National foreword

This British Standard is the UK implementation of EN 50600‑2‑1:2021. It supersedes BS EN 50600‑2‑1:2014, which will be withdrawn on 12 November 2021.

The UK participation in its preparation was entrusted to Technical Committee TCT/7, Telecommunications - Installation requirements.

A list of organizations represented on this committee can be obtained on request to its committee manager.

Contractual and legal considerations

This publication has been prepared in good faith, however no representation, warranty, assurance or undertaking (express or implied) is or will be made, and no responsibility or liability is or will be accepted by BSI in relation to the adequacy, accuracy, completeness or reasonableness of this publication. All and any such responsibility and liability is expressly disclaimed to the full extent permitted by the law.

This publication is provided as is, and is to be used at the recipient’s own risk.

The recipient is advised to consider seeking professional guidance with respect to its use of this publication.

This publication is not intended to constitute a contract. Users are responsible for its correct application.

Compliance with a British Standard cannot confer immunity from legal obligations.

This British Standard was published under the authority of the Standards Policy and Strategy Committee on 30 April 2021.

European foreword

This document (EN 50600‑2‑1:2021) has been prepared by CLC/TC 215 “Electrotechnical aspects of telecommunication equipment”.

The following dates are fixed:

This document supersedes EN 50600‑2‑1:2014 and all of its amendments and corrigenda (if any).

This document includes the following significant technical changes with respect to EN 50600‑2‑1:2014:

the document has been completely revised and restructured;
the interrelationship between this document and EN 50600‑2‑5 concerning constructional prerequisites for the implementation of security concepts and desired security systems has been more clearly presented;
Clause 6 “Site configuration” has been split and relevant subclauses have been moved into a new Clause 7 “Outside spaces”;
Clause 7 “Building construction” has been completely reworked to present all requirements and recommendations in a single Clause 8;
Clause 8 “Data centre spaces and access routes” has been revised to focus on the design of data centre spaces (now Clause 9);
a new Clause 10 “Construction of data centre spaces” has been added;
Clause 9 “Fire compartments, fire barriers and fire suppression systems” has been revised (now Clause 11);
Annex A on additional requirements and recommendations has been removed;
Annex B on physical protection against external hazards has been revised as Annex A “Building materials”;
a new Annex B summarizing the requirements and recommendations of Clause 5 has been added;
Clauses 1 to 4 have been amended accordingly.

Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent rights. CENELEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

This document has been prepared under a mandate given to CENELEC by the European Commission and the European Free Trade Association.

Introduction

The unrestricted access to internet-based information demanded by the information society has led to an exponential growth of both internet traffic and the volume of stored/retrieved data. Data centres are housing and supporting the information technology and network telecommunications equipment for data processing, data storage and data transport. They are required both by network operators (delivering those services to customer premises) and by enterprises within those customer premises.

Data centres usually provide modular, scalable and flexible facilities and infrastructures to easily accommodate the rapidly changing requirements of the market. In addition, energy consumption of data centres has become critical both from an environmental point of view (reduction of environmental footprint) and with respect to economical considerations (cost of energy) for the data centre operator.

The implementation of data centres varies in terms of:

purpose (enterprise, co-location, co-hosting or network operator facilities);
security level;
physical size;
accommodation (mobile, temporary and permanent constructions).

The needs of data centres also vary in terms of availability of service, the provision of security and the objectives for energy efficiency. These needs and objectives influence the design of data centres in terms of building construction, power distribution, environmental control, telecommunications cabling and physical security as well as the operation of the data centre. Effective management and operational information is important in order to monitor achievement of the defined needs and objectives.

Recognizing the substantial resource consumption, particularly of energy, of larger data centres, it is also important to provide tools for the assessment of that consumption both in terms of overall value and of source mix and to provide Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to evaluate trends and drive performance improvements.

At the time of publication of this document, the EN 50600 series is designed as a framework of standards, technical specifications and technical reports covering the design, the operation and management, the key performance indicators for energy efficient operation of the data centre as well as a data centre maturity model.

The EN 50600‑2 series defines the requirements for the data centre design.

The EN 50600‑3 series defines the requirements for the operation and the management of the data centre.

The EN 50600‑4 series defines the key performance indicators for the data centre.

The CLC/TS 50600‑5 series defines the data centre maturity model requirements and recommendations.

The CLC/TR 50600‑99‑X Technical Reports cover recommended practices and guidance for specific topics around data centre operation and design.

