Creating a Trading Floor: The Project Manager's Guide to the Design, Construction and Launch of Trading Floors and Data Centers

i Creating a Trading Floor ii This book is dedicated to my fantastic wife and family, who patiently endured the long...

Author: Charles Smith

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i

Creating a Trading Floor

ii

This book is dedicated to my fantastic wife and family, who patiently endured the long hours and absences when I was working away gaining the experience to be able to write it.

iii

Creating a Trading Floor The Project Manager’s Guide to the Design, Construction and Launch of Trading Floors and Data Centres

Charles Smith

London and Philadelphia

iv Publisher’s note Every possible effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in this book is accurate at the time of going to press, and the publishers and author cannot accept responsibility for any errors or omissions, however caused. No responsibility for loss or damage occasioned to any person acting, or refraining from action, as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by the editor, the publisher or the author. First published in Great Britain and the United States in 2007 by Kogan Page Limited Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms and licences issued by the CLA. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside these terms should be sent to the publishers at the undermentioned addresses: 120 Pentonville Road London N1 9JN United Kingdom www.kogan-page.co.uk

525 South 4th Street, #241 Philadelphia PA 19147 USA

© Charles Smith, 2007 The right of Charles Smith to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. ISBN-10 0 7494 4838 5 ISBN-13 978 0 7494 4838 7

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Smith,Charles, 1951– Creating a trading floor : the project manager’s guide to the design, construction and launch of trading floors and data centres / Charles Smith. p. cm. ISBN 0–7494–4838–5 1. Trading rooms (Finance)––Design and construction. 2. Trading rooms (Finance)––Technological innovations. 3. Project management. 4. Stock exchanges. I. Title. HG4551.S569 2007 725’.25––dc22 2006023958 Typeset by Saxon Graphics Ltd, Derby Printed and bound in in Great Britain by Cambridge University Press

v

Contents

Acknowledgements

xiv

Introduction

1

1

The starting point: business requirements Number of people 10; Hours of business 11; Business deadlines 11; Types of business teams 13; Nature of business 14; Structure volatility 14; Colocation of teams 15; Build and environment quality 16; Resilience and business continuity 17; Security concerns 18; Publicity and marketing 19

9

2

Preparation A clear plan is essential 20; Research 21; Cost constraints 21; Headcount to be accommodated 24; Desk plan 24; Chinese walls 25; Line of sight needs 25; Equipment and technology services to be housed 25; Space needed 28; Power needs 32; Heat needs 35; Cooling needs 35; Weight analysis 40; Noise analysis 41; Electromagnetic field (EMF) risks 42

20

vi ❙ Contents

3

Building the project team Building the team 43; The project leader 45; The experts 47; Procurement and project admin officer 48; The steering group 49; Accountants 50; Lawyers 50; The workers 51; Trade unions 51; The landlord 52; Outsourced teams 53; Operational staff 54; Compliance and audit 54; Regulatory authorities 54; Insurers 55; Facilitation and training 55; Social activities 56; Team resilience 56

43

4

Communication planning Formal meetings 57; Informal meetings 58; Walk the floor 59; Plans and drawings 60; Project Gantt chart 61; Feedback 61; Photographs 62; Central register 62; Software standards 63; Secure e-mail 65; Website 66; Change requests 66; Issues database 67; Social behaviour in foreign locations 67; Handling bad news 68; Handling the press and publicity 69

57

5

Contracts Understanding the contract 70; Arriving at a contract document 72; Areas of contractual coverage 73; Constraints 73; Contract document change control 74; Evaluating contracts 74; Legal assistance 75; Warranties and insurances 75; Regulatory licensing 76; Publicity constraints 76

70

6

Initial planning The main contractor 78; Outline schedule of events 79; Initial plan document 82; Union briefing 87; Management briefing 88

78

7

The project team equipment and facilities Project area 89; Project site network 90; Laptop PCs 90; Voice telecoms 91; Meeting room 92; Toolkit 92; Whiteboard 94; Large-scale printer 94; Digital camera 94; Server 95; Software tools 95; Refreshments 98; Stationery supplies 99; Black n’ Reds 99; First-aid kit 100; Safety equipment 100; Transport, shipping and collection 101; Storage 101; Residential accommodation 102; Foreign site assistance 102; Training 103; Build area 105; Test area 105; Test network 106

89

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viii ❙ Contents

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The budget and initial design Initial budget 108; Budget control 108; Budget scope 109; Business continuity budget issues 109; The technology budget versus the building structure budget 110; The technology infrastructure budget versus the administration budget 111; New and old 112; Typical items for the IT infrastructure budget 112; Boundary IT infrastructure budget items 155; Capital versus revenue 174; Taxes, tariffs and duties 175; Sustainable development 175; Contingency issues 176; Asset register 178; Budget reduction 178; Approval process 179; Cost of delay 180; Cost of programme acceleration 181

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Control Project accountant 183; Purchase orders 184; Work orders 184; Delivery notes 184; Timesheets 185; Expenses 185; Desk database 186; Milestones 186; Project management methodology 187; Project calendar 187; Permit to work 187; Sign-off and certification 188; Standards 188; Phased payment 189; Asset register 189; Returns process 190; Security control 191; Change requests 191; Crisis control 192

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The data centre layout Cabinets 195; Racking 198; Earthquake zones 199; Cable containment and routes 199; Racking for telecoms equipment 200; UPS cabinets 201; AHU cabinets and pipework 202; Floor tile arrangement 203; Lighting 204; Corridors 204; Expansion 205; Doorways and service hatches 205; Ramps and steps 205; Storage 206; Power breaker cabinets 206; Emergency power off (EPO) 206; Water handling 207; Business access needs – secure areas 207; Building structure (columns) 208; Windows 208; Overhead services 209; Floor loading 211; Cooling 212; Fire suppressant system 215; Safety 215; Security 217; Cabling rooms, cupboards and risers 222

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11

Cabling Containment and protection 226; Routes 227; Kopex and other cable protection 228; Underfloor power distribution 229; Floor boxes 230; High-level power 231; Riser power 232; Common earth/grounding bonding 232; Data cabling 233; Abandoned cabling 237; Intelligent patches 238; Lightning protection 238

224

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x ❙ Contents

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Trading desks Selection and planning process 240; Desktop 241; Cable management 244; PC storage and access 245; Cooling 245; Screen mounting 246; PDU and power 247; Structured cabling 248; Earth bonding 249; Line of sight 249; Moving 249; Grommets or floor boxes 250; Spares 250; Desktop services 250

240

13

Office desks Size and height 252; Power arrangements 253; Electrical safety 253; Cable management 253; Telephone provision 254; PC installation and screen mounting 255; Chairs 255; Access routes 256; Personal storage 256

252

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Meeting rooms The boardroom 259; Shielded rooms 260; Acoustics 261; Windows 262; Lighting 263; Utility wall space 263; Data cables 264; Boardroom table 264; Voice/video conferencing 265; Projectors and displays 267; Whiteboard 267; Podium 268; Meeting rooms 268

258

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Miscellaneous rooms and areas Reception area 269; Hot bed offices 271; Print room 272; Post room 272; Recreation areas 273; First aid 274; Toilets, washing and shower facilities 274; Kitchen 274; Storage 275; Precious documents 275; Build rooms 276; Help desk or service desk 277

269

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Telecoms Advice 280; Vendors 280; Services 282; Trader voice equipment 288; Implementation planning 295; Deployment 296; Training 297; Remote administration 297; DECT 298; Receptionist/operator facilities 298; Fax 299; Telex 299; Time clock 299; Public announcement system 299; Television, cable TV and satellite services 300; Video switching 300; Overhead display screens and speakers 300; Desktop video screens and speakers 301; Surveillance facilities 301; Voice and video conference facilities 304; Conference rooms 305; VCR and videotape recorders and players 305; Pager service 305; Telephone recorded messages 306; Telecoms database 306; Telecoms billing 307; Telecoms circuit ordering 308; Alternate PTT trunks 309; Corporate voice and data network 310; Business continuity management 311; Equipment maintenance 311; Disposals 311; Spares inventory 312; Asset recording 313; Moves, additions and changes to the system 314

279

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xii ❙ Contents

17

Air conditioning Advice 315; Cooling method considerations 317; Needs 318; Self-contained environment 320; Dust control 321; Resilience 321; Space 322; Air flows 323; Hot and cold aisles 324; Office areas 325; Trading desks 325; Commissioning the system 326

315

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Cabinets and racking Racking 328; Floor-standing cabinets 330; Wall-mounted cabinets 335; Patch panels 335; Serial data cable patches and servers 337; Cable management in racking and cabinets 338; Optical fibre 342; Labelling scheme and database 344; Service vendors’ cabinets 344; Tidiness 345; Testing and supervision 345; Power control and connectors 347; Weight budgets and positioning 348; Security and lockboxes 349; Monitoring 350

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Servers Server mounting 354; Cabinet server positioning 355; Server cooling 356; Server power supply 357; Server remote access and KVM 357; Server network and HBAs 358; Server configuration 359; SAN and network-attached storage 360; Server virtualization and consolidation 362

352

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Network equipment Switches and routers 364; Firewalls 368; xDSL 370; Wireless LAN 371; Modems 373; Maintenance and support 374; Network topology and WAN 375; Supplier reliability and resilience 375; ISP services 376; KVM 376

363

21

Financial data services Trading systems and settlement systems 385; Market data feeds 387; Permissioning 388; Resilience 388

382

22

Desktop PCs Requirements 390; Power 391; Software builds 392; PC deployment 393; Identification 396; Security 396; Supplier agreements 397; Licensing 398; Service agreements 399

390

23

Clocks and time stamps Time servers 401; Clocks 402; Back office and front office time stamps 402; Acceptance testing for time systems 403

400

Contents ❙ xiii

24

The programme The ‘kick off’ meetings 404; Establishing a site office 405; Meeting facilities 406; Deliveries 407; Site storage 408; Trolley, cherry picker and pallet lift 409; Lifts (elevators) 410; Vehicle parking 410; Ladders and platforms 411; Rubbish 411; Protection 412; Noise 412; Power, heat and water 413; Lighting 413; Sanitary provisions and comfort 414; Landlord 414; Hours of construction 415; Working around construction workers 415; Working around IT people 416; Supervision 419; Site inspections 420; Budget 424; Method statements 424; Insurance 425; Project records 426; Access control 427; Communication 427; Progress monitoring 428; Project construction steering group 430; Project calendar 430; Out of hours contact 430; Project directory 432

404

25

Testing during rollout Electrical power testing 435; Equipment room testing 439; Air conditioning testing 440; Pressure test 441; Network and cabling testing 442; Penetration and security scanning 444; Voice testing 445; Voice recording tests 445; Line of sight testing 446; Server testing 446; Market data services testing 447; PC testing 450; Peripheral devices 453; Access control testing 453; Security policy audit 454; Building management system 454; Business continuity management 455; Support desk testing 455; User acceptance testing 456; Fault logging 460

433

26

Handover Pre-handover meeting 464; Documentation 464; New staff 465; Floor walkers and training 466; Snag list 466; Personal devices 467; Location corrections 467; Spares 467; Service cutover 468; Launch party 468

463

27

Project wind-down Contribution acknowledgements 470; Issues list 470; Variations and change requests 470; Retentions 471; Expenses 472; Returns and undelivered services 472; Budget closure 473; Disposals and lease terminations 475; Property release 476; Documentation 476; Post-project review 477

469

Glossary Index Index of advertisers

479 483 498

xiv

Acknowledgements

I am grateful for and acknowledge the help of my patient publishers in dealing with this novice author. Many professional colleagues have helped with suggestions and information, but I must particularly mention Ashley Davies, Mark Spurgeon, Alan Brace and Simon Venters.

1

Introduction

I have been involved in financial market trading floor and data centre projects across the world. When you work on these projects, it soon becomes clear that many of the issues facing businesses and project leaders during the construction of trading floors are the same the world over. It is necessary to factor in the language differences, different work regulations and construction practices in different countries, but in essence many of the problems and opportunities are the same. During one recent project I realized that many of the people involved do not have a comprehensive and detailed understanding of all the stages involved. That realization led to the writing of this book. Running a trading floor construction project for technology infrastructure is not simply about applying formal project management methods. These techniques are useful, but the project leader also has to understand and apply the technology, construction methods, contractual issues and business needs. The project leader also has to be able to influence the delivery by other professionals of a wide range of technologies and disciplines. Vendors of project management software and project management training suggest that between 40 and 70 per cent of IT projects fail to meet their objectives. In the case of trading floor construction projects such a rate of failure cannot be contemplated: the aim must be an 0 per cent failure rate. The project leader has to work that extra bit harder and smarter to ensure the project delivery exceeds expectations. Constructing a trading floor and the associated infrastructure requires careful engineering design to create an entity that is efficient to use and flexible enough

2 ❙ Creating a Trading Floor

to adjust to rapidly changing business practices. The trading floor should be engineered to be extremely robust and resilient in protecting the business from equipment or service failure. Creating a reliable and cost-effective trading floor infrastructure and environment does not happen by accident or without cost. During the process of planning and construction, many decisions will affect the cost of building, the cost of ongoing operations and the cost of business risk. Negotiation skills will be needed, as will effective handling of supplier contracts. An important design factor is to create an environment where the investment and operational costs are acceptable to the business. It has been assumed that the technology project team will also be involved in the design, construction works planning and implementation of the technology room or data centre that is inevitably required for the trading room and back-office areas. An integral part of the process is to build into the design and construction the features necessary to comply with industry standards, such as the data security standards of the BS 7799, ISO 17799, ISO 27000 series. If the standards are taken into account at the early planning stages, this will be a straightforward process. To retrofit at a later stage in the operational life, particularly after a negative compliance audit, can be a lengthy and costly process. Compliance to these standards is, in effect, becoming a regulatory business governance issue for the directors of any business involved in trading financial instruments. Throughout the project the project team will encounter many other standards relevant to the construction of the IT infrastructure. A vitally important part of the project process is the ability of the project leader to communicate effectively with business managers, team members, contractors and client users. The requirement for clear and unambiguous instructions becomes greatly magnified for those supervising the construction of a trading floor in another country. The barrier of language difficulties, different time zones and different working practices can lead to all kinds of problems and opportunities. Even when both sides speak (more or less) the same language, for example US English and British English, misunderstandings can arise. Once again there is no substitute for having an experienced person on site to direct the operations. With smaller trading floor projects the role of the technology project leader will often have to extend into other disciplines than just information and communications technology (ICT). The effective delegation of tasks is essential. It is highly unlikely that the project leader will have detailed experience in all the technologies involved in a modern trading floor infrastructure. Constructing a trading floor is a highly complex job, and is usually performed under tight deadlines. The role of the project leader is to coordinate the efforts of the team and to help them communicate. This book highlights many of the factors that must be considered in constructing a trading floor, but in no way can it guarantee to cover all potential

Introduction ❙ 3

problem areas. The experience and advice of many different professionals and technical experts will be needed to achieve the end result. Project leaders have to make sure all these people give due consideration to their areas of responsibility, and do not assume someone else will deal with problems. They need to ensure that appropriate technical standards are followed by their teams and suppliers. Care has been taken to pitch the information at the level needed by project leaders. In writing the book I was often tempted to stray into the detailed technical issues, but to do this would have made the book much larger. Rather, I have concentrated on highlighting the many issues the project leader will need to monitor or delegate, to ensure they are considered by the appropriate experts and technicians. Throughout the life of the project, you will find circumstances conspiring to prove Murphy’s Law: ‘If something can go wrong it will do so, at the worst possible time and to the worst possible effect.’ It will require flexibility, leadership and vision on the part of the project leader to find a way through these problems. At some point (or many points), someone will have made a wrong planning assumption, will have forgotten something, or a supplier will not be performing as expected. In this book I have tried to highlight the typical issues teams face. At times the project leader will have to force the team to be realistic about the actual level of achievements when things are not progressing as planned. At that point he or she will have to provide leadership to help the team meet the objectives. The project leader must take a proactive approach, seeking out problem areas and not just waiting for them to become evident before reacting. Project leaders must cultivate an environment of ownership and joint team spirit among the many members of the project team. When they detect gaps in that belief structure, they must react and deal with the situation. That might involve hard decisions. Project leaders need an approach that is a mixture of charm, caring, realism, technical expertise and ruthlessness. Above all there has to be a personal touch: the project leader will have to spend a substantial amount of time on site, dealing directly with people and using the reliable Mark 1 eyeball to check actual progress. If substantial mistakes are made in the initial planning and sequencing, the project is likely to go wrong in a big way and explode, damaging the company and the careers of those involved. If the project is successful it can have a longterm impact on the success of the company. Above all, running a project of this kind is exciting and satisfying work.

OUTLINE The book outlines and discusses the various stages of constructing a trading floor and its associated technology rooms, from the viewpoint of a technology project manager.


During the initial stages, the management of the business will want to know how much it will cost and how long the work will take to complete. Based on that information they will make a commercial decision on whether to go ahead with the project. To make reasonably accurate projections on budgetary cost and timescale, the project manager will have to undertake a complete design and cost all of the elements involved in the project. This requires a reasonably good understanding of the technologies involved, both IT and construction. Project managers need to collate the views of many experts, and to distinguish between business needs and ‘good to haves’ in collating the cost and resource requirements. They need to allocate costs to the construction and technology budgets. They must ensure appropriate technology choices are made, so the installation does not quickly become outdated, and a reliable and cost-effective business environment is provided. Once the budgets have been approved, project managers face the difficult tasks of forming a reliable project team, providing suitable resources for the team, and managing deliveries and installation. During the fit-out process many unanticipated challenges will arise. It is down to the project team to resolve those issues. Throughout the process the project manager must control costs and progress. Finally, the project team must arrange appropriate testing and remediation of the new facilities before they are handed over to the business. It must help the business to plan its migration to the new environment, and arrange to dispose of redundant facilities. At the handover stage the project team must ensure the operational staff are provided with good documentation and appropriate skills transfer to continue the operation of the trading floor when the highly skilled members of the project team disperse to other projects. One consequence of writing on the basis of project stages is that references to technology are repeated at different sections of the book. I have tried to adjust the level of detail so that it is appropriate to each stage. One thing that surprised me in writing the book was the amount of detailed consideration needed in the early budgetary stages. Some quite minor technological points can have a considerable impact on the project costs, project schedule and subsequent operational costs. To resolve these, it is necessary to develop a good ability to visualize the infrastructure and how it relates to both the construction process and the business operation. As a consequence, I have given due reference to the communication process and organizational control structures.

AUDIENCE This book is intended for anyone who might become involved in the construction and operation of a trading floor and its associated technology room.

Introduction ❙ 5

I have taken this to be an electronic trading floor rather than the older-style ‘open outcry’ floor. It would be possible to write an entire book about many of the individual technical and constructional issues, and inevitably in this one book I cannot cover them all in any depth. This book is intended as a ‘wake-up call’, and provides checklists for use by those about to embark on the complex and difficult mission of managing a trading floor project. Many different job titles are used for the core role of managing this type of project: project director, project manager and programme director are among them. Here I use the phrase ‘technology project leader’. In essence this person leads other technical people and suppliers in the delivery of IT infrastructure, and also communicates with business management and other engineering disciplines. I write in the book as if to a person in that role, although its contents should also be useful to those in other roles. Readers who should find it helpful include: • • • • • • • •

technology managers with a partial role in the project, or for whom the project is a small part of their overall responsibilities; building contractors with some responsibility for interfacing with ‘techno geeks’ and ensuring they do nothing to adversely impact the building schedule; premises managers who will have responsibility for the buildings after the project goes live, and who want to make sure that what is implemented will be easy to operate; trading floor managers with the responsibility of sitting on steering groups to control the builders, architects and technology experts; consultants about to take part in a dealing floor project, and with limited or partial experience in this field; accountants called on to keep track of the project expenses; recruitment consultants commissioned to select a project leader or other team members of a dealing floor project: the book should help them formulate a whole range of questions; lecturers and students seeking material to boost their studies into IT in the financial sector.

CAVEATS To repeat: this is a broad but general guide. It does not recommend any one technology over another. That type of detail is best left to sector experts with a good current knowledge of a particular sector. If the project team does not possess such an expert and is called on to make such decisions, it would be well advised to seek out a consultant with good industry knowledge and contacts, and spend some time discussing the options.


However the project leader retains an important role in any such technical decision, since he or she has to inject a level of reality into any such decision. Technology personnel might want to deploy the latest technology for perfectly valid reasons, but there could still be broader business reasons for the project leader to steer the technology choice to lower-risk options. While construction, mechanical and electrical issues are mentioned, this book does not attempt to take the place of experienced qualified professionals. However it does try to identify the points that should be discussed with those professionals.

EXPERIENCE This book covers a lot of topics, but it is not a complete guide. It describes the typical sequence of events in a project, and also provides detailed checklists. If you study this book, other similar texts and also project management methodologies there is no doubt that you will be able to produce a project plan document that will look very impressive to inexperienced technical personnel and general business users. However there is no substitute for actual experience of having implemented trading floors. If you get something wrong at the planning stage or do not monitor progress issues properly during the project life cycle, it is almost inevitable that delays and additional expenditure will arise. This is not to suggest the project leader should abrogate responsibility for leading the project to another person: it is the project leader who is primarily responsible for making decisions and dealing with the consequences of those decisions. The project leader should sensibly expect the individual technology leaders and construction leaders in the project team to deliver on their part of the project. However, project leaders who are not already experienced on trading floor implementation should have independent mentors with whom they can discuss the plans and the problems. The important part of leadership is to develop a high-level oversight of all of the component parts of the project, and to realize how things are progressing overall. An experienced mentor will help spot when things are going wrong, when a wrong decision has been made or when important details have been omitted. The mentor will help suggest options that project leaders can discuss with their team and suppliers.

DOUBLE CHECK This book will help you formulate a plan. It is a comprehensive document that should guide you in considering most of the important factors. However, it cannot show you how to check the calculations or assumptions that apply to

Introduction ❙ 7

your project site. It is quite likely that factors not covered by this book will influence the project. During the approach to the project, and its planning and the execution, you and your representatives will be called on to make many calculations and planning assumptions. Simple mistakes in those calculations and assumptions can have substantial knock-on effects for the project and the subsequent operational capability of the trading floor or data centre. For example, you might be asked to calculate the power consumption of technology equipment required for operational purposes. A mistake or wrong assumption on this can have an enormous impact later in the project and during subsequent operations. When you perform a calculation, be sure to document the calculation and the assumptions made. Use version control, so that if you repeat the calculation using different factors you can always go back to explain the change. Check calculations by introducing variations and seeing if the results match your broad expectations. Try to produce the same result using a different calculation method or high-level approach. When you are confident in the calculation, or if you get stuck, take the time to explain the workings to a third person. If he or she cannot understand your results, it might be that you have done something wrong. If a supplier or one of your team members makes such a calculation on your behalf, you should expect that individual to document and be able to explain the calculations and assumptions to your own standards.

8


9

1

The starting point: business requirements

Right from the outset of the decision to investigate the provision of a new trading floor, you will need to establish the basic business requirements of the floor, associated equipment rooms, back office and service rooms. Those requirements will inevitably change substantially as the project progresses, but it is a fundamental prerequisite for success that the requirements and assumptions are agreed and documented in the very early stages. An effective change control process will then allow you to contain and deal with any changes to the business requirements. This information should be established before the search for premises takes place. This applies even if it is intended to locate the trading floor in a building already owned or leased by the organization. If the fundamental research is not undertaken first, it is very likely that the design of the trading floor will be unnecessarily compromised by premature decisions on accommodation suitability. In other words, other people might choose a location that is bad news for the technology team. For example there might not be enough power or space for the technology infrastructure. Many factors will affect the choice of location. Normally it will be convenient to choose a site in, or close to, the local centre of business activity. From the technology and operational logic perspectives the premises could be almost anywhere, but although financial market trades are now mostly executed by telephone or electronically, the trading and sales staff will prefer to be in a


location that clients can easily visit, and vice versa. Similarly, the location should be appropriate for business entertainment. This normally leads to the choice of premises in the financial sector of the city where the business is located. Among the other factors that will impact the decision are: • • • • •

ease of access, in terms of commuting, international travel and hotels; the prestige of the location: it could for example be in a famous building or street, close to a major financial exchange, or premises with a spectacular view to appeal to visiting clients; subsidized rent or tax advantages; national regulations controlling the trading of ‘domestic instruments’; the availability of suitable building structures.

From a technology viewpoint, the factors to be considered include: • • • •

proximity of the location to major telecoms company data fibre networks; availability of dual-routed electrical power supply; plenty of space in the building for cabling and raised floors; availability in the building of services such as chilled water and generator backup power.

However it is highly likely that the technology aspects will come a poor second to business needs in the selection of property. It then becomes your job as technology project team to find a solution to the technological problems. You should ensure that business managers are kept informed of the technology cost consequences of their selection of premises.

NUMBER OF PEOPLE At a very early stage you will need to know the number of people that are to be accommodated in the new premises. Provision should be made for business expansion over the next, say, one, three and five years. You will need to know how much floor space will be allocated for each person. Senior managers are likely to need more floor space per person than junior clerical staff. Trading floor desk space will probably be quite closely packed to provide proximity to other trading staff. There might also be country-specific rules about the minimum allowable space per person and the maximum distance allowed from a natural light source. Information about the number of users could be very commercially sensitive, particularly if the move to a new trading floor involves redundancies or business

The Starting Point ❙ 11

expansion. Many other design factors, such as power and air conditioning, are governed by the number of personnel and the business services they will need. A substantial change in the number of personnel at a later stage of the project might invalidate the selection of a particular building. It could be the intention to only occupy the premises for a short period, and then move to an alternative location. This could affect the quality of build sought.

HOURS OF BUSINESS If the trading room is a genuine 24-hour operation, this can have a significant impact on the design of the trading floor and environmental support services, as most buildings do not have base building services designed and built for 24-hour operation. Even if the hours are more restricted, they can still cause problems in buildings where the services are designed for 9.00 am to 5.00 pm occupation. If the hours of business coverage are 7.00 am to 8.00 pm, as is typical with trading floor operations, you might find that the landlord’s building services are not designed for those hours of operation. If there is weekend operation to cover Islamic countries the problems can be heightened. You might need to negotiate a special agreement with the building manager to extend the service hours, or to install extra air conditioning and chilling facilities as a tenant. Often the chilled water facilities to a shared building are switched off outside ‘normal’ business hours to reduce energy consumption and to reduce wear on the chilling components. If the trading floor has a dense technology configuration, it could become quite warm when the main building air conditioning is not working. This can make working conditions uncomfortable for staff working outside the normal working hours envelope. With a 24-hour operation you might need to include additional catering and rest area facilities for the staff working unsocial hours, since local shops, restaurants and other facilities might not function late at night, for example. Usually sufficient planning and expenditure can overcome the hours of operation factor. However, if the problems are unanticipated or no planning is made for ‘out of hours’ operations, you might not realize the impact until after the floor goes live. Fixing such problems at that stage can be very difficult.

BUSINESS DEADLINES During the early planning stage you will need to understand the deadlines driving the business requirements. It might be absolutely necessary to achieve a live date that has been set by an external factor such as the authorization of a new


financial instrument, the implementation of a new regulation, or a short-term market opportunity; or the objective might be to deliver a trading floor service before a major competitor introduces its service. Your business leaders might have recruited a trading team from a competitor, and wish to commence business from a set date when the team are freed from the contractual obligations to their previous employer. While all good project leaders should aim to deliver on time and to budget, it is important to establish whether there is any flexibility in the delivery date. If there is no flexibility, you might need to undertake additional work or incur additional expenditure to ensure that contingency solutions are available at the required live date. This can have a substantial cost impact on a project. You will need to identify that impact at an early stage, so the business can factor it into the feasibility proposals. In my experience the technology team is often advised of requirements at a late stage in the planning, perhaps for reasons of confidentiality or because the directors did not see the need to talk to technology people at an early stage. In this case the business might already have decided on the implementation deadline. It will then be critically important for the technology project leader to react very quickly to discover the business boundaries and technology requirements. Starting with this information, you should establish the lead times for delivery of the main technology components, and use these to form an outline plan. The outline plan should try to identify hotspots that could derail the project. It should be reviewed as soon as possible with the business manager and the manager responsible for providing the premises. If there is any doubt about the timescale feasibility, the business management should be informed immediately. These are among the typical technology issues that can prejudice the timescale.

Telecommunications circuit availability In most projects the telecommunications lead times are extended and somewhat unpredictable. Telecoms companies are not very good at project managing shortened lead times, particularly on intercontinental circuits where many subvendors are involved. Similar problems can be encountered with the provision of the circuits for market data services. With these circuits the technology project leader might be unable to intervene directly with the telecoms company, and need to work via the exchange staff.

Dealing furniture delivery and installation There are usually long lead times on delivery of trading floor desks. These high-priced items are not held in stock and are normally built to order. The


manufacturers do not have extensive resources to meet fluctuations in demand or changes in requirements.

Data network equipment Following the dot.com stock collapse, many network equipment suppliers were left with large and expensive inventories. They reacted by moving to greatly reduced product inventories and build-to-order production techniques. The typical lead time quoted for major network equipment is currently about three months from date of order. As a consequence there is a serious risk that if any network equipment is wrongly specified or ordered, there will be a significant delay before the correct device becomes available. Any deficiency in the data network can prevent the operation of the trading floor. Any network planning for a time-critical project should allow for contingency options for the network implementation. This might require a short-term overprovision of facilities. Clearly delays can arise from the main construction process. Some of these will be unpredictable, but other factors can be anticipated. For example if the building is already occupied, there might be constraints on the hours when building and cabling work is permitted. This can vary from country to country: I recently encountered a case in Tokyo where data cabling contractors could only work at weekends, so as not to disturb office workers on adjacent floors. It is normally the responsibility of the building contractor to allow for this in the schedule, but it is a factor to be aware of when selecting premises.

TYPES OF BUSINESS TEAMS As part of the early planning process, the project initiation team will need to understand the types and sizes of the teams that are to be accommodated during normal operations. There might be a mix of sales, trading, research, managerial, back-office and technology staff. They will need to be located in suitable groupings and accommodation. The technology requirements for different business activities will vary, and must be factored into the design process. The assumptions made in the early stages will affect the entire infrastructure and premises design. If for example it is decided to have a small front office and a large back-office team, but with the option to relocate the back-office team at a later date as the business expands to make room for a larger front-office team, it would affect the base design substantially. Perhaps the intention is to dedicate the entire area to


front-office trading staff at a later date. If so, it will be necessary to design the whole infrastructure to accommodate a full-sized trading team from the outset. That would require increased expenditure on power and data cabling at an early stage, which would feed back into the design requirements of the data centre.

NATURE OF BUSINESS The nature of the business transacted obviously affects the design of the trading floor and associated back-office areas. If the trading is paper-based, with large numbers of deal tickets and paper faxes, the space and technology requirements will differ from those of a trading process that is wholly electronic. This book focuses on electronic trading, and the design of the floor would be very different for an open outcry system. If the trading process is noisy, it might not be practicable to locate trading teams near areas where quiet is needed. It might also be necessary to build walls or acoustic barriers to reduce the noise levels. That in itself can have knock-on effects on the design and flexibility of office areas. Some trading processes are very simple and perhaps require only one or two PC screens per desk. In other markets, the trading desks might need to accommodate a substantial number of screens. This will again affect the design of the area, the power needs, the data cabling and desk design needs. The overall message is that the project leader should work closely with business leaders to document and understand their requirements. As the project develops, these requirements might well change, and the change control process should then be used to handle any impact assessment.

STRUCTURE VOLATILITY Some business teams are highly stable in their operation, and rarely change in size except when there are major market variations. In such circumstances the layout of their office area is unlikely to change much unless there are demands from other business areas. At the opposite end of the scale are businesses that rely on transient or highly volatile markets. The size of the teams can vary considerably over the short term, requiring desk moves and layout reorganizations at short notice. In many cases the issues arising from team volatility can be handled by ‘hot desk’ techniques. These are best planned for from an early date, using modern PC and telephony solutions such as IP telephony. However hot desking might not be enough, and it could be necessary to physically move desk arrangements in the trading floor and office areas. Desk moves take place somewhere at least


once a month on some trading floors. If the requirement to move desks was not built into the design, this can be an expensive process, particularly if the move has to take place outside normal office hours. Research should be undertaken early in the project to ascertain the degree of business volatility to be incorporated into the design. If there is a strong requirement for frequent moves it can affect choices on desk types, power and data cabling, and even air-conditioning requirements. Frequent moves call for flexible designs that can easily be dismantled and reassembled, unplugged and replugged. They also call for spare access points, surplus cable lengths and easily moved floor boxes. The furniture needs to be highly modular, and any cabling installed in it needs to be easily unclippable without causing any damage. Business takeovers and mergers of either entire or partial businesses are a common occurrence in financial markets. As part of the planning process the business management should be asked whether plans for any planned or potential mergers, sell-offs or closures should be taken into account in designing the technology for the trading floor and back office. Particularly if this is a live option, the technology team should look at the potential impact on technology systems of part of the business moving away, and of parts running in parallel as isolated businesses at the same location. This consideration might affect the technology solutions selected. Any variation in cost arising from this review should be discussed and agreed with the business before proceeding. Business managers might be unwilling or unable to provide firm projections of change, but that should not prevent the technology project leader from considering organizational changes that are clearly likely or possible. Planning for change can considerably reduce ongoing operational costs. It might be difficult to project the full actual savings, but it should be possible to predict, for example, how the costs of desk moves would be affected by different choices of furniture and equipment. The potential savings could be incorporated into a trading floor life cycle budget.

COLOCATION OF TEAMS In some financial trading areas there could be a requirement for a team to be located close to or adjacent to another team, or for two teams not to be located close together. Some basic research at the start of the project will help prevent any problems related to such issues. Typical issues are access to shared back-office teams, shared access to data display wall panels, and line of sight considerations. Sometimes regulations require physical barriers between different departments of a business, to mirror the organizational ‘Chinese walls’ that prevent them from influencing each


other’s activities. These organizational requirements can increase the amount of floor space needed. If teams that need to be colocated require a very large combined space – perhaps larger than the premises can readily accommodate – this presents problems in office space planning.

BUILD AND ENVIRONMENT QUALITY On trading floors themselves the environment is usually functional, with few luxuries, and perhaps even Spartan. There is only limited provision for personal effects and storage, as the emphasis is on cramming people in as tightly as possible. However managers might well decide that a luxurious high-quality finish is appropriate in areas that will be accessed by important clients. Particular problems can arise in buildings of historical or architectural importance, perhaps with listed building status, where features such as ornate decorative plasterwork or mahogany wood panelling need to be conserved. There can be severe regulatory restrictions on alterations that can be made (if any), and long delays as approvals are sought. Constraints imposed can include, for example, the requirement that restoration work is carried out by designated or regulated master craftspeople. In one such environment where I worked, we encountered: • • • • • • • •

solid floors that could not be covered, cut or channelled because of rare tiles; solid walls covered with ancient wallpaper; oak panels to waist height, which had to be worked on by specialist craftspeople to allow cabling to pass through; no visible cabling allowed; decorative ceiling plaster with painted panels; a ban on air conditioning, and a requirement to use open coal fires; small rooms with decorative pillars and arches; a national approvals officer who took at least six weeks to approve or reject an application or change request.

With a small trading floor not far from St Mark’s Square in Venice, there was an added dimension of complexity because of the need for interpretation from Italian to English and vice versa. Fortunately restrictions as severe as these are relatively rare, but if there are to be offices or areas with a prestige high specification you will need to be aware of this at an early stage, since it will affect the sequencing and timing of the building works. The installation or construction of expensive surfaces such as specialist glass walls and wood panelling is usually left until late in a project, to avoid damage during the main construction works. Installation of the underlying IT infrastructure will have to be scheduled accordingly.


In a prestige boardroom, the requirements might include a high-quality technology solution for voice and video conferences, and video presentations, with careful attention to the appearance, including a ban on visible cabling, and perhaps a demand for the technology to remain hidden until it is required. The business might decide that client perceptions of the quality of the technology environment are an important business factor. This could have an impact on the type of data cabling deployed, the quality of racking and cabinets, and the layout of the equipment room/data centre. If there are plans for large number of casual visitors during business operations, it might also be necessary to construct a visitor gallery, so the guests will not interfere with business operations. All these factors can affect the timescale, project cost and project risk. It is best if they are incorporated into the planning at an early stage.

RESILIENCE AND BUSINESS CONTINUITY Most trading floors have a requirement for a resilient infrastructure and business continuity facility. That requirement will vary across the different business areas in an organization. The project leader should establish, document and agree the fundamentals of the business requirement for resilience/continuity provision at an early stage. If it is not taken into account then, subsequent remedial action can be very difficult should the business decide at a later date that it is required. Recent developments in regulation of the financial trading environment, such as the Sarbanes–Oxley Act in the United States, place an increased emphasis on business resilience. Even if this is not required by regulation, it is usually good business practice to provide a resilient environment for key areas. It is highly likely that the cost of a single major failure would far outweigh the cost of incorporating a resilient environment into the initial design. Resilience needs can affect space requirements, office layout, electrical power configuration, floor loadings, data cabling, network design, air conditioning, equipment room design, telecoms delivery and many other factors. The issue of business continuity calls for similar considerations, but here the more likely solution is the designation of alternative premises. The locations of both the primary trading floor and the business continuity site need to be considered carefully in relation to each other. The business continuity site should not normally be located close to the primary site. The project leader will face the problems of synchronizing the delivery of business continuity facilities with the delivery of the main project. Quite often in a large organization, a separate team manages the delivery of business continuity facilities. The locations of the trading room, back office and equipment room should be assessed for environmental risks. Among the risks to be considered are:


• • • • • •

flooding if the site is on a flood plain or in a tidal area, particularly if any part of the building is below high water level; storm damage; forest fires; earthquakes; heavy, petroleum or chemical industry nearby; poor electricity supply resilience.

Any such risks should be factored into the business plan, and the decision made on how to handle them: by managing them or avoiding them, for example. It might be decided that the opportunities offered by a site outweigh its risks, particularly if good continuity arrangements can be made.

SECURITY CONCERNS Security risks and needs should be analysed and specified prior to the selection of a location for trading. There tends to be an increased risk of terrorist activity in financial centres, and the potential for car bombs, for example, should be taken into account. One large financial organization in the City of London has a main trading floor and associated equipment room that extend over a public road where vehicles can be parked. It employed special construction techniques to mitigate the risk that had been identified. It might be considered wise to avoid the vicinity of obvious terrorist targets such as courthouses, public authority buildings and landmark buildings. The building might require discrete and secure access for important clients and senior management: for example, a secure car park under the building with an entrance leading directly from it. When a site has been selected, and the choice made to either adapt an existing building or design one from scratch, the team will need to undertake another security review. The results must be incorporated into the design and specification of the trading floor and support rooms. If there is a substantial terrorist risk it might be appropriate to consider splitting the trading floor over two separate locations. When a major incident occurs it is usual for the surrounding area to be cordoned off by the security authorities. Sometimes access is blocked for several days, even if the business premises themselves were not damaged. If the business has two locations it should be possible to temporarily migrate staff to the site that is not affected. If this approach is adopted, it will have a design impact on the IT and telecoms infrastructure. Some trading turret systems are designed with this in mind.


PUBLICITY AND MARKETING The project leader should establish from the business what its strategy is regarding internal and external publicity for the proposed trading floor. For example, the decision might be to keep the development low-key and give it little or no publicity. This would affect the relationship with external suppliers, and also the management of internal staff deployed on the project. The norm is for the business leaders to designate a marketing director or manager to handle any related issues. As well as information deliberately disseminated by the building, unsolicited publicity should be taken into account. During the course of a project it is quite usual for financial journalists to attempt to find out details of the business to be undertaken. They can learn much from the site, the target dates, budgets and details of the technology deployed, and might also approach staff for information. Early planning and good team briefing will help keep the information flow under control. If a trading floor construction project encounters problems that affect its progress, it could have a negative market effect on the business that is to occupy it. This risk too should be identified and managed in advance.

20

2

Preparation

A CLEAR PLAN IS ESSENTIAL A business project team should be formed, and the technology leader should form part of that team. However a senior director from the trading business should undertake the leadership of the business project team. If there are gaps in experience or skill, the team should be supported by external consultants. Those consultants should have substantial experience in implementing trading floors. The team should, from the outset, understand their responsibilities for the various aspects of the project, the objectives and the sign-off process. The team should also define and document anticipated milestone dates for the project. The business leader should identify to the rest of the team the intervals at which such plans should be presented for board level approval, which could (for example) be monthly, ad hoc or quarterly. The business project team should also define deliverables, such as detailed budgets and project plans. It is likely that as detailed planning and design is undertaken, some of the milestone dates will have to change, but there should be a clear mechanism for agreeing those dates. The project team should also develop a clear pattern of progress meetings with documented minutes.

Preparation ❙ 21

RESEARCH One of the first actions of the technology project team is to ask the business managers about their requirements for the new trading floor, back office and equipment rooms. This is best achieved by one-on-one meetings between the technology project team leaders and the business managers. At this stage the project leader should not be looking for fine detail, but more to capture the vision of what the business needs. As part of the initial research the project team should feed its understanding of the vision back to the business management.

COST CONSTRAINTS Project Few organizations have unlimited funds, so it is inevitable that there will be constraints on the money available to spend on the trading room project. The initial planning phase is likely to be crucial in establishing the budget. If the potential cost is too high the project is likely to be shelved. If the budget constraints are excessive it is highly likely that the end result will not be that desired by the business. In every major budget the expenditure should be divided between essential and nonessential items. The items in the budget should be examined, where possible alternatives found, and costs established. The business managers may wish to see the cost impact of various alternatives and qualities, with clear explanations of the pros and cons. However for the purpose of the initial budget planning it is generally advisable to cost on the basis of the higher-priced options, and to then reduce costs at the detailed planning stage by choosing lower-cost options and by careful negotiation. The wise project leader will ensure that the business managers understand that strategy. Generally it is not too difficult to sell it as a strategy, as it reduces financial surprises later. However if the price margins are set too high there is a danger that the initial budget size will prejudice the whole project. The technology cost factors are described in more detail later in this book, but here are some of the major items, assuming that construction work is separately budgeted: • • •

server equipment purchase; extra software licences for servers and databases; copper data cabling;


• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

fibre data cabling; cabling containment; keyboard, video, mouse (KVM) extension servers; equipment cabinets and racking; patch leads in the equipment room and at the desks; data network equipment; environment monitoring and software; fire suppression system in equipment room; power facilities for technology, eg uninterrupted power supply (UPS), generator; air conditioning; desktop PCs and screens; dealing desks and equipment, eg screen supports, power distribution unit (PDU) blocks; dealer boards and voice recording; telecoms installation costs; market data system installation; PBX for phones; video conference facilities; voicemail; TV and presentation facilities; print, fax and photocopiers; internet and firewall; security access control and monitoring system; project management; technology personnel costs; team travel expenses and accommodation; deployment team costs; technology site security and storage; temporary build/deployment area; import taxes and shipping costs; contingency provision.

As part of the initial planning the technology project leader is highly likely to be asked to provide an initial pre-budget estimate of the costs and timescale before formal quotations have been received from suppliers. This is always a difficult and dangerous task as it might well set the business expectations of costs, and if possible it should be avoided. Any such estimate should be very clearly qualified. The project leader should always document the provisional estimates so that he or she can reconstruct them if necessary. Where possible, talk with potential suppliers and ask for ballpark estimates.

Preparation ❙ 23

If the total initial cost is too high, there are generally ways to reduce it by changing the specification or spreading the cost. Here are some examples: • • • • • • • • • •

supplier negotiation; using second-hand equipment; using alternative technology from standard; leasing; payment by usage; using lower-specification equipment; reduced functionality; accepting lower resilience; reducing the business requirement; buying bundled services and equipment.

Generally a cost reduction upfront leads to an increased ongoing or operational cost. This could involve financial charges, greater maintenance cost, reduced expansion capability or extra transaction costs. I do not go into this in great detail in this book because the situation will vary considerably from project to project. A day spent early in the project brainstorming the costs with a business director, technology manager and an accountant can achieve good savings without sacrificing quality.

Operational aspects As part of the project costing you should keep a careful eye on how much it will cost to run the trading floor. Decisions made during the initial planning stage can have a great impact on the ongoing operational costs. While accounting standards will vary between companies, we have found it useful to undertake lifecycle costings of say three, five, seven and 10 years. These can then be used by the business to assess those costs against the income projections. Typical technology operational costs that should be considered are: • • • • • • • • •

capital expenditure depreciation; lease payments; service fees; telecoms costs; market data fees; fixed maintenance fees; enhanced maintenance costs; floor rental, property taxes, landlord service charges; power charges and other utilities;


• • • •

insurance; support staff costs; equipment renewals; consumables.

HEADCOUNT TO BE ACCOMMODATED As mentioned previously, the headcount to be accommodated should be identified and categorized by business unit. This information will be essential in subsequent calculations. In essence this will be the basis of the project. A headcount document should be issued and signed off by business leaders. A change control process should be available to ensure that any changes to headcount are properly reviewed. The headcount document should clearly identify the anticipated population or the planning assumptions over the anticipated life of the trading floor.

DESK PLAN A provisional offices and desk plan should be drawn up to the approximate scale of the anticipated premises. This document will help the business project to start to focus on the accommodation issues of the various premises under consideration. When a building has been located, an accurate, scaled architect’s plan will take the place of this initial plan. The initial plan should document any information about personnel space allowance standards in the location under consideration, and any space allowance assumptions used. This is particularly important if the trading floor is in an overseas location, as office space regulations can vary from country to country. If it clearly states the assumptions, the document will help with future communication. One issue that will require consideration is the amount of noise generated by the trading staff during their operations. It might be necessary to introduce acoustic barriers to prevent one area from interfering with another. If there is a high volume of voice-traded instruments, such as spot foreign exchange, the noise level will be significantly greater than with electronically traded complex instruments. The individual business managers will be only too well aware of the noise levels generated by their teams’ activities, but this is a point that should be checked during the design process, and the agreement should be documented.

Preparation ❙ 25

When the detailed planning takes place it is suggested that a desk database is created to help track the personnel and facilities to be associated with each desk. Where there are substantial variations from the standards they can be documented in the detailed planning, together with the basis for that decision.

CHINESE WALLS One of the planning documents that must be created at an early stage lists the business requirements assumed for any ‘Chinese walls’: where market practice or regulation requires the separation of business units. The heads of business and the compliance officer should sign off these assumptions. If Chinese walls are required, this may necessitate physical barriers such as glass walls, or the separation of desk clusters. In extreme cases the personnel might have to be located in separate rooms.

LINE OF SIGHT NEEDS Line of sight on the trading floor is important. It defines what parts of the trading floor are visible by staff from any position on the floor. These requirements should be documented and agreed from the outset, as they can fundamentally affect the design and layout of the trading floor. A trader might need to see colleagues in another business section, some wall display panels, a plasma screen or clocks. This will affect the positioning of desks, and the height of desks and screens. A room with many supporting columns might be unsuitable for use as a trading floor simply because of line of sight issues. When the detailed architect’s plan showing desk locations is available for the selected premises, the project leader should arrange specific analysis of line of sight issues. Once again agreement with the business management should be documented.

EQUIPMENT AND TECHNOLOGY SERVICES TO BE HOUSED When the initial headcount and desk plan have been produced, the technology team will be in the position to undertake a detailed equipment and services analysis. This is an essential step in calculating the space, budget, heat, cooling and power requirements for the project.


Existing equipment and services inventory The technology team should undertake a complete inventory of the PCs, display screens, market data services, trading services, time stamp punches, modems and PDUs used at each desk location in the user’s current environment. That data should be recorded and passed to the head of department to confirm whether all the services will be required at the new location. Provision should be made for new staff members who will arrive before the operation of the new trading floor. The data should be cross-checked against the headcount information, and any variances investigated. If any of the existing equipment is obsolescent it is possible that equipment will be upgraded or ‘technology refreshed’ as part of the new project. Outline plans should be considered for the disposal of the replaced equipment and cancellation of any licences or leases. The equipment and service requirements should be recorded, together with current location data, in a central database. The database should record clear information on the configuration of PCs, such as number of processors, memory and disk drives. In a well-organized department all the required data will already be available in existing asset/support databases. However, even if that is the case, the data in the inventory must be checked. Part of the inventory process should document for each device whether it needs to have a protected power supply, for example generator-backed power or UPS. A change control process will need to be implemented to ensure that any configuration changes of existing equipment are recorded in the database. At this point in the project the technology department and business units should confirm that all software products on the existing desktop machines are correctly licensed. Where there are licence tokens, such as USB token devices, these must be carefully documented. It is all too easy for a trading floor build project to find itself saddled with the costs of previous failures to correctly license software. In itself that is not a major problem, but it will need clear business approval that the cost is added to the trading floor build project. As part of the inventory the details of servers, telecoms and network equipment housed in existing data centres and equipment rooms should be recorded in the central database if that equipment is to be part of the move. This inventory should include details of cabinets and racking needed to hold the equipment, and data cabling patching. An inventory will be required which analyses the financial data requirements, in terms of market data, exchange feeds, external trading and settlement systems, and connection to internal data backbone feeds. The telecoms inventory should record the number of voice and data circuits used in the trading room and supporting areas. This should include:

Preparation ❙ 27

• • • • • • • • • • •

direct analogue plain old telephone (POT) lines; voice circuits on high-capacity trunks; dedicated voice circuits; leased data circuits; satellite circuits; ISDN lines; X25 circuits; telex lines; circuits dedicated in internal company networks; internal extensions in use; mobile telephone facilities.

These circuits might be freestanding, or connected to the PBX and/or existing trading turret systems, or to trading equipment on the floor or in the equipment room. Care should be taken to capture circuit details of services provided by third-party vendors. This should include both market data services and simple dial-up modem lines. Fax services might also be using some additional telecoms lines. The team should also survey the direct-dial number ranges and other dial plans in use. It is important to remember the equipment needed for any services delivered by satellite transmission. These will require the placement of satellite dishes on the roof of the new premises, which will require permission from the new landlord. It could cause a delay, particularly if the roof of the new premises is cluttered. There would be a worse situation if the satellite service was key, but for some reason could not be installed, perhaps because the new premises were out of the line of sight for the satellite. An important part of the early planning process is to work through the inventory list and confirm whether each piece of equipment and service can be installed in the new premises.

New equipment and services In addition to the technology refresh mentioned above, it is possible that the business will want to introduce new services or equipment as part of the move. A new service such as a new market data feed will introduce the requirement for additional data circuits, network equipment and possibly servers. For important services it is likely that incoming feeds, network equipment and the like will be replicated for redundancy purposes. The new equipment details should be added to the inventory. An estimate should be made for additional equipment that might be required for expansion purposes over the next few years. This will require a


consultation process with the relevant business areas. When the estimate has been made, the equipment requirements should be entered as dummy entries in the project inventory.

Print, scanning, fax and copy equipment The trading floor and back office will have requirements for communal printers, document scanners, fax facilities and photocopiers. These machines will need operational space, power and network connectivity. Although they might not be directly associated with any desk location, these devices will need to be included in the space, data cabling and power planning. Consequently these devices should be included in the equipment inventory.

SPACE NEEDED Most senior business managers will have a good feel for the amount of office space that is required. However they might underestimate the space required for technological equipment and supporting services. The technology project leader should work with other team managers such as the premises/facilities manager to tally the total amount of space required. This will require some assumptions at this stage, but is best estimated by taking a methodical approach and considering each office or room in turn.

People I have already mentioned that the head count and space allowance per person should be established. From this it is a short step to calculate the floor space needed for these people. An additional margin should be built into the figures to allow for corridors, walkways, dead space and the like.

Office services Space will be needed for the ancillary rooms needed to support an office space, for example: • • • • •

post room; printer room; document and filing space; supplier storage; cleaner closets;

Preparation ❙ 29

• • • • • • •

cloakroom; kitchen; eating or breakout area; shower room; toilet and restroom areas; IT support room, for building and storing PCs and spares; first aid room.

Some of these areas might be shared space within an existing multi-tenant building. Once the requirements have been calculated it is a simple task to deduct those from the overall floor space requirements.

Security The business might have a requirement for secure areas, and these will increase the need for floor space. This could include a need for a fire safe, precious items safe or vault, and a secure delivery/collection area. It should be remembered that large safes impose a substantial floor loading wherever they are placed and during delivery. In a secure environment additional floor space will be needed for airlock-type double-door lobbies. In some countries there is a requirement to provide a secure refuge area for office staff. High-security environments will place constraints on the type of walls, floors and windows in the premises, but for the purpose of this book it has been assumed that in this situation the organization will seek appropriate advice from security specialists before proceeding.

Technology team There might be a requirement to provide accommodation for technology personnel on or adjacent to the trading floor. This will depend to a great extent on the size of the trading floor, and also on the existing structure of the technology department. In a small trading room the support is likely to be offsite, possibly aided by remote desktop access technology. Where technology staff are required on site, it might be necessary to consider the following teams: • • • • •

help desk or service desk; desktop support engineers; data centre operations personnel; market data support personnel; network and/or voice technicians;


• • •

audiovisual conferencing support; business-attached developers; system developers.

The type of environment and space requirements will vary for each of these teams. If long support hours are required, for example on a 24-hour basis, there might be a need for kitchen facilities.

Equipment room An estimate of space will be required for the equipment room(s). This is not a complete design of an equipment room or data centre, but just the initial calculation of space needs. The number of existing equipment cabinets, freestanding cabinets and racking should be determined. Allowing approximately 3 ft (1 m) in front of the cabinets and 3 ft (1 m) behind, it should be possible to calculate the approximate floor space needs based on the cabinet footprints. Add an allowance for spare expansion cabinets of say 50 per cent, or more if the business projections include a substantial expansion. Some floor space should be allowed for air handling units (AHUs) and for the tanks of fire suppressant systems. On top of that figure, allow 25 per cent extra for corridors, ramps, door lobbies and wall thickness to give a total floor space for the equipment room. If the equipment room doubles as a data centre, space should be allowed for the seating of operational staff, paper handling machinery, printers, document handling machinery, media storage, a tape library system and data storage units. These types of operations create dust and substantial movement of personnel. Consequently they are normally be housed in rooms separate from the main server equipment racking. Some organizations physically separate the equipment racking requiring ‘public access’ from the internal equipment racking. ‘Public access’ includes those areas where non-staff personnel such as public telecommunications engineers and market data vendor engineers need access to the servers. This physical separation, for example by a wall or a security cage, will increase the floor space requirements.

Risers, electrical and mechanical rooms, and roof space A trading floor construction will require space in the building’s riser pathways for data cabling, power cabling, chilled water and drainage. When planning for the space needs of the organization this figure should be calculated. To a great extent the amount of riser space needed depends on the design layout of the

Preparation ❙ 31

trading floor and the associated equipment room(s), but it is a factor that should be checked when selecting premises. If the trading floor(s) are located on a different level from the equipment room, it might be necessary to provide additional floor space for one or more cabling closets on each floor. These will contain patch panels and network equipment. Normally they are placed adjacent to the risers. There should be alternative riser paths in the building for data cabling, power cabling and chilled water, to allow for resilient routing. There might also need to be riser space for gas ducting, to allow the exhaust of fire-suppressant gas. If the building is a multi-tenant occupancy with shared risers, a check should be made that there is sufficient space to install a conduit to provide secure housing for the data cabling. This is to protect the data cabling from accidental or malicious damage or intrusion. Mechanical and electrical room space will be needed for electrical power protection, in the form of generator machinery, generator fuel and a UPS system. The generator will need either a fireproof room with provision for exhaust fume extraction and noise suppression, or suitable external accommodation. If the generator is housed in a building and uses liquid fuel, the surrounding floor should be tanked to contain any spilled fuel. The landlord might offer generator capacity as part of the tenancy agreement, so this is just one additional factor that needs to be checked when selecting a building for a trading floor. The factors involved in calculating the power requirements for generators are discussed later in this book. The UPS will require substantial battery storage space. That has space implications, floor-loading and cooling implications. The generator can sometimes be housed in a basement or on a roof. The project team will need to confirm that a suitable amount of space is available, and that local regulations do not prevent the use of a generator in the building. Space might also be required on the roof for water chillers and other air-conditioning equipment, and for satellite dishes. When checking the space for satellite dishes, you will also need to check that there is a line of sight to the satellites used.

Meeting rooms The business will need to estimate how many separate meeting rooms and unassigned offices (hot offices for visitors) are needed to support its operations. From this it should be possible to calculate the floor space needs. The technology team should help the business decide how many power points and structured data ports will be required in these meeting rooms. A larger meeting room might be designated as a boardroom. This room might need to cater for a substantial number of people. If the room is to host high-quality


audiovisual presentations and video conferences, it might be necessary to allow an adjacent space for the audiovisual technology.

Reception Most trading floor businesses will require a reception area where clients and visitors can be received. The reception area will generate a space requirement, and also require some base technology, such as structured cabling or wireless LAN for phones, PCs and printers. Some additional structured cabling or coaxial cables might be required for the provision of television signals for plasma displays in the reception area.

POWER NEEDS The power needs of the trading floor and back office should be calculated at an early stage, preferably before the premises have been selected. The first provisional estimate will need to be confirmed by qualified mechanical and electrical engineers, who will add the technology power needs to the rest of the building services requirement. There are no guarantees of unlimited electrical power to a building, or to a floor within the building. If premises are selected and subsequently found to have insufficient power, the remedial costs can be quite high. Where possible there should be diverse routing – in other words, at least two different routes – for power from the utility company. If possible these routes should be fed by different substations. The initial power estimates are a key cost element in the selection of premises, and in the design of the mechanical and electrical facilities for the premises. The method of calculation should be documented and signed off by the business leaders as well as the technology team. Technology such as Power over Ethernet (PoE) can introduce new patterns of requirement for protected power. It might be necessary to provide enhanced protected electrical power in wiring closets to service the network switches supporting PoE. It is possible to deliver 13 watts of power per connection. This additional load on the network switch will increase electric power needs and also associated cooling needs. When moving from an older technology environment to a new environment it is important to ensure that the changed power/cooling needs are recognized in the planning process. When calculating the power needs the project team should consider the ongoing operational costs of supplying the power. Using recent chargeout rates from a major telecommunications vendor in the UK, a full cost of supply for one

Preparation ❙ 33

trading floor of approximately £1400 (US $2500) per kilowatt per year was calculated. That figure includes cooling and UPS operational costs. In reality the charge could vary from building to building depending on circumstances. However if the trading floor organization contracts with the property owner/manager for 150 KW power and cooling infrastructure when it only needs 100 KW, that could represent a substantial overspend during the operational life of the facility. Once the power requirements have been established, it is possible for a qualified engineer or experienced team member to work out the cooling load for the total power released in the trading floor, offices and equipment rooms.

Steady-state power and switch-on power The technology team needs to calculate the electrical power needs of the equipment to be installed in the trading floor, back office and equipment rooms. Research should be undertaken to identify the power consumption of each PC, monitor and other piece of equipment. From the equipment inventory it should be possible to identify the manufacturer and model of each piece of equipment, then the manufacturer’s literature should list its normal steady-state power needs. Do not use the power rating shown on equipment labels: that would be misleading because it indicates the maximum capability of the unit rather than its demands. The steady-state power consumption should then be applied to the quantities of equipment shown in the inventory. Remember to take into account the highest projected equipment population. In a similar way to the steady-state calculation, the team should identify the switch-on power demands of the equipment. The initial switch-on power surge can be substantially larger than the steady-state demands. This figure will help to define the power that the circuit breakers of the floor will have to handle after a power outage. The mechanical and electrical engineers should be asked to confirm that the electrical infrastructure can cope with the surge power needs. For equipment to be housed in racking or cabinets, the inventory should document the airflow that is needed (front to back) to provide adequate cooling. This data will be needed during work to plan and specify where equipment is positioned within the racking or cabinets. This planning is covered in more detail later in the book. The team should also identify the power needs for lighting, heating and air conditioning. Initial advice on this should be sought from a qualified buildings manager.

Essential power, protected power and discretionary power Within the inventory figures for steady-state power and switch-on power, the technology team will need to identify the equipment and services that will


require continuous power protection from a UPS. Normally most equipment in the equipment room, on the trading desk and key back-office desks will be afforded this level of protection. Sudden power failure to an important computer in the equipment room could lead to file corruption and the loss of important data, necessitating lengthy (hours-long) recovery times. There is a sound commercial reason to provide protected power to the trading floor. A power failure might interrupt a large trade or linked sequence of trades, or disrupt the settlement of trades before a market deadline. There would be a substantial reputational risk if the business were unable to trade because of a power failure. Other equipment and facilities might require essential power backup, perhaps with provision for a few seconds of outage while the standby generator kicks in. The technology team should always take into account the risk that the generator will not start immediately when needed. ‘Discretionary power’ relates to those devices and lighting that could be left unpowered during a mains electricity outage. Assigning this status to devices will reduce the load on the standby generator. For example, part of the building’s lighting could be assigned this status.

Expansion needs The normal approach to planning power provision for a trading floor is to ensure that sufficient protected, essential and raw mains power is available from the outset. However if the organization has a large building and a small initial trading floor, it might not be fully cost-effective to configure the power delivery for the full potential load. An example is a light industrial warehouse converted for trading floor activities. However, failure to provide adequate power from the outset can be highly expensive. One financial organization had a couple of trading floors in the City of London in a large building constructed in 1925. The building was several storeys tall, and a number of large tenant companies operated from it. When a new trading floor was planned a few years ago, it was quickly identified that the building power was not designed for a high power-load trading operation. The London Electricity Company was approached to provide extra power, but after due consideration decided the only effective solution was to install a high-voltage substation on the roof. The financial company had to employ an engineering manager qualified in the operation of high-voltage substations, after which it became the power supplier to other tenants in the building. Needless to say, the capital expenditure on the trading floor project was somewhat higher than anticipated.

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HEAT NEEDS On a trading floor there is normally no need to provide heating. The most likely problem is the removal of excess heat. However other areas might require some form of heating during cold weather, and consideration will need to be given to the facilities available. Usually in an existing building they will prove adequate, but if they are not, budget provision will be needed for a form of space heating. In climates where there are freezing winter temperatures, you should be sure that the building can provide protection and if necessary heating for any airconditioning equipment and other services exposed to the elements. A frozen water pipe can burst, and cause flooding when it thaws, disrupting operations.

COOLING NEEDS In a trading room environment there is a critical need for cooling, generally through air conditioning. It is almost as essential as a protected power supply. There is such a density of equipment that if the air conditioning fails, the room will quickly overheat. The resilient cooling requirement is particularly crucial in the equipment room. In an equipment room with failed air conditioning, it is often necessary to switch off equipment in less than a quarter of an hour. In the evaluation of any premises, you will need to understand what chilled water capability exists, how reliable those facilities are in operation, and what opportunities there are for the organization to provide its own chilling/air conditioning capability. At this point the free space available on the roof could be a critical issue. The questions about cooling capacity are key business factors. Even if the premises manager is part of the business project team, the technology managers and the trading managers should ask basic questions about cooling and power. It is a recipe for disaster to assume that the building will be equipped with adequate facilities.

Equipment room The basic method of establishing the cooling requirement for a equipment room is to take the steady-state electrical power consumption for the equipment to be housed in the room. However if the equipment room will be carrying a substantial technology load with a great density of power usage, the air conditioning, methods of cooling and air flows might require careful advance design. It might be necessary to provide dynamic heat mapping of the heat load for the technology to be used.


