Facilities Management will provide information to Configuration Management regarding the location and status of CIs, and will also be an integral part of Change Management, Capacity and Availability Planning and Service Continuity Management. The main components of Facilities Management are as follows.

El. Building Management

• Cleaning. This could be done by employees or by third parties. It is very important here to ensure that cleaning staff comply with all access control and confidentiality policies.
• Waste disposal, including separation of items for recycling, hazardous items (e.g. batteries, liquids and gases such as refrigerant for air-conditioning units), confidential documentation.
• Installation of physical facilities, such as cabling, power, raised floors, secure entry and exit systems, offices, furniture, etc.
• Parking. This should include allocation of staff and contractor parking, visitors' parking and parking for handicapped staff or visitors. Facilities management will also include documenting and enforcing any policies around who should park where.
• Access Control and Security Monitoring. This is covered in more detail in section E6 below and also in Appendix F.
• Signage, i.e. ensuring that the building can be found but is not obviously a key location worthy of attack.

E2. Equipment Hosting

One of these is the hosting of IT equipment. This is not just a case of providing a room and allowing the Technical Management teams to install and manage equipment. Different types of equipment have very specific requirements of the facility in which it is housed, for example:

• Water-cooled equipment needs access to cool water - which has to be supplied by the facility
• The weight of equipment varies and has to be distributed so as not to place too much stress on the floor
• Electrical supply may vary for different types of equipment.

If equipment is simply placed in the Data Centre in the order in which it is received, it will be very difficult to find anything and staff may have to cross the floor several times to tend to similar equipment. This traffic jeopardizes the integrity and security of other equipment on the floor.

This means that Facilities Management has to own the responsibility of planning and designing the layout of the Data Centre for optimal access and security of the equipment that will be hosted there. At the same time, it should be remembered that this equipment is being used to deliver IT services, and any requirements for that service need to be taken into account in hosting the equipment. For example, Data Centre standards may have to be changed in order to accommodate a non-standard server. In addition, most Data Centres also offer the following hosting activities:

• Receipt of new equipment
• Unpacking, configuring and installing standard equipment
• Producing and maintaining Data Centre layout diagrams
• Managing the schedule of any maintenance activity to equipment hosted in the Data Centre
• Disposing of retired equipment.

From this list of activities, it is clear that Facilities Management should not be seen as a separate function, but very much part of the overall operation of IT in the organization.

E3. Power Management

• What the power is going to be needed for - e.g. office space, equipment in the Data Centre, the cafeteria, etc.
• When that power is going to be needed. Some operations require a consistent supply of electricity 24 hours a day. Others, such as office space, will use more electricity during the day and very little at night. Others only need electricity at a specific time
• How much power is going to be needed
• What type of power will be used. Although most organizations use electricity, in many locations the heating systems are dependent on natural gas.

Facilities Management will also be responsible for establishing a contract with utility companies, or in many cases the local authority or municipality that provides that service. This will include an agreed rate and a level of availability. This has become very important in locations where the electricity supply is variable due to lack of infrastructure or due to over-utilization by general consumers.

Facilities Management will be responsible for establishing standby power sources for power failures, disasters and other contingencies. This is generally in the form of Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPSs) for key equipment, and also generators powered by an alternative energy source (usually diesel). Facilities Management is responsible not only for supplying these alternatives, but also for testing them, keeping supplies of the fuel and maintaining them.

It needs to be said that any alternative power source needs to be modelled and tested to ensure that it is able to handle the required demand and also that it will automatically be activated following a power failure.

Another key activity of Facilities Management is to manage the utilization of power. Traditionally, the role of Facilities Management was just to ensure that power was available. However, as natural resources become scarcer and expensive, more attention is being focused on techniques to manage utilization more responsibly.

One such approach is the dynamic management of power in Data Centres. The principle is that during peak processing periods, more computers will be used to do the work. As the workload reduces, the work is centralized onto fewer computers, while those that are not being utilized are powered down or placed into standby mode. This requires a significant integration between the activities of IT Operations Management, Technical Management and all the Service Design processes. This is discussed in more detail under the section about Data Centre strategies.

E4. Environmental Conditioning And Alert Systems

• Temperature
• Humidity
• Air quality
• Freedom from environmental risks, such as fire, flooding, etc.

Temperature is maintained through heating and cooling systems, as well as the layout of the equipment in the facility. This will require the following activities:

• Ascertaining the heat output for CIs and their optimal operating temperature.
• Identifying the total cooling requirement for all equipment in the facility as well as for specific items. For example, an air conditioner may be able to keep a Data Centre at a constant temperature, but there may be equipment that needs to be kept at a lower temperature.
• Modelling the overall heating and cooling requirements as well as mapping specific areas in the facility that may be naturally warmer or cooler. This information is used to identify where the best location is for specific equipment. It is important to note that when new equipment is installed in a facility, it will change the mapping of cooler and warmer areas in the facility, hence the requirement for more sophisticated mapping and modelling techniques. These models will also need to take into account seasonal variances in temperature. For example, some facilities may need to be heated in winter and cooled in summer.
• Purchase and maintenance of air conditioning units with sufficient capacity, and maintaining these units regularly.
• Investing in backup air-conditioning units that can be used if a main unit fails, or to provide extra cooling capacity on exceptionally hot days (although this should be a rare exception - if the backup unit is used too frequently this implies that initial planning was inadequate).
• Ongoing monitoring of the temperature and adjustment of cooling settings according to changes in season and equipment layout. These monitors could be linked to the Operations Bridge, which would be able to respond to any significant deviation from normal temperatures.
• Identifying and avoiding 'obvious' errors, such as locating the heat output of a major server close to the intake of an air-conditioning unit; or preventing airflow by stacking manuals in 'free' space.

