Data Center Critical Facilities Fundamentals

DCF 101 provides essential knowledge for aspiring data center technicians, covering the foundational principles of critical facilities management. The curriculum emphasizes the core concepts of infrastructure redundancy and availability, including various tiered classifications and their impact on uptime guarantees. Students will explore critical operational procedures such as Method of Procedure (MOP) development, change control processes, and incident response, all crucial for preventing outages and ensuring service continuity. A strong focus is placed on safety protocols and understanding the inherent risks associated with high-power, high-density environments. Through a blend of theoretical instruction and practical, hands-on labs, learners will develop a comprehensive understanding of the systems and practices necessary for effective and safe data center operation, preparing them for entry-level roles in this dynamic field.

InstructorJacob Calhoun

Course outline

Lectures, virtual labs, and graded assignments — completed in your browser.

01Lesson 1: Introduction to Data Center Critical Facilities and Uptimelecture

02Lesson 2: Core Infrastructure Components and Their Functionslecture

03Lesson 3: Understanding Redundancy Concepts and System Architectureslecture

04Hands-on Lab: Basic Critical Systems Identification and Documentationlab

05Lesson 5: Tiered Classification Systems and Their Operational Implicationslecture

06Lesson 6: Critical Facility Power Distribution and Managementlecture

07Lesson 7: Environmental Control Systems: Cooling, Humidity, and Airflowlecture

08Hands-on Lab: Environmental Monitoring and Anomaly Detectionlab

09Lesson 9: Data Center Safety Standards and Emergency Preparednesslecture

10Lesson 10: Introduction to Methods of Procedure (MOPs) and Change Controllecture

11Hands-on Lab: Developing a Basic Method of Procedure (MOP)lab

12Lesson 12: Incident Response, Reporting, and Post-Mortem Analysislecture

13Lesson 13: Facility Security and Access Control Fundamentalslecture

14Capstone Service Project: Critical System Maintenance Planningassignment

Syllabus

["Week 1: Lesson 1: Introduction to Data Center Critical Facilities and Uptime","Week 2: Lesson 2: Core Infrastructure Components and Their Functions","Week 3: Lesson 3: Understanding Redundancy Concepts and System Architectures","Week 4: Hands-on Lab: Basic Critical Systems Identification and Documentation","Week 5: Lesson 5: Tiered Classification Systems and Their Operational Implications","Week 6: Lesson 6: Critical Facility Power Distribution and Management","Week 7: Lesson 7: Environmental Control Systems: Cooling, Humidity, and Airflow","Week 8: Hands-on Lab: Environmental Monitoring and Anomaly Detection","Week 9: Lesson 9: Data Center Safety Standards and Emergency Preparedness","Week 10: Lesson 10: Introduction to Methods of Procedure (MOPs) and Change Control","Week 11: Hands-on Lab: Developing a Basic Method of Procedure (MOP)","Week 12: Lesson 12: Incident Response, Reporting, and Post-Mortem Analysis","Week 13: Lesson 13: Facility Security and Access Control Fundamentals","Week 14: Capstone Service Project: Critical System Maintenance Planning"]