EPI DCOS PDF

Scope and application of this standard

The scope of this standard are all operational disciplines required within a data center environment. This includes governance, policies and procedures based on the EPI Data Center Framework©.

This standard does not address the location and the physical aspects of the data center. However, some parts of the text within this document, may refer to and address some of the physical aspects to enhance the understanding of the operational complexities interacting with parts or components of the physical infrastructure.

The data center location can have a major impact on its ability to provide resilient, sustainable and cost-efficient services. Before deciding on the final location, the data center investor/owner/operator should perform site selection based on its business requirements. This should at least include technical, commercial and legal reviews of the location options including workforce and support capabilities of suppliers in order to ensure the site is suitable to provide the facilities and basis of the services required.

The organization should regularly review the data center location and its associated risks as per the risk management policies and procedures.

To enhance the understanding of physical infrastructure requirements, this Standard makes reference to publicly available documents such as ANSI/TIA-942, ANSI/BICSI-002 and the EN-50600.

Throughout this standard the word ‘should’ is being used instead of the usual combination of ‘shall’ and ‘should’ as used in other standards. The rationale behind this is that the application of this standard is divided over five (5) levels of maturity and as such it would be impractical to indicate in the main body of this standard the various levels and corresponding ‘shall/should’ statements. Therefore, the generic ‘should’ has been used in all clauses. A separate document will be developed for auditors to ensure that the right application of “should” and “shall” will be used depending on the level of maturity to be audited against.