Certified TIA-942 Design Consultant (CTDC®)

CTDC® Overview

Data centres are at the core of many organisations. Downtime of the data centre could lead to major losses to the business. As a result, many organisations establish resilience at various levels such as the data centre facilities infrastructure and at the ICT layer. However, following the recommendations from various vendors, consultants and the public domain, information might result in under- or over-specification. Therefore it would be better to follow a commonly accepted standard as the basis for the design and build principles. The ANSI/TIA-942 Standard specifies requirements and guidelines for the design and build of a data centre. It is intended for use by designers who need a comprehensive understanding of the data centre design. It encompasses Architecture, Mechanical, Electrical and Telecom requirements and guidelines, which are not always covered by other generic guidelines and so-called “standards”.

Understanding the intent of the ANSI/TIA-942 Standard is of fundamental importance, not only for the successful implementation of the data centre, but also for its sustainable operations.

In the three-day CTDC^® course, the participant will learn how to design an ANSI/TIA-942 compliant data centre. It will provide a clear understanding of the requirements of the ANSI/TIA-942 Standard and possible implementation variations. This course is well suited for all types of data centres, be it enterprise data centres or multi-tenant, third party data centres such as co-location, managed services and cloud service providers.

Audience

The primary audience for this course are professionals involved with designing, building, maintaining and operating mission critical data centres and those who wish to attend the CTIA^® (Certified TIA-942 Internal Auditor) course.

Prerequisites

Participants must possess a valid data centre training certificate such as CDCP^® or any other approved equivalent. Please submit a copy of your certificate for verification upon registration for the CTDC^® course.

Approved:

EPI – DCFC, CDCP, CDCS, CDCE
Cnet/Uptime – CDCDP, ATS, ATD
BICSI – DCDC
DCD Academy (formerly DCPro) – DCDA+Electrical+Mechanical¹, DCP Design, DCS Design
Capitoline – DCD (Data Centre Design)

NON-Approved:

ICOR
IDC-A
Schneider Electric: Data Center Certified Associate Exam

This list will be dynamic and the best option is to check with EPI. For courses/course providers not listed in this slide, please contact EPI support – support@epi-ap.com

—

Note: ¹Please combine all three certificates into a single PDF before uploading to the exam portal.

ANSI/TIA-942 Standard

Participants will receive the latest ANSI/TIA-942 standard, digital version. This is a single-user-license document which the participant can access anytime on his/her computing device and can be printed (once). Extensive reference is made to the ANSI/TIA-942 Standard during the training. Therefore participants are required to bring his/her computing device along for the training. For more information on the standard, please refer to www.tiaonline.org.

Course Benefits

After completion of the course the participant will be able to:

Learn to properly comprehend and apply the ANSI/TIA-942 Standard requirements and guidelines
Understand the proper intent of the ANSI/TIA-942 Standard to avoid both over- and/or under-investment
Align the selection of redundancy levels and infrastructure investments to the business requirements.
Understand the criteria and requirements for a high-availability data centre design and how to effectively establish the data centre from the perspective of the ANSI/TIA-942 Standard
Understand how the ANSI/TIA-942 Standard relates to various worldwide standards

Course Syllabus

Introduction to Data Centre Facilities

About the ANSI/TIA-942

Life of the ANSI/TIA-942 Standard
Relation to other standards
Architectural
Electrical
Mechanical
Telecommunication
Areas under scope
High level redundancy definitions
Redundancy options (N, N+1 etc.)
Fault tolerant
Concurrent maintainability
Compartmentalisation
Examples of redundancy levels

Data Centre Space Planning

Data Centre Topologies

Recommendations for Energy Efficiency

Architectural

Site selection
Parking
Multi-tenant building
Building construction
Vapor barrier
Roofing
Floor loading
Raised flooring
Suspended/drop ceiling
Hanging load
Seismic

Building Security & Safety

Security
CCTV
Staffing
Bullet/ballistic proofing
Lighting
Safety
– Signage

Building and Room Access

Security checkpoints
Entry lobby
Doors and windows
Exit corridors
Shipping and receiving areas

Room/Area Design Requirements

Administrative offices
Security offce
Operations centre
Restroom and break room
UPS/Battery rooms
Generator and fuel storage area
Computer room

Electrical

Utility power
– Substation
– Feed requirements
– Self-generation
HT/HV switch gear
Generator and fuel supply
LT/LV switch gear
– ATS
– Alternatives to ATS
UPS and batteries
PDU
STS
Grounding
Surge protection
EPO
Central power monitoring
Load banks
Testing
Equipment maintenance
– Preventive maintenance
– Facility training programs

Mechanical

Environmental design
– Temperature and humidity requirements
– Contamination
– Sources
– Clean air
– Pressurisation
– Radio sources
– Vibration
– Water ingress
Water cooled systems
– Heat rejection
– Chilled water system
– Condenser water
– Make up water
Air cooled systems
HVAC control systems
Plumbing
– Pipe routing
Fire suppression
Water leak detection

Telecommunications

Network topology
Redundancy level design
Media and connectors
Cabling pathways
Detailed cabling design considerations
Administration and labeling
Cable testing
Data centre fabrics

Micro Edge Data Center

Type definitions
Rating requirements
Testing and maintenance

Immersion Cooling

Cabling considerations
Rating requirements

Delivery Structure and Methods

The CTDC^® course is lectured by an EPI Certified Instructor using a combination of lectures and question-and-answer sessions to discuss participants’ specific needs and issues experienced in their own environment. Participants are able to tap into the trainer’s extensive experience to enable them to solve practical problems in their current environment, thus adding tremendous value.

CTDC^® course available in the following delivery methods:

ILT – Instructor Led Training (Schedule)
VILT – Virtual ILT (Schedule)

Exam

Exam: Certified TIA-942 Design Consultant (CTDC^®)

The CTDC^® exam is a 90 minutes closed-book certification exam consists of 60 multiple-choice questions. Candidates must achieve a minimum of 50 correct answers to pass the exam.

Certification & Accreditation

Candidates who successfully pass the exam will receive the official ‘Certified TIA-942 Design Consultant’ certificate. The CTDC^® certificate is issued for the ANSI/TIA-942 version current at the time, which the candidate tested for. The certificate itself does not expire and stays relevant only for the stated ANSI/TIA-942 version.

CTDC^® is world-wide accredited by EXIN.

Download Brochure

For more info, click for brochure:
English | Spanish

CTDC® Resources

1. Watch the CTDC Sneak Peek webinar (on-demand)