A figure should be included for ancillary services such as lighting. If the UPS is located in the room, you should assume that the power conversion is not 100 per cent efficient. Typically 5 per cent of the power converted by a UPS will be given out as heat. The AHUs themselves will generate some heat during operation, from the fan motors and the evaporators used in the humidifiers. This is normally excluded from the initial calculations, but a note should be made for the mechanical and electrical engineers to include it in the final design. Similarly, at the initial state it is not normally necessary to include thermal gain from windows and walls. These factors depend on the location of the equipment room in the building. The type of glass in the windows, the size of the windows and coatings on the windows can all affect the heat gain. However in countries where there are high summer temperatures, this factor should not be ignored in the final design. Provision should be made for any potential expansion of equipment or increase in size of the room, though this factor should be shown separately from the ‘actual’ usage figures. I would advise that a margin of 30 per cent be added to the total cooling capacity. When the entire configuration is designed, you will need the capability to maintain a temperature of between 20–23 degrees Celsius, and the relative humidity should be 40–50 per cent. It is better for the equipment longevity if it is kept slightly cooler, but if the room has operators present for any length of time they might find an air temperature below 20 degrees uncomfortably cold. As equipment density increases, the cooling requirements will become more extreme. In data centres in the 20th century, an approach of calculating average temperature in the equipment room gave acceptable results. With more dense technology such as blade servers becoming more common, it is becoming increasingly important to consider the heat load impact of each cabinet individually. It is expected that given current trends, heat loads will increase by 20 per cent annually. A 24-blade server cabinet was recently quoted (2005) as requiring 10.7 KW and having a cabinet weight of 557 kg. Some locations are planning on heat loads of up to 25 KW per cabinet; the Chicago Mercantile Exchange has recently built a data centre using 18 KW per cabinet as an average.

Office desk equipment A quick inventory should be taken of desktop equipment other than PCs and screens in use in the current environment. These might include fans, kettles, speakerphones, phone chargers and desk lighting. The total wattage of this equipment should be calculated, but it can be listed as nonessential power. Then

Preparation ❙ 37

an informed guess should be taken about the likely load imposed at any one time by this equipment. This will all add to the cooling load in the office area.

PCs From the inventory of desktop PCs there will now be a clear statement of the amount of power consumed by the PCs in the office area, reception, meeting rooms and so on. From this it should be possible to calculate the cooling load. Note that if PCs are left running over nights and/or weekends in an uncooled environment, there will be a residual heat load to dissipate when the air conditioning is first switched on in the morning. The residual heat load will be stored in the furnishings and walls. This load will not affect the overall cooling capability calculations, but it might require an agreement with the landlord to provide an early switchon of the building air conditioning 30 minutes or an hour before business operations commence. This is a factor to be checked when negotiating the premises lease or rental. This overnight heat load can be reduced by arranging for PCs to be switched off, or at least revert to a standby mode, if left unattended for more than one hour. Note that the power consumed (and heat output) by a PC increases from the base estimate as more disk drives are added, particularly if high-speed 10–15K rpm disks are installed, as is common in trader workstations. In theory this adds an additional 15 W per disk, but allowing for PSU inefficiency it is more like 20 watts. Where highspeed graphics cards are added there is an additional heat load of 40 W. While these amounts are individually small, the heat impact can multiply across a trading floor.

Monitors In a trading environment it is not unusual for individuals to have several display screens on their desks. When these were based on cathode ray tube technology the heat load would have been substantial, but now it is much more common to use flat-panel LCD screens, which have a much lower heat output. In operational mode an LCD panel will use about 40 W; in a standby mode this drops to about 5 W. The total heat output should be relatively simple to calculate. Large plasma display panels have quite a high power consumption/heat output, in the range of 400–500 W. A trading floor might have several of these mounted on the walls or ceiling.

Lighting Detailed energy estimates for lighting will depend on the detailed design, but as a basic rule of thumb allow around 100 W per person, depending on the amount of natural lighting available. This obviously affects the cooling requirement.


Natural lighting can introduce a heat gain, but the amount will depend on the size of the windows, the type of glass installed (double glazing and/or reflective) and the solar conditions to be encountered. That gain should be assessed in the detailed design of the building. Modern thermal glass significantly reduces the summer thermal gain, reducing the amount of power required for air conditioning.

People People in themselves output heat as a byproduct of muscle activity. The amount depends on the type of work being undertaken. As a rule of thumb in an office, it is approximately 80–100 W per person.

Dealing floor equipment The overall heat output for dealing floor equipment should be covered by the general inventory calculations. It is however worth checking that the dealing floor equipment has been included in the inventory data. In many trading rooms IT and telecoms staff are organizationally separate, and it is not unknown for them to maintain separate records. In the more detailed planning and design for the trading desks, some consideration will need to be given to the provision of cooling coils under desks, to extract the heat generated by under-desk equipment. If this heat is released directly from the desk it can lead to hot spots. This method of cooling will give rise to the need for cooling pipes and condensate drains to and from the desks. That in turn will limit the flexibility for future movement of the desks. An alternative way of avoiding producing heat at the trading desks is to locate PC system units in a nearby equipment room, with keyboards and screens on the desks connected by KVM extension technology over the structured data cabling system. Examples of this technology can be seen on the websites of Avocent, Lantronix and Raritan. This approach has the additional benefit of reducing the power requirement at the desks. The downside is the increased requirement for cooling in the equipment room, and the additional cost of the screen extension technology. It is important that when the builders, mechanical and electrical staff, and consultants are briefed prior to their detailed planning, they are given clear instructions on the assumptions for the cooling requirement for the trading desks. A useful illustrative guide at this point is a heat map of the areas. Once again this is a document that will change during the design process, and as management decisions are made that would affect organizational head count.

Preparation ❙ 39

Hot spots In any office environment there are locations with a greater than average energy output, and consequently these areas will be hotter. A trading floor is a good example of such a circumstance. While at this stage we are trying to calculate the overall heat load, it is worth trying to identify the hot spots because it might be necessary to provide space in those locations for AHUs on the floor, particularly if the ceiling space is too limited to allow fan coil units. If the whole office is cooled to the levels required to deal with the hot spots, those staff working in low-energy areas might become chilly. The usual solution is for them to use portable electric fan heaters, which of course invalidates the heat load calculation somewhat.

UPS and AHU efficiency Heat is generated as a byproduct of the operation of AHU and UPS equipment. The fan motors, compressors, power conversion and battery charging all generate heat. That heat is likely to be released into the office environment. As a consequence an allowance should be made in the overall heat load calculations, but it will vary depending on the location of the AHUs and UPS equipment within the office or support rooms.

Printers and copiers Photocopiers and laser printers output heat when they operate. Because these devices are often provided by the office services team rather than by the technology department, they might be missed from a heat inventory performed by technology staff.

Adjacent floors There can also be heat gain from adjacent premises. The calculations for this are complex, and best left to experts. Needless to say, if you have furnaces next door, watch out! When inspecting potential buildings, make sure you visit during normal business hours. Walk around the area, and if you notice any hot spots or cold spots, seek an explanation.

Hours of operation In selecting premises you will need to be sure that the cooling facilities already installed, or new equipment you might install, can be operational during the period necessary to cover the organization’s hours of operation. Trading floor


operations often require part of the trading and back-office team to be in attendance outside normal business hours. Cooling might be required for those operations. If the main building cooling is not available continuously, you will need to consider having separate chilled water facilities to support the AHUs in the equipment room.

Resilience needs In the past air conditioning was not seen as business-critical. If the system failed, the solution was to open a few windows, and the staff had to suffer discomfort for a while. However for a trading floor and the supporting equipment room the provision of air conditioning is essential. In choosing a building you need to establish quickly what resilience has been built into the base-build air conditioning. Does a single component failure mean that the system stops working? If it does fail, how quickly will the devices be fixed? If the equipment gets too hot, it will be necessary to switch it off: in other words, to stop trading. Are there alternative methods of cooling? Perhaps standby chillers or a fully redundant system are provided. In an installation my team did in Stockholm, the standby cooling was ‘town water’. If the landlord’s chillers failed, the source of heat removal was water taken directly from the water mains. As part of the resilience planning you must ensure that the air conditioning system is monitored 24 hours a day, and that facilities are available to react quickly if things go wrong.

WEIGHT ANALYSIS Another early-stage analysis requirement is the weight of the business. How much weight will be imposed on the floors of the building, and will those floors support them? The most likely sources of heavy weights are: • • • • •

equipment room racking; AHUs; UPS cabinets – with batteries; fire and security safes; large filing systems.

As part of the early calculation you will need to produce a weight schedule for equipment, people, desks, printers and so on. Some of these weight calculations cannot be undertaken until the inventory is completed, and the power

Preparation ❙ 41

and heat needs have been calculated. When that is known you will be able to look out for weight hot spots, and do some simple calculations to see whether they are likely to exceed the design capabilities of the floors. If so, it might be necessary to change the outline layout of business areas and technical equipment rooms. At an extreme, if weight restrictions make it impossible to have a UPS or a generator on the premises, this could be a deciding factor against the premises. When the detailed design is undertaken, if the building design limitations are not clear or if you have doubts about your calculations, you should have a professionally qualified structural engineer check the building structural design and projected loadings. He or she might make recommendations for spreading the load, which could affect the design and building costs. Modern building construction methods give limited safety margins on the weightbearing capability of floors. In the event of a major fire, overloaded floors can fail quite quickly, and thus greatly increase the amount of damage and number of casualties.

NOISE ANALYSIS As part of the building evaluation the team should consider noise risks. A normal trading floor is noisy in operation but itself intolerant of other noise sources, so checks should be made to ensure there are no substantial long-term noise sources in the vicinity. A check should be made for external noise and vibration sources such as industrial machinery, road traffic and rail traffic. A visit to the locality during business hours and talking with other local business people can help establish this. In a shared-occupancy building, noise from other tenants’ business operations can be a problem. Additionally the noise from the business itself might impinge on their operations, which could include noise-sensitive areas such as a television studio. You will need to visit the site during normal trading hours to observe this, and also talk with the landlord’s agents to identify possible noise conflicts with other businesses. If external noise is a potential problem, you might need to consider installing soundproofing features during the construction process. Some require landlord and/or local regulatory authority approval. The building works necessary to fit out the trading floor and offices can be a very noisy process. If there are other businesses close by in the building, it might be necessary to undertake noisy construction processes outside normal business hours. As this will extend the duration and cost of the project, it is a factor to take into account in selection of a location.


ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELD (EMF) RISKS The project leader should help the team be alert to sources of strong electromagnetic interference when assessing locations as potential trading floors. Heavy industrial machinery, electric railways, radar stations/domes, high-voltage power transmission cables and even government wireless installations can be sources of electromagnetic interference. While it is possible to introduce countermeasures against such interference, it is better to avoid it entirely. Exposure to strong electromagnetic fields can cause intermittent faults in IT equipment.

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3

Building the project team

BUILDING THE TEAM The trading floor project is now probably at the point where one or more potential locations have been identified and the primary business sponsors are beginning to grasp the potential costs. At this point it is unlikely that there will be a formally agreed budget. There is likely to be an understanding that the technology department should be undertaking due diligence planning for the trading floor project. Ideally at this point a project leader should be formally appointed, if this has not already been done. The project leader will need approval to devote a substantial part of her or his time to the project. There will need to be an interim budget, approved by the business, to support these initial activities prior to the main budget approval. While the project leader might not need to raise purchase orders at this point, she or he will need to expend personnel resources. Up to this point a senior technology manager might have been doing the work on an ad hoc basis, but now is the time to have a capable person assigned. That person should be free from the distractions of managing operational issues. The organization might seek an external project manager, or release an operational manager from day-to-day responsibilities to perform the role. The project leader role is now changing from a consultative to an executive role. Previously the project leader would have been advising, now she or he will be organizing the resources.


If the project leader has previously been employed in an operational role and has never before managed a substantial build and infrastructure deployment project, it is advisable for him or her to have training on running this type of project. In an operational environment the management focus is on keeping a steady state, systematic and routine delivery, with gradual improvement within carefully considered corporate rules. In trading floor projects the emphasis is on delivering to a deadline, overcoming obstacles, broad technical consultancy, creating rules rather than following them. Both jobs are complex and involve managing teams, but the motivations are quite different. At this important stage in the project the project team is formed. The team will need to establish both formal links and informal networking links with key personnel inside and outside the organization. This team will be the driving force, working with the construction teams to deliver the technology project on time and to budget. After implementation the team will hand over the trading floor to the operational staff in a planned and structured method. The project team will be a set of designated personnel, funded to perform the task and provide personnel resources. There will also be a secondary team who will be called on to help deliver the services and installations. This secondary team will have other primary responsibilities to attend to on a day-to-day basis, but their cooperation will be essential to the successful delivery of the project. One of the early tasks of the project leader and primary team members is to identify key players in the organization and to build interpersonal links with the secondary team. The project team will need to be ready to react and start work as soon as budgetary approval has been given for the project. The project leader will need to keep the team members briefed on the progress of the budgetary approval so they can react when needed. Often the budgetary approval process takes longer than anticipated, and the start of the project is delayed. That will mean shifting commitment schedules for the members of the primary team. When the project starts there will be several months of intense activity, during which the key managers will be unlikely to have time for holidays. They will have to work extended hours with a lot of stressful activity. Those people will need to be contactable at any time of the day, and for an international project have a passport ready with the appropriate visas. The key managers will need to be able to work in a mobile fashion: on site, at home, in a hotel and occasionally in their own office. During the initial formation of the project team the project leader will need to identify the weak links in the team and deal with the situation before these individuals have too much opportunity to inflict damage on the project. He or she will look to recruit people with the experience and drive to get things done, but at the same time the ability to work as part of a team. People who are unable to accept responsibility or are unrealistic should be weeded out ruthlessly at the

Building the Project Team ❙ 45

start. The selection and deselection process should be done with tact, charm and if necessary plain deviousness. In short, the project leader has to be ruthless in removing obstacles. A trading floor project will attract many people who want to take part even though they do not have the necessary skills or character attributes. The project leader should ensure that these people are only involved in the parts where they are effective, and prevent them from having influence on the project direction. Once again this control should be subtle to avoid making enemies within the organization. The selection process might also have to extend upwards. Project leaders who have to report through ineffective technology managers need to consider whether and how they can be removed from the project control chain. This is clearly an issue that needs to be approached with care. Usually the best method is for the project leader to have a quiet discussion with the project business sponsor. One possible solution is to agree that the ineffective manager is kept informed of progress, but cannot influence project direction without the agreement of the business sponsor. It is usually easiest if this strategy is agreed at the start of the project. In this situation, one of the first objectives is to sell this arrangement to the manager as his or her own great idea. A good boss will give you space and support to manage the project; as a consequence the problem will not arise. If you have a poor boss, help by steering him or her out of trouble, but your primary responsibility to the business is to deliver the project on time. Throughout the initial phase of project team building the project leader should take care to keep actively in contact with the business sponsor. The project leader should keep the business sponsor informed and involved in the reasons for the selection and rejection of team members.

THE PROJECT LEADER As explained earlier, the project leader might have any of a number of job titles, such as project manager and programme director. Here I use the generic term of technology project leader to denote the person in charge of deploying the technology for the project. A poor technology project leader can easily derail a trading floor project. The selection of the right person is essential. The project leader will need many attributes and substantial experience. He or she will: • • •

be comfortable leading other people in a team; have previously built project teams; be comfortable taking an active part in business management meetings;


• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

have a grasp of social skills, being able to listen and mediate; be stubborn and ruthless when necessary; take responsibility; be a manager rather than an administrator; have excellent communication skills and be a good listener; have good delegation skills; have a history of initiative taking and winning; have current technical experience of the technologies to be deployed, certainly enough to ask relevant questions of sector experts; understand the normal phases of a construction project; be comfortable working with construction diagrams and similar material; have a grasp of business finance and regulations; understand the financial market sector and trading process; have been trained in formal project management techniques; have led or taken a senior role in a similar project in a trading environment; have had budget responsibility for similar-sized projects; have been trained in negotiation techniques; have been trained in running large meetings and presentations; have good attention to detail; be good at presenting complex issues simply to non-experts.

A good university degree in computer science and various certifications in the latest project management techniques are no guarantee of success in leading a trading floor technology project. It is also about drive, leadership and good attention to detail in a high-pressure environment when many factors are conspiring to cause delay and failure. While the project manager will plan to avoid problems, he or she will at times have to personally lead the team safely through a ‘minefield’ of conflicting problems and priorities. Those who work strictly to project management methodologies sometimes produce well-documented failures because they did not spot problems outside the plan. At the other extreme, a gung-ho project leader might disappoint a wellmotivated team because he or she missed some key technology/construction interdependency during the detailed planning. This is not a role for someone who likes to manage while rooted to a desk: project leaders have to be on their feet most of the time. Above all project leaders need to be people who do not take no for an answer, or blindly accept excuses for non-delivery. If a problem arises, the project leader must take ownership and work with the team to find an acceptable solution. A former finance director who is now chief operating office of a major bank explained the concept of project managing the introduction of a financial trading floor to me in a succinct manner. ‘You either


succeed or you fail.’ In major trading floor projects there are no second prizes for almost delivering.

THE EXPERTS Trading floor IT is complex, and tends to use the latest techniques. Often details of the technology cannot be found in a book. You will need the support of an expert who is involved in that technology and its operation, has experience of trading floor construction, knows the current developments and has contacts with the suppliers for when problems arise. That same expert will also need expertise in legacy technology. The expert must fully understand the intense pressures of a trading floor, with the business need for systems that just do not fail. The expert will be aware of the supply constraints for equipment and services. She or he will know the pitfalls of using the technology. The project leader will also need access to experts on construction, mechanical and electrical design to discuss the constructional and fit-out implications of the proposed equipment room and trading floor deployments. As project leader you will often find you already know the technology experts who have been made available for the project, but you will need to assess the technical skills and delivery experience of proposed team members you do not know. It is up to you to ensure that candidates put forward by senior management, external contract agencies or consultancies are up to performing the task satisfactorily. If you have doubts about a candidate, you should have no compunction about rejecting him or her and seeking a more satisfactory alternative. Expert team members have a considerable influence on their sector of the project: it is far better that they are eliminated before the start of the project if they cannot deliver. Try to ensure candidates have good networking connections with peers who can provide information and support. The first approach might be to review their resumés; this could then be followed by face-to-face meetings. If you know other experts in the same technology field, these people could be asked for guidance. The information gathered from this process can then be used as a basis for telephone checks with referees or other people you can identify who have had dealings with the candidates. This is similar to the process of recruitment for a permanent job, but with less margin for error. Sometimes this process will make it clear that a candidate has a great record of delivery in most areas of the technology sector and project management, but is lacking in experience of a new technology. The solution might be to ensure that consultant support is available to supplement the person’s technical skills. You are also likely to encounter candidates with experience of working in an operational environment but no experience of construction project work. The


demands of the project will be quite different from those of an operational world, where the expert will have been protected by existing procedures and rules. Individuals must be prepared to ‘think outside the box’ and offer new solutions, but at the same time be able to work with the project disciplines. This selection process should also be extended to the consultants put forward by large professional consultancies. These experts might charge substantial daily fees, but that is no guarantee that they really know their field. Those who are well trained, with impressive qualifications, might lack trading floor experience. It is not unknown for a consultancy to field a less experienced candidate and rely on providing him or her with expert backup when necessary. Keep in mind that the consultancy’s primary objective is to bill as many hours as possible at the highest rate it can justify. Thankfully however most consultants will make a major contribution: you just need to be alert that the ones you work with are not exceptions. Ensure that experts understand the needs of the business and the project timescales. Their job is to propose a technical solution that will meet the business needs. They should be familiar with the technology to be used, or at a minimum with earlier versions of it. Effectively the project leader will sketch out the requirement and say to the expert, ‘This is what we want. Now go away and plan what you will need to deliver it. Tell us if you know a better way of doing it.’ It is important to assess how expert team members approach this first phase. Do they have good ideas? Are they asking relevant questions? Are they suggesting solutions? At a later stage the experts will be asked to oversee the delivery and testing of the proposed services/equipment.

PROCUREMENT AND PROJECT ADMIN OFFICER If the project is of a reasonable size there should be one or more persons designated as the purchasing officer and/or administration team. It is generally better if the paperwork and admin burden is lifted from the expert team members because in the pressure of the project work they are likely to give paperwork a low priority. A methodical approach is required. The building of a trading floor will involve many purchases. Each of them will require appropriate authorization, purchase order submission or cash issuance, reception control, asset registration, warranty planning, payment retentions and invoice payment. Most of the purchases will be pre-identified, but some will be only realized as the project progresses, and these might need to be treated as variances with the contractors involved in the project. This will generate substantial documentation that will need to be actioned, filed and indexed correctly. Usually the organization will have its own purchase procedures which should be followed.


Some of the purchases will need contractual agreement and then subsequent monitoring of the contract performance. Keeping track of the paperwork and progress chasing is essential. In the process of purchasing it might be necessary to obtain competitive or alternative quotes from different suppliers. Once again this can create a lot of paperwork and the need to control achievement of commitment dates. Suppliers should be informed that only purchase orders with correct authorization from the procurement office will be acceptable. Control of timesheets might be necessary for recording the work hours of both internal staff and directly retained contractors. Generally except in large projects with a large administration team, it is not realistic to track time spent reliably using project management software. The project plan will require constant changes as the project progresses, but this issue will be examined in more detail later in this book.

THE STEERING GROUP The steering group is essential. It should comprise: • • • • • • •

the business sponsor or representative; a senior department accounts person; trading floor manager(s); a back-office manager; the technology project leader; a representative from the prime contractor; a premises manager.

There should be a schedule of routine progress meetings and ad hoc meetings as required, with formal minutes. As project leader you should work closely with the other members of the steering group so that there are no surprises during the meetings. When problems arise, talk to the appropriate steering group member and agree an action plan if necessary. Try to come to the meeting with solutions and not problems. Where there is a serious issue that you cannot resolve yourself, contact the steering group chairperson immediately to see if an ad hoc meeting is necessary. Where a business change has been requested that has a significant project impact, it should be agreed by the steering group before any commitment is given. It is important to keep the business engaged in the project monitoring and decision-making process throughout the life of the trading floor project. Some busy trading managers try to leave this ‘technical stuff’ to the technology project leader, then complain if there are problems when the project goes live.


This is one area where the project leader needs the skill to explain complex technology issues simply and without the use of jargon. You need to be plain speaking and unafraid to put your points forward to the steering group.

ACCOUNTANTS The project should have an accountant assigned before the budget is developed and agreed. The technology supplier proposals will offer various payment options which might have differing tax implications for the organization; the accountant might be able to suggest alternatives. The accountant’s advice at an early stage can make a significant difference to the lifetime cost of a trading floor project. If the organization is not cash-rich, it is particularly important to ensure that the accountant’s advice avoids cashflow problems arising from large capital purchases. An accountant can help to arrange for project costs to be tracked successfully, and accounts staff can help in the assignment of appropriate cost centre codes. It is likely that the accountant will be the co-signatory on large expenditures and expenditure commitments, and he or she can ease the granting of signatory approval for expenditure. If accountants are involved in a project from the early stages, they are much more likely to be helpful when financial control issues arise. Most accountants working in organizations are heavily committed with dayto-day issues and budget planning, so their role in the project is likely to be parttime. The technology project leader should be proactive in ensuring that the accountant is briefed on the project throughout its life. Arranging occasional site visits for the accountant to see actual progress and to have the technology explained will help to improve the relationship.

LAWYERS Lawyers will form an important part of the team, though their involvement is likely to be ad hoc. The organization’s lawyers should be briefed on the objectives, plans and the project timescale of the trading floor project. A nominated person should be assigned from the legal team. It is the responsibility of the project leader and the expert technology managers to review proposed technology-related contracts to ensure that what is offered will meet the need, that the terms are not onerous, and that the contracts are comprehensive and provide coverage of potential risk and dispute areas, and clear termination arrangements. However after review by technology personnel,


all contracts should be passed to a lawyer for a second review. Lawyers with their experience of contracts and contract law are far more likely to spot problems and omissions. In a smaller organization a review of the proposed contracts by the company secretary can reduce the need to pay for expensive lawyer time. Lawyers are usually very hard-working with busy schedules, so it might not be possible for them to react immediately. Time should be built into the project timescale to allow for the review of supplier contracts. The project admin manager should keep track of documents sent to lawyers for approval, to ensure they are dealt with to schedule. In the event that a dispute appears likely with a supplier, the project lawyer should be involved at an early stage. His or her intervention might prevent the escalation of the problem into a crisis.

THE WORKERS One of the critical success factors in a trading floor project is the acceptance of the facilities provided by the people who will be working in the area. Efforts should be made at an early stage to consult with them on the design of the trading floor. It is best to start with an open presentation to the staff in a ‘town hall’ type meeting, then arrange for a couple of user representatives to be appointed. These people should be consulted on the design proposals, selection of office equipment and desks. At an early stage they should be taken through the project plan so that they understand the different stages involved in the project. Responsible staff normally have no problem in respecting the confidentiality of information provided at this stage. User representatives should be invited to the occasional steering group meeting or technology meeting as observers. I have never failed to be impressed by the feedback they provide. Successful involvement of user representatives will have a positive impact on the rest of the workers. If at some point in the project it is necessary to announce a change of plans, the representatives may be able to help with the information flow.

TRADE UNIONS In some countries staff trade unions have a considerable influence on projects that affect the welfare of their members. As with worker representatives, the early involvement of union representatives will normally be beneficial. The representatives will want to know how the trading floor project will affect the


jobs and rewards of their members. Project leaders asked this kind of question should redirect it to line management. The union representatives will also want to be involved with the health and safety issues of the trading room design. The steering group should ensure from an early stage that the union has a good point of contact for information flow. After initially briefing the union representatives on the project plans, the project leader or other representative from the steering group should ask them which aspects of the project they need to be kept informed about. Some of the union representatives might not be experienced in the type of technology and rapid and continuous rate of progress in a trading floor project. They might try to use formulae for working conditions that are appropriate for low-technology-density offices, but not to the trading floor environment. An early briefing on the needs and schedules from the project team can help ease such situations. In essence the process is to build trust at an early stage. A visit to a similar site, coupled with a briefing, might help them formulate the questions they need to ask. In some locations, trading floor construction projects can also be substantially influenced by the actions of trade unions representing other staff working in the building or likely to be affected by the project: for example, telecoms maintenance staff. It is wise to identify at an early stage the key union representatives who should be consulted. The landlord will probably be able to make some recommendations, and in multi-tenanted buildings the project leader should contact managers of technology from the other tenants and ask how they deal with the unions. An early introduction to the representatives, a briefing on the project and a review of their procedures and decision chains can considerably help the performance of the project. Ignoring trade unions in organizations and/or premises where they have a strong influence is a recipe for disaster. You should always be prepared to resist any excessive demands, but it is necessary to take representations seriously. If the key players have been previously courteously introduced the whole process is a lot easier.

THE LANDLORD Landlords normally have experienced premises managers, employed either directly or via a service agency. As project leader you should meet them as soon as possible and establish a working relationship. They will form an important part of the informal team. Most formal contact with the landlord will be via the primary building contractor, but in a trading floor fit-out the close synergy of the building


services and the technical equipment means that the technology team need to keep good effective contact with premises managers. They should be kept abreast of the plans and progress of the project. The landlord’s representatives can be invaluable allies, but if ignored can become a major obstacle to the building and deployment work. Aim to build a rapport with these people and understand their pressures. While they will want to satisfy the needs of your business, they also have a duty to protect the fabric of the building and the peace of other tenants. It is inevitable that some of the construction work will cause concern, real or imagined, to the landlord’s premises team. A good relationship will help to prevent or alleviate those concerns and ensure they do not escalate to the involvement of lawyers. The relationship can also expedite approval of permits to undertake works. Keep in mind that during lease negotiations the information flow about plans for the trading floor might need to be tightly controlled, as it could affect the cost of the rental or lease payments.

OUTSOURCED TEAMS Many financial institutions using trading floors will have outsourced part or all of their support operations. The services agreed under the outsourcing contract will be closely defined and limited, normally to just those required at the time of the contract, and any new or changed requirement is likely to attract additional charges. However in the course of a trading floor project it is highly likely that third-party personnel will experience changed or additional work requirements. The project leader will need to ensure that there is careful consideration of the cost implications. Trading floor fit-outs are unlikely to be covered by existing outsourced contractual conditions. The project leader should ensure that suitable contractual responsibilities and availabilities are documented with the outsourcing supplier. If the outsourcing company is expected to provide support for the new trading floor, the organization will probably need to negotiate new or additional contractual terms. If the converse applies and the new set-up requires less work from the outsourcing company, exit fees or surcharges might have to be added to the project cost. Where staff from the outsourcing company are utilized the project leader is well advised to consider them as third-party contract staff and make sure that their skills are suitably assessed and managed. This could extend to a management representative from the supplier company joining the trading floor project team.


OPERATIONAL STAFF Operational supervisors and managers from the back-office area should form part of the project team. Their experience will be of high value in the practical evaluation of designs for the trading floor and back office. Their knowledge and experience will be needed in planning for the transfer of market data and exchange data services when the trading floor is live. The project leader should seek sign-off of designs relating to the equipment room from the operational staff in the back office and technology departments. Some caution should be exercised in the expectations made of operational staff by the project team. Their operational commitments might compromise their availability.

COMPLIANCE AND AUDIT Compliance officers and internal auditors can make a good contribution to the planning of a trading floor. The auditors will try to ensure that there is a good secure environment. The compliance officers will ensure that the organization of the trading floor and back office is unlikely to cause any regulatory problems. It is unlikely that auditors or the compliance officer will need to spend a great deal of time on the project, but a few hours spent with them at the early stages of the project could save a lot of time later. Try to ensure that these officials sign off to indicate their agreement to the plans. The fact that compliance and audit personnel have been included in the scope of the project team will show a professional approach that will help operational audits in the future.

REGULATORY AUTHORITIES Both business-related, and construction and building-related, regulatory authorities must be consulted throughout the project. The trading floor activities and operation might be constrained by financial regulatory authorities. The compliance office might need to influence the design of the trading floor to satisfy regulators. As project leader, you should ensure you have access to the local building inspector and fire safety inspector. Normally the premises manager will handle this, but once again early discussion with those individuals can reduce problems at a later stage. Look to begin with a face-to-face meeting, then


subsequently deal with gathering information and seeking decision indications by telephone. A licence might be required before the organization is allowed to trade in a particular location. For businesses already operating in the market this is unlikely to be a problem, but regulatory approval or a banking licence might be necessary if the organization is breaking into a new financial instrument market. This can have timescale implications. In one project I worked on in Europe, the trading floor was constructed on time and to budget, but one week before live operation the banking licence application was turned down. If that decision factor had been built in to the project as an early milestone, substantial expenditure could have been avoided. Since this is a business issue, there is little the technology project leader can do apart from ensuring that the clearance of regulatory approval is raised at the steering group at an early stage in the project.

INSURERS When a trading floor becomes operational the company’s insurers will want to inspect the premises for safety, security and other fire risks. It would be unfortunate if problems requiring remedial work were found after construction was complete. An early introduction to the underwriter and a brief presentation of the plans can encourage him or her to raise any queries or problems at an early stage. The insurer will still want to inspect the premises after they have been handed over to the organization, but prior information makes the job that much easier. One recent example of the problems that can arise was a trading floor where the entire equipment room wall was built to a fire rating of one hour. This complied with the local building regulations, but the insurer required a twohour rating. Installing the extra fire resistance after the trading floor had been constructed was not a convenient task.

FACILITATION AND TRAINING As project leader you may wish to consider some project training for the team. You might judge that the team members are lacking in formal project management skills, need refresher training on technology issues, or maybe just need refresher training on how to communicate at project meetings. The project team will need a core location for their operations. Initially this might be a general meeting room, but when construction commences it is


generally useful to have a dedicated project room conveniently located relative to the trading floor site.

SOCIAL ACTIVITIES It is important from an early stage to encourage the members of the team to bond so that they work as a cohesive unit. An effective method of encouraging this is to arrange joint social activities, where the team can meet away from the pressures of the normal work environment. In a good team environment these types of activities will be spontaneous and organized by the team members themselves, but the project leader can help the process by organizing and funding some suitable social events at the start and during the project. If the social activities have an element of competitiveness, this can help build the interactions between team members. Social events also give the team members the opportunity to informally express their concerns and views on a project.

TEAM RESILIENCE Where possible the project leader should arrange some overlap of responsibilities and also designate ‘second in command’ personnel for key team members. It is normally expected that a key team member will remain with the project for the duration of the project. The key members will accumulate a substantial amount of information and contacts related to their part of the project. However, it is highly likely that during the project one or more key members will have to leave at short notice, either for short periods or for an extended time, as a result of holidays, sickness, other projects or a new job. Whatever the reason, the project should not suffer as a result. If there is good central documentation it is usually possible to identify someone who can take over the responsibilities of the person who leaves the team. Advance planning for these circumstances will help to reduce the impact. To achieve this the team members can be asked to brief subordinates regularly, and maintain issues lists and documentation that others can access. Where the work is highly specialized and technical, it might be necessary to recruit a temporary consultant or borrow someone from another part of the organization. Pre-planning is useful to identify sources of help.

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4

Communication planning

The success or failure of the technology aspects of the project will be highly dependent on good communications between team members, suppliers, business users and contractors. To facilitate this a combination of formal and informal communication structures and methods is required. The most comprehensive and accurate advance planning will still need to adjust for changes and delays. The progress against plan needs to be checked. Problems arising need to be discussed between team members and the user clients. All this depends on good communications. The technology project leader should plan for communications during the design and budgeting stages. Once the construction phase kicks off there will need to be a communications structure in place. This requires facilities and forethought. The team members should be briefed on the planned communication structures and the part that they are expected to play.

FORMAL MEETINGS The technology project team should hold a regular formal progress meeting, perhaps once a week. It should have an experienced chairperson and a minute secretary. The meeting should be preceded by distribution of an agenda, and followed by distribution of full minutes, which should be agreed (or amended if necessary) at the next meeting. If the attendees are inexperienced in formal


meetings a set of procedural guidelines should be issued so that all can gain from the meeting. If the chairperson is not experienced she or he should obtain some training in chairing meetings. The objective of the progress meeting is to make decisions, assign responsibilities and report progress; it is not to discuss full details of technical issues. The chairperson will have to work hard to constrain discussion to the meeting timetable and to ensure that decisions are summarized at the meeting for all to understand. As project leader you should take note of those individuals who have prepared for the progress meeting and made positive contributions, and deal with individuals who fail to prepare for, or even attend, meetings. The participants should understand that where possible the issues should be discussed and a course of action agreed prior to the meeting, so that the task in the progress meeting is to note and document the agreement in the presence of the whole team. If another team member disagrees with a proposal, he or she has the opportunity to raise it at that point. If extensive discussions are necessary, the chair should suggest that they take place in an informal meeting outside the main progress meeting. Meetings can take many formats including face to face, video conference and voice conference. Provided that adequate reference documentation is available in advance, there is no reason that voice conferences cannot be wholly successful. Other formal meetings might include: • • • •

vendor or contractor meetings; completion progress certification; variation reviews; schedule planning.

INFORMAL MEETINGS Throughout the project there will be informal meetings. These might be face to face, video or voice conference. Not all meetings will involve the project leader in person, but she or he should insist that certain standards are maintained: • • •

The meeting should be briefly documented, recording the time and date, participants, decisions and background. The meeting note should be stored in the project library and circulated to the participants. A timetable should be set for a review of the actions arising.

Communication Planning ❙ 59

There are various software conferencing tools such as Citrix’s ‘GoToMeeting’ which can be used to facilitate presentations over the internet when working with voice or video conference technology.

WALK THE FLOOR The project leader, and other managers/experts in the team, should regularly ‘walk the floor’ and observe progress for themselves. To do this successfully you need to develop questioning and observational skills. The aim is to ensure that what has been constructed, delivered, removed or whatever matches the reported progress. Ask yourself continually whether what has been planned for installation will actually work. The floor walk process need only take a few minutes each day. Do it even during the planning stages, when you can usefully drop in on team members involved in the planning process. During the detailed planning process there will be much cross-checking against detailed architect’s plans to ensure that items of construction will fit and not obstruct other items. However it is sometimes difficult to visualize how things will work until they are seen in real life. There are often differences in understanding of plans, or over what work is to be regarded as complete. Look at the quality of construction, and note any damage, even in areas that are not your direct responsibility. Be vigilant to ensure that no construction action or installation will place subsequent installations at risk. A typical example is the placement of water pipes above technical equipment racks. In my experience, during construction the project leader, or deputy, should ‘walk the floor’ at least once a day, equipped with a notepad to record items to be queried. A mobile phone is useful to help resolve queries. The construction of a trading floor is a highly dynamic rolling process. Any faults identified in the floor walk should be reported promptly for resolution. If you delay, the best opportunity to fix the problem might be lost, and it will need much more expensive remediation at a later date. During subsequent floor walks, you will of course check that previously reported items have been cleared. Another important issue to be checked during the floor walk is the health and safety aspect of the construction and/or technology deployment work. If you see any unsafe or risky practice it should be reported and acted on immediately. Unscheduled works should be queried as well. Work undertaken in the wrong sequence might prejudice later installation work, for example if an interior wall is constructed prematurely when the intention was to use the space as a delivery route for large equipment. In effect, you need to visualize the whole project plan,


and when ‘walking the floor’, confirm that the right things are happening at the right time. It is essential that a communication mechanism is in place to report and react to the observations arising from the floor walk. Where possible, do the floor walk together with one or more of the project team experts or managers. This is an excellent method of focusing on the technology relating to their area.

PLANS AND DRAWINGS In most places where trading floors are constructed there will be accurate plans available in both hard-copy and onscreen formats. However in some of the smaller financial centres, particularly in older buildings, there might not be a building plan and/or structural plan available. In this case your first objective should be to have a qualified building surveyor accurately measure the premises and provide a scaled plan, using CAD (computer aided design) software. All plans should be checked in case essential features have changed since they were drawn up. These are some of the important items: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

floor dimensions, thickness and their method of construction; doorways and openings, size, vertical height and direction of opening; supporting pillars; stairways, lifts (elevators); wall dimensions and their construction; window dimensions and their construction; floor to ceiling heights – these vary across a floor in some cases; pipework; sprinkler and chilled water facilities; ducting and air handling units; major cable routes, vertical and horizontal; current lighting arrangements; risers and where they are accessible, whether they are full, and whether they run to all floors; basement spaces where used and possible cable paths; roof space.

Once you have a fully checked plan available, ascertain the floor loading limits in the areas to be occupied by your organization. (These should have been verified before a final commitment was made on the premises, if there are any anticipated substantially heavy loads.) As an attachment to the plan there should be a summary of the landlord’s and/or local authority’s constraints on construction.


Copies of the plans should be made available to the managers in the project team. The construction contractors will need their own more detailed plans when full design has taken place. All plans of the base building should be subject to a version control process. As detailed design progresses, the approved or provisional designs should be entered on the plan and subjected to version control. User groups should be formed to allow the distribution of key reference documents in a timely fashion.

PROJECT GANTT CHART Gantt charts (see glossary) are an effective method of representing project timescales. They are supported by a wide range of software and quickly understood by most people. A high-level plan should be created from the outset to provide a discussion focus for the project team and steering group. All project team managers and experts should understand basic critical path analysis concepts, and be trained and experienced in the use of the chosen project management software tool. Clear standards should be defined for how Gantt charts will be used and documented in the project. This is particularly important if the plans are to be nested. Similar constraints should apply for resources (people and the like), and early in the project life cycle a central administrator will be required to deliver and police the agreed standards. Although a Gantt chart provides a clear method of displaying timescales and some task interdependency, it is not a substitute for proactive project management. It is all too easy to overlook project problems simply because the documentation has not been completed on time.

FEEDBACK An important part of the project management communication process is feedback from the users. Throughout project planning and implementation, the technology project leader should show key managers and staff the progress and future plans: in one-to-one meetings, presentations, formal meetings, and site visits prior to and during the construction phase. If the users become engaged in the process they will provide valuable feedback on proposals and progress. That feedback can be used to validate the project plans. It is a rare plan that does not contain errors or some misunderstanding of user requirements. During evaluation of the feedback the project team must be careful to identify and document any changes to the original requirements. It must also ensure users are told clearly how any changes they request or recommend will be dealt


with by the project team. In short, any such changes must be subject to a change control process.

PHOTOGRAPHS With modern high-definition digital cameras and digital video cameras, there is no excuse for not keeping a good photographic record of progress. If a problem has arisen in construction, a clear photograph sent by e-mail or posted on a website gives a clear, unambiguous record of what is being discussed. Timestamped photographs taken before and after an installation will help reduce any dispute about what work was completed or left unfinished. As a minimum, a full set of photographs should be taken showing: • • • • • • •

the site before work commences; the site after it is cleared; installations in the ceiling; installations subfloor; equipment room installations; progress during the phases of construction; the room(s) after completion.

During progress meetings it is easy to display an electronic photograph using a video projector to illustrate a point. When visiting the showrooms of vendors for equipment demonstrations, for example of trading desks, the project team should remember to take plenty of photographs for those who cannot attend or to record important points of detail. These photographs will be invaluable in later discussions with contractors. The photographs should be high resolution and catalogued in the central register server, with an archive copy recorded to CD-R disk for physical backup. There should be a consistent method of reference numbering for the photographs. As a matter of security the access to the photographs should be controlled to named users.

CENTRAL REGISTER Prior to the 1980s (and possibly later for some), government departments had massive paper filing systems. Normally there was a central office or registry to keep track of paper case files and make sure documents were filed correctly. Usually these systems work quite well, and when necessary documents could be tracked easily.


With the advent of computers, databases and digital images it is very easy to store and retrieve documents. With electronic mail they can be sent around the world in seconds. It might be thought that with all this wonderful technology, it is very easy to store and retrieve plans, requests, memos, contracts and photographs. So it should be: but in practice, people keep local copies on their desktop PCs and laptops. The personal local filing is haphazard and version control is worse. People lose track of electronic documents and have no idea whether they are working with the current copy. From the start of the project, the project team should have a central register file storage area, or database system, where all documents are stored. When important paper documents are received, they should be scanned and held on the central register, and the originals placed in remote secure storage. There should be indexes of documents to keep track of who originated and stored documents. There should be a method of version control to help ensure people know whether they have the latest copy of a document. Important e-mails should also be recorded and copied to the registry. Access to the central register should be secure and controlled to ensure that only authorized people access and update the documents. For complex projects there are ECM (enterprise content management) systems that automate the process of keeping documents. A team member will need to be designated as the librarian. That person will be responsible for keeping secure backup copies of the registry and helping people to use the registry.

SOFTWARE STANDARDS One useful aid to communication is the introduction of software standards to the project team. A standard is a simple document that defines what software, and version, should be used for common documents that are shared between the team members. The software tools used during a project are likely to extend beyond the organization’s range of corporate standard software, but this software will be essential for progress. In addition several organizations will be intercommunicating on a typical project. Each organizations will have a different corporate standard, so a common standard will be essential, particularly for interchange purposes. The Microsoft Office programs are notorious for incompatibilities between different versions. In particular, people with older versions cannot read documents produced by later versions. The way to work round this is for everyone to save documents in an older common format, but this leads to loss of functionality,


so a balance has to be set. The standard for interchange document files should be defined in the project software standards document. Sometimes it is too expensive to buy full editing-capable copies of a program for everyone in the team, and a simpler Reader version (available, for example, for Adobe Acrobat) might suffice for people who need only to read but not edit documents. It might be considered important for external contractors to be contractually required to produce documents according the project standards. This requirement can be included in, or added as an addendum to, the main contract. My suggestion for standard software is: • • • • • •

Microsoft Word; Microsoft Excel; Microsoft PowerPoint; Adobe Acrobat for standard interchange and archive copy documents; Microsoft Visio for simple layouts and equipment diagrams; Voloview for viewing and commenting on Autocad plans.

This is not intended as a suggestion that the Microsoft tools are the best in every respect, but they are a de facto standard at the time of writing and most individuals in the project network will have some access to them. There are some good low-cost or free alternatives such as the Open Office products, so it is possible to draw up a quite different, but equally functional list. Electronic mail should be kept in a basic format (that is, one that does not use ‘rich text’) to avoid dependency on any particular e-mail client. Where formatted documents are required, they can be sent using file attachments in a standard interchange format such as Adobe pdf. Adobe Acrobat has extensive capabilities for file interchange using the pdf format, but there are some excellent low-cost alternatives that will also produce pdf files. At times the project team will need to create databases as part of the project records. If the records are intended for simultaneous multiple access from the same or diverse locations, use a full-strength database program such Oracle, SQL Server or MySQL. Microsoft Access is suitable only for simple stand-alone applications, as it is really a single-user database program. Similarly I would not recommend the use of Microsoft Excel for database-type applications. The version control problems can be horrendous when several people are updating different copies of the same spreadsheet.


SECURE E-MAIL Most organizations would hesitate to send plans, contracts and progress reports in unsecured envelopes through the postal service, yet those same organizations are often quite content to send unsecured documents via the internet. Worse still, it is very easy to misaddress an e-mail and send it, plus attachment, to the wrong person. Most people who regularly use e-mail have an embarrassing horror story to tell. I am one of them. I was surprised one day to receive an e-mail from an executive with one of the major internet service providers, with several spreadsheet data files attached. These contained a detailed breakdown of a takeover bid proposal, which had not at that point been publicly announced. The files were unencrypted, with no password protection. They were not intended for me – the wrong address had been used – but it was easy for me to read them. In a trading floor project environment, a team member accidentally sending a document about a negotiation strategy to a major supplier prior to agreement could cost the organization a small fortune. In a trading floor project, team members cannot avoid communicating with external organizations. If a document leaves the organization’s internal network without special precautions, there is little effective control over access to it. There is nothing to prevent a supplier silently and untraceably passing it to one of your competitors. Microsoft has launched a ‘digital rights’ system that will only allow authorized people to open or print restricted documents. This works fine provided that all people using the system have access to the central control server and only publish documents using the latest Microsoft software. Adobe Acrobat allows user groups to be defined and individuals to be identified by digital certificates. Documents can be encrypted on printing to allow access only by designated groups of personnel. If an encrypted document is accidentally sent to the wrong person it cannot normally be opened. The whole process depends on the initial exchange of digital certificates to members of the team, but once this has been done it is reasonably secure. The system does not depend on a common access server. There are other methods of access control, but describing them is beyond the scope of this book. My advice is that project managers should spend some time with the company’s IT security manager, identifying the level of security needed and agreeing how best to provide for it.


WEBSITE An intranet-based website for the project can be a useful communication device. It could be divided into public and closed areas. The public areas might cover: • • • • • •

project summary; key contact points; outline time scale; outline project calendar; progress photographs; plans and migration announcements from the old to the new area.

The closed area would be limited to selected project team members, and might include: • • • • • • • • • • • •

access to the central file registry; project plans and diagrams; a project calendar; an issues database; meetings schedule; project directory of team members and suppliers; asset control system; timesheet system; permit to work documents; delivery schedules; purchase order system; change request system.

CHANGE REQUESTS During the life of a trading floor project there are likely to be changes or additions to the original design. Change requests should be formally reviewed, agreed or denied, and documented. Most changes will include a cost element, which might affect external contractor costs, suppliers, internal personnel costs, changes to operational service levels or outsourcing contracts. These costs need to be controlled, authorized, their timescale impact assessed, and attributed to the correct person or business area. From the start of the project there should be clear change request documentation and a review process. Changes above a predefined cost threshold will need to be communicated to the steering group.


It should be made abundantly clear to suppliers that they are expected to comply with the change control process. If they undertake works or supply goods outside the agreed contract schedule or without an authorized change request, it will be wholly at their own risk. However, there should be an escape mechanism for urgent works where a nominated and authorized person, such as the site manager, gives verbal interim authorization.

ISSUES DATABASE As the project progresses, issues will arise that affect delivery. They might require further investigation, additional work or funding. Any issue that arises should be reported to the project leader, who then assigns investigation to appropriate team members. It is easy to lose track of the progress on individual issues, particularly if they are not directly represented on the project plan and have not been recorded in progress meeting minutes. This is particularly likely to happen if the team is geographically dispersed. To facilitate control of issues, it is suggested that a central database is maintained of them, from when they are first raised and initial actions are assigned and taken, until the issue is closed. The database should have an intranet webpage interface to allow controlled multi-user updating. Experience has shown that some people try to keep track of issues using spreadsheets, but this is not advised given the problems of keeping a central spreadsheet up to date. The person assigned responsibility for an issue should update the issues database for that item. The database should keep a trail of any changes so it is possible to audit the entries if necessary. The database should be provided with reporting tools to enable the easy production of schedules of cleared and outstanding issues. The project leader can then run reports and check this information prior to progress meetings. The facility should be open to all team members so they can quickly identify who has been assigned responsibility for individual issues, and check on progress.

SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR IN FOREIGN LOCATIONS An important factor in communications for project leaders is an understanding of local social mores. This is particularly the case when they are working outside their home country. Interactions and methods that are effective in one country can be counter-productive in another. In some countries social activities form an important part of the interaction with local suppliers and local management. By this, I do not simply mean taking


project members and subcontractors out to expensive meals and drinks. Issues such as using the correct form of greeting, and the exchange of appropriately designed business cards can make a substantial difference to the relationship. In some countries a small exchange of gifts may be considered appropriate. Before starting work in a country you are not familiar with, seek advice on normal business protocol and make sure that other members of the team have also been briefed adequately. It is very easy to inadvertently insult a supplier without realizing it, causing a negative impact on the delivery timescale or responsiveness to requests. An effective leader in a project team should be a social chameleon, able to mix with people from a variety of cultures.

HANDLING BAD NEWS At some point during the project life cycle the project leader might have to deal with bad news: passing it upwards to senior management, downwards to the project team, or sideways to parallel project teams. Equally, you might be the one receiving the bad news from others. You should be trained and prepared to handle such situations, for instance by rehearsing the release of difficult announcements. If bad news is not well communicated the damage can be long-lasting. This is my advice: • • • • • • • • • • • •

Do not panic. Keep control of the situation by providing leadership. Be positive in your approach, but don’t lie. Be frank about the issues. Do not try to hide bad news, but do control its release. Plan what is going to be said, but consider also what questions may be asked. As part of the release tell people what actions are planned to deal with the situation. Try to give a timescale for planned actions. Seek advice from senior managers. If possible, warn the key personnel that you are about to release bad news, and give them time to consider your proposals. Consult in advance with people who will be involved in the solution. Do not attribute blame. Subsequent investigation might reveal other factors. After the initial announcement, provide a route for further information.

When receiving bad news, your first response should be calm but questioning. The bearer of the news is more likely to give you all the available information if this is your reaction. Decide what to do only after you have given full consideration to


the circumstances and options. You may well then need a ruthless and resolute action plan.

HANDLING THE PRESS AND PUBLICITY If possible the project team should avoid direct contact with the press and media. While journalists have to make a living, their needs and pressures are unlikely to match the project objectives. They need to write interesting copy, usually to short deadlines, and others often edit their output. What people tell journalists, or think they tell them, might come across differently in print or when broadcast. The steering group should nominate someone as responsible for publicity about the project (perhaps the organization’s manager or director of media relations), and all enquiries should be routed through that person. Other individuals, including subcontractors, who are asked for information or opinions on any aspect of the project should decline to comment. If you are a designated contact and you do give information to the media, ask to see a draft of the piece, or rough cut of the interview, before publication or broadcasting. Many (though not all) reputable journalists will agree. You will need to respond quickly with any comments or corrections, since the deadline is likely to be tight. If the project is thought likely to attract media attention, a media briefing can be prepared. Being able to hand out a pre-prepared briefing paper not only makes it easier for individuals approached by the media, it also makes the job of the journalist a lot easier.

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5

Contracts

UNDERSTANDING THE CONTRACT Lawyers spend years to become experts on contracts, and there are many books written on the subject. This book does not attempt to repeat that coverage. Project leaders, experts and managers in project teams should realize that they have a responsibility to check thoroughly, and try improve the terms of, contracts offered by suppliers, but after the team members have checked the contract it should be passed to the lawyer assigned to the project team for a legal review. In simple terms a contract is an agreement between two or more parties, covering for example: • • • • • • • • • • •

the goods and/or services to be supplied; the timescale; the cost; payment terms; any guarantees offered; acceptance testing; what is excluded; limitation of risk and liquidated damages; responsibilities; how the contract can be terminated; mechanism for changes;

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• • • •

whether the contract can be assigned to other parties; mechanism for disputes and legal jurisdiction; identity – names and address of the parties; notices and how they can be served.

Normally contracts should be written. The content of previous presentations, discussions and documentations of the goods or services covered is usually specifically excluded from the contract, unless it is deliberately added in a schedule. Always look to obtain a written contract from a supplier in advance of any agreement. Read it carefully and try to ensure that you understand its terms. If you do not understand any of the wordings, seek advice from the legal team. One issue to which the project team should be alert is how the main contractor proposes to fund its overhead costs and the activities of its managers and engineers during the project period. There are several options. It might propose to charge a fixed fee, or charge for time spent on a timesheet basis. Either of those methods might expose the client to a risk of overcharging. The steering group or project team should be prepared in advance to negotiate, control and monitor this cost factor. Alternatively, the contractor might recover its operational costs and make its profit by loading the cost of materials, goods and services supplied to the client. There is nothing wrong with this approach as long as it is built into the contractual price and the client is aware that this is the case. This price loading might be in the region of 30–50 per cent, so there could be opportunities for the client to negotiate savings by arranging to supply some services or equipment directly instead of leaving them to the contractor to arrange. However, the contractor will understandably resist this being done to such an extent that its recovery of overhead is inadequate. In the case of self-supply the client should be aware of any impact on the project warranty offered by the main contractor. It is also necessary to factor in the cost of administration of the supply by the client’s project team or back-office staff. The project team should investigate, and satisfy themselves: • • • • • • • • • • •

that the contract is to provide the goods or services required; that the receivables are clearly and fully defined; that service levels are defined; that the payment schedule and timescales are acceptable; what happens if things go wrong; what happens if business volumes or needs change; that any exclusions will not cause problems; whether the warranties and/or guarantees are meaningful; about any penalties for failure to deliver; who owns the goods, at which point, and who insures them; that the timescale for delivery of services and legal notices is realistic.


The project team members should also ensure that operational staff have the opportunity to review the contracts for suitability. If there are areas of the contract that need change, do not hesitate to return it to the supplier for amendment. For example it is highly likely that arrangements for handover on early termination will make no reference to transfer of knowledge. Suppliers tend, naturally enough, to draft contracts to protect themselves rather than their clients.

ARRIVING AT A CONTRACT DOCUMENT The project team will need to identify the products and services required to provided the IT infrastructure, construction works, trading room furniture and equipment, equipment room services and so on. This document listing these is usually called a statement of works. The team will then need to identify potential suppliers, with a view to selecting the best and establishing a contract for supply. This is normally a competitive process, with the project team looking to identify the best bid out of those submitted by several potential suppliers. Sometimes the brand of equipment or service or even its supplier is preselected, perhaps because of corporate standards or because there is an existing contract with the supplier. In that case the contract evaluation process might be a simple extension of existing supply arrangements, or a request to the supplier to confirm the terms and conditions for supplying a required service, facility, equipment or installation. When competitive bids are sought, the process is more complex. The first stage is for the project team to produce a document detailing the services, features and equipment needed, and the delivery timescales required. This document may also contain more general information about the organization, and describe the business environment in which the items are required. It should be structured so as to obtain answers from potential suppliers about their capabilities. This document, often called a request for information (RFI), is sent to preselected suppliers, effectively inviting them to bid for the business. Part of the RFI process is a timetable, with a deadline for responses from tenderers and another for the project team’s evaluation of the responses. With a complex tender, it is inevitable that suppliers will need to ask additional questions before they can give their initial responses. The arrangements for doing this should be announced in the RFI documentation. The objective is to ensure that all tenderers have fair access to information, and that their questions are addressed to the correct person in the organization. A supplier conference is sometimes scheduled for a date prior to acceptance of the RFI responses. This can help to answer questions from potential suppliers in an open forum.

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Responses to the RFI may be written, or may also involve a formal presentation by the suppliers (in which case the number will normally be limited, by inviting only a few suppliers to tender). The evaluation of the RFI responses by the project team should be methodical and structured. The usual process is to build a large spreadsheet, with scales for evaluating the response to each question. Suppliers often avoid answering questions, or provide details of features not specifically requested, and ways for dealing with this must be decided on. Following the evaluation of the responses to the RFI, the project team might then ask for a detailed proposal or quotation from one or two potential suppliers. This request takes the form of a request for proposal (RFP) document, in which the organization provides a detailed schedule of requirements and timescale for supply. Responses to the RFP – which again could involve a formal presentation as well as a written response – then also need to be evaluated, and a designated supplier is chosen, with which negotiations take place to obtain the best price and delivery proposals. Once the terms are agreed, the supplier is invited to submit a draft contract. The whole process of RFI/RFP can be quite long and require a lot of personnel resources. Both the potential suppliers and the client (technology project team) need to be prepared to commit those resources. However it is necessary for the process to go into sufficient detail that subsequent contract disputes and budget surprises can be avoided.

AREAS OF CONTRACTUAL COVERAGE There are usually separate contracts for the supply and subsequent maintenance of technology equipment or software. Where a warranty is offered for an initial period, the project team should check when that coverage commences, and the associated service levels. For a trading room environment it may be appropriate to negotiate an uplift in the basic warranty service level to ensure that a fast service is obtained. The project team should be involved in the assessment of the premises construction contract. The premises manager will obviously have initial responsibility for reviewing it, but a technology review is necessary to assess whether there are any constraints on the use of technology in the premises.

CONSTRAINTS Contracts should be checked for any constraints that might affect the delivery or effectiveness of equipment and services. Extended delivery times or lack of clarity on when goods will be delivered can have a serious impact on the project timelines.


Constraints in the premises lease contract can impact the design of the equipment room and the layout of the trading floor. For example, if the external appearance of the building cannot be altered it might prove impossible to locate the equipment room adjacent to windows, or to install additional chilling equipment on the roof.

CONTRACT DOCUMENT CHANGE CONTROL A simple change control process should be available to keep track of changes to contracts. There should be a schedule of changes requested, and whether they have been accepted or amended. In a busy project negotiation phase with many contracts being negotiated, it is easy to lose track of the changes to contracts, and fail to ensure that all the necessary changes have been agreed and documented. During the contract agreement period many versions of the documents will become available, and they must be subject to version control. The project team should arrange to keep copies of the contracts. This might sound obvious, but as personnel changes take place in a project team and the subsequent operational teams it is easy for the official copies of contracts and conditional offers to be lost. This happens all too often with licences on shrinkwrapped software. The project leader should check with the company secretary or chief operating officer about arrangements for the physical storage of contracts. Part of the project documentation handed over at the end of the project should be a complete schedule of contracts and licences agreed within the duration of the project. The documentation should also list any contracts or licences that have been terminated as part of the project.

EVALUATING CONTRACTS The project leader and/or team may be called on to evaluate competitive offers and contracts from various suppliers. A good RFI and RFP process will help in this process. The first stage is to create a schedule of goods and services required. The items should be weighted according to importance. The individual contracts and proposals should be compared with the schedule of requirements. Where they do not meet the requirements, or exceed them, this should be noted. Any unresolved onerous contractual conditions should also be noted. For those contracts that meet or exceed the criteria the next consideration is price. Both initial costs and life cycle costs must be taken into account. The project team should form a view of how confident they are about the ability of

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the tenderer to deliver the contracted items. A supplier submitting an excellent proposal with good contract terms might prove to have little experience of previous comparable projects. Once contracts have been agreed, it is difficult to negotiate changes without incurring additional costs or project delays. The project team should take great care over this process. An assessment should be made of the financial health of the vendor and its potential longevity. It is no use in awarding a contract to the company with the best price and specification if it folds within a few months. Where the supplier offers trade references these should be checked. A quick phone call is usually sufficient, but the team should ask some probing questions, politely establishing the role of the referee in the organization.

LEGAL ASSISTANCE As previously mentioned the contract should be subject to review by lawyers after the technical staff have had the opportunity to confirm that it covers the functionality and features needed. The technology team should review the response from the lawyers before the contract is returned to the supplier, to ensure that their needs have not been lost sight of in any revised wording proposed. Usually the technology team will have chosen the preferred supplier before continuing to the contract stage, but particularly if they have any doubts about the contractual terms, there is no reason (other than cost) not to ask more than one tenderer to provide a draft contract, and to have lawyers review them all.

WARRANTIES AND INSURANCES As part of the contract proposal vendors will detail the warranties and insurance they offer. The project team should evaluate the scope of the warranties and check the actual terms offered. For example a warranty on a return to factory basis with no loan equipment installed for the intervening period is not comparable with one that promises an immediate onsite response and loan equipment if repairs cannot be made within a very short time. Some warranties have restrictive conditions that could mean the warranty is invalidated by simple operational maintenance unless those works are undertaken by the supplier or an approved agent. These should be reviewed and renegotiated before any contracts are accepted. Failure to do this can impose future costs and restrictions on future operational procedures. For example, a restrictive warranty on a structured cabling system might state that if there are


any changes to the structure not undertaken by the contractor the warranty becomes invalid. A sensible contract negotiator would ensure that the organization’s operational staff are allowed to move cable patch leads without invalidating the warranty for the whole structure. Terms and supporting documentation for any insurance, such as liability cover, should be checked. It might be wise to confirm the terms of coverage directly with the insurers. It is not unusual for an organization to assume its insurance covers situations that it does not.

REGULATORY LICENSING The need for an appropriate banking licence or financial regulator’s approval was mentioned earlier. In addition, supplier contracts should confirm that the technology they relate to can be installed and operated without restraint in the country(s) where the trading floor is to be constructed. Regulatory constraints sometimes arise with data encryption devices or software. In some countries special permission is needed to use encrypted data circuits. The reasons for this are now mainly historical, but the legislation often remains in force. In some cases where a service involves data processing, there are regulatory constraints covering where the data can be processed and stored, perhaps for data protection reasons. This might seem a minor point, but if the design of the equipment room depends on processing taking place elsewhere, perhaps because of a lack of space, it could be a serious issue.

PUBLICITY CONSTRAINTS The organization that is commissioning the trading floor project should take control of publicity from the start. The policy on publicity for the project should be agreed with the marketing or media relations department, to ensure proper control on information releases. All project contracts should include clauses that preclude any publicity or reference to the client without specific written authority from a nominated steering group member. The controls should extend to the taking of photographs and video films. These clauses should also be binding on subcontractors. There are various arguments to support such a requirement. First, it is common courtesy in a business relationship for a company to seek permission before publicizing its client relationships. Some companies work on the basis of confidentiality for their clients and seek to keep a low public profile, and publicity will not be welcome to them. There are also potential security and

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competitive business concerns. Keeping the project as a low-publicity activity will reduce the number of cold calls from vendors asking to be included in tender lists. Finally the commissioning organization may wish to reward good contractors with good publicity, but deny publicity to those who give a poor performance. This can be a card to play during negotiations with suppliers.

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Initial planning

THE MAIN CONTRACTOR The scope of works to be managed by the main contractor will vary according to the needs of each project. The steering group and the technology project leader should be rigorous in ensuring that the responsibilities are clearly understood and documented. To help ensure the completeness of this examination, each of the construction or deployment items should be listed by type and a responsibility matrix constructed. This analysis is particularly relevant at the boundaries between technology infrastructure and building construction. For example, with data cabling the issues include: • • • • • • • • • •

Who provides ducting in the vertical risers? Who mounts the ceiling cable trays? Who provides covers for exposed wall-mounted data cabling? Who provides coaxial cable for TV services? Who provides the data cabling for building management systems? Who provides the data cabling and sensor cabling for security systems? Who installs the floor-mounted cable trays? Who lifts and replaces the floor tiles if needed? Who installs the data points in the floor boxes? Who makes holes in the walls to allow data cable pull-through?

