Edward van Leent, chairman and chief executive officer of data center consulting and auditing firm Enterprise Products Integration (EPI), recently began posting a series of articles on LinkedIn that compare and contrast the TIA-942 data center standard set and the Uptime Institute data center specifications.
In May he wrote a prelude to the article series in which he explained that during a monthlong tour of the United States and Asia he met data center owner/operators, consultants, and administrators “to talk about data center trends and the challenges they are facing. During those conversations, we also discussed quality benchmarks for data center facilities including the various standards and guidelines,” van Leent said.
He added that over the course of that month he “started spotting a clear trend that there is a lot of misperception about data center facilities benchmarking in relation to ANSI/TIA-942 vs. Uptime. Some of those misperceptions are based on outdated information, as some customers didn’t keep up with the development developments in that space as well as deception, created by some parties not representing the facts truthfully either by ignorance or intentionally for commercial reasons [emphasis added.”
van Leent said this experience prompted him to write a series of articles that he hopes “will contribute to a more clear and fact-based picture of the current situation.”
Since then he has published five articles on LinkedIn:
- Uptime vs. TIA-942: A short history
- Uptime vs. TIA-942: Standard or guideline?
- Uptime vs. TIA-942: What is within the scope?
- Uptime vs. TIA-942: Outcome based or checklist, or can it be both?
- Uptime vs. TIA-942: ‘Uptime certification is easy, ANSI/TIA-942 certification is difficult’
Several of the articles prompted lively commenting on subjects including the claim that the original TIA-942 standard was based on Uptime Institute specifications; the role of personal and corporate agenda in standards development; and certifying to the TIA-942 standard. Commentary on that topic—certification to TIA-942—remains an ongoing dialogue in the “easy/difficult” article, which van Leent posted on July 4.
van Leent is a contributor to the TIA’s TR-42.1 Subcommittee, which recently completed and approved for publication the TIA-942-B standard revision. EPI provides courses that certify consultants and auditors to TIA-942. van Leent does not hide his affinity for the specification. In a personal post to LinkedIn on July 10, he stated, “The TR-42 committee, of which EPI is a member, has worked very hard to update the standard to incorporate not only the latest technologies, design philosophies and design requirements, but the standard has also received an update on its structure to make it easier to read … This new version of the ANSI/TIA-942 is the best version ever, and I am very sure that it will be very well received by the market, and will further expand its widely spread usage.”
You can view all the “942 vs. Uptime” articles on LinkedIn here.