RECAP | ROUNDTABLE | Returning to Normal Data Center Operations

Most participants at Uptime Institute’s May 4, 2020, Inside Track roundtable said that they had begun planning to return to normal data center operations. At least two of the participants said they had already started to change policies and procedures revised to meet the requirements of coronavirus containment.
One participant took a notably more conservative stance. He remained very concerned about the wellbeing of his staff and noted that he was not convinced that the coronavirus threat had receded sufficiently to begin restoring more normal operations. He was not alone; others on the call took the “no” position in a flash poll that asked whether participants were taking steps to restore normal operations.
Further discussion, however, revealed that the pandemic had created at least some permanent changes in procedures. The goal, said a North America-based telecom provider, is the “new” normal, at least for the foreseeable future. Some changes would be permanent, he thought.
At the outset of the session, roundtable participants described the many precautions they had taken to protect their facilities and staff from coronavirus and COVID-19. These precautions included social isolation, limited access, reduced or postponed non-critical construction, deferred maintenance and additional sanitizer. Specific steps required to achieve these goals varied by facility, with one company having to buy additional desks to facilitate separation and isolation of workers. Uptime Institute Consultant Scott Good agreed that steps had proven effective so far.
Companies planning to return to normal tended to focus on changes that would facilitate reliability goals. More than one participant talked about allowing third parties and vendors to access facilities to begin addressing deferred maintenance. However, these individuals would be subject to even tighter restrictions than customary, with new (and possibly permanent) limits on the areas they could enter in a day and daily caps on projects. Good noted that these changes could reduce the ability to schedule service providers, especially when many data centers would be addressing backlogged maintenance.
Several participants also said that new work from home or remote work procedures would likely prove permanent when Kevin Heslin, the session facilitator, asked whether any coronavirus precautions had proven to be improvements over old procedures. They noted that many individuals did not really need to come to the office every day, and likely would not have to in the “new” normal.
Scott Killian, Director, North America Network, monitored the session and shared some thoughts for participants after the session. In an email, he noted,
• "In my view, there is going to be a rush for all operators to catch up on deferred maintenance. This was discussed on the call to some extent, but I think it is going to be worse than we might think. We can’t let the rush cause added risk and outages.
• "I think now is a good time for all operators to review their critical spare parts. Parts may become in short supply, or take an extensive time to get, based on supply chain issues. Battery availability was discussed as one example, but there are sure to be many others.
"Now is a good time to review all MOPs/SOPs/EOPs and modify them to take into account social distancing concerns, use of PPE, etc., and update those procedures accordingly."