Seminar for operations managers, IT managers, service managers, and auditors
Data Center Operations – Professional
Operating and managing a data center: processes, concepts, key performance indicators, and a simulation of service management drawn from real projects
At a glance
In five days, you learn how a data center is operated and managed according to EN 50600-3-1: from the system architecture and the resources through operating concepts, service management, maintenance, and change to the key performance indicators you use to measure resilience and energy efficiency.
You can then justify operational decisions with processes and figures, to management, customers, and auditors.
Operations as a system
The seminar treats the operation of a data center as a system: viewpoints and system boundaries, stakeholders and needs, the resources infrastructure and personnel, and the concept landscape of usage, security, and operating concepts and business continuity management.
Processes and KPIs
It also covers service management according to EN 50600-3-1 with incident, change, and capacity management, operator concepts, maintenance and change processes, and KPIs for resilience according to ISO/IEC TS 22237-31 and the design PUE according to EN 50600-4-2.
Simulation in every format
All trainers come from real projects; in a simulation of service management, in every format, you experience how the processes interlock.
The operations seminar
It is the third seminar of the Data Center Specialist training path and the seminar for everyone who is responsible for, operates, or services a data center as a provider.
Why Data Center Operations?
Operation is the longest phase in the life cycle of a data center.
If you organize operations according to the processes of EN 50600-3-1, you decide by consistent criteria rather than by routine.
This saves you unplanned outages caused by unchecked interventions and protects you from audit findings that result from missing documentation of maintenance and changes. The seminar starts from the data center as a system: which viewpoints, stakeholders, and needs determine the architecture, which infrastructure and personnel resources support it, and which concepts hold operations together. On this basis, it covers the operational and management processes according to EN 50600-3-1, the operator concept, the maintenance and change process, and the KPIs used to measure resilience according to ISO/IEC TS 22237-31 and energy efficiency as design PUE.
Months in construction, years in operation
What is decided in design and construction within months is carried by the operating organization for years: resolving incidents, approving changes, providing capacity, planning maintenance, reporting KPIs.
The processes of the standard
EN 50600-3-1 defines the processes for operation. A data center conforms to it only if it implements the operational and management processes of the standard and monitors the PUE. This is exactly where the seminar comes in.
Introduction with growing maturity
Anyone who introduces processes and KPIs into an existing organization does so step by step according to EN 50600-3-1, as a process of its own with growing maturity.
Who it is for
Who is this seminar for?
Operations managers and facility managers
of data centers who are responsible for processes, maintenance, and KPIs according to EN 50600-3-1.
Technical managers and administrators
of the data center infrastructure who approve changes and resolve incidents.
IT managers, IT operations managers, and ICT managers
who organize the interface between IT, facility management, and business units.
Process and service managers
in the data center environment who design SLAs, cost models, and reporting.
System architects and infrastructure planners with operational responsibility
who justify architecture decisions from an operational perspective.
Operators of colocation and hosting data centers, IT service providers, and public authorities
who demonstrate operation as a service to customers and users.
Auditors and certifiers
who assess operational processes and operating concepts against EN 50600-3-1.
We recommend the seminars Data Center – General Principles and Data Center Design & Implementation or comparable knowledge of the disciplines, Availability Classes, and the structure of EN 50600; the simulation and the exercises assume this knowledge. Operational experience helps but is not a requirement.
Trainers and credentials
Trainers who work on current projects
The trainers on this seminar come from real projects; they have applied what they teach in their own data center projects. Which trainers lead a date depends on the date and format; the content is the same.
Linus Felder
Chef Einsatzkritische Infrastrukturen und Luftwaffensysteme · Schweizer Armee, Kommando Cyber
Georg Foraita
gfc – consulting&more
Solution Architect DataCenter · Schneider Electric GmbH
Thomas Grüschow
Lead Auditor EN50600 / ISO/IEC22237 · TÜV SÜD Industrie Service GmbH
Geschäftsführender Inhaber · Stromdrazer Consultant
Chief Education & Alliance Officer · DCE academy
Vendor-neutral
DCE academy does not sell products and does not represent any manufacturer. Its only aim is to pass on knowledge and train people well, with experts who know their subject from ongoing projects. Products are not sold in the seminar.
