Data Center Maintenance - The Right Housekeeping

by Micheal M. Writer

Data center maintenance involves three approaches - predictive, preventive, and reactive maintenance. Understanding each is essential to choose the best data center housekeeping approach.

Proactive Maintenance

Predictive and preventive maintenance are branches of proactive maintenance. It enables us to prevent a problem in the data center before it occurs and reduces downtime while maximizing uptime.

A minimum of 80% maintenance in a data center must be proactive. There might be a need for reactive maintenance depending on the efficiency and effectiveness of proactive maintenance.

Reactive Maintenance

We undertake this approach in case of a network problem or equipment failure. It becomes necessary when the options are minimal.

Hence, reactive maintenance is not appropriate for all situations but only necessary in the event of inevitable or unexpected failure.

It is usually up to 20% of the overall maintenance in a data center. We recommend against choosing it unless it cannot be avoided.

A Breakdown of Proactive Maintenance

Predictive Maintenance: It involves using technology to track and record equipment data in real-time in the data center. Then, it compares the recorded data with existing performance asset data to locate irregularities, errors, and anomalies. The results allow preparing predictive algorithms and the identification of the need to repair an asset.

This data center housekeeping is essential in discovering potential problems, poor performance, and wear and tear. The professionals identify and repair them to help avoid possible future problems.

Preventive Maintenance: It is required from time to time in scheduled intervals. It is a holistic maintenance routine that necessitates professionals checking every wire, equipment, server, and accessory inside the data center.

A checklist is integral to ensure not missing out on any areas of the process. Also, while it handles regular maintenance, preventive maintenance ensures all the assets are clean.

Benefits of Predictive and Preventive Maintenance

Predictive Maintenance

● Removes downtime, except when the failure is unavoidable

● Saves time and labor required for physical maintenance

● Reduces maintenance costs

● Does not pose a risk of human errors

Preventive Maintenance

● Stops significant outages and data interruptions

● Improves equipment lifespan and productivity

● Locates and repairs human errors

● Has no extra prerequisites

Demerits of Predictive and Preventive Maintenance

Predictive Maintenance

● Requires trained professionals to operate

● Requires complex installation and facility

● Requires high investments at the beginning for equipment monitoring

Preventive Maintenance

● Requires some downtime for specific tasks

● May sometimes fail to locate problems without an in-depth process

● Requires regular maintenance even if everything is running well

Preventive maintenance is essential for data center housekeeping, although predictive maintenance is ideal. Finding the appropriate balance between them is necessary.

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