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•

Who seals the air gap around data cables where they pass through fireresistant walls?

At this point as technology project leader you should satisfy yourself that you have adequate control over the issues that affect the technology deployment. If the main contractor is offering to manage the installation and deployment of parts of the technology, it must satisfy you that the work will be to the technical and corporate standards required by the client organization. Before any contract is signed with the main contractor there should be clear agreement on the sequence of events involved in the construction. If there is sufficient time available to allow the main contractor to complete construction works before the main technology deployment begins, the planning will be simplified. However it will still be necessary to plan and install some of the technology infrastructure, such as structured cabling and UPS power cabling to designated areas, before the building construction can be completed. It is rare that trading floor constructions enjoy this luxury of time. There are building lease and opportunity costs associated in holding back the introduction of technology till the end of the project. If technology deployment coincides with building construction work, it will shorten the timescale but introduce scheduling conflicts that require careful management.

OUTLINE SCHEDULE OF EVENTS This is an ideal model for the phases in the construction of a trading floor, but bear in mind that in reality the actual sequence of the schedule is highly likely to be different. Items might be scheduled in parallel, or supplier delays can impact the schedule, but the basic phases are: • • • • • • • • • • •

Choose the building. Award contracts and agree leases. Get a clear working area. Complete ceiling works including office air conditioning. Build the equipment room walls. Complete cabling. Lay the raised floor. Build other offices and install technology in the equipment room. Finish ceilings. Clear the floor and carpet it. Install trading desks and back-office desks.


• •

Install desktop technology and tidy up. Test and hand over.

A more detailed list is given below. There will be conflicts between the work of the construction contractors and the technology teams, but many of the activities need to be interlocked. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Identify needs for the trading floor. Document outline space and technology requirements. Identify premises. Shortlist main contractors. Invite qualifying presentations from shortlisted main contractors. Create initial budget estimates. Outline plan and design the trading floor. Select primary contractor bid. Obtain technology bids. Create detailed plan and budget. Obtain approval for budget. Sign contracts and leases. Obtain access to the building. Strip out the floor to bare concrete. Remove old cabling and piping where possible. Lay ceiling piping and power cabling. Move any risk-creating mechanical and electrical (M&E) services from above the equipment room. Complete M&E works in the ceiling. Test overhead air handling facilities. Lay data cabling containment in ceiling. Install any ceiling-mounted drip trays and drainage. Set suspended ceiling grid. Lay the raised floor columns, and raised floor stringers if any. Seal the concrete floor pan surface. Lay floor power grid and data cabling containment. Lay floor piping for water, drains, coolant and other M&E services. Build any full-height (fire-resistant) walls, such as the equipment room. Install air handling units (AHUs). Lay horizontal data cabling in the floor and ceiling. Lay the false floor in the office area and equipment room. Provide a temporary work area for the technology team. Install fire extinguisher gas and smoke detection equipment in the equipment room.


• • • • • • • • • • • • • •

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Install grounding/earthing and power distribution in the equipment room. Connect air ducting and dampers in the equipment room to the main M&E construction. Complete ceiling installation in the equipment room. Install and activate the equipment room lighting. Seal walls in the equipment room and complete dusty work. Secure the equipment room door. Install the access control system for the equipment room. Commission and test the AHUs in the equipment room. Install a water leak detection system in the equipment room and other sensitive areas. Pressure test the equipment room. Commission the VESDA fire detection system. Fully clean the equipment room above and below floor to provide a dust-free environment. Activate the access control system for the equipment room. Commence technology deployment of the equipment room: – Install racking and cabinets. – Provide inter-cabinet data cabling and patching racks. – Connect horizontal data cabling to the patching racks. – Install the MDF (main distribution frame) for telecoms. Mark out desk outlines on the trading floor and office areas. Install trading floor boxes/grommets for power and data. Test data cabling. Commission power (UPS) to the cabinets/racks in the equipment room. Fully clean the equipment room. Install servers and network equipment in the equipment room. Construct offices on the trading floor and back offices. Install lighting in office/trading floor areas. Complete the ceiling works in the main office area. Commission power to the office and trading floor areas. Test power to all outlets, for both general building supply and protected power. Complete decoration and dusty works. Clear all working tools, construction materials and equipment. Install ceiling-mounted technology such as the plasma monitors, wireless network points. Clean raised floor surface and clean floor boxes. Lay carpeting. Install window blinds. Full office clean. Activate full security and access control system for trading floor and office areas.


• • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Install trading desks, office desks and cupboards. Install local power and data network connections to the desks. Install desktop PCs, mount PC screens, install phones and trading turret equipment. Remove all packaging materials. Line of sight checking for trading positions and overhead displays. Sound checking. Full systems test and environmental checking. Install and test photocopiers, printers and fax machines. Power failure testing. Deliver office chairs and other furniture. Health and safety check. User acceptance testing. Issue snagging for items arising from user acceptance testing. Full office clean. Commence move process.

INITIAL PLAN DOCUMENT The steering group should build an overall plan document that can be signed off as acceptable by business and support services. It will need to be fairly concise but give sufficient detail to allow project approval. The corporate project standards might require additional cost–benefit analysis to be documented.

Overview The overview should describe the business objectives to be achieved and business types to be housed in the new facility. The timescale should be outlined, with a summary of the decisions to be made before the project can proceed. A brief description should be made of the location of the new floor and the facilities that will be provided.

Floor and construction plans The document will need some clear drawings and descriptions of what is proposed to be built and provided, so that management can quickly assimilate the outline. Detailed architect’s floor plans would not be appropriate: an accurate overview sketch showing the various rooms will probably be fine as long as the underlying research is accurate. There should also be a brief description of the intended construction schedule.


Trading floor plan The trading floor plan should describe the number of positions to be provided and the planned layout of the floor. This information should be associated with the business sections that will be supported in the area. If possible, an accurate scale drawing should be produced at this point. The desks and chairs should also be drawn to scale. The arrangement of the desks should be presented in a diagram or a visualization graphic. For example, will the desks be organized in unidirectional rows (school room), opposing rows (dining hall), circular clusters or a trading pit formation? The position of the desks should be shown in relation to windows, wall-mounted display units, personnel access routes and adjacent business support units. In some cases the height of the desks can be important if they are to be arranged in tiers to allow improved line of sight. Tiered desk arrangements are more common for open outcry situations where direct eye-to-eye contact is important. The layout of the desks will be influenced by the trading patterns and human interactions necessary for the trading process. It is important that the business management validate the trading floor layout at an early stage of the planning process. It is quite likely that the detailed arrangements and layout will be changed during the progression of the project, but with suitable change control procedures this should not create uncontrolled problems. What is important is that a sufficiently clear representation is made available to allow the business managers to confirm that the planned layout matches their expectations. There might be a temptation to work solely on the basis of the average number of desks that could be expected to be housed within a given floor area, leaving the detailed arrangement for later design work. That temptation should be avoided. Part of the plan should outline the dimensions of a typical proposed trading desk. The description should include a catalogue of the services, such as display screens, screen mounting method, power and network points, that will be available to each desk. Planned provisions for business expansion should be described. The plan should indicate what arrangements will be provided to facilitate changes in layout during operational life. The floor plan should illustrate line of sight views from various directions, taking care to highlight any building structure elements such as support columns that might obscure views.

Back office and support facilities The plan should provide a good visualization of back-office areas, with clearly documented headcount provision. It should take account of any direct interaction


with the front-office trading practices. For example it might be normal working practice for some back-office staff to be present on the trading floor near the front office. The architect might be unaware of this and have failed to allow for it. Usually line of sight contact is not so important for back-office staff, but this assumption should be tested. There could be a requirement for other support staff such as technology personnel or help desk staff to be located close to or on the trading floor or back office. The plan should make allowance for the displacement of back office staff in the future to allow for expansion of the trading floor. The back-office plan should show clearly the arrangements for the storage of documents and stationery supplies in the short and long term. Precious documents and/or deal tickets might need special security storage. Fire protection might be necessary for legal documentation.

Management and administration facilities Some trading floors will have non-trading management personnel present. Their offices should be clearly represented on the plan, with suitable arrangements for visitors. It might be necessary to provide reception rooms or to arrange for visitors to be kept separate from the trading and back-office areas. Equally the management and administration areas might need privacy from the trading and back-office areas. In areas with glass walls it might be necessary to install blinds. Noise control arrangements can have an important impact on the efficiency of the personnel in management/administrative areas. These areas will need provision for meeting rooms, printers, fax machines and photocopiers.

Life cycle expectations A statement in the plan should identify the expected life cycle of the area, and how frequently it is anticipated that major changes will be required to the trading floor. Such assumptions can affect the design of the layout, the quality of construction and the choice of IT infrastructure.

Visualizations The plan should include designer/artist sketches of the trading and office areas to supplement the architect’s plans. These should be cross-checked with the technology personnel to ensure they conform to the planned technology. For example if the trading desks will have eight screens and several speaker boxes, those should be shown in the sketches.


Special attention might be given to the visual impact in areas that important clients may visit, such as reception areas, meeting rooms and the boardroom. Again, sketches for these areas should show the actual intended appearance of the technology, so its impact can be discussed from the outset. If for example there is a requirement for hidden technology to preserve a prestige image, it is important that the technology team plan for that from the start.

Infrastructure description An outline description should be provided of the planned infrastructure. It should indicate where the technology room is envisaged to be located. A highlevel summary of the structured cabling and network arrangements should be provided, with information such as anticipated user population and locations connected. This document should also describe where PCs will be housed, such as under desks or remotely in an equipment room. There should be an outline description of the planned voice technology, such as dealer board type, speaker boxes and recording. Arrangements for overhead displays should be described. Voice and video conference facilities should be summarized. The infrastructure description should outline the power and cooling facilities envisaged, and also what arrangements are being made for resilience, expansion and operational power efficiency.

Furniture description The plans should include pictures and dimensions of furniture to be deployed in the office and trading areas. What might look acceptable in floor drawings could prove unacceptable to the management team or the operation of the business. Changes to the choice of furniture at a late stage can impact the detailed design and subsequent timescale of the project. Inclusion of such detail in the plan will help to avoid later changes, but it also gives more information to the planning staff. This is useful in validating whether the technology can be used effectively.

Office facilities Other office facilities such as reception areas, visitors’ offices, rest areas, eating or breakout areas, cloakrooms, post and print rooms, meeting rooms, storage rooms and security arrangements should be documented in the early plan. In the detailed planning process, negotiations for floor space might attempt to minimize such areas unless there is a clear management directive specifying them in the early plan.


Timescale planning The initial plan should outline the key milestone dates of the project. The dates will need to be validated during the detailed planning and contract negotiations. This implies that a certain amount of planning work will have been undertaken to establish resources, constraints and supplier projections. The initial timescale plan should incorporate the business requirements and expectations for delivery. The business management will be focused on the date when facilities become available, as this will affect business activities and will also mark the start of paying back the heavy capital investment. The business will be relying on the technical and construction project managers to ensure that intermediate milestone dates are feasible and can actually be met. The milestone dates must be expressed clearly. If those dates are not acceptable to the business, this will be the time to review the plan and resources to ensure that business expectations can be met by the builders, architects, suppliers and technical teams.

Responsibilities The initial plan should clearly map out who is responsible for the delivery of all facilities, accommodation, services and subsequent operational acceptances. There might be aspects of the project where two or more project disciplines have joint responsibility. In these cases the method of decision making should be documented.

Control The initial plan should document planned controls. This will help the business users understand that procedures are in place to keep track of the project, and at the same help them direct any change requests to the appropriate person. Examples of such controls are the change control procedure, financial approval and expenditure tracking, progress certification, change procedures for headcount variations, and progress reporting procedures. The descriptions of these controls do not have to be highly detailed to enable the business management to make a decision on the project.

Budget The initial plan should have a budget recommendation. The budget should anticipate the level of expenditure needed for project initiation, construction works, office and trading floor furniture, technology installation and provision, software licences, project management, implementation and disposal costs.


While this budget needs to be reasonably accurate it is likely to include some estimates. The fine detail of some costs will not be known until detailed project, installation plans and supplier negotiations have been completed. Such approximations will increase the contingency risks. The cost analysis should project ongoing operational costs and/or savings arising from the project. It should also clearly identify how the capital costs and operational costs will be recovered from the business. This process of cost allocation will need to identify when the costs will need to be funded by the business. There can be quite substantial cashflows for the business when the project reaches key payment points. In these days of outsourcing business processes there should be a cost impact analysis for any existing outsourced services. As part of the project budget there should be a clear indication of contingency funding, foreign exchange risk and project risk planning. The budget should also document any cost-saving opportunities in the form of special offers from suppliers.

Approvals The initial project plan should document what approvals are being requested and from whom. Existing corporate standards might determine the approval process, but they should be documented in the initial project plan as there might be sponsors who do not fully understand the procedures. This documentation of approvals provides an opportunity for the business to fully understand what it is committing to. It also confirms that appropriate consultation has taken place. The approval process may be phased during the project and be subject to appropriate progress being made on delivery of the project. If phased approvals are used this will need to be factored in any contractual negotiations with suppliers if penalty payments are to be avoided by the business.

UNION BRIEFING The business might employ union or staff association members in the trading area and back office. The project team should seek approval from the business management team to arrange for the briefing of union or staff association representatives. Introducing the new trading area might affect working conditions, and early consultation with staff representatives can help to reduce unexpected and expensive project delays. It might be appropriate to create a version of the project plan specifically for such consultations.


The project team members should recognize that union representatives might not fully understand any new technology that is proposed for the trading floor. It could be appropriate to provide additional briefings and site visits to view similar technology in use. The representatives should be briefed that any floor plans produced during the initial project planning are highly likely to change during the life of the project.

MANAGEMENT BRIEFING An important part of the plan approval process will be the initial management briefing meeting. The management team should attend that meeting with their queries already answered. The executive management team should be prebriefed on the costs and issues. The project leaders should work hard to ensure there are no surprises at the approval briefing meeting. The management briefing should be highly professional, with good-quality presentation materials. It should recognize that this is an important decision point. The project leaders should recognize that they might not get a final decision on the project at this briefing meeting. Trading floors are a major item of business expenditure. Even if the executive directors approve of the project and the proposed costs they might have to seek approval at a wider board meeting. The timing of such senior-level post-project briefing can sometimes lead to a significant delay in the overall approval process. The project leaders should ensure that any project briefing meeting is properly synchronized with the senior board approval schedule. Suppliers should be warned of any potential delays in approval, as this could affect their ability to supply services and personnel.

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7

The project team equipment and facilities

As project leader, you should now have approval to start the project, or at least to start forming the technology project team. The project is now at the point where technology staff will work full time on it. They will need a place to meet, and facilities for their design and planning work. Creating the project room and arranging facilities can in itself be quite a task, particularly if all that is available is an area of bare concrete without electric power in a new office building.

PROJECT AREA If possible the technology project team should be provided with a project area on site. As the construction process takes place it might be necessary to migrate the project area to allow construction work to continue. The location should be provided with tables and robust stacking chairs. There is no point in using expensive chairs: after all they have legs and on a building site they are guaranteed to walk away. Some form of lockable cabinets should be provided to allow limited local storage of documents and stationery. If the project area is not secure the project leader should arrange for the cupboard to be chained down.


PROJECT SITE NETWORK The project team will gain from local network and internet access in the project area. This can be easily and quickly achieved by introducing a DSL service over copper phone lines. Coupled with a secure wireless LAN this facility is relatively easy to produce. The project team will then be able to gain access to the corporate network using VPN (virtual private network) over the internet. Early planning of such a facility will ensure its availability from an early stage of the project. Of course the project team’s laptops and PCs will need to be equipped with the appropriate WIFI cards or facilities. Any network devices on site should be literally chained down to prevent theft, and provided with a UPS power unit to give protection against the constant power outages that will occur. The increasing use of VOIP (voice over IP) will also see the DSL link being used for corporate telephone services, if policy permits. While it is possible to use 3G mobile network services, their availability is somewhat limited at the time of writing, and the large size of documents produced in project planning will increase the usage bill.

LAPTOP PCS The team members should be equipped with laptop PCs that are configured with plenty of disk space. Preferably these should be the same model to allow the sharing of battery chargers. Provision of CD-R capability is useful for the interchange of large data files and plans. At the site some provision should made to allow the lockdown of laptops to prevent their theft. Security cables are quite effective but easily defeated by workers’ tools. A purpose-built laptop security safe is more effective if the laptops are to be left unattended for any length of time. A low-cost network-attached laser printer should be made available for the laptop users. This can be used to print routine reports, minutes, letters, permits and so on. A portable LCD projector is useful for projecting plans, drawings and photographs during meetings. Those involved in overnight supervisory or installation duties will also be able to fill the inevitable waiting periods by using a laptop to view entertainment DVDs via the projector!

The Project Team Equipment and Facilities ❙ 91

VOICE TELECOMS An essential part of the communications process is to be able to contact team members or suppliers to discuss issues. The nature of the work will mean that team members are rarely located at their usual desks. They might be travelling, on the construction site or at manufacturer sites. The work often involves out-ofhours working, usually away from any predictable landline telephone.

Phones and conference call facilities The project team will need good phone facilities. One of the early priorities when work on site has commenced will be some telephone lines located somewhere on site where they can easily be accessed and controlled by the team. If at all possible the phones should be in a quiet place away from the inevitable noise of construction. These phone facilities will need a temporary termination point where the phone company can deliver its copper wires. Analogue voice services are probably most useful, as they will easily attach to a wide range of handsets and to the laptop modems. Coupled with the telephone lines should be a readily available voice conference service and/or a voice bridge. This facility should enable team members to set up multiple participant voice conferences on an as-required basis. This will facilitate easy meetings between team members themselves and/or suppliers and offsite personnel. This will help speed discussion and avoid the need for too many face-to-face meetings. If extensive voice conferences are likely the project team should consider telephone headsets or amplified speakerphones. A useful addition to the voice services is a basic fax machine to handle short urgent faxes from site.

Mobile phones During the project mobile (cell)phones will be invaluable for contacting the project team members and also contact with suppliers. If there are corporate constraints on the use of mobile phones they might need to be lifted for the project team members. If team members are normally located in another country, but are visiting for the purposes of the project, it will probably be cost-effective to provide them with locally serviced mobile phones or SIMs. This will reduce international call charges. If possible mobile phones should have interchangeable batteries and chargers. All too often people forget to bring their phone charger to the site. The project team should not rely solely on mobile phones for telephone communications as


many factors, such as typically an unpaid bill or exceeded credit limit, can lead to a sudden suspension of the service.

Voice recording Where voice conferences and meetings are used it will be useful to have a facility to record voice calls. That allows people to focus on the discussion and to prepare detailed minutes or notes at a later stage. Good-quality voice-operated recorders only cost about £50 (US S75). Simple adaptors can be purchased to allow connection to landline or mobile phones.

Walkie talkies The installation and testing of trading floor equipment such as data cabling and trading turrets often involves two or more people needing to communicate matters of detail while they are in different rooms or many feet apart. This process can be facilitated, and the need to shout obviated, by the use of personal walkie talkie handsets. A hands-free headset capability will improve the effectiveness. A mobile phone could be used to the same effect, but currently the costs would be high. As with the mobile phone comment above, the devices should be standard to allow easy charging and intercommunication between the handsets.

MEETING ROOM There will be a need for a quiet location on the trading floor site or in an adjacent locality where the team can meet, with or without suppliers and contractors. It is highly unlikely that the offices being constructed will be available for meetings until late in the project. Consideration should be given to constructing a temporary office large enough to hold a meeting table and chairs. The room should have lighting and a reasonable level of soundproofing if on site. It might need temporary power for lighting. Budget provision should be made for these temporary facilities.

TOOLKIT The technology team should be equipped with a toolkit that can be used for simple repair, assembly, carpentry and electrical maintenance tasks. In theory this is not necessary as external contractors will undertake most of the work, but


situations will arise where having tools to hand will help resolve problems. The kit will typically include: • • • • • • • • • • • • •

screwdriver set; socket set; hammer; chisels; molegrip self-locking wrenches; drill bits; pliers and wire cutters; pop riveters; stud locators; power tester; craft knife and blades; hacksaw; wood saw.

A reasonable quality cordless power drill/screwdriver, charger station and spare battery packs should be included. This will help with PC installation and equipment installation in racking. The toolkit should include a couple of metal tape measures and a torch. The tools should be in a lockable toolbox, which is held in a secure location. Marking the tools with a colour code of insulation tape to identify them as belonging to the project team will help prevent their migrating to other workers’ toolboxes. Heavy-duty polythene sheeting and a couple of rolls of duct tape are useful to help provide temporary protection for equipment. Some specialized items such as RJ45 plug crimping pliers and plugs, UTP cable, coaxial cable stripper, telecoms punchdown tool and circuit continuity buzzer are invaluable for providing temporary connections. Other useful items such as power extension leads, power extension cable, mains-powered inspection lights on leads, a digital thermometer and a laser distance measure should also be considered. The team member(s) responsible for undertaking site inspections may wish to equip themselves with laser pointers. It will be a useful tool to assist in pointing out high-level features in the ceiling area during the construction process. Note that where lasers are used for measuring, floor levelling or pointing, the personnel involved should be aware of the laser emission class of the device and have received training in its safe operation. These devices are relatively safe, but the rating should be confirmed for safety purposes. In the UK BS EN 60825–1 provides details of laser safety standards and the AEL (acceptable emission limits). In the United States, ANSI Z136.1 (Safe use of lasers) can provide more information.


A hand-held anemometer is useful in verifying air flows at trading desks and in equipment rooms. It may be possible to borrow one from the facilities manager, but if that is not possible they are not expensive (typically £70–100, US $100–150). A heavy-duty wheeled trolley can be invaluable in helping team members move heavy equipment and large loads around the site.

WHITEBOARD The project team area should be equipped with a large whiteboard, plus plentiful dry wipe pens and cleaning materials. The whiteboard will be invaluable for brainstorming, creating action lists and so on during meetings. It can also double as a white screen for video projectors. The purpose of the whiteboard is to facilitate ad hoc discussion, so it should not be hidden away in a meeting room unless that room is freely available.

LARGE-SCALE PRINTER The project team should be given access to a large-scale colour inkjet printer, capable of printing at least to A1 size. Many of the contractor’s plans and drawings will be designed to be viewed at this size, and the team should be able to print such documents at will. The team need to be encouraged to always use the latest version of the plan. It might be necessary to locate the printer offsite if the project office environment is dusty or insecure.

DIGITAL CAMERA The project team should have access on site to a reasonable-quality digital camera. It should have a resolution in excess of 2M pixels, optical zoom and the capability for good-quality close-up shots. It should have a flash, but also some capability to work in large areas of poor lighting conditions that a flash cannot illuminate properly. The camera will be invaluable for recording progress, problem items, damage and general illustrations. If the camera is not held on site it is inevitable that it will not be available when it is really needed. There should be a charger, spare batteries and spare data cards. The spare data cards will allow the photos to be taken offsite if necessary for processing


while the camera remains on site. The security of such a small high-value item should be considered. A low-cost steel security safe bolted down securely might be necessary.

SERVER The project team will need file server space. This will be used to hold central registry files, the project website files, meeting minutes, issues database, asset database and so on. Provided the network connections (VPN) to the project room are fast, the server can be located remotely. When the equipment room is commissioned the server can then be moved on site. Having a server on site during the construction phase can present a security problem. I recently experienced the theft of the interior working parts of a server left on a trading floor construction site, leaving just the bare outer casing. The project team server should be operated as a production-status device, with full maintenance and daily security copies. If the data held on the server is corrupted or damaged it will have a substantial impact on the project records.

SOFTWARE TOOLS The project leader should ensure that the project team is supported with an adequate set of software tools. Used correctly they will improve productivity and communication between the team. However, the team should be reminded that these tools are just a means to an end, and no substitute for delivering the project. The business users will not want a perfectly documented project in preference to delivery of the trading floor in good working order on time.

Office software (See also page 63.) Word processing and spreadsheet tools should be available to provide basic facilities for creating documents in a standard interchange format. One of the leader’s tasks is to ensure the team all use a common version. Some team members might need upgrades for this purpose.

Project management tool There is a range of project management software tools of varying complexity and capability. Most now offer a central server capability and the ability to nest projects. Project Manager Workbench and Primavera are examples. I suggest you


try to keep to the basic facilities, and keep project models robust and simple. Microsoft Project is fine for this type of work. The danger of relying too heavily on a highly detailed project plan with excessive dependency links is ‘analysis paralysis’, with a high administrative workload. A trading floor project needs a small flexible project team who can react quickly, using the Gantt chart as a tool rather than the constraining plan.

Adobe Acrobat Each team member should have a full copy of Adobe Acrobat to easily produce documents in a standard output format. One of the Adobe strengths is the ability to merge documents from many sources (for example, Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Visio and Autocad output) into one common document that can be read using a widely used and free reader.

Visio This program is really useful for drawing diagrams of IT infrastructure equipment and the interlinks between them. It comes with a library of common diagram objects, and it is possible to purchase third-party libraries covering most of the equipment vendors. It is reasonably easy to use.

Autocad This is powerful but expensive software. Architects and construction consultants commonly use it for their plans and drawings. It is highly accurate and can be used to produce detailed floor plans and layouts. The capability to work in layers makes it particularly good at planning and synchronizing the physical two-dimensional locations of building services, pipework, cabling runs and floor tile grids. The software is probably too expensive and complex for routine use in the project team. However as the important plans will use this format it is important that the team have access to ‘reader’ software that can open and view the files. Voloview is one such program, available at low cost.

Issue database Throughout the life of a project, problems and issues will arise. They need to be tracked and prioritized. A simple approach uses Excel or Word documents to record the issues and track updates, but there are often problems with version control and managing multiple updates. A better approach is a central database. Programs such as ProblemTracker (www.problemtracker.com) provide a webpage interface, database, and various reporting and audit facilities.


Alternatively if you have access to a database programmer, it is not too difficult to create a tailor-made system.

Purchase order system The project team should have access to a purchase order system to: • • • • • •

raise purchase orders for purchase approval by the project budget holders; track purchase orders with suppliers; track expenditure on professional services contractors; track deliveries/returns to site and to other support offices; facilitate asset control; help expedite authorized payments to suppliers when delivery has been signed off.

The system might have to cope with multiple currencies. Often use can be made of existing company purchase order systems, but you should ensure the system fully supports the project requirements. You should also ensure the project team managers have the facility to ensure that payments are released only when preagreed delivery conditions are met.

Document management system The project will create an enormous amount of documentation, much of it widely distributed among team members and senior management. There are likely to be many document versions. Keeping track of the documentation and making sure people access the current versions can be a major headache. Without document management support facilities, many important documents will clutter e-mail systems, be hidden in filing cabinets or become lost. Project progress certificates, technical drawings and plans, delivery notes, meeting minutes and other such sign-off material can be important records for handling future disputes on payment, change control and other acceptance issues. A document management system helps to provide secure reliable storage and a release control mechanism. This should be available from the start of project activities.

Asset database All assets should be recorded, and ideally the records linked to the purchase order system. A simple spreadsheet might be sufficient for a small project, but this can easily become a problem with larger projects. Ideally the asset database should


allow multiple simultaneous accesses from various locations. Spreadsheets are unlikely to meet this requirement reliably. If the organization is following ITIL standards the asset data will be essential at the time of project handover. It might be possible (or necessary) to use the organization’s existing asset database, but be wary of the potential delays and inflexibility of a centralized system.

Cabling database The data cabling contractors will normally furnish sufficient information to initially populate a cabling database, or upload into an existing database. You should ensure there is a suitable database system available before this information is delivered. As with the asset database, it should allow multi-user access.

Project directory The project will undoubtedly involve many personnel from many organizations, including internal personnel. A small customer relationship management (CRM) database system which holds central records and is accessible by the project team members will help to provide a project directory. Most project team members will find it useful to have a regularly printed directory extracted from the CRM system.

VPN Virtual private network (VPN) software will be needed on team members’ laptops so they can access central servers while travelling, from home and on site. This should allow a secure, authenticated access via internet connections. The software needs to be compatible and enrolled with the security arrangements on the host organization’s network. It can be a long job to create such facilities if they do not already exist, so it is advisable to check early in the project life cycle that they can be made available in time. If not, it might be necessary to consider an externally hosted server. Using VOIP over the VPN link can be a quick and easy way for the team to obtain access to the phone system whilst awaiting commissioning of the PBX or main VOIP switch.

REFRESHMENTS The project area should be provided with a well-supplied drinking fountain and cups. If these are the disposable plastic type, a large waste bin is needed. If power


is available, a kettle and mugs would be useful so team members can make tea and coffee, unless good facilities are available nearby.

STATIONERY SUPPLIES The team will need access to stationery when out of their normal office environment. Consider providing supplies of: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

printer paper; envelopes and stamps; folders; ring binders; staplers and staples; adhesive, such as Blu-tack; boxes of pens and pencils; clear tape; duct tape; scissors; kraft knives and spare blades; heavy-duty plastic rubbish bags; permanent markers; string; scale rulers for checking dimensions from drawings; toner and inkjet cartridges.

The project area should have a document shredder with a thermal overload cutout, and a small photocopier.

BLACK N’ REDS Few project leaders on site are seen without their notebooks. A well-known brand is Black n’ Reds, which produces hardback lined-paper notebooks ideal for making notes of actions agreed, problems, addresses and phone numbers. They are also useful for quick diagrams to aid discussions. They start instantly without delay, don’t need batteries or chargers, are lightweight and don’t cost much. Loose sheets of paper tend to get mislaid, and hand-held PCs are unwieldy. The discipline is to make notes as the issues occur, then revisit them later, to cross them out if the issue has been cleared or create a formal action plan if one is needed.


FIRST-AID KIT Working on construction sites can be hazardous. The site manager will have primary responsibility for health and safety and accident reporting, but the project team can usefully maintain its own industrial-standard first aid kit for minor cuts, grazes and headaches. Unofficial items that could come in handy include a mouthto-mouth airway, protective gloves, indigestion tablets, cold and flu tablets, disinfectant, sterile eyewash to deal with dust and small objects in the eyes, and butterfly sutures. Access to the first aid kit should be supervised to ensure it is kept replenished. Ideally at least one of the team should have first aid qualifications. Regulations vary from country to country, but normally any accident on site should be reported to and logged by the site manager. Any injury except for minor cuts should be followed up with a visit to a qualified medical practitioner.

SAFETY EQUIPMENT The team members should have access to a full range of safety equipment. This might include: • • • • • • • • • • • •

goggles; safety construction site helmets; ear defenders; disposable dust masks; fluorescent and reflective vests; torches with batteries and spare bulbs; protective gloves; protective knee pads; safety warning tape, signs, cones; fire extinguishers; portable smoke detectors; steel-toecap or protective boots, if working where heavy objects are being moved.

It should not be forgotten that technology staff are more used to working in a safe office environment. In the field they will be unable to access safety facilities normally available in corporate offices. Providing equipment on site with instructions to make sure that they use it can reduce the risk and impact of injury. Hand-held fire extinguishers, normally carbon dioxide, should be made available when technology equipment is being installed and powered up. If the


installation is in a room with an active gas fire suppressant system this might not be necessary, but if a fire can be quickly extinguished by hand rather than using the main gas system it will represent a substantial saving in costs. When any hot work is carried out involving gas soldering or brazing, there should be a suitable hand-held extinguisher nearby. A secure and convenient location should be found on site to provide temporary storage for the safety equipment. It should be clearly marked and made known to project team members.

TRANSPORT, SHIPPING AND COLLECTION There will be a need to receive and ship goods during the construction and installation process: for example, items such as servers from home offices. Team members will probably be used to having other people perform this task, and few if any will have experience in arranging shipping. Where the site is overseas the process is more complex. At the start of the project a transport company should be contracted to provide assistance, for example in packaging and insuring goods during shipping and delivery.

STORAGE There will inevitably be a requirement for short-term secure storage. A small project slippage or change of schedule might mean the trading floor area or equipment room is not yet ready to receive a large delivery, or large order quantity incentives might prompt the decision to accept a single rather than phased delivery. As part of the project plan you should arrange to have a secure storage area set aside, and make suitable arrangements for controlled access. If possible this should be in the construction area: perhaps a room can be completed early in the schedule, or a temporary cage constructed. If space is not immediately available you could rent nearby secure storage or warehousing. For some technical equipment it is necessary to store the original packaging (which might be of a unique design) in case the equipment has to be returned. Leaving cartons in an open area is an invitation for them to be damaged or disposed of, so they should be placed in a designated store. Valuable or scarce items in storage should be covered by insurance. This might include consequential loss cover, since there could be a substantial cost overrun if essential equipment is stolen from site or damaged and cannot be quickly replaced. Check that items are covered, and make arrangements for cover if they


are not. If suppliers need to deposit equipment in the secure store prior to installation, make sure they accept the risk themselves.

RESIDENTIAL ACCOMMODATION If the trading floor project is close to the project team’s existing offices, and there is a full range of technology skills available locally, there is unlikely to be any need to provide any living accommodation. However, it is often the case that key team members have to travel substantial distances to reach the site. As part of the planning, temporary accommodation, such as hotel rooms or serviced apartments, should be arranged to reduce the amount of travelling. An advantage of serviced apartments is that they can often be shared with other team members. In most apartments DSL internet connections can be provided; this will be helpful in keeping in contact with the main office out of hours.

FOREIGN SITE ASSISTANCE The trading floor site might be located in a different country from the technology project team’s normal centre of operations. Some simple preparation will make the life of the team a lot easier and more effective. You might need to arrange transportation at very short notice. Some younger team members might have never travelled abroad before – this is not uncommon for workers based in the United States, for instance – and will need some guidance. •

• • •

List all the potential team members and make sure they have a current passport, valid for the duration of the project. If they have used it before, check that it will be acceptable to the country of destination: for example a passport stamped with an Israeli visa can create problems in visiting Islamic countries, and vice versa. If this is the case, one option is for individuals to obtain a second passport that does not contain the offending visa stamps. Open an account with a visa agency to allow the expedition of visa applications. Set up a travel account for the project, so travel can be arranged quickly, by phone if necessary. Travel arrangements should include arrangements to obtain foreign currency without delay. Identify a locally based agent who can arrange meetings with local suppliers for any local technology purchases. It might be necessary to set up a local bank account for payments.


• • • •

•

• • • •

Ensure the team members have access to high-quality credit cards with a robust credit limit. Occasionally one team member might have to pay for hotels and flights for another whose cards have been stolen, frozen or lost. Provide access to relevant translation services, at both the home base and the remote site. Obtain guidance documents on the local business and social etiquette. Make sure that the team are aware of their contents. Produce a local project ‘guide book’ with information, local contacts, suppliers, details on travel to and from the airport, local medical facilities, local shopping and hotels, and local restaurants. Make it available to team members. Establish a relationship with one or two local hotels, and try to negotiate a corporate deal. If possible the hotel should have good business facilities and internet connections. Give the concierge good tips to establish a friendly relationship. Identify a reliable local taxi company that can be relied on to meet visitors at the airport and provide transport within the locality. Contact the local consulate if working in a less well-developed country, to seek advice on local contacts. The project team leader should have access to the home telephone numbers of visiting personnel. These are useful, for example, when people are delayed during travel or need medications forwarding. If there is a security situation in the locality – perhaps a terrorist threat, or a high-crime area – seek specialist security advice before travelling. At times of high risk obtain daily briefing e-mails. Make sure the team are briefed on security considerations for foreign nationals.

TRAINING Training needs should be identified, and training should take place, very early in the project. Talk with the team members and identify whether there are any gaps in key skill sets essential to the project. Project-related training should be supplemental to individuals’ normal career training.

Negotiation training Team members often need to negotiate with suppliers, landlords, members of other teams and contractors. It will help their effectiveness if they receive training in negotiation techniques. These types of course usually have a very quick payback.


Project management software Anyone in the project team who is not conversant with the project management tool selected should receive some training in its use. A one or two-day course is usually all that is needed to enable people to understand the basic scheduling concepts.

Safety The project team should be given a briefing on on-site safety before they are allowed to visit the trading floor construction site. This should be certified, and people who fail to follow safety procedures should be subject to disciplinary action. A syllabus might cover: • • • • • • • • • • •

dangers on site; safety clothing; laser safety; accident procedures; electrical risks on site; fire risks on site; evacuation plans; safe use of ladders; safe lifting techniques; safety with power tools; safe lifting and storage.

Organizational procedures As project leader you will want the team to follow various organizational procedures during their participation in the project. If the information is packaged into a project handbook and presented to team members in a formal training session, it will improve the likelihood of people complying with the procedures.

First aid The project team should have some basic first aid training unless there are already good facilities already available on site.

Local awareness If the project is located in a country in which team members are unused to working, you should arrange a briefing on local customs and social awareness.


This will cover, for example, which parts of a city are safe to visit, safe eating, appropriate dress and clothing, safe methods of travel, and the best routes to the site and airport. Personnel should be warned to carry identity documents, and to make sure another team member knows where they are at all times, so they are traceable in the event of problems. Simple techniques such as how to deal with the police if stopped can avoid unnecessary problems.

BUILD AREA During the fit-out process the technology team will need a temporary area where they can assemble technology equipment prior to installation. The equipment room is unlikely to be suitable as a build area, as this will be designed only for the routine operation of equipment already mounted in cabinets. The build area will need power, lighting, network connections and a worktop. The area will need to be quiet, clean and dust-free, with space to store packaging. It should be secure (both walls/cage and door), so valuable equipment is not stolen when the area is unattended. The team will need chairs and telephone facilities. It is helpful if the build area can be located on site close to the equipment room and trading floor. If this is not possible it should be in an adjacent area, chosen for easy transport of equipment in its configured state. As this is likely to be a temporary area it might not appear on the plans produced by the main contractors/builder. The project leader will need to raise this requirement at an early stage in the planning to make sure it is not forgotten. One technique used for PCs is to have them built offsite by a third party and delivered to the desk already configured.

TEST AREA The server configuration can be pre-built and tested offsite prior to its installation in the equipment room. This will reduce subsequent installation problems, and reduce the time needed for installation once the equipment room is ready. The test area can be in any convenient existing equipment room where there is space to house the servers. This might need some planning effort on the part of the technology project team. The testing objectives should be to test the interaction between the different server configurations proposed for the new trading environment. This testing can commence, independent of the construction process, whenever the project has been given approval. The tests should be completed well in advance of the


date for installing the equipment on the trading floor. The ideal target is a plug and play situation, where the servers become available for operation within a few days of physical installation.

TEST NETWORK For the test area to succeed, the servers and test PCs will need to be connected to a test network that provides the same range of network addresses and a similar topology to the planned system. This can be achieved with early (partial/full) delivery of network equipment. The test network can be isolated from the rest of the business by appropriate firewalls and routers to prevent the accidental release of network transactions.

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8

The budget and initial design

Creating the budget will be a very busy time; many financial and design decisions will have to be made quickly under time pressure. Quotations will have to be obtained from various suppliers and support organizations. In some cases the budget figure will have to depend on estimates rather than firm quotations. Alternative financial and design options need to be considered. While people from a technical background will not be too interested in the budget process, they should be aware that financial decisions in this phase can affect technical design decisions. The budget process is an essential stage. If there has been a thorough planning process for the budget it will improve the chance of ultimate project success. The technology project team should also check the budget proposals of other business/administration areas to ensure there are no false assumptions that the IT budget will cover boundary items. Careful examination should be made of the main contractor’s proposal, to determine what facilities will be provided as part of the contract. The proposed scheduling of works can have an impact on the technology budget. This requires an open but searching approach to liaison with the other members of the greater project team. Provisional budgets, with options, will have to be agreed with the user management to obtain agreement in principle. No doubt this will involve several cycles as managers balance perceived needs and costs. Decisions will need to be made on the best funding methods for major capital items and services, for example outright purchase, leasing, outsourcing or


rental. These will need to be discussed with the project accountant and the business management. As part of the budget there should be a life cycle costing to demonstrate the ongoing cost of operating the IT infrastructure of the new trading floor and back office. The cost of migration from the old systems to the new must also be considered. There might be write-down costs for older systems that are dropped or returned before the termination of a lease contract. If the organization has previously occupied an office or trading floor there might well be support contracts (internal or external to the company) that need to be closed out or transferred to the new site. These might be shared with other parts of the organization, and resolving this situation could add a cost burden to the project. There might also be a requirement to fund the retention of access to legacy computer systems and voice records for client or regulatory purposes.

INITIAL BUDGET Business management will invariably ask the technology project manager to give an initial rough estimate of how long the technology will take to install and its cost. This question will arise before any detailed project planning work can take place. Answering it can be problematic, as the figure will fix itself in the minds of the management team. However there is usually an unavoidable need to set a ballpark figure. Discussion with suppliers and other experienced project personnel will often provide rule of thumb cost figures. The price of racking, cabling, servers, desktop PCs and the like can be roughly estimated by any experienced technical manager. By applying multipliers it is usually a quick process to arrive at a first total. Equipment costs are however only part of the budget: do not forget to allow for travel, hotel and subsistence costs. The organization’s financial rules will dictate how personnel time is charged. Any rough estimates should include also a healthy contingency margin.

BUDGET CONTROL As budgets are being produced there will be many different versions of spreadsheets circulating between team members. It is very easy to lose track of who said what, and when, about budgetary items. The project leader should insist on a structured naming convention for spreadsheets, with names

The Budget and Initial Design ❙ 109

that directly indicate the version number and budget centre. The distribution of draft budget spreadsheets should be controlled through a central librarian to ensure that a full copy of each version is retained, together with notes of assumptions used. When the budgets are finally submitted for approval, the team members who prepared the data should sign off that the correct version has been incorporated in the composite budget. This should be agreed at a meeting where all personnel involved have the chance to listen to interim project budget presentations.

BUDGET SCOPE The decision about which items are included in the technology budget and which in the main construction project budget depends on many variables, not least of which is the opinion of the steering group. It should be clear from the main contractor’s proposals and contract which items are bundled in the main building works project. If it is not, questions should be asked quickly to avoid budget overruns and disputes. The list of typical items below shows the types of facility and service required in a trading room environment. It is not exhaustive, nor does it claim that all items are necessary. However as project leader you should work through the list and ensure you understand who is footing the bill for the items to be provided in your project. Outline design work will inevitably need to be undertaken. This will be an iterative process with various calculations and assumptions. Ensure that those are documented, as it is likely they will become part of the contractual arrangements. Interactions between the various teams should also be documented.

BUSINESS CONTINUITY BUDGET ISSUES One of the design decisions to be taken as part of budgetary planning is whether to incorporate business continuity features into the project budget. This will to a great extent depend on the business unit, the relative size of the trading floor and the existing business continuity management (BCM) plans. For example there might be a requirement to design the voice and data network so that the facilities can quickly be switched from the primary site to the backup site. It might be decided to locate the data centre away from the trading floor to reduce risk. If so, it can have quite an impact on the type of dealer board/trading turret system chosen, and on the network structure required to support the trading floor and back office. BCM issues can affect the design of the building,


the design of the technology rooms and the selection of suppliers for voice and data telephony. BCM plans might involve relocating staff to branch offices and home working if an event denies access to the trading floor. This too can have substantial implications for the way that the technology is designed and deployed. Any BCM considerations should be discussed and documented at an early stage of the project. This should not be left as an afterthought.

THE TECHNOLOGY BUDGET VERSUS THE BUILDING STRUCTURE BUDGET Clarity will be needed in the allocation of items to budgets, otherwise items might be overlooked or double-counted, causing subsequent budget problems. There are no hard and fast rules on whether an item should be in a technology budget or the base building construction budget, although local tax rules (for example, on depreciation) can have an impact on the decision. Generally the following items are included in the base building budget: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

walls; floors; windows; doors and general locks; office air conditioning and air handling; electrical power and earth bonding; floor and wall electrical boxes; power switching; power cable containment; fixed lighting; curtains and blinds; storage rooms structure; meeting rooms structure; utility rooms, eg cloakroom; fire safety and sprinklers; noise suppression; window blast filming; shelving; decoration; non-technology project management; temporary structures during fit-out; site clearance prior to construction;


• • •

site clearance of previous site if necessary; physical security; professional fees for architects, designers and so on.

THE TECHNOLOGY INFRASTRUCTURE BUDGET VERSUS THE ADMINISTRATION BUDGET Some items will fall outside the scope of both the technology and the base build budgets. For the sake of simplicity the budget that includes these is described here as an administration budget. In reality these items might be funded directly by the business unit. Here is a non-exhaustive list of items in this broad category: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

lease, purchase or rental of property; property service fees; property taxes; legal fees; insurance; building inspections; health and safety inspections; chairs; office desks; other office and meeting room furniture; carpets; artworks; moving costs, packing and shipping; security guarding during construction and acceptance testing; office stationery; first aid room fit-out; post room fit-out; aquaria, plants, etc; kitchen and rest area fit-out; reception and boardroom furnishings; document storage and security safes; shredders; photocopiers and fax machines if not covered elsewhere; business signage; rubbish disposal and cleaning; washroom facilities.


NEW AND OLD One of the decisions to be evaluated with the major technology items is whether to use new or pre-used equipment. The pre-used equipment might already be owned by the organization or be purchased second-hand from another source. If done carefully this can produce considerable savings in technology costs and reduce delivery lead times. The use of second-hand or pre-used equipment needs careful consideration before commitment: •

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•

•

•

•

Transfer costs should be considered. The equipment might have substantial capital depreciation outstanding. If that cost is already in the accounts of the business unit, pre-used equipment can be the best choice. If a purchase transfers a substantial capital cost into the accounts the cost benefit might be low. The logistics of dismantling old equipment for transfer to a new environment can be a problem if the equipment is in active use prior to the move. If for example the move to the new site is planned to take place over a weekend, there will only be 60 hours to dismantle and reassemble the equipment. Reversion logistics present similar problems. The business unit might plan to revert to its previous premises after the move in the event of go-live problems, but this is not an option if equipment has been transferred from the old site to the new. Opportunity cost is another factor that can prevent the use of old equipment. Newer technology can give access to features not available on the old equipment. It could provide better performance, increased functionality or better security. Maintenance costs should also be considered. When equipment nears obsolescence, the manufacturers often increase the cost of maintenance substantially. There can be bargains when purchasing second-hand equipment, but some consideration has to be given to the life cycle costs. The organization might have made a policy decision to buy only new equipment for the new trading floor.

TYPICAL ITEMS FOR THE IT INFRASTRUCTURE BUDGET Equipment cabinets The technology project team will need to calculate how many equipment cabinets are required to house the server PCs and network equipment, and establish a budget for them. The budget will need to allow for doors, side panels,


cabinet shelving, server mounting kits, environmental monitoring, power distribution blocks, blanking plates and cable guides within the cabinets. The team will need to establish standards for the configuration of equipment cabinets, covering for example width, depth, height, expansion provision and cooling method. A typical design is based on half-filling cabinets with equipment at the initial configuration, allowing as much space again for expansion, but the project team should make its own decisions. Scaled Visio diagrams should be drawn for each cabinet, showing all the equipment it is to hold. Space should be allowed for inter-cabinet cabling and patching plates within the cabinets. In deciding which cabinets will house which equipment, consideration must be given to the maximum total weight, power and heat output of the configured cabinets. Safety considerations might require weight spreader plates, with heavily configured cabinets bolted down onto them. If this is the case, the equipment must be budgeted for. If the cabinet analysis shows substantial heat output, it might be necessary to budget for additional heat removal facilities such as fan trays and ducting. Some IT infrastructure components might need to be housed in proprietary cabinets. This should be checked when preparing the inventory, and factored into the budget calculations. Consideration will also need to be given to space required for the equipment of service providers, such as market data providers and telecoms companies. For security reasons it might be necessary to provide separate cabinets for equipment wholly maintained by external service vendors.

Server mounting equipment and accessories Budget provision should be made for mounting rails and shelves, to mount the servers and/or network equipment in the data cabinets. This could also include LCD display trays, display screens and keyboard trays.

Racking, patching and cable management equipment Racking will be required for the termination of the data cabling, telecoms cabling, inter-rack patching and inter-cabinet patching. At this point fundamental calculations need to be made to establish the number of data connections required for the structured cabling system. The project team will need to establish standards for the number of data and voice ports for trading desks and administration/back-office desks. Allowance must be made for expansion and other services, such as printers. It should then be possible to calculate a total number of data ports for the horizontal data cabling.


An example of a data port requirement for a position on a trading desk is: • • • • • •

PC connections: four ports; voice telephony: two ports; speaker: one port; trader turret: two ports; time stamp: one port; spare: two ports.

The number of ports depends on the technology used. If IP telephony is used, less data cable and fewer ports will be needed than with analogue techniques, but planners should be careful to avoid increasing risk and reducing flexibility arising from routing several services over a single link. Clearly during the estimation process there is a need for careful good communications between the project team and the users to ensure that current and expansion requirements are properly identified. Standards should be established for data cable patching to the equipment cabinets. If for example the project team intends to install a maximum of 20 servers per cabinet, with keyboard video monitor (KVM) remote control provision there will be a need for approximately 50 patch positions within the cabinet, with 50 cables returning to the central patch frame, and 50 corresponding patch points on the frame. It might be necessary to allow a couple of extra intercabinet patch ports if environmental monitoring devices or remote control power strips are installed. This figure would allow for dual porting of some servers, but assumes some inter-server patching within the cabinet. The controlling principle should be that all inter-cabinet patching is done via a central patch frame. If blade server technology is used, the copper cable patching requirements will differ, as the backbone blade frame will eliminate many inter-server cables and also introduce increased use of optical fibre connection, possibly to a storage area network. Whichever technology is used it should be possible to calculate the number of inter-cabinet connections needed, but those calculations should allow for expansion and changes to the configuration. Similar inter-cabinet patching calculations can be performed for the connection of the PBX via the MDF to the patch racking to provide the telephony ports. The trader turret system will also need inter-cabinet cabling to the main patch panel. There are types of inter-cabinet, vertical and horizontal cabling other than UTP which might require their own patching capability, such as STP, fibre, coaxial and X21. Taking all the various cabling and patching requirements into account, it should be possible to identify the number of patch panels required in the


patching racks. Space should be allowed for expansion and changes, since once the data cabling has been installed subsequent changes could be expensive. The patching rack will need to provide space for any network data switches for linking, via the patch rack, to the PCs in the trading floor and back office. As these will need to provide many ports, the switches might be physically quite large. The patching system should provide a clear method of labelling the patch socket outlets. Any estimate for cabling costs should include the cost of labelling and providing output for a cabling database. The person costing the patch racking will then need to specify the rack frames and rack cabling containment (vertical and horizontal) to hold the patch panels. Special consideration should be given to any data fibre patching. Fairly soon a full patching equipment schedule can be specified. This is usually handed to a data cabling contractor who provides a price for provision and installation.

Inter-cabinet data cabling The intention should be to avoid any direct cabinet-to-cabinet data cables or power cables. These are untidy, increase the opportunity for error, and this bad practice can also limit the long-term flexibility of cabinet reconfiguration. Connections between cabinets should be via an inter-cabinet patch frame. Thus each cabinet will have a patch plate containing sockets with cables leading back to a central patch frame. This increases the initial cost of cabling, but greatly reduces the cost of subsequent cabling and installation work when server equipment is reconfigured. From the calculations mentioned above it should be possible to establish how many inter-cabinet connections are required. These should be categorized by type of connection, for example Cat6, X21, fibre or STP, and its approximate length. If a cabling colour scheme is required, that will need to be designated as it can affect costs. Connection from the telephony frame might require connector-type conversions, such as from a 110 block to UTP. These should be totalled to aid the budget calculation. It might be necessary to use baluns or media converters to deliver services across a structured cabling system. For example a coaxial (G703) might need conversion for delivery across a Cat6 UTP structured cable system or via the inter-cabinet cabling. The budget will need to allow for these devices. When costs for cabling are being obtained, consideration should be given to the provision of grommets and cable guides for places where cables pass over sharp edges. A schedule of inter-cabinet cabling needs should be passed to a cabling contractor with a request for cost estimation. An accurate quotation will not be available until the detailed layout design has taken place for the equipment


room, but provided an average cable length can be estimated, a reasonable level of accuracy should be possible.

Inter-cabinet data cabling trays and ladders Decisions will need to be made for the routing of the inter-cabinet data cabling. To a certain extent the routing depends on the decisions made on the false floor and the cooling method. If there is plenty of height between the concrete floor pan and the raised floor it should be possible to run the inter-cabinet data cabling under the raised floor and to feed it in to the bottom of the equipment cabinets. In this case, cable trays mounted on the subfloor or on the raised floor support structure should be budgeted for. If the data cabling would obstruct the subfloor airflow from the air conditioning units, or the raised floor is required to be a pressurized plenum, it might be necessary to route the data cabling overhead. A pressurized plenum will be necessary for a hot row/cold row cooling scenario. A restricted airflow can arise when the raised floor gap is narrow or limited. It is advisable to seek advice on this issue from a mechanical and electrical engineer during the planning phase. Where the inter-cabinet data cabling is delivered overhead, budget provision will need to be made for suspended cable trays, inter-row cable ladders and waterfall trays to feed the data cable into the top of the equipment cabinets. These generally involve additional material and labour costs. The exact dimensions of trays and ladders are not critical at this stage, but a cost allowance should be incorporated. In a small equipment room where there is no subfloor air conditioning, the inter-cabinet cabling generally runs under the raised floor, but some budget provision should be made for cabling trays.

Cabinet patch panels The initial planning should provide for some patch panel plates and sockets in each equipment cabinet. The accurate cost of this cannot be determined until the full data cabinet layout has taken place, but it should be possible to calculate a rough budget. Provision should be also made for the patch leads that will connect the servers and network equipment installed in the cabinets to the patch plates within the cabinet.

Grounding cabling to the main earth point in the equipment room The racking, equipment cabinets, servers, network equipment and raised floor will all need to be electrically bonded to a common earth point. While the design


of this should be entrusted to a qualified electrical engineer, the project team will need to ensure that a figure is included in the budget. Typically a copper earth bar will be provided in the equipment room. That will be linked back to the building earth by heavy-duty earth cables. Where possible there should be a ‘clean earth’ feed to the equipment room for connecting sensitive technology equipment. Normally the power feed cabling for equipment will provide an earth conducting wire via the power distribution unit; however separate earth bond cables will need to be run from the racks and equipment cabinets back to the common earth grounding bar. Similarly earth-grounding cables will need to be provided for the raised floor. Metallic data cabling containment, trays, baskets and cable ladder racks should be correctly earth bonded. In a room with a high electrical power usage density, such as an equipment room, each raised floor support pedestal and stringer should be earth bonded. The raised floor installation company should be able to advise on regulations and best practice for this issue. There are various standards for the grounding of IT infrastructure, such as TIA-942. The project team should ensure that an allowance has been included in its budget or in the base build budget for earth bonding in the equipment room. The team should not assume that another budget will take care of that cost element.

Cabinet power strips The equipment cabinets will need to be equipped with an abundant number of power outlet sockets for the servers and data network equipment mounted in them. There should be at least twice as many sockets as devices in the cabinet. This will allow for devices equipped with dual power supplies. Purpose-built power strips mounted at the rear of the cabinet normally provide the power outlets. The power leads to the power strip are normally linked to the uninterrupted power supply (UPS) power distribution unit by direct power cabling or via commando sockets. The most space-effective power socket is the American plug format – an IEC C14 socket with a C13 plug – and use of these is recommended unless local regulations or power requirements prevent this. The power sockets should be distributed over at least two strips per cabinet, with separate power fly leads back to the UPS, sourced from different power distribution unit (PDU) switches. In that way the alternate power can be maintained to a cabinet. Those servers with dual power supplies in the cabinet can be configured to carry on running in the event of a single PDU breaker trip. The power strips should be permanently mounted so that there is never any need for temporary plug adaptors.


The budget for the cabinet should allow for such power strips, the commando sockets, fly leads to the UPS, clips to secure the plugs to the strips (to prevent accidental disconnection) and some right-angle plugged power cords to connect the equipment. A development of the power strip technology is the availability of remotely controlled power strips. This enables the remote monitoring of the health of each power outlet, and also provides the ability to remotely switch the power to each socket. The individual strips each have a unique IP address that allows direct addressing from a remote location. Operational staff are thus given the ability to disconnect/connect the power on each socket by use of a web browser page from anywhere on the globe that has network connectivity. This feature is a very useful support tool for remote operation of the equipment room. While these intelligent power strips add to the initial cost of equipping the cabinets, there can be considerable cost savings in operation because of faster response by remote support personnel. There are several manufacturers of these: APC, Lantronix and Raritan are examples.

Equipment room environment monitoring Provision should be made in the technology budget for temperature and environment monitoring in the equipment room and within the cabinets. A typical equipment configuration is: • • • • • • •

temperature sensors; fan sensors; open door sensors; power sensing; monitoring controller; structured cabling between cabinets; interface to network monitoring software.

This allows remote 24-hour monitoring using basic SMNP to network monitoring tools or other software tools. The air conditioning and building monitoring system will detect general problems but will not detect problems within individual cabinets. The alerts from the technology environment monitoring will generally require a specialist operational intervention. In technology rooms where there is a high heat load per cabinet (for example, more than 6 KW), it might be necessary to monitor air temperature at more than one location in each cabinet. The open door sensors might be required as a security option to detect when a equipment cabinet is opened without authorization. This security technique can


be useful in remote equipment rooms in satellite offices to protect cabinets when technical staff are not present.

Telecoms closets The outline technical descriptions in this book are based on an equipment room and trading floor on the same floor of a building, but often in reality the equipment room and trading floors are on different levels. It might then be necessary to have backbone/vertical data cabling in the risers connecting the floor. The horizontal data cabling is connected to the backbone cabling via equipment housed in a telecoms closet, which is normally adjacent to the building riser. If the trading floor is a long distance from the equipment room it might be necessary to extend the structured cabling using data fibres and additional data switches. The normal constraint on the distance of directly connected PCs from the equipment room is 90 metres of UTP category cable. The closet might contain patch racks and data switches to facilitate the interconnection. To provide resilience it is normal practice to provide a telecoms closet at opposite ends of each floor. Then if one riser is disabled by fire there is an alternative route via the other riser. The telecoms closets need to be provided with UPS power, lighting, air cooling, temperature monitoring and security. Clearly there is a cost to be budgeted for if telecoms closets are necessary. The project team will also need to ensure that the construction plans allow for the closets and that the time schedule for construction and availability is appropriate.

Water leak detection The equipment room should be equipped with a leak detection system in the subfloor and in any area where water might accumulate, such as drip trays and below air handling units. Similar leak detection might be required in shower rooms, wash rooms and kitchens. This item is usually covered in the base build contract, but the project team needs to ensure that it is budgeted for.

Power cabling from the main PDU Power cabling will be required for connecting the mains power to the UPS and the UPS to the equipment cabinets and racking. If UPS power is to be provided for the trading desks and back-office areas, the project team will need to ensure there is a budget for the connecting cabling and sockets.


Some cabinets, typically PBX, have their own UPS arrangements or batterybacked DC supply. These units might require direct cabling from the mains electric power supply rather than from the UPS system.

Patch leads Patch leads (patch cords) can be a significant network cabling cost item and should not be ignored in budgeting. A typical trading floor for 100 people could easily require 2000 patch leads for use in the desk-mounted and equipment room equipment. These patch leads will need to be constructed to the same cabling standard as the structured data cable system if standards compliance is to be maintained. The project team should establish a colour code system to identify the different types of services being supported, and a schedule of the numbers of the different lengths of patch leads anticipated to be needed. This data should be linked to the asset database information. Network security requirements might dictate the use of locking patch leads that can be locked into the patch port to prevent unauthorized disconnection or connection. An example is the Reichle & De Massari (R&M) cabling system. Most patch leads are copper UTP data cable, but there will likely be a requirement to budget for optical fibre patch leads.

KVM As the number of servers and computer-based datacomms equipment increases in trading floor equipment rooms, there is an increasing requirement to connect video screens, mice and keyboards to control and monitor this equipment. Space is usually at a premium in the equipment room, and there is little free space in equipment cabinets for screens and keyboards. The solution to this problem is the installation of a rack-mounted KVM (keyboard, video, mouse) system/switch in the equipment room. A small computer interface module (CIM) plugs into the back of the server in place of the keyboard/video/mouse. This CIM in turn connects via a single UTP cable, through the patch rack, to a KVM switch. The KVM switch can be accessed by one or more screen/keyboard/mouse configurations via a CIM and the structured cabling system. As a consequence any authorized user can access any server connected via the KVM switch. An extension of this technology is to allow access via TCP/IP over the network. The KVM technology can be used to remotely control any technology that interfaces to a standard PC screen and keyboard, such as PBX, call logging, voice logging, a trading turret system and PC servers. This feature is very useful for the provision of remote support.


In making budget estimates the KVM system should be sized for the currently anticipated number of servers plus the capability to add extra servers if necessary at a later stage. The cabinet housing the KVM switch will need extra structured data cables to the central patch rack and also extra patch panels and sockets inside the cabinet. This will be approximately one per serviced server, plus one per PC directly connected to the KVM. If the KVM output is to be transported over IP, additional modules and software licences will be required. The CIMs will also need to be budgeted for: one per server, plus one per directly connected PC. Inevitably some spares will be needed. While there is a capital cost involved in purchasing the KVM system, it should be compared with the cost in equipment and space if keyboards and monitors were purchased. There is a further opportunity in the use of KVM technology, in that it can be used to shift PCs from under the desks of the trading floor to racking in the data centre. Users are connected to their PCs via CIMs over the structured cabling system. This approach does not normally save any money and it transfers a heat load to the equipment room, but it might be used if there is a shortage of space or cooling in the trading floor area. Another effect is to reduce noise in the trading room. The technology can also be used to facilitate hot-desking of staff, but there are alternative ways of achieving this through remote terminal services software.

UPS The UPS is a key feature of trading floors and their supporting equipment room infrastructure. Its purpose is to provide continuous electrical power for key: • • • •

trading staff; back-office staff; support computer systems; support voice systems.

Normally the UPS is provided in conjunction with a stand-by generator. The UPS is configured to allow time for the generator to start up and provide an alternative power source in the event of a sustained mains outage. Typically this time window is about five minutes. My advice is that if there is not a resilient generator configuration (in other words, more than one generator on line), the UPS should be configured to give at least 30 minutes power endurance, and preferably an hour in case the alternate generator fails to start. That will give the support staff time to react and gracefully close down servers, and it also will allow the trading staff and back office


time to complete partial transactions. The project leader should ensure that outof-hours support arrangements are discussed with operational management before the budget is set. A long out-of-hours power failure coupled with a generator failure could mean that the business arrives to find its servers and network in an uncertain state. The budget for the equipment room should include: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

UPS capacity such that the planned electrical load, including expansion, is approximately 70 per cent of its capability; if possible a power rating capacity upgrade capability; in-line operation so there is zero gap in switchover time; battery configuration to give one hour’s run time in a power failure situation, and longer if necessary; delivery, installation and testing; switching circuitry to allow generator start-up and provision of power; bypass capability to mains power if the UPS should fail; cabling from the UPS to the equipment room; a PDU breaker facility to allow dual-switched circuits to each cabinet; a remote control and monitoring facility; a local power alert beacon; an interface to the building BMS system; emergency power-off capability; battery maintenance and monitoring software; battery swap-out without interruption of service.

