It’s essential to keep your data centers at peak performance. It secures all of your mission-critical data that has to meet specific regulatory compliances.

Most organizations perform annual data center audits to get insight into:

• Quality control
• Security
• Energy efficiency
• Operational performance.
• Power and cooling efficiency

But depending on your industry and business size, your data center will likely need more than one audit.

The most common data center audits involve the ISO 27000 series, which provides strict guidelines on security policies and operations.

Preparing for a data center audit can be time-consuming and complex. A data center checklist assessment is a good place to start. But it’s recommended that external consultants conduct the audits to avoid skewed results and internal bias.

Before moving forward with an external consultant, to save on time and money it's critical to prepare for a data center audit. A data center audit checklist assessment is a good place to start.

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The following data center assessment checklist is a general list of areas to check in preparation for a data center assessment. 

Most data center audits will cover most or all of these areas. Special-purpose audits, such as those for compliance with specific regulations or industry standards, may cover additional areas. 

You can find an additional data center assessment questionnaire and data center audit checklist for these specialized audits online. 

We have also prepared our own data center assessment checklist, which you can download here. We recommend that you print out this checklist and keep it handy for future reference.

Hardware and Software Installation and Operation

• Does your facility have standard operating procedures (SOPs) for hardware and software installation? Can you demonstrate that they are being followed?
• Is hardware or software configured to comply with security best practices?
• Is hardware or software being continuously maintained with patches and updates?

Equipment Maintenance

• For data center infrastructure systems (such as cooling, ventilation, fire suppression, and backup power), are planned maintenance items completed in accordance with required schedules?
• Are environmental sensors (such as temperature and oxygen) properly calibrated?
• Are server hardware and network switchgear being properly maintained with the latest firmware updates?

Performance and Operational Monitoring

• Is continuous, automatic performance monitoring in place to alert staff when servers and network switchgear are suffering performance issues?
• Is continuous, automatic monitoring in place to alert staff of software operation issues (such as resource conflicts and bottlenecks)?
• Are there SOPs in place that define how to diagnose and resolve hardware and software performance and operation issues?

Software Management and Recovery

• Are all mission-critical systems and components that house data backed up to off-site storage?
• Is a monitoring system in place to alert staff of failed backups?
• Are disaster recovery procedures in place to ensure rapid, smooth recovery of lost systems and data? Can you show that staff have been trained on these procedures?

Get Reliable Data Center Assistance Today

Even with a comprehensive data center assessment checklist, preparing for an audit is a major undertaking. Unless you know the key criteria for any applicable audit, you shouldn’t go it alone. 

For best results, consult with Quadbridge’s experts. Our team can help you prepare an actionable checklist that provides a complete audit of your data center operations while ensuring it adheres to all necessary compliance standards. 

For more information, please contact us today.