Data center technician insight

[Space]

Hello all, looking for anyone who currently works in or has previously worked in a data center (I.E. Amazon, Google, Facebook, etc.). What duties did you perform? What was your schedule like? What type of theory, code, or other literature did you study to increase your level of knowledge related to you work?

Currently working as an industrial electrician at a mine/mill and looking at my future options. I'm looking for work where I can provide a high value to the company. With this in mind my search has lead me to the some potential roles including E&I technician, Data center technician, or Steel mill electrician.

It seems the data center technician roles revolve around UPS's and diesel generator backups. So I am just seeking for some insight on how I could potentially prepare for this role if I pursue this route in the future. I appreciate any and all input, thanks.

 

[suemarkp]

Are you thinking of new build data centers or operations/maintenance? For new builds, there is as much or more data cabling as there is power cabling. Cable trays are common for that, but there are lots of ways to do data centers. They also may have UPS systems, standby power systems, EPO systems (manual and/or overtemp driven), and maybe fire suppression. Learn about NEC 645 and that is is optional and not mandatory for applying that to data centers. Most architects did not want NEC 645 compliant data center rooms because they were too much of a pain to implement and they didn't provide much additional allowances. Learn about environmental air handling spaces and what you can and can't do under a raised floor with cooling air (and maybe above a drop ceiling if the air return is not ducted).

A big company is probably going to have their own standards for what they want in a data center. I worked for an aerospace company that had a lot of data centers, but they outsourced most electrical work. They had staff architects who would write specifications and make the plans, then contract the work out to electrical contractors. I'm not sure what was done for maintenance for maintenance. Most of that was IT's function, as the electrical did not need much unless they wanted to exercise a standby generator. UPS maintenance was typically ignored until a red light came on when the batteries were way past their life.

Some older things are mostly gone now, like isolated ground circuits and ground loops on long RS232 runs. "super neutrals" may be an issue because of harmonics from computing power supplies on 3 phase systems. We typically did not oversize neutrals, but did not undersize them on IT systems or others with potential for a lot of harmonic loads.

 

[Space]

I am looking mostly at the operations/maintenance side of it. I'm trying to get insight of what exactly they do, seems like they also take care of the HVAC systems (electrical side). I assume they also are responsible for switching powers supplies and isolating equipment for maintenance from time to time.

Thank you for your insight and response.

 

[suemarkp]

At the company I worked for, HVAC and electrical were different people and different function. I'm not sure if you can general O&M for major server operators as to whether the have combined electrical/HVAC/IT technicians, separate functions, or if some or all is outsourced. We even outsourced much of the IT function except in areas where foreign nationals were a problem or security clearances were needed. But our IT provider was beginning to provide people who were US citizens and even people with security clearances. This is even an issue for Microsoft and Amazon, as they are providing classified cloud services to the government. So one thing that can help is to be a US citizen and if you have had a security clearance before that can help (some people have a hard time getting them because of foreign parents). That opens more door. But if you are supporting a bitcoin miner farm, they probably won't care.

Our local IT people would swap power supplies in the servers themselves. They are generally hot swappable and just pop in and out (the servers would have 2 supplies to make them hot swappable). Disk drives were similar. These two things are mostly mindless now, as you see a blinky light, swap out a disk drive or power supply, and wait for the light to go green. You just need to use the proper part. If the lights aren't right, then you need to troubleshoot.

 

[zbang]

Lets separate two different types of data centers- there the purpose-build sole user ones like Facebook and Amazon, and there are the space for rent places like Digital Realty. The former ones are built and don't change much, they just add rows of racks as necessary; the latter are constantly evolving. I'd say your best bet around data centers is to work for a contractor who does the adds/changes/maintenance.

After that, look at what companies like Emerson and Schneider make for the data center market, things like panels with build-in current sensors for each breaker and even remote control, or the 500KVA UPSs.

 

[solarken]

I worked in Network Engineering for a fortune 150 company for quite a while, and worked with a lot of datacenter techs. They handled things like assembling and installing equipment racks, racking/installing equipment, labeling equipment and cabling paths, installing patch panels and wire management hardware, installing or changing copper cat6 or fiber optic cable runs, assisting network ops personnel with troubleshooting and with implementation of network change control activity. More senior techs got involved with data center floor and space planning, assessing power and cooling needs/changes. They also escorted other personnel that were not typically authorized to roam free in the datacenter, and sometimes gave tours to visitors. There are lots of changes always happening in modern datacenters, with floorspace redesigned to accommodate new equipment for 2-3 years before being ripped out and reconfigured all over again. They did not typically maintain HVAC equipment but might assist the maintenance techs or HVAC contractors during that work.

