Latest design publications

OCP 2.0 promises to continue the work of creating standards across the data centre industry and ensuring that an open community of seasoned experts can continue to support innovation and collaboration to improve hardware design and delivery.

For many years we have been relying on Telecommunications Cabling Standards to guide us in data centre design. Some of these such as EN 50173-5 Information technology – Generic cabling systems – Part 5: Data centres make no mention of power and cooling systems, and others such as TIA942 Telecommunications Infrastructure Standard for Data Centers discuss power and cooling infrastructure but mainly in the appendices which are “Informative Only” and not actually part of the requirements of the standard.

Architects have always been an important stakeholder during the transition from the design phase to the building phase of data centres, where they help translate a client’s brief (including floor plan, security, space planning and maintenance access for cooling and power requirements) into detailed design documents. However, they have seldom been asked for their opinions on the requirements themselves. But as data centres become ever more complex and the pressure to cut costs mounts, the creative mind of the architect is increasingly being called upon.