APC-Schneider Electric white paper suggests that the planning of a data center physical infrastructure project need not be a time consuming or frustrating task.
"Experience shows that if the right issues are resolved in the right order by the right people, vague requirements can be quickly translated into a detailed design," states the paper's introduction. Authored by Neil Rasmussen, the paper outlines practical steps to be followed that can cut costs by simplifying and shortening the infrastructure planning process, while improving the quality of the plan.
The paper's introduction continues:
"The planning of projects to build or upgrade data centers remains a major challenge for many IT departments. Plans are often poorly communicated among the various business stakeholders within the organization. Decision makers may be presented with proposals that are described in excruciating technical detail, yet still appear to lack the information they need to make good business decisions. Seemingly small upfront changes in plans can have major cost consequences downstream when the data center enters the construction / build stage.
The planning and approval process can consume a significant part of the calendar time of a project, and it is common that unwelcome surprises or changes occur late in the planning process, causing planning rework that results in significant delay in project completion. Our experience with many data center projects suggests that many of these problems can be avoided if the right decision makers are given the right information in the right sequence.
This paper lays out a methodology for planning a data center project to improve the quality and speed of the results. This structured planning methodology describes a sequence of steps to be taken and the key decisions that come out of each step. By following this process and making the process visible to all stakeholders, project managers can improve the transparency of the process, make the stakeholders feel their time is more efficiently used, and improve the buy-in on the project."
