The Business Needs

• Appreciate why audits are an essential business requirement
• Understand the importance of defining the current business needs
• Appreciate the need to define what the business actually has
• Understand the business (C Level) against operational perceptions
• Ascertain whether the business understands their tier rating and that it actually meets the business need

Scoping the Audit

• Understand the impact of business Service Level Agreements (SLAs)
• Understand the business direction and the importance of identifying the key stakeholders
• Understand the interaction between the key stakeholders and the operational Data Center departments
• Appreciate the factors to be considered when formulating the audit scope
• Appreciate applicable supporting standards, regulations and industry best practices

Establishing the Audit Process

• Appreciate the need to understand the present capability against the business perception
• Appreciate the business expectations with the need for a continuous commissioning process
• Be able to define the framework of the audit process
• Understand the need to undertake an audit risk analysis process
• Be able to identify the audit lead and team requirements

Performing the Audit

• Appreciate the need to undertake documentation review
• Appreciate the impact of Regulatory requirements and Service Level Agreements (SLAs)
• Appreciate the operational and environmental structures within the data center structure
• Understand the key audit areas, the audit expectations and implementation of test sequences

Analysis and Recommendations

• Appreciate the need to evaluate the audit findings against the operational requirements of the business
• Identify the gaps in the operational capability
• Understand the need to evaluate policies, processes and procedures against business expectations
• Appreciate the need for operational documentation accuracy
• Appreciate the assessment of equipment against lifecycle costs, ROI and TCO
• Identification of business risks, operational weaknesses and areas of inefficiency

Action Plan and Reporting

• Understand the need to determine how the site measures up against the recognized industry best practices that are considered to be appropriate by the auditor
• Understand how to assess the recommendations and formulate the supporting action plan

Measuring and Monitoring Progress

• Appreciate the importance of establishing an accurate baseline
• Appreciate the importance of establishing a structured measuring and monitoring strategy
• Appreciate the appropriate use of metrics
• Appreciate the need to re-evaluate the action plan

Follow on Actions

• Appreciate the need for forward planning
• Appreciate the actions to align the Data Center assets following the audit process
• Appreciate the need to review and align skill-sets
• Appreciate industry guidance and accreditations

Audit Preparation

• Understand the importance of the business and key stakeholder demands
• Understand the need for an effective audit structure
• Understand the need to have an effective communication plan
• Understand the need to identify areas of concern and potential improvements

Mechanical (Power and Cooling) Audit

• Understand the electrical systems audit process
• Understand how to conduct an audit
• Understand the importance of power quality
• Understand the data center electrical distribution system
• Understand electrical safety requirements in a data center
• Understand the data center mechanical systems audit process
• Understand what systems to audit are included in a data center mechanical systems audit
• Appreciate the value of data center cooling metrics
• Understand the importance of the chilled water cooling circuit
• Understand the methods to conduct a cooling capacity check
• Understand the importance of air management in a data center
• Understand the benefits of performing a Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD)

IT Infrastructure Audit

• Understand how to plan an IT audit
• Understand the different areas of an IT audit
• Understand the audit demands of the computer, storage and network environments
• Understand the supporting infrastructures that require to be audited

Security Audit

• Understand the focus, segments and scope required to spell out security audit requirements
• Understand the training, certifications and experience of potential security auditors or know where to look for guidance
• Scope and types of security audits
• Understand potential audit outcomes
• Evaluate the security auditor’s report
• Understand how to distribute and archive the security audit

Building and Support Services Audit

• Understand the need to review the Building
• Automation Systems (BAS) and site maintenance
• Understand the key areas of measuring and monitoring
• Understand the implementation of the fire containment plan and emergency requirements
• Understand what support services are in place

Asset Management Audit

• Appreciate the importance of asset management
• Understand the need to develop an effective asset management strategy
• Understand the asset management control options
• Understand the impacts of MACs and decommissioning
• Understand the financial implications

Process, Procedures and Working Practices Audit

• Appreciate the structure of data center policies, processes and procedures
• Appreciate the need to review the policies, processes and procedures
• Evaluate whether they are fit for purpose and actions to escalate non-compliance issues
• Appreciate the industry guidance to improve the effectiveness of the processes and procedures
• Appreciate the implementation of appropriate review cycles

Documentation Audit

• Understand the need to incorporate documentation into the audit process
• Understand the need for structured and accurate documentation
• Understand external and internal compliance documentation
• Understand how key operational structures are documented
• Understand whether the documentation is ultimately ‘fit for purpose’

Audit Closure Process

• Understand the need to effectively collate the audit data
• Understand the need to implement an effective action plan incorporating all interested parties
• Understand the need to have a structured approach to ensure a continual audit capability is implemented

There are a number of group and individual case studies throughout this program.