An interview with Aaron Hesse, RCDD, PE, Global Inside Plant Design Engineer at Amazon Web Services

Originally posted to marcus evans Conferences

Ahead of the 2nd Data Center Design & Construction, we spoke with Aaron Hesse, RCDD, PE, Global Inside Plant Design Engineer at Amazon Web Services to uncover the distinct importance of structured wiring practices and the next generation of cabling standards.

What kind of repercussions could be expected from not using industry-standard cabling practices?

I’ve seen past clients choose to reduce CapEx spend by using non-standard or low-cost cabling methods. They mistakenly believe that optimizing for their exact need on day one is the most ideal case. After all, that is how other systems such as electrical and mechanical infrastructure is designed – right up to the current need without excess. Unfortunately, cabling infrastructure cannot be designed in this way. This desire to reduce waste backs data center owners into a corner 2-3 years down the road. Suddenly they find themselves pulling everything out and redesigning the cabling plant.

What is the most important phase of delivering cable installation for a data center?

If I had to pick one, I would say the acceptance testing and commissioning phase. It’s a common misconception that you need a commissioning agent to complete this phase. Because of this, it is the most likely phase to be forgotten and often gets skipped. That’s a mistake. If the final product isn’t up to industry standards, all of that “future-proofing” you may have done goes out the window. Instead, you’ll be chasing intermittent networking issues that are difficult to diagnose and expensive to repair.

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