Data Center Fundamentals
What data centers do and how they work, followed through a new technician's first month at Stonebridge Data's colocation campus in Ashburn, Virginia: the industry and its growth, enterprise, colocation, hyperscale and edge sites, white and gray space, power, cooling and connectivity at a glance, redundancy and the Uptime Institute and TIA-942 ratings, physical security, roles and careers, the rules of a live critical facility, and a guided walk through a colocation hall.
DCT-110 12 lessons · 3 h 59 min ▶ Video lessons coming soon
Offered by HSM University · Data Center Operations
This is the American version of this course. See the Canadian version.
What you'll learn
- Explain what a data center does and why power, connectivity and heat removal are its three essential services
- Describe the growth of the data center industry, its main drivers and the constraints on that growth
- Distinguish enterprise, retail and wholesale colocation, hyperscale and edge data centers and how work is requested in each
- Identify white space, gray space, network rooms and logistics spaces and the rules for entering each
- Trace the power chain from the utility to a server and keep A and B power sides separate and properly loaded
- Explain how heat is removed by air and liquid cooling and keep containment and airflow tight
- Follow a connection from a carrier through the entrance and meet-me rooms to a customer server, and handle cabling safely
- Use N, N+1 and 2N, concurrent maintenance, fault tolerance and the Uptime Institute and TIA-942 ratings correctly
- Apply the layers of physical security, escort rules and media and equipment controls
- Describe the roles, shifts and career paths in data center operations and route problems to the right team
- Work in a live facility under house rules, tickets, remote hands requests, change management, permits and handovers
- Lead a safe, accurate walk through a colocation facility and turn observations into tickets
Course content
12 lessons · 3 h 59 min total · final exam
- 1 What a data center is 20 min · quiz
- 2 The data center industry and its growth 20 min · quiz
- 3 Types: enterprise, colocation, hyperscale and edge 20 min · quiz
- 4 Spaces and layout: white space, gray space and support rooms 19 min · quiz
- 5 Power at a glance 20 min · quiz
- 6 Cooling at a glance 20 min · quiz
- 7 Network and connectivity at a glance 20 min · quiz
- 8 Reliability, redundancy and tiers 20 min · quiz
- 9 Physical security and access 20 min · quiz
- 10 Roles on the data center floor and career paths 19 min · quiz
- 11 Working in a live critical facility: rules, tickets and the remote hands request 20 min · quiz
- 12 Capstone: a guided walk through a colocation facility 21 min · quiz
- E Final exam 20 questions
Description
What data centers do and how they work, followed through a new technician's first month at Stonebridge Data's colocation campus in Ashburn, Virginia: the industry and its growth, enterprise, colocation, hyperscale and edge sites, white and gray space, power, cooling and connectivity at a glance, redundancy and the Uptime Institute and TIA-942 ratings, physical security, roles and careers, the rules of a live critical facility, and a guided walk through a colocation hall.