{"id":5827,"date":"2022-02-16T08:55:08","date_gmt":"2022-02-16T08:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/2nsystems.com\/?p=5827"},"modified":"2022-03-22T18:40:50","modified_gmt":"2022-03-22T18:40:50","slug":"creating-effective-policies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/2nsystems.com\/creating-effective-policies\/","title":{"rendered":"TIPS FROM A DATA CENTER MANAGER &#8211; Creating Effective Policies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-5363 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/2nsystems.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Nate-1-1-e1634580402173.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"249\" height=\"351\" \/><\/p>\n<h4>Written by Nate Josephs<\/h4>\n<p><strong>Sr. Systems Engineer\/Data Center Manager<\/strong><br \/>\nIn the previous article, I discussed the importance of <a href=\"https:\/\/2nsystems.com\/polic\/\">implementing all three documents (policies, processes, and procedures)<\/a> to minimize risk in the data center.\u00a0 I further discussed that policies differ from processes and procedures as policies are guidelines and rules based on expected outcomes versus instructions on <em>how<\/em> to perform work.\u00a0 In this article, I will explain how to create effective policies for your data center.<\/p>\n<p>To create useful policies for data centers, data center managers need to start by engaging leadership, internal\/external customers, and all other key stakeholders to define what is expected of the data center.\u00a0 Stakeholders\u2019 expectations may include satisfying regulatory compliance requirements along with their expectations regarding uptime.\u00a0 These expectations will vary.\u00a0 One organization such as a bank, or 24\/7 e-commerce company may expect 100% uptime all the time while meeting very stringent security and compliance requirements relating to financial transactions.\u00a0 In contrast, a company providing onsite consulting services 8am-5pm on weekdays may have much lower expectations and can tolerate an occasional server room outage.<\/p>\n<p>The following are a few examples of items often included in data center policies:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><em>Training &#8211; <\/em><\/strong><em>All technicians and vendors must complete data center training provided as by the data center manager prior to performing any work in the data center<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong><em>Service Tickets &#8211; <\/em><\/strong><em>Technicians must obtain an approved service request ticket prior to making any changes within the data center<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong><em>Opening Raised Floor Tiles<\/em><\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><em>A maximum of 3 floor tiles may be opened at one time to prevent loss of cold air pressure in the floor plenum<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Cones must be placed around all open tiles<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Tiles must be placed in original locations immediately after work is complete<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong><em>No Liquids, Food, Cardboard and Empty Plastic Bags area allowed in the data center<\/em><\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Food and liquids can cause short circuits, damage IT equipment, set off leak detection<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Cardboard is a fire hazard and creates unwanted dust<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Empty plastic bags and empty antistatic bags can block airflow causing IT equipment to overheat<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong><em>Cleaning<\/em><\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Perform all work outside the data center that creates dust or metal shavings such as cutting and drilling<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>HEPA vacuum and wipe down (including wheels) before moving new server cabinets into the data center<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Buckets containing water and cleaning solutions must remain outside the data center<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The above policy examples are effective because they are written in clear\/concise language and avoid any extraneous \u201chow to\u201d details.\u00a0 These policies are also practical because although they mention specific departments, or job titles, they avoid using actual names.\u00a0 As people change roles, leave the organization, transfer to other departments, or get promoted, this churn would cause policies to become outdated quickly if actual names were included.<\/p>\n<p>As mentioned, policies are guidelines and rules that define expected outcomes versus explaining how to actually perform tasks.\u00a0 To create effective policies, engage leadership, customers and key stakeholders to determine what is expected of the data center.\u00a0 Expectations should include compliance requirements and risk tolerance level for data center outages.\u00a0 In the next article, I will discuss how to create effective processes.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong> <em>Be sure to check back here soon for the next installment in our series of Policies vs Processes vs Procedures .<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Written by Nate Josephs Sr. Systems Engineer\/Data Center Manager In the previous article, I discussed the importance of implementing all three documents (policies, processes, and procedures) to minimize risk in the data center.\u00a0 I further discussed that policies differ from processes and procedures as policies are guidelines and rules based on expected outcomes versus instructions on how to perform work.\u00a0 In this article, I will explain how to create effective policies for your data center. To create useful policies for data centers, data center managers need to start by engaging leadership, internal\/external customers, and all other key stakeholders to define [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":5840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Creating Effective Policies - 2NSystems Data Center Solutions<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Creating effective policies, engage leadership, customers and key stakeholders to determine what is expected of the data center.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/2nsystems.com\/creating-effective-policies\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Creating Effective Policies - 2NSystems Data Center Solutions\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Creating effective policies, engage leadership, customers and key stakeholders to determine what is expected of the data center.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/2nsystems.com\/creating-effective-policies\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"2NSystems Data Center Solutions\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/2NSystems\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-02-16T08:55:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-03-22T18:40:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/2nsystems.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Policy-2.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1073\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"665\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Celina\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Celina\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Creating Effective Policies - 2NSystems Data Center Solutions","description":"Creating effective policies, engage leadership, customers and key stakeholders to determine what is expected of the data center.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/2nsystems.com\/creating-effective-policies\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Creating Effective Policies - 2NSystems Data Center Solutions","og_description":"Creating effective policies, engage leadership, customers and key stakeholders to determine what is expected of the data center.","og_url":"https:\/\/2nsystems.com\/creating-effective-policies\/","og_site_name":"2NSystems Data Center Solutions","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/2NSystems\/","article_published_time":"2022-02-16T08:55:08+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-03-22T18:40:50+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1073,"height":665,"url":"https:\/\/2nsystems.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Policy-2.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Celina","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Celina","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/2nsystems.com\/creating-effective-policies\/","url":"https:\/\/2nsystems.com\/creating-effective-policies\/","name":"Creating Effective Policies - 2NSystems Data Center Solutions","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/2nsystems.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2022-02-16T08:55:08+00:00","dateModified":"2022-03-22T18:40:50+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/2nsystems.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1a1351c59db5cc0dc393eae2ecb1fe55"},"description":"Creating effective policies, engage leadership, customers and key stakeholders to determine what is expected of the data center.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/2nsystems.com\/creating-effective-policies\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/2nsystems.com\/creating-effective-policies\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/2nsystems.com\/creating-effective-policies\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/2nsystems.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"TIPS FROM A DATA CENTER MANAGER &#8211; 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