April 3, 2018
Program from UL and ESD Consulting helps mitigate risk for critical business infrastructure through new UL 3223 Standard
NORTHBROOK, Ill., April 3, 2018 — Mass adoption of cloud computing has created a significant new risk: the potential to affect large numbers of companies and individuals in the event of a failure of a cloud services provider’s data center, infrastructure or network. To combat this risk, UL approached ESD to collaborate on the development of an international UL Data Center Certification Program. ESD is widely regarded as a thought leader by influencers in the data center engineering, colocation and hyper-scale data center industries, and the company’s expertise enables the engineering services portion of the UL Data Center Certification Program.
The UL Data Center Certification Program helps mitigate risk for data center owners and operators by providing a set of criteria to increase end-user transparency, provider accountability, and proper data center documentation. The program addresses the continued reliability and safety of data centers by evaluating key components of critical infrastructure. The integration of multiple disciplines creates a comprehensive service for data center owners and operators, who will benefit from the combined expertise of professionals in the technology, engineering, fire and life safety, security, commissioning, and eco-energy areas of focus. Other benefits could include: reduced insurance premiums, reduced construction costs, tax exempt status on personal property and equipment tax and a high-level of marketing brand.
“The potential impact of a wide-spread outage from a major provider grows daily. To mitigate this risk, cloud providers need to address the most common causes of outages, which include human errors, software issues, network downtime, and hardware failure which can result in corresponding failure of high availability architecture, and, of course, data centers,” explained Paul Schlattman, senior vice president, ESD Consulting.
“This certification program built around the UL 3223 Standard is particularly relevant for leading providers of large scale colocation and hyperscale capacity, due to their large potential risk,” said Chris Hasbrook, vice president and general manager for UL’s Building Materials and Life Safety Technologies division. “It will serve as an important benchmark for enterprise and government organizations looking to outsource in the safest and most reliable facilities.” The UL 3223 Standard is scheduled to be published in April 2018
About UL
UL fosters safe living and working conditions for people everywhere through the application of science to solve safety, security and sustainability challenges. The UL Mark engenders trust enabling the safe adoption of innovative new products and technologies. Everyone at UL shares a passion to make the world a safer place. We test, inspect, audit, certify, validate, verify, advise and train and we support these efforts with software solutions for safety and sustainability. To learn more about us, visit UL.com.
About ESD
A global company, ESD is a leader in Improving Society Through the Built Environment. We create design solutions that produce economic, environmental and experiential benefits for our clients, many of whom are the biggest names in the worlds of business, technology — and beyond. We embrace technological change and are in the forefront of developing Intelligent Buildings. We emphasize innovation, adaptability, and sustainability when providing mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire protection, life safety, and technology engineering. For more information, please visit www.esdglobal.com.
CONTACT:
Neil Lakomiak
Director, Business Development
UL , Commercial & Industrial
O: (847) 664.2523
Neil.Lakomiak@ul.com
Paul Schlattman
Senior Vice President
ESD Consulting
O: (312) 456.2214 C: (312) 493.8862
pschlattman@esdglobal.com