First-hand standardization work
DCE academy is the exclusive sponsor of the ISO/IEC 22237 working group and is informed about every meeting of the standards committee and its content. Changes to EN 50600 and ISO/IEC 22237 are incorporated into the seminars, often months before publication. Member of the German Datacenter Association.
- Training since 2007
- for the planning, construction, and operation of data centers
- More than 1,000 participants
- with a DCE academy certificate
- More than 25 experts
- among our trainers
- 98% of participants
- rate their seminar as good or very good (feedback forms 2023–2026)
What you will take away
After the seminar you will be able to
describe a data center as a system, with the operational, functional, and structural viewpoints, with system boundaries and levels of consideration, and carry out a stakeholder and needs analysis as the basis of the system architecture;
organize the infrastructure and personnel resources according to the design principles of EN 50600 (redundancy, fault tolerance, scalability, maintainability) and with role descriptions and a RASCI matrix;
create and maintain operating concepts and connect the concept landscape of usage, security, and operating concepts and business continuity management with processes, roles, and responsibilities;
classify the operational and management processes of EN 50600-3-1, from incident and change management to service level management, and set up the operator as a service provider with SLAs and cost models;
plan maintenance according to DIN 31051 and EN 13306, from reactive to predictive, and manage in-house and outsourced maintenance through processes;
introduce a change process with risk assessment, classification from standard to major change, checklists, and the four-eyes principle;
assess resilience with KPIs according to ISO/IEC TS 22237-31 (availability, reliability, failure rate, single and double points of failure) and calculate the design PUE according to EN 50600-4-2, as the basis for SLAs, comparison of variants, and spare parts planning.
Seminar 3 of 4 in the Data Center Specialist training path
After passing the exams of all four seminars, you receive the Data Center Specialist certificate. This seminar can be booked on its own.
Content
Six modules
The six modules follow the structure of data center operations: from the data center as a system through resources and concepts to the processes according to EN 50600-3-1, the KPIs, and the operating organization with maintenance and change.
Every change in the system affects other components; anyone who operates a data center must understand it as a system with boundaries and interfaces. The module leads from the viewpoints of system architecture through stakeholder analysis to needs analysis as the starting point of every system development.
- Operational, functional, and structural viewpoints; abstraction, decomposition, and interfaces; system boundaries and levels of consideration from N-2 to N+2; the rule of seven for structuring complex systems
- Stakeholders as external systems and influencing factors: identification through interviews, workshops, and market analyses, grouping and prioritization, representation in diagrams and hierarchies
- Needs analysis: deriving needs from stakeholders, capturing, simplifying, formalizing, and tracing requirements; validation with the question “Have we built the right system?”
- Tools for capturing needs in the exercise; iteration as a principle of analysis
Resources are finite; infrastructure and personnel must be planned, documented, and prioritized. The module connects the design principles of EN 50600 with the organization of the teams in operation.
- Dependencies between resources; design principles according to EN 50600: redundancy, fault tolerance, scalability, robustness, maintainability, simplicity, sustainability
- Holistic planning and a worst-case approach as the basis for design and risk assessment; resource management as maintained documentation
- Organization of personnel resources: teams, areas of tasks and responsibility, role descriptions and job profiles as living documents
- RASCI matrix against overlaps and gaps in responsibility; soft skills in technical roles: customer orientation, collaboration, analytical thinking
Usage, security, operation, and business continuity management together form the backbone of stable data center operations. The module shows how operating concepts are created, how they differ from other governing documents, and how they work as a management instrument for security, quality, and availability.
