For years, managing a Data Centre had a fairly simple rule: it must not go down. And that was enough. Each team did its part, each system fulfilled its function and, although everything was more or less connected (some Excel here, some email there), the operation kept moving forward.
Facilities on one side, IT on the other, cabling in some document that “someone” had… and everyone trusting that, if something happened, someone would see it and react in time.
And for a long time, it worked.
Today, it no longer does.
Not because it was wrong before, but because the context has changed so much that this model simply does not scale:
- The digitalisation of services, the increase in processing and equipment consumption (whether AI or not).
- The real impact that any outage has on the business.
- The pressure to optimise costs (yes, the Data Centre is becoming a significant cost centre for companies).
and, as if that were not enough
- Fewer hands to manage more complexity (data centres have grown faster than the number of skilled professionals).
Because of all this, the Data Centre has stopped being “invisible” and has become something much more critical and strategic.
We are forced to change how we operate it.
BMS, EPMS, DCIM, ITSM, observability…. Operations are still carried out with separate systems, data that does not quite match between them and decisions that are often made with incomplete or outdated information.
We have more technology than ever… but not necessarily more control.
The problem is that we continue to put tools at the centre, when what should be at the centre are the processes.
DCBP – Process-Based Data Centre
When the Data Centre is managed through processes, it becomes less important where each piece of data is located and more important that the data is consistent, up to date and meaningful within the whole. Processes are what connect the physical world with the logical one, ensuring that a change in a rack is reflected in the service, and guaranteeing that what the DCIM, the CMDB and reality say is the same.
And here comes the interesting part: what does a Process-Based Data Centre (DCBP) really mean?
It is a model where operations are no longer organised in silos, but around well-defined standard O&M processes; connecting IT and OT, integrating their respective management and monitoring tools, and thus ensuring the reliability of information at all times. In this way, it becomes the guide and control for operations personnel.
Tools become sources of data, while processes orchestrate, validate and automate operations to improve Data Centre efficiency and reliability.
It could be summarised as:
- Receive the event, request or scheduled task.
- Validate feasibility with the necessary information from integrated infrastructure and service tools.
- Activate or reject the work order based on validation.
- Coordinate notification, execution and status review of tasks with the personnel involved.
- Close the work order.
- Update information and changes across all involved systems automatically through integrations between them.
Without exposure to errors. Without loss of information. Without relying on human memory.
For example, when onboarding new equipment, instead of starting with a chain of calls and on-site checks and executing tasks without control, the system should first validate whether the asset information is complete, trigger the work order (feasibility logistics inventory and pre-assembly installation commissioning), close the work order, and update the information across all involved tools (ticketing, CMDB, DCiM)
In addition to operational efficiency (with the associated cost savings) and avoiding outages caused by decisions made with incorrect information, it now becomes possible to truly measure:
• Reliability
• Availability
• SLAs
• OLAs
And then, little by little, you stop reacting… and start managing.
That is why the change is not about adding more technology.
It is about changing the model…
Fuentes: https://www.weforum.org/stories/2025/09/data-centre-resilient-workforce/?utm_source=chatgpt.com
“The Uptime Institute Data Center Staffing Survey 2024”