One trend I saw was a move to outsourcing. Many companies are leveraging cloud services to reduce their datacenter footprint, to eliminate the cost and complexity of maintaining network and server hardware.

Another field I would recommend is either a solar or wind turbine technician. It is a fast growing field and there is a shortage of good techs. If you were to be interested in it, check out the different certifications offered by NABCEP, which is the industry standard certification entity.

 

[PaulMmn]

Our data center includes a UPS (bank of batteries), 2 air conditioners (that take turns running), diesel generator in the back yard, Halon fire suppression system. Other than a monitor panel that informs us of problems, maintenance of all of them is farmed out to either vendor or 3rd party maintenance companies.
We have cat 6 throughout the building to each desk location, but we also have building-wide WIFI that talks to all of our laptops. Data wiring is 'set it and forget it' for the most part; only maintenance would be in a patch panel or data switch. Power wiring in the building is not the responsibility of the data processing team.
Daily operations in the data center focuses on cycling backup tapes into the 'Tape Monster,' getting them into cases for off-site storage, receiving them back in a month, and putting them back in the system. At month end, we keep one of the daily backups as the 'month-end' backup.
The network data team does work with the network switches and keeping everything properly configured. Unless there are changes in the requirements, this is another set-it-and-forget-it item.
For disaster recovery, our data center duplicates our data to another location. This involves AT&T, Verizon, or other main carrier. At the disaster center, we have a duplicate of our equipment at headquarters, except it's a common location where dozens of companies use the building. A/C, wiring, network, etc. is all handled by the company that runs the building. We 'just' keep our computers happy.
Learning-- learn all about network configurations, TCP/IP, Switches (and friends), communication to a backup location (or a hot site-- someone else's computer we can load our backup tapes into).
And now, we're looking at the cloud to see if we can move everything into someone else's machinery and sit back and watch it run.
*whew* I'm sure I left something out...

 

[ron]

It is a growing opportunity and you should definitely convert.
They often monitor the load via BMS systems and/or do and walking tours to each equipment to confirm normal operation and document meter readings.
They do PMs for HVAC equipment (if the HVAC and Electrical jobs are combined, as they are in some data centers).
They escort outside contractors to do PMs on all equipment.
During equipment failure, they need to be knowledgeable of the oneline and re-route power to alternate pathways manually if not confirm automatic transfer.

Look at some of the hyperscale and colocation providers job descriptions. Here is an example of a colocation provider opportunities in the US
1st a specific example, then the overall list of other spots

Data Center Critical Facility Engineer - Carteret, New Jersey, United States

Who are we?Equinix is the world’s digital infrastructure company®, operating over 250 data centers across the globe. Digital leaders harness Equinix's trusted platform to bring together and interconnect foundational infrastructure at software speed. Equinix enables organizations to access all...

careers.equinix.com

Search Page

Contract and Contingent Work Opportunities:

careers.equinix.com

 

[Space]

It is a growing opportunity and you should definitely convert.
They often monitor the load via BMS systems and/or do and walking tours to each equipment to confirm normal operation and document meter readings.
They do PMs for HVAC equipment (if the HVAC and Electrical jobs are combined, as they are in some data centers).
They escort outside contractors to do PMs on all equipment.
During equipment failure, they need to be knowledgeable of the oneline and re-route power to alternate pathways manually if not confirm automatic transfer.

Look at some of the hyperscale and colocation providers job descriptions. Here is an example of a colocation provider opportunities in the US
1st a specific example, then the overall list of other spots

Data Center Critical Facility Engineer - Carteret, New Jersey, United States

Who are we?Equinix is the world’s digital infrastructure company®, operating over 250 data centers across the globe. Digital leaders harness Equinix's trusted platform to bring together and interconnect foundational infrastructure at software speed. Equinix enables organizations to access all...

careers.equinix.com

Search Page

Contract and Contingent Work Opportunities:

careers.equinix.com

I think it would be easier on a man's body long term, rather than working in a factory/mine for 30 years. Thanks for the links.

 

[Space]

Another field I would recommend is either a solar or wind turbine technician. It is a fast growing field and there is a shortage of good techs. If you were to be interested in it, check out the different certifications offered by NABCEP, which is the industry standard certification entity.

I worked in the wind industry for a little bit. It was interesting, and I enjoyed the traveling I got to do.

However the pay for solar and wind techs are lower than what I have been able to find in industrial maintenance. Maybe there is a niche or specific company/job that has higher pay, but the average wind technician or rooftop solar installer pay seems lower or on par with manufacturing jobs. I will take a look at the NABCEP website, thanks for your insight.