- Benefits of concepts for operational stability, optimization, and auditability; outline and detailed concept in the life cycle; development in phases from project planning to ongoing operation
- Principles and best practices for writing concepts: structure, formalities, documentation; distinction from standards, regulations, and instructions so that nothing is regulated twice
- Concept landscape: usage concept, security concept as the basis of the emergency manual, operating concept with procedures, responsibilities, and interfaces, business continuity management as a strategic addition
- Integration of processes, roles, and responsibilities with a RACI or DEBI matrix; ongoing review, adjustment, and reporting
EN 50600-3-1 is the normative framework for the operational and management processes of a data center; the operator is a service provider to IT, business units, and customers. The module connects the processes of the standard with ITIL practice, a simulation of service management, and the lean principles for projects in the data center environment.
- Service life cycle with strategy, design, transition, and operation; the four perspectives people, products, processes, partners; collaboration of the IT, facility, and business organizations
- Operational and management processes according to EN 50600-3-1: incident and change management as core processes, proactive capacity, availability, and security planning, transparent SLAs and cost models, continual improvement
- Simulation of service management: making management processes tangible and measurable; service management as organizational development from “chaos” to “optimized”
- Project management with lean construction: the five lean principles, commitment in the promise cycle, the Last Planner System with milestone and phase planning, six-week lookahead, and KPI analysis
Resilience can be measured: ISO/IEC TS 22237-31, with its European counterpart CLC/TS 50600-4-31, provides a common basis for assessing the operational robustness of a data center with KPIs. The module combines architecture, design, and operating parameters into KPIs and adds the design PUE according to EN 50600-4-2.
- Dependability and its attributes: reliability, fault tolerance, availability; failure versus fault; the KPIs availability, reliability, and failure rate; tolerance of single and double points of failure
- Calculating reliability and availability through series and parallel configurations (Boolean models); objective comparability of different designs
- Application: comparison of variants and design assessment, weak point and risk analysis, SLAs based on measurable resilience metrics, capacity, spare parts, and prevention planning
- Design PUE according to EN 50600-4-2: calculation method, relationship between IT load, UPS, cooling, and building loads, calculation steps and measurement points; benchmarking between sites and concepts
Availability, risk, and costs depend directly on the operating organization. The module covers operator models and governance, maintenance as a strategic process according to DIN 31051 and EN 13306, and the change process without which no intervention in existing systems takes place.
- Operator and organizational models: in-house and outsourced operation, roles and responsibilities, dependencies between Availability Class, staffing structure, SLA, and risk; governance with DCIM, KPIs, and reporting
- Maintenance according to DIN 31051 and EN 13306: servicing, inspection, repair, improvement; reactive, preventive, condition-based, and predictive strategies
- Maintenance plans with time windows and risk assessment; in-house and outsourced maintenance; documentation and follow-up for compliance and auditability
- Change management: risk assessment and classification before every intervention, standard, minor, significant, and major changes, checklists, the four-eyes principle, link to maintenance and operational safety
Standards and practice
Standards, laws, regulations
The seminar covers the following standard parts, laws, and regulations:
EN 50600‑3‑1 Management and operational information
Operational processes (operations, incident, change, configuration, and capacity management), management processes (availability, security, energy, product life cycle, cost, data center strategy, service level, customers), conformance conditions, introduction of processes and maturity; commissioning is covered in depth in the seminar Data Center Design & Implementation
EN 50600‑1 General concepts
Design principles and Availability Classes as a reference for resources, operator concept, and resilience
ISO/IEC TS 22237‑31
Key performance indicators for resilience: availability, reliability, failure rate, single and double points of failure, resilience levels
CLC/TS 50600‑4‑31
European counterpart of ISO/IEC TS 22237-31 (Technical Specification, published in Germany as a pre-standard)
EN 50600‑4‑2
Power usage effectiveness (PUE) and design PUE
DIN 31051
Fundamentals of maintenance
EN 13306
Maintenance terminology
ITIL
Best practices for service management, supplemented by ISO/IEC best practices (not specific to data centers)
RASCI, RACI, and DEBI matrix
Methods for assigning responsibilities
Lean construction and Last Planner System
Project method (not normative)
How it works and prerequisites
How does the seminar work?
