comfortable and you should make sure that you have enough fuel for your heat whether using electricity, natural gas or fuel oil.

You should make sure that you have a sufficient supply in case of an emergency. You should make sure that your Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition systems or SCADA systems are monitored, and that you have consolidated control over all of these systems. You should make sure that you have reliable electrical power, because this will be your primary day-to-day power source.

If you can get two dedicated foods from two utility substations, this will provide you with the most reliable form of electrical power. You also should make sure that you have an alternate power source in case the primary source fails. One way of doing this is by using an uninterruptible power supply or UPS.

There are two types of UPSs. In-line UPSs are constantly providing power from their inverters, even when you have utility power. This can switch over battery faster, if the power goes out than a standby UPS. A standby UPS monitors the power line and switches over to battery when a problem is detected. However, these systems could have a small delay, which could cause your machines to reboot. So an in-line UPS is considered to be better, although it will also be more expensive. You should make sure that you have enough power lines to handle the inrush as the recharge starts on your UPS systems and you should also consider having a generator with enough fuel, so that you can keep your facility powered on for a significant amount of time if there is a long power outage.

It is important to make sure that you avoid electrical interference and have clean power for your computer systems. You wanna make sure that there is no interference or voltage fluctuation, because this can damage your equipment. Electromagnetic interference or EMI is line noise that is caused by external magnetism.

This can be caused either by lighting or electrical motors and it can also be caused by the difference between wires, such as the hot, neutral and ground wires or improper wiring. Radio frequency interference is line noise from fluorescent lighting, components within an electrical system, electrical cables or even radio signals.

And transient noise is a disturbance imposed on a power line by something starting such as a large motor or a piece of heavy equipment. You should attempt to avoid these types of interference as much as possible in your environment. Your HVAC system or heating, ventilation and air conditioning system is very important to make sure that your equipment functions properly and that your employees are comfortable.

You should maintain an appropriate temperature and humidity level in your office, and also make sure that you have extra capacity, and redundancy in case one of the systems goes offline. CRACs are large computer room air conditioners that can be used in data centers to make sure that your equipment stays cool enough.

It is also important to make sure that you do not have contaminants in your environment such as dust, which can damage electronic equipment. Whenever a fire occurs, your HVAC system should be turned off, so that the smoke is not spread throughout the building and the fire is not fueled with additional oxygen, which makes it grow.

Positive pressurization can be used to allow air to go out an open door instead of in and this is helpful in a fire situation, because the smoke can be forced out of the building in order to avoid a smoke condition inside. It is important to make sure that your temperature is properly controlled.

Access temperatures can damage your computer equipment and will also make your staff unhappy. You should make sure that the conditions in your server room are very controlled, so that you do not damage any of your expensive servers or other electronic equipment. You should also monitor the temperature in your server room to make sure that it falls within an acceptable level.

And if the temperature gets too high, an alert should be sent to your maintenance or management staff, so that they can respond appropriately. It is also desirable to have extra capacity in case you have to expand the amount of equipment you have and redundancy as well in case one of your systems fails, you'll have a backup system in place to make sure that your equipment is not damaged by high temperatures.

You should make sure that your vents and ducts are protected to avoid intrusions form individuals climbing through the ducts in order to access your secured areas, and you should be aware that low humidity can cause electrostatic discharge or ESD problems. So typically, anti-static tiles are used in server rooms.

You should remember for the CISSP examination that it is important to maintain a proper temperature. Generally, between 65 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit as well as the proper humidity between 40 and 60%. It is very important that you keep water away from all of your electronic equipment. If possible, you should not have any water pipes above your data center to avoid leaks or burst pipes from damaging your equipment.

You wanna make sure that pipes and water lines, and sprinklers are kept away from your equipment and also be cognizant of the fact that water outside of the building could get inside the building such as a water mean that breaks. This is why we do not want our data center to be in the basement level or first floor, because of flooding issues.

Most data centers use raised flooring, so you should monitor that area so that there are no water leaks and also have the system in place to response to any leaks in that area. You should have backup pumps or valves and a sewer system to make sure that your building does not get flooded, and you should also be familiar with flooding that can occur due to natural conditions such as weather where rivers or oceans or rain runoff can effect your area and this commonly occurs with hurricanes.

You should avoid locating your facility in any low lying areas that are prone to flooding to avoid any damage to your facility from water. This concludes our Environmental Controls Module. Thank you for watching.