2-day Training in Project Management for Data Center & Critical Facilities: From Design to Commissioning

2-day Advanced Training in Project Management for Data Center & Critical Facilities: From Design to Commissioning

(19 - 20 October 2017, 2-day)


Building, upgrading or relocating new data centers / mission-critical facilities requires extensive coordination. Project management team shall ensure all components come together smoothly. It is typically fast track from design and planning to testing and commissioning.

You are cordially invited to attend the course which highlights key components required by a project management team who directs the manufacturing, the outfitting and the preparation for a data center / computer room while simultaneously oversees site work, infrastructure for facility, utility installation, etc. and facilitate IT installations.


It also details about how to structure the project management activities with a common language (for data center and mission-critical purposes), avoid cost increment, responsibility gaps and duplication of effort and achieve an efficient process with a predictable outcome. Most importantly, the course outlines how to meet the project goal and SLA (Service Level Agreement) before, during and after completion of the project defined by the owner.


- Reviewing the Project Management Basics

> Planning and Programming a Successful Project for Mission-critical Purposes
> Managing a Project on Time, Cost and Quality

- Contract Management for Data Center Design and Build
- Roles and Responsibilities
- Liaising with Clients (Facility Owners, Project Owners, etc.)
- Liaising with Stakeholders
- Liaising with Design Consultants / Architect
- Managing Facilities / Services Suppliers
- Managing Contractors
- Assessing the Project Progression and Status Meetings
- Conflicts Management
- Change Management and Accommodation
- Project Handover, Testing and Commissioning
- Cases Study


Date: 19 - 20 October 2017 (Thursday - Friday)
Time: 10:00 – 17:30 (around 13 hours)
Venue: Ground Floor, Innocentre, 72 Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong

Fee: Special rate for CIBSE / HKIE all membership classes


For details, please refer to www.stmedia-asia.com/newsletter_6.html.

About us

Strategic Media Asia (SMA) is one of the approved CPD course providers of the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) UK. The team exits to provide an interactive environment and opportunities for members of ICT industry and facilities' engineers to exchange professional views and experience.

SMA connects IT, Facilities and Design. For the Data Center Design Consideration, please visit 

(1) Site Selection,
(2) Space Planning,
(3) Cooling,
(4) Redundancy,
(5) Fire Suppression,
(6) Meet Me Rooms,
(7) UPS Selection,
(8) Raised Floor,
(9) Code & Standards, and
(10) Transformers and Harmonic Distortion


All topics focus on key components and provide technical advice and recommendations for designing a data center and critical facilities.

A Data Center Nightmare: Single Point of Failure (3)

Refer to "A Data Center Nightmare: Single Point of Failure (1) and (2)"


The two examples (1) and (2) mentioned emphasize the importance of several lessons that might seem like common knowledge, but slipped past all parties in the complex design and construction process of the data center.


(I) It is very important to eliminate single points of failure. Had there been dual paths to the critical load and either static switch power-distribution units or rack-mounted static switches, there would have been no data center failure.

(II) It is essential to use conduit and wire instead of busduct. Every electrical connection is a potential failure. The feeder busway system installed had mechanical connectors every 12 feet. Conduit and wire only have connectors at the source and at the load.

(III) Only equipment for mission-critical purpose are allowed in data centers! The installed busway was inherently unreliable because human error led to one failed connection and the two additional failed connections uncovered during testing.

Unfortunately, data center professionals do not necessarily have the chance to test drive a facility before it’s completely operational. At the end of the day, every data center is a unique. Professionals must take all of the right steps to make sure they anticipate future mishaps and learn the lessons of previous experiences.


Five Elements of a Reliable Data Center

Building and designing a data center is a complicated process. The complexity is compounded not only by the building type, but by the fact that each data center is unique, built and designed to meet specific criteria. A successful project depends upon five things:

• Good design with input from the facility executive, builder, designer and commissioning agent
• Good construction, including careful selection of construction firms and subcontractors, as well as effective construction administration and documentation of field issues
• Specification and installation of quality data-center-grade materials
• Effective commissioning
• Thoughtful operational practices and timely maintenance

About the Blog

Strategic Media Asia (SMA) is one of the approved CPD course providers of the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) UK. The team exists to provide an interactive environment and opportunities for members of ICT industry and facilities' engineers to exchange professional views and experience.

SMA connects IT, Facilities and Design. For Data Center Design Consideration, please visit 

(1) Site Selection,
(2) Space Planning,
(3) Cooling,
(4) Redundancy,
(5) Fire Suppression,
(6) Meet Me Rooms,
(7) UPS Selection, and
(8) Raised Floor

All topics focus on key components and provide technical advice and recommendations for designing a data center and critical facilities.

A Data Center Nightmare: Single Point of Failure (2)

Refer to "A Data Center Nightmare: Single Point of Failure (1)"


Data center failures can be rooted in several sources - design, construction, maintenance, quality of material, quality of equipment, commissioning and direct human intervention. For the most part, data centers, even ones that fail, have the benefits of good design practice and intention, professional construction oversight, and high-quality craftsmanship. They are maintained according to data center quality guidelines. But a single overlooked mistake can quickly become significant issues - power and air conditioning failure - that can bring down a data center.

