Arfon Engineering, part of the Wilo group, has appointed Alice Oakes as service and support manager to lead the launch of an end-to-end solution tailored for the data centre sector.
Alice brings with her over a decade of experience in both the pump and maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) industries. During this time, she has held various sales, supply chain and project management roles.
She will now liaise with data centre operators and facilities managers across the nation to facilitate the shift from reactive maintenance to online condition-based monitoring.
Her appointment comes amid the launch of a bespoke one-stop package from Arfon and Wilo. Decisionmakers can turn to Wilo for the specification and supply of its industry-leading pumps, which play a crucial role in maintaining 99.999% availability in data centres by circulating cooling fluids in various configurations.
Arfon, meanwhile, will maintain and repair any mechanical rotating equipment found in data centres, from pumps and fans to chillers and generators, regardless of their brand, 24/7 and 365 days a year. It will also implement real-time monitoring to detect anomalies before they lead to failures and unplanned downtime.
After more than half (54%) of respondents to Uptime Intelligence’s annual survey reported their most recent significant outage to have cost more than $100,000[1], online condition-based monitoring is becoming essential for operators seeking to mitigate risk and protect uptime.
Alice said: “Data centres are a critical component of our day-to-day lives and downtime is simply not an option. With the sector set for exponential growth over the coming decades, the shift away from preventative to predictive maintenance has never been more important.
“Although more businesses are starting to adopt condition-based monitoring, it is often seen as an operating expense and incorporated too late when the data centre is already in operation and the risks of downtime already present. Rather than this, we encourage businesses to see it as a strategic investment from the outset in maintaining uptime and integrated resilience.
“For new entrants to the sector, implementing real-time monitoring at the planning stage can ensure that from the get-go, a data centre can operate without the fear of significant reputational damage and financial hits that come with unplanned outages. By offering this solution alongside the specification of pumps and guarantee of maintenance and repairs, our goal is to make this transition seamless.”
Alice’s call-to-action similarly applies to existing data centres, particularly those with ageing mission-critical assets that are at a heightened risk of failing. With 66% of operators planning to retrofit at least a quarter of their data centre estate in the next five years[2], she believes that proactive monitoring and maintenance should not be optional for mission critical assets.
“Retrofitting data centres shouldn’t solely revolve around replacing old equipment, operators must reconsider how to best manage it,” she added. “By embedding condition-based monitoring into these upgrades, they can gain greater control over assets, both existing and new, and as a result reduce the risk of costly service-led agreement breaches, all while guaranteeing continuous improvement and future resilience”
Discover more about Arfon Engineering’s services for the data centre sector.
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