Successful protection and operation of a Data Centre rests on understanding and managing the complex relationship between people, processes, technology and the physical environment in which they operate. Effective protection and service delivery cannot be achieved without a balance between these critical components:
- People are at the same time both the strongest and the weakest link. They are invariably the reservoir of corporate intellectual property; they know how the ‘system’ works, the flaws, loopholes and workarounds at every stage. They either make the facility work or not depending on a complex mixture of morale, motivation, training, experience, good management and effective leadership.
- A process is the arrangement of events; the methodology by which technology is applied to good effect by people; or by which the technology itself is arranged to deliver the desired effect. People and process together enable the facility to function smoothly as designed and be more or less resilient in the manner in which it is operated.
- Technology components are the vital core of the Data Centre facility and create a hugely complex series of interdependencies. Technology without people and process working together in harmony will never be truly resilient and capable of delivering sustained, consistent levels of high availability service.
- The Data Centre must have sufficient backup generators and uninterrupted power supply (UPS), protected fuel tanks for generators and domestic systems, a resilient infrastructure with no ‘single points of failure’, reliable and diverse communications, and be housed in premises that are designed and operated with appropriate resilience levels in mind.