The budget for the trading floor area UPS, if there is insufficient capacity on the equipment room UPS, will be similar but with the following variations: • • •

a shorter run time: say 30 minutes is likely to be acceptable, subject to consultation with the users; allowance for subfloor power tracks dedicated to the UPS power; separate UPS power sockets (see the section on trading desk PDUs).

It is possible to use small distributed UPS systems, perhaps located under the desks of key users and also mounted in individual equipment cabinets. This avoids having a large central UPS with the associated dedicated power cabling. However this creates a requirement to monitor the health and performance of the multiple UPS subunits. It also calls for specialist software, and a central server to collate the status reports for the multiple localized servers.


PBX The initial inventory of the telecoms facilities should have identified the demands on the PBX in terms of internal extensions and external lines. The technology project team should agree with the users what facilities will be provided on the new trading floor and back office/administration areas for normal telephony. The team should then select the best option to provide telephony services. This could be a new or used PBX switch, or the decision might be taken to migrate to an IP telephony solution such as voice over IP (VOIP). The choice is likely to be governed by any corporate telephony standards and disaster recovery issues within the organization. There can be substantial operational savings in using IP telephony, but the technology project leader should ensure that there are no compatibility problems with other PBX in the corporate organization. While one of the objectives will be to provide a cost-effective environment, the team should avoid ‘bleeding edge’ technology if possible: the primary objective is to provide a reliable environment compatible with the other trading floor technology. The budget should include one or more of each of the following: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

PBX or IP telephony switch; UPS power capability; new or replacement robust dealer handsets; headsets; operator consoles; trading phones; admin desk phone set; managerial phone sets; digital wireless phone system; industrial handset for the generator room and the UPS room; internal extension cards; external line (analogue and digital) interface cards; dealer board interface; voice recording interface; trunk lines, ISDN and voice capacity; internal network interfaces; direct dial in number ranges; least-cost routing facilities; management software; voicemail facilities; provision for delivery, installation and training.


Some organizations outsource the provision of PBX facilities to external organizations. In this case the project team will need to undertake careful discussions with the outsource organization to set an accurate budget and to ensure compatibility with the proposed trading floor turret system. As part of those discussions you should be clear how the outsource company’s planning activities are to be funded prior to budget approval.

Dealer board system One of the major cost elements of the technology infrastructure will be the dealer board or trading turret system. Various options might have to be considered: • • •

the reuse of spare systems from inside the organization; the purchase and installation of a second-hand system via a broker; the purchase of a new system.

The first stage is to establish, from the inventory and forward business expansion plans, the requirement in terms of trading turrets. This should be coupled with the number of external telecoms lines to be supported. The selection of a dealer board system will to a certain extent govern the options for the voice recording system. Where previously used equipment is to be installed, the project team should ascertain the long-term support arrangements and costs from the vendor. Although a low-cost second-hand dealer board system might seem like a worthwhile saving over a new system, if the manufacturer has declared the system obsolescent or near the end of its life, the life cycle cost of spares and maintenance will be high. If the dealer board is being transferred from within the organization, care should be taken to ensure that any remaining provision for capital depreciation is written into the project budget. If older equipment is to be used, an early check should be undertaken to ensure that the proposed structured cabling is compatible for the wiring needs of the dealer board system and associated speaker boxes. If not, there could be some extra cabling costs, or a requirement to identify, test and purchase gateway interface servers and devices. It should be confirmed that the dealer board system can be housed in the proposed equipment cabinets. Some dealer board systems have bespoke cabinets, and this can affect the equipment room floor plan. If a new system is to be purchased, it is recommended that the device is based on IP telephony techniques. Provided the system is reliable there are considerable efficiencies and features to be gained. The vendors of dealer board systems often have access to global voice networks and might be able to offer reduced call costs.


The budget should include: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

the central dealer board switch; dealer/trader turrets; speaker boxes; Hoot’n’Holler and voice broadcast systems, such as SpeakerBox; an interface to a voice recording system; an interface to PBX; interface cards to external telecoms PSTN circuits (analogue and digital); interface cards for direct wire voice lines (analogue and digital); cabling to the structured cable patch; a network interface; access control facilities; management software, with remote capability if needed; conference facilities; conversion of user mappings if possible; console facility; interface to customer relationship management (CRM) software, if used.

The vendors of new dealer board systems will be only too willing to recommend new facilities. The technical team should consult with the business users to see if those features are really necessary. Some of them are solutions looking for problems.

Voice recording system Most trading floor telephone conversations need to be voice recorded and capable of playback on demand. The compliance officer will be able to define the requirements for the voice recording system. The factors to be considered might include: • • • • •

What is to be recorded: handsets or lines, speaker wires, PBX calls? Duration of call storage? Method of indexing? Method of retrieval, for example playback at desk or in a secure area? Supervision of retrieval: by the manager or compliance officer?

Call images might need to be stored for both short-term and long-term retrieval. This can affect where the data is stored or archived. The archival storage might need to be authenticated, as these recordings could be treated as legal records. There are various storage options:


• • • •

disk on the voice recording system; digital tape; network storage on a local server; network storage via an external server.

If digital tape storage is used by the system there should be a mechanism to allow continued recording while message search and playback take place. With some of the older systems, this entailed the purchase of a second unit to allow playback. Whatever storage system is used, it must be reliable and the contents protected from modification. The financial regulators in financial markets take a dim view of trading companies that fail to keep good-quality retrievable voice records. With the increasing regulation relating to money laundering, the importance of these records is greater. The budget should include: • • • • • • • • • • •

voice recording system; cabling to the PBX and dealer board system; management software; interface to PBX and dealer board system; archival system; storage of backup media; retrieval system and software; console facility; method of delivering recording retrieval playback to the compliance officer and the trading staff; installation, connection to PBX and dealer board system and testing; user training.

Main distribution frame (MDF) The MDF is the telecoms equivalent of a structured cable patch panel. It allows incoming external (copper) telecoms lines to be terminated to punch-down termination blocks mounted on a board. The board is typically a sheet of plywood mounted via offsets on one of the walls of the equipment room. Alternative methods provide a free-standing frame with equivalent termination blocks. Connections to internal voice cabling are also terminated in termination blocks mounted on an adjacent area. It is then possible for telecoms engineers to line the internal and external circuits using punch-down unsleeved copper pair wiring. The MDF is equipped with cable management devices such as combs and loops that hold the copper cables tidy. For voice signals this is a low-cost and flexible interconnection method.


For budgetary purposes funds should be allocated for: • • • • •

the provision and mounting of the base board; termination blocks; cable management; frame, if necessary; labelling scheme.

Telecoms installation The cost quoted by telecoms vendors for high-capacity voice telecoms circuits normally includes the provision of specialized termination equipment. This needs to be mounted in equipment cabinets. Telecoms vendors often provide their own cabinets, at a cost, but for the purposes of standardization the trading floor project team might wish to specify that the equipment is housed in the standard equipment cabinets chosen for the project. In this case they will need to ensure this is included in the calculation for the number of cabinets. The normal practice is to dedicate one or more cabinets per PTT so that external engineers have a discrete area of operation within the technology room. For security reasons it might be necessary to locate those cabinets away from the main cluster of server cabinets. This can have a cabling and space/cost implication. As part of the budgetary planning the project team will need to be aware of the power supply type and capacity required for external telecom vendor cabinets. If the organization has a private voice network to other locations, some cabinet space might be required for any voice TDM switch node(s) that need to be located in the technology room. The budgeting for this equipment can be complex. It might be wholly charged to the business units operating in the trading area, or a corporate overhead cost, or a combination of allocations. Whatever the cost and space allocation, it is important that the technology project leader understands and agrees with the proposal. Telecoms vendors deliver circuits to businesses using a range of technologies that varies from country to country. The delivery methods need to be reviewed and allowed for in the budgetary planning. Normal methods in use are: •

•

Copper pairs to a frame in the basement. The client is expected to provide copper pairs from the basement to the floor of operation. Normally as part of the fit-out the project team or the telecoms team arranges the installation of a multipair copper cable. This terminates on the MDF in the equipment room. In some multi-tenant buildings this cable is the responsibility of the landlord. Multipair cable to the equipment room plugged into the telecoms vendor’s termination equipment.


• •

Coaxial cable to the equipment room plugged into the telecoms vendor’s termination equipment. Fibre optic cable delivered to the equipment room and terminated in the vendor’s termination equipment.

The project team might wish for security reasons to have any communications data fibres or copper circuits routed via the riser encased in a secure conduit. They might also want to have dual fibres that are routed by different risers from the basement entry point to the equipment room for resilience. While delivery is normally bundled in the price, extra equipment cabinets, conduits, multipair copper cable, cable containment in the risers and dual routing all add to the cost and should be included in the budget. As part of the budgetary planning the technology project manager should examine the provisions for the switch from the old site to the new site. Additionally budget provision should be made for a rapid reversion to the old site if operational difficulties arise when the facility goes live.

Analogue phone lines In a modern trading floor environment most telephone circuits are delivered as channels in a high-capacity data circuit. However provision should be made for some POTS (plain old telephone system) analogue exchange telephone lines, for contingency purposes in case the PBX fails. In the normal course these circuits can be plugged into the PBX for general use, but provision should be made for manual replugging in the event of a failure. Some analogue telephone handsets will be needed to access this service. These lines should preferably be sourced from a different telephone exchange from the one supplying the main connection. These types of phone line will also be needed for the project team at the start of the project. Once the PBX is functional the POTS lines can be reallocated. A budget allocation should be made for the purchase of handsets, installation and rental of these circuits.

Market data servers and communications links As part of the move into the new trading floor it will be necessary to contact the market data feed vendors and the financial market exchanges or bourses to arrange the installation of new services to the equipment room. The vendors will normally require a new contract for this, with new installation fees and new circuit costs. The vendors will need equipment cabinet space and a new datacomms link. The inventory mentioned earlier should identify these services.


As a matter of resilience it is normal practice to provide dual datacomms links and separate servers in separate equipment cabinets. For security the market data cabinets might need to be housed away from the main data server clusters. The cost of these services should be built into the project budget. At the same time plans should be made to cancel the existing circuits in the current data centre. The notice periods should be carefully considered to avoid unnecessary expenditure. There will inevitably be a budgetary overlap when the services are available at both the new and old centres. The budget should also allow for migrating services, permission databases and user settings from the existing site to the new site. Where new types of systems are introduced there might be a need for additional training of technicians and users, and also the modification of existing systems to use the new feeds. Often it is useful to have vendor support staff on hand when traders and backoffice staff use a new system for the first time. These people are usually very expensive, so there should be clarity about how the vendor charges for their time.

Fire suppression The equipment room will need a fire suppression system. There is a range of technologies available, and the choice will be at least partly dictated by local fire regulations and the landlord’s requirements. The capacity estimates will depend on the volume of the room, so there will need to be some design work relating to its layout and size before a final estimate is obtained. The main contractor usually arranges a quotation for a suitable system, but as this system is protecting the IT infrastructure it often falls within the scope of the technology budget. The technology team should involve themselves in the discussions on the selection of the fire suppressant system, and ensure that the options proposed are appropriate for a high-availability equipment room. Examples of the standards applying to fire suppression systems are ISO 14520, BS 5306, NFPA 2001 and EN12094. The technology project manager should ascertain which standards will be applied in the construction, and also who will be responsible for certification. For a gas-based fire suppressant the following cost and design factors should be considered: • • • •

the gas system; the type of suppressant gas to be used, as this can affect the room construction, the racking/cabinet layout and venting facilities required; positioning of the gas tanks; gas supply arrangements for initial installation and subsequent maintenance (if provision is subject to import delays this might affect the design of a stand-by system);


• • • • • • • •

proposals for testing; the gas pressure strength of the room: if the room is too weak, the windows and walls might blow out when the gas system is activated; links to the building management system (BMS); interface to the network management system; the control method for operational staff and training; gas exhaust ducting and fans; positioning of the outlet nozzles; documentation of operation and maintenance procedures.

The quotations for such systems should be from specialist engineers. The lead contractor should ideally be affiliated to a national association such as the British Fire Protection Systems Association (BFPSA) or the local equivalent.

VESDA system A VESDA (very early smoke detection apparatus) is a highly sensitive smoke detection system. Using a series of small plastic pipes located over likely fire points or air returns, an air sample is continually passed over very sensitive detectors. This equipment will be located in the equipment room, with typical sampling points above equipment cabinets and in the warm air return to the equipment room air-handling unit. As with the gas fire suppressant system, the estimate for this is likely to be obtained by the main building contractor. The cost might need to be included in the technology budget. The main contractor will normally use a specialist subcontractor for this work. The technology team should ensure that the design and budget provide for separate zoning of detectors rather than a common alarm. Zoned alarms will help the operations staff locate the actual source of smoke in the event of an alert.

Servers The equipment inventory produced earlier should clearly identify what computer servers will be needed in the trading floor equipment room. As part of the budgeting an exercise should be undertaken to rationalize the numbers of servers needed. The following factors could be considered: • •

What is the CPU and I/O utilization of the existing servers? Will this increase with the new trading floor? Is any of the equipment obsolete or unreliable, possibly requiring a ‘technology refresh’?


• • • • • •

Can applications be merged onto other servers, either new or existing, using server virtualization techniques? Can blade servers be used to reduce the cabinet space required? Can servers be located offsite in a lower-cost data centre? Can introducing new technology reduce the physical size of servers? Can storage be rationalized with the introduction of network-attached storage or an SAN (storage area network)? Are all key services run on redundant pairs of servers?

One useful calculation of cost metrics for deciding on the sensible size of servers in the equipment room is to establish the cost of a single U space (one rack space unit) in the cabinets. Initially this will be an approximate figure, but it can be useful in deciding whether to retain old servers or invest in new slimmer servers. To calculate the figure, take the total cost of constructing the equipment room and divide it by the number of equipment cabinet U spaces. The equipment room cost is based on the cost to create it empty but ready to commence server installation, with cabinets, KVM, power, air conditioning and inter-cabinet cabling. For example an equipment room might have 20 available cabinets with 38 U spaces each, giving a maximum of 760 U. If the equipment room costs £350,000 to build, each U of cabinet space would be valued at £400 (ignoring floor space rental and operational costs). An old free-standing server on a shelf in a cabinet might take £4000 worth of cabinet space; a faster rack-mounted 1U server could replace it and provide a better use of resource. This cost metric can also be used to consider whether to locate the servers on site or in an offsite managed data centre. Calculating the cost of servers is quite straightforward, though it might be necessary to discuss the handling of leasing or asset depreciation and cost allocation with the project accountant. The following are typical factors to be considered for each server: • • • • • • • • • • • •

purchase cost; tax and import duties; delivery, insurance and storage costs; dual network connection; ‘GBIC’ interface cards SAN costs; KVM connection via CIMs; installation and testing personnel cost and expenses; management software; configuration costs; system security scanning when the server has been built; mounting kit.


As part of the configuration the project team will need to ensure that servers have a sufficient level of resilience. Often this is achieved by having stand-by or loadsharing servers mounted in an alternate cabinet. Server virtualization techniques can be used to reduce the number of servers needed for warm stand-by resilience.

Server operating system and database software The project team should check that sufficient budget is available to provide software licensing for the operating systems, database software and applications that will run on the servers. This will probably already be covered by corporate licensing arrangements, but it is best to check that there is documented evidence of licensing. The licensing on Microsoft products is quite complicated in a multi-server multi-product scenario, so specialist advice should be sought. The project accountant should be consulted on how the cost for these licences should be allocated. In most organizations there are predefined policies, but it is worth checking with the users of the software that they are willing to pay before the budget is proposed. When UNIX servers are used, it might be necessary to provide a build server (jump start) on the local site to enable the rapid construction of a standard UNIX configuration to the corporate standards on any new servers being delivered. While it is possible to undertake this via a network remote data link, it is rarely a satisfactory solution. Funding will need to be considered for this device. The budget for database servers should allow for the specific resiliency requirement of the database configuration. For example the location of a database between shared application servers can affect the design of the data storage devices, as can the physical positioning to the transaction journal data files. Most large businesses have application packaging and version distribution tools (patch management). Microsoft provides some, but there is also a good range of third-party tools. The core feature of this is a central application server that holds images of the current versions of the software. The update process calls off the latest version for the purpose of upgrading client PCs and other servers. Funding should be available for such a server if one is not already available on a corporate level.

Anti-virus software It is necessary to budget for anti-virus software on desktop PCs, laptops and servers. It might be necessary to provide server capacity to host the virus pattern updates, but this depends on the structure of the anti-virus system used. Anti-virus software is also needed on the servers embedded in the specialist trading room technology, such as voice recording servers. It is likely that these


will be connected to the network and vulnerable to virus infection unless precautions are taken.

Server applications Trading room applications are often licensed on the basis of the number of users, though some are licensed on the basis of the number of server processors. The team should check how many licences are necessary for the transition and the ongoing operation of the trading floor and back office. In a perfect organization the correct licensing will already be in place, with no need to purchase additional licences. However life is seldom that kind. Software licences are often sold in blocks of multiple units. It might be necessary to budget for a licence block in excess of the current user population to gain advantage of the licence break point. Similarly there might be special offer deadlines that justify advance purchases. As part of the preparation for the move, the software licence usage should be reviewed with the business manager before commitment is made to the budget. Server consolidation might lead to savings on software licences and ongoing maintenance costs. Along with sector-specific applications, there will be generic business applications used by both the front office and the back office that will require server capacity, for example: • • • • • • • •

e-mail systems such as Lotus Notes or Microsoft Exchange; e-mail scanning software; anti-spam software; immediate message (IM) software; electronic message audit software; customer relations management (CRM) systems; content management systems for document storage and retrieval; document image storage systems.

These generic applications will need server capacity and appropriate licensing. There will also need to be provision for the resources to configure these systems to work successfully in a trading room environment.

Storage area network The choice of data storage and archive facilities for the data centre attached to the trading floor is an important decision. The client organization might already have an information life cycle management (ILM) strategy and policies. If not,


the technology project manager should discuss this issue with the operational management of the technology department. Increasing regulatory legislation will place substantial demands on the data storage technology. The following issues need to be considered: • • • • •

backup; archiving; data migration; data replication; hierarchical storage management (HSM).

These will all have an impact on the method of storage chosen. It is best that the storage fits in with the operational policy, but the technology project manager for the trading floor project will need to be wary of corporate standards increasing the project costs. In older equipment room/data centres, the individual servers are likely to have been commissioned over a period of time, and the data storage is likely to be on hard disks on each server. The creation of a new equipment room can be an ideal time to rationalize the data storage to a storage area network (SAN), particularly if that fits the ILM strategy. This will lead to efficiencies in operation of the servers and provide greater resilience. As usual, the costs and benefits of introducing a SAN will need to be evaluated. In smaller sites it might be more costeffective to use network-attached storage. The SAN will need to be costed for: • • • • •

processor units; disk arrays; fibre backbone and network fabric switches; dual HBAs in attached servers; management software.

Where the data transfer input/output rates are extremely demanding, the project team may wish to consider the use of solid-state disks to act as resilient super caches.

Tape data backup unit/tape robot Some form of magnetic tape backup and restore facility will be needed for the servers and the SAN. This facility will normally be mounted in one of the equipment cabinets. It will be attached by the high-speed data backbone or by


direct fibre connection. There is a range of technology solutions available: you just need to ensure that an appropriate system is provided, which is compatible with the technology department strategy on data storage. The system should be designed to minimize operator intervention, which can perhaps be limited to swapping tapes at the start of day and checking journal log entries. With some small trading floors there might be no skilled IT personnel on site to undertake the physical exchange of tapes. In these cases it might be necessary to rely on clerical staff to physically handle the tapes while providing remote supervision of the backup process. Such operational choices can affect the choice and positioning of tape archive units, so this should be considered during the budgetary phases. The budget should include hardware, operating software, magnetic media and a resource provision for transferring files from existing servers. There should also be an initial budget for a data security company to transport security copy tapes to a remote vault for offsite storage during project implementation and testing. Once the site is run on an operational basis, this cost is likely to become part of the routine operational budget.

Network equipment At the budget stage some careful thought will have to be given to the design of the local area network. The design will be complex, and careful decisions will have to be made on the choice of appropriate equipment. The following factors need to be taken into account: • • • • • • • • • • •

resilience and reliability; high capacity; segmenting of data traffic to ensure application performance; network addressing structure; provision of backbone segments for high-speed servers; protocols to be used; interfaces to corporate wide area networks for voice and data; prioritization of data traffic; network management software; security structure and authentication such as TACACS; resistance to virus attacks, network worms and storms.

Trading floor applications can be very demanding on the capacity of the LAN, particularly where high-speed services are driven across a wide area network. Equally the backbone segments between the servers will place high demands on the network equipment.


As the use of VOIP and videostreaming increases there will be a need to provide a good quality of service regime on the network. Any new network configuration should take into account the potential impact of VOIP. Some of the equipment on the user desks might require power over Ethernet (POE). This can affect the choice of switch technology and require protected electric power (and cooling) in wiring closets to service the switches. VOIP and POE planning might call for features to be purchased on a strategic basis rather than to meet the immediate tactical needs of the trading floor roll-out. In any event the corporate network and voice team should be involved in budgeting for the network design. Your task is to ensure that your project budget is not unnecessarily loaded with strategic costs. Indeed there might be the opportunity to attract funding from a strategic budget. Budgetary provision will be needed for: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

network switches and routers; GBIC interface cards rack mounting equipment; software licences; transportation, insurance and customs fees; traffic profilers; network management tools; DHCP servers; DNS servers; access control and authentication server, eg LDAP; network security – TACACS+ server(s); cabling database; protocol sniffers; HTTP scanning gateway appliances checking for malware; immediate message scanning and archive appliances; intrusion detection tools; installation and configuration; security scanning and testing of the internal network and WAN.

Internet connection The trading floor and back office will need access to the internet. If possible this should be sourced from another part of the organization, and delivered over the WAN connection, to reduce the support overhead and risk exposure. However operational reasons often lead the project team to require a local internet connection. The design and budgeting for this can be complex, particularly if the organization is providing e-commerce applications from the trading floor. This book describes only fairly basic functions of the internet connection.


The following functions are likely to be required: • • • • • •

internet browsing; public website; access to external internet-based financial services; file transfer over the internet; electronic mail; virtual private network access.

The connectivity to the internet should be resilient, ideally with at least dual connection to alternative ISPs. Telecoms vendors will certainly be able to provide suitable offerings, but network capacity brokers also offer reliable costeffective solutions. For most financial companies located in or close to financial centres, costs for high-capacity internet links will not be excessive. The internet providers should provide 24/7 support at their centres. Firewalls are covered in the next section, but the use of the internet will call for additional server capacity and software. First are the web servers. Where possible the external website should be held on a secure segment (DMZ) from the firewall, and any access to the internal services from the website should be via the firewall. The external web server is likely to need access to one or more database servers. Any public-facing servers should be configured with a security-hardened version of the operating system where only essential services have been built in. Proxy servers should also be provided to intercede with incoming and outgoing internet traffic. A typical proxy server includes: • • •

web proxy; file transfer protocol (FTP) proxy; e-mail proxy.

Within the internal network the organization will need access to intranet servers and their associated database servers. Apart from small installations these databases will be on separate servers. In addition there will normally need to be staging servers to hold website pages in the process of development. The budget will need to allow for the provision and installation of these servers, their software and configuration. The trading staff might require access to their office PC facilities from homes and hotels via the internet. This is usually achieved by a virtual private area network. This calls for full-time 24/7 support coverage, and I would suggest that this function is supported by an outsourcing or service organization. This will greatly simplify the administration of secure identity tokens and the


provision of telephone support for PC-related queries. Most large organizations have such an arrangement in place already, but if not, a project budget provision will be needed.

Firewall A firewall protects the organization’s data network from external intrusion and attack. In most circumstances the main threat is an attack from the internet, but in the trading floor environment the scope is expanded. The firewall will need to intermediate for all of the direct market data and exchange feeds that are essential to the trading floor front office and back office. The protection must be bidirectional, as the firewall should not only provide external protection but also protect the vendor’s networks from any unwanted traffic from within the trading organization. The external feeds will use a range of network protocols and network ports. The firewall and associated network equipment will have to be configured and tested to handle the wide range of feeds. This can be a complex and lengthy task with resource and timescale implications. The firewall will not just be a single box; it will be a resilient configuration of firewall processors and related internal/external network routers. The routers provide added layers of security and protect the firewalls from nonessential data traffic. Additional firewalls may be placed within the internal network to provide zoning of security sectors. To produce a budget, a network/firewall specialist should be asked to configure a design that takes the following factors into consideration: • • • • • • • • •

cost of firewall processors in resilient configuration; firewall software licences; hardware and software maintenance costs; the cost and internal/external switches and routers; the number of servers to be located in the DMZ network segment; network bandwidth required; number of network connections, eg number of market data feeds; resources needed to research and write the security policy rules to be loaded on the firewall; resources for testing.

Wireless LAN Some trading floors provide supplementary LAN connectivity for laptop computers by the use of a wireless LAN network. The current wireless capacities


are not really sufficient for a large number of desktop trading PCs, where copper cabling or data fibre is likely to continue. Wireless LAN suffers from a reputation for poor security, but with suitable precautions it can be made sufficiently secure for casual usage. These precautions and countermeasures should be included in planning from the start. In the financial districts of large cities it is not unusual to find 25 per cent of wireless networks with insecure configuration. The budget will need to include provision for wireless access points and their ceiling-mounted power feed and primary network connection cable. Some personnel resources will be needed to configure the service. If frequent casual use by visitors is required, it might be worth establishing a budget for WiFi hotspot access administration software. Estimation of the number of wireless access points required and their placement can be aided with software tools such as LANPlanner™ from Wireless Valley. One further engineering tool to be considered, if it is not already owned by the organization, is a wireless analyser and intrusion detection tool such as Airmagnet.

Video conference and presentation facilities Trading floor staff and management will often have the need for video conference and presentation facilities. The options include fixed facilities in meeting rooms and boardrooms, desk-mounted personal facilities and facilities mounted on a trolley for easy movement around the floor and offices. Typical features include: • • • • • • • • • • • • •

camera turret; desk microphones; conference phones; headset for personal systems; video conference controller; multiple ISDN circuits for dial-up connection; network bandwidth for internal company conferences; video projector; projection screen; large monitors or plasma screens; video recorders; speaker systems; booking system.

A good structured cabling system will help to deliver the ISDN connection, video feeds and network capacity for video conferencing. However if the video delivery is via IP protocol it may be advisable to have a parallel data


network of switches and routers to transmit the video IP feeds. The video IP traffic will have to be given a high priority and good service level if a reasonable-quality presentation is to be delivered. This will reduce the load on the overall data network. Each user can easily consume 384K baud of network capacity while video conferencing. The business may wish to use a high-end video conferencing system such as Avistar, but that should be considered as a major corporate decision. These systems have excellent features and good ease of use both at the desk top and in meeting rooms. Such a video system is normally implemented in several geographic locations within the business. It can represent a substantial investment with a significant impact on the corporate data network. In order to establish a budget for video conference facilities, the project team should agree a clear requirement statement with the business users at an early stage. This should specify the number of users, where they will be located, and how often the system will be required. Provision will need to be made for meeting rooms and boardrooms. The project team should create a complete schedule of equipment needed and provide an evaluation of how the network video traffic is to be handled. They must ensure that an adequate number of spare structured network ports have been planned for the locations where the video conferencing system will be used. These might be under desks, meeting room tables or even overhead for video cameras and displays. In some cases additional coaxial cables might need to be planned for the transmission of video services, to be laid from the equipment room to the office areas. Where ISDN facilities are necessary for a dial-up video conference service, the circuits will need to be budgeted for and ordered; space will be needed on the telecoms facilities for the termination of the ISDN circuits. Delivery of video conference-quality ISDN across the structured network from the equipment room will normally require the allocation of four ports for each position. However the patching capability of the structured cabling system will give great flexibility in where the service is delivered at short notice. The budget estimates for the project will need to include: • • • • • • • •

the video conference equipment; conference phones; voice bridge facilities; projectors; presentation PCs; display screens and mounting brackets; extra cabling, such as structured ports in the meeting rooms; network upgrade, if necessary;


• •

ISDN circuits; consultancy and training.

If prestige presentation facilities are required by the business users, the presentation, filming, recording and video conference facilities can be integrated, with a simple control unit. These might even be discreetly built in to meeting room walls and furniture, to be out of sight when not required. In this case the project team is advised to ask a specialist company for a detailed quotation.

Plasma panels Colour plasma displays have a large screen format and are often used around trading floors to display television images and market data. These units are quite expensive and are quite heavy, so will require careful mounting. The project team will need to work with the business users to identify where screens are required and what quantity will be needed. The usual locations for such devices are: • • • • •

trading floor walls; meeting rooms; reception areas; rest areas; network or operations control.

The cabling for the video signals can vary considerably, but structured cable (Cat5 or Cat6) will transmit the signals if media converters are installed at each end of the link. Budgetary items to consider are: • • • • •

cost of displays; maintenance contracts; mounting brackets; installation costs; signal and power cabling.

Desktop PCs The term ‘desktop PC’ is now a misnomer as often the PC is installed under the desk. The decision on the purchase of new PCs for the trading floor can be quite complex. If the existing PCs are obsolete or underpowered, a move to a new trading floor might be the ideal time for a technology refresh. If an existing PC was a recent purchase it might be a waste of money to buy a new one for the


trading floor move. The depreciation period for PC capital expenditure can affect the financial decision: some organizations write off the full cost of PCs in the first year. A wholesale technology refresh of all PCs can present a substantial hit to the financial bottom line of a company already taking on the cost of a new trading floor, so consultation with business management on the PC upgrade choice is essential. The physical size of the PC might be an issue with the new trading floor and back office. Perhaps an old-style freestanding PC will not fit into the selected desk furniture. Where PCs are moved from an old site to a new site there will be logistic problems in moving them after the close of business in time to be ready on site at the start of the following working day. For small numbers of PCs this is not too complex a task, but as the number increases the risk of problems also increases. The business might also want the old PCs to be left in place at the old site as a fallback option. One option is for the system units to be transferred, but with LCD panels replacing old cathode ray tube screens. The PC inventory exercise previously undertaken will show the number of PCs required. This should be updated with the number of display screens supported by each PC. On a trading floor it is often two, but there can be more in use. The team will need to agree standard models of PCs for deployment. Usually the front-office PCs will be more powerful than the back-office PCs. The specification of the PCs should be confirmed with the business user management and also the trading floor support staff. Care should be taken that the proposed video cards are compatible with the trading system software. The sequence of interaction with the screens needs to be established for each desk position. For example, will a single mouse track between the screens on a desk, or will there need to be some form of switching arrangement for the mouse and keyboard? Each of these options can have a considerable impact on how the PCs are configured, either as separate PCs or as single devices with multi-screen cards. Some applications might require their own PC and not be suitable for multitasking with other applications. With the growing trend for larger screens, the team will need to check that the proposed PC screens will fit on the trading desks without ruining the users’ line of sight. Another check that needs to be performed before the order is raised for the screens is whether they can operate in a stable manner when they are stacked closely together. Sometimes EMF emissions can cause screen jitter or distortion. The following factors can affect the budgetary requirements for desktop PCs: • • •

PC model; local disk storage; type of network card installed;


• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

amount of memory; number and size of processors; multimedia capability; choice of arrangements for interfacing to multiple screens/keyboards and mice; number of screens and size; KVM usage if any; screen mounting brackets and arms; PC system unit desk mounting brackets; cable tidies for desks; special keyboards; USB extensions to desktop; operating system installation; corporate software image build; shipping, delivery and unpacking; installation on the desk; disposal of old PCs.

A schedule of PCs to be purchased and components should be completed and priced to provide a budget figure.

Desktop PC software The PC software environment for a trading floor must be reliable, particularly on the day that a new trading floor opens for business. One of the methods of minimizing problems is to have a tried and tested standard software build present on each PC. The commissioning of a new trading floor gives an ideal opportunity to introduce this for every PC in use. The opportunity is taken to ensure that all software is licensed and any unauthorized software removed. If standard software is used on standard hardware configurations, the number of problems and support calls will diminish substantially. The software inventory, per user, should be completed at an early stage and correlated with licensing information. At that time the project team should agree with the business management what software should be provided on PCs. A series of standard software builds and business software overlays should be agreed and then constructed by software deployment engineers. A budget should be made available for: • • •

operating system installation; generic office application tools; generic electronic messaging and mail tools;


• • • • • • • •

business application software packages; software packaging and build development; anti-virus clients; network management client; application and software patch deployment tools; PC remote control/support software clients; PC inventory client software; software upgrade/patch administration client.

Although all this software is probably already licensed, there might be gaps in licence coverage, or there might be a cost associated with upgrading the software to the latest version.

Office network patch leads and power leads The budget should make provision for power leads (cords) and network patch leads for PCs and other equipment mounted on desks. A trading desk could easily require several patch leads and a similar number of power leads. The network patch leads need to be the same level of cabling category as the structured cable system. The sundry cables could easily have a total cost in the region of £100 (US $150) per desk.

PC speakers PCs sold for business use often do not have speakers as part of the standard configuration bundle. The PC inventory process should check whether any applications are reliant on a speaker capability, and if some form of speaker is necessary, the project team should recommend a suitable speaker system. On a trading desk there will not be much room for extra sets of speakers. Some might already be in use for the trading system, television display or Hoot’n’Holler boxes. In this situation it might be necessary to provide a simple audio mixer to combine several speaker inputs. Each set of speaker boxes might require its own power supply; this could affect the total number of power outlets needed at each desk. It should be decided whether the protected power supply or the standard building supply is used. While the cost of speakers is not high, they are not an item to miss from the budget.

Personal digital assistants (PDAs) Many trading floor staff will have hand-held computers containing work-related data and applications. It is likely that PDA owners will have installed counterpart


software on their office PCs. If new desktop PCs are installed, personnel time will be needed to transfer these applications. Most organizations do not officially recognize hand-held devices because of security risks and the lack of standards, and consequently they might refuse to support the applications from the PDAs, even though that represents a loss of business knowledge. For the purposes of planning the personnel resource budget, the project team will need to confirm with the business management the policy on the transfer of PDA material. The use of PDAs will have a direct impact on the provision of electrical power outlets on the trading desks, back office and administration desks. One or more sockets, configured to the local electrical power plug standards, will have to be built into or mounted on the desk in a safe position to allow staff to connect transformers for PDA chargers or base units. This power should come from the unprotected building supply. Provision of the desktop outlets will have a budget implication.

Printers The trading floor will use varying types of printer. There might be a mix of laser and inkjet personal desktop printers. There will be various larger departmental laser printers for shared high-volume printing. Some devices will be combination copy/printers. From a budgetary and technology viewpoint there are several aspects to consider: • Are network connections required, and if so, where? • Will any printers need protected power? • Can the printers be located close to personnel, taking into account noise and ozone? • What is the power utilization? • Will new printers be purchased or will printers be migrated from the old site? • Will the purchase be outright, lease or a full service contract? • Are there any previous leases to be cancelled? • Will stocks of a new toner cartridge type be required? As part of design and budgetary planning the project team should produce a before and after schedule of the print facilities. During the course of business development, staff often acquire personal printers when a shared departmental printer is fully adequate. Business management might wish to review this usage of printers as a consequence of the planned move.

Television distribution system In the information-hungry environment of a trading floor there will be a need for access to television news and financial news. This might be terrestrial broadcast


via aerial, satellite via dish, cable delivery, in-company broadcast or DVD replay. The traders may wish to view the news on the trading floor through overhead plasma screens or via their PC screens, and screens will also be needed in managerial offices, rest areas and meeting rooms. There will be a mix of requirements, with different people wanting to view different sources at different times. Controlling all this access and providing quality control can be complex. It is possible to directly cable the media sources to the display units, but that is not particularly efficient and is quite inflexible. There are several systems on the market that will provide rack-mounted controller equipment in the equipment room to video switch the channels and different media inputs to various outputs. There are various budgetary issues to be considered here: • • • • • • • • • • • • •

costs of the controller video switch devices; installation consultancy; initial support contract; provision of equipment cabinet space; delivery of the video signal from the controller video switch to displays, desktop or overhead: can it be delivered over the structured cable system using baluns, or will special cabling be required? installation of cabling for the remote control sensors; the cost of plasma displays (mentioned elsewhere); the cost of in-PC TV display cards and desktop video switches; provision of speakers and local audio mixing devices; linking the switch with the audiovisual presentation/video conference facilities; interface with the corporate network for video feeds; set-up and subscription costs of cable and video feeds; installation costs of satellite dishes, terrestrial aerial, cable feed; there might also be a cost for cabling in the building risers from either the basement or the roof.

Wall displays Most trading floors have large wall or pillar-mounted displays of important market data, so that all people can easily glance at the information. These wall panels are quite expensive, but normally easy to deal with from a technology viewpoint. They are normally constructed using LED technology and are reliable, with a low heat output. Some thought needs to be given to the positioning of these units so that everyone can see them. It might be necessary to install extra or repeater units at differing locations on the trading floor. The costs to consider are:


• • • • • •

the capital cost of the unit(s); the cost of the controller and feeds; the mounting and installation labour costs; mounting brackets or pillars; cabling from the controller in the equipment room to the display units, which normally uses a simple serial type such as RS232; provision of power to the wall-mounted units.

Fire safe The equipment room operations staff will need access to a fire safe as a storage area for master copy software disks, and as an intermediate store for local copies of backup media. The fire safe should be rated to protect magnetic media from fire for at least two hours. If the safe is located above the basement level it should also be impact rated. The technology fire safe is not intended to be used for precious documents or important contractual documents. It is a storage area that will be visited frequently by operational staff. The budgetary issues relating to the provision of a fire safe are: • • •

the cost of the unit; the cost of installation and delivery; because these heavy units might create a floor-loading problem if located on a normal office floor, they might require the provision of a storage room in another part of the building.

Offsite storage During the trading floor construction project it is highly likely that the project team will need secure temporary storage facilities. This will be used for intermediate storage of high-value and/or critical items such as PBX units, servers and PCs. In my experience equipment worth many thousands of dollars often needs temporary secure storage during a project, usually when part of the project timescale has slipped. The storage will need continuous security monitoring with access control arrangements, so that only authorized personnel are allowed access and all accesses are recorded. Normally access facilities will be required for delivery vehicles. The facility should be insured and allow 24-hour access. In the pressured timescale the project team do not need to discover that they cannot access important equipment until the following Monday at 8 am.


It is difficult to predict how much storage facility will be needed, so this might have to be budgeted for on a contingency basis.

Project team software Earlier in this book (page 63) reference is made to software tools for the project team. The team should be canvassed on whether they already have the correct version of the required software. If not, there needs to be a budget allowance for the licences.

Project team laptops The project team should be highly mobile so that they can operate on site and/or in temporary offices. To this end each team member should be loaned a laptop computer if he or she does not already possess one. The laptops should be equipped with wireless LAN technology to facilitate operation on site. The following accessories are often useful: • • • • • •

spare batteries; spare charging units; USB memory sticks; portable USB hubs; hard disk encryption software; physical security cables.

During the early days of a project it might be desirable for one or more of the laptops to be equipped with a GPRS or 3G internet connection. If the laptops are to be left on site, the provision of a laptop safe should be considered. Not investing in technology for the project team is a false economy. The pressured timescale and high complexity of the project require there to be no obstacles to communication.

Project team printers There should be funding for a project team desktop A4 laser printer on the trading floor site, located in or close to the project area. It should be equipped with a security cable to prevent unauthorized removal. As mentioned previously, the team will also need access to a large-scale drawing printer.


Project team travel and expenses The budget should allow for the travel and expenses of the project team. If the trading company is part of an international organization it is likely that one or more of the team and support staff will be travelling from another part of the world. The following cost items should be given some consideration: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

hotel costs; meals; apartment and furniture rental; flight costs; travel visas and visa expedition fees; private hire cars and taxis; rail travel; foreign exchange losses and fees; conference room hire; courier costs; printing and copying; visits by team members’ partners; casual medical treatment and vaccination fees; car rental; supplier entertainment; travel insurance; local telephone bills; mobile phone hire; VPN bills; minor purchases.

When working on the project, the team members are likely to need substantial spend authorization. At the same time, because they are working on a construction site they might have problems in the prompt submission of expense claims, for instance with credit card bills going to the wrong address. If the team members are temporarily assigned from other technology teams, they might have problems justifying expenses to their direct managers. To counter personal difficulties caused by delayed expense repayments, it could be necessary to make special provisions for team members. Sometimes project team members might be called on to use their credit cards for urgent purchases of project material from suppliers where there is no account agreement in existence with the trading company. Socializing with suppliers is important, and as part of this it might be necessary to entertain them in the evenings. Often the suppliers will fund this


activity, but the team members should have funding to reciprocate in a modest fashion. In many countries this is expected commercial behaviour and part of building a relationship. These informal relationships can be invaluable in helping to resolve problems with suppliers, officials and landlord representatives. Paying for entertainment can be a lot cheaper and faster than employing lawyers to solve problems.

Project team telecoms The project team will need telecoms facilities before the permanent site arrangements become operational. Good unrestricted telecoms facilities are part of a good project team communication process. Facilities that should be funded by the budget include: • • • • • • •

project area telephones; mobile phones and international calls; satellite phones if working in a remote area; voice conference facility; local internet connectivity; VOIP facilities; VPN access to the corporate network.

Project team staffing costs A budget will be necessary to cover the staffing costs of the project team. An accounting system, supported by timesheet data, should be available to ensure that the project leader can track and authorize these costs. Working in a project team on a trading floor project will inevitably entail a lot of out-of-hours work. The budget should allow for appropriate overtime or bonus payments. If a project team member is seconded from an operational area for the duration of a project, it might be necessary to commission a temporary replacement, and this too should be budgeted for. Some funding might be necessary for activities undertaken prior to formal project approval.

Support team staffing Many of the activities involved in the installation, deployment and testing of the IT infrastructure will involve the project team calling on the services of other technically skilled staff in the technology department, or on external technical support personnel. This activity will need project funding. The costs will normally be included in the project budget for each technology area, rather than


a central pool being provided. However, it is important to ensure that provision is made for them. Any external claims against such project budget funding should be supported by detailed countersigned time sheets.

Project team stationery and miscellaneous A provision should be made in the budget for sundry stationery such as paper, notepads, flipcharts, whiteboard and pens, toner cartridges, computer media, tape and scissors. Some specialist printing and copying for large documents and plans might also be necessary, as will sundry small purchases such as tool kits and first aid equipment.

Project team training As was noted earlier, you should review training requirements for the project team, after which you will need to make budget provision for the necessary training. This might include: • • • • •

training course fees; training-related travel and expenses; salaries and related costs of personnel during training; training room rental; technical books.

This training should relate to project needs only and not to the career development of the project team members. Where new technology or software is to be used as part of the trading floor roll-out, it might be necessary to fund training and facilities for staff who will be supporting the system once that it has gone live. The budget for this should be discussed with operational management.

Consultancy The project team might need consultancy support during the project. The possible needs include general consultancy from specialists in the trading room design and implementation field, to help evaluate the various proposals; specific consultancy on a particular aspect of technology or design, such as trading turret technology; and a simple increase in personnel resources for a team that already has sufficient experience but is understaffed. Specialized security advice might also be needed.


The budget should allow for a specific number of days’ consultancy, and include both time and expenses. If the need is for an advisor who can be consulted as required, it might be appropriate to pay a retention fee and guarantee a minimum number of hours. The external vendor teams involved in the installation of technology might also provide specialist consultancy as part of their proposals. The budgetary process should review whether the proposed charge rates are realistic.

Installation support During the roll-out of the trading floor equipment, some semi-skilled or unskilled labour resources might be useful to reduce the demands on the skilled technical staff. For example there might be a need to unpack 100 boxes, move the contents to the desktops, assign asset numbers and record them. The availability of lower-hourly-rate personnel who can be called on for this type of task is particularly useful at the busy times just before the trading floor goes live. The budget should include some provision for this.

Shipping costs Where equipment is obtained from suppliers, shipping costs are normally included in the contract price. However if the equipment is delivered to an intermediate address such as the trading company head office for customization or configuration, there will be additional fees for repacking, insuring and shipping it on to the site. There are also likely to be some courier costs for the delivery of urgent small packages. The equipment items in the project budget should be examined to see if any additional fees are likely for reshipping or returns. Repacking coverage is important, since technical staff often lose the original packaging during delivery to the intermediate site. All shipments should be insured against damage or theft during transit.

Strip-out costs If the trading floor site has previously been used for office or trading floor purposes, there might be a cost associated with stripping out the old technology and cables before the construction work can commence. Usually the building lease conditions require old technology to be removed by the previous occupant, but that is not always the case. There might for example be unused data cabling clogging the risers, which needs to be carefully removed without disturbing active circuits. There needs to be a budget for this if it is not already covered in the main construction project budget.


Disposal costs When servers, desktop PCs and other equipment are replaced by new models, it is necessary to dispose of the old equipment. Environmental and recycling regulations are making it increasingly likely that the disposal will have to be undertaken by a specialist contractor. In the European Community, for example, it is necessary to comply with Directive 2002/96/EC on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), which will come into effect in January 2007. It specifies how electronic and related equipment must be disposed of, and requires businesses to keep records so they can prove compliance. This places an increasing demand on both the budget and the asset register. Technology staff time will also be taken up with dismantling the old equipment. There are data security considerations when disposing of equipment containing magnetic or optical media. The records normally need to be wiped before disposal, and it might be necessary to pay a contractor to do this. If the equipment scheduled for disposal has been leased it will be necessary to pack and ship the goods to an address designated by the lessor, and to settle any outstanding contractual amounts. The budget must take all these issues into consideration.

Legacy systems Following the move it might be necessary to retain some legacy systems and/or data, to enable the processing of historical transactions and the retrieval of archival data. For example, voice-recording tapes from old dealing board systems need to be retained for compliance reasons. The simplest solution is to retain the old system, but for various reasons that might not be possible. The technology project team will then have to look at transferring the material to an alternative platform. This work is likely to involve initial set-up costs, testing costs, and ongoing support and maintenance costs. Some discussion will be needed to establish which budget will support those costs.

Contract terminations If the project involves an existing trading floor business moving from one place to another, there are likely to be existing support and service contracts. Some of these will be transferred to the new location, others might expire at the time of the move, and some might need to be cancelled. The cost of early termination must be allowed for in the budget. For example, I have encountered the following situations:


• • • •

Cancellation of an outsource contract for PC support. The contract had five years to run and there was no provision in it for early termination. The cancellation cost was US $7,000 per employee. The annual roll-over of a market data feeds contract occurred just before project approval. It had to be paid for the entire year. Maintenance contracts for obsolete minicomputers that were being scrapped as part of the move. Since the contractor was not receiving continued business, it insisted on full contract payment. Termination of a lease with a residual value. The contract termination triggered a request from the leasing company to return the equipment as specified, but it was found during the move that part of it had earlier been disposed of without the lessor’s agreement. The cheapest (but still costly) solution was to buy the same type of equipment second-hand and send it to the lessor.

As a general rule the IT department should review service and maintenance contracts affecting trading floor applications and services as soon as any potential move has been notified. Any contract that is scheduled for renewal or automatic roll-over should be subject to close scrutiny. It might be possible to negotiate a short-term extension rather than a full year’s roll-over, or to find a short-term alternative.

Insurance The project team should check whether existing company insurance policies cover staff and goods on the new site, in transit and in storage. If not, budget provision should be made for insurance. The cost can be significant, especially in some more remote locations. It is particularly important to check that equipment in transit is covered. Consequential loss coverage should also be considered. There is likely to be a legal requirement for public liability insurance, and again, if cover is not already in place, it must be provided. The insurer might impose conditions on the cover that affect the requirements and costs for such items as security on site.

Cost centre allocation As part of the budgetary process the team will need to ensure that all budget items are allocated to the correct cost centres in the organization. The project leader and project accountant will also need to confirm which other cost centre owners are allowed to charge against the project, and what the control mechanisms will be.


The easy scenario is when the business managers in the project steering group take care of such allocations, but often the project leader will be involved in a series of meetings with the managers of other cost centres. Particular attention will need to be paid to the planning for handover of operational costs arising from the project to the relevant operational managers. If the cost centres are not clearly established at the start of the project it can potentially lead to serious purchasing delays, as the project leader has to obtain and negotiate various cost centre manager approvals while the project is in progress. Incorrectly coded invoices often lead to delays in payment of suppliers. In the busy project environment the delayed invoice payment might be overlooked until a supplier refuses to deliver more goods, causing consequent project delay.

BOUNDARY IT INFRASTRUCTURE BUDGET ITEMS There are various other budget items related to the provision of the IT infrastructure of a trading floor project. The cost of these might be included in the project budgets of other disciplines such as building and construction. In any event you as IT project leader and your team will need to be included in the design discussions, so as to influence the choices made. These boundary items consist of long-term facilities to be built into the fabric of the offices, and other services that could impact the IT infrastructure. They are discussed below to help you ensure they are given adequate consideration.

Raised floor The use of a raised floor in trading room environments is almost universal, though I have worked on some projects where it was not necessary. The increasing use of IP technology and fibre optic delivery might reduce the need for raised floors in office areas in the future. However almost all projects have such floors, and the cost is usually encompassed in the construction project budget rather than the technology project budget. It is important that the IT requirements are included in the design and specification of the raised floor in both the equipment room and the trading floor areas. This will have a budgetary impact, as the IT requirements will tend to increase costs. The following are all factors to take into account when establishing the budget.


Equipment room The floor will need to be of sufficient height to allow for airflow, water piping and the cabling necessary to service the equipment cabinets, for example at least 1 ft (30 cm) clear height. The tiles should have sufficient strength to bear the load of the equipment installed. For excessive loads it might be necessary to choose a heavy-duty surface, such as reinforced cement-filled tiles. Special load distribution measures might be required under the pedestals. The surface of the tiles should be appropriate: the top surface a sealed vinyl or similar, the undersurface electrically conducting metallic treated to prevent ‘zinc whiskers’.

Trading floor The height of the raised floor in the trading area should be sufficient to allow power cabling, data cabling, chilled water piping and the floor boxes. Realistically this means at least 6 in (15 cm). Allowance should be made for the height requirements where main data cable routes cross over power cable trays. If the trading room raised floor is to be used as an air conditioning plenum, the height will need to be greater and the data cable will need to be sheathed in a special low-smoke coating such as low-smoke zero halogen (LS0H) plastic. This will increase the cost of the cabling and might affect the delivery lead time. The budget should allow for stripping out and clearing the existing floor area. The concrete surface will need to be made good and then sealed to prevent dust. The budget should obviously include the cost of the tiles used to construct the raised floor. There is a wide variety of tile types available, and advice should be sought from the specialist company contracted to lay the floor. The tile surface could be unfinished metal to be carpeted at a later stage, or it could have a carpet, plastic, stone composite or wood veneered finish. The finish is primarily the concern of the business unit. The tile strength should be sufficient to support the trading desks, cabinets and other heavy equipment to be installed. Some wastage of tiles during laying is inevitable, as they are cut to fit the edge of the floor, so the budget should make allowance for this. There is also often some tile loss if floor box, vent or grommet holes are cut into the tiles, as it is easy for the construction staff to make mistakes in cutting the holes. If the tile has a specialized surface finish, some provision should be made for purchasing and storing spare tiles to replace those damaged or lost during daily operations. If the tiles have a high-quality surface that could easily be damaged during building and construction work, it might be necessary to fund temporary tiles which can be laid in place during construction. These are then replaced by the high-specification tiles at the last possible moment in the construction phase.


Pedestals and stringers The weight on the floor is supported at the corners of the tiles by adjustableheight pillars called pedestals. Where the raised floor height is in excess of 1 ft (30 cm), or the floor supports a heavy weight loading, there should be a supporting framework of metal stringers between the pedestals. That type of structure is workable up to a height of 3 ft (1 m) above the floor pan, after which a specialist weight-bearing framework might be necessary. The stringers increase the strength of the floor by helping to spread the weight load distribution across the tiles and reducing lateral movement of the support structure. You should check whether any stringers are included in the budget. Inevitably some pedestals and stringers too will be damaged during the construction process, so the budget should make provision for the wastage.

Grounding The tiles often have a conductive metal casing, which should be electrically earthed (grounded). There needs to be a budget for providing grounding to the floor pedestals. In locations destined to contain a high density of high-power electrical equipment, it might be necessary to provide grounding to each pedestal and to the stringers. Qualified electrical engineering advice should be sought on this issue.

Vent tiles Where the raised floor is to be used as an air conditioning plenum, some of the floor tiles will need air vents, which could be equipped with baffles to assist in the control of airflow. These can be thicker than standard tiles, so this needs to be taken into account in fixing the height of the raised floor. The vent tiles are also more expensive than standard tiles. The type and number of vent tiles used will be governed by the cooling needs for adjacent equipment cabinets. A single perforated tile in front of an equipment cabinet can provide cooling for up to 3 KW of equipment heat. A vented tile might be able to cool up to 7 KW depending on air flow from the underfloor plenum.

Carpeting Raised floors are usually designed to allow the lifting of tiles for access to services below. If there is a separate layer of carpet tiles, this process is facilitated if their edges are aligned with those of the floor tiles, so this should be specified in the budgeting and design process. An alternative is to choose floor tiles with a carpeted surface, as mentioned above, but this can prove expensive when the carpet finish wears out.


In areas of predicted low activity, it is possible to use continuous carpet or carpet tiles that do not map to the raised floor elements, but this could make subsequent changes complex and more costly.

Horizontal data cable Sometimes the horizontal structured cable system (that is, the data and voice cable running under the raised floors or in the ceiling, to the office areas) is included in the construction budget. The technology project team will need to influence the choice of cabling system, the quality of cables, the routing of cables and the method of termination. The category of cabling required should be determined. There are currently two main types of copper-based structured data cable, Cat5e and Cat6. If laid and tested to specification these cable types will deliver voice and data to meet most trading room requirements. Using line adaptors it is possible to deliver other signal types, such as video. Cat5e and Cat6 are both unshielded technology, but are normally perfectly adequate for most office environments. There is a shielded data cable type (STP) designed for areas where electromagnetic interference (EMI) might affect the data cable, but this is more expensive and requires specialist STP fittings continuously from end to end if it is to be effective. If EMI is likely to be a problem, it could be better to consider the re-routing of cable, the use of shielded ducting or data fibre technology. If the data cable is run through any air plenums it will require a sheathing that does not give off toxic fumes when heated. The PVC coating in normal usage is fire resistant, but if exposed to a fire it will give off toxic hydrogen chloride fumes which will damage both personnel and technical equipment. The designations in most frequent usage are plenum-rated cable and LS0H. Generally local building or electrical regulations govern the choice of cable coating. The low-smoke coatings are more expensive than PVC so there are budget implications. The routing of the data cables is an important design and cost issue. First, the length of the cable run must not exceed the technical specifications of the cabling system, typically 300 ft (90 m) for Cat5e and Cat6, otherwise the structure will not be able to meet the data bandwidth specification or there will be intermittent data errors. The cable routing should allow easy access for subsequent maintenance and changes. The routing will affect the dimensions of the data cable bundles. If there are too many cables in one path it could obstruct the raised floor or ducting. The method of data cable termination at desks will affect the ease of support, prevention of damage to the cable and the space required for under-desk connections. On trading desks it might be necessary to commission the design of a purpose-built connector-mounting plate to accommodate the high density of


data ports in a small place. Generally a few feet of slack cable should be allowed at the desk end to allow for desks being moved to slightly different locations. These issues all have budget implications.

Vertical data cable The design of the trading floor and equipment rooms might require vertical data cables between floors. The budget should include the cost of running and terminating the cables. There might need to be a cabling closet on at least one of the floors. The data cables will need to be physically separate from any vertical power cabling to reduce EMI effects: preferably at least 3 ft (1 m), but in a small riser 1 ft (30 cm) might be acceptable. This separation might require additional cable trays in the riser. The vertical cable will need a vertical cable tray, mounted in vertical ducting, to prevent the cable stretching under its own weight. The building risers could be almost full of existing cabling, in which case the budget might have to allow for an alternative method of delivery. I have known it to be necessary to build new risers, by building fire-resistant enclosures and cutting through the concrete floor pan using specialist diamond drilling. This is an expensive and slow process, requiring structural engineering advice and negotiation with the landlord, fire officers and other tenants. An alternative is to run optical fibre to replace copper data cable, but this will require additional network equipment and media converters. Clearly, failure to make allowance for overloaded service risers creates problems in the budget and project planning, and can be a bad mistake. If the data cabling runs outside the secured area of the business premises, it might be necessary to provide secure ducting to prevent accidental or malicious damage. I have seen this requirement arise during audit inspection of banking facilities. With high-bandwidth data fibres the business risk posed by damage to unprotected fibres in the building risers can be significant.

Data cabling containment and ducting When data cabling is installed underfloor or in risers it normally requires some form of containment and/or ducting: for example cable trays of wire basket or pierced metal construction. The purpose of these is to reduce tangling, and to provide support and protection against damage. Unsupported cables might be subject to stretching or excessive bending. This stress can compromise their data transmission capability and also lead to intermittent faults. Fibre optic data cables are quite susceptible to this type of damage.


In vertical (or unsupported horizontal) cable runs, the data cables will need to be tied to the supporting trays at regular intervals to prevent stretching or sagging. Where cabling is bent round sharp edges, the supporting containment should be designed with guideways to ensure a minimum bend radius compliant with the cable design specifications. Provision of the tie-back and guideways will all increase the cost of data cabling containment, and should be included in the budget. Optical fibre is fairly easy to tap by applying external devices to the fibre sheathing, so if the cable might carry confidential data or voice traffic in an unsecured part of the building, it should be protected by ducting. You should consult the security team over whether any encryption of data is necessary. The outer sheathing of the cables needs protection from sharp objects: laying a bunch of cables unprotected on a bare concrete surface is asking for trouble. Protective cellular plastic matting underlay for bunches of data cable is increasingly common. A structured cabling system will normally have a multiyear warranty of perhaps 20 years. If plastic underlay forms part of the quote, check on its predicted lifetime. Metal cable trays or baskets should be electrically earth grounded (bonded) for safety purposes and also to improve protection from EMI. The earth bonding should be repeated at 50 ft (15 m) intervals, and care should be taken to ensure that tray/basket joints are electrically bonded to provide continuous earth protection. In some cases the ducting will be designed to enclose the data cabling, to provide Faraday cage protection from strong EMI sources. In any budget for data cabling, provision should be made for the necessary containment and protection. This will also be a cost element for the installation and earth bonding of the containment.

Trading desks and fittings The design and specification of trading desks will need substantial input from both the technology team and the business users. The technology team will need to ensure that: • • • • • • •

all the necessary trading equipment can easily be installed, mounted and serviced; the equipment is secure from damage; subsequent moves and changes can easily be accommodated, without damage to the desks; sufficient power and data points can be installed; there is good cooling ventilation for under-desk equipment; there are good under-desk and desktop cable management routes; electrical earthing points are provided for any metal parts.


The business users will need to ensure that the desks are the right size and construction to meet daily operational needs, are comfortable to use, meet health and safety regulations and are sufficiently robust to survive in a trading environment. Trading desks are expensive to purchase and install. Their cost will often fall directly on the business unit project budget, but sometimes this element is wrapped in the technology project budget. To fix the budget, you might need to identify a preferred vendor at an early stage. This can involve several visits to suppliers and demonstration sites. The lead-time for manufacture and installation of trading desks can affect the choice of supplier, and have budgetary as well as timescale implications.

Back-office desks and fittings The choice and funding of back-office and administration desk furniture is normally outside the technology team’s area of responsibility, but some consultation should take place on its features. You should consider, for example, the following aspects to ensure the furniture is compatible with the technology requirements: • • •

cable management facilities and power and data cable routes provided in the desks; the space available under the desks for mounting PCs, and the fittings available to mount the chosen range of standard PCs; the facilities for mounting display screens above the desks.

Sometimes non-standard desks are used in some areas for good business reasons. The technology project team might then have to modify the selection or arrangement of the technology used at the desk. The technology budget should make some provision for this.

Chairs The technology project team does not normally involve itself in the selection of chairs, but in smaller sites this kind of furniture might be packaged within the total IT budget for the trading floor.

Building management system The building management system (BMS) is normally part of the construction budget. For an existing building it is likely that a BMS will already be in place


and operated by the building management team. Any buildings facilities added as part of the trading floor construction, such as air conditioning and air duct valves, will need some form of interface to the BMS. There could be special BMS interface considerations for specialist equipment in the equipment room, such as the air-handling units, smoke detection, leak detection and room temperature sensors. The technology project team should liaise with the team responsible for configuring and programming the BMS to ensure that any decisions do not compromise the safe operation of the equipment room. The technology project budget might need provision for programming and testing the BMS in relation to the equipment room facilities. Some funding might be necessary to provide a data cabling connection to the main building BMS server. The mechanical and electrical systems often use dedicated network cables with specialist protocols such as LonWorks to communicate between controllers and the central BMS server.

Fire alarm system The fire detection and alarm system is normally part of the main construction budget. The technology project team should ensure that provision is made for appropriate connection of the equipment room services to the fire alarm system. Normally a general fire alert will not lead to an automatic powerdown of the equipment room, but local regulations might dictate otherwise. Fire alarm sirens/speakers and bells will need to be extended to the equipment room. As the equipment room normally has its own fire suppressant system, it is generally not covered by the building’s sprinkler system (if any), but this could depend on negotiation with the local fire officer. If the sprinklers are required in the equipment room, special value control arrangements could be needed to avoid damage to electrically live equipment.

Smoke detection system This normally comprises a series of smoke detectors in ceiling voids and air conditioning return ducts. These might be already in place in the building, or added as part of the construction project. This is quite different from the VESDA smoke detection system the equipment room needs, and will have a different alarm and reaction profile. You should verify that any smoke detectors required have been allowed for in the overall project plan and budget. Additional smoke detectors might be required in any associated service rooms such as a UPS battery room and cabling closets.


Desk PDUs Business desks typically hold several electrically powered items, and attaching them direct to floor or wall-mounted power sockets can leave an untidy tangle of power leads or casually attached power extension leads. This can be a safety hazard. When a trading floor is planned, provision should preferably be made for desk-mounted PDUs for all office desks. These are normally screw-fixed under the desk or held in a purpose-built cable management tray. They should be electrically fused for safety, provided with a neon ‘power present’ light and connected via a fly lead to a suitable nearby floor or wall socket. The need varies between offices, but typically the PDU should allow six outlets. Some back-office desks need protected electrical power to assure the continued operation of important settlement servers. In this case a separate PDU should be supplied. The UPS PDU should be brightly coloured to differentiate its protected power from the raw electrical mains power. If possible it should offer a different electricity socket to the normal local power sockets. This will help prevent casual connections by unauthorized staff and reduce unplanned drains on the emergency power supply. Trading desks will need a higher number of power outlets each, since there can be a high density of technology at each desk. The power socket provision should be tailored to meeting the highest number of sockets likely to be required. A likely number is around 15 per desk, but this figure should be verified by consultation with the business users and support staff. Trading desks should be provided with UPS connections for PCs, screens, voice systems and time stamps. This increases the initial cost of construction, but by a small amount compared with the value of business that could be lost per desk in the event of a sudden power failure. Spread over the lifetime of the trading area, the additional cost of UPS is not large. However to reduce the load on the UPS, consideration should also be given to providing additional PDU sockets, or on a separate unit, for raw electrical mains power to nonessential items. The desk PDUs should be fused and switched to allow local power isolation. The socket configuration of a UPS desk PDU should prevent the connection of unauthorized equipment. It is not unknown for a chilly trader to bring in an electric fire and to plug it into the nearest available power socket. The technology project team should ensure that the construction budget allows for a flexible subfloor power connection method, such as power track connectors. The connector cable between the subfloor connectors should be sheathed in a flexible armoured casing with a reasonable amount of spare length to facilitate local movement of the desks. Access from the subfloor to the trading desk is normally by a grommet-lined hole in the raised floor tile.