Similar steps should be taken to identify ideal humidity levels and specify whether dehumidifying equipment is required. Smoke detection equipment is usually installed as part of the overall fire control strategy of the facility and is linked to automated fire-fighting systems. However, Facilities Management should not assume that an automated response to fire threats will be adequate. Smoke detection units should be linked to the Operations Bridge and any exceptions should be investigated.

Movement detection units should be installed in all unattended operating areas. These will ensure that unauthorized access is detected and reported to Facilities Security and possibly also the Operations Bridge. This will help to enforce proper scheduling of maintenance or installation activities.

Dust and particle detection can assist in maintaining air quality around systems that are particularly sensitive. Again, monitors should be routed to the Operations Bridge so that deviations can be investigated and corrected before any significant damage occurs.

There are also a number of other types of facilities monitoring, which are based on the location of the facility. For example, building movement monitors installed in locations with high levels of seismic activity. These act as early warning systems to indicate that a system needs to be shut down or failed over to an alternative site before a significant earth tremor or earthquake affects sensitive equipment. Similar monitors and safeguards are also being installed in facilities where there is high electrical storm activity.

These systems are collectively referred to as Building Management Systems (BMSs), although as these tools are integrated, the term is being used to refer to a single integrated management system, rather than a loose collection of tools performing similar functions. Thought should be given to using monitoring tools that are integrated into, or at least consistent with, existing monitoring tools. (See Chapter 7 for more details on tools.)

E5. Safety

• Building design and construction
• Layout of the rooms and equipment in the facility
• Education of all personnel about safety standards in force in the facility
• Definition of evacuation procedures and routes and gathering points in the event of a fire or other life threatening situation
• Posting notices and information regarding any safety information of which personnel need to be aware.

E6. Physical Access Control

The major components of Physical Access Control (as discussed in Appendix F) are:

• Assistance in defining and maintaining Physical Access Controls as part of the organization's Security Policies
• Maintenance of floor plans indicating which areas are restricted
• Installation and maintenance of physical access control devices
• Monitoring and control of access to facilities
• Security staffing
• Installation and maintenance of surveillance equipment
• Protection against social engineering.

E7. Shipping And Receiving

A process needs to be in place to ensure that items to be shipped are accounted for and that only those items are removed by the delivery or dispatch contractor. Wherever possible, these items should be marshalled into the secure store in the shipping and delivery area before being dispatched. This will prevent unauthorized access to the facility.

Delivery and dispatch documentation has to be completed, inspected and signed for each consignment that is delivered or dispatched. A central log of all consignments should also be maintained as a control.

E8. Involvement In Contract Management

• Management of leases for leased properties. This is quite rare, as most organizations view their Data Centre as a key asset. Leasing such facilities would be seen as a risk because of the potential that the building is sold, the lessor goes out of business or the lessor does not fulfill the contract in terms of proper maintenance.
• Leasing or maintenance of environmental equipment, such as air-conditioning units, environmental monitoring and alert (e.g. smoke detection and fire-fighting or suppression equipment).
• Building maintenance contracts. These include servicing of elevators, flooring, plumbing and electrical supply.
• Telecommunications facilities. Although telecommunications is usually managed by a dedicated team or department or as part of Wide Area Networking, they are often dependent on third parties to supply and maintain telecommunication equipment located in or just outside the Data Centre. In many countries these are provided by government or parastate telecommunications organizations. Management of these types of contracts requires a special skill set.
• Security services for the provision of physical access control and armed response services.

A very important part of Contract Management is to ensure that all third-party staff are aware of, and comply with, the security policies of the organization. This includes physical access control, confidentiality and unauthorized use of the organization's facilities or equipment. Regular audits should be held to ensure that this is being enforced.

E9. Maintenance

The reason for including equipment maintenance is simply to prevent the building being exposed to too much unusual activity at any one time. Multiple teams working in different places in the Data Centre at the same time represents a security and safety risk.

It is important to note that the actual maintenance of IT equipment is carried out by the Technical Management staff, but under the coordination of Change Management and Facilities Management.

The Facilities Manager should maintain a master schedule of all planned maintenance activity to ensure that maintenance activity is properly coordinated. This schedule forms part of the overall Change Management Change Schedule and is used to ensure that there are no conflicts between routine maintenance activity and the deployment of changes.

---