This series of documents specifies requirements and recommendations to support the various parties involved in the design, planning, procurement, integration, installation, operation and maintenance of facilities and infrastructures within data centres. These parties include:

owners, operators, facility managers, ICT managers, project managers, main contractors;
consulting engineers, architects, building designers and builders, system and installation designers, auditors, test and commissioning agents;
facility and infrastructure integrators, suppliers of equipment;
installers, maintainers.

At the time of publication of this document, the EN 50600‑2 series comprises the following documents:

EN 50600‑2‑1, Information technology — Data centre facilities and infrastructures — Part 2-1: Building construction;

EN 50600‑2‑2, Information technology — Data centre facilities and infrastructures — Part 2-2: Power supply and distribution;

EN 50600‑2‑3, Information technology — Data centre facilities and infrastructures — Part 2-3: Environmental control;

EN 50600‑2‑4, Information technology — Data centre facilities and infrastructures — Part 2-4: Telecommunications cabling infrastructure;

EN 50600‑2‑5, Information technology — Data centre facilities and infrastructures — Part 2-5: Security systems.

CLC/TS 50600‑2‑10, Information technology — Data centre facilities and infrastructures — Part 2-10: Earthquake risk and impact analysis

The inter-relationship of the documents within the EN 50600 series is shown in Figure 1.

EN 50600‑2‑X documents specify requirements and recommendations for particular facilities and infrastructures to support the relevant classification for “availability”, “physical security” and “energy efficiency enablement” selected from EN 50600‑1.

EN 50600‑3‑X documents specify requirements and recommendations for data centre operations, processes and management.

EN 50600‑4‑X documents specify requirements and recommendations for key performance indicators (KPIs) used to assess and improve the resource usage efficiency and effectiveness, respectively, of a data centre.

This document addresses the site selection and the building design of data centres; it addresses security issues from a constructional point of view, whereas EN 50600‑2‑5 specifies the security system requirements of those facilities and infrastructures (in accordance with the requirements of EN 50600‑1).

This document is intended for use by and collaboration between architects, building designers and builders, system and installation designers.

This series of documents does not address the selection of information technology and network telecommunications equipment, software and associated configuration issues.

1 Scope

This document gives guidelines for the construction of buildings and other structures which provide accommodation for data centres based upon the criteria and classification for “physical security” within EN 50600‑1 in support of availability.

This document specifies requirements and recommendations for the following:

location and site selection (taking in to account natural environment and adjacencies);
protection from environmental risks;
site configuration;
building construction;
building configuration;
provision of access;
intrusion protection;
physical fire protection;
protection against damage from water;
quality construction measures.

Safety and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) requirements are outside the scope of this document and are covered by other standards and regulations. However, information given in this document can be of assistance in meeting these standards and regulations.

Conformance of data centres to the present document is covered in Clause 4.

2 Normative references

3 Terms, definitions and abbreviations

3.1 Terms and definitions

3.2 Abbreviations

4 Conformance

5 Location

5.1 Assessment of location

5.2 Geographical location

5.3 Environmental risk analysis

5.4 Utility provision

6 Site configuration

6.1 General

6.2 Site selection

6.3 Assessment of existing premises

6.4 Utilities

7 Outside spaces

7.1 Access routes

7.2 Parking

7.3 Temporary facilities

7.4 Fuel storage facilities and infrastructure

7.5 Underground facilities

7.6 Perimeter design and Protection Class Boundaries

8 Building construction

8.1 Load-bearing structure

8.2 Building materials and finishes

8.3 Electromagnetic Interference

8.4 Protection Class Boundaries

8.5 Foundations

8.6 Exterior walls

8.7 Interior walls and barriers

8.8 Roofs

8.9 Water drainage

8.10 Floors

8.11 Raised access floors

8.12 Ceilings

8.13 Corridors and doors

8.14 Transportation lifts

9 Design of data centre spaces

9.1 Accommodation

9.2 Control room space

9.3 Computer room space

9.4 Electrical space

9.5 Mechanical space

9.6 Telecommunications space

9.7 Spaces for firefighting systems

9.8 Storage space

9.9 Testing and holding spaces

9.10 Docking bay

9.11 General office space

10 Construction of data centre spaces

10.1 Protection against flooding

10.2 Access to data centre spaces

10.3 Vapour density

11 Fire compartments and fire barriers

11.1 Fire compartments

11.2 Fire barriers

11.3 Protection Class boundaries

Bibliography

BS EN 50600-2-1:2021

Information technology. Data centre facilities and infrastructures - Building construction

Current

Published:

30 Apr 2021