The latest 2020 Best Practice Guidelines for the EU Code of Conduct on Data Centre Energy Efficiency have recognised the importance of qualified individuals and training and development as a necessity. The guidelines are an education and reference document as part of the Code of Conduct to assist data centre providers in identifying and implementing measures to improve the energy efficiency of their data centres.
The recognition of training and development is a positive step towards standardising education across the data centre sector. By investing in teams and putting education and development at the top of the agenda, it ensures that teams are up to date with the latest trends and company processes. For an organisation, it helps to ensure the organisation is the best it can be, with confident and competent teams. In the case of energy efficiency, organisations can benefit from a focus on reducing carbon footprint and looking at ways to significantly contribute to energy strategy and deliver efficiencies. There is also the added competitive advantage, by investing in your teams professional development it helps to boost morale, positivity towards the organisation and therefore proves to be a very powerful team to retain and also employ staff.
The guidelines comment on training and development, “Ensure the Data Centre Manager and any appointed Energy Manager has relevant and appropriate training to fulfil an energy efficiency role and have an in-depth appreciation of Best Practices (such as this Code of Conduct). Ensure that both ICT and Facilities personnel are aware of Data Centre energy efficiency Best Practises (such as this Code of Conduct) in order to support organisational strategies to reduce IT energy usage. Remove silos and promote a minimum level of common understanding relating to data centre Operations and Management. An overall training methodology should be defined and delivered to all relevant personnel in order to improve individual personal development and develop suitably qualified and experienced data centre personnel. Note: Properly trained and qualified personnel are essential to efficient data centre operation.”
Andrew Stevens, CEO, CNet Training, “It’s fantastic that the importance of training and education is finally being recognised across the sector. The DC space is a complicated ecosystem which requires a wide range of skills in order to design, build and operate in an efficient way. More often than not, the root cause of data centre outages is down to human error. More organisations need to be looking to raise the bar, to not only make their organisations better but also to retain staff and ensure that all their teams are highly competent and confident.”
CNet has delivered the Certified Data Centre Energy Professional (CDCEP®) for many years. The popular program teaches learners how to create an energy efficiency for your data centre. The program includes creation, implementation, analysis and formulation recommendations with the ultimate objective of reducing energy use and cutting carbon emissions.
Read the full EU 2020 Code of Conduct guidelines here, in particular, point 3.2.15 here
Read the full CDCEP® program overview here