The configuration of access to the subfloor UPS power rails should be such that trading desk users are ‘pepper and salted’ to reduce the impact of a single power breaker tripping. This means that adjacent trading positions are fed from different power breakers, so if one trips the trader affected can view the screens on adjacent desks. This might increase the number of subcircuits and breakers required to service the trading floor. The provision of separate raw and UPS electricity power rails will increase the cost of the electrical infrastructure and cables leading from the main switch PDUs for the floor, so the impact on the budget should be considered carefully.

Equipment room PDU Usually the PDU for the equipment room is part of the main construction budget. In other cases it might be treated as part of the UPS system. In any event the technology project team should be involved in the design and budget decisions. Typical factors that should be considered are: • • • • • • • •

Cabinets should have dual supply from separate breakers to each cabinet. Breakers should service only one cabinet so that it is possible to isolate individual cabinets. The breaker rating should be sufficient to handle switch-on surge current. Adjacent cabinets should be on the same electrical power phase if possible. Cabinets should be provided with UPS power as the norm, but in some cases the equipment in the cabinet might need only raw mains power. Spare capacity should be allowed for expansion of the number of breakers. The breaker switch cabinet should be a lockable cabinet inside the equipment room which allows safe access only by authorized staff. The equipment room should be provided with an emergency power-off button that has the capability to remove power to the whole room.

Where possible the design of the PDU and associated power cabling should have redundant features so that if a single component or cable fails it is possible to quickly bypass the problem area. The design of the PDUs and supporting cabling should take into account potential expansion of the equipment room. In my experience the most common cause of persistent outages in financial trading equipment rooms is the underlying power cabling and switching becoming overloaded and threatening to overheat. This mostly happens when a small equipment room or data centre has expanded in capacity several times without a thorough overhaul of the power structure.


Equipment room and UPS room ACU, chillers and drainage The design and supply of air conditioning for the equipment room is usually part of the construction budget, not the IT infrastructure budget. However the technology project team should examine any proposals to ensure that the operational and resilience needs have been taken into consideration. These are factors to consider: • • • • • • • • • • • • •

adequate capacity for the anticipated heat load and equipment expansion needs; full cooling capability even if a single AHU or chiller unit fails (this will necessitate some redundancy in the design); designed for continuous operation 24 x 365; continued operation during maintenance of part of the system; alternative power supply in the event of a mains power failure; provision for humidity control and dehumidification; provision of chilling for UPS room and telecoms closets; easy access for maintenance of dust filters, fan belts, compressors and motors; connection to the BMS and environment monitoring systems; low operational noise in the equipment room; provision of drainage for water condensate; provision of ducting of hot air from hot spots; budget provision for installation, gas charging and testing.

Trading desk fan coils and accessories With the intense concentration of technology equipment beneath trading desks, thought needs to be given to the control of heat output. The budget for this is normally tied to the construction of the trading desks. The desks are often constructed in rows with limited capability for venting hot air. If the hot air is vented from under the desk surface it can create uncomfortable working conditions for the traders. One approach is to build small fan coil units in the desk equipment area, and supply them with chilled water. This requires insulated water piping subfloor, and some form of flexible but leak-free connector. Condensate might possibly form on the fan coil units and drip onto equipment below, so it might be necessary to install small drip trays and some form of water drainage. The planning process for the desk should model the heat output and dissipation. This needs to be done before the design of the piping layout for the trading floor and before the room cooling facilities are designed. Other accessories for trading desks could include screen mounting arms and/or mounting racks. To draw up a budget for this the technology team will


have to map the number of screens and supporting devices to be installed at each desk. The trading staff might need access to desktop power outlets to allow the easy connection of personal devices such as PDA cradles.

Power resilience Resilient power supply using UPS has been mentioned earlier, and the next section covers the cost issues of stand-by generators. However various other power considerations should be taken into account in the design and budget of the trading floor environment. Few of these directly impact the IT infrastructure project budget, but they should be raised as part of the general planning process. •

Isolation of nonessential power devices

Many items consume power but are not immediately essential to operations. The design of the switching should allow separate circuits which can be isolated in the event of a power shortage, for example when a stand-by generator is being used. •

Dual power circuits in building

Where possible alternative power routing should be available for essential items so that if a switch or cable fails it is possible to provide an alternative route, even if it is at a reduced capacity. •

Dual power routes to building

It is often possible to obtain dual power-bearing circuits from the utility company. These are sourced from different substations and preferably enter the building via different routes. This type of arrangement helps to provide some protection from hapless workers who accidentally dig into a major power cable in the street. There is a cost for all these features, so if needed they should be built into the budget. Note that they are not a substitute or replacement for a stand-by generator. However in some cases it is not possible to provide a generator backup, perhaps because of local regulations, and they are particularly useful in these circumstances.

Generators Generator provision is normally included in the construction project budget. It might provide for a new generator or for the upgrade of an existing facility.


Large data centres will have a redundant number of generators, so that if one fails others can take the load, but for trading floors it is more usual to share the landlord’s generator. Aside from the cost of the actual generator there are other cost factors that should be incorporated in the budget: • • • • • • • •

• •

Installation and crane lifting works. Floor or roof reinforcement to take the weight and vibration. Generator enclosures where the installation is outside the building. Installation of ventilation ducting to provide air and remove exhaust fumes. Tanking around the base of the generator to contain liquid fuel spills. Modification of the building electrical switch gear to allow automatic start and cut-in of the generator power. Remote monitoring facilities for the generator and fuel system. Fuel tanking and piping. There should be sufficient capacity to allow at least a day’s operation on full load, with provision for external tanker delivery. The generator should be provided with a header tank that provides sufficient fuel to allow it to start and then provide power to pump fuel from the main fuel tank. In environments where the air temperature falls below freezing, it might be necessary to provide heating and insulation to prevent fuel waxing and coolant freezing. There should be a budget for testing the installed generator facilities. This might need to include the landlord’s fees for providing engineers to attend and certify the work.

Migration of pipework and building services In planning the equipment room location it might become apparent that building services such as water pipes or drains are located above the proposed site. The risk of these installations will need to be assessed. If it is considered high, consider including in the budget provision to divert the services. If this is not possible, it might be necessary to introduce risk reduction measures such as drip trays. This is normally part of the construction budget. Among the items that should be checked for are: • • •

uninsulated cold water pipes, on which condensation might form and drip onto equipment below; uninsulated hot pipes; drain pipes, sewage, steam or water pipes, particularly if they have valves, filters or access points which might require access by service personnel in the future;


• • • • • • •

plastic water piping; fuel piping; air ducting with service hatches unrelated to the equipment room; fire sprinkler outlets; datacomms cables unrelated to the business; high-power electric mains cables; water/fuel tanks in the floor above.

Ducting for the equipment room You should check that the construction plans make provision for installing air ducting in the equipment room, although this is normally automatically included in the construction budget. The equipment room is usually designed as a self-contained unit, with ducting and air valves designed to isolate it from the main office areas. Aspects to consider are: • •

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The supply of fresh air for the equipment room, with the provision for valves to close off in the event of fire and/or extinguisher gas release. Gas extraction ducting that will safely exhaust the fire suppressant gas following a release. Extract points will be required in the main room area, subfloor and ceiling void. There will need to be extractor fans, air valves and a control panel (normally on the fire panel). Automatic air valves will be needed where air ducting traverses the equipment room firewalls. If the equipment room has a high heat load it might be necessary to provide air ducts to the hot spot areas to allow extraction of heated air.

Equipment room walls and doors The technology team should check that the construction design and budget contain proposals for the creation of a secure, fire-resistant and gas-tight equipment room. The security is a necessity to protect the valuable data and equipment housed in the room. Financial regulators, auditors and insurers are unlikely to take a forgiving view of a trading company with an equipment room that does not meet fire and security standards. You should not assume the builders will meet the requirements automatically: rather, check on the following aspects. •

Fire resistance should be built into the containing walls and doors. While some local regulations dictate a one-hour resistance, my recommendation is for at least a two-hour rating. The extra hour’s protection need not increase


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costs substantially. This will entail the walls being built from slab to slab: that is, in one unit from the floor plate to the building ceiling plate. Special fireresistant wallboard, such as Knauf Fireshield, should be used. The doors will need to be fire rated and have intumescent door seals. Any air ducts entering the walls will need fire closing damper valves. Plastic pipes that pierce the wall will need fire collars, and any cable ducts entering the room will need intumescing seals. Reinforcement of the walls might be necessary to provide security. If the room is at ground floor level, there might be a risk from vehicle impact. In other locations a reinforcing mesh can be incorporated into stud walls to prevent someone kicking through. High-security data centre walls use techniques such as steel mesh, Kevlar mesh and even steel curtain walling. Choosing an appropriate method of reinforcement is a matter of balancing risk assessment against cost. It might be necessary to divide the interior of the room into secured and nonsecured areas, for example when external engineers are allowed into the room to service external vendors’ services but must be kept away from the other technical equipment. This can be done using security caging or bars. A risk assessment needs to be undertaken to determine whether this is required. The door needs to be robust to prevent accidental or malicious damage. The locking mechanism should be designed to not weaken the door. The door should be sufficiently large to allow the delivery and removal of equipment racking. There could be a sill at the foot of the frame to improve the seal of the closed door. In this case it should be ensured that it does not present a trip hazard or prevent easy delivery of heavy equipment. If the floor heights inside and outside the equipment room differ it might be necessary to build a ramp to allowed wheeled access into the room. It will need a gradient of about 1 in 15 (though local regulations might vary) and to be able to bear the weight of heavy equipment. For larger equipment rooms security can be improved by having two sets of doors in the form of a lobby air lock. This increases cost and the amount of floor space required, so is probably more appropriate for a large data centre where the access of personnel is more frequent. During the construction process it will be necessary to budget for the process of fire and gas sealing. This will require a nominated person or team to undertake fire stopping: that is, to seal any holes in the walls, such as where piping or cabling enters them. This might also be necessary for vertical cabling in the building risers. The seal normally uses intumescent expanding foam. This is mentioned at this stage as there need to be plans to do this at many stages of the construction. Individual contractors are unlikely to include this in their quotes.


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Temporary doors might be necessary during construction. This might be a requirement to protect initial installations of technical equipment during the construction phase. To a certain extent the need cannot be established until detailed scheduling takes place, but it would be wise to budget something for this.

Intruder detection system Trading floors and their associated equipment rooms contain a substantial amount of high-value equipment, and any theft of it is likely to lead to consequential as well as direct losses. I have known thieves to enter a trading floor overnight and steal the memory chips from all the PCs. The building was guarded but there was no intruder detection system. The thieves had followed the office cleaners in. There was some cost in replacing the chips, but the greater loss was lost business while replacement chips were found, purchased and installed. An intrusion detector system should be installed in the equipment room and UPS power room as well as the trading floor and office areas. The signal cable might require its own secure cable ducting. If there is a substantial amount of high-value servers and network equipment being installed in the technology rooms, insurers might insist on physical security being in place before any equipment is installed. Sometimes for larger data centres the insurance requirements extend outside the building to the perimeter fencing. This kind of security has both budget and project scheduling implications.

Access control system There is a range of security options for a trading floor. The most common is a proximity card, with access control points at each of the key doors. This system usually extends to control access to the equipment room. The proximity card is normally a passive device which transmits a serial number when subjected to an interrogation pulse from a card reader. The administration project budget usually covers this system. The following factors will need to be considered: • • • • • •

The number of doors to be monitored for access control, and whether badge readers are required at both sides of the door. Whether the badge readers are to have supplementary identity devices such as a keypad or fingerprint reader. Door release override buttons in the reception area. The number of security controller devices required. Printing facilities for the security controller. A badge printer, a server PC and the associated badge-printing software.


• • • • • •

A digital camera. Signal cabling for the badge readers and door releases. Programming work by the supplier to set up the security system and security zones. Some work will be necessary to connect the security system to the building fire alarm panel so that the doors can ‘fail open’ if an alarm is raised. Network connection from the security controller to a central corporate security system for remote administration. Door sensors to detect situations where doors are left/wedged open. Card supplies for the badge printer.

In some situations it is necessary to install badge-operated turnstile-type barriers in the reception area to increase security. Among the suppliers of access control systems are Nedap, Indala and Interflex. The business might require badge readers to be hidden from view. This can affect the budget as it might call for special proximity readers or additional construction work.

Electronic door locks In conjunction with the access control system there will need to be electronically operated locks on the security doors. There might also need to be a local key lock override adjacent to the doors. There is a range of types of locks and emergency releases that could be considered, depending on the type of door and its direction of opening. Advice should be sought from a security specialist, and a budget allocated for buying the locks, their cabling and connection to the access control system. An engineer or specialist might be needed to fit the locks correctly. The electronic locks might need a local power supply close to some doors. Special consideration should be given to door-locking mechanisms where glass walls and glass doors are used. In my experience these installations tend to be particularly problematic.

Video monitoring equipment Video camera monitoring is an effective deterrent-based method of increasing security, both preventing incidents (particularly out of working hours) and increasing detection rates should they take place. For example, a few years ago an organized gang stole valuable Unix processors in a series of walk-in raids in the City of London. Video evidence from a bank’s security system led to the arrest and conviction of the gang. It should be decided whether to budget for a security camera system. If the decision is made to install one, the following factors need to be taken into account:


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The number of cameras (or dummy cameras) needed to provide full coverage including all exits/entrances, equipment rooms, corridors and the trading floor. The location containing the fire safe and/or security safe should be subject to overt video monitoring. A controller will be needed to record the various video feeds and also allow retrieval. This will need to be located in a secure environment with a protected power supply. Signal cabling will need to be installed with appropriate containment, though increasingly data network technology (TCP/IP) can be used for delivery. This might require extension of the structured cable system into the ceiling void. Power points will be needed adjacent to the cameras. Video storage will be required offline to hold long-term records. In a highsecurity environment, facilities will be required to store a copy of the video images offsite in a secure location.

Photocopiers The trading floor will need photocopiers, which are usually included in the administration project budget. Often photocopiers have a dual function as printers, in which case the project team will need to ensure that suitable network connection points are available. Appropriate space must of course be allocated for them. The process of photocopying and laser printing produces a small amount of ozone, so where there is a high volume of printing or copying the printers/copiers should be located in a ventilated area away from personnel. If there is to be a print room dedicated for high-volume printing it must be budgeted for.

Fax machines Fax machines, like photocopiers, will probably be part of the administration budget, but the technology project team will need to provide power and telephone connection points. Some fax machines need analogue telephone lines. Extra cards might need to be configured in the PABX if the main telephone environment has digital phone extensions.

Pressure testing As part of the equipment room acceptance testing process there will be a need to pressure test the room. This is to confirm that in the event of a release of gas to extinguish a fire, the gas does not leak out too quickly. If the room has been well


constructed this test will be a formality, but if it is found that the room cannot retain air pressure the process of tracking down the leak can take several iterations of testing and fixing. Roughly speaking the room has to hold pressure for 10 minutes, but this can vary depending on circumstances. A specialist contractor is usually needed for pressure testing, and can help advise on likely points of leakage. The equipment needed includes door fan integrity testing equipment, smoke pencils and micro manometers to test for pressure variations. The tests should be conformant with ISO 14520 Annex E or the local regulatory equivalent. Pressure testing is normally the responsibility of the main contractor, but the technology team should ensure that the responsibility is defined and the funding available.

Equipment room and trading floor cleaning Part of the contract with the primary contractor should be to deliver the equipment room and trading floor in a clean state. All construction dust and detritus should have been removed before the point of handover. However in reality it is likely that two or more cleaning cycles will be necessary in the equipment room before live operation. The data cabling process and cabinet installation will create cable clippings, and dust will be carried into the room on boxes or the feet of engineering staff. The deep clean process will entail lifting floor tiles to reclean the subfloor, and a full wipe-down of all surfaces, cabinets and walls with moistened cleaning cloths. There should also be vacuum cleaning of the raised floor surface, inside cabinets and ceiling tiles during each cycle. The budget should allow for the early replacement of AHU filters, possibly within the first month of operation, as these will become quite contaminated with dust. The costs of all this must be budgeted for. If the equipment room is not fully cleaned before installation of the equipment, there will be a significantly increased risk of damage to the equipment from ingested dust particles. The fast air flows from the air conditioning will quickly distribute any dust around the room, and most of it will come to rest inside the technical equipment. Once the room has been cleaned in preparation for equipment installation, precautions should be taken to prevent dust entering the clean room: • • •

Access to the room should be controlled. If the access control system is not operational this might require a guard on duty. Multilayer tack mats should be purchased and installed at the doorway; Construction workers should not be allowed to bring in dusty materials or clothing. Warning signs might be required.


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Polypropylene clean room shoe covers should be supplied to cover the boots and shoes of all visitors entering the room. A plentiful supply of these in a range of sizes should be purchased in advance. Disposable dust-free wiping cloths should be made available. Vacuum cleaners (HEPA filtered) and clean room flop mops should be available to clean up any dust found. These items should be reserved solely for use in the equipment room.

Labourers/casual staff The project budget should have some provision for casual staff to help with shifting and moving boxes and furniture. It is wasteful to use expensive IT technicians on labouring work, and it is unlikely that the construction staff on site can be relied on to safely undertake supporting work for technicians. Those doing this work must be under the close control of the technology project team. I have seen several examples where unskilled labourers caused thousands of dollars of damage or loss because they were not adequately briefed and supervised. With suitable direction and management, unskilled casual personnel can help with repetitive tasks such as moving desks or the physical installation process of PC unpacking and deployment.

CAPITAL VERSUS REVENUE The technology project team leader should be alert to the financial impact of capital expenditure and revenue expenditure on the project budget. Various accountancy rules govern whether the cost of items has to be recovered from the business during the current financial year, or the cost can be depreciated over a number of years. As part of the budgetary planning process the project leader should ensure that each of the major cost items has been reviewed with the project accountant and business managers to ensure that the best funding method has been used. The business might prefer to rent or lease some systems and equipment rather than undertake outright purchase. There might be sound business reasons to defer expenditure, or to bring it forward and write off the cost early. Decisions on this aspect can affect the choice of suppliers. Where the cost of items is spread over several years, the budgeting process should clearly state the total cost commitment and not just the first-year cost.


TAXES, TARIFFS AND DUTIES Project personnel involved in constructing project budgets often overlook the cost impact of taxes and tariffs. This is particularly true if the personnel have been assigned from other countries or are not experienced in shipping equipment between countries. In some countries the tax proportion can be substantial. Questions that should be asked for each item when creating the budget are: • • • • • • •

Is there a sales tax on the item or service? Can the sales tax be recovered by the business? Is there an import duty on the item? Is there a local tax as well as a national tax? How is any maintenance fee taxed? Are there permit or local licence fees? Are there customs clearance fees?

This evaluation might reveal ways to reduce the cost of the equipment to the company, for example by varying the location of purchase or the nominal purchasing company. A corporate accountant should be able to advise on this, but you as project leader should ensure that the questions are asked in the first place.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT Consideration should be given to sustainable development issues. The design and operation of the trading floor and data centre should be as energy-efficient as is economically possible. The cost of energy is likely to rise substantially as oil reserves diminish and third-world economies expand. In the UK, at the time of writing, some large organizations have experienced a 50 per cent increase in energy costs within two years. Many governments offer incentives for efficient energy and renewable resource use, such as interest-free loans and tax savings. Equally, penalties might be imposed for a failure to conserve energy. These could have a considerable impact on the life cycle budget for the operation of the trading room environment. A medium-sized office and data centre requiring 100 KW of power will consume the equivalent of 1 tonne of coal at the power station every day. If the trading room and/or data centre consumes 100 KW of power, and there is a 20 per cent increase in energy costs each year, a 10 per cent reduction in power usage would save approximately £300,000 (based on UK energy prices and 2006 costs) over 10 years in operational costs, without considering any tax


benefits or interest on the saved money. Saving 10 per cent on energy usage should be an easy target. Carbon taxes might make energy efficiency even more attractive. It will be easier to introduce effective efficiency designs at the planning stages of the project, rather than retrofit after the operations are live. Part of the budgeting process should be a review of the sustainable development impact of the design. The potential suppliers should be asked to provide energy/resource-efficient options in their bids, or set targets to do so. The planned operational procedures and software configuration should also be examined from an energy-efficiency viewpoint. For example, can PCs and screens be switched off when not in use? Is it possible to consolidate servers in the data centre or make use of the new multi-core processors? It might be possible to install an air conditioning system that uses higher-efficiency electrical motors or has greater heat recovery efficiency. Electricity UPS units have a wide range of efficiency of operation, and the life cycle costing should take this into account when selecting equipment. If the proposed design incorporates a substantial capacity for expansion, it might be more energy-efficient to ‘right size’ the data centre power/cooling infrastructure for the current load and then expand at a later date. Typically the power delivered to the cabinets in an equipment room will be less than half the total amount used to service the area. Right-sizing will need careful design work to ensure that future expansion is not compromised. Will it be possible to expand the ACU/UPS in a modular fashion? These design decisions affect the mechanical and engineering design for items such as air ducting and space planning for the chillers on the roof. Where savings are engineered into the design it is important to document the impact of those design changes. This information can be of use to the organization for publicity, negotiations with environmental agencies and even for carbon trading purposes.

CONTINGENCY ISSUES During the project, events will arise that lead to unexpected expenditure. To help cope with the costs the project leader should have a contingency budget. Use of this should be controlled through a variance approval system. Except for minor amounts the project leader should not have approval to spend from the contingency budget unless there is counter-signature approval by, for example, the steering group chairman. It is generally easier to have the total contingency approved in advance, rather than have to revisit the business for extra funding during the project.


As project leader you should examine the budget bids from each technical team member for any contingency amounts built in to the figures, and ask the team members to estimate the risk of unplanned expenditure for their areas. The amounts identified should be noted, stripped out and pooled in the central fund. If you find no contingency amount in a bid, it could be wise to assess it carefully to ensure that it is not overly optimistic. Using a pooled central fund will reduce the total amount of contingency funding needed, but give you the ability to help individual areas when plans have gone wrong. A figure of 10–15 per cent is normally realistic for a well-managed project. Foreign exchange losses can occur with any project that relies on importing technical equipment and services. For example, during one recent project there was a 7 per cent increase in the price of sterling against the US dollar over three months. The project was priced in pounds but was funded by a US budget, and this led to an overspend. Careful negotiation can reduce the impact if the problem arises, but it is best to have an advance plan to handle exchange variations. For large project spends it is worth discussing the purchase of foreign currency options (which effectively guarantee that the currency can be bought at a fixed rate) with the organization’s accountants. In some countries it is the custom to give small rewards or treats to individual officials to ensure prompt attention (for example, to finding delayed or lost items) and thus facilitate progress. I do not intend here to condone bribery: it is often a criminal offence and should not occur, but there is a step difference between small courtesies and a sizeable backhander to ensure a major purchase. In an environment where reciprocal favours are the norm, it is worth considering what can be done without breaching either ethical or corporate guidelines. For example, you might find that a minor official or technician is blocking some key work that endangers the overall project schedule. A small consultancy contract, perhaps arranged via a third party, or an invitation to a good meal ‘to improve contacts’, might do wonders in smoothing over such local difficulties. Organizational flexibility on such issues tends to vary, and of course you must always honour the primary objective, which is to stay in employment. I have found it helpful in such cases to give visiting senior executives the opportunity of meeting in person with an official or supplier who is delaying the project. You should have a small budget amount to deal with ad hoc minor consultancy or service fees if that is anticipated to be a feature of the business environment. The same budget can be used to provide small unsolicited rewards to thank suppliers who have been helpful in solving difficulties: perhaps with a couple of bottles of wine or some flowers, but local customs will dictate. A not dissimilar situation arises if your team is approached with the choice between a small ‘instant fine’ from a visiting official and further action on a minor infraction. Sometimes it is not even clear how (or whether) the rules have


been broken. It might be worth paying the fine, but explaining to the official that it has to be documented as part of your own organization’s procedures. Being hauled into the local official HQ is not always a good idea: it could expose your team to officials higher up the food chain with larger expectations. The US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act makes a specific distinction between minor ‘grease’ payments, and bribery to influence decisions or to gain advantage over competitive rivals. The first is allowed but the latter is not. Further reading on this topic can be found at www.transparency.org.

ASSET REGISTER Most organizations already have an asset register system in support of their IT department. This should be used to track all installed equipment telecommunications and software. If there is no system in place, the project provides an ideal time to start the process. One useful technique is to pre-register assets, suitably marked as pending. This will help to identify where the assets will be physically placed and to tie in the records relating to connection. It will also help to identify equipment demands on power, heat and weight loading. In Europe, as mentioned earlier, Directive 2002/96/EC on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) creates a further requirement for accurate asset registers. These regulations will no doubt be reflected elsewhere. In any event the budget and planning process should allow for the personnel resources needed to complete the asset recording process.

BUDGET REDUCTION As the budget is developed for approval it is inevitable that unnecessary costs will be included. The total will almost certainly exceed the amount the business client had expected. It is a normal part of the process to undertake a full budget review before it is presented for approval. Each line of the budget should be inspected to see whether: • • • • • •

the entry is accurate; the item is necessary; a lower price can be negotiated; alternative quotations have been sought; it is necessary to use expensive standard equipment, or cheaper alternatives would be acceptable; local supply of goods or services would be cheaper than importing;


• • •

a cheaper alternative can be substituted without compromising quality or impacting timescale; there are cheaper methods of financing; the expenditure can be postponed.

Optional items should be identified and discussed with the business to see if it wishes to accept the expenditure. The anticipated expense claims from internal staff and directly billed contractors should be examined: • • • •

Are all planned trips necessary? Would the use of less expensive staff be more effective? A lower grade of travel or accommodation might be appropriate. This should be examined before agreeing supplier contracts. Has the use of voice conferencing been considered in place of face to face meetings?

APPROVAL PROCESS As with any budget process, there should be an integrated approval process for the project budget. The project leader or delegated person should be given a technical approval role in that process. This means that no item can be added to the technology budget unless it has the approval of the project leader. There will need to be financial approvals as well, so the technology project team cannot add items unless the funding has been approved. There needs to be a full trail in the budget, so that embedded in each budget line is a schedule of items that are planned to give rise to the cost. When purchase orders or work orders are raised it should be possible to link back to the original schedule of items used to build the budget. If the purchase cannot be linked back to the original schedule, an approved variation should be documented. The schedule of items included in the technology budget should be made available to the project leaders of other discipline streams such as administration and construction so that duplication and budget gaps can be avoided. The purpose of these tight controls is not to make life difficult for the technology project team, but to prevent cost seepage by spotting cost items that have been erroneously recorded against the technology project budget. If the business requires that the budget be cut back, it will then be possible to clearly identify which items/services will be affected by the cuts before the decision is finalized. Once the budget has been approved by the steering group there should be a secondary approval process for work orders/purchase orders rather than


signatory approval for individual team leaders. The technology project leader, or delegate, should check that: • • • • • • • • •

the item is charged to the appropriate budget line; the correct costs are charged; the item is still needed; the item is correctly financed, for example by outright purchase, lease or rental; the delivery schedule matches the current progress plan; where timesheets support charges, limits have been placed on the hours/rates to be worked; the supplier is approved; the correct discounts have been applied; correct storage, insurance and delivery arrangements have been made.

Suppliers to the project should be warned that as part of the conditions of business, invoices will not be paid unless they can produce properly authorized purchase orders or work orders. As technology project leader, you should be in the position where at all times you can quickly produce an analysis of expenditure and committed expenditure. You should also be able to identify those items that were budgeted for but have not yet been ordered.

COST OF DELAY When planning the budget it is useful to establish the cost of delay: for example, if the project is delayed by one month, what costs or savings will arise? Then if it becomes necessary for additional unbudgeted expenditure to prevent project slippage, it will be easy to compare the additional cost against the cost if the delay were allowed. Many factors can affect the cost of delay, but to illustrate this point here are some potential items: • • • • • • • •

extended rental/lease of unused property; finance cost impact; retention/dual charge of services such as telecoms feeds; loss of business; cancellation fees for prescheduled marketing events; extra visits by supplier installation staff; extra storage and security costs; extended hours for project staff;


• • •

increased travel and expenses; increased short-term management overhead; cost of unused high-cost capital items.

It is obviously more difficult to assess intangible costs such as loss of reputation. Some of the costs of a delay might be recoverable from contractual penalties or liquidated damages, so an early pre-calculation of the potential cost will be useful in setting penalties in contracts. This can be quite important with key technology contracts, where failure to deliver on one service can delay the whole project.

COST OF PROGRAMME ACCELERATION There might be a need to accelerate a trading floor programme, perhaps to prevent project slippage or to meet a revised earlier deadline. If this need is identified during the initial planning or budgeting phase it will be easier to assess the cost impact and allow for it in the project budget. However, this kind of need for acceleration normally occurs later in the project, and the cost calculation can be somewhat more difficult. In any event, when scheduling is accelerated the project team should assess the impact on each of the budget lines. There will be a wide range of factors and opportunities to be considered. To look at them all in any depth would require a separate volume, but the following list will give an idea of the possibilities: • • • • • • • • •

introducing multiple shift working for the delayed activities; overtime working; working during weekends increasing the number of people in the team; scheduling activities that were sequential to take place in parallel; introducing an external organization to provide more resources; simplifying the requirements; using alternative technology to replace a delayed product/service; deferring nonessential features until after go-live.

Most of these will have some cost impact. For example an organization laying data cables will normally quote on the basis of having free unimpeded access to the areas where the cable is to be laid. If the timescales are compressed it may mean that data cables are being laid at the same time as ceilings are being installed. Both parties, cabling and ceiling workers, will find their productivity impaired and will probably want to be paid more to complete the job.


Where shift working, weekend and overtime working takes place the salary costs will be increased. Whenever an accelerated programme is proposed the project leaders should look carefully at the dependencies between the project activities, talk to the teams involved about the implications, then carefully assess the full cost impact. It will normally be much larger than first thought.

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Control

During a trading floor project several types of control need to be in place. They might not directly add to the progress of the project and will slightly increase the workload. However they are important in keeping costs and risks under control. This section describes the facilities and procedures that should be planned for in advance of arriving on site. There needs to be a budget for these controls. The project leader has a responsibility to ensure the project team are aware of the controls when they undertake detailed project planning. Account managers from the primary suppliers should also be briefed on the project control procedures.

PROJECT ACCOUNTANT All financial accounting for the project should be directed through one person or function that has a direct knowledge of the project budgets. The project accountant will help to prevent unauthorized purchases and incorrect charges against the project. He or she might need to oversee bank accounts to ensure they are properly funded, and will also need to ensure that appropriate supplier accounts are created. It may be necessary to run a cash float to cover urgent minor items purchased locally. The accountant or assistant will need to collate timesheet data so that accurate records are maintained on a timely basis. He or she will also need to ensure that


costs are correctly allocated to the business units, and to be involved in the negotiations for cost distribution when variances arise. The accountant will most likely be situated in an office away from the trading floor site. The project leader will need to ensure that there are good means of transmitting account documentation from project team members (on site) to the accountant. In the confusion of a construction project it is easy to mislay documents.

PURCHASE ORDERS If possible there should be a range of purchase order numbers dedicated to the project. In any event there should be a clear project rule that all purchases, except for minor expenses, must be subject to purchase order control. When the purchase order is raised the correct cost centre should be assigned before it is released for authorization. The details of cost should then be assigned to a cost commitment budget pending invoicing. As part of the purchase order process, reference should be made to the relevant project budget lines. As project leader, either you or a support person you delegate should approve any purchase order relating to the trading floor technology budget before issue to the supplier. You should ensure the project accountant has details of the purchase, and that the staff generating the purchase orders also supply supporting information such as detailed quotations, competitive quotes and reference to the contract documents that cover the purchase.

WORK ORDERS Work orders are similar to purchase orders but tend to be used for the authorization of resource allocation from internal departments. They should be subject to the same controls as purchase orders.

DELIVERY NOTES You should make arrangements to ensure that delivery notes are checked when goods are delivered. Copies of the notes should be made available to the accounting function as part of the payment approval process. Often in reality these notes are left attached to packaging which is then thrown out. Arrangements should be made to collect and retain packaging that might be required to return an item if it fails installation tests.

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Where services are being delivered there should be a control process in which a project team member ensures the work is certified (see below) as having been completed. Where phased payments are made depending on progress, arrangements should be made to define and measure the partial completion stages. As part of the delivery note process, reception procedures should be in place to arrange the correct installation or storage, and the update of the relevant asset register.

TIMESHEETS Where possible a timesheet computer system should be employed to capture the details of chargeable hours worked by internal project staff. It should have an authorization method, so the hours are not registered until a nominated manager has validated and accepted them. The system should automatically validate the cost centre used against the approved budget cost codes. Where external organizations are charging on a time and materials basis, they should be asked to present summary timesheet figures electronically. This should be coupled with a requirement to deliver timesheet images electronically, or on CDs if necessary. It is possible to record hours using project management software, but in practice basic project management tools such as Microsoft Project are normally found to be too inflexible.

EXPENSES Project team members should be issued with, and their claims controlled by, expenses guidelines. Compliance should be enforced by inspection and signatory approval of claims. Special exemption to the normal corporate expenses guidelines might be necessary for the project team members, since their spending patterns could be substantially different from those of operational personnel. An expense submission should be properly supported by documentary evidence. The project accountant should be alert to expenses wrongly charged to the project by other technology or business areas. This can be facilitated by having a schedule of anticipated expense items and discounts prepared and maintained for each team member. Hotel expenses can often be limited by providing one or more service apartments for those team members who need to stay near the site for longer than a few days.


DESK DATABASE One piece of control data should be a central database of desk details on the trading floor and back office areas. So many services are dependent on the number and position of desks that it is important to track and authorize any changes to the desk arrangements. There should be a change control process for variations in the usage of desks. The system will also need to track desk positions reserved for expansion. Each desk position should be allocated a unique number. A detailed accurate plan should be drawn up showing the location of the desks. I recommend that this be prepared using a specialist drawing tool such as AutoCAD. The desk database should be linked to the: • • • • • • • •

asset database; phone database; personnel headcount list; patch cable database; trader identity database for trading turret system; voice recording system records; uninterrupted power supply (UPS) power provision records; display screen requirements.

It should be remembered that in a hot desking situation several people could be allocated to an individual desk. As soon as name lists are available they should be cross-checked against the desk database and any discrepancies investigated. As part of the planning process, personnel should be issued with a summary of the facilities planned to be delivered at their desks. A base-lining and change control process should be initiated to allow users to confirm the details and/or request approval of changes. In some situations, such as a change in headcount, it might be necessary to withhold information from individuals until approval is given by the project steering group. An effective way of presenting this data is via the intranet, using an application that allows individuals to check what has been planned. Exposing the information to the trading floor and back-office staff will provide feedback on whether the plans are realistic.

MILESTONES Project milestones – that is, dates by which key project events are scheduled to happen – should be established and published. Progress reviews should take

Control ❙ 187

place prior to the milestone dates to ensure that progress is satisfactory. The milestones should be events that are easily understood by all people involved in the project.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT METHODOLOGY There will need to be some form of methodology to track progress and to ensure that dependencies are properly evaluated. It should be lightweight so that real measures of progress are not buried under a pile of paperwork. The project leader should ensure that team members are aware of their deliverables, and that there is good communication flow among them. It is not acceptable to hide behind phrases like ‘I noted this in the progress report’ and ‘I sent you an email about this six weeks ago.’ The team must be proactive and chase up items that they feel other people might have forgotten. Review meetings are useful but no substitute for good teamwork. An effective way of tracking problems is to create and maintain an issues database.

PROJECT CALENDAR A useful management and control tool is a project calendar: that is, a diary covering the next couple of months. Each day lists project events that will complete or start. This gives a very clear reference that everybody can use to visualize the plan. Some people who are inexperienced with project management techniques are not comfortable working with Gantt charts and find project calendars easier to understand.

PERMIT TO WORK The project team should operate a permit to work scheme to control the planned installation work. The documents used are described later in this book, but in essence they contain a brief method statement of what works are planned, when and where they will take place. Other factors such as safety and risk assessments should also be part of the permit to work process. Local legislation might require a formal health and safety risk assessment before any individual works commence. The project leader should ensure that these rules are complied with for directly employed staff. Contractors and


vendors take direct responsibility for compliance, but the permit process should ensure that there is a suitable risk assessment by skilled personnel before a permit to work is issued. Among the risks to be considered are the handling of heavy equipment, overhead working and exposure to hazardous substances. You are advised to seek detailed advice, and to ensure that details of each risk assessment are retained in archival storage. The organization will probably have a safety officer who can provide initial advice, and the government agencies responsible for enforcing compliance also often provide advice. Contractors and vendors should not be allowed to commence any work until a permit to work has been issued.

SIGN-OFF AND CERTIFICATION Where works are undertaken by external contractors and vendors there should be provision for inspection by a nominated project team member, leading to a formal sign-off certificate. The person doing the inspection should ensure that the area of work has been left clean, tidy and secure. Rubbish and spare parts should be removed. Obviously the sign-off process should check that the installation has taken place in the correct place and that the correct facilities have been provided at the right time. If any works remain to be completed, the sign-off can be provisional, with an attached ‘snag list’ of the remaining items. The purpose of the sign-off is to ensure that work is complete and that unexpected costs and delays do not arise in fixing incomplete or wrong works. For example where the works include cabling, the inspecting team member should ensure it has been run along the right route, and does not interfere with other cabling that is in place or is planned. The sign-off certificates should be issued and copies retained as part of the formal project documentation. The project accountant should ensure that works needing sign-off are not paid for until the sign-off certificate has been issued.

STANDARDS In a trading floor construction project the team will need to be responsive to a rapidly changing environment. It can be counter-productive to insist on rigid standards or procedures that must be followed blindly. A project team member might produce perfect documentation but by focusing narrowly on the specification and standards, miss the fact that the project is going wrong or is not delivering what the business needs.

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On the other hand the team will need to follow certain controls and standards to ensure that progress is monitored effectively and costs are kept under control. Essentially what are needed are good management and a project team who have been trained in the project standards. All team members should be able to demonstrate that they usually operate within the standards. Any exception to standards should be thought through and be properly agreed by the appropriate management. A wide variety of standards are applicable to a typical project of this kind, many of which are compulsory: for example technology standards relating to installation methods, materials used, project management, security and safety and so on; building construction standards, and health and safety standards. Ensuring compliance is the task of the professionals in the various teams. However the big challenge is to ensure that the project will meet future operational standards such as ITIL and BS 5577. As part of the project planning, the technology team should agree and document what operational standards will be supported as part of the project deliverables. The project team must agree in advance with operational management what data will be required for handover at the project end. The operational standards might affect the design of the trading floor construction and the choice of features provided. Meeting them will increase the workload and cost on the construction project, but this has to be balanced against a reduction in future operational costs.

PHASED PAYMENT Complex installation work that takes place over a long period might involve phased payments as the work progresses. There will need to be a system of interim certification when works reach each specified payment point. Project team members should be briefed in advance on how to measure progress and how the stages are defined. The project team should monitor progress proactively, so that when the contractor/vendor applies for interim certification they are in a position to agree, or to indicate what more is needed before they will agree to provide it, and not rely on the contractor’s assessment. The project accountant should check that the correct interim certificate has been signed before payment is made.

ASSET REGISTER I have already mentioned the need for an asset register in relation to disposal of equipment. The asset register should contain sufficient detail to make it


possible to trace each item of IT equipment from purchase order to disposal. The location of the equipment, the current ‘owner’ and any software installed should be tracked. From the accountancy viewpoint it is necessary to track items that have capital depreciation value. The asset register is also an important support tool from the IT operation viewpoint. A complete and current asset register is one of the control ‘documents’ that should be handed over at the start of the trading floor project. Most organizations already have an asset register system linked to their help desk facilities. It might be possible to utilize that system, but the challenge will be to isolate the project items/assets recorded for project roll-out purposes from those in normal operational usage. It might be more effective to set up a satellite asset register for the purposes of the project and then transfer the data to the main register at the point of ‘go-live’ handover. Similar asset register facilities will be required for recording service assets such as telephone circuits and services in a telecoms database. These are described in more detail later in the book.

RETURNS PROCESS Procedures should be developed to control the process of returning goods to suppliers. There are many possible reasons for an item to be returned, including warranty repairs, exchange for other items and wrongful delivery. The procedures should ensure that the return is documented. The process should take account of the supplier’s returned items policies. Where payment is due it might be necessary to delay payment until the return has been dealt with by the supplier. The return should be documented in the asset register. The returns procedures should ensure that the item is suitably packaged and documented, taking into account issues such as customs levies and import/export licences. The packaging should ensure that the item cannot be damaged through shock or crushing during transit. The method of packaging and protection used should be documented. The original manufacturer packaging might not be sufficient for the safe return of a single item. The despatch should be witnessed and the transit should be tracked through to delivery back to the supplier. Ideally the items should be photographed prior to packaging and the packages photographed prior to collection by the carrier. This can help in any disputes about the return of goods in an undamaged condition.

Control ❙ 191

SECURITY CONTROL Security control should be in place on the project site from when work commences until the facilities are handed over to the business. This is necessary for safety, risk reduction and financial reasons. There will need to be a published policy on security, and team members will need to be briefed on the rules. The security controls should be enforced. This might call for provision in the overall project budget for security guards and facilities such as cameras. Unauthorized personnel should not be allowed access to the site. There might also be locations on site, such as the equipment room, where only specifically authorized personnel are permitted. As part of the access control, there could be a requirement for personnel to carry photo identity cards when on site. Provision will need to be made for the issue and return of them. The pass categories might include: • • • • •

project team members; construction contractors; technical equipment installation contractors; visitors; landlord representatives.

All people visiting the site should be logged and requested to sign in and out of the site. This will require the physical presence of a security guard. Deliveries of goods and any removals should be inspected and authorized.

CHANGE REQUESTS An essential control is the change request and approval process. This should be a documented process with a predefined set of documents and rules. Any change affecting the design, construction programme, installation schedule, cost or timescale should be subject to the process. Project team members should be given training/briefings on the change control process. The project leader should ensure that each change request is assessed for its impact on the project. Changes will need to be prioritized so that essential or time-critical ones are dealt with first, while the ‘nice to have’ are given a lower priority. Where the budget or timescale is affected by a proposed change it might need to be referred to the steering group. Any technology work changes that will impact the construction works, and vice versa, will need to be agreed and scheduled with the construction project leader.


The technology project leader should realize that the culture of contract variations and changes in the construction industry is quite different from that in the world of technology. The terms used might be similar, but the ethos is not. The construction industry has been around a lot longer, and profit margins are more finely honed. Minor changes to construction requirements can lead to substantial changes in costs. It is not unusual for contractors to enter a low initial bid for a contract in the knowledge that variations can be used to improve profit at a later stage. It is easy to develop a ‘blame culture’ when this has a serious effect on the budget. As technology project leader you must ensure that your team are very careful with change control for any requested changes to the construction requirements or timescale. A number of forms of communication could be construed by the contractors as change requests unless they are specifically excluded by the contract, including verbal, e-mailed and written suggestions, and even a failure to respond to a suggestion by the contractor. Sometimes contractors ask to be given ‘information’ within a short timescale (say five days), and if they do not receive it, treat this as the basis for a claim for variation, even though there has been no actual change in requirement. There should be a clear schedule of variances for both technology and construction as part of the change control process.

CRISIS CONTROL There should be a predefined project process and responsibilities for crisis control. This should be documented in advance, and personnel should be given instruction in the process. The process should define who should be notified when things go wrong, and who should then manage the situation. While in most cases this will be obvious, the simple precaution of telling team members in advance can help to reduce expensive mistakes.

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The data centre layout

In this book I use the term ‘equipment room’ as a broad synonym for a data centre associated with a trading floor. Many organizations have larger data centres separate from the ‘equipment room’, and equipment rooms tend to be smaller data centres. However, this chapter is entitled ‘data centre layout’ to emphasize that it covers the issues involved in the layout of rooms with both titles. The layout of the equipment room or data centre will be determined by a permutation of many factors. During the process there will inevitably be many redrafts of the layout and plan. The whole process will have to take into account the views of many interested parties. To facilitate this, I suggest the initial layout is prepared by the technology team using a simple software design tool such as Microsoft Visio. Versions of the plans published for comment should be available in Adobe pdf format. Strict version control is essential in the distribution of the documents. During the design process all plans must be very clearly marked as draft-status, and with the version number. When the design has been agreed it should then be checked by having the room layout plan redrawn from the Visio version by a skilled architectural draughtsperson using a high-precision drafting tool such as AutoCAD. This layout should be drawn on the measured building plans to ensure that the planned items will fit in the space available. The first stage is to identify the area in the premises where the equipment room is to be located. The technology team should be able to identify the rough


number of data cabinets required. The approximate space required, allowing for corridors, doors and air handling units (AHUs) can be quickly calculated. The layout of cabinets and AHUs can be affected by the method of cooling chosen and the heat load of the equipment in the cabinets. For example in areas of high heat load there might be in-row cooling cabinets or enclosed groups of cabinets with their own localized cooling. At this point the weight loading of the equipment on the floor must be taken into account. The capability of the floor to support heavy loads will often vary from point to point on it. The original designers of the building might have built in stronger areas to allow the placing of heavy loads. Sadly their ideas about the size of equipment rooms/data centres and weight loadings rarely match reality unless the building has been purpose built. This might mean that a floor space that looks ideal on the plan cannot be used, because either it will not support the load or the strengthened location is too small. Obstacles such as building support columns can often deny access to a substantial amount of floor area, and must be allowed for in the equipment layout design. Consideration should be given to business expansion plans. If the business thinks its technology needs will not grow substantially, a space calculation based on cabinet count would be sufficient. However if the business envisages (or does not rule out) a substantial future expansion, there are three choices: • •

•

Allocate the maximum amount of space likely to be required in future for the equipment room from the outset of the project, even though initially that the room might only be half-filled with cabinets. Size the equipment room to the initial space needs, but ensure adjacent office areas are designed so it is possible to expand it easily if necessary. This defers the expenditure on the expansion, but will have design implications for the siting of cabinet rows and permanent services such as AHUs. Size the equipment room to the initial needs but allow for expansion at a secure offsite data centre. This decision can have considerable implications for the data storage planning and for the design of wide area networks and local area networks.

If the space allowed for the equipment room by the construction project manager and/or the steering group is insufficient for the technology needs, do not hesitate to say so, and indicate that the design process cannot proceed until the problem is resolved. If you try to work with insufficient space, it will mean future operations are plagued by cooling and expansion problems. These types of operational weakness can prove very expensive over the lifetime of the trading floor.

The Data Centre Layout ❙ 195

If the steering group insist that no more space can be made available, the technology team may have to consider more extreme solutions such as operating all servers offsite, or replacing all servers with compact blade server technology. If possible such technology solutions should be avoided unless there is a history of successful deployment within the organization. Innovation in technology at the same time as a trading floor move increases the technical risk of failure to deliver on the implementation date. The combined demons of lack of space and inability to support loads might lead the steering group to suggest that the equipment room/data centre is located in a part of a building away from the trading floor. In this case the technology team will have to be very cautious about the technical limitations on the total length of structured cabling runs. The normal maximum run is about 150 ft (90 m). If a longer length is unavoidable, it is usually possible to find technical solutions such as fibre optic cabling and splitting equipment rooms, but these will increase the cost of the technology deployment. If possible once that the layout plan has been drafted a visit should be made to the site and an outline of the equipment room layout should be taped on the bare concrete floor. The outline should include the equipment cabinets, AHUs and doorways. The project team should have a couple of experienced members visit the marked-out room and visually inspect (eyeball) for design problems. This process often highlights problems that are not obvious from the paper plans. External factors or security considerations might require the equipment room to be shielded against electromagnetic emissions. There could be nearby electromagnetic interference (EMI) sources such as airport radar, ship radar in a port, government offices or a public radio transmitter, which might interfere with the electrical equipment. If this is the case, you are advised to seek specialist advice before the cabling structure, technology structure and building layout are designed. The section on shielding for boardrooms (see page 260) should give you a feel for some of the issues that might need to be considered for the equipment room and trading floor areas.

CABINETS Cabinets provide physical support for equipment, mounting points/guides for power and data cabling, help to direct cooling air flow, can reduce EMI and provide a secure enclosure for equipment. They normally have a standard 19 in (c. 48 cm) internal width for equipment mounting. However the external dimensions and internal depth can vary considerably depending on the design of the cabinet and the cable management methods provided.


The dimensions of each cabinet planned to be installed should be checked from the manufacturer specification and confirmed against the plan. It is normal to arrange the cabinets in rows in the equipment room. Sufficient space should be allowed between the cabinet rows to allow the cabinet doors to be opened free of hindrance to the front and rear of the cabinets. Data storage technology, such as tape robots and some EMC Centera equipment, might require proprietary cabinets with non-standard dimensions. The dimensions of the servers to be installed in the cabinets will also affect the amount of clearance needed between the rows. The corridor width from the front of the cabinet doors to the back of the next row (or wall) should be at least 8 in (20 cm) more than the horizontal diagonal distance of any servers that might need to be installed through the front of the cabinet. It could be necessary to move equipment cabinets around the room at a later stage, so the space needed for moves should be taken into account. If hot aisle/cold aisle cooling is employed there will need to be a minimum of 4 ft (1.22 m) width for the cold aisles and a minimum of 3 ft (1 m) for the hot aisles. When standard 2 ft x 2 ft (61 cm x 61 cm) floor tiles are installed, this means seven floor tiles between the centres of each aisle. If the cabinets contain a lot of hot equipment the aisle centre gap might need to be eight tiles wide or greater. If the cabinets are densely populated with equipment the air flow requirements can become an important issue. If there is an insufficient amount of cooled airflow for the intakes of equipment in the cabinets it is possible for hot spots to develop. As a rule of thumb each kilowatt of power will need an airflow of 150 cu ft/min (4.25 cu m/min) in open room space. The manufacturer specifications for the equipment normally provide data on the airflow requirements. There are limits to the amount of airflow from the front to back of cabinets that can comfortably be provided from vents in floor tiles. Hot cabinets with a high heat output should be distributed around the room to avoid creating the hot spots that can occur if they are clustered. An alternative approach is to provide a self-enclosed cluster of hot cabinets and associated cooling cabinets. APC and Rittal have a range of products and can offer specialist design consultancy. In some cases their systems can cope with up to 20 KW heat output per cabinet, yet not present a heat load to the rest of the room. When the floor plan for the cabinets has been accurately scaled it should be checked to ensure that equipment can be manoeuvred from the room entrance to all of the cabinets. An object representing a top view of the largest server, drawn to the same scale as the plan, can be ‘dragged’ around the plan shown on the computer screen. Where possible the cabinets should be aligned to the boundaries of floor tiles. This will help to prevent floor tiles in aisles from being trapped by equipment. This can be important when tiles need to be lifted at a later date. It


also simplifies the placing of any vent holes or cable holes in tiles located under the equipment cabinets. It is usual practice for the cabinets in rows to be aligned with the cabinets in adjacent rows, but this might need to vary where the cabinet or equipment rack has a nonstandard width. In a row of cabinets it might not be necessary to install side panels to the cabinets except at the extreme end of each row. This will reduce weight loading and cost. However for security reasons, air flow and reduction of EMI, it might be necessary to build the cabinets as complete units with side panels. If side panels are used they can slightly increase the width of the cabinet, so this is a design point to be checked at the time of layout. Consideration should be given to the height of the cabinets, plus any cabinettop cabling required. There should be a suitable access gap of at least 1 ft (30 cm) between the cabinet and the ceiling above. If it is not possible to achieve this, it could be necessary to use shorter cabinets or to provide additional ducting to remove hot air emerging from the top of the cabinet. Cabinet-top cabling can complicate these issues. When planning the floor placement of the cabinets, plans should be drawn up to document the vertical arrangements of servers within the cabinets. For each cabinet a vertical plan should be drawn listing the PCs, servers, network devices, inter-cabinet cabling patch plates, shelves, fan trays and so on to be installed. Most of this work will have already been undertaken during the costing stage, but it should now be completed. This process should help establish whether sufficient space has been allowed in the cabinets. The vertical arrangement of the cabinets will help determine where the redundancy servers are to be located. If the electrical power to the equipment room is three-phase it is normal practice for the redundant or backup servers to be powered from a different (wiring) phase to the phase used for the primary server. At the same time for reasons of electrical safety the designer should avoid placing different power phases in the same cabinet or in row-adjacent cabinets. If servers with dual power supply units are connected to different phases there is an increased risk of exposure to high voltages. There will need to be a delicate balance between the location of servers and the operational needs to closely colocate servers for the same application. A schedule of power requirements should be maintained for each cabinet. From the equipment scheduled to be installed in each cabinet it should be possible to assess its total steady state and switch-on power needs. This information should enable the creation of a heat map for the room. This does not need to be complicated, perhaps noting on the floor tile plan the potential hot spots in the room. This information can be used by the mechanical and electrical engineers to verify their cooling calculations. Where excessive power loads are present it might be necessary to increase the number of power distribution strips.


For small equipment rooms with limited air conditioning capability it may be worth considering self-contained cabinets such as the Liebert MCR series, which provides an enclosed air conditioning/UPS environment. This technique is also used in some data centres where the cooling requirements of individual loaded cabinets exceed the thermal capacity of the air flow in the room. During the design and layout process a cabinet numbering scheme should be decided and agreed with the technical project team and the operational management. The numbering scheme should allow for the expansion of rows/elimination of cabinets at a later point in the life of the equipment room. The numbering scheme will be reflected in the structured cable ports for the inter-cabinet cables. Within each cabinet the vertical position is normally defined by the number of standard cabinet height units (‘U’s) from the top (or bottom) of the cabinet. The cabinet number and U position of the equipment to be mounted should be reflected in the asset register.

RACKING Rack frames can be used to mount servers and other equipment. The racking can be purchased in standard sizes; it is lighter than cabinets, less expensive and will tend to take less floor space than cabinets. However the downside is the loss of security for individual servers. It is very easy to inadvertently dislodge power cables and network cables from the unprotected equipment. Open racking does not provide shielding against EMI. In a trading room business environment, action should be taken to reduce risk, so as a rule I would not recommend racking except for mounting patch panels for the structured and inter-cabinet cabling. This is not to say that open racking should not be used for mounting equipment; indeed some of the large internet server providers make extensive use of rack-mounted equipment. However in a trading room environment the design should reduce risk from sudden or intermittent failure where possible, even if there is an increased initial cost. Structured cabling racks are normally located together in a row in the equipment room. There will probably be one set of racks terminating the horizontal structured cables. Adjacent to this will be the structured cabling racks for the inter-cabinet cabling. Voice cable patching from the PBX, MDF and trading turret system cabinets will be adjacent to the horizontal patch racks. The rack layout will need to include space for the data switches that service the horizontal data connections to the trading floor and the inter-cabinet backbone networks. While it is possible to mount the switches in adjacent cabinets, it is more usual to locate them in the patching racks to simplify the cabling.


Where racking is used to mount data cabling patch plates, provision will need to be made for cabling guides and cable containment. This might be needed for both copper and fibre optic cable. There will need to be both vertical containments and horizontal containments to provide support for the cables. Enclosed termination boxes will be needed for fibre optic terminations as a safety precaution. The impact of the vertical cabling containment will be to increase the width of the racks to allow for cable containment at the side of each rack frame. The width required for the containment will depend on the number of cables and the thickness of the cables used, for example Cat6 cables can take more space than Cat5e cables. A fully loaded Cat6 rack might need 12 in (approx 30 cm) ‘vertical management’ space at the side of the patch rack to accommodate the cable handling and service loops. It is also the norm to allow a ‘service loop’ of spare length when cables are terminated at the back of the racks. This allows flexibility to move or reterminate the cable when needed, but it doubles the amount of space needed in the rack cable containment. When the rack is fully configured and populated there will be many patch cords in place on the cabling racks. Some patching will be within the individual rack frames and some will cross between frames. There should be sufficient cable guides and/or support combs to ensure that the patch cords can be kept tidy.

EARTHQUAKE ZONES Where the locality is subject to earthquakes there might be specific rules and regulations for how equipment cabinets and racking are secured and mounted. The cabinets will need to be securely affixed to the concrete subfloor using mounting kits to prevent tipping and cable damage. Some manufacturers, including APC, AMCO, Great Lakes and NER, provide seismic cabinets designed for environments exposed to earthquakes. As technology project leader you should seek specialist advice when planning a trading floor located in an earthquake zone. However, seek management approval before designing for earthquake resistance. I know of a case where a commercial data centre was constructed at great cost to full earthquake resilience in Moscow, where earthquakes are rare.

CABLE CONTAINMENT AND ROUTES The cable containment and cable pathway routing can have an impact on the layout design of the equipment room.


• • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Power cabling will need to be separated from data cabling. Cable trays, baskets or ducting will be needed to support cables above the ceiling and/or below the raised floor. Fibre optic cables will need protective enclosure ducting. Cable routes should not obstruct other cable routes. Cable routes between the cabinets and the patch racking should be considered. It might be necessary to have cable ladders to span cabinet rows if underfloor space or ceiling space cable routes are limited. Vertical cable runs up interior walls will need a containment construction, such as boxing. Providing service access to this boxing can prevent the adjacent positioning of equipment to the cable run. Cable routing should not obstruct air flow from the air conditioning. Cable routing should avoid other obstacles such as air ducting, piping and support beams. Data cabling routes should avoid fluorescent light fittings. Cable routing should be accessible for future maintenance to allow the addition, replacement or removal of cables. Cable routing should not obstruct the maintenance access for other building facilities. Cable routes will need access to the building risers. Cable bundles should be small enough to fit within the cable trays and where necessary building risers.

Designing the cable routing can be a complex task. It needs careful consideration of the building and construction plans, their obstacles and risks. The scheduling of data and power cabling work will affect the schedule for the building works. Cable pathways should be labelled with a consistent numbering scheme. It should be possible to identify from the plan which pathways are followed by individual data cables.

RACKING FOR TELECOMS EQUIPMENT Specialized racking will be required to terminate the voice services delivered to the equipment room. The high-volume voice circuit delivery will normally be via fibre optic cable terminated in a telecoms cabinet or in the PBX, or perhaps coaxial cable in place of fibre optic. However in addition for legacy services there will be a requirement to provide a termination for copper pair cables for direct exchange lines and other low-capacity data circuits. These terminations for copper delivery are normally made by external engineers to a main distribution frame (MDF). This can be a framework or a large board holding


punchdown wiring blocks. The external telecoms cables are connected to the rear of the blocks. Interconnect cables to the main patch panels are also connected to the punchdown blocks. Patching between the blocks is achieved with copper pair wires. Space will need to be found in the equipment room for the location of the MDF frame or backboard. To reduce cable lengths the MDF will need to be located close to the main patch panel racking. Space will be required behind the MDF to allow for the telecoms company connections. Cable routing will be needed for telecoms vendor fibre optic cables, copper cables and ducting from the building risers to the MDF and telecoms cabinets. The routing chosen should if possible be separate from the main structured cable system so that the work of the external vendor engineers will not interfere with the structured cabling. The multi-pair copper telecoms cables can be quite thick, so care needs to be taken in selecting the appropriate routing in the data centre and building risers. It is not a decision that should be left solely to the PTT vendor’s engineers at the time of installation.

UPS CABINETS The uninterrupted power supply (UPS) arrangements can vary considerably. In a more traditional arrangement of a data centre the UPS units and batteries are contained in a separate part of the building, with dedicated power cabling to the equipment room. The older-style UPS systems can be quite noisy in operation, and also generate a substantial amount of heat. In some cases however, particularly in a multi-tenanted building, it is not possible to provide a separate UPS room, and might be necessary to install UPS cabinets in the equipment room to provide a stand-by power service. The modern units can be quiet in operation and very efficient in the conversion and storage of power, thus reducing the amount of heat generated. Placing UPS cabinets in the equipment room can give rise to several design considerations: • • • •

The cabinets might be larger than the standard equipment cabinets. The battery cabinets can be very heavy, easily exceeding 1 tonne. Careful consideration needs to be given to whether the raised floor and the subfloor can support the load. The battery packs will be heavy and physically quite long. Sufficient space needs to be allowed in the aisle to allow safe access and battery loading by the engineers. Wall space will be needed for the bypass switch box.


• • •

Cable routes will need to be assigned for the power whips/cables running from the UPS breaker switch cabinet to the equipment cabinets. Consideration should be given to the EMI generated by the UPS system and the associated power cables. Suitable shielding should be considered. The heat output from the unit will be approximately 5–7 per cent of the total power consumption of the room. The cabinet generating this heat load will need to be positioned where the cooling system can best handle it.

AHU CABINETS AND PIPEWORK At an early stage in the planning the technology project team will need to know the physical size of the AHUs that will be placed in the equipment room. The team will also need to know where the construction design engineers intend to place the units to obtain the best airflow. This whole part of the design process will be somewhat recursive because the design engineers will not know where to place the cabinets until the equipment room layout design has been completed. This type of design conundrum emphasizes the need for good communication between the design teams. The AHUs are usually mounted on the subfloor concrete surface, against a wall. Airflow is usually directed under the raised floor to vent tiles, then the warmed air is returned to the top of the unit. In other cases the AHU is positioned outside the room and the airflows are directed by metal ducting to/from the appropriate place in the room. The AHU is normally located near the centre of a wall to ensure the best airflow distribution; if there is more than one AHU against a wall, they are usually evenly spread. If the cooling design for the room is hot/cold aisles the location of the AHU air intake should be aligned with the hot row. It is important to extract the hot air as efficiently as possible to avoid it mixing with the cooler air to cold aisles. In some cases it may be appropriate to install air extract vents above the hot aisle, with ducting leading back to the AHU intake. The weight of the AHU can be substantial, and might exceed the design load capacity of the floor, so it might be necessary to install load-spreading steel reinforcement plates. The planning will need to allow for the positioning of the plates so they do not interfere with other equipment or cable routes. There will normally be a minimum of two AHUs in the equipment room, each with sufficient capacity to handle the normal cooling load. This redundant configuration will allow the room to continue in operation if one of the units fails or is switched off. The units are often, but not always, placed at opposing ends of the room.


The AHUs will normally have inspection panels/doors built in to allow maintenance and replacement of pump, pulley belts etc. The layout of the equipment room must allow sufficient space for those inspection doors to be opened without hindrance from the equipment cabinets. A point to consider during the schedule planning of the building works is that often the AHU cabinet is too large to fit through a standard doorway. If this is the case it will be necessary to ensure it is set in place before the walls are finished. The AHU will need to be serviced with coolant pipes, condensate drain pipes and water supply pipes. The coolant pipes will need to be insulated to prevent heat loss/gain. If the coolant system is based on refrigerant gas cooling rather than chilled water, there will be more piping to allow for the cooled and heated gas. This piping will need supporting containment trays and should be routed away from any cabinets, racking, power cables and data cables. The piping is normally routed to a nearby building riser. The AHU will need also to be serviced with power cabling and signalling cables. The signalling cables need a route to the building management system. Often there is signalling cabling to be routed between the AHUs in the equipment room. It is normal to have some form of tanking under the AHU to collect water from leaks or condensation. This tanking might interfere with the positioning of raised floor support pillars, so the impact of this will need to be considered in the design and layout of the room. If the tanking is not in place, water could spread under the raised floor, potentially causing operational problems.