Two formats, one price
Five seminar days, as an in-person seminar or as a live webinar. In both formats, you learn the same content at the same price; when you register, you choose the format that fits your schedule.
Seminar times and materials
The first seminar day usually starts at 10:00, the following days at 09:00; the seminar ends at around 17:00, and at around 13:00 on the fifth day. You receive the seminar materials as a PDF in the language in which the seminar is held.
Exercises and simulation
Several trainers share the five days by topic. Part of the time is spent on exercises and the simulation of service management, in every format; you learn to calculate resilience KPIs and the design PUE step by step.
In person
In-person seminars include drinks, coffee, and lunch, and there is time to talk with the other participants and with the trainers, who have real project experience.
Exam and certificate
After the seminar, you receive the link to the online exam by email and have one week to take it. When you pass, you receive the seminar certificate, which does not expire and can be verified publicly; you will find the seminar materials and the certificate in DCE Campus.
Prerequisites: General Principles and Design & Implementation recommended
We recommend the seminars Data Center – General Principles and Data Center Design & Implementation or comparable knowledge of the disciplines, Availability Classes, and the structure of EN 50600, because the simulation and the exercises build on it. Experience in operating a data center helps but is not a requirement.
Dates and registration
Choose a date and format
Same content, same price, same certificate in every format.
€6,990 per participant, plus VAT, in every format
- Register
Live webinar · online · English
- Register
In person · Frankfurt am Main · German
- Register
In person · Frankfurt am Main · German
- Register
Live webinar · online · English
- Register
In person · Frankfurt am Main · German
No suitable date, or several participants from one company? Thomas Wawra advises you on dates, formats, and framework agreements.
Before you register
Frequently asked questions
They are recommended but not mandatory. The simulation and the exercises assume that you know the disciplines, Availability Classes, and the structure of EN 50600. If you bring this knowledge from your own work, you can start directly; in the Data Center Specialist training path, Data Center Operations – Professional is the third of four seminars.
The operational and management processes of the standard and how they work together in daily operation: operations, incident, change, configuration, and capacity management, plus availability, security, energy, cost, customer, and service level management. You learn what operating concepts, operator models, maintenance plans, and change processes that support these processes look like, and how to introduce processes and KPIs step by step into an existing organization.
Operational processes such as operations, incident, change, and capacity management, and management processes from data center strategy to customer management; this includes monitoring the PUE. The seminar explains each of these processes with its KPIs and shows in which order an organization introduces them.
With KPIs according to ISO/IEC TS 22237-31 and its European counterpart CLC/TS 50600-4-31: availability, reliability, and failure rate, supplemented by the number of single and double points of failure and a defined resilience level. The values are calculated from the resilience model of the infrastructure through series and parallel configurations; this makes it possible to compare design variants and to base SLAs on measurable values. The seminar teaches the method and its application.
Yes. The collaboration of IT, facility management, and business units is part of the seminar, as is the role of the operator as a service provider. You should bring a technical understanding of the disciplines; for this, we recommend the seminar Data Center – General Principles.
As a live webinar, yes: the in-person seminar and the live webinar teach the same content at the same price, with the same exam and the same certificate; you choose the format when you register. The seminar is currently not offered as a video course. The in-person dates are held in German; the seminar dates show which date takes place in which format and language.
Yes. DCE academy does not sell products and does not represent any manufacturer; no products are sold in the seminar. Its aim is to pass on knowledge and train people well, with experts who know their subject from ongoing projects.
After passing the exam, you receive a seminar certificate from DCE academy. You receive the link to the online exam by email after the seminar and have one week to take it. The certificate does not expire, can be verified publicly, and counts as one of four seminars toward the Data Center Specialist certificate; you can attend the seminar Deep Dive – Power Supply & Cooling before or after it.
