Datacentre design guide splits experts
Industry experts appear divided over the value of the recently released Telecommunications Industry Association TIA-942 standard, which is intended to define best practices and design considerations for building enterprise datacentres.
The TIA is perhaps best known for defining network cabling schemes such as Cat5, which is ubiquitous in most corporate LANs. However, some observers have criticised the new standard as being a money-spinner for the TIA, mainly because a computer readable version of the document costs $250 (£140).
Others argued that it is not possible to take a “one-size-fits-all” approach to the design and building of datacentres.
Last week, one poster to
an online discussion area commented, “With something complex like a datacentre, there is so much variance in how they are operated, exactly what they do, where they are, etc. Having a standard may well not fit everyone’s needs, either because their needs were not perceived or understood at the time or because their needs simply cannot be met by the standard.”
However, other posters were more positive about the TIA’s initiative. “When you have a formal standard, you have something to measure against,” said one. “Every aspect of the datacentre design is not only standardised, but the how’s, why’s and therefore’s are spelled out. If you suspect the standard doesn’t meet your needs in some respect, [the TIA standard] makes it clear exactly how your criteria changes the requirements, and it makes it much easier to see how it could impact the rest of the design.”