FLOOR TILE ARRANGEMENT When architects produce design drawings for a trading floor and its associated equipment room they normally align the raised floor tile grid to an obvious baseline. The selection is often somewhat arbitrary. However in the equipment room it is beneficial to take into account the best position of the equipment cabinet rows. Where possible the front of an equipment cabinet row should be aligned with the edge of a floor tile. This helps to prevent trapped tiles, where it is impossible to lift a tile that is partially covered by a heavy cabinet. This tile/cabinet alignment also gives better support performance from the underlying support pedestals, involving less bending moment on the structure of the tile. Where possible the ends of a cabinet row should also align with the edge of a floor tile. At the edges of rooms and close to equipment, such as AHUs, that is mounted on the concrete subfloor, it is highly likely partial tiles will have to be installed.


Active consideration needs to be given to the support arrangements for the partial tiles. Where possible support pedestals should be installed at their edges. The raised floor support structure should have a metal beam edging to provide support at the external edge of the tiles and also to prevent any lateral movement. This support structure at the edge of the floor and around subfloormounted equipment can have an impact on the possible routing of any subfloor cabling and pipework. All too often I see raised floor installations where some of the partial tiles are not fully supported. This can be quite hazardous for unsuspecting workers. The raised floor layout needs to consider the positioning of air vent tiles: tiles with perforations cut through or with metal vent grilles installed. There is usually a damper valve to control the airflow through the vents, and the vents and damper arrangements normally add a few centimetres of depth to the tile. In planning the subfloor arrangements the designer should ensure that the vents and dampers do not conflict with other installations such as cabling and piping.

LIGHTING The lighting arrangements in the equipment room should be aligned so that the ceiling luminaires are positioned above and in line with the aisles between the cabinets and the corridors at the ends of the rows. Placing the luminaires directly above the cabinets leads to areas of shadow inside the cabinets, which will make it difficult for technicians to see when they work inside them. Data cabling runs above the ceiling should be planned to avoid the luminaires; this is necessary to reduce the EMI radiation from the fluorescent light ballasts and starters. Data cabling should be at least 1 ft (30 cm) from the light fittings, and avoid running in close parallel to fluorescent light units. In areas where that is not possible, it could be worth considering some form of EMI shielding for the cabling.

CORRIDORS The equipment room layout should allow space at the end of the cabinet rows for corridors. The corridors should provide sufficient space to facilitate the movement of equipment cabinets and similar-sized equipment within the room. They should be configured to ensure there are no fire traps. Additional corridor space might be necessary to allow the installation of security cages or bar walls if the room is to be divided into security areas.


EXPANSION The design of the equipment room layout should always consider potential expansion, which usually takes place while trading operations continue. The designer should consider the direction that expansion is most likely to take. Normally there is a wall that can be shifted outwards to provide a larger room. The construction process for expansion might be to build the new wall in place with appropriate raised floor arrangements, then remove the original wall and fill the gap in the raised floor. With careful methods of work and temporary barriers it is possible to achieve this without halting operations. However the process of expansion will be considerably eased if during the initial build project, no key equipment or services are installed against this expansion wall. In particular no data cabling or external vendor communications cabling should be placed against it. Some modular building systems are available for technology room walls. These can facilitate expansion of the room at a later date. Cabling and pipe routes should be designed so that it is convenient to expand into the new area.

DOORWAYS AND SERVICE HATCHES The technology team will need to consider the location of any doorways and service hatches. Doors to service risers should not be obstructed by equipment such as cabinets, piping or cabling. The space needed for opening should be checked carefully. The vertical height of doors in the main building structure might be relevant, and should be checked to ensure that any raised floor or false ceiling planned will not obstruct the door. Ceiling-mounted building services such as air duct valve boxes might have inspection hatches or controls, and provision should be made for access to them by the landlord’s engineers. This could put constraints on the location of equipment below the access points. If the control valve is on water piping it might be a source of leaks. To prevent accidental spillage a drip tray might need to be mounted under the valve.

RAMPS AND STEPS If the raised floor in the equipment room is at a different level from the floor outside, a step or ramp might be needed at the entrances to the room. A ramp outside the


room is simplest to construct, but the external corridor is often too narrow and the ramp has to project into the room. Steps are rarely provided now, because in many countries they contravene regulations on access for disabled people. Where the ramp projects into the equipment room, sufficient space should be free after the end of the ramp to enable the movement and manipulation of large equipment. Its slope should be about 1 in 20, and it will need a robust handrail to prevent users from tripping or falling from it. The technology team should ensure that any ramp has the same supporting strength as the main raised floor. Additionally the ramp should be built to withstand lateral movement as heavy equipment is wheeled on to it.

STORAGE Allowance should be made for the storage of spares and consumables needed during normal operations. Usually this secure storage is located outside, but close to, the equipment room. Consumables might include air conditioning filters, printer paper, patch cords, power cords, cable ties, tack mats, overshoes, cleaning materials, vacuum cleaners and batteries, while among the spare items normally stocked are screens, telecoms cards, cabinet shelving and fan trays.

POWER BREAKER CABINETS The power circuitry in the equipment room should be designed so it is possible to isolate the power to any individual cabinet. In addition to the individual breakers a main breaker switch should be provided. A location will need to be designated for the switch breaker panel, typically on a wall close to the entrance door. It should be easily accessible by authorized personnel, and sufficient space should be allowed for removal of the service cover. The panel should be enclosed with a lockable door to prevent inadvertent operation of the switches or breakers.

EMERGENCY POWER OFF (EPO) Most equipment rooms have an emergency power off (EPO) button, to enable the immediate switch-off of all power to the room. This is sometimes useful in the event of a fire, electrical fault or electrocution, but these buttons can be more trouble than they are worth, particularly if there is a good breaker box arrangement. The more likely need is for the fast removal of power from a single


cabinet. Accidental triggering of the EPO, causing a sudden power down to an entire trading room environment, can cause all kinds of problems including lost data, file corruption and recovery delays. If you decide an EPO is necessary, make sure it is easily accessible but encased to be safe from accidental operation. A good location is close to the fire alarm button, but make sure it is very clear which is which. Do not locate the EPO next to the main door release button. The button location should be monitored by surveillance cameras.

WATER HANDLING Wherever water is used in an equipment room there is a risk of leakage. Where uninsulated chillant pipes run through or above the area there is the risk of water vapour condensate forming. Other leaks can be caused by valve gland or gasket failure. They can cause electrical faults or corrosion, so all leaks must be detected and controlled. It is more common for direct chilled water to be used for cabinet cooling with increased cabinet heat loads, but this increases the risks of leakage. The connections will be ‘leak proof’, but careless engineers can still find a way of spilling (sometimes large quantities of) water. Drip trays or waterproof tanking should be installed under any item of equipment that could be subject to leakage. They will contain any leakage, and should be equipped with drainage to extract the liquid. They should also be equipped with a leak-detecting sensor so the leak does not go unnoticed and its source uncorrected. The leak detection system should be linked into an environmental monitoring system, such as the building management system (BMS), to ensure operational monitoring and response 24 hours a day. Even if there are no requirements for tanking some consideration should be given to drainage. A leak somewhere above the technology room, or perhaps water from a fire hose, would necessitate its use. Some drainage route should be available for any water that accumulates under the raised floor. The siting and routing of the drainage pipes, drip trays and tanking can have an impact on the design and layout of the equipment room.

BUSINESS ACCESS NEEDS – SECURE AREAS A trading floor equipment room is normally a secure room where access is granted only to a limited number of authorized personnel. The main door and the access control system normally control physical access. Sometimes zones of higher


security are required within the room. Perhaps vendor engineers need access to a part of the room, but should be prevented from accessing other secure areas. In this case the lower-security areas, with equipment of lower security mounted in cabinets, are normally located close to the entrance door. In smaller equipment rooms zoned security can be provided using multi-bay cabinets such as the SMC Colo range, which have two or three bays within a rack, each with its own secure access doors. It is also possible to provide security cages with heavy metal mesh walls. Those with particular concerns can use versions of cabinets, such as the SMC Smart Cabinet II, that have remote locking and access monitoring capabilities. The technology project team should ensure the construction project team are aware of the security requirements at an early planning stage. The area of high security should be separated from the rest of the equipment room by a solid wall or a wall of bars. This should run from the ceiling slab of the building to the subfloor slab. The entrance gate to the secure area should be locked and protected by the access control system. Video recording cameras should monitor the secure area and entrances. If it is not possible to zone off a secure portion of the room, security cages can be provided for cabinets containing sensitive equipment. All cabinets in high-security areas should be locked and fitted with door-open alarms. The walls of a high-security area should contain some reinforcement to prevent their being knocked through. In areas of high security some attention should be given to any building service risers that open into the secure area or run close to the area. Sometimes still higher-level precautions are necessary, such as a security guard and an airlock/turnstile to prevent unauthorized tailgating at an entrance. However that level of security is not within the scope of this book.

BUILDING STRUCTURE (COLUMNS) Building columns are a fact of life in most multi-storey buildings, so the equipment room design must take account of them. Check and measure their positions carefully when drawing up the plan, taking account of any protective fire cladding. Columns are often useful as a cabling or piping route from ceiling to floor. The floor support pedestals around columns should be carefully planned to ensure that floor tiles abutting them are properly supported.

WINDOWS The ideal equipment room does not have windows, but things are not always ideal, and in a multipurpose office building the windows are a factor for the


technology team to consider. It is unlikely that the building owner will allow equipment to be mounted against the windows, and this can reduce the options for mounting equipment such as switch breaker boards. The owner will probably also not permit bundles of cable to be visible from the outside. If there are continuous curtain windows, the raised floor will probably need a containment wall built adjacent to the window to seal the air conditioning plenum. The edging of the raised floor will need support to prevent lateral movement against the glass. Some form of blinds will be necessary to help reduce solar heat gain and to increase security by hiding the contents of the room. If the windows are at ground level or easily accessible from the outside, they will need security features such as bars.

OVERHEAD SERVICES The layout and design process must take into account existing and planned building services in the ceiling void.

Supporting beams The layout of services in the ceiling void must consider the location of structural support beams. This is not normally a problem provided it is considered in the design process and service route planning. Knowing the location of the support beams below the floor can be of use when planning the positioning of heavy equipment. It is sometimes possible to locate heavy equipment above the beams, but specialist advice should be sought from a structural engineer.

Air The air conditioning in a equipment room will be largely self-contained. The air will be heated, cooled, dried, moistened and filtered by the air-handling units. However some fresh air input will be needed from the main building system to avoid suffocating the workers in the room. An air duct will provide this facility. There might be a need for filter boxes for the incoming building air supply. The filters will need to be accessed via service hatches, and space planning must take this into account. There might also be air ducts in the ceiling void servicing other parts of the building. Their route must be known when cabling routes are being planned. Where there are path conflicts it might be necessary to reroute either the cabling or the air duct.


Fire suppressant gas If the room is equipped with a gas-based fire suppressant system, consideration must be given to the routing of the gas release pipes. These are normally quite wide (approx 3 in/8 cm) to facilitate the rapid release of the gas. The pipes obviously run from the gas storage cylinders to the release vents, which are usually located subfloor (to serve that space), in the ceiling for release to the main room, and above the false ceiling for release into the ceiling void. A system of exhaust ducts will be required to extract the gas from the room following the release. These ducts must service the same areas as the release pipes, and take the extracted gas to a safe release point outside the building. At some point in the system there will need to be exhaust fans and fire damper valves to prevent fire using the duct as an entry to the equipment room. The layout plan for the equipment room will need to consider the routing of the extinguisher gas pipes and ducts. Designing this routing will normally be part of the task of the building contractors, but the technology team will need to be aware of the design decisions when planning the data cable routes.

Power The equipment room will consume a relatively large amount of electrical power. The cabling to and from the breaker panel will need to be routed either above the ceiling or below the floor. If the raised floor is being used solely as an air plenum without any cabling in the floor void, it will increase the complexity of routing cabling in the ceiling void and up the walls of the equipment room. Some equipment cabinets are designed to carry power cabling across their tops and have purpose-designed troughs for it. The important design factor is to keep data cables shielded from power cables, particularly if they run in parallel for any length. Cabinet-top cable trays will help to reduce the space demands in the ceiling void.

Water Where possible the equipment room should be located in an area without any water pipes or drainage above it. There is a risk of direct leaks from pipes, particularly if there are any valves or filters, and if a pipe contains chilled water there will be a risk of condensation forming. I vividly recall inspecting the equipment room for one trading floor and finding a plastic water pipe, which had been sawed through by an unskilled worker, just above an important live network switch cabinet. Fortunately someone had remembered to turn off the water, but the ceiling tile had been replaced leaving the cut pipe unmended.


FLOOR LOADING The design and layout process will have produced a complete plan of the cabinets and their equipment load. An assessment should be made of the weight of those cabinets and how the load is spread on the floor below. A structural engineer should check the loadings against the design capabilities of the floor. It is possible for the technology team to carry out approximate calculations, but proper assessment needs a skilled buildings engineer. The weight will be concentrated as point loadings on the pedestals that support the raised floors. This could mean, taken simply, that the weight of an 800 Kg cabinet is concentrated on just 54 sq in (350 sq cm) of floor area. A version of the equipment room plan should be drawn up showing the position of the cabinets and the weight of them as configured. The source weight information for the component items designated to cabinets should be held in the asset database. This plan will need to be consulted if delivery of very heavy items is taking place and the existing floor loadings are close to tolerance. In extreme cases this can have an impact on the sequence of equipment installation. A separate version of the plan should be drawn showing the projected weight allowing for full cabinets following expansion of equipment installation.

Delivery routes When planning the installation of heavy equipment (such as blade servers, security safes and UPS battery cabinets), the project team should consider the delivery route. Corridors and lifts (elevators) might not be designed to take the weight, and some prestige floor surfaces such as marble could be damaged by the weight passed through the wheels of the delivery trolley. In some cases it might be necessary to assemble the components after installation of the supporting cabinet, or to install temporary reinforcement (such as steel plates on the corridor to spread the load). Another option if equipment is too large or too heavy for delivery along existing corridors is delivery by crane through a window void. These types of issues are normally handled by the vendor, but you should give them consideration since they could affect the schedule of other construction work items. For example, delivery by crane might be constrained by the permitted timing of a temporary road closure, or it might be necessary to delay other construction work until the heavy/large equipment delivery has taken place.


COOLING Air handling units The location of the AHUs in the equipment room will normally be determined by the construction main contractor’s mechanical and electrical engineer. That decision should be made in agreement with the technology project team and the installation commissioning engineers. Factors such as airflow, cooling needs, maintenance access, types of floor tile vents, maximum coolant pipe lengths, redundant operation facilities and the weight of the equipment will be considered. Details of the size of the unit and the amount of access space needed will be required at an early stage in the planning.

Cabinet-mounted cooling The technology project team designer might identify that the amount of heat output by a cabinet is too great to be dispersed by normal methods of free airflow conditioning. There are methods available to enhance the cooling available to a cabinet. One method is by extraction hoods which fit either on the top of, or at the back of the cabinet. The hood leads to an extract duct that is returned directly to the AHU hot air intake. Additional fans built in the hood can expedite the extraction process. An alternative method is to have chilled water fed to the cabinet, with heat exchange coils built into the structure of the cabinet or to plug-in units. This method can extract a considerable amount of heat but will increase the complexity of cabinet installation. APC produces a fan-assisted door which fits on the back of its standard cabinet and can increase air flow and deliver heated exhaust air to extract ducts. IBM has recently announced a 4 in (10 cm) thick water-cooled rear door (Heat eXchanger) for its standard 42 U cabinets, which can extract up to 15 KW using a 10 gallons per minute water flow. Engineer advice should be sought on the size of the chilling system and pipework required to service these water flows. APC also has inter-cabinet coolers that are the height of a standard cabinet and fit at the side of a normal cabinet. These extract hot air from the rear of the cabinet row and blow cooled air to the front of the cabinets. Consideration should be given to the methods and facilities required to deal with possible water leakage where such high flow rates are envisaged. The pumping motors and chillers will need to be protected by battery-backed standby power, otherwise the serviced server cabinets could quickly overheat in the event of a building power supply failure. Some of these solutions can increase the floor space required for the cabinets, so their use must be incorporated in the space floor planning. Similarly the


weight of the cabinet-mounted cooling, piping and water should be included in the weight budget for the area.

Hot and cold aisles The type of equipment to be housed in the cabinets will affect the method of cooling used for them. If there will be mostly full-depth servers/network equipment in a cabinet there will be little opportunity for free air circulation inside it. In this case it might be advisable to operate a hot aisle/cold aisle cooling environment. If the cabinet contains a lot of equipment of varying depth, hot aisle/cold aisle cooling might not work quite so well, and air vents at the base of the cabinet and exhaust fans at the top might prove to be a more effective method. These cabinets should if possible be located away from any hot/cold aisles to avoid mixing of the heated air. Similar cooling problems can arise if the equipment cooling air flow is not designed for dense mounting in a hot/cold aisle environment. In these cases it may be necessary to employ inter-server spacing gaps within the cabinet and/or air flow supplementation with fan trays installed within the cabinet. When deciding on the configuration of the cabinet the designer should check the manufacturer specification for any limitations on cabinet mounting. In the cold aisle the front of the servers will be presented either side of the row. Cool air is taken in at the front of the server and hot air propelled to the back of the server by the fans built into the servers. The cabinets are equipped with perforated metal doors to allow airflows. The cabinet rows are set back to back so the hot air is contained in the hot aisle. The width of the hot row will need to be sufficient for the hot air to be mixed and allow a free return to the intake of the air-handling unit. The floor tiles in the cold aisle are perforated or vented to allow the flow of cold air from the subfloor. Where the cabinets are not full of equipment, they should be fitted with blanking plates at the front to prevent the hot and cold air mixing. Recently plastic clip-on plates have been introduced which are quick and easy to fix.

Airflow The cooled air is fed into the raised floor plenum. It is released via vent tiles to the base of the cabinet or is allowed to wash over the front of the cabinet. Equipment fans suck cool air into the servers from the front and the warm air is ejected to the rear of the cabinet/rack. The warm air is then returned along a hot aisle to the air intake of the AHU. If a vent tile is positioned too close to an AHU the speed of the output cooling air from the AHU can create negative pressure because of the Venturi effect. In


this case warm air might be sucked into the plenum rather than cool air blown out. The cabinet/racking rows should be designed to help reflect the airflow and ensure that cooling air is not mixed with the warm air. It might be necessary to use down flow cooling, where fan coil units or ducts are mounted above the top of the cold aisles and direct cold air into those zones.

Plenum The plenum under the false floor is designed to hold a reservoir of cool air. This is fed by the fans in the AHUs that pressurize the cooled air in the plenum. Ideally there should be no subfloor obstacles such as pipes or cables to disrupt the air flow. Better air pressure distributions are achieved if the flows from the AHUs do not collide subfloor. The floor surface and subfloor walls should be sealed to prevent leakage and loss of pressure, except in those places, such as vent tiles, where it is desired to release the cool air.

Vent tiles There are various types of vent tile designed to release air from the raised floor plenum: • • • •

Simple holes in a tile. In a hot/cold aisle scenario these are effective at up to 3 KW per rack, the constraint being the amount of airflow possible via these simple tiles. Floor grates, with dampers. Placed at the front of cabinets/racks, these are effective for heat loads between 3–8 KW per rack. The dampers can be used to help regulate the airflow around the room. Some manufacturers provide a fan-assisted vent assembly which can be fitted at the base of a cabinet. The fans extract air from the plenum below and direct the cooling stream to the front interior of the cabinet. Higher heat loads may require fan-assisted vent tiles at the front of the cabinet and/or extract hoods.

Cabinets containing a mix of equipment size might have vent holes directly beneath the cabinet with the air flowing directly into the cabinet via the base.

Cabling holes Where the cabinet or racking is fed with cabling from below the floor, a large hole will be needed to pass the cabling through. There might be power cables routed from under the raised floor to switching gear. These holes should be


sealed after the cable has been installed in order to reduce the air leakage from the plenum. Where possible the design of the equipment room should avoid subfloor cabling, since this will reduce the places where air can leak.

FIRE SUPPRESSANT SYSTEM Most equipment rooms have some form of automatic fire suppressant system. In gas-based systems the equipment room is flooded with a gas that extinguishes the fire. Sometimes the gas smothers the fire by replacing the oxygen in the air; in other systems the gas reacts when heated to produce extinguishing by-products. Provision must be made in the plan for a location for the pressurized gas cylinders, and for piping from the cylinders to the release nozzles. The equipment room will need to be airtight, so that in the event of a release the gas remains in the room until the fire has been extinguished. As most of the gases used are heavier than air, there will be a tendency for the gas to seep out of the room and down through the building via service risers, stairwells and lift (elevator) shafts. Any leakage could create potentially dangerous pockets of gas, and any major leakage would reduce the effectiveness of the fire suppression. There must also be provision for ducting and fans for the controlled exhaust or venting of the gas to a safe place after a release has occurred and the fire has been controlled. There are also water-based fire suppressant systems which use a fine water mist spray. These are less common.

SAFETY Safety needs to be considered in the layout planning of an equipment room. There must be safe fire exit routes for staff, and the cabinet layout should be designed to prevent injury to personnel. Safety must be considered from the onset of the planning process. The plans should be discussed with the manager responsible for health and safety, and if appropriate with staff union representatives.

Fire routes The design of the equipment room should be checked on the plan to ensure that there are safe exit routes from any point inside it. This means exit paths at each end of the rows of cabinets, with no cul-de-sac or dead-end aisles. The local fire safety regulations might require the room to have an emergency exit


in addition to the main entrance door. Advice should be sought from a fire safety officer. If a fire exit door is required, some thought must be given to access control and monitoring.

Fire extinguishers Some space should be designated for hand-held fire extinguishers. Discharging the main fire suppressant system can be expensive, and these small extinguishers should deal adequately with small fires.

Cabinet loading The location of heavy equipment should be considered in the light of staff lifting requirements and cabinet stability. Heavy equipment should be located at the base of the cabinet. When cabinets are heavily loaded they should be provided with supporting plates to spread the load onto nearby floor tiles, and prevent them from tipping when mounted equipment is being maintained. Care should be taken here, since this will effectively trap the tiles below the spreader plates, and prevent their easy removal for maintenance access. The spreader plates might also interfere with vent tiles. If used, they should be documented on the layout plan.

Cabinet and racking layout The spacing of the cabinets should provide corridors wide enough to allow the safe manipulation of heavy loads during installation and maintenance procedures. They should allow space for trolleys to be used to carry heavy loads, avoiding where possible the need to tilt heavy equipment during the delivery process. A higher-level guardrail to prevent personnel from tripping should protect any change in floor level such as a ramp or steps. When overhead inspection hatches are necessary to provide access to services based in the ceiling void, it should be possible to reach the hatch safely using a ladder without the need to rest it on equipment cabinets.

Cabling All cabling must be routed safely, so personnel cannot trip or get caught by protruding loops or ends. The design should not allow cables to dangle between cabinets. No power cabling should be left exposed where personnel can easily reach it.


SECURITY Security measures are more likely to be effective if they are built into the design of the equipment room. The design should allow for the possibility of an attempted break-in, to damage or steal equipment and/or data. This section is concerned with the physical aspects of security and so does not comment on measures against network hacking. Nor does it consider in detail the measures needed to protect against a major terrorist or criminal attack. If more information is needed, contact a relevant specialist or the author.

Fire safe The layout should include space for a good-sized fire safe, to store backup local copies of storage media. The safe is primarily to protect the media from fire damage, but it will also provide a measure of protection from casual attempts to access the data. The location should be convenient to the devices using the media so that operational staff can quickly access them.

Cabinets Servers and network equipment should where possible be enclosed in locked cabinets. Cabinets at the ends of rows should be protected by fitted side panels. Locked storage lockers or cabinets should be available for technology spares. Tools should be locked away when not in use. The row layout should avoid creating areas where people can easily hide. The racking and cabinets should be laid out so that engineers from external organizations are kept away from business-critical servers and network equipment. In businesses where security requirements are high it may be appropriate to provide security cages to control physical access. Security zones can consume extra space and affect the cooling arrangements, but they reduce the probability of serious damage. Cabinets containing important equipment in secure areas should be fitted with door-open alarms. One example of security and environmental monitoring equipment is the i-Box system from Axxess Identification.

Data cabling Data cables should not be exposed where anyone could easily cut them or accidentally catch against them. Flexible sheathing or ducting should protect optical fibre where it runs between cabinets. In building risers and underfloor in office areas, the optical fibre should be run through solid ducting or armoured flexible sheathing.


Cameras Video cameras, backed by secure video recorders, should be used to monitor the entrance door, emergency exit door and corridors in the equipment room. The recorders should be located in a room housed in a security casing and powered by its own UPS unit. An alternative or enhancement to on-site recording is to feed the video data to a remote monitoring site. The decreasing cost of external data network bandwidth makes this option increasingly cost-effective. Overt cameras should be supplemented with hidden pin-hole cameras to overcome the problem of people covering the lenses. Supplementary dummy cameras, located in low-risk areas, will increase the apparent coverage of the system. The positioning of the cameras should be carefully considered when planning to ensure that their view is not obscured by cabinets or doors left open.

Motion detection The room should be fitted with a motion sensor system that will raise an alert when an unscheduled person is detected outside normal working hours. This could be a simple passive infra-red (PIR) system, or use more sophisticated motion detection video cameras. It may be necessary to locate the motion sensors in several locations to ensure adequate coverage of the room.

Wall reinforcement The walls of the equipment room should be reinforced to prevent anyone breaking through them. Various types of strengthening mesh are available to achieve this at a low cost. If a wall is exposed to vehicular traffic it should contain sufficient reinforcement to resist malicious or accidental ramming. This is usually achieved by building structurally mounted steel reinforcing bars into the wall, or locating them just outside the wall in the form of pillars. Equipment room walls should be constructed from the building floor slab to the ceiling slab. I have seen a technology room where the walls rested on the raised floor and rose only to the height of the suspended ceiling. This offered only cosmetic security and next to no fire protection. An athletic junior consultant demonstrated how easy it was to break in via the floor void. The section of wall around an access control sensor should be reinforced to prevent tampering with the unit or its wiring. In locations particularly prone to terrorist activity, criminal violence or war, it might be considered necessary to install ballistic panels in the partition walls. Those with Aramid fibre/mesh construction help to prevent the passage of bullets and shrapnel. Specialist advice is necessary in these situations.


In some countries there is a legal requirement to design office buildings to provide a safe haven with protective walls and a secure escape route from terrorist attack. This is intended primarily to protect staff, rather than infrastructure equipment, which is not likely to fit into the haven. If walls are designed to protect staff and equipment from ballistic rounds and shrapnel, similar consideration is needed for the doors and windows, and for the protection of externally mounted infrastructure such as air conditioning chillers and stand-by generators.

Windows Existing windows should be removed from the equipment room, and replaced by solid walls if possible. If this is not possible the windows should be treated with internally mounted anti-intruder film. Window locks should be of highsecurity specification, and bars should be fitted to deter access. Windows should be alarmed to detect breakage of the glass or unauthorized opening. They should also be fitted with blinds, and if permitted mirror film, to prevent people looking in from the outside.

Offline area If the equipment room/data centre produces a high volume of printed reports, there will be a security risk from personnel collecting the reports. There is also a risk to technical equipment from the dust produced during the handling of paper. In this case the printers and paper-handling equipment should be housed in an offline area that has no direct access to the main equipment room. If the printers produce precious documents such as cheques, stock/equity certificates, identity cards and confidential reports, there will need to be separate security arrangements for the offline area. The collection point should be separated from the printers by a physical barrier.

Delivery and collections In the overall design of the trading floor and equipment room, a permanent staging area should be designated where deliveries and tool kits can be unpacked/opened and inspected before they are allowed into the room. Similarly collections should not be permitted direct from the equipment room. Allowing large uninspected unopened packages into the room is a security risk. Delivery personnel should not be allowed to see the location of the equipment room or the security features. Delivery bays in the basement of modern office blocks are often large enough to receive automobiles, trucks and lorries. Care should be taken to


ensure that no essential service, such as a data circuit, is routed through an area that can be damaged by delivery vehicles, in the event of either collision or vehicle fire.

Key cupboard A space should be provided to mount a secure key cupboard in the equipment room or in a nearby secure area. Operational rules should ensure that cabinets are locked unless there is a specific need to work in them. Although the locks on equipment cabinets tend to be primitive, ensuring they are locked prevents casual access to the sensitive equipment inside them.

Doors and turnstiles The door to an equipment room should be robust to withstand damage, and fitted with a strengthened frame and hinges. The door should have a strong magnetic lock or an intruder-proofed latch lock. The locks should be controlled by the access control system. The door should be fitted with an open-door sensor that detects and raises an alert if the door is opened in an unauthorized manner or is left propped open. It is likely that the door will need a glass observation panel to satisfy fire safety regulations. The size of the panel should be kept to a minimum. If sufficient space is available, the equipment room should have a lobby with an inner and outer door. Both these doors should have access-controlled locks. In a high-security environment, consideration should be given to providing a fullheight turnstile to control personnel access. This will reduce the chance of tailgating by unauthorized personnel. The positioning of the security badge reader(s) should be such that authorized personnel have easy access to present their badge to the reader as they check in and check out of the room. With some technology types such as radio frequency identification (RFID) it is possible to hide the reader behind dark glass or plasterboard. This increases security by reducing the information available to intruders. Some RFID readers have an extended range of detection to allow hands-free entry. In very secure areas the access control method should be two-factor or better. An example is an RFID security badge in conjunction with a biometric device such as a fingerprint reader. The emergency door release should be located in an obvious easily accessible location so that staff in the secure area can release the door and achieve safe unhindered exit during an emergency. Riser cabinets and closets should be fitted with access control devices to prevent unauthorized access into or from the riser.


Building services Cabinets or rooms containing power switching or UPS systems for the trading floor, back office and equipment room should be protected by a locked door. This will help to prevent malicious or accidental switching-off of electrical power to key IT systems. Externally mounted air conditioning chillers should be protected with an alarmed security cage if the units are located in an area that is accessible to the general public. This includes locations close to overlooking high buildings or external fences. If possible, chillers should be dispersed to more than one physical location to prevent simultaneous physical damage to them. Damage to chillers represents a substantial operational risk. If the chilling units cease to function it will not be long before the equipment room overheats and action has to be taken to switch off servers.

Security policy The security policy of an organization can have a substantial impact on the planning of a trading floor, its technology and the associated equipment rooms. The compliance and audit requirements to meet standards such as ISO 27001 and BS 7799 place increasing demands on the technology team and business team planning a trading floor. The technology project leader should ensure that team leaders consult appropriately with the operational management, security and compliance teams. Examples of trading floor technology areas affected by the security policy are: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

business continuity; access control; building and room security; network design, configuration and access control; server administration facilities; data cabling administration and security; e-mail access; internet access; electronic messaging; telephone calls, faxes; video conference facilities; voice recording and retrieval; video monitoring; data archive facilities; software licensing and patching;


• • • • • • • • • •

hardware installation controls and asset recording; electrical power, backup and air conditioning; physical storage security; equipment disposal; supplier contract; change control; capacity planning and testing; contractor vetting; signing for work done or goods delivered; security incident management.

Early planning, coupled with ongoing consultation with the managers responsible for the company security policy, will help to prevent security vulnerabilities in the design of the trading floor and associated facilities. The trading floor project team should ensure that they hand over to operational management a business environment that not only fully meets the security policies of the organization, but is fully compatible with operational security procedures. Part of the handover process should be an audit of compliance to the company security policy.

CABLING ROOMS, CUPBOARDS AND RISERS Cabling rooms, cupboards and risers should be subject to similar controls to those in place in the main equipment room.

Security and access Locked doors should protect the cabling room and/or risers. The doors should be alarmed to detect unauthorized access to the facilities. A good-quality lock might be all that is required if access will be infrequent; however for rooms subject to frequent access it will be operationally more cost-effective to extend the access control system. In this case a badge reader will be required and a suitable electronic lock. If electronic access control is chosen, obviously suitable signal cabling and power will be required, and the routing must be planned on the equipment room/cabling room layout plan. For safety reasons the emergency door release should be located inside the secure area in an obvious location close to the exit door. Doors to major cabling rooms or risers should be subject to video surveillance.


Cooling and power Cabling rooms do not normally require cooling unless there is a substantial amount of equipment located in them. If the room contains several network switches it might be necessary to provide air conditioning facilities. Usually a small through-the-wall cooling unit is sufficient. Any room containing electrically powered technical equipment should be subject to temperature monitoring and smoke detection. The room should be serviced with UPS electrical power if the network equipment in it supports connections to key trading floor areas. For equipment requiring UPS power it may be worth considering remotely controlled power distribution switches to facilitate coverage by remote operators. In this case the switches should have tell-tale power present lights, and the socket pin configuration should be different from the normal domestic socket. Warning notices should indicate that the power switches are remotely controlled, and a manual override breaker should be provided. Power connectors to the technical equipment should be clipped down to prevent accidental disconnection.

Organization Usually cabling or network rooms/closets are too small to contain a full-size equipment cabinet. In this case it is the norm to install equipment racking, which is often wall-mounted. Any room, closet or riser that will have routine technician visits should be provided with good electric lighting so that the equipment and wiring can easily be seen. Cabling in the rooms should be provided with supporting cable trays. A telephone point should be installed to allow the technician to make phone calls to approved extension and external phone numbers. This will help when the technician has to liaise with other technicians located elsewhere in the building.

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Cabling

This section does not set out to teach people how to specify or undertake cabling. Qualified personnel experienced and trained in the techniques, standards and technical limitations of cabling should undertake that work. The objective of this section is to highlight the factors that the project team should ensure have been considered by those experts. During the construction of the trading floor there will be three primary types of cabling installed: data cabling, power cabling and earth bonding. •

•

•

The data cabling carries low voltage, it is sensitive to electromagnetic interference (EMI), and its data transmission bandwidth capability is easily damaged by rough handling. There are limitations on the effective lengths of the cables. The data cables are laid point to point and during installation need to be carefully tracked and documented to avoid losing track of connections. The cabling media has a standard uniform construction. Specialist data cabling contractors are needed to install and test the data cables. The power cabling has a range of physical structures for the conductors and the insulation sheathings. The cables carry high voltage and are subject to many safety regulations. The cable structures tend to be tree structures with thick high-capacity trunks delivering power to smaller branches. Qualified electricians are needed to supervise the safe installation of power cables. Earth-bonding cable is needed to provide a safe return route for accidental power leakages. Any exposed metallic surface in the trading floor, offices,

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open areas, washrooms and technical rooms that could come in contact with electrical power should be earth bonded. Sometimes the earth-bond cable is provided as an extra conductor in the power cable, in other cases it is a cable in its own right. Provision of correct bonding is primarily the responsibility of the electrical engineers. However in the trading room environment the technology project team should double-check that metallic frames of any desks using mains-powered technology, equipment cabinets and metallic raised floor tiles are safely earth bonded. Various other signal cables will also be installed for use by video systems, building management systems, alarm systems and security access control. Some of the cables may be optical fibre rather than copper. Optical fibre cables are thin and have a high data bandwidth, but are very susceptible to damage if they are incorrectly installed or inadequately protected. All these various cables need to be identified in the planning stages and documented as the office/building design drawings are created. The cable specifications, the start point, the end points and routing all need to be documented on the plans and in the associated project documentation. There can be conflicts between the routing of the power and data cables which will need to be resolved before the drawings can be completed. Decisions need to be taken on the appropriate sheathing, support and containment for the cables. The choice of sheathing can be affected by the chosen routing for cables. If cables are routed through air plenums, such as false ceiling structures, it may be necessary to have low-smoke sheathings that do not produce toxic smoke if exposed to fire. Similarly any plastic containment used for encasing cables should have similar or better smoke avoidance qualities. There might be specific project or company standards for the colour of the sheathing on the cable used in an equipment room for inter-cabinet connections. Where coloured sheaths are used the in-house standards chosen should be documented and used consistently. There are various standards relating to data cabling. Both the International Standards Organization (ISO) and EIA/TIA have defined generic cabling systems suitable for medium and large offices. Details of these standards can be found in the Standard for Customer Premises Cabling ISO/IEC IS 11801, the US standards EIA/TIA 568B and the European version, EN 50173. These are important standards for network installation. In the United States the Telecommunications Industry Association Engineering Committee TR-42 formed a subcommittee to develop a cabling standard for data centres. This standard was published in April 2005 as TIA/EIA-942, ‘Telecommunications infrastructure standard for data centers’.


For further reading there are reference books that contain more detailed information such as Designing a structured cabling system to ISO 11801 (2nd edition, ISBN 1 85573 612 8) and Cabling: The complete guide to network wiring (ISBN 0 7821 4331 8). There will be several different teams during the project involved in designing the cable runs, specifying cables, installing cables and testing the installation. Their work will need to be scheduled and coordinated by the main construction contractor. The technology project team will need to ensure that their cabling requirements in terms of data and power are met at the correct point in the project life cycle. To ensure this takes place the technology project team must be involved in the cabling design process.

CONTAINMENT AND PROTECTION Data cables are normally quite flexible and need to be mounted for support in some form of containment. This may be a perforated metal tray, a wire basket tray, a cable ladder, or some form of conduit piping or ducting. The containment serves to prevent sagging and stretching of the cables, which would reduce the data transmission capability. Containment will be required for both horizontal and vertical data cabling. Metal cable trays, ducts or baskets should be earth bonded to prevent electric shock. Ceiling-mounted containment will need some form of support strut, stud bar or wire hanging from the structural ceiling slab above. In the planning process it will be necessary to check that other ducting and pipework does not conflict with the support struts. In some countries there are construction regulations that forbid supporting cabling from the same structure as the false ceiling or indeed the resting of cables on the false ceiling. The containment should also protect the data cables from sharp edges that could damage the cable insulation sheathing. The bare concrete of an office floor pan can have many tiny sharp edges from the cement and aggregate used in its construction. Where data cable rests on bare concrete, padded plastic matting should be laid between the data cable and the concrete to protect the cable and to avoid future damage. The cables should be laid in the containment in such a way that it is possible to remove and re-lay a cable if necessary for repair. When data cables are laid together in bundles it will not be possible to ‘pull back’ the cable free from one end without risking damage to the other cables because of the friction between the cables. A system of bundling should be chosen that allows technicians to release faulty cables from the bundles as they work along the length. In enclosed ducts it is useful to leave a pull-through cord to facilitate the subsequent installation of

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cables. The use of in situ pullback should be avoided in narrow ducting used for optical fibre cables, as it will pose a temptation for unskilled workers to pull copper cable through the optical fibre duct and cause consequent damage to the fibres in place. There are normally many hundred horizontal data cables for a trading floor. Care should be taken in the design planning that the cable trays/baskets are deep and wide enough to hold the cables. Laying cables loose without any containment along the length can lead to tangles when cables are moved during the lifetime of the trading floor. Where data cable descends from a high-level cable tray it may be necessary to have a cable waterfall guide added to the tray to ensure that none of the cable is too sharply bent or crushed against sharp edges. The containment should be designed and constructed so that the minimum cable bend radius is not transgressed when the cable is laid down. This might occur where the cable takes a right-angle bend. Cable guides should be installed to protect the cables as they follow the bend. This is particularly important with optical fibre cables. In the vertical cable runs the weight of the cables should be supported by ties attached to the containment at regular intervals. This will help to avoid cables being stretched or crushed under their own weight. Similarly in unsupported horizontal runs, such as where J hooks are used, there should be regular cable support ties to prevent sagging between the hooks.

ROUTES The design of cable routing on the trading floor and in equipment rooms will present several challenges to the achievement of low-cost, good technical performance and future maintainability. To achieve a good cable routing design will require effective communications and change control procedures between the design teams. •

• •

Data cabling is easiest to manage when run subfloor. It is possible to have overhead data cable runs on the trading floor but then the problem remains of how to deliver the cable to the desks. The trading floor needs to be free of visual obstacles such as cable pillars where possible. Data cable routes should where possible follow routes under the floor that can be easily accessible in the future. If the cable trunk routes pass under locations where desks are installed it will make access more difficult. Data cabling should not run in close proximity (parallel) to power cables. Where possible a separation of a minimum 1 ft (30 cm) should be maintained.


• •

• • • • • • • •

Where it is necessary to cross power and data cables to reach parts of the office, the crossing should be done at right angles. At the crossing different cable types should not be intermixed. The preferred option is to have the data cables over the top of the power cables, as it is more likely in the future that the data cables will need to be moved than the power cables. Where cables cross each other, the project team should check to ensure that the combined depth of cable does not interfere with the placement of raised floor tiles. If possible the design should provide dispersed dual routes for the data cables servicing individual trading desks. In that way if an incident occurs which severely damages one cable path it may be possible to continue the services by using alternative routing. Keep data cable routes away from heat sources, such as hot water or air conditioning return pipes. Keep data cables away from unshielded (EMI) electric motors. Where the far end of the data cable is terminated allow approximately 6 ft (2 m) of slack cable so that the termination point can be moved in future layout changes. Avoid running cables in air plenums such as air ducts unless the cable type has been specified as having a low-smoke sheathing. Where cable ducts are used to provide cable pathways, they should not be more than 50 per cent occupied by the planned cables at the initial installation. Space should be left for further expansion and maintenance access. Data cable should be routed within the protection of the secured office area. If it becomes necessary to traverse an unsecured area the cabling should be enclosed in secure ducting. Provide cable containment on the floor for data cables. This will protect it and prevent tangles during the operational life. If the cable is enclosed in sealed ducting with two right-angle bends, there should be an access box between the two right angles. The contractor will be able to avoid damage when pulling cables through.

KOPEX AND OTHER CABLE PROTECTION Flexible ducting, such as the range of products manufactured by Kopex International, should be used to group together and protect data cables rising from the floor to desks via floor tile holes or grommets. A range of materials such as steel or polypropylene is used to construct the ducting. The ducting will prevent the cables from being damaged. This damage can occur as the cables are dragged through holes during installation of desks and during

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subsequent maintenance, or when desks are moved with the cables in situ. The flexible ducting will also help to prevent cable tangling if it is used to group several data cables. Glands and fixtures are available to mount the flexible ducting to floors and wall surfaces. Use of these under desk areas in the offices will help reduce the amount of movement at the point where conducting wires are mounted to the UTP termination blocks on the desks. The flexible ducting is very useful for the protection of optical fibres in other parts of the data cabling installation. The ducting helps reduce problems with crushing and bending the optical fibres too sharply. There might be local building regulations and codes that limit the length of flexible ducting allowed in vertical risers. In some cases solid metal ducting is mandated by the rules.

UNDERFLOOR POWER DISTRIBUTION Although it is possible to directly connect the power sockets, contained in floor boxes, to the main electrical power cabling, this will lead to some inflexibility in the future movement of floor tiles during office moves. It is more usual to mount some kind of low-profile power bus bar system on the subfloor surface. Power take-off leads are then plugged into the power tracks to feed the power sockets in floor boxes or those contained in the desk power distribution units (PDUs). The objective is to design a system that allows the desks of business sections to be easily moved within a couple of hours or so without the need to have an electrician present undertaking recabling. One such system in use in the United Kingdom and other places is the Electrak system. It has a modular system of connectors, enclosed low-profile insulated power rails with sockets at regular intervals, and a matching plug system. The power tracks are laid subfloor in parallel with the intended desk row positions. Where an uninterrupted power supply (UPS) is available, some tracks providing UPS-only power will be laid and some building power rails will also be laid in proximity to them. This gives great flexibility in being able to move desks and to provide the appropriate protected or unprotected power. Trading desks should be provided with both protected and unprotected power. Any equipment essential to the trading process should be powered from the protected power. Nonessential equipment should be fed from the main building supplies. Other desks for back-office or administrative personnel might not need protected power provision. In the planning of the layout of the trading floor and back-office areas the technology team will need to work with the business and the electrical contractors to clearly identify which areas should


have protected and unprotected power distribution. Providing protected power for a user is not inexpensive: depending on the size of the office it could easily add a thousand dollars or more cost per position. The design of the underfloor power should provide diversity for adjacent desks so that if a single power breaker trips it does not isolate an entire section. For example a row of desks could be provided with access to two power strips each protected by different breakers. Adjacent desk PDUs could be connected alternately to the separate power strips. In that way key staff will be able to access equipment on the next desk in the event of a power trip. The approach is called ‘pepper and salting’.

FLOOR BOXES Floor boxes provide a flexible and cost-effective method of presenting power and structured cabling to back-office desks on the trading floor and in the supporting offices. The floor box typically contains power sockets and structured cabling outlet ports. It has a lid that lies flush level with the floor when not in use. The floor box is normally mounted in a hole cut into a raised floor tile. In the floor design layout the floor boxes should be placed under desks where the connecting power cords and data patch leads will not produce a trip hazard. They should be positioned so that the floor box will not obstruct the office furniture or conflict with where personnel place their feet when sitting. The orientation of the lid should guide the cabling to the desk cable management without imposing excessive bend radius on any data cables or patch cords. There should be one or more floor boxes per desk, provision for freestanding printers, and additional boxes in open-plan areas where it is planned to install desks at a later date. Standard power sockets normally fit directly into the floor box structure. For structured cabling outlets there is normally a stamped metal template to hold the outlet jacks mounted in the floor box. If the floor box is shallow the data outlet jacks should be angled to reduce the amount of cable bend introduced into the patch cords. If possible the design of the structured cable jacks should be such that it is possible to remove the structured cables from the floor boxes without the need to cut and re-terminate the cables. Connection from the floor box to the desk should be by flexible patch cords for the structured cabling system and an extension block for the electrical power. The extension block should be mounted on the desk in a convenient location. The design should facilitate subsequent movement of desks by allowing the simple disconnection of plugs and sockets at the floor box. Connection from the floor box to the standing power services should allow some spare length of cabling. This is to permit the subsequent adjustment

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movements of the floor tile containing the floor box when necessary to accommodate office moves. The use of a subfloor power track system with flexible conduit-protected power leads to the floor box will greatly improve the simplicity of subsequent office moves. If the UPS-protected power is required at any floor box, the sockets for the UPS power should be of a different connector pin design from the normal domestic socket. Failing a different connector, the UPS sockets should be a different colour, such as red. The sockets, both power and data, should be labelled and numbered according to an appropriate numbering scheme.

HIGH-LEVEL POWER If the construction involves the installation of a new suspended ceiling and overhead air handling equipment, it is probable that the main contractor will allow for a high-level power structure to furnish power to the equipment and lighting mounted within the false ceiling. It is likely that the equipment room will have its own high-level power cabling and switch system separate from the main trading floor and offices. From an IT infrastructure viewpoint the project team should ensure that suitable power provisions are made for any technology equipment that will be ceiling or ceiling-void mounted. Examples of ceiling-mounted equipment are: • • • • •

wireless LAN base station; video camera; overhead plasma displays; clock displays; security lock controllers for entrance doors.

The power provided to these units should have sufficient capability and be free from electrical interference. The project leader may wish to seek advice from the electrical engineer on whether the power supplies will be clean and whether local power-switching arrangements are necessary for the equipment. A separate wiring structure might be needed for any protected power (UPS) provided for key technology equipment mounted in the ceiling. I have encountered a situation where ceiling-mounted IT equipment was connected to the lighting power bus. This was not recognized as a problem until several months later, when building service engineers were undertaking works on the lighting. It took the IT technicians some time to isolate the cause of the intermittent failures.


Separate earth-bonding cables might need to be provided for the technology equipment mounted in the ceiling. Such equipment should share the common clean bonding used for the network equipment.

RISER POWER The technology project team will need some awareness of power cables and power facilities in the building risers. Where possible the riser power cabling should be distributed between the risers for a floor. In the event that there is an incident damaging the cable in one riser, it might be possible to use power from the cable in an alternative riser. I have seen incidents where a small cable fire in a single riser is quickly detected and extinguished, but the damage to the power cabling completely disabled the building for some weeks. The technology team should be involved in the planning for the location and enclosure of any switching-over power to the trading floor or the equipment room. If the switches are located in the building risers, it might be necessary to give some extra thought to access control for those switches. The team should also be involved in planning the capacity of the power cabling provisions in the risers. They will need to ensure there is plenty of capacity for expansion. They should also inspect the level of resiliency built into the cabling structure. Vertical data cables in the riser should be mounted in separate containment to the power cable containment. Any copper data cabling should not be run in close parallel proximity to power cables. The routing of cables in the risers should be an early decision, with clear documentation of that agreement. This factor of proximity to power cables is not so critical for optical fibres, but even for these there should be some form of ducting protecting them for the entire length of the run within the riser. The technology team should make arrangements for suitable power facilities to be available in riser cabinets for any equipment required in the cabinets. This could be permanent devices or just temporary connection by standard power sockets for inspection lights or test equipment. If the building risers are not enclosed in a fireproof surround there will need to be provision for fire stopping around the cables where they are fed through the holes in the structure between the floors.

COMMON EARTH/GROUNDING BONDING There should be a clear plan for the bonding cable structure for the earth grounding. If possible a separate structure should be available for technology equipment. The

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technology structure should not be shared with industrial equipment or with equipment with high inductive loads such as lift/elevator motors. The bonding should provide a common clean earth structure for the technology equipment, particularly where that equipment is also serviced by the same network cabling or is in common equipment racking. Consideration will need to be given to providing a common earth between equipment rooms if their equipment is interconnected. There are technical standards available that specify the requirements for bonding for technology rooms. In equipment rooms it is usual to provide a copper common earth bar in an exposed location. Earth cables from cabinets and other equipment that is installed at a later stage can be linked back to that point. In addition to the obvious protection for electrical equipment, earth-bonding cables will be required to protect the raised floor system, metal desk structures and ceilingmounted equipment. The electrical engineer assigned to the project should be able to give advice on the requirements for earth bonding, but the technology team should take action at the early stages of the project to ensure the engineer builds appropriate measures into the cabling design.

DATA CABLING Data cabling is a specialized subject. The project team should seek advice from an experienced and qualified data-cabling specialist. However the team will need to be able to tell the specialist what facilities are required of the data cabling, and to suggest and approve the cable paths needed for the structured cable system. The types of data cabling in common usage were described on page 114. There are several good books on this topic, and you are advised to obtain one of them if detailed information is required. In this section I describe copper-based cables used to deliver local area network traffic, voice telephony services and low-voltage signalling between the equipment room and the trading office areas.

Unshielded twisted pair (UTP) Most trading floors are now cabled with a structured cabling system based on UTP cabling. This contains four pairs of insulated copper conductor pairs. The copper pairs are each twisted about themselves and the pairs are twisted together within a protective outer sheath. The pattern of twisting is carefully designed to reduce the loss of signal at the frequencies employed for local data


transmission. The twisting also helps to reduce signal degradation through interference. Damaging the cable through stretching, sharp bends and crushing might reduce its effective transmission capability. Fixed UTP cable normally has a solid single copper conductor wire for each conductor in a pair. The UTP cable used for patch cords is normally a multistranded copper core to provide greater flexibility. For the purposes of installations described in this book there are really only two categories of data cabling commonly used, the Cat5e and Cat6 cabling systems. Older legacy cabling systems such as Cat1, Cat3, Cat4, 10BaseT, 100BaseT and STP still work perfectly well for older installations, but they are not discussed further here. Cat5e is generally run at 100 Mbps though it will if properly installed operate at up to 1 Gbps. Cat6 cable is more expensive than Cat5e but performs better at higher speeds, with usual operations at 100 Mbps and 1 Gbps, though a correctly installed system should handle 10 Gbps. In a trading floor environment it is usually more cost-effective to install the faster cable because the data bandwidth demands on the technology grow continually. Changing a cabling system in a few years’ time to get greater speeds can be an expensive option. Generally in the trading floor environment services are not shared on a single cable. This avoids compromising the bandwidth of a cable and it also reduces the exposure to a single cable failure. For example, while it is possible to share phone signals, video signals and data signals along a single UTP cable this is normally avoided. If that one cable failed or became disconnected it would compromise all the services at the same time. The cost of providing sufficient separate cables is low compared with the risk of business loss for the trader or salesperson using the services. In some situations it can be more effective to run specialist coaxial cables rather than structured UTP cable for video signals or for high-speed synchronous serial data services. It is usually possible to obtain media converter equipment which allows transmission of a signal when placed at both ends of a UTP cable, but this might increase the cost and the risk of failure. Increasing the amount of non-structured cabling will reduce flexibility for subsequent changes and will increase the cost of moves. Decisions should be taken on a case by case basis, and due provision made in the planning and installation. The older-style trading turret might have required two or three dedicated cables to serve a single position, but with the newer technology which uses voice over IP (VOIP) techniques, there only needs to be a single UTP cable from the technology room to the trading position for the trading turret. However the experienced designer will plan to ensure that a spare cable, in addition to the one-service UTP cable, exists to handle faults. It is possible to merge the VOIP of the new handsets with the data network traffic for PCs. The PC is connected by plugging a patch lead into a socket at the

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base of the phone, which contains a small data switch to forward traffic from/to the PC. Using this method can reduce the number of structured cables needed to service each desk. However in a trading environment this is not recommended on the principle of maintaining redundancy. Sharing a cable increases the probability of errors, and also increases their impact. If network problems arise, such as a network storm, they would disable the important telephone as well as the PC. However in areas of lower business criticality it might be cost-effective to reduce the number of UTP cables installed per desk.

Data cable routing Data cables are installed on a point-to-point basis from the back of a patch port in the technology room to a data port mounted on or close to the desk in the operational area. Each data cable has its own specific identity which should be recorded as an entry in a cable database. Normally the patch panel ports for the data cables for a desk will be grouped at the same location or row on the patch frame. The data cabling contractor normally ties UTP cables in bundles of 10 or so and lays them along specifically planned routes to the appointed office areas. Where necessary the cables are split out at the office end of the deployment. The cable is a single run without any intermediate joints or splicing along the way. The limit of a single cable length is 150 ft (90 m). In excess of that distance the cable might work and provide connectivity for the required network speed but there are no guarantees. Self-locking plastic cable ties should be avoided as they can crush cables if fastened too tightly. I prefer releasable Velcro ties as an alternative. There will be a large trunk of many cables grouped together from the rear of the patch frames. As these reach the office areas the trunks split into thinner branches, and these branches split again as the cables approach their destination. The normal convention is that the bundles of cables are laid in cable trays under the raised floor. For ease of access those trays are located under the planned office corridors. As a consequence when access is required for maintenance technicians can lift the floor tiles without the obstruction of furniture or walls. In a large trading floor the trunks of multiple UTP cables can be quite thick. It might be necessary to spread the cable across several trunks, since if the trunks are too thick they might not fit into the cable trays installed under the raised floors. Cat6 cable can be thicker than Cat5e cable, and the difference might surprise people used to installing the thinner cable. Where data cables cross other cables, for example power cables, space is needed for the combined height of the cable bundles. This is not always obvious when working with a twodimensional construction plan. Unless the raised floor is particularly deep, the cross-over point can be a problem. At no point should the cable bundles be so thick that they are crushed by the tiles of the raised floor.


At the final branches of the cabling structure the individual cables will spur off to the desks. These final branches of the structured cabling system normally run in the aisles between the rows of desks under the floor tiles, where the chairs of the office workers are located. At this point a service loop of approximately 6 ft (2 m) should be allowed to enable localized relocation of the network cable if desks or floor tiles have to be moved. The cables terminate in data jacks/ports mounted in floor boxes or on the desks themselves. From the point where cables leave the floor to pass through a floor tile to a desk mounting point, it is usual to encase the UTP cables in flexible conduit, such as Kopex. This keeps the cabling tidy and provides some protection from damage. The office-end data jacks/ports should be clearly labelled so that it is possible to identify which data port the cable is connected to in the patching rack. That information should be logged in the cabling database. The data cabling contractor will be aware of the CAT5e and CAT6 specifications that where the copper pairs are untwisted for mounting in the data jacks, no more than 0.5 in (1.25 cm) (less for CAT6) should be untwisted. The data jacks mounted in a panel available under a desk or in a floor box should have a consistent installation pattern to help reduce connection errors. Table 11.1 gives an example. Table 11.1

Example of an installation pattern for data cable

Data point

Usual purpose

Data point colour

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

PC network PC network PC network Spare Time stamp Voice – PBX / VOIP switch Voice – PBX / VOIP switch Dealer board Speaker box Spare

Blue Blue Blue Green Grey White White White Red Green

This might leave some unused data ports on some desks, but it allows for expansion and individual cable problems. The suggested colour scheme will vary depending on local cable colour policy. The colour of the UTP for horizontal solid cables is normally blue, though in some older sites it was grey to reduce costs slightly.

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As mentioned earlier in this section, the routing of the data cables should avoid sources of EMI such as power cables, electrical motors and fluorescent lights. The cabling contractor should handle that restriction in its planning, but the technology project team should satisfy themselves that due precautions have been taken. Where data cabling is routed outside secure areas such as the trading floor, it should be protected by metal ducting or flexible armoured ducting. This will reduce the chance of accidental damage or deliberate intrusion.

ABANDONED CABLING In some countries the building code requires that the contractor/business undertaking any office fit-out project remove any abandoned cables, for example guidance is given on this in: • • • •

Section 800.52(B) of the 2002 National Electrical Code (USA); 2002 NFPA 75 ‘Standard for the protection of electronic computer data processing equipment’; 2002 NFPA 76 ‘Recommended practice for the fire protection of telecommunications facilities’; 2002 NFPA 90A ‘Standard for the installation of air conditioning and ventilating systems’.

These are cables not actively connected to equipment or not marked for retention. This can represent a substantial workload in tracing, documenting and the safe removal of the cables. Even if the local building regulations do not require the removal of abandoned cabling, it is not good practice to overlay abandoned cabling with new cable systems. Removal of the old cable at a later stage could damage the trading floor operations. Redundant cabling might block building riser channels, making it difficult to install vertical data and power cabling. The older cable might also present a fire smoke hazard risk if the older PVC sheathing has been used in risers or air plenums. Where the trading floor project involves the renovation of an old environment, the need to remove old cabling can impose a delay on the project. This workload is worsened if the cabling is only partially abandoned, with live and dead cables present in the bundles. Removing old cabling while at the same time retaining live cables is a high-risk task.


INTELLIGENT PATCHES Some organizations may wish to consider the use of intelligent patch technology to keep track of their data cable patching. This will increase the initial capital cost – the patches are approx 25 per cent more expensive – but will help to reduce the ongoing operational costs of moves, additions and changes. There is also potential benefit in proving that access to patch connections has controlled procedures. These systems are not essential, but in complex environments the longterm cost benefits can be compelling. This is just one more cost/benefit decision that the technology project leader should ensure is given suitable consideration. Associated software, such as iTracs, iPatch and MapIT, can be used to help map cabling structures, detect attached devices and also detect unplanned changes to patching. Most of the software will produce job authorization control documents for changes to patching. This automation will help to reduce the effort of maintaining cable and patch databases. Further information on such technologies can be obtained from the supplier’s websites: www.rittech.com/, www.itracs.com/, www.avaya.com/, www.siemon.com/, www.systimax.com/ and www.molex.com/ (Real Time Patching System).

LIGHTNING PROTECTION Catastrophic damage can be caused to trading room technology equipment if the energy from a lightning strike finds its way into a building. In a city environment it is likely that the utility providers will have provided some form of protection, so the risk is low. There should be provision for electrical grounding where the services enter the building. However many financial organizations use satellite dishes and/or aerials located on the roofs of high buildings. Often the signal cable from these receivers is fed directly into the heart of a technology room housing a large amount of high-value equipment. While tall buildings are normally provided with lightning conductors to reduce the risk of a direct lightning strike, it is still a possibility. If the aerials or satellite dishes are close to the site of the strike it is highly likely that there will be an electrical surge into the cables on the roof. That power will take the path of least resistance to earth, and in a technology room one will be well provided. The risk can be minimized by the following measures: • •

grounding the satellite dish and pole; provision of a grounding block on the signal cables;

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• • •

grounded shielding of the cable; provision of a grounded bend point where the cable enters the building; ensuring that at no point do power or signal cables run parallel to the lightning conductor.

In geographic areas where there is a high risk of frequent electrical storms, the project team should ensure that specialist advice is sought. A range of standards apply to the lightning protection of structures, for example MIL-HDBK 419A, BS 6651, FAA019d and IEEE Std 1100–1992. The National Lightning Safety Institute (www.lightningsafety.com) can provide source documentation and information about the damage arising from lightning strikes. A technology project leader is not expected to be an expert on the topic, but you should ensure that the engineers responsible have given due consideration to it. For most installations it is probably adequate to ask the installation suppliers to document and confirm what anti-lightning precautions have been made for any equipment connected to the outside world.

240

12

Trading desks

Trading desks have to be tough and damage-resistant as they will spend their operational life occupied by barely repressed vandals. Trading desks will be moved many times during their life by support engineers. They will have been given impossibly short timescales to complete the work before trading starts at 6.00 am on the next working day, so the design and structure of desks must facilitate demounting and reassembly without damage. The installation method for the desks should be designed to prevent their unplanned movement by the trading staff.

SELECTION AND PLANNING PROCESS The selection process for trading desks will need consultation between trading managers representing their personnel, technology project team members confirming that technology issues are taken into account, and the building and premises management who might have responsibility for the desks in the long term. Manufacturers include such companies as: • • • •

Das Business Furniture; Innovant (ex Charles Braham Associates); LaCOUR; Mayline;

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• • • • • •

Norbert Stadler; Nextech; Revco; SBFI; Wall Street Trading Desks; Woodtronics.

Unless there is already a corporate policy on trading desk type, the process of selection will entail visits to sites arranged by the potential suppliers. The suppliers should be capable of supplying the required number of desks to the site of the new trading floor within the project timescale. Where possible their products should be seen in a live operation situation. One person should be designated to take responsibility for the installation of the trading desks. This will involve: • • • • • • • • • • • • •

coordinating visits to suppliers; collecting opinions on the most favoured designs; obtaining proposals from suppliers; coordinating planning for the desk fittings; liaison with structured cabling and power planners; coordinating detailed trading desk layout and tracking user assignment; establishing a life cycle costing and budget cost assignment; managing the selection decision process; managing contract negotiation; progress chasing and scheduling delivery; project managing the desk installation and fit-out process; acceptance control; managing change control for the trading desk planning.

This process might also involve the selection of chairs to be used with the desks. This will not have any great technical input, but it will require a selection, consultation, planning and budgetary process.

DESKTOP The size of the desktop might be determined by government regulation, the options available from the desk manufacturer and the space available for the number of trading personnel. Part of the concept of the trading floor is to group closely traders of complementary instruments and markets. They will not generally need much space for large documents, but they will need space for




keyboards, screens, timestamps and their voice equipment. The depth of the desk should allow plenty of unrestricted legroom. The desk surface should be smooth, splinter-free and robust. During their operational life the desks will suffer a great deal of abuse, and they should be able to withstand the weight of people walking or dancing across the tops. The edge of the desk facing outwards should be resilient and withstand a chipping or splintering impact from chairs, kicking feet and being hammered by telephone handsets. A thin veneer of plastic or wood over MDF at the edge of the desk will not survive. Often moulded polyurethane is used for edging. This is an environment where chairs and loose equipment will be thrown around by the traders during moments of frustration. The top should be free of loose inserts or strips that can be lifted out. Loose items will become lost during the operational life. Any cables needed for technology devices should rise from the back of the desktop. Cable guides at the surface should be designed so that cables do not become trapped when equipment is installed on the surface. In other words it should be possible to remove or add a cable without dismantling the entire desk equipment. Desks should be clearly labelled using a permanent label with the desk or position number. This will be used by support engineers during later maintenance work.

