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2 - 4 Facility Management

Facility management is management for maintaining the facilities (i.e. computers and peripheral devices, and peripheral environment, such as facilities/equipment where computers are installed and network infrastructure) in the appropriate state. Here, facility management related to facilities and equipment is explained. For safe operation of the system, it is necessary to manage facilities to be maintained at a certain level. Guidelines and standards for maintaining system environment include “Standards for Information System Safety Measure” and “System Management Standards” published by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. In the operation (or design) of facility and equipment, it is necessary to consider from three aspects: reliability, expandability, and cost. In particular, with regard to expandability, it is desired to design and manage with a margin taking into consideration the progress of technology and the external changes. Also, environmentally

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friendly concepts, such as Green of IT, are also important for promoting energy saving in the whole society by energy saving of the entire computer system and the effective use of resources to protect the global environment.

2-4-1 Facility Management

Facility management is management for maintaining the facility where computers and other peripheral devices are installed in a safe and ideal state. For minimizing the damage because of natural disasters (e.g., earthquakes, floods), fire, or other accidents, the facility is installed in the environment where risk can be avoided and prevented. In addition to disasters, risks to the facility include unauthorized intrusions in the building or facility and the abnormal operation or failure of the disaster prevention facility. In facility management, the following types of management are undertaken as measures against risks to the facility. In addition to these management activities, it is necessary to utilize equipment related to fire and crime prevention, knowledge related to safety management, and other useful resource.

• • Disaster prevention management
  In preparation for natural disasters and fire, the building is reinforced with quake-resistant devices and quake-proof devices, fire extinguishing equipment is installed, and flood prevention measures is taken.
• • Crime prevention management
  In order to guard against theft, security cable (i.e., wire for connecting the computer or such other device) is used.
• • Access management
  An ID card or such other method is used to authenticate the people who enter and leave the facility. In principle, according to position or responsibility, minimum access permission is set so that the business operations are not affected.
• • Confirmation of the status of management
  A management representative is assigned for each facility and define management procedures (or rules). In the case of outsourcing the management to an external building management company or a security company, the following are included in the contract: compliance with management procedures, scope of responsibility, periodic audit, and so on.

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2-4-2 Management of Power Supply Related Equipment

As power supply related equipment, the following devices are used for stable power supply to computers (or computer system).

• • Main power supply
  Generally, commercial power supply is used as the main power supply of the system. In order to guard against decline in quality (e.g., disaster, construction work) of commercial power supply, an AVR (Automatic Voltage Regulator) is used for supplying electric power in a continuous and stable manner.
• • Private power generator
  While it is mainly used as backup of the main power supply, it is also used as the main power supply in an environment where commercial power supply cannot be used. In the event of power outage, until the power supply is switched to a private power generator, power is temporarily supplied by using CVCF (Constant Voltage Constant Frequency).
• • UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply)
  This device handles instantaneous outage of a commercial power supply (i.e., instantaneous interruption of power supply) and supplies power only until the system shuts down normally at the time of the power outage. · 1 question
• • Battery
  It is charged with commercial power supply and used for supplying power in the environment without any power supply.
• • Power distribution equipment
  It includes a distribution board, breaker, and surge protection unit. Periodic inspection is important for such equipment.
• • SPD (Surge Protective Device)
  It protects power supply circuits, communication devices, or other equipment from the overvoltage (i.e., surge voltage) and the overcurrent (i.e., surge current) that is generated from overvoltage. This type of protection is called surge protection. In order to protect from overvoltage such as lighting, it is necessary to connect a communication cable and computer through the surge protection device.

2-4-3 Management of Air Conditioning Facility

An air conditioning facility is used for maintaining temperature and humidity that are suitable for operation of devices inside the facility so that the configuration devices of the system can be operated in a stable manner.

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An air conditioning facility can be either centralized air conditioning, where a large air-conditioner is installed to manage temperature of the entire room, or distributed air conditioning, where an air conditioning facility is installed for each device. For devices that emit a large amount of heat, a water cooling type cooling device may also be used. There is a concept of improving indoor cooling efficiency by clearly separating hot aisle, which is a space where only exhaust (i.e., hot air) of the device is collected, and cold aisle, which is a space where only cold air blowing from an air conditioner is collected. This concept can reduce power consumption and the cost of air conditioners.