Track every rack, power feed and cross-connect against the customer who pays for it.

A data centre operator leases cages, racks and individual units to customers who bring their own servers. Each lease commits a power allocation, a number of circuits on two feeds, and often cross-connects to carriers. The operator sells reliability, so every maintenance task and every visit leaves a record.

Contracts, rack plans, meter readings and visitor logs usually live in separate files. The data centre operator software connects them, so a customer’s kilowatts, floor space, cabling and access list sit beside its contract and its invoice.

Sales and capacity staff reserve racks for a prospect, then hold them until the contract starts. After signing, the customer sends an equipment delivery notice, and receiving staff log each box in, check it against the notice and move it to the cage. Customers request remote hands to swap a disk, power cycle a server or read a label, and each request becomes a ticket with a technician’s note.

Facilities engineers read power and temperature meters, run generator and UPS tests, and service cooling units on a fixed calendar. Security staff check visitors against the customer’s approved list and issue badges, while finance bills a colocation fee, metered power above the allocation and one-off cross-connect charges. Capacity planners watch remaining power per room, because that runs out before floor space does. A hall can look half empty while every remaining kilowatt is already promised to a customer who has not yet moved in.