Coming out of Father’s Day, I asked ChatGPT to write me a Dad Joke about the leading cause of downtime in data centers…a rudimentary test of how ubiquitous issues caused by human intervention are. Here’s what it gave me…
What’s the real root cause of data center downtime? A loose nut…behind the keyboard.
No offense to data center operators. They certainly aren’t nuts. But the fact of the matter is, humans aren’t perfect. As long as we’re the ones tasked with intervening on maintenance issues, we’re going to have errors. Uptime Institute’s research attributes roughly 60% of incidents to Human Error, so the best way to limit errors is to limit human interventions. To that end, Compass partnered with Schneider Electric to co-create the EcoCare platform for predictive maintenance. The results have been nothing short of astounding.
Compass has achieved a 40% reduction in maintenance interventions and a 20% reduction in operating expense by replacing calendar-based maintenance with intelligence-based maintenance.
With EcoCare, data is gathered and transmitted from sensors attached to critical equipment. The sensors are constantly monitoring for irregularities, things like temperature spikes or motor vibrations. A gateway processes data from the many sensors and devices, feeding a continuously monitored, advanced analytics platform. With this depth of data, we’re able to see when systems are “under the weather” and in need of intervention. Maintenance is addressed before a minor issue escalates into a costly outage. We’re able to stay ahead of equipment failure and only intervene when necessary.
Compass is replacing educated guesses with data- and time-based AI models that know how an asset is performing relative to its peak performance and can predict when that performance is lagging or degrading with potential to fail.
The system not only enhances reliability but also supports Compass’s broader mission of sustainable development by reducing energy consumption, minimizing e-waste and optimizing resource use. With EcoCare, we’re able to meet the surge in data demand faster and more reliably – delivering accelerated speed-to-market while enabling end-user customers to grow more quickly and meet requirements for data processing, storage and delivery.