Another story is a high-profile government data center, with a busduct-panelboard connection exploded, effectively shutting off power to approximately 15,000 square feet of the most critical computing in the facility.

In this incident, the design relied on an isolated redundant uninterruptible power supply (UPS) back-up. When a UPS system failed, a static automatic transfer switch was to shift to the already-operating isolated redundant UPS and transfer the load within a quarter cycle. The system worked well and the client was satisfied with the transfer scheme and the rotary concept.


Source of the Problem


Where this system failed was downstream from the automatic transfer switch. Each of the switches fed one busduct riser and terminated directly into a main distribution panel located on each floor of the facility - one busduct per panel. A single fault on any busduct or main distribution panel compromised the critical load.

As it occurred, the electrical connection between the busduct and the distribution panelboard failed and the load was lost. A single point of failure succeeded in bringing down the floor. Not until the facility’s electricians ran jumper cables from one of the intact risers and back-fed the main distribution panel did the floor have power.

Why did this failure occur? The building had been designed in tight coordination between the government representative and the designer; the entire system had been commissioned and had been running with tight oversight for more than two years. What happened?

The cause of the problem was the failure of a manufactured busduct connector, one of hundreds in the building. The connector joined lengths of feeder busduct via a sliding piece - designed to slide approximately one-quarter of an inch to make installation easier - and a break-away torque bolt designed to ensure that the installer did not over-torque the bolt.

Although the investigation team was not asked to explain exactly why the joint exploded, it determined that the quarter-inch of play designed into the connector had actually allowed for a portion of uninsulated section of the copper busduct to be exposed to the atmosphere without insulation. The team surmised that the perfect combination of air borne dust, humidity and possibly other contaminants led to an arc that became a fault and exploded.

During the analysis, the investigation team isolated each busduct riser from the static automatic transfer switch at the source and from the main distribution panel at the termination. During the megger test, the electrical forensic team discovered two additional joints that didn’t pass, clearly more candidates for potential failure. Not only did the joints not pass the megger test, two of them visibly and audibly arced while the voltage was ramped up during the testing. The joints had shown themselves to be the weak link in the system. The installed busduct technology was vulnerable to catastrophic failure.



Continue - A Data Center Nightmare: Single Point of Failure (3)

About the Blog

Strategic Media Asia (SMA) is one of the approved CPD course providers of the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) UK. The team exists to provide an interactive environment and opportunities for members of ICT industry and facilities' engineers to exchange professional views and experience.

SMA connects IT, Facilities and Design. For Data Center Design Consideration, please visit 

(1) Site Selection,
(2) Space Planning,
(3) Cooling,
(4) Redundancy,
(5) Fire Suppression,
(6) Meet Me Rooms,
(7) UPS Selection, and
(8) Raised Floor

All topics focus on key components and provide technical advice and recommendations for designing a data center and critical facilities.

Project Management for Mission-Critical Facilities from Design to Commissioning

2-day Advanced Training in Project Management for Mission-Critical Facilities from Design to Commissioning


Building, upgrading or relocating new data centers / mission-critical facilities requires extensive coordination. Project management team shall ensure all components come together smoothly. It is typically fast track from design and planning to testing and commissioning.


Further to the comprehensive training in electrical and air conditioning systems design for data center and mission-critical infrastructure, we are going to introduce a specialized course which highlights the oversights required by a project management team who directs the manufacturing, the outfitting and the preparation for a data center / computer room while simultaneously oversees site work, infrastructure for facility, utility installation and facilitate IT installations.

This is an advanced 2-day training details about how to structure the project management activities with a common language (for data center and mission-critical purposes), avoid cost increment, responsibility gaps and duplication of effort and achieve an efficient process with a predictable outcome.


Most importantly, the course outlines how to meet the project goal and SLA (Service Level Agreement) before, during and after completion of the project defined by the owner.


Day 1

• Reviewing the Project Management Basics

         - Planning and Programming a Successful Project for Mission-critical Purposes
         - Managing a Project on Time, Cost and Quality

• Contract Management for Data Center Design and Build
• Roles and Responsibilities
• Liaising with Clients (Facility Owners, Project Owners, etc.)
• Liaising with Stakeholders
• Liaising with Design Consultants / Architect

Day 2

• Managing Facilities / Services Suppliers
• Managing Contractors
• Assessing the Project Progression and Status Meetings
• Conflicts Management
• Change Management and Accommodation
• Project Handover, Testing and Commissioning
• Cases Study

For the course information (date, time, venue and the trainer profile), please visit www.stmedia-asia.com/trainings.html  OR  www.stmedia-asia.com/newsletter_6.html.

About the Course Organizer

Strategic Media Asia (SMA) is one of the approved CPD course providers of the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) UK. The team exists to provide an interactive environment and opportunities for members of ICT industry and facilities' engineers to exchange professional views and experience.

SMA connects IT, Facilities and Design. For the Data Center Consideration Series, please visit 

(1) Site Selection,
(2) Space Planning,
(3) Cooling,
(4) Redundancy,
(5) Fire Suppression,
(6) Meet Me Rooms,
(7) UPS Selection, and
(8) Raised Floor

All topics focus on key components and give technical advice and recommendations for designing a data center and critical facilities.