Improvisation in Commissioning update from February 2011

riyadh-datacenter

A look at a test of the cooling system at Alinma Bank in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Load banks were not available, so heaters were used to simulate IT load (Credit: The Uptime Institute).

Alinma Bank recently earned a Tier Three certification for a data center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, becoming the first organization from the Middle East and North Africa to earn that distinction. The  new facility was the subject of a post at the new Uptime Instittue blog penned by Matt Stansberry, who has moved from SearchDataCenter to a new post as director of publications at Uptime.

The process involved some improvisation. Testing and commissioning usually involves the use of load banks, devices which simulate an electrical load for an extended period of time. The consultant working with Alinma said that a lack of readily available load banks in Saudi Arabia led to the improvised use of heaters to simulate IT load for commissioning and testing, as seen in the photo above.