Data Centre Cleaning Standard – ISO 14644-1 Class 8

ISO 14644-1 Class 8 is the International Standard for Clean Rooms Clean Zones and Controlled Environments. This is the Classification of air cleanliness by particle concentration. It is currently best practice for the cleaning of Data Halls, Server Rooms, Comms Rooms, MER’s, SER.s etc. With Original Equipment Manufactures (OEMS) like NVIDIA, CICSCO and others now requiring their equipment to operate in an environment meeting ISO 14644-1 2015 Class 8 standards. This would suggest if it is not the warranties may be void if damage occurs. Therefore, Data Centre professionals would be wise to appoint a professional data centre cleaning company.

A standard for cleanliness for all types of controlled environments including data centres, data rooms, server rooms and comms rooms is Data Centre Cleaning Standard: ISO 14644-1 2015 Class 8, plus all accessible surfaces free from dust. When it comes to UK IT protection, this is currently best practice. 

Believe it or not, there are data centre cleaning standards, based on the international standards for cleanroom, clean zones and controlled environments (Data Centres/Data Halls/Data Rooms are controlled environments) this is ISO 14644-1. The ISO 14644-1 2015 series of standards (14644-1 to 14644-12) are a series of documents that establish various classifications for cleanliness as well as methods for testing compliance, test methods, design/constructions/start-up considerations, and others, for controlled environments. Click on ISO standards to see standards. Data Centre Cleaning Standards, Data Room Cleaning Standard, Data Hall Cleaning Standards and Comms Room Cleaning Standard are based on the same ISO 14644-1 2015 Class 8 standard, as these rooms are controlled environments. ISO 14644-1 2015 Class 8 is often misnamed, by specifiers, as a Clinical or a 5 Micron Clean. ISO 14644-1 1999 has been withdrawn and replaced by ISO 14644-1 2015. At IT Cleaning, we offer ISO cleaning services and IT protection for clean zones and controlled environments across the UK. Cleaning to ISO 14644-1 2015 Class 8 plus all accessible surfaces free from dust. This is currently best practice as indicated by DCA. See our SCOPE of Works.

“Contamination has been the indirect cause of more IT downtime than all the fires, floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, and disgruntled employees combined.” – Jon William Toigo, Disaster Recovery Planning, Third Edition.

Less than optimally clean hardware can severely impact data centre performance. Sub-microscopic particulates can interfere with your critical equipment’s electronics, leading to hard-to-troubleshoot problems and even data loss. “Datacom managers focus most of their energies on the physical structure and performance of the datacom infrastructure environment (cooling, power, and equipment). However, today’s intricate and sensitive information technology equipment requires certain levels of control of particulate contamination. This is often overlooked and left unchecked to disastrous effects”. ASHRE 2011 Gaseous and Particulate Contamination Guidelines For Data Centers says ISO 14644-1 2015 Class 8 is the solution. Don’t let microscopic particulates interfere with your equipment’s electronics, and contact the team at IT Cleaning for reliable, effective, and trusted ISO cleaning services in the UK.

Dissipating heat is essential to data centre operations, which means maintaining a steady airflow through the data centre. But this constant airflow can bring with it dust, dirt, and other types of particulates that find their way into your equipment’s delicate electronic innards. No matter how well your filtering systems work, every now and then it is necessary for data centre cleaning or computer room cleaning to be done. Indeed, most equipment manufacturers state that data rooms should be cleaned regularly by a professional data room cleaning company. Find out more about our ISO cleaning for data centres by contacting the team today.

“Perhaps the most important step to take to control contamination, is to contract with a reputable computer room maintenance company, to perform routine cleaning”. John William Toigo, Disaster Recovery Planning Third Addition.

The yardstick for measuring cleanliness is the amount of microscopic particles found per cubic metre of air. These particles range in size from 5μm (micrometre: a millionth of a metre) in diameter down to 0.5μm in diameter. Obviously, the larger the number of large particles in an environment, the visibly dirtier the environment is. On the other hand, a small amount of very small particles means an extremely clean environment.
The ISO 14644-1 standard sets up ISO classes from 1 through 9; ISO Class 1 the most stringent, for example, allows only 10 particles at 0.1μm and two at 0.2μm per cubic metre of air. Class 1 is the ultimate in cleanliness, a tremendously stringent standard that only highly controlled environments, such as clean rooms in microprocessor fabrication or drug manufacture, can achieve.Whether you’d like to find out more about ISO cleaning services for IT protection in the UK or are ready to book ISO cleaning for your data centre, contact the team at IT Cleaning for a free site survey, report and quote today.

IT Cleaning Ltd Magazine Article published in Cleanroom Technology