Our 30 years of experience in auditing and assessing workplace compliance at Assurity Consulting, has benefitted us in just over 10 years becoming specialists in supporting and providing Data Centre compliance services.
We have formulated a complete program package of health and safety compliance, from management reviews, risk assessments, risk assessment reviews, management systems and training. This compliance program provides a complete solution for health and safety management and benefits from our independence, accreditations, and certifications.
Being both an account manager for this sector and a health and safety consultant, I had no idea how immersed I would become in the Data Centre industry when I joined Assurity Consulting. I have sat reading books about the benefits of hot and cold isles containment, deciphering explanations on the difference between colocation halls and scale halls, intrigued by the workings of battery rooms, slightly terrified by that buzz from the electrical busbars, and walked through more generator compounds and UPS rooms than I can count, but I can honestly say that I really enjoy working within this industry!
A fulfilling and beneficial starting point for me for when I work with a new Data Centre has been to perform a health and safety management review - this helps me to get a good grasp of the health and safety management system that are in place.
During the assessment I will review and ask questions to really understand how the system is implemented and how effective it is, and if it covers legislative requirement. We review based on the HSE, HSG65 document, looking for planning and implementation through to auditing and improving systems.
The report that the customer receives provides high level actions that can be addressed at head office and rolled out to sites. This centralised approach helps provide solutions in line with company policy, rather than 10 sites producing 10 different solutions.
Following this review, individual site risk assessments are typically conducted from Legionella, fire and noise risk assessments, ultimately to lower associated risk and be compliant with health and safety law. We also conduct water and air assessments, computer room audits and I personally deliver health and safety assessments, that reviews health and safety compliance over our A-Z of health and safety.
We review how procedures are implemented and check that key testing and maintenance documentation are in place and in date. Following the document review we complete a site inspection. We are one of the few companies to be able to provide zinc whisker testing. Yes, it’s niche, but if you are having unexplained power interruptions, we can help if needed.
One further service that I deliver is our health and safety support days. These days are used to support the site teams, but also the compliance teams. For the site teams, I can support with action management from both ours and third-party reports. This gives the site teams dedicated time and focus on action management and closure.
I can also help with document reviews such as sampling of logbooks, reviewing site specific procedures, guidance documents and risk assessments and site walks for example. When delivering support to the compliance teams, I complete policy reviews, assist with generating presentations for health and safety committee meetings, chair committee meetings and reviewing report actions to identify reoccurring non-compliances. Training assists with this centralised message and we have provided bespoke training from senior management to toolbox talks for roll out to site teams.
All our services are perfectly packaged into our property risk management software, Assurity Plus 2.0 that delivers real-time information to support and demonstrate the proactive management of health, safety, and environmental compliance at Data Centres.
I know that I am biased, but if you are looking for a health and safety consultancy with experience and knowledge of your industry to assist you with your compliance, you have found it and I look forward to talking to you!