Use accreditation to bring certainty to an uncertain datacentre future

GEOFF DENHAM

2017 will bring change to your technology environment.  You can count on that.  Whether that change manifests itself as chaos or progress depends on how well prepared you are.

In our last blog, we explored the importance of getting your service and maintenance package right for your business needs .  In this follow-up post, we look more closely at the role accreditations play in ensuring your goals.

The value of accreditation

Businesses seek out third-party accredited skills because they want certainty.  There are some things that cannot be left to chance.  That’s why so many businesses employ accredited technology consultants.  These help to select and implement a digital strategy, as do accredited engineers who have proven the skills needs to commission and integrate new solutions into your IT architecture.

The business that values accreditation is averse to unnecessary risk.  Accreditation ensures that the benefits advertised are the benefits realised.  The Kitemark, the CORGI stamp are more than just plaques on the wall or marketing guff.  Anything less invites uncertainty; a trip into bandit country where – fingers crossed – you might be OK, or you might not.

Beware accreditation blindspots

Businesses can run into trouble when they fail to implement a consistent approach.  For most, their commitment to accredited skills and services is not a conscious thought process or written policy.  This makes it difficult to ensure that unaccredited elements don’t slip in under the radar and potentially compromise best-practice.

The effect of this is a little like public vaccination.  It works when 95-100% of people are immunised, but doesn’t really work at all when you get down to only 60-70% coverage.  A patchy approach to using accredited know-how is of limited value.

Take datacentre power and cooling, for example.  Say you had used accredited third-party skills to specify and implement the very latest, new software-defined, agile datacentre architecture with virtualised, hyperconverged elements.  You expect that this will dramatically improve the efficiency, performance and flexibility of your IT services.  But, because you left the servicing of the underlying physical infrastructure to an unaccredited electrician, the entire project is in serious jeopardy.

What’s underpinning your own internal service levels?

Businesses need to reevaluate their approach to accredited third-party skills, starting from the foundations that every other aspect of their IT is based upon.  If the business critical infrastructure of power and cooling isn’t covered by the appropriate level of accredited skills, then there can be no certainty for broader IT objectives.

This is because the operation of a datacentre or comms room environment provides valuable service delivery capabilities to all parts of the business.  These service levels must be maintained at all costs, so that the business can function and prosper against its wider goals.

Achieve complete certainty over your datacentre future

Comtec Power is an Elite Partner to Schneider Electric for its market-leading datacentre hardware and software offerings, including the APC brand, and is one of only two accredited APC Service Partners in the UK.  Comtec Power also partners with Riello, Emerson and other leading UPS manufacturers.

The top-level accreditations held with these manufacturers reflects an uncommon level of multidisciplinary skills retained by Comtec Power’s service and support team, both onsite and via our remote monitoring capabilities.

Please feel free to contact me  to discuss your accredited datacentre service needs.