CABLE MANAGEMENT It is not unusual to find approximately 20 cables, cords and leads under a trading desk. By the natural laws of chaos these will tangle if left unguided and unconstrained. Tangled cabling makes it more difficult to maintain the technology equipment, and tends to facilitate loosened connections with consequential damage and failure. Power socket blocks and structured cable network points should be mounted under the desks. These connector blocks should be demountable so that it possible to quickly remove them when the desks are moved during trading floor reorganization. Equipment mounted in or on the desk should be connected via the power blocks or network points mounted on the desk. Where possible no equipment should be directly plugged into floor boxes, as these tend to encourage trailing cables, and after a few trading floor reorganizations the floor boxes will not be aligned with the desks. Cable management in the desk should ensure that cables are contained within the desk and do not trail over the back or the sides. The desks will abut closely and external cables can become trapped and damaged if not protected. The cables from equipment should be allowed to drop into the cable


management area under the desktop without trailing diagonally across the desk surface. Within the desk there should be plenty of tie points and supporting trays to guide the cables. Any loose or spare cable should be tied back in a tidy fashion. Any semi-permanent cable can be tied with plastic cable ties, but those cables subject to frequent movement should be tied with Velcro cable supports.

PC STORAGE AND ACCESS Traders’ PCs should be kept off the desktop and housed under the desk. The area where the PCs are housed should be enclosed to reduce unauthorized access and to protect the PC from damage or dislodged cables. The enclosure should provide sufficient space that legroom is not constrained. Doors to the enclosure should be hinged or easily removable for maintenance of the technology under the desk. I prefer a door that is hinged at the top and swings upwards, but there are various solutions. Access doors to the side or rear of the desk are generally a nuisance, particularly when the desks are placed back to back in rows. The mounting for PCs in the storage area should be designed so a PC can be swung out easily for maintenance work. It should be possible to access the rear of the PC without needing to lift the device, yet at the same time the trader might need to access the front of the PC to use the CD player. Two examples I have seen have a metal tray that gently slides out on ball-bearing mounted arms. The door is necessary to help control the flow of air under the desk. It should prevent hot/cold air blowing on the trader and also prevent a build-up of dust or rubbish under the desk.

COOLING PCs, particularly multiprocessor trader workstations, output a substantial amount of heat. In complex environments this can exceed 500 watts per person. This heat will need to be removed but not in such a way that it will create discomfort for the trader or generate excess noise from fans or airflow. If the computer systems run hot there will be an increased rate of system failures and intermittent faults. Some air can be removed by convection vents at the top of the desk at the back where the cable management slot is sited. Some ventilation holes can be located at the top of cupboards. In extreme heat output situations it might be necessary to install heat-exchange fan coil units under the desks and have


elephant trunk flexible ducting to guide air flows between the desks if the rows of desks are long. There are no easy solutions to this problem if the amount of heat is substantial. Significant air flows at desk level can be annoying to the traders. Fan coil units and chilled water supplies can create condensate problems and complicate the process of desk moves. If it is suspected that under-desk heat will be a problem, the technology project team should plan for heat monitoring sensors and an alert system. One approach to this problem is to move the system units to a nearby equipment room and to use KVM technology to handle keyboard, video and mouse commands from the trading desk.

SCREEN MOUNTING With the introduction of LCD display screens many of the problems involved in placing screens on traders’ desks have been resolved. Cathode ray monitors used to take a great deal of space, and create a lot of heat and electromagnetic interference. A trading desk position will typically need two or more display screens. In some financial market sectors it is not unusual for eight display screens to be required on the desktop. The need of screens required by each person should have been discovered during the original inventory process. These screens will need to be mounted in a method that will allow ergonomically correct placing. In the most basic method, the screens can be mounted on the standard mounts provided by the manufacturers. Where space is limited on the desktop, or where there is a large number of screens, the screens can be mounted more efficiently by the use of mounting arms, pillars or rails. Mounting rails take the form of vertical metal slats fitted along the back of the desktop. They are typically up to 14 in (35 cm) high. Mounting brackets designed to fit in the slats are used to mount the screens. The screen mounting brackets have an adjustable arm and swivel joint to allow the screen position and aspect to be varied. These lift the screen from the desktop surface, avoiding a reduction in available space. A single-height mounting rail might allow up to four screens to be mounted, depending on their size. It is usually possible to increase the vertical height of the mounting rails to accommodate more screens. If there are a large number of screens the installer has to be careful of the leverage effect of the weight of the screens on the mounting rail. The rail needs to be robust, or counterbalanced with screens mounted on the other side. Mounting arms are hinged and sprung metal arms which clamp onto the back of the desk and are used to lift the screens off the desk. The ‘air space’ taken


above the desk by these arms normally precludes their use in a trading desk environment where there are multiple screens per desk. Mounting pillars are vertical metal columns that are bolted on sliding mount rails built into the surface of the desk or clamped at its rear. The pillars are equipped with adjustable mounting ‘heads’ or arms that can be vertically adjusted by sliding up or down the pillar. The mounting heads can support between one and four LCD screens with individual tilt and swivel. Whichever method of mounting arm or rail is used, it will need to be robust so that the screens are firmly mounted. The traders will not be satisfied with flimsy mounts. There is a VESA standard for the size of mounting plate used on the reverse of an LCD panel, so an item to be double-checked when ordering the screens and the mounting devices is the actual size of the mounting plates.

PDU AND POWER Each trading desk should be equipped with a power distribution unit (PDU), which should be constructed with sufficient power outlet sockets to allow connection of the devices mounted on or under the desk. The number of sockets provided should be sufficient to avoid the need for extension blocks. I generally work on the basis of 10 sockets although this can vary depending on circumstances. The socket arrangement should differentiate between UPS power and building power, so that only critical equipment is connected to the UPS supply. The most effective method of doing this is a different plug pin configuration for the UPS socket, though failing that a different colour such as red for the socket will help avoid wrong connection. The orientation of the sockets on the distribution unit should be such that plugs and cables do not become tangled or interfere with each other when the block is fully populated. My preference is for the small US-style sockets, even outside the United States. These are compact and in the UK prevent connection of unauthorized kit. There also needs to be provision for a couple of sockets in the local format. Consideration should be given to the mounting of the small electrical transformers that are supplied with some equipment such as USB hubs and PDA stands. Often the transformer units are too large to be plugged next to each other in the PDU. In these cases a separate extension socket bar can be mounted under the desk and plugged into the desk PDU. The trading desk PDU should have a circuit breaker switch that allows the local disconnection of all power devices. The unit should be fitted with a power present telltale light for both the building and UPS power. Local safety regulations will determine whether the PDU has to be locally equipped with a thermal fuse or return earth current detector switch.


The PDU should be connected to the main subfloor power grid or tracks by suitably rated flexible cable ending in a suitable plug unit. The cable should be encased in a flexible protective metal conduit and have a length of approximately 6–9 ft (2–3 m) to allow for furniture moves. The length of the cable and ducting might be governed by local safety rules. The plug on the cable should be sufficiently small to fit though grommet holes in the raised floor tiles. The flexible metal conduit should not be exposed where people might trip over it. The PDU should have earth bonding connecting back to the main earth bond, though this should avoid connective proximity to any heavy electrical machinery. It is useful if the PDU provides an external earth bonding point which can be used to earth bond the desk. Corporate requirements for energy saving might dictate that trader desktop PCs are totally switched off overnight and at weekends when not in use. To achieve this it might be necessary to install intelligent power strips/blocks which can be remotely monitored and power switched at the individual power socket. The cost of the remotely controlled power strip can be recovered against saved energy costs within a couple of years.

STRUCTURED CABLING The structured cabling should terminate in a demountable socket block that is fixed under the trading desk within the PC enclosure cupboard. Connection from the socket block to the equipment in the cupboard and to items on the desktop is achieved with flexible patch leads/cords with the same category rating as the main structured cabling system. The structured cable path from the subfloor to the trading desk should be as one or more bundles of flexible cabling encased in flexible plastic conduit such as Kopex. Within the desk the Kopex bundled cable should be supported by the cable management structure until it enters the network socket box. The network socket box should, if possible, be sized so it can be pushed through the floor grommets under the desk. This will facilitate later furniture moves and changes when the floor grommet tiles have to be moved. Otherwise it might be necessary for a qualified cabling engineer to disconnect the socket box and then reterminate the structured cable at the new location. The sockets of the network point should be clearly labelled with the agreed standard for structured cable numbering. That information should be crossindexed against the desk number in the appropriate asset database.


EARTH BONDING All electrical equipment and any electrically conducting part of the desk structure should be properly earth bonded. Thus if the desk has a metal frame and metal cupboard doors they should have earth bond connector wires that link back to a central earth point on the desk. Metallic screen mounting pillars/arms should also be earth bonded. There are so many power cables, remotely connected wires, electrical equipment and sharp edges under desks that is all too easy for an insulation layer to be worn through by vibration or cable pulling. It is then possible for the desk frame to become ‘live’ with electrical power. I have seen this on a few occasions at older sites.

LINE OF SIGHT Line of sight issues for the traders should have been resolved when the layout of the trading floor was designed. However when multiple screens and other equipment are mounted on the desks it is likely that further line of sight issues will become apparent. The arrangement of LCD screens on the desktop might have to be altered so that traders can see their colleagues or an important information source without standing. They might need a smaller display size. This is something to which the project team need to be alert during the design of desk layout and subsequently when equipment is in the process of being installed.

MOVING It is inevitable that trading desks will be physically moved for reorganizations during their working lives. Their method of construction and installation should take this into consideration. It should be possible to easily disassemble the desk and rebuild it elsewhere without the use of special tools or jigs. The desks should not lose strength or become damaged during the move process. The weight of the desk should be such that two or three men can move it easily after disassembly work. If the desks are not designed for moving it can increase the costs of any subsequent trading floor moves and changes during later operational life, and can also lead to damage to the desk structure during the move process.


GROMMETS OR FLOOR BOXES Some method of access will be required to feed the subfloor power and data cabling to the individual trading desks. The desks should not be permanently wired in place as it is likely they will be moved during their operational life. One way to achieve this connectivity is via floor boxes mounted in a raised floor. The overriding problem with floor boxes is that the trap door to the box is likely to be overwhelmed by the volume of cables required for a trading desk. In addition the trap door of the floor box is likely to become trapped under furniture or interfere with the trader’s legroom. A floor grommet is much more simple: it is a hole in a floor tile lined with a plastic insert. The hole is typically circular and 6 in (15 cm) in diameter, though other shapes and sizes are possible. The plastic insert, called a grommet, protects the cables from the sharp edge of the tiles. When not in use the grommet hole is plugged by a plastic cap. Part of the floor layout process will be mapping where grommets are required on the trading floor so that they are in the correct place under the trading desks. The holes will need to be cut before the carpet tiles are laid down. This positioning should be accurately mapped on drawings and then measured to find the correct floor tiles for hole cutting.

SPARES Trading desks are generally built to order, with the parts purchased by suppliers when the need arises. The production companies might cease to exist after a few years. Trading desks will become damaged during use, and additional desks might be required at short notice, so the technology project team, or whoever is responsible for planning the installation of the desks, should purchase some spare desks and some spare components for running repairs. Items such as mounting arms/pillars and the associated clamps, desk cupboard doors, gas door support assemblies, cable management brushes and desktops are all prone to damage.

DESKTOP SERVICES Traders might have portable devices such as mobile phone chargers, PDA bases and laptop computers that will need access to mains power. They might also need to plug in PC headphones, USB memory devices and authentication


devices. It is preferable that traders do not access the cabling under their desks as they might well unplug the wrong device. Some desks might also have ‘task lighting’ which needs power provision. The transformers and ballast coils of task lighting often cause electromagnetic interference, and a buzzing noise in voice equipment. If desktop task lighting is planned it will be worth obtaining some sample devices in advance and experimenting to see whether interference can be avoided. To service this need you can arrange for the design and mounting of a desktop block that allows access to mains power and other devices such as USB devices. The block can be recessed into the desktop and covered with a protective flap, or surface mounted. The design should be discussed with the trading floor managers. Any socket should be switched, fitted with a low amperage fuse and have a power present telltale light. It should be noted that local safety regulations might make it impossible to provide this feature, so advice should be sought from a qualified electrical engineer.

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Office desks

Office desks are really a commodity item, but some features can be helpful in a back-office environment. The style of desk and choice of surface will be very much down to the corporate image the management wish to create. With stylish senior executive desks with glass tops it can be a nightmare to cable tidily and to find a housing for PCs. If these types of desk are chosen in offices in the project scope, the technology project team leader needs to be sure that careful planning has taken place for the technology set-up.

SIZE AND HEIGHT The size and height of desks is often governed by local regulation, and there are plenty of booklets and guides that describe the appropriate dimensions. There should be plenty of room for paperwork, keyboard, mouse and telephone set. The keyboard should be no less than 8 in (20 cm) from the edge of the desk. Some desks have height adjustment capability which is useful in ensuring that personnel can keep their arms at the correct height for the keyboard. The desk should have sufficient depth that the monitor screen is 26 in (70 cm) from the eyes of the operator. If the role at the desk position involves substantial reference to printed documents while typing on a PC keyboard, consideration should be given to providing a document holder that will hold the document in the line of sight near the PC screen.

Office Desks ❙ 253

POWER ARRANGEMENTS A back-office desk will have only one or at the most two PCs, so the number of power sockets required will be limited. My team normally fits a six-point power socket block to the underside of the desk or within a cable management tray. The main power cord from the socket block then returns to a floor box or to a subfloor power connector via a floor grommet hole. The socket block should be switched, fused and have a telltale light. If the socket block is installed in a cable tray under the desk there should be sufficient space for plugs, transformer units and their cables when plugged into the block. This should be checked at an early stage in the project. Where UPS power is needed for business-critical equipment on the desk I would advise the fitting of a secondary power block. This should be a different colour than the standard blocks, perhaps red. The block should be demountable so that it can be moved when an office reorganization takes place.

ELECTRICAL SAFETY The power socket blocks should be fitted with earth bond wires connected back to the main building earth system. Any metal frame or exposed conductive surface on the desk should be earth bonded. This includes any loose metal trays or metal cable baskets.

CABLE MANAGEMENT Cable management trays should be fitted under the desktop at the back of the desk. A cutout or grommet should be provided to allow a cable pathway to desktop equipment such as screen, telephone, keyboard and mouse device. The cable management arrangements should not allow cables to hang out at the back of the desk where they might become trapped when desks are placed back to back. Some desktop arrangements allow the desktop to slide back so the cable management trays can be accessed from above. Other designs have a liftable lid covering the cable trays, but these are easily trapped by desktop equipment. Any vertical cables not contained in a cable guide or tray should be encased in a cable tidy or grip. Under the desk cables should be arranged so they do not interfere with legroom. Above the desk cables should not run diagonally across the desk surface.


Network cables and phone cables should terminate to a socket box in a nearby floor box or wall socket. The connection from the network socket to the equipment is achieved using flexible network patch leads. The sockets should be angled at 45 degrees so that when the lid of the floor box is closed the patch cables are not crushed beyond their minimum bend radius. Note that to preserve the adherence to cabling standards the patch leads should be kept short, typically less than 10 ft (3 m). Cables should not be allowed to trail across the floors where they can form a trip hazard or be exposed to damage. Ensuring that the floor boxes or wall sockets are in the correct position will require good advance planning and careful mapping of the desks. The technology project team should inspect any cabling installed in desks to ensure that it is properly supported, not under tension and does not rest on any sharp edges. In some back-office areas the floor is solid, and power and data cabling will need to be run down the walls or dropped to the desks via columns for ceilingbased cable runs. This might involve ducts that are surface mounted or chased into plasterwork. The technology project team should ensure that any such ducts are accessible for future maintenance work and have spare capacity. Initially they should only be filled to 50 per cent of capacity. Using VOIP technology at the desktop for administration desks can slightly reduce the number of network cables required, as PC network connections can daisychain from the back of telephone handsets. However this is only really likely to be of benefit when cable duct space is severely limited.

TELEPHONE PROVISION An office position might require one or two telephone handsets, possibly involving power for a low-voltage transformer to drive the telephone electronics. There might be a requirement for a speakerphone facility. When designing the desk layouts space should be allowed for the handsets. If the desk occupant is involved in frequent voice teleconferences or frequently has to refer to a PC during phone calls, he or she should be allowed the use of a telephone headset. This will free hands and prevent work-related injuries that arise from tilting the head to hold a normal handset. A back-office desk might also require a trader’s intercom device to communicate with other offices or traders in other parts of the building. As with the trading desk positions, a detailed inventory of the existing and planned user requirements should be established for each desk position.


PC INSTALLATION AND SCREEN MOUNTING There are various methods of mounting PCs for office desks. The PC should be either enclosed in a cupboard or mounted off the floor on a bracket. The bracket could be a metal clamp or some kind of strapping. To leave PCs freestanding on the floor increases the risk of damage from their being kicked and/or ingesting a substantial amount of dust. The mounting should be firm to prevent vibration and cable connector damage, but it should also be relatively easy to release the PC when maintenance is required. If the office is at risk of casual theft it is worth providing a locking device. The inventory process by the technology project team should identify how many PCs will be delivered or transferred as part of the office move, and the most appropriate size of mounting bracket. At prestige executive desks it might be better to house the PC system unit in a nearby cupboard and use KVM technology for the screen, mouse and keyboard. This will hide a lot of the untidy cables and move the noisy system unit out of sight. An LCD screen can be set on the desktop using the manufacturer-provided stand or mounted on a supporting arm or pillar. Mounting the screen above the desk surface on an arm will reduce clutter and provide more space to the user.

Help desk facilities The help desk staff should be given access to large good-quality LCD screens on their desks so they can if required display multiple applications. If they are providing remote support to desktop PCs where they take control of the user’s screen, a good screen quality is important. The layout of the individual desktops for each help desk should be uncluttered. If the help desk staff need access to printed manuals during their operation it might be necessary to provide desktop shelving.

CHAIRS There is an enormous range of office chairs. The technology project team would do well to avoid getting involved in the selection process. As basic guidance, the base of the chair should have five legs, the chair should swivel, and the seat, back and arms should be adjustable for height and tilt. The chairs should be well padded and comfortable.


ACCESS ROUTES When the floor plan is originally created for the trading floor and office areas it should show accurately where the desks will be located. The planning should designate access routes to the desks. Where the desks are in parallel rows, additional space should be factored in for chairs, as placed during the normal working day. Local access space will be required close to the desks, and wider main corridors should be designated to allow movement of people during the working day and during emergencies. It is not unusual for a designer to optimistically squeeze desks slightly closer together when drawing up new versions of plans on a CAD screen, so before cables are laid on the floor the desk plan should be physically rechecked. It should be rechecked again before desks are delivered and assembled, confirming among other issues that desk row spacing is adequate and that suitable access paths have been preserved. Ideally this work will be supervised by the premises manager, but the technology project team should be alert to potential problems and ensure they are dealt with at an early stage. The last-minute discovery of problems with the layout can require the expensive shuffling of desk rows, moving floor boxes and possibly carpet tiles as well.

PERSONAL STORAGE The technology project team should take some interest in the personal storage provided for the workforce. The choice might affect how easy it is to reach maintenance areas, and if there is insufficient personal storage people might try to store their belongings in enclosures that house technology equipment.

Under desks If under-desk drawer units are provided they should be designed so they can be easily removed when support engineers need access to technology equipment or cabling. Technology devices mounted under the desk should be positioned so that no damage is caused when drawer units are pushed under the desk. Floor boxes should be positioned so they are not blocked by the desk storage unit.

Cupboards Cupboards or storage rooms should be provided for the workforce storage needs. This includes any cleaning contractors. If there is insufficient storage


space there is potential for the security of equipment rooms to be compromised when people use them as storage spaces. Floor cupboards should be positioned so they do not obstruct floor boxes and network access points.

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Meeting rooms

The technology project team will be expected to ensure there is adequate delivery of data and telephone networking cable to meeting rooms. The team will also need to work with the business to agree the appropriate number and types of outlet ports, and ensure they are located properly for power, voice and data. Normally issues such as wall types, lighting, door and seating arrangements are left to the building contractor and premises manager. However there are design aspects that can require a substantial input from the technology project team, and these are covered in this chapter. Part of the task of the technology project team is to examine the construction and fit-out plans to ensure the timescale is coordinated with the technology timescale. For example, the data cabling works need to be completed and tested before wall coverings are finalized. The technology project team should not assume the building designers understand the requirements of the technology equipment necessary for the boardroom or meeting rooms, and should be prepared to challenge the room design assumptions. The business might require a range of different meeting room types, depending on the size of the organization and the nature of its business. These range from prestige boardrooms to basic meeting rooms. Some meeting rooms might be equipped for video conferencing and/or presentations. The technology project team will need to ensure there is suitable technology which not only meets the functional needs but can also be easily maintained without disturbing meetings.

Meeting Rooms ❙ 259

The costs of presentation technology installations and consultancy required for boardrooms and meeting rooms can be quite large. The technology project leader will need to make sure there is adequate provision in the project budget, and that suitably influential sponsors are available to support decisions on proposed designs and features. Coupled with the initial budget should be arrangements to transfer the support responsibility and support costs of these shared facilities to ongoing operational management and budgets. Part of that agreement should refer to the funding provisions if any of the original funding participants need to change their share of the cost.

THE BOARDROOM The boardroom will be a relatively large room where many people can meet in an environment of quiet and privacy. There is likely to be a large table where meeting participants can have a spread of documents and laptop computers in front of them. The room will probably be dual-purpose in that it will support social functions with the table moved to one side. The boardroom will have good presentation and video/audio conference facilities. The room might be capable of being temporarily subdivided into smaller rooms by means of sliding doors. The walls, carpets, woodwork and ceiling will have a high-quality prestige finish to impress visitors from client and supplier organizations. Users are unlikely to accept the sight of exposed cabling or technology equipment during their meetings, and will not want to be subjected to noise from cooling fans mounted in technology equipment. The room will need blackout facilities for presentations. The controls for the environment and technology in the room should be simple and unobtrusive to operate, even in the dark. There might be an existing boardroom that requires a technology upgrade as a result of the trading floor construction project. It could have protected architectural features that cannot be altered without advance official agreement. The walls (for example) might be lined with wood panelling that can only be altered using traditional craftspeople. The design and construction of the technology, its positioning and scheduling should be organized and coordinated by one person. That person should have prior experience of building and deploying technology in such rooms. Any mistakes in the early planning can be very expensive and difficult to correct later in the project. A specialist consultant might usefully be employed. An important part of that person’s role is to control the expectations on the business manager so that enthusiasm does not lead to spiralling costs and extended timescales. He or she will need to work with any interior designer or architect retained for the


project, and with the business management, to achieve a layout and presentation of the room suitable for the business requirements.

SHIELDED ROOMS The needs for confidentiality and an undisturbed environment might lead the business to request that the boardroom or meeting room is electromagnetically shielded to prevent or contain: • • • • •

mobile phone intrusion; bugging by radio devices; the electromagnetic emission from speaker phones; electromagnetic emission from fax machines; the escape of electromagnetic emissions from PC, monitor screens and modems that can be read remotely.

It is far more effective to build the shielding into the design of the room than to retrofit such facilities. It is possible to jam mobile phone signals: the devices are not expensive, but they are illegal in most countries. To achieve shielding will entail the construction of a Faraday cage and shielding for the cables running from the room. Shielding can be unobtrusively installed and will probably include the following features. •

• •

•

Copper foil or fine mesh is built into the walls, ceiling and floors. The foil/mesh sheets should be electrically contiguous with no gaps and grounded to the building earth. Several modular building systems achieve this shielding, and there are also special ‘wallpapers’ with coatings that allow total or selective suppression of wireless signals. Conductive wall paints and paint additives can provide some protection, but this should be tested before a design commitment is made. Any service pipework within the ‘cage’ should be grounded and contained within a shielded duct. Windows and glass walls should be covered with special conductive surfaced film. An alternative is to used a fine metallic mesh, such as copper, between the panes. The frame and film/mesh should be electrically grounded. Note that such window films reduce the amount of light entering the room. Doors to the room should contain a metallic conductive layer, and the door leaf should be grounded, possibly by conductive spring fingers at the edge.


• •

•

The door frame should be lined with grounded conductive foam beading to close the gap where the door closes. Air vents to the room and air ducts within the ‘cage’ should be electrically isolated from the main building ducts and fitted with a grounded electrically conductive honeycomb baffle in the opening in the room. Network cables from the room should be shielded in grounded metallic ducting to prevent their acting as antennae. A more effective isolation is to use optical fibre connection to the room with a breakout switch located within the Faraday cage. Power cabling and electrical lighting power cables entering the room should have grounded shielding and also have EMI filtering fitted.

Designing and providing shielding can increase costs, so specialist consultancy should be sought to review plans and methods. It might be possible to reduce the level of shielding but still meet the commercial needs. The installation should be tested at appropriate points during the construction phase to ensure the desired effect is being achieved. Full protection against listening device bugging, video monitoring, remote laser monitoring and bugging device detection needs specialist security consultant advice early in the project design. It is possible to legally purchase mobile phone and electronic bug detectors at relatively low cost, but advice should be sought. These issues are not only an initial design consideration, they also need ongoing operational measures as part of a complete organizational security policy. When a room is shielded it might be necessary to provide a local wireless access point within the room for visiting guests, but that should be switchable to prevent unauthorized use during confidential sessions.

ACOUSTICS Meeting rooms, particularly boardrooms, need acoustic insulation to prevent confidential conversations leaking out and intrusive noise leaking in. Usually the architect or contractor will specify some form of sound insulation, but I have seen situations where this was not well executed, particularly if the client had not specified it in detail. In smaller overseas sites the technology project leader might need to liaise actively with the construction staff. Most building contractors will know what to provide in their quotation for sound insulation – if asked! Various sound-absorbing flexible blankets or baffles can be mounted above the suspended ceiling at the edges of rooms to suppress the transmission of sound via the ceiling void. If building regulations permit, lead foil or foam lead composites can form an effective sound barrier in the ceiling void.


For stud walls between rooms there is a wide range of acoustic plasterboards with suitable mounting kits that can be used to suppress noise. Used either side of the wall void these can create a substantial reduction in noise level. They can be supplemented by sound insulation fibre mats in the stud wall cavities. Sound reduction underlay can be used beneath floor covering to reduce noise transmission through floors. Sound transmission through windows or glass walls can be reduced using secondary glazing. Triple glazing can achieve good results. Acoustic doors and acoustic door frame seals are available to reduce sound transmitted via wooden doorways. Double doors – that is, two sets of doors, inner and outer – provide the best sound insulation. Noisy technology equipment fans should be moved out of the meeting room. If that is not possible it might be possible to provide ventilated acoustic casings or decorative cabinets to suppress the noise. There are ranges of silent PCs which use alternative cooling methods such as water cooling. Air conditioning ducts leading to the meeting room or boardroom can be fitted with duct silencer units or duct liner material to suppress noise generated from the air conditioning HVAC fans and cross-talk from other areas. The types of surface chosen for the walls, ceiling tiles, curtains, blinds and table surface in the meeting room can affect the way sound is transmitted/reflected and reverberates. Similarly the shape of the room can affect its acoustics. This can affect how clearly individuals can be heard at opposite sides of the room, an issue on which there can be conflicting business requirements. Sometimes there is a need to hear quiet speakers at the other end of the room; at other times perhaps whispered conversations should not be overheard. It is possible to install sound masking systems to generate patterns of background sound that prevent conversations being overheard. If sound transmission within the room is important to the business, this might justify retaining a sound specialist in the design stages. The position, number and type of speakers can have a considerable impact on the acoustic quality of presentations and voice/video conferences. If the meeting room/boardroom might be subdivided, it should be possible to zone the speakers so that only selected parts of the room receive output. Hidden speaker systems such as Armstrong I-ceiling Sound Systems can be used to give good sound distribution qualities. The speakers are indistinguishable from normal ceiling tiles.

WINDOWS If the meeting room has windows it is inevitable that some form of curtaining or blind will be required to provide privacy and light control. The curtains or blinds


might be operated manually or have an electric opening and closing control. Where motorized blinds are used it is usual to locate them inside the glazing unit between the inner and outer panes. Enclosing a blind reduces noise during operation, saves space and prevents it from operational damage. Where one or more of the interior walls of the room are made of glass the business might require partial frosting to enhance privacy. The frosting could be plain, or incorporate a company logo or a decorative image. This process is simply achieved by applying a pre-cut printed clear vinyl plastic film containing the image to the surface of the glass. A wide range of effects can be obtained including mirrored surfaces and holograms.

LIGHTING The boardroom should be equipped with variable-level lighting. It should be possible to control the lighting from the boardroom table as a supplement to the normal wall-mounted switching arrangements. If there is a speaker podium, an individually controlled spotlight for that area is useful. The lighting control will normally provide for both simple on/off switching and progressive dimming. Selection of good luminaires for the ceiling mounted light is important, but this task will be handled by the architect or internal designer.

UTILITY WALL SPACE Boardrooms and some meeting rooms will need space to enclose PCs used for presentation purposes, audiovisual equipment, sound and video mixing equipment, video disk players and recorders. Space might be needed to house large plasma or LCD screens and video conference cameras, as well as for presentational equipment such as flipcharts, paper and catering equipment (refrigeration, soft drinks, cutlery, plates, glasses, trays and so on). This is frequently handled by building a narrow services room at one end of the boardroom. This space is used for hidden cupboards or to provide recesses for devices such as plasma screens. Technology equipment supporting the boardroom should be rack mounted in the services room. An external access door should be provided to enable support activities without the need to disturb any meetings taking place in the boardroom. Housing the equipment in the hidden services room avoids damage to decorative surfaces installed in the boardroom. As with any equipment closet, the environment should be temperature controlled and have access control measures.


DATA CABLES The data and signal cabling requirements for a boardroom can be quite intense. It might be necessary to provide data, phone, screen display and electrical power access for each of the occupants at the board table, at side tables and the presentation podium – but without cables trailing across the floor. Signal cables will be required for microphones and speakers. These cables can be mounted above the ceiling or below a floor. The ceiling surface might be a sealed contiguous surface that is not to be disturbed once that the building works have been completed, and similarly the floor might have continuous carpeting. The challenge for the boardroom designer is to predict how many data and phone access points will be required and where they should be located. This might require repeated discussions with senior managers or directors before agreement can be achieved. The boardroom is one of their working areas. It will be exposed to external clients and investors. The management will want a very flexible set-up, but with the complexities of the technology hidden beneath the surface. The technology designer will have to plan the location of the floor boxes carefully to provide data/phone/microphone access points and power. The floor boxes will need to be unobtrusive and avoid sitting areas.

BOARDROOM TABLE The boardroom table will be large and probably constructed to order, with a likely long lead time. It will probably have a veneer finish that needs careful handling. The design will be subject to much management discussion and indecision. Interior designers will labour long and hard over its appearance. It will be a project manager’s nightmare. The technology designer’s role is to introduce alien technology to it, finding a solution that hides wiring, but allows the table to be moved or stored when social functions take place. Although the surface of the table is likely to be fine veneer, many modern table substructures are fabricated from high-specification engineering-quality fibreboard, cut to an accuracy of less than a millimetre by a numerically controlled device driven by output from a computer design package. This means that, provided the requirement is specified in advance, it is normally possible to request features such as grommet holes and mounting blocks, which will be exactly positioned when the table is delivered. If requested, the carpentry firm will be able to pre-fit components such as desktop pop-ups and cable guides. The boardroom designer must consider the logistics of making sure the right components are incorporated during construction.


Cabling for data, phones, microphones, screen display and power will normally be hidden in the legs of the table and then guided under the table top to the desired position. User outlets might be mounted under the table surface or in the top of the table. The access point might have a simple lid or a spring-loaded pop-up that rises when needed. The network cabling connection from the table can be simplified by mounting a small network switch under the table and mounting patch extension cords to the table access points. This can merge multiple cables into a single one. Coupled with IP telephony this approach can considerably reduce the amount of cabling required. It might be possible to mount microphones or microphone sockets at appropriate positions around the table for voice conference purposes. The microphones should be provided with a mute button and an ‘active’ warning light. Alternatively voice conference microphones could be set on the table top as conference unit satellite extensions only when needed. One caution about surface-mounted microphones is that they can easily be covered by paperwork during conference activity, making speakers inaudible.

VOICE/VIDEO CONFERENCING The boardroom will normally have video conference capability installed, typically comprising one or more cameras, a display screen or video projector and a sound system. Connection to the service is normally through a nearby equipment room. A range of systems provide these facilities. The video conference system will have a remote control device to control the video conference and to dial the connection or to select a link to the remote location. Quite often a second display or projector will be available to show presentations while also viewing the remote speaker(s). There will be facilities to play back video CDs and DVDs on one or both of the screens. Usually output from a TV system is mixed into the video feed so television reports can be played during the conference. Sound signals from the video conference equipment will need to be mixed with the other sound sources and fed to the boardroom speaker system. The other sources might include: • • • • •

voice conference system; tannoy or PA system; podium microphone; roving microphone; table microphone;


• •

television system; PC presentations.

Similarly there might be a requirement to feed other microphone input into the voice/video conference system, recorders or PC systems. There might be a requirement to record the images and sounds from both screens on DVD or tape. The recorders will be nearby in either the boardroom or the adjoining service room. The display system will also need to receive the output from PCs at the podium, in the service room and from attendees’ laptops. Video connectors mounted on the desktop will need to feed back into a central point to be switched to the appropriate display screen or projector. The various systems might have hand-held remote controllers, which could use infrared, wireless or cable connection. Arrangements should be made for the remote control sensor to be mounted in an appropriate location in the boardroom so the hand-held remotes function properly. A wide variety of video switches and converters can be used to mix and switch the various types of video services. There might need to be conversion from different signal types such as video cameras, PAL, NSTC, RGB, TTL and digital video before they can be displayed on a screen or via a projector. A wide range of camera options can provide input to the video conference system, often with features such as static, variable focus and zoom, pan and tile swivel. The camera might be designed for table-top operation, shelf standing, ceiling mounted or lift mounted. There could be a need for multiple cameras in use at the same time. Much of the selection planning will depend on the shape and size of the room, the number of occupants and of course the types of video conference that will take place. Part of the background normally seen in the video image by other parties during the conference should give an indication of the conference room location and the organization name. I have seen examples where a plain colour background is used and during transmission it is replaced by other images using colour matte techniques. Another useful indicator is a clock face in the background, to assist people from other time zones. The range of presentation system options can be enormous, so the technical design work and system selection is best left to an expert. The technology project team will need to undertake initial investigations about the type of facilities envisaged, and the various signal types to be handled, and to draw up a matrix of the various inputs and outputs that are to be mixed and directed. The team should then seek proposals from suppliers for the audio and video environment. The proposals for controller devices, such as the AMX range, should be carefully examined for the usability by non-technical personnel. The proposals will need


to establish the cabling and power requirements, and should define who will undertake the installation and configuration work. The provisions for initial training and ongoing maintenance will also need to be defined. Audio/video conference facilities can have a substantial cost, but the business will normally quickly recover the cost by avoiding business travel and having better communications. Any proposals should give a range of priced options for the business managers to make an assisted selection. The contract will need to be awarded and design work commenced before the design of the boardroom can be finalized. Preferably the video services design will be completed before the main structured cabling design has been finalized, otherwise there might need to be some retrofitting.

PROJECTORS AND DISPLAYS The project team will need to discuss with business management the method of display to be used in the boardroom. Among the options are a digital projector and screen, and large plasma/LCD display screens. The choice will depend on many factors. It will involve a compromise between the visual appearance of the facilities and the ease of seeing the display/screen when in use. Where projectors are chosen for a boardroom it is likely that storage will be needed to hide the equipment when not in use. Often a ceiling compartment is used, with some form of lift that lowers the projector into operating position. Some systems use discrete mirrors to direct the projector beam rather than lowering the whole projector unit. The projector screen might be hidden behind panels or lowered from the ceiling when in use. Some video projectors are designed for control and monitoring over an IP network. These devices can raise network alerts when the device requires attention, for example automatically reporting projector bulb failure. This also raises the opportunity for projector control via a PC. The project team will need to consider the heat and noise generated by projectors. They will also need to consider what physical access will be required for maintenance. If for example a large plasma display is used, consideration should given to how support staff can lift these heavy devices from the wall or compartment where it is housed.

WHITEBOARD The boardroom might have a built-in whiteboard for use in discussions and presentations, which could also double as a projection screen. Planning should


take account of how the whiteboard will be hidden when not in use. Some organizations might wish to use an interactive whiteboard that can link to a presentation PC. Cable routes will be required for power and signalling cables for any interactive devices.

PODIUM A boardroom or meeting room might have a podium for a speaker, which could be either permanently positioned or demountable. The boardroom designer will need to consider how cabling for data and power will reach the podium. Where possible the designer should avoid cables trailing across the floor. Floor boxes might be positioned at the proposed podium locations. The podium should be configured to temporarily house a laptop, and should also have space and lighting for the speaker’s notes. It could have a remote control unit for lighting, projectors and curtains. Some organizations have a ‘Chairman’s light’, with which the chair can signal to a speaker who is running over a time limit.

MEETING ROOMS Meeting rooms can be equipped with part or all of the technology described for boardrooms, but there will probably be less concern about the aesthetic appearance of the room, so there will be less need to hide the technology. Safety concerns will dictate that floor surface trailing cables should be avoided. Above all the design of the IT infrastructure for the rooms should provide great flexibility. Where possible floor boxes to deliver power and network connectivity should be positioned to avoid the likely locations of chairs and table legs. Temporary facilities might be provided, such as video conference equipment mounted on a trolley. In these cases the technology project team should ensure that there are sufficient connections in the meeting room. The connections might have to cater for ISDN connections. Depending on the configuration this in itself might amount to four structured cable port connectors in addition to those required for LAN and phone connection. Suitable secure storage should be planned for the valuable portable equipment and trolley when it is not in use. Security mounting points should be made available for any presentation equipment that could be left unattended in a meeting room.

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Miscellaneous rooms and areas

In a new trading floor and back-office area construction project the main areas are most likely to have some form of open-plan environment. However ancillary rooms or areas often need be designed and constructed. This design and construction process is normally not the direct concern or responsibility of the technology project team. However in smaller projects in branch offices it is not unusual for the project leader to need to intercede and guide those involved in the design and build work of the miscellaneous rooms. In some of the rooms the technology project team will be asked to help specify the equipment for minor technology requirements.

RECEPTION AREA Technology requirements for the reception area are likely to include the following: • • • • • • •

PCs for receptionists, network connections; silent operation of any computer systems; phone system for receptionists; laser printing, fax and photocopy (possibly in nearby alcove); security pass printer, badge programmer and camera; security cameras and monitors; intrusion sensors;


• • • • • • • • • • • • • •

fire, burglar, environment alarm panel; panic buttons; door access control release buttons; door intercom; badge reader points by doors; door magnetic locks; access turnstiles; mobile radio chargers; intercom system to back-office and PA system; visitor PCs; WiFi hotspot; casual visitor phones; market data and/or television monitors marketing wall-mounted or freestanding display screen, plasma or LCD.

The floor area and ceiling in the reception area will often be of prestige quality, often solid material such as marble or a permanent construction dating from the time the reception area was constructed. The requirement will be for no cabling to be visible to visitors. Meeting these business needs requires the careful planning of cabling routes and the careful location of floor boxes. The planning of technology will need to be carefully synchronized with the design of the reception desk or counter. If a purpose-built reception desk has been chosen the project team should endeavour to discuss their needs with the carpentry company. The furniture design should allow accessible cable paths, access hatches to the cable connectors at the back of equipment, and suitable ventilation provision to prevent overheating. The technology team should ensure that health and safety ergonomic considerations have been built into the design of the furniture and technology. Cabling planning will also be needed for routes for the magnetic locks, door access badge readers, turnstiles, cameras and visitor PCs. All this cabling for power, data, video and signalling will need to be in place and tested prior to the commencement of wall/ceiling surface plastering and floor installation. Careful thought will be required for the routing of cables for any glass-mounted devices such as door locks and badge readers. The data cabling for this equipment is not necessarily structured UTP cable: some of it might be specialist serial or coaxial cable. The project team should ensure that the plans schedule the correct cabling technician to lay the cable at the required stage. Cables installed in the ceilings should be supported on cable trays above the plaster surface. If that is not possible the cables should be embedded in ducts. Cable pull-throughs should be left in place to facilitate future cable maintenance. The technology team may use keyboard video mouse (KVM) technology to move the reception PCs system units into a nearby equipment room. Measures

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such as Kensington locks or security cables should be introduced for the security of technology devices in the reception area. If company policy does not permit external laptop computers on the premises there might be a requirement for a laptop safe to secure visitors’ equipment. Often the business will request that the access badge readers in the reception area are hidden behind opaque glass panels or wood panelling. The technology project team will need to check, before plans are finalized, that the devices still function properly when used in this way. Surveillance cameras might be need to be discreetly hidden. If the office is located in a high crime risk area the reception might need to be equipped with security devices to facilitate fast lockdown and the escape of reception staff. These might include barrier screens, smoke cloaking and acoustic disorientation devices. This is a specialist area, and the project team would gain from the advice of a consultant engineer.

HOT BED OFFICES In a trading room environment for an international organization there will often be a number of executive staff and trading staff travelling between the offices. These people will have a need for short-term office accommodation. They will need to quickly connect their laptop computers or have access to their files via desktop PCs. The guest workers will need a secure location for their paperwork and luggage. Access to the telephone system will be one of their first requirements, with requests for audio/video conference not far behind. A common approach is to create ‘hot bed’ offices. These are fully pre-equipped with PCs and telephone systems. Video conference facilities might be built in, or they might be serviced by a video conference trolley that can be delivered at short notice. Creation of the infrastructure for these offices will not place any great demands on the technology project team provided they are included in the original planning figures. It is all too easy to overlook these rooms when planning purely on the basis of projected headcount, so one of the early questions should be, ‘Do you need any hot bed offices?’ If the response is positive, the project team leader will then need to establish which business unit is responsible for design decisions and budgetary approval. Quite often visiting guests double up and share offices with colleagues, so network ports and power sockets should be provided on the assumption of double simultaneous usage. If ISDN video conference facilities are required, even temporary ones, this might further increase the demand for structured


cabling ports. A management decision will be needed on whether the electrical power supply for the room needs a protected UPS socket. The room should be furnished with anchor points for portable equipment, secure cabinets for luggage, and mounted extension power leads with socket types matching the common country types used by visitors.

PRINT ROOM Where high-volume office printing and copying is required by the business it is usual to provide a print room. The larger office printers create pollution in the form of operational noise, fumes such as ozone, heat and dust. Generally these emissions are at such a low level that they are not hazardous, but as a precaution workers should not be exposed. The toner used in photocopiers and laser printers is very fine and should be kept away from office workers. Use of a separate room will help to control this pollution. Air extraction ducts positioned above the copiers can help to prevent the spread of fumes into the office area. If sensitive network equipment or personnel are located immediately next to the printer room, it might be appropriate to build some EMF shielding, such as grounded copper foil, into the wall close to the printer. The print/copier room should have its own power segment and earth bonding arrangements so that this cannot interfere with the supply to the equipment room or other office areas. Photocopiers can produce electrical spikes in the power supply during operation. LAN network connectivity will be required for each printer position. There will be a need for telephone points for fax output and operators’ telephones. If the print room is situated close to the trading floor, the project team should check with the compliance officer whether the telephones in it need to be recorded on the voice recording system. A high-capacity printer can generate a substantial amount of data traffic on the network. As a consequence the person responsible for the network design should ensure that the printer traffic does not interfere with real-time trading systems or VOIP traffic.

POST ROOM The business might need a post room to allow for the preparation and receipt of mail. The IT infrastructure requirements for this room will not be substantial. A few telephone points and a couple of network ports are all that is normally


required. The mail franking machine might need telephone or internet access to allow for postal credit updates. The technology team might be asked to help provide security advice in smaller branch offices if they are driving the construction project. If the location is prone to terrorist activity, they might wish to consider measures for dealing with suspect explosive, incendiary and biohazard packages. In this case the post room should be kept away from the business areas and technology rooms, possibly in the basement. Some research with security companies can quickly identify appropriate measures. If the post room has to be sited close to the trading area it might be possible to have the packages pre-screened by the postal services, or to build ballistic reinforcement and containment into the structure of the room.

RECREATION AREAS The organization might have break-out or recreation areas where traders and back-office staff can take a break and get something to drink. You might not expect this area to have any technology needs, but experience has shown that the following types of facility are requested: • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

telephone points, which might need to be logged by the voice recording system; external telephone line points for vending machines; market data screens showing important price information; television screens requiring a feed from the corporate TV feeds system; network points for laptop computers; WiFi hotspots; sound system speakers; connections for cash and change dispensers; connections for payment card loaders/readers; network connection for cash registers; fire and smoke alarms; intrusion sensors; video surveillance cameras; tannoy speakers.

All these facilities are likely to need data, signal and power connections. While the planning of the area is unlikely to be the responsibility of the technology project team, it is worth checking whether any of these infrastructure services are required, and if so, that someone has taken on the responsibility of planning the cabling.


If any of the machines or facilities in the break-out area use significant amounts of water or have drainage, it might be appropriate to fit subfloor leak detectors. Similarly there can be a leakage risk if there is refrigeration equipment. If the break-out area has a raised floor, consideration should be given to constructing tanking under the equipment area to contain possible leakage.

FIRST AID The facility might include a first aid room where people with minor ailments or injuries can be taken for treatment. Once again this room is unlikely to be the responsibility of the technology project team, but there are some aspects that they could remind the administrator concerned to consider. These include: • • • •

a telephone point and handset; smoke detector; a panic button; ‘room occupied’ indicator light.

TOILETS, WASHING AND SHOWER FACILITIES The toilets (rest room), washing and shower facilities should not be of primary concern to the technology project team. They should however check that suitable arrangements have been taken to contain and detect any water leakages. These types of room should not be located above any equipment rooms, as the dangers of leakage during use or plumbing maintenance are far too great. If the walls of the toilet or shower room are adjacent to a technology room, a vapour barrier should be built into the wall to prevent humidity passing through.

KITCHEN Some trading floors have a kitchen area, either for personal use by office staff, or for use by catering staff in support of client entertainment. Kitchens can present several hazards to IT rooms and infrastructure. If possible the two areas should be kept well apart. Water leakage is a possibility, so precautions should be taken to detect and contain any leaks from the kitchen area. Adjoining walls should have a good vapour barrier and heat insulation. There is also an increased risk from fire in a


kitchen area. If the kitchen is adjacent to an equipment room there should be good fire-resistant walling between the two areas. The air exhaust from the kitchen area should be directed well away from the equipment room, as the highly sensitive smoke detection equipment (VESDA) in the technology area could easily be triggered by cooking fumes. The powerful electric motors used in kitchen equipment can create substantial electrical and electromagnetic interference. The electricity supplies should be isolated between the areas, and if the rooms are adjacent there should be some magnetic shielding between them. The kitchen area will require some IT technology, such as a telephone and network connections for PCs. The contractor should arrange suitable fire, smoke and intruder alarms for this area.

STORAGE The trading floor and back-office areas should be provided with suitable storage rooms. This work should not be the responsibility of the technology project team. However, the team should check that adequate provision has been made for storage space by the business or premises manager. If not, there is a risk that the technology areas will end up being used for storage of office files, paper and cleaning materials. I have frequently come across situations in older offices where a lack of planned storage has resulted in the cleaners storing their materials and equipment in the computer room. The project team should also ensure that suitable secure storage has been made available for essential technology spares and shared equipment such as video projectors.

PRECIOUS DOCUMENTS If the organization retains original ‘precious documents’ that have monetary or contractual value, arrangements must be in place for their safe storage. An operations manager or director will have the responsibility for this. Storage will normally be in a secure room, such as a vault or a room with strengthened doors and walls. The documents room might be in a basement away from the trading floor area. The technology project team should liaise with the manager to coordinate their arrangements and design decisions. There might be a need for surveillance cameras, intrusion detection, fire detection, an access control system and telephone facilities in or close to the room. These will require data, power and


signalling cabling. The electrical power might require some kind of battery backup. Any cabling to the area might require protective security ducting. The room might contain a heavy security safe or document storage system. If this is close to an equipment room, the technology team should ensure that the floor weight loadings are communicated to the person monitoring structural issues.

BUILD ROOMS Once the trading floor and back office are operational, the technology department will need a secure space where it can receive and configure new or replacement: • • •

PC equipment for desktop devices and servers; telephone and trading turret equipment; network equipment.

The equipment room should not be used for this purpose. A room should be set aside for such works and given suitable infrastructure such as power points, LAN ports, desktop task lighting and telephones. The technology team will need work surfaces with power and network connections where they can engage in physical build work. The work surfaces should be provisioned with plenty of power sockets and network ports, far more than would be found at a normal office desk. The power sockets and network ports should be available on the top of the work surface for easy access and to reduce floor-trailing cables. This build area can also be used for physical PC maintenance work. There will often be a requirement to leave the equipment running and partially assembled for several days during the testing process. There should be enough space for the temporary accommodation of packaging, and secure medium-term storage of spare components and software CDs. The support engineers will need a place where they can store their tools, cleaning materials and test equipment. This location could be used for the storage of spare components for the trading desks such as monitor arms. The room should have access control facilities so that only authorized personnel can enter it. If possible the room should be located in a position that can be monitored by security staff or receptionists to prevent the unauthorized removal of equipment. Some organizations outsource the physical build process to third-party suppliers rather than performing the task on site.


HELP DESK OR SERVICE DESK There might be a requirement to provide accommodation for a help desk (service desk) adjacent to the trading floor or back office area. This very much depends on the organizational structure and the size of the user population. It could be decided to locate the help desk at another location or even to outsource the function. The hours of business operation can affect the design of the help desk area and facilities required. The type of support services undertaken can also be a design factor. The help desk might provide 24-hour monitoring or be a simple call reception area during working hours. The technology used to operate the help desk can affect the design and layout. The role of the help desk will need to be agreed with business management and technology management before the detailed design can take place.

Noise around the help desk The help desk will generate a lot of noise during its operation. There will be many phone calls and also personnel who will spend a greater part of their day speaking to client users. It should not be located close to areas of business that would suffer from the distraction caused. In an open-plan office environment it might be necessary to consider acoustic barriers or a dynamic sound-masking system, such as the iCeilings system, to prevent disturbance from noise. Conversely the help desk itself can be affected if it is located near a noisy office or machinery. The help desk personnel will need to be able to hear callers on their telephone lines.

Monitor displays around the help desk The help desk might need large-screen plasma/LCD displays to show the output from system monitoring tools. This can create line of sight issues to be resolved in the design process. Planning will be needed well in advance to ensure that the display screen mounting brackets can be fixed securely, and that suitable data cabling and power provision has been made to the mounting point. There might also be a digital wall board with rolling character display information, such as the number of outstanding calls. The help desk staff might need access to multiple screens from different desktop PCs or servers on their desks An effective option is to have some form of KVM system to allow remote access to multiple screens. Clearly any such provision will require appropriate data cable and power provision to each help desk.


Power to the helpdesk The project team should give consideration to providing all the help desk systems with protected power, such as UPS. The help desk team will be a central contact point when major problems occur. Their phone and computer systems should continue to be available during power outages.

Telephone systems for the help desk Most of the phones for the help desk will be controlled by the central PBX or switch. Some of the systems might be linked to an ACD system. Depending on arrangements the team will have one or more handsets on their desk tops, and the desk design should give plenty of space for such desktop equipment. The help desk area should also be provided with one or more external telephone lines directly wired back to the public exchange to enable contact if the main PBX fails. This phone or phones will require appropriate data cabling delivered to the place where the phone is terminated.

Data cabling for the help desk The data cabling requirements and the number of outlet ports required might be greater than the normal requirements for a back-office desk. This should be included in the planning for structured data cabling. Some of the cables could be condensed by the use of VOIP technology, but careful consideration should be given to the resilience capability should there be any data network problems. Data networks fail because of component failure, network storms and overload or plain human error. At those times the help desk PC and voice systems should continue to work.

Access control for the help desk Normally most of the work of a support desk or help desk will be undertaken without direct physical contact with the client users. The work will be undertaken by phone and via PC facilities. The team should be protected from uncontrolled visitors interrupting the workflow. Usually this is achieved by providing an enclosed room for the help desk team.

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Telecoms

Substantial changes are currently taking place in the voice telephony industry at present as VOIP (voice over internet protocol) is taking over from the older PABX technology. The project team designing the telephony for a trading floor and back office might have to allow for both types of technology, with maybe a hybrid interconnection bridging the two. The main dealing systems such as IPC are now increasingly using VOIP technologies. In 2005 IPC had approximately 29,000 IP-based trading desk positions globally. However in this time of new standards the project team will have to be alert for incompatibilities and feature gaps with the new technologies. The team leaders must be careful in evaluating the claims of the salespeople. If a technology migration is undertaken as part of the trading floor project, the team should check very carefully that at the time of deployment, the new technology meets the needs of the trading and back-office staff. The team should be particularly careful of the network load and data prioritization issues of VOIP on the data network structure. Currently I would suggest that within the trading floor and associated technology rooms, VOIP traffic is run over a cabling and network structure that is separate from the data network. It does not substantially increase the cost, particularly when compared with the cost of an overloaded or unreliable network in an operational trading area. There is no doubt in my mind that although the continued availability of the computer network is very important, the continuous availability of the voice network is absolutely critical.


However given the commercial pressures to develop VOIP it is certain that the initial teething and reliability problems will be ironed out, and VOIP will bring considerable benefits in cost saving and flexibility in the trading room environment.

ADVICE The project team should have either a telecoms manager experienced in trading floor technology as a team member, or access to an experienced consultant during all stages of the project. The telecoms expert should be asked to take an active involvement in: • • • • • • • • • • • • •

data and voice cabling proposals; layout of the trading desks; provisioning of trading turret technology; provisioning of voice recording and playback technology; layout of the technology rooms; design of the voice communication facilities; design of the data network and bandwidth prioritization; scheduling of the installing plan; provisioning of the PBX, its licensing and support agreement; provisioning of external communications links, analogue and digital voice lines; deployment of telecoms points of presence; location of satellite dishes and laser data links; voice and video conference facilities.

VENDORS It is likely that several different vendors will be involved in supplying the telecoms facilities. The telecoms manager will have the responsibility of managing these suppliers, taking an effective part in negotiations and scheduling the delivery of services in a timely fashion. The late delivery of telecoms facilities is a frequent cause of delay to trading floor projects. The telecoms vendors will need to be given advance information so that they can prepare competitive bids. There is usually plenty of opportunity to make substantial savings by careful negotiation on the cost of telecoms equipment and services. The information supplied in advance to the vendors will be a key part of those negotiations. Time should be built in to the programme to allow for several rounds of negotiation.

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The telecoms manager should ensure that the vendors’ staff with whom she or he is dealing are experienced with working in a trading room environment. A telecoms vendor will often have one or more project teams used to working in city financial institutions. That team will understand the project pressures involved, and the importance of meeting project dates without exception. Your trading room site might not be included in the commercial sales territory normally covered by the vendor’s specialist trading room team. It is important during vendor negotiations that the communications manager insists as a precondition that the vendor provides an experienced team, regardless of the internal organizational issues inside the vendor organization. The delivery programme of vendors will have to be managed very carefully to ensure that they deliver on time. The provision of international data/voice circuits often involves several different suppliers, fronted by the main provider. My experience has been that the delivery of these various subparties is not well managed by the primary telecommunications supplier. When a delay occurs at some point in the chain the primary supplier will say that it is not its fault and point a finger at the subparty. Quite often problems are only resolved when the client project manager (you) takes active control and insists on talking direct to the parties involved in the provision of the service. The point to be remembered is that you should not assume that telecoms vendors will meet their delivery date, and must take a proactive role in managing their delivery. Once a vendor has been selected it is important that the vendor’s planning staff are given easy access to relevant project construction plans and schedules. This access should ensure that the correct persons in the vendors’ organizations are supplied with updates to the project plans. The telecoms manager should ensure that the telecoms providers’ engineers clearly understand the installation standards and procedures to be followed as part of the trading floor project. There must be very clear rules to ensure that the work of the telecoms vendors in the technology room is supervised (by your own team) and that deliveries are carefully controlled. If the engineers are not supervised it pretty much guarantees that equipment will be installed in the wrong place, it will be connected to the wrong power source, and the cabling will not match your corporate planning or standards. I am not saying telecoms engineers are incompetent – they are usually technically well trained – but these people are not telepathic and you must tell them what you need. During a new trading floor project, part of the telecoms system is often delivered by the vendors’ engineers at an early stage of the fit-out. You will need to ensure that a member of the project team is on hand to show the engineers where the service is to be delivered. It is not at all unusual for the service to be delivered to the wrong floor of the correct building.


SERVICES The telecoms manager taking part in the trading floor project team will have the responsibility for the provision of many telecoms-related services. Some of those services might be brand new for the site, others will have to be transitioned from an existing site. A substantial amount of planning and management will be required to ensure that all of the services are provided on time or transitioned at the time of the go live date. Part of the planning should take into the account the need for a fallback arrangement, so that it is possible to quickly and smoothly revert to the old site in the event that the trading floor is not available on time. This might be because of construction delays, or if perhaps a major fault is found in the IT infrastructure after the trading staff has moved on to the new trading floor. Providing a smooth switchover of services, with a good fallback arrangement, is one of the major challenges for the telecoms manager. The project team leader will have to spend a lot of time with the business representatives and telecoms manager checking through all the detail in the transition plan. The telecoms manager will have to build resilience into the telecoms transition infrastructure so that if one element fails to perform it is still possible to offer a continuous service to the business users. If there is a failure in the telecoms facility, it is most likely to occur during the transition period. The telecoms manager must consider very carefully the planning for the cancellation of services that are redundant after the move. If this is not considered the business could be exposed to substantial residual contractual costs. The section below briefly considers the services and equipment for which the telecoms manager will have to plan.

Temporary lines Telephone facilities will be needed by the project teams during the early construction phases of the trading floor site. In those early stages it is unlikely that any equipment room facilities will be available for termination of incoming circuits. The telecoms manager will need to agree a location for temporary termination with the construction project manager. The phone lines will then need to be ordered from the local PTT (telephone company). In some locations the lead times for the delivery for local telephones can be quite substantial, so this should be factored into the planning schedule. A problem that can arise in a brand new site in an overseas location is that the trading company might not exist as a local legal entity at that stage. This can give problems in the line ordering process from the local PTT, so it might be necessary to order the lines through a local agent.

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When the telephone lines are installed it might be necessary to provide some physical protection to prevent unauthorized use. It is not unknown for construction workers and security guards to make long international calls to their distant relatives.

Internet facility The project team members working on site will need internet access for their laptop PCs. A wireless ADSL router is an ideal initial solution. If temporary voice lines have been installed it is probable that those can be used for transmission. The router will need to be located in a secure location, with a protected (temporary) electrical power supply.

User database The project team should have a central database of front and back-office users. Where possible this should record their proposed desk number/position and the IT services, including telecoms facilities, that they will require. A common problem in a trading floor construction project is that the different technology teams maintain their own spreadsheets of user requirements. This can lead to errors, omissions and duplications.

Voice telephony and PBX Needless to say the telecoms manager will need to provide a PBX (or equivalent) equipped with the appropriate interfaces to external voice circuits and also to internal systems such as the trader turret system and voice recording systems. In a multinational trading organization, provision will be required to network with other PBXs within the organization and thus reduce the dialled call costs.

PBX stand-by power Most PBX systems are provided with stand-by battery systems to allow continued operation in the event of a mains power failure. Careful consideration should be given to the duration of the stand-by facilities. Use of dedicated PBX batteries reduces the electrical load on the equipment room UPS system; however the weight of the batteries should be taken into account when calculating the floor loadings.


PBX monitoring The telecoms manager should ensure that the PBX is equipped with remote environmental monitoring, and be alert for any event that could cause operational problems for the PBX, such as mains power, battery life and ambient heat. PBX systems are generally very reliable, and are often located in a room that is not frequently physically visited. I have seen the power supply to the PBX fail because of a circuit breaker tripping. The local power outage was not noticed but the PBX continued to operate on its standby batteries. The problem was first noticed when the phones for 300 staff failed halfway through a trading day.

Directory facilities As part of the installation planning the telecoms manager will need to plan for the update and release of changes to the internal phone directory.

Directory enquiries (external) The telecoms manager will need to provide a fast cost-effective external directory enquiries service. Public systems can be expensive and slow. If an internal intranet facility is used to interface with an external system, it should be possible to ‘cache’ frequently queried numbers. The telecoms manager might need support from the web support team to achieve this.

LDAP interface If the businesses are well integrated they might already make use of a standard directory system such as LDAP for the tracking of permanent and temporary staff for the purposes of identity authentication. If that is the case the telecoms manager will need to make plans for the update of the LDAP data at the time of live implementation of the trading floor.

Phone feature training A new or upgraded PBX and handsets will bring new or different operational features. The telecoms manager will need to organize training so that staff can make use of the new features when transferred to the new trading floor. With IP telephony handsets the staff might need to be trained in how to sign on to the new system.

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Voice mail The telecoms manager will need to consider the strategy for the transfer of settings and recordings from the old voice mail system to the new system. In many cases the new and old system will not be compatible and the users will need to be given plenty of advance warning. It should be noted that it might be necessary to store voice mail messages in an archival form as supporting evidence for legal cases, for example in the United States. The technology project team leader should ensure that the compliance team have agreed a policy with the business management. If archival retention has been requested it might be necessary to provide a storage mechanism that can also record the time line for each message. It might be necessary to provide archival records of voice mail, even for those messages that have been listened to and deleted. Recent corporate governance legal cases have seen lawyers asking for voice mails to be produced as evidence at court cases.

Call logging Most businesses log the calls made to external locations for the purposes of cost allocation. The telecoms manager will need to ensure if a new system is installed that it is compatible with the appropriate accounting systems. If the old system for call logging is to be abandoned it might be necessary to make special arrangements for the storage and retrieval of historic call records.

Dial plans Most businesses have dial plans for their PBX system to allow short-code dialling and least-cost routing. The provision of a new trading floor/back office will raise the requirement to set up or copy the dial plans for the new office. The new office might also introduce a new number range to be incorporated in existing dial plans at other locations. The dial plans are essentially a set of parameters programmed into the PBX processor. When this information is set up on the PBX it will be necessary to ensure that adequate security copies are available to allow a simple restoration if the primary copy is lost. This backup copy is normally made at present with a ‘flash memory’ card. Often this programming is undertaken remotely, but this will not be possible until the PBX is live and connected to the network.


Special number ranges The telecoms manager will need to negotiate with the local PTT for special number ranges for the trading business. The objective is to acquire easily memorized number ranges for the business. Where possible the numbers should be allocated in large blocks which allow internal extension numbers to be used as the suffix to the external number range. The negotiations with the PTT should commence as early as possible in the life of the project. When the number ranges are available they should be allocated to the business to allow the printing of headed stationery and the placement of marketing material. These might also include 0800, free call, low-cost call, national charge rate and premium number ranges.

Call redirection The telecoms manager will need to arrange for the redirection of calls to the old telephone lines to the new premises at the commencement of live operation. This process might be phased to provide client convenience, but at the same time persuade external callers to use the new number ranges. The phases may include: • • •

automatic transfer of calls from old extension to new extension; transfer to new extension after a recorded warning that the number has changed; a recorded message saying that the number is no longer available, asking the caller to use an alternative number.

Mobile phone facilities The telecoms manager might need to plan to transfer the business mobile phone facilities. As with the PBX this needs to be a seamless cutover when the business moves to the new office. The facilities could include integration with the corporate phone network such as short-code dialling and automatic transfer from an extension. It is possible that the existing supplier of the mobile phone service will not have a good signal level at the new premises. This might necessitate a switch to a new supplier, or negotiations with the service provider to upgrade the signal level.

Satellite phone facilities If the new trading floor is located in a country where the mobile phone coverage is inadequate, it might be necessary to provide satellite phones for those managers and executives who have to travel in that and neighbouring countries

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to meet clients. Modern satellite phones are lightweight and have dual capability to switch to the local GSM mobile phone system. Satellite phones can also be useful during the construction stages of a new office.

Calling card facilities A business involved in trading is likely to have a calling card facility for its travelling executives. In the case of the new trading floor project the telecoms manager might need to consider how that facility will integrate with the main corporate system.

VOIP Any new trading floor is likely to make use of VOIP technology for telephony. This could be a partial system, perhaps integrated with the PBX, or it could involve a total transfer to the new technology. As part of the project the telecoms manager will need to consider how to make use of VOIP. Wider corporate plans might mean that use of VOIP has to wait until the broader IT infrastructure is equipped to deal with the resource demands and security issues raised by the new technology. Moving to VOIP can require a significant upgrade of the network capability. Generally network managers ensure that in a trading room environment, IPbased voice traffic is separated from data traffic on the network to reduce the risk of network-based service failure. In a trading room environment the capability to record all voice lines is important. The technology project leader should ensure that any VOIP solution has good voice recording and retrieval facilities. They should be capable of supporting forensic evidential enquiries. The telecoms manager will have to balance the attractions of this new technology against the risks arising from potential failures. Telecoms vendors and network companies are offering an increasing range of VOIP services which can lead to ongoing cost savings. One important feature of such services is the capability to switch to business continuity facilities at very short notice.

Trader voice system Platforms such as the IPC Alliance with the IQMX Desktop, Etrali (France Telecom) and BT’s ITS system deliver the ability for traders to quickly access a large number of voice links to their clients. This is specialist equipment which needs careful specification to produce the most cost-effective and flexible solution.


The telecoms manager will need to work closely with the potential vendors to identify the most appropriate system. Quite often the deciding factor will be compatibility with existing trader voice systems equipment. For reasons of compatibility, the older TDM (time division multiplex) technologies could be appropriate. The equipment is expensive, given its nature, but vendors are usually willing to offer good trade-in deals against older equipment when it is replaced by newer models. This process might help to prevent a second-hand market developing for retired systems. Features such as microphones, user sign-on, hot desk capability, feedback suppression, echo cancellation, response time and system resilience all need to be taken into account when evaluating the products. The central platform will need to be configured with sufficient interface cards to provide connection to the required number of external lines. Expansion planning is necessary to ensure that where necessary the system can be expanded to handle a growth in business. The telecoms manager will need to gather the requirements of each trader and ensure that these are correctly reflected in the specification of the system. Balanced against the individual requirements will be the need to ensure that the business is willing to fund all of the requested features. It is normal to provide key trading staff with an opportunity to try out the proposed equipment prior to final selection.

TRADER VOICE EQUIPMENT The trading or dealing process will depend on good reliable communications, good information services, fast reliable data networks and good computer technology. This section deals with the voice technology that traders and dealers might expect to see on their desktops. While some of the trading and sales activity is largely automated, a lot of the business development will hinge on good communication with clients. Traders must be confident they can instantly contact their clients without having to think about telephone numbers. The systems must be fast and reliable. The challenge for the designers of the trader voice systems is to ensure they are also cost-efficient in terms of both capital cost and ongoing telecoms costs. The development of technology over the past few years has produced systems that are fast, reliable and easy to use. Once the equipment has been chosen and ordered, the installation work for the trading system controllers will be undertaken by the supplier’s engineers. Installing the desktop units will be a matter of unpacking the units, placing them on the desktops and plugging them into the structured cabling system. It is now unusual for the turret unit to be embedded into the desk structure.

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Turrets The usual configuration is some kind of turret system unit on the trader’s desk which communicates to the servers in an equipment room. The telecoms servers in the backroom perform the hard work of switching voice circuits and dialling to less often used numbers. For some systems a PC is used to act as the trader turret, with a PC screen used to display selections and information, but generally these are less popular with traders. For the major clients traders will want to press a button on a console (turret) and speak immediately to their client or another trader within the organization. For less important clients they might have to scroll down a client list, or select through pages, then press a button to dial. A trader turret will have multiple buttons to contact different clients. Status lights on the turret will indicate if the line to the client is active. The turret might have a small screen to display options and call status. The trader will be able to speak to the client via a handset, headset or gooseneck microphone, and also hear one or more clients simultaneously via the handset, headset or speaker. An indicator light on the speaker box will indicate when it is active. A trader desk may have more than one speaker box, sometimes several, so the trader could be listening to several voices at the same time. Speakers usually have volume controls so the trader can quickly adjust the volume. Handsets and headsets for trader turrets receive a great deal of abuse during use. The suppliers of trading turret technology will be able to recommend appropriate devices. The headset/handset or microphone jack will need to be robust. These are usually located in the turret unit, but I prefer to mount an extender jack point under the desk surface. This reduces damage to the turret, avoids cables running across the desktop, and avoids pulling the turret unit around the desktop. Handset hooks might be required on the desks to hold the trader handset when not in use. Space will be limited on the trader’s desktop so the footprint of the voice equipment should be kept as small as possible while maintaining functionality. A turret will typically take about as much space as an A4 sheet of paper, but this can vary depending on the manufacturer or model. Most turret systems require a single structured network cable to link back to the trading system server in the equipment room. For those trader turret systems utilizing VOIP technology it is possible to share a LAN connection, but this is not advised as it would expose the service to network delays. The relatively small cost of a dedicated network cable for VOIP is tiny compared with the risk of missing a trade. The main manufacturers of trading turret systems are IPC, BT (Syntegra) and Etrali.


Telephone extensions In addition, traders and dealers normally have a conventional telephone handset on their desks. This depends on circumstances, as usually the trader turret can perform most of the tasks of a PABX extension. However a PABX handset costs a lot less to purchase than a turret. The project team should establish what is required from business management. The extension cord might require adaptors to convert from the local phone standard to the RJ45 sockets of a structured cabling system. Similarly if the telephone handset is an analogue device connecting to a digital phone port (via the cabling system), it will require suitable adaptors.

Other voice systems The trader desks might have ‘Hoot’n’Holler’ systems and/or intercom systems which provide immediate connectivity to clients and other traders. These are robust simple devices with less functionality than trader turrets; they are also smaller and less expensive. Traders might have a speaker box where they can listen to a voice feed from a remote location. These are usually linked to an intercom or similar system. Each system will require a network cable connection back to a voice server in the back office.

Video trading systems Various manufacturers have produced video conference trading systems, but these do not seem to have a significant rate of adoption by traders. One example of the systems providing video on the turret is the BT ITS Myriad system.

PC speakers Some voice recording systems can play back recorded conversations via a PCbased application at the trader’s desk. Traders should be given the capability to mix the recording output to their turret speakers, via PC speakers mounted on the desk or to a headphone socket.

Trader handsets It is normal for traders to be provided with specialist robust telephone handsets to connect to their trader turret. The handsets must be sufficiently strong to withstand significant battering. These units often have curly wire extension leads of a generous length. Normal office handsets are unlikely to survive in a trading environment.

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The telecoms manager must plan to either purchase new units or transfer units from the existing site on the day of the move. She or he must ensure that suitable handset connection sockets are mounted above or below the trading desks. Telephone headsets, cordless or wired, are becoming increasingly common instead of handsets. Provision might be required for handset hooks, mounted on the trading desk, where traders can tidily store their handsets.

Hoot’n’Holler There are several types of Hoot’n’Holler, but essentially it is a simultaneous voice broadcast to multiple locations over a private network of dedicated voice circuits. Often a voice server is provided to switch the voice channels. That server is normally located in the trading floor equipment room, with similar servers located at the remote end in the client or branch office. These devices are sometimes known as squawk boxes. A microphone and speaker are provided on the trader’s desk, usually with the service switched on either permanently or by selecting a button. The process of selecting a destination on a fixed circuit is almost instantaneous without the delay in dialling via the public network. In some smaller trading rooms these devices can be used in place of trading turret systems. Slightly more complex devices called intercoms offer the same fast service but with the capability of switched dialling to other intercoms. The leading manufacturer of Hoot’n’Holler systems is Speakerbus. As with other manufacturers, its system uses TCP/IP protocols for speech delivery, and messages can be switched and routed like normal IP traffic. With such technology it is possible to install the Hoot’n’Holler at any location that can gain either direct or VPN access to the corporate network. This remote siting capability can be used in business continuity scenarios, and also provide a contact to clients’ offices or senior managers at home. The older style of Hoot’n’Holler might require specialized signal cabling from the equipment room to the trading floor, or if remotely located a dedicated voice circuit or an interface box to function over a wide area network. Sometimes the traffic is bidirectional similar to voice conferencing, using voice bridge technology and also with links to external PSTN lines. There are more recent implementations of this using IP multicast technology. This is fine if within the corporate network, but external inputs have to pass through a firewall. The task for the telecoms manager is to ensure that arrangements are made to transfer the Hoot’n’Holler circuits to the new trading floor location without interrupting the existing service. A variation of the Hoot’n’Holler circuit is the conference circuit, where arrangements are made to switch output to the trading desktop speakers and tannoy loudspeakers for early morning conferences and announcements.


Direct lines Although a major amount of the trading telephone traffic will be made using dialled calls (PSTN or ISDN) via the trading turret system, a substantial part of the traffic will be delivered over dedicated direct lines. These can be bank to bank, broker to bank, bank to client and so on. The circuit is permanently live and no dialling is necessary. The direct line normally terminates in the trading turret system (via the MDF). Some of these circuits are paid for by the organization, which is then termed the A-end. In other circumstances they are paid for by the remote end, perhaps a broker or client, and the organization is then described as the B-end. The normal business protocol in the financial markets is that if an organization causes the move of a B-end of a circuit, it pays the A-end owner the cost of the B-end move. The challenge facing the telecoms manager is to schedule the circuit moves for all direct circuits to the new site while maintaining the existing service prior to the move. The complexity with B-end circuits is that the arrangements for the move have to be made by the A-end owner. This usually creates problems with delays and synchronizing the moves. The manager at the B-end cannot put a great deal of direct pressure on the telecoms company installing the new line.

Speaker boxes Traders normally have one or more speaker boxes mounted on their desktops, to play Hoot’n’Holler messages, management broadcasts, direct line outputs or even the incoming parts of calls. The speaker is often fitted with a speech volume sensor light so the trader can recognize who just spoke. A trader might be simultaneously listening to the output from two or three speaker boxes while carrying on a conversation over a handset. The placement of the speaker boxes and volume levels are then critical. The task of the telecoms manager is to ensure that the speaker boxes are correctly provided on the individual trader desks. There can be a great variety of signal amplitude (volume) and clipping over the various types of voice circuit, including digital links. Part of the skill needed by the telecoms manager and team is to ensure that, when a move takes place to new premises, the volume levels are corrected on the new speaker boxes. As with trading turret technology, it is likely that the speaker boxes and their underlying technology will have features such as echo cancellation and feedback control. A speaker will be needed to provide playback from the sound card on the trader PC(s). Sometimes a small desktop audio mixer is provided to allow switching of the various outputs between the speakers. Provision for electrical power will be needed for the various speakers.

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Circuit patching High-capacity incoming voice circuits (coaxial or fibre) usually terminate in the PBX, trading turret system or the PTT’s own equipment. These circuits are not normally directly patched. However the telecoms team will have to deal with many smaller circuit lines such as analogue copper and ISDN. External suppliers are given a specific location to terminate their services, and it is then the responsibility of the telecoms team to provide patching from there to the appropriate point. Sometimes the termination point for analogue copper circuits is in the main basement. In this case a multi-pair copper cable might have to be run in the building riser from the basement to the technology room containing the main distribution frame (MDF). The telecoms team will need to establish whose responsibility it is to provide it. Often the handover point is the MDF in the technology room. The telecoms team should keep good records of patching. The MDF or termination point will be needed at an early stage in the project so it is possible for telecoms vendors to physically terminate their services as early as possible. If the project has a tight construction timescale this issue could be a point of project risk, as availability for circuit installations tends to be heavily influenced by external constraints.

Cabling database The telecoms team will need to maintain a cabling database listing the cables used for voice and video signals, the location of their terminations and their associated cable pathways. This should be populated with data as the cabling installers release the cables from their testing programme.

Voice recording The telecoms manager will need to agree the voice recording requirement with the business managers and the compliance team. She or he will have to allow for expansion of requirements and then specify those needs to the voice recording equipment manufacturer. She or he will need agreement on the retention periods for recordings, and also on the policy on whether to record from handsets or circuits for direct lines. In addition to trading floor lines, provision will need to be made to the recording of calls from the PBX for specific telephone extensions, such as those in back-office areas, areas accessible to traders, management offices, meeting rooms and print rooms. In reality the telecoms manager needs to use a complete list of direct lines and extensions, and work on the assumption that all need to be recorded unless excluded.


There is a potential requirement for voice mail messages to also be recorded and retained. If the line is already recorded there should be no problem, but the telecoms manager will have the headache of voice mail accessed from nonrecorded lines. The approximate size of this voice recording requirement will have been identified during the budgetary process. During the deployment process the telecoms manager and staff must check in detail each extension at each desk position or miscellaneous room/office to ensure messages on it are recorded if necessary. The voice recording equipment should be compatible with the trading turret system and also the PABX. If VOIP technology has been used it might be necessary to provide an interface to the voice recording system. The system will need access to an accurate time source, such as an atomic clock, to ensure accurate time stamping of recordings. During the installation process the voice recorder will need to be patched to the PABX, the trader turret system and the structured cable system as appropriate. The telecoms manager should ensure sufficient ports and patch leads are available for this. She or he should also ensure that the equipment is provided with suitable protected electrical power. Nowadays it is rare for voice to be recorded direct to magnetic tape. Usually the recording is to magnetic disk with some form of resilience to prevent any loss of data. Larger trading floors might use a storage area network (SAN) for storing and archiving voice recordings. Some provision will need to be made for offsite security copies of voice recording records. The telecoms manager will need to arrange a system of remote support for the voice recording system. This should provide automatic reports if there are any operational problems. It should also allow remote operation of the system if support staff are not on site full-time or it is necessary for business continuity purposes. Modern voice recording systems are usually based on PC server technology with an operating system such as XP or Server 2003. The telecoms manager will need to ensure that the system has good anti-virus software, security software and intrusion detection systems in place. Administrator passwords should be subject to formal controls and disaster recovery procedures. The voice recording system should be provided with access to an accurate central time server to ensure that the times logged against a message are always accurate to the nearest fraction of a second. There is a range of manufacturers such as Nice Systems, Dictaphone (now owned by Nice), Activa Solutions, Witness, ASC and Red Box for systems used in trading room environments. The telecoms manager will need to check that the voice recording system can suitably interface with the voice systems such as trading turrets, intercom, Hoot’n’Holler, VOIP and PBX. Some consideration

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will need to be given to the resilience of the configuration. It might not be permissible to continue trading if the voice recording system has failed.

Voice retrieval The business will need controlled and authorized access to the playback of voice recordings. In some business situations it will be necessary for a manager or compliance officer to give approval before originators are allowed access to their own recordings. Often an intranet browser interface is provided to allow controlled access to the recorded voice records. The telecoms manager will need to provide a secure web server to support that service. She or he will also need to ensure there are speakers at the desktop PC or in a suitable room for the playback of recordings.

IMPLEMENTATION PLANNING Planning for the voice systems on a trader’s desk needs careful evaluation of the individual trader’s needs. This should lead to a detailed schedule of needs, including the specific devices, how the equipment should be positioned and which voice services/circuits are to be assigned. Where an individual trader is not available – perhaps he or she has not yet been recruited – this analysis could entail detailed discussions with the trading team manager. The project team should document what services each person currently has and how these facilities will be provided when he or she moves to the new location. Sometimes, but by no means always, the senior trading management makes life simple and dictates a standard format of voice services for trading desks. Part of the risk planning for trading turret systems is the impact of power outages on the central and desktop equipment. Good planning of the installation and preparation of good procedures will mitigate the impact of outages. These devices should be protected by UPS power, but even with stand-by generators there are bound to be circumstances where there are unplanned power outages to some equipment. Sudden power loss might cause damage to the file structures on the central switch, and prevent the voice system from restarting cleanly when power returns. The user population will be rightly critical if they come to work at the start of the week and find their voice systems nonoperational after a weekend power outage. Trading staff should be provided with an advance sample typical desktop based on the new furniture type and the new (or existing) technology devices planned. If possible this trading turret should have operational functionality, with a support person on hand to demonstrate and answer any immediate


queries. Prior to visiting the sample desk each trader should be given a detailed print of the current intentions for the layout of his or her new desk, listing each item of technology and where it will be positioned. Once feedback has been received, the trader or his/her manager should be given a revised schedule of equipment and a floor plan showing how the desk will be positioned in relation to other people and services. Then the users should be required to sign off the revised design, including any additional cost implications. The changes might need to be submitted for change control approval. The new schedules should match the planned equipment purchases and equipment transfer planned from the old site. If not it might be necessary to modify vendor orders, so clearly the sooner the individual desk layouts can be approved, the better for the accuracy of the project planning. Part of the planning will be the migration of the individual button to line maps from any existing trader turret system or intercom system to the new or migrated system on the trading floor.

DEPLOYMENT Deployment of the systems should be a process of unpacking the system units, testing them and asset labelling them prior to installation on the desktop. The voice units should be plugged in at the desk and tested as far as possible. Full testing will be difficult until all the button maps have been migrated and the appropriate external circuits made available. Once installed the desktop units should be protected from any interference, theft or damage prior to live operation. A consequence of this is that the roll-out might have to be delayed until external contractors have completed all building or fit-out works on the trading floor. The deployment timescale will be much more compressed if the desktop devices are being moved from an existing site. However in this case a lot of pretesting can be undertaken by moving a spare unit between all positions. As each desk position is tested the patch cords used should be left in place, marked and ready for the deployment of devices. Typical errors that will be found are mispatched structured cables, faulty network connections and bad button mapping. The testing of quality at the far end of a voice circuit provides the quite significant scheduling challenge of persuading the client’s technicians or support organization to be available, particularly if line faults occur and then require several remedial tests. Part of the testing will monitor the voice quality transmitted to and from the desktop turret, speaker boxes and intercom systems. This can vary from circuit to circuit, and will require remediation before the trader sits at the desk

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to commence business. There can be a variety of faults including volume, noise on the line, voice compression quality, feedback noise and echo problems. The causes might be poorly adjusted or faulty circuit cards in the voice system, or problems on the telecoms vendor’s service. In any event the technology project team should be prepared to report, monitor and track the fault resolution. I have seen last-minute faults on international circuits mean the link has to be substituted by a dialled international call left open all day when trading commences at the new floor. Circuit faults can take a few weeks to identify and resolve. The testing should also confirm that the voice logging is working correctly for each position, and that retrieval of recordings can take place.

TRAINING If the outfitting of the trading floor involves a trading turret system that is different from the existing system, some training will need to be scheduled for both the trading staff and the support staff. The trading system supplier will normally provide training staff, at a cost or as part of a bundled deal. The training is normally for a set number of days, during which the technology project team will have to ensure all traders go through the process. Dealing with traders on holiday, travelling on business or just too busy can be a nightmare. It can be helpful if the business management issues an edict that the training is mandatory. The training period should be scheduled for shortly before the user acceptance testing of the new trading floor. A training facility will need to be available, with a working turret system to demonstrate the technology, which traders can try out. It might be necessary to locate the training system at the old offices to avoid excessive travel for the traders during their working day. The formal training will need to be supplemented by trainers or support staff on hand when the traders start using the new equipment during acceptance testing and live operations. Support staff will need full specialist training in the new system well in advance of its live use.

REMOTE ADMINISTRATION Trading systems are normally designed to allow remote administration and programming once network links are in place. This allows changes to configuration to be undertaken without a technician on site. Any administration changes to the turret system should be copied and available locally, so it is


possible to restore a system image if necessary following system file corruption or operator error. This remote support is no substitute for technicians on site for testing and initial support of trading staff when the system goes live. Where remote administration takes place it is essential that the technology project team ensures full documentation of the configuration, and a change control system is handed over when the system goes live. Any changes performed locally must also be reflected at the remote support site. If for example five traders are sharing the cost of an expensive international voice circuit, they will be concerned that, if additional people are allowed to share the circuit, the share of costs is properly documented and agreed.

DECT Most voice telephone usage on the trading floor and back office will be via hardwired connections. However it will be helpful to provide a form of wireless connection for some mobile support staff. Mobile phones do not always have reliable reception in large buildings, so they might not be the best choice for support. The draft Markets in Financial Instruments Directive which is under consideration in Europe requires that all phone calls be recorded in financial trading areas. This might have the effect of banning mobile phones in trading floors and back offices from 2007. The short-range wireless DECT (digital) phone system is probably the most effective method of providing contact for phones within 100 metres of the base station. The DECT system can also support several extensions, which can be useful in a support role. The radio frequency of the base station can be chosen so as not to interfere with network data cables or equipment in technology rooms. The telecoms manager should plan for the installations of some DECT base stations and handsets as appropriate. It might be necessary to monitor them with voice recording.

RECEPTIONIST/OPERATOR FACILITIES The trading floor and back-office area might require a receptionist to handle visitors and deliveries. In larger organizations this role could be handled elsewhere. If there is a receptionist, he or she might handle phonecalls that are not directed to extensions, and will need a specialist phone set to facilitate this.

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FAX The business is likely to need access to fax machines to send/receive faxes. Multipurpose copier/scanner devices often incorporate fax transmission capabilities. Some managers might require confidential fax facilities. Some of the technology servers might also require access to external lines for fax transmission. Most fax machines need an analogue rather than digital phone line. The telecoms team should ensure that the requirements for analogue circuits are included in the specification of the PBX system, or provide a sufficient number of external analogue direct lines. The telecoms team should also ensure that charging mechanisms are in place to recover the costs of running any external lines not already covered by the PABX call logging system.

TELEX Telex facilities, once common, are now found rarely if at all in a trading room environment. If there is a requirement it might be possible to handle it with a simple telex machine or a telex server. The telecoms manager should check as part of the planning whether any telex facilities are required. It is most likely that the answer will be negative.

TIME CLOCK The telecoms manager might be asked to provide wall-mounted clocks. These will need some form of time server for accurate synchronization. In a trading room, clocks that show different times can be a great risk to the business.

PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT SYSTEM The business might need to make announcements to staff on business and safety issues. The telecoms manager might be called on to arrange the installation of voice systems and speakers in the trading floor, office and rest areas. The telecoms team will need to decide where to position the speakers and associated cabling. Some form of audio mixing and switching will be needed to allow multiple input sources. Hidden speaker systems such as Armstrong I-ceiling


Sound Systems can be used to avoid disturbing interior decorations. These speakers also have very good sound distribution qualities. High-level electrical power might need to be specified to support the installation of speakers and their amplifiers.

TELEVISION, CABLE TV AND SATELLITE SERVICES Traders need to see news and business-related television while at their desks, in meeting rooms and perhaps in the break-out areas. The display could be deskbased or an overhead panel. The traders will need the ability to switch easily between the various channels to suit needs in the local floor area. The most effective method of handling this is using centralized receivers with video switching servers feeding the display screens. Localized control is achieved by infrared sensors mounted in the trading floor to receive commands from handheld remote controllers. Channel and video switching in the technology room can be used to prevent access to inappropriate services by the traders or back-office staff. This is a wellestablished technology. Examples are the Endeleo managed television system (www.endeleo.com), Cisco AVVID, Extron and Exterity Systems (video over IP). The telecoms team will need to ensure that suitable cabling is available to distribute the signals to the required positions. In some cases the structured UTP system will be sufficient; in other cases there could be a need for coaxial signal cable.

VIDEO SWITCHING Video switching was also commonly used for distributing market data screen displays around the trading floor. Use of this technique for data displays is now largely superseded by the much more flexible digital PC-based methods. However the telecoms manager should check to see if any legacy systems will need to be transferred by the market data team or vendors.

OVERHEAD DISPLAY SCREENS AND SPEAKERS Overhead video/TV displays are now usually based on colour plasma screens with 40–60 in (100–150 cm) diagonals. There is now a range of suitable devices, but the telecoms manager must be careful of the weight and power

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consumption. If a ceiling mounting bracket is required, it must be positioned to not conflict with overhead services such as pipes, ductwork and cable routes. Cable pathways for the display screen signal cables must also be considered. The power cords for the screens should not be run in close proximity to the signal cables. Plasma screens generate quite a lot of heat in operation, and should be sited so the hot air can be extracted. Ideally it should be possible to switch off plasma display panels when the office area is closed for business. The screens need to be positioned so that all relevant office staff can see the display and hear the speakers. This will involve careful examination of the seating plans to ensure that those who need to can see, but that those who do not wish to see are not distracted. The position planning should be documented at an early stage and signed off by the relevant business managers. Careful thought will be needed for speaker positioning. The options are integral speakers, separate speakers located close to the screens, and audio output distributed to desktops by an audio switching device. Achieving this is not too difficult, but pre-planning is essential, or on the first day of business the head of desk might say, ‘I can see the picture clearly, but I can’t hear the commentary.’

DESKTOP VIDEO SCREENS AND SPEAKERS It is possible to display video services such as television on traders’ desktops using their PC screens. There are a variety of ways of achieving this, including video servers, TV cards in the PC and dual-purpose LCD panels which also support TV. The impact of delivering the video signals over the network and structured cable system should be considered by the telecoms team and whoever is planning the network structure. This will need to be done before the design stage is signed off. Desktop speaker provision should be given similar (desk by desk) consideration.

SURVEILLANCE FACILITIES Surveillance cameras and intrusion detection are normally planned and installed by the security team or office facilities team. However in a small or remote location this task might fall to the telecoms team. In these cases the telecoms team will need to arrange security contractors to install the monitoring devices and cameras. Pre-planning will be needed for the routing of signal and power cabling. The installer will need to schedule the cabling work for before the ceilings/floors are completed.

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The positioning of any surveillance cameras will need to be agreed with the business management, and perhaps compliance teams and the human relations department. If the organization has not previously used video surveillance, it is advisable for a corporate video surveillance policy to be written, agreed and published. The technology project team will need to provide a secure location for the video monitoring server, such as a locked equipment cabinet in the technology room with its own isolated UPS power. In some cases the security monitoring feeds will be directed to an offsite location. The telecoms team will need to ensure that sufficient telecoms network bandwidth is available to transfer the monitoring traffic.

VOICE AND VIDEO CONFERENCE FACILITIES The executives from trading floor businesses will want to make regular use of voice and video conference facilities. Remote conferencing makes substantial cost savings on travelling time and expenses. For voice-only conferencing, this can be achieved using normal business phones, either through the participants calling an external conferencing agency or using voice bridge technology. The telecoms team should ensure that such facilities are provided as part of a trading floor roll-out. VOIP technologies are providing increasingly good voice conference facilities at a lower cost, but the technology team will need to assess the throughput impact on network links if this technology is to be used extensively. ISDN circuits are used to provide bandwidth for video conferences, though some corporations make use of the internal network. Where ISDN is used it is usual to bond together three or more ISDN circuits to give a reasonable picture quality. For fixed video conference facilities this will not present any difficulties to the telecoms team. However if mobile video conference facilities, perhaps trolley-mounted, are used it can present a design problem. The telecoms team will need to make sure that a sufficient number of structured network ports are available at the locations where the trolley will be stationed. For more complex video conferencing it might be necessary to employ specialist video switching technology. In these cases the technology project team is advised to seek experienced consultancy advice during the planning stages of the project. In some organizations staff make extensive use of personal conferencing facilities at their desks. There are several leading providers of such facilities. Among the cost considerations are the network bandwidth and firewall resource demands for such a service. The successful implementations that I

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have experienced installed their own parallel network to ensure that sufficient bandwidth was available. The telecoms team will need to ensure that sufficient structured cable network ports are available at desks to carry the personal conference bandwidth if required.

CONFERENCE ROOMS The business unit might ask the technology team to supervise the fitting out of a conference room or boardroom. This work will require close coordination of IT and a range of audiovisual technologies. The telecoms manager might be asked to take a lead in this. Among the possible requirements are video projectors linked over the LAN into speaker systems, and video conference facilities. PCs for conference rooms should be either silent or housed in a soundproof enclosure. The new ranges of water-cooled PCs are one option for providing fanless PCs if space in the room is limited.

VCR AND VIDEO TAPE RECORDERS AND PLAYERS Where video conferences and presentations are made, there might be the requirement for video (tape and DVD) players and recorders to be available for meeting and conference rooms. The telecoms team might need to specify this equipment and make provision for the installation in a location suitable for the support staff.

PAGER SERVICE As the use of mobile phones is growing, the use of pagers (beepers) is decreasing, and many telecoms companies are ceasing their paging services. These devices were once extensively used by support staff and key operational personnel as a reliable and convenient means of drawing staff attention to operation alerts. The short message service (SMS) text service used by mobile phones does not provide a reliable prompt delivery. In some cases message delivery can be delayed for hours. At the time of a major local incident or disaster, experience has shown that the mobile phone service cannot be relied on to be fully available. If the local mobile phone signal is poor and the business site is large, the telecoms team might wish to consider the provision of an in-house paging service.


TELEPHONE RECORDED MESSAGES Most organizations have a variety of recorded telephone messages, covering for example out of business hours contacts, transitional move arrangements, operator busy and business continuity arrangements. The telecoms team will need to ensure they are tailored to the new premises. This process will be facilitated if the project team captures details of the messages during the early inventory process.

TELECOMS DATABASE Cost control and fault resolution in a trading floor environment are highly dependent on an accurate telecoms database. The organization might have an existing facility linked to the asset register, purchase system, accounting system and IT service support/help desk system. If not, a telecoms database needs to be created by the technology project team. The telecoms team will need to record existing lines, services and equipment to be transferred; new lines, services and equipment to be purchased; lines, service and equipment scheduled for disposal; and lines, services and equipment to be retained at the old site. It will need to ensure the database can receive data from vendors and other equipment such as the PBX and trader turret system. For example the data held on incoming (copper) lines might record: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

vendor; vendor circuit identity; internal circuit identifier; service carried; circuit type; contract type; contract term; contract identifier; A-end organization; B-end organization; MDF termination location; circuit pathway; cost centre; cost; cost currency;

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• • •

cost plan; billing frequency; renewal rollover date.

Historically telecoms staff maintained trader turret button databases that recorded the services linked to each button on the individual turrets. It is now usual for this facility to be automatically provided by the trading turret system, but the telecoms manager should confirm this. Similarly the voice recording system will need some form of database, but again this is usually provided by the system vendor. A task for the telecoms team is to decide how to coordinate the data from the different sources in such a way that it is easily maintained. The data on services and equipment will need to be mapped against the new location codes that describe desk positions in the new accommodation. This data will need to be available for the telecoms support staff before the trading floor goes live.

TELECOMS BILLING The cost of telecoms for a trading floor will be a major item on the business budget. Normally it is necessary to be able to attribute costs to an individual trading position or back-office position. Costs of a direct line or service might be shared between several individuals or business teams. The allocation of costs might be on a per device basis, metered usage, overhead cost apportioned by headcount or arbitrary percentage allocation between business units. Part of the billing process is to cover the cost of capital write-down, leasing, rental, and maintenance fees of the underlying telecoms infrastructure. Most trading floors have a telecoms billing system capable of recording this allocation of costs and producing detailed internal bills on a regular basis. The billing system will need to be linked to an appropriate requisitioning system, where the desk directors can approve potential costs. It might be necessary to associate some clients with the telecoms costs. The particular challenge to the telecoms management during a trading floor construction project is to plan the potential costs and keep track of them. The telecoms management team must then ensure the business is willing to sign off against those costs. The following areas of cost are factors that the manager will have to track and differentiate between project and operational costs: • • •

new external services; new internal service charges from internal and outsourced teams; infrastructure costs for local network and data storage;


• • • • • • • • • • • • •

infrastructure costs for corporate network attachment; new maintenance and enhanced warranty costs; software costs for server support; new accommodation-related charges; cost exposure for volume purchases; capital expenditure and ongoing lease/rental exposure; installation costs, shipping, insurance and storage; shared project costs; training costs; temporary service/facility cost; data storage media conversion costs, eg old voice recordings; disposal and termination costs of previous services, facilities, accommodation and capital expenditure; continued services and capital exposure for residual services at the previous location.

The telecoms manager must ensure that business managers are aware of potential residual and write-off charges that will arise from the project. It is unlikely that these potential project and ongoing operational costs will be budgeted for unless the telecoms manager reminds the business managers. Careful negotiation by the telecoms manager with the service vendors can help to reduce the transitional costs: for example the vendors might agree to absorb some of the temporary transition costs and to provide free training. The move to a new location is also a good time to negotiate new fee rates with telecoms vendors. There will always be cheaper alternatives that can be used to pressurize incumbent suppliers. It might be possible to offset the cost of circuits against a deal on the basis of voice minutes on the dialled calls.

TELECOMS CIRCUIT ORDERING The telecoms team will need to allow plenty of time for the telecoms vendors to provide new circuits. In some city locations with a good fibre telecoms network and a local point of presence (POP) in the building the time frame can be just a few days. However for international circuits or new fibre installations to a building you should be prepared for delays. In some cases it might be necessary to consider temporary alternatives in order to meet business timescales. The vendor will normally have published lead times for the delivery of circuits, and while it is usually possible to achieve delivery in a shorter timeframe, it will be a brave project manager who plans on the basis of circuit delivery faster than the published lead times.

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One of the first items needed when ordering circuits is a delivery address. The vendor will want to send an engineer to survey the installation route at an early stage of the installation planning. When the trading floor project is building from bare concrete, arranging early access can be a problem. If the telecoms vendor needs to provide a new POP in the building, or to install a new fibre to the building, there can be substantial unpredictable delays in both the provisioning of the specialist equipment and the obtaining of legal permission (way leave) to run the fibre/telecoms cable over or through the property of third parties. In the case of specialist equipment the project team should be aware that major telecoms companies do not hold large inventories of specialist POP equipment, but raise orders against the component manufacturers on receipt of client orders. This reduces the inventory cost for the telecoms vendor, but increases the risk of delay to clients. Obtaining the way leave permits for a new service can be slow and unpredictable, as the administrative staff from the telecoms vendors will be communicating with the legal representatives of the various landlords, lessees and tenants involved. The telecoms team will need to establish a good working relationship with their account manager from the telecoms vendor. The project team will need to make sure the telecoms account manager is aware of the need to deliver the circuits on schedule, but also to alert the trading project team of any potential delays as quickly as possible. As mentioned before, the telecoms manager should be particularly wary of the B-end of circuits, when there is little direct influence on the performance account manager installing the circuit. It is necessary to work with the telecoms team at the A-end to ensure scheduling of the delivery and circuit presentation method. Another factor to take into account when ordering new circuits from the trading floor to clients is the impact at the B-end (the client site). These new circuits might be replacing circuits from the old premises, so the cut-over might need to be synchronized with the opening of the new trading floor. The person in the telecoms team arranging the circuit move will need to make sure the client (B-end) is ready to receive the new circuit and to perform any necessary testing.

ALTERNATE PTT TRUNKS The telecoms project team should ensure that alternate routes are provided for major incoming telecoms fibres or trunks. This could be dual routing from different exchanges for the same PTT, or could use different PTT vendors. If possible alternate circuits should have different entry points to the building and different routes in the street to separate telephone or network exchanges. The


major telecoms companies will be used to providing such a service, but should be reminded that it is required. With modern PBXs it is easy to switch dialled traffic dynamically between vendors’ circuits. Reliance should not be placed on different vendors running over the same physical incoming circuit; while there might be cost advantages in this approach it does not reduce the risk. Planning for telecoms services should work on the assumption that the main trunk will fail at some point during the working day. At some point a worker will cut through the cable, or a telephone exchange will be subject to a power failure.

CORPORATE VOICE AND DATA NETWORK If the organization is large enough to have more than one operating location, it is likely that there will be data and voice network links between the locations. Depending on the volumes of traffic there will be some kind of voice or data network switches located at each major location to facilitate switching of the voice/data traffic destined for the other locations. The project network/telecoms team will need to liaise with the corporate networking team on the type of switching equipment required. Issues such as network priority, bandwidth, quality of service, IP address ranges, network management and firewalls will all need to be discussed and agreed. Some of the trading network activities, such as video over IP, might be incompatible or unsupported by the wider corporate network. It might be necessary to provide a business-specific network infrastructure. It is usual to provide some form of triangulated circuit/network diversity in the corporate network design, so that if one link fails there is an automatic diversion to an alternate circuit. If the corporate network team desires to use the trading floor project site equipment room as a major node that switches onwards-destined traffic, there should be substantial discussion to ensure that suitable infrastructure and support is available. Part of the discussion should cover the allocation of costs, as the trading floor businesses are unlikely to want to directly fund the corporate overhead costs. Where diversity of wide area networks is a requirement, the telecoms manager should if possible obtain the data circuits from more than one carrier. It is possible for a system failure at a major network hub to affect a substantial part of a single vendor’s network. Such a failure could affect two routes obtained from a single vendor. The telecoms manager should check the actual routes of the circuits, looking for any common points of failure. Vendors will normally provide such information on request.

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BUSINESS CONTINUITY MANAGEMENT Any planning for major telecoms facilities should include consideration of business continuity management (BCM). The telecoms planning should consider what equipment, circuits, services and procedures will be necessary if the trading floor has to shift at short notice to a business continuity status, probably in a new location. Achieving the necessary flexibility might require the provision of additional circuits at a disaster recovery centre. With modern digital data communications over data fibres is often possible to arrange automatic switchover by the telecoms vendors. This cannot be achieved without suitable planning by the telecoms project team, the IT team and the business.

EQUIPMENT MAINTENANCE In a trading room infrastructure there will be a range of telecoms technologies. Any new equipment will need to be provided with maintenance services by the suppliers and/or third-party specialist maintenance firms. The telecoms project manager must decide appropriate response periods for each piece of the equipment, and negotiate contracts with the suppliers. The service levels and costs will also need to be approved by the operational IT support managers. Where existing equipment is moved from another location to the new trading floor site, it might be necessary to negotiate revised maintenance contracts or to arrange the transfer of maintenance to a new maintenance supplier. The telecoms manager should arrange cancellation or adjustments of maintenance contracts where equipment has been disposed of as part of the move. If part or all of the equipment is covered by an outsourcing agreement it might be necessary to undertake negotiations with the outsourcing vendor.

DISPOSALS The process of disposal of telecoms equipment needs to be carefully planned and monitored. When a new trading floor is constructed there will usually be some equipment to be disposed of, as staff move from an existing to a new location or from older to new technology. The first step is to make or check a complete inventory of equipment at the old site, and decide what will be subject to disposal. This list should then be examined to establish who actually owns the equipment. It might be leased,


rented, owned by the business, shared with another business section or owned by the telecoms department. If the equipment is leased or rented, plans should be made to return the equipment to the supplier. This must be done carefully, with equipment serial numbers being checked against the original schedule of supply. It is not unknown for leased equipment to be upgraded during its lifetime, so the actual devices might be composites, part owned by the business and part owned by the lease/rental company. The worse case is when you examine the lease/rental agreement and discover that someone has previously scrapped leased equipment. When the telecoms team need to dispose of ‘internally owned’ equipment they might need to enter into discussions with the business owners, who might wish to leave the equipment in place at the old site. For some types of expensive capital items, for example a PBX, the capital depreciation might not be complete. Disposal of equipment might trigger a write-off of the remaining capital expenditure (sometimes a substantial sum) against the owner’s budget. The telecoms manager will also need to consider the actual method of disposal. Environmental regulations might prevent simple dumping of the equipment, and call for documentary certification of safe disposal for each item. It might be necessary to arrange a sale via a broker or auction house. This will involve the telecoms team in the supervised dismantling, storage and collection of the old equipment. Any magnetic media will need to be wiped clean of data using degaussing facilities. Old documentation will need to be destroyed or stored. At the point of disposal the team will need to document the disposal of items of equipment and services so that future queries can be resolved.

SPARES INVENTORY One of the services that the telecoms team will need to offer as part of the trading floor project is a suitable spares inventory. This will need to be assessed at the time the original orders are planned, and a suitable allowance built into the budget. The nature of the trading environment is that spares should be immediately available to fix problems or to address sudden unpredicted user requirements. Often the normal ordering process is just too slow to provide an effective solution. If for example a new key trader joins the business but cannot start work because of equipment shortfall, it would be embarrassing for the business and could represent a substantial loss of income. For some items it might be possible to have the vendor loan the equipment to the telecoms team until it is used. An alternative is for the supplier to hold a

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spares stock on site, which can be used to fix problems at the business premises or at other nearby customers. Some of the spares that might be considered are: • • • • • • • • • • •

telephone sets; handset cables and jack plugs; headsets; mobile phones and batteries; trader turrets; speaker boxes; keyboards; microphones; patch leads/cords; labels PBX, trading system cards.

The telecoms team will need to ensure that any plans for accommodation provide a secure location, convenient to the trading floor, to store the spares holding.

ASSET RECORDING Most trading organizations already have an asset register system, but in some cases it might contain partial data or not be in effective use. The trading floor project presents an opportunity to provide clean data. The telecoms project team should ensure that all items of equipment are recorded in a central asset register system. This implies the attachment of serial number labels to all items when they are delivered/installed to the trading floor. The team will need to ensure that the central database system has data fields that appropriately describe the telecoms equipment and services. There might be a temptation to maintain asset records on a spreadsheet or single user database, but it should be avoided, as it does not help with subsequent use of the data for support purposes. The project team should ensure that a good supply of tagging labels are available to register equipment. In some cases it might be possible for the items to be pre-labelled by the supplier with labels provided by the team before delivery. The asset records should extend to the spares holding. The objective should be to hand over complete asset records to the operational support team when the new trading floor commences operations. In the pressures of a trading floor construction project it is easy to treat this as a lowpriority task, but incomplete records at the start of the project can exacerbate any teething problems.


Telecoms installations often make extensive use of third-party installation personnel. When planning to contract with third parties, the telecoms manager should always consider how to capture the asset data arising from their installation. It might be possible to automate this. Any disposals will require noting in the asset register.

MOVES, ADDITIONS AND CHANGES TO THE SYSTEM Telecoms services in a trading floor will undergo a lot of changes at relatively short notice during normal operations. The trading floor operation is usually an environment of constant change, as the business reacts to the volatile financial markets. These changes often involve changes to the IT and telecoms infrastructure. IT infrastructure changes will require careful planning, authorization and testing procedures so they do not interfere with daily operation. Each change will have a cost associated with it, and the costs are often increased because the work has to be undertaken outside normal working hours. The business should be involved in the prior approval of such costs. To achieve control of changes or moves will require a formal moves, adds and changes (MAC) process. Usually the organization, particularly the telecoms team, will have such procedures in place, but they should be examined during the trading floor project to ensure that they remain appropriate for the new environment. The project team should ensure that the data held describing the infrastructure is sufficient to facilitate control. During the construction and deployment phase, tight control needs to be kept of any changes to requirements or specifications of the planned services. Any change from the baseline design and delivery dates could potentially impact the timescale of other teams in the project. The MAC process could be used to help control such changes. However the project MAC process should be decoupled (where possible) from the main operations MAC system if unnecessary approval delays are to be avoided. Good design of the trading floor, its structured cable system, computing and telecoms services will help to reduce the number of physical changes needed as part of the MAC process. Hot desk working capability will further reduce the need for moves, adds and changes in the future.

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Air conditioning

ADVICE The design and installation of air conditioning for a trading floor and the associated equipment room needs the advice of a qualified building services or mechanical and electrical (M&E) engineer who is experienced in the design of air conditioning environments. The suppliers of air conditioning systems are unlikely to provide any form of warranty unless the installation has been undertaken by qualified engineers. Part of the design work will be for the trading floor, where the engineer will probably make use of any chilling facilities available from the building base build, supplementing the capability with additional chilling plant capacity as appropriate and permitted. The air conditioning system for the equipment room(s) will probably be a totally separate purpose-built system so that greater resilience is possible and continuous 24-hour operation is possible. In many office buildings it would be too expensive to operate the main building chilling on a continuous 24-hour basis. Most office air conditioning plants are designed on the assumption that they will shut down overnight and at weekends. The M&E engineer cannot work in isolation. She or he will need a substantial amount of information from the technology project team. In the office areas there are usually government guidelines or regulations about the amount of air conditioning. These seek to strike a balance between energy efficiency and occupant


comfort. The air conditioning system will need to provide the correct air flow and temperature control for the inhabitants of the office. To realize these calculations the engineer will need information on the number of staff, their hours of operation, their approximate location, the layout of offices and the types of electrical equipment and lighting. Cooling needs can easily exceed 100 W per square foot of equipment room, whereas in an office area they might be 5–10 W per square foot. For those used to US air conditioning systems: • •

1 ton of cooling is needed to counteract 3.5 KW of heating; 1 ton of (ice) cooling is the equivalent of 12,000 Btu hour.

However to provide a resilient cooling system the total cooling capacity might be as high as twice the heat load as items become duplicated. The earlier heat, power and personnel inventory exercises performed by the project team will go a long way to answering these questions. The engineer will work with the detailed building plans and the landlord’s engineer to establish the best method to locate any additional plant that might need to be installed. In the equipment rooms the M&E engineer will need to know the amount of equipment, the approximate layout of the room, the heat load from the planned equipment (and also any expansion plans), the height of the cabinets, the height of the raised floor and the air flow requirements. If there are any equipment cabinets containing a high density of ‘hot’ equipment the engineer will need that information, particularly if additional ducting will be required to extract hot air from the cabinets. Any intended use of chilled water systems to cool individual cabinets should also be discussed with the engineer. The engineer should be politely reminded that full air conditioning capacity should be available if a single unit fails or has to be switched off for maintenance work. Discussions should be held with the engineer over how it is intended to operate the air handling units during normal operations. The method of operation can affect reliability and also the air flows within the floor plenum. The engineer will need to know the plans for data cabling routing within the trading floor, back office and technology rooms so that information can be coordinated with the system’s ducting and pipework, and that of the other engineers involved in the design work. The design process will be highly iterative, with much discussion needed to ensure that the design meets the requirements. The technology project team leader should not assume that the M&E engineer will automatically produce the best design. The M&E engineer will tend to design the air conditioning system for the most efficient operation. One question that should be asked is whether fan motors and compressors with a greater electrical efficiency are available from

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the manufacturer at a higher initial capital cost. The operational savings on energy might provide payback within a short period, and the equipment could be eligible for government interest-free loans. The technology project leader should examine the proposals from the viewpoint of resilience and the capability to absorb current and projected heat loads from current and forecast technology devices. The M&E engineer should meet on site jointly with the project team to visually inspect the area, the building risers and chilling units. At these meetings the outline proposals should be discussed informally before any detailed design work is undertaken. The design should be checked for the positioning of air handling units (AHUs), air flow, resiliency issues and the arrangements for maintenance. As technology project manager, you should confirm that the temperature range, the humidity control, heating and humidifier capability are what is needed for reliable operation. Check that the designed air flow at the front and back of cabinets will be satisfactory. Check the routing of any hot/cold refrigerant pipes and condensate drain pipes to ensure they will not create a risk to the personnel or the technology equipment. The routing of any pipework under the floor plenum should not be allowed to obstruct the air flow from the AHUs. You should ensure that approval sign-off takes place for the designs for air conditioning. The location of AHUs and resilience features is also subject to signoff by the operations management of the technology department and the key trading floor business managers. It is an expensive and messy job to cure air conditioning faults after the building work has been completed. If the coolant is obtained from the building landlord’s supply of chilled water, it might be necessary to obtain the approval of the landlord’s engineer before the trading floor/equipment room air conditioning systems can be connected to the chilled water pipe network. Further reading on this issue can be found in the ASHREA publications Datacom Equipment Power Trends and Cooling Applications (ISBN 1–931862–65–6), Thermal Guidelines for Data Processing Environments (ISBN 1–931862–43–5) and ‘New guideline for data center cooling’ (ASHRAE Journal 45(12), pp 28–34).

COOLING METHOD CONSIDERATIONS It is beyond the scope of this book to discuss in detail the various methods available to provide chilling to a trading room environment. However there are aspects of these methods of which the technology project team will need some awareness. There will need to be pipes delivering chilled water/refrigerant to the AHU, and there will need to be pipes to take the warmed water/refrigerant back to the


chilling unit. Those pipes might need to be thermally insulated and routed away from heat-sensitive equipment and people. Where chilled water/refrigerant is present in pipes there will be a risk of condensation of water vapour on the surface of the pipes which might drip on electrical equipment. One commonly used cooling process, rather like a giant refrigerator, is to use special refrigerant gases that transfer heat directly to chillers mounted externally on the building, on the roof or an outside wall. There are limits to the length of refrigerant pipe run for this technique. The refrigerant pipes will have oil trap units to remove any oil that might enter the pipe system at the compressor pump. The units will need to be accessibly located. Other systems generated chilled water using external chiller units. The chiller units should be located in an area shaded from direct sunlight. There could be landlord restrictions or local regulations that prevent the placement of external chiller units. If chilled water is supplied from the landlord’s system or the main building system, there will be restrictions on the amounts of cooling capacity available, and there might also be limitations on the time of day or week the chilled water supply is available. The cooling thermal load from the room/office will need to be matched to the thermal capability of the chiller unit, otherwise excessive wear might occur during its operation. External temperature extremes (either too hot or too cold) can prevent the chiller units from functioning properly. The design will need a realistic assessment of the potential growth in thermal load as technology equipment use increases. All these issues should be covered by the design work of a suitable M&E engineer. The danger to the technology project team leader is that someone will make planning assumptions on trading floor layout/design based on partial knowledge about the air conditioning system. Perhaps a member of the project team will omit some essential information when discussing the requirements with the engineer. It is very easy to make mistakes or omissions with the design of the air conditioning system. Those mistakes could prevent the trading floor and associated technology room from operating on a continuous and reliable basis.

NEEDS Keeping technology equipment cool during operation prevents failures. If equipment is not properly cooled it will lead to a shortened lifespan for electrical components and electromechanical devices such as disk drives. Some manufacturers incorporate temperature sensors in their devices that shut down


equipment if it is overheated. The sudden unplanned shut-down, while protecting equipment, can cause expensive chaos in a trading environment. Keeping trading floor and back office staff cool can also be important! Calculating the air conditioning needs can be a complex task best left to an expert with the suitable engineering experience and qualifications. However the technology project leader can be expected to have a substantial input to the calculation process. The factors involved have already been mentioned with respect to budgetary planning (see page 165), and should have been catalogued during the initial inventory process. You should however double-check that this information has been fully incorporated in the design by the M&E engineer. It should not be assumed that the engineer will take into account all previously notified requirements. This is a non-exhaustive list of factors that should be double-checked: •

• • • • • • • • • • •

Total heat load of servers, PCs, printers, photocopiers, network equipment, UPS, lighting, air handling fans and people. Note that the power requirement shown on the equipment rating plate might be a maximum rather than steady state operation. It will usually be necessary to refer to detailed specification sheets. The position of AHUs or cooled air vents. For example will the UPS and battery area be cooled? Resiliency: can sufficient cooling be provided on a continuous basis to support operations if a chiller or AHU is not operational? How quickly can the system restore the correct temperature after an air conditioning failure and the room and equipment has become fully heated? What operational temperatures have been designed for the technology room and the office/trading floor areas? Will the proposals support the planned expansion of technology and/or a change in size of the equipment rooms? If chilled water is needed for direct connection to racks/servers, is this available on a 24-hour basis? Is sufficient airflow provided to meet the heat extraction needs of the technology equipment housed in the racks? What assumptions have been made on the positioning of air vents? What assumptions have been made on any air plenums? Have potential hot spots been identified and taken into account? Is the system capable of controlling humidity in the environment: that is, can it both remove and add humidity on an automatic monitored basis? If the air is too dry there could be problems with static electricity; if it is too moist there might be condensation problems.


• • • •

How is the air conditioning system connected to the fire alarm and gas release control system? Does the system have facilities to prevent microbiological aerosol dispersal within the air conditioned areas? This might be an issue with humidifier systems. What hours of operation will the air conditioning facilities be available? Are there any days when the facility will not be available? Can the air conditioning facility be maintained while still allowing operational cooling? What proposals are made to protect the cooling system from any extremes of weather such as very cold weather, very hot weather or storms predicted to occur in the country of installation?

If there is a shortage of air conditioning capacity it might be necessary to modify the technical design of the IT infrastructure. For example it might be necessary to locate the servers offsite to reduce heat load, or to locate desktop PCs away from the trading desks in the equipment room.

SELF-CONTAINED ENVIRONMENT The air conditioning designed for a trading floor equipment room/data centre will have to take account of the fact that the equipment room will be selfcontained. This is normally dealt with by providing a separate air conditioning system for the equipment room(s). If a design is presented which features shared facilities with the main office air conditioning system, it should be examined carefully for operational and resilience risk. While this approach might reduce the initial capital cost of building the environment, the risks to business could be unacceptable. The design should have features that prevent the escape of smoke or extinguisher gas from the equipment room environment in the event of a fire there. Conversely the equipment room air conditioning should be protected from the effects of smoke from a fire elsewhere in the premises. Even with the self-contained environment it will be necessary to provide a controlled and dust-free air supply from external sources to allow operations staff to breathe. The environment should be provided with air temperature and humidity monitoring facilities that can alert operations support staff on a 24-hour basis of any important variation in temperature. The sensors should be distributed within the equipment room to ensure that hot spots are detected.


DUST CONTROL The air handling system should have a method of removing dust particles from the conditioned air. Dust will accumulate within equipment and the technology room if it is not removed on a continuous basis. If an equipment room has been allowed to become dusty it will be a difficult, expensive and painstaking process to remove dust from the environment. Dust can cause electrical shorting, overheating and cooling fan bearing damage with technical equipment housed in the environment. It can also cause a fire risk: I have seen situations where a build-up of dust contributed to overheating and fire in a PC. Dust removal is normally achieved by large air filters built into the AHUs. When you as technology project leader check the design of the room, you should check that nothing obstructs the easy maintenance of these filters. Any external air feed into the room should be filtered to remove dust. The filters should be easily accessible, and have some form of airflow monitoring so that an alert can be raised if they become blocked.

RESILIENCE The M&E engineer will almost certainly have taken into account the stated requirement for continuous operation. However few engineers have practical experience of running an equipment room for a trading floor. The technology project leader should ensure that the proposed design is validated by the technology operations management. Most managers prefer dynamic redundancy configurations, where the components ‘flip flop’ between operational and stand-by status on a regular basis. I have seen designs where the redundant system is switched off and not started until the primary system fails. A cold stand-by solution might increase the life of the stand-by system and reduce maintenance costs, but it increases the risk that the stand-by system will not start when it is needed. The reviewing managers will need to check that essential airflow patterns will be maintained in the event of a swap from a primary to a secondary system. In effect the project team should walk through several air conditioning failure scenarios with the air conditioning engineer to assess their potential impact. It should be possible to undertake maintenance on part of the system while maintaining operational air conditioning within the equipment room. This requirement might lead to the need for dual coolant pipes, dual chilling plant, dual power supply and dual switching.


The stand-by power arrangements for the air conditioning system should align with the UPS electrical power for the technology cabinets. In a critical environment, in the event of a stand-by generator failure, there might be enough battery power during a major power outage for the UPS to ensure that the trading floor and technology contained in the equipment rooms continue to operate for an hour or so to allow the close-out of critical trades. One of the design decisions that will have to be considered is whether the air conditioning system is also provided with a battery backup power supply to ensure the cooling of essential servers. Increasing the resilience of air conditioning systems will increase both the capital and operational costs of running an air conditioned technology environment. The project leader should ensure that the business managers and the project steering group understand those costs. It is for the business to decide whether the risks of air conditioning failure outweigh the cost of designing in resilience. In a trading room environment it is normally an easy decision, as the cost of losing a day’s trading can be substantial. In smaller operations the management might opt for a lower-cost solution. The business should be made fully aware of the potential risks of air conditioning failure when the premises are not attended. I have seen damage to critical servers when the air conditioning failed overnight. In these cases luckily the server configuration was designed for remotely supervised resilient operation and the business was able to continue operation, but it had to bear the costs of flying out engineering staff with spare servers. If the business decides on non-resilient air conditioning it could have an impact on the design of the technology room and proposed operational methods.

SPACE AHUs can take up a substantial amount of space in an equipment room. Floor space will be needed to the front and sides of the unit to allow maintenance work to take place. The electrical motors, pulley bands and compressors might need replacement during the operational life of the unit. These are heavy devices, and the maintenance staff will need plenty of space to allow easy handling of the removal/replacement of parts. As part of the equipment room design process the technology project team leader should document the space needed to house the units and for their inspection panels. The manufacturer will readily have this information available. AHUs can be physically quite large. It is possible that they will not fit through the doors of a completed equipment room or the corridors leading to it, so it might be necessary to schedule their delivery before the walls have been put in


place. I have seen AHUs being delivered by crane through a window void of an equipment room. Such delivery factors can have an impact on the overall scheduling of construction planning. While the main contractor should coordinate such issues, a wise technology project leader will ensure that they have been taken into account. In the layout of the equipment room, consideration should be given to the possible need to remove a complete AHU for replacement or servicing. Advice should be sought from the manufacturer on the possibilities for servicing. It might be necessary to reserve a portion of wall, free of pipework and cabling, that can be removed to help get the unit out. I have also encountered designs where the AHUs are located in a separate room adjacent to the main equipment room or trading floor. This can reduce noise levels in the room and simplify the design of the main equipment room or trading floor. If this technique is used, consideration should be given to the security, fire proofing and temperature monitoring of the room. If an AHU is free-standing in a trading room, to supplement the main building air conditioning, it can create some floor layout considerations and require more space than might be initially apparent. No one wants to sit next to a noisy AHU, or in the stream of cold air issuing from it. The power cabling, signal cabling, coolant feed and exhaust piping for the AHUs will be hidden after the construction work. However the routes taken can affect the design and space used in the equipment room. The hot exhaust pipes will need to be isolated from people, heat-sensitive devices and services. The coolant pipe will need to be insulated. As part of the planning for the air conditioning facilities, these demands on space planning should be taken into account. You should also review the M&E plans for the location of any chillers for the air conditioning. It is normally the responsibility of the main contractor to ensure that suitable space provision is made, but you should take an overview, paying particular attention to resiliency issues. For example, are the chillers protected from damage and unauthorized access? It is preferable for redundant chillers to be located in a space away from the primary chillers. Inspect the power switching arrangements for the units. In some cases the chillers are in underground garages. Are they protected from accidental damage by impact or fire caused by cars or delivery trucks?

AIR FLOWS The air flow from the AHU will be designed by the engineer to provide an even flow and distribution within the environment. She or he will probably have used standard formulae, factors and rules for estimating the air flows. Your task is to


ensure that the air flows match the reality of demand for the equipment cabinets. The standard rules, factors and formulae might be out of date for current developments in technology requirements. AHUs might be floor mounted, with cooled air flows being output below a raised floor plenum. The flow might be overhead, with extraction at the base of the unit. It could be from ceiling vents or even wall-mounted units. Whichever delivery of cooled air is provided, it is essential that sufficient flow of chilled air is delivered to the intake of the equipment mounted in the equipment cabinets. Check the requirements for each cabinet, and that suitable air flow is available. The air flow within cabinets can affect the cooling capability of cool air delivered from the room. If a large server with power fans is positioned at the base of a cabinet it might divert a substantial amount of the cool air, depriving the equipment mounted above from a full flow. As equipment is installed in cabinets the air flows should be measured at several points in the cabinet. If there is a shortfall in air flow it is possible to increase it by changing the floor vent type in the tile or strategically positioning fan-assisted vents at the front of the cabinets. Additional air flow might be required to extract the heated exhaust air from the cabinets. It might be necessary to provide exhaust vents and ducts close to the cabinets. Isolating the hot return air flow directly into the AHU will lead to greater operational cooling efficiency of the AHU. Some M&E engineers have access to software that can generate dynamic heat maps for the areas where they are designing air conditioning. These can help the visualization of hot spots and airflow issues.

HOT AND COLD AISLES The M&E engineer might not be familiar with hot and cold aisle techniques, which are a relatively new technique for cooling distribution. Similarly it should not be assumed that the engineer is aware of the heat load that can be generated by a single dense rack such as a blade server farm. The heat output per rack might well exceed 15 KW, which is a figure probably not envisaged when the engineer was trained. In essence the hot and cold aisle technique is used in an equipment room to supply cold air to an aisle of cabinets through the front of the cabinets, which are equipped with vented doors. Equipment fans built into the servers mounted in the rack suck the cold air from the front of the server and move over the heatproducing components. The heated exhaust air is ejected to the back of the cabinet. The rows of cabinets are configured so that the front of the equipment is installed facing the cold aisle and the back faces the hot aisle. This gives rise to


alternate hot and cold aisles. Care is taken to avoid mixing cold air with hot air. This might require the specification of extraction vents and serving ductwork above the hot aisle. Aligning the AHU with a hot aisle will both improve extraction of hot air and improve the mixing of cold air in the subfloor plenum. Extraction of hot air can be improved by providing hot air return ducting with intakes above the hot aisles. The M & E engineer might make assumptions about the position of air vent tiles to release cooled air from the floor plenum. The positioning of those vents should be checked to ensure that it is compatible with planned hot and cold aisles of equipment cabinets.

OFFICE AREAS The design of air conditioning for open office areas and managerial offices is not normally an issue requiring direct intervention from the technology project team. However you might wish to ensure that due consideration has been given to areas that have a high concentration of powered technology such as photocopiers and departmental printers. In addition to any heat output from the larger items of technology, there might be a requirement for improved air extraction above the areas or rooms that house laser printing technology. This equipment can generate small but significant levels of ozone. Where possible this should be extracted away from personnel working in the area.

TRADING DESKS In a trading room environment it is likely that a high concentration of computer hardware will be located on or under the traders’ desks. A combination of multiple workstations and display screens can easily give rise to more than 1 KW energy usage at a desk. Since a lot of that equipment will be located in an enclosure under the desk, it can easily produce a local heat removal problem. The design of the trading desk should help facilitate the removal of heat from the technology located under it. This could involve carefully positioned vents, extractor fans or even chilled water fan coils under the desk. The main air conditioning facilities that deliver cooled air and extract heated air to/from the locality of the trading desks should have sufficient capacity to handle the above-average heat load. The technology project team can help the M&E engineers establish the heat load for those areas. They might recommend the installation of additional fan coil units in the ceiling above the trading floor area.


One problem that can arise for people located adjacent to the trading areas is that the uprated office air conditioning might provide a cold working environment for desks with a low technology count. This could require some feedback to the engineers designing the environment. The high technology count and subsequent heat output in trading floor areas can give rise to problems overnight and at weekends when the main building air conditioning is switched off. Quite a substantial amount of heat can build up, making life uncomfortable for any personnel who have to work overnight or during weekends. Localized desk cooling facilities can reduce the impact of such problems, particularly if the cooling can be available outside normal working hours. If it is not possible to deliver sufficient cooling to the trading floor, the technology team might need to consider alternative technology solutions. One possible approach is to move the PCs and workstations from under the desks and place them in equipment racks in a nearby air conditioned equipment room. The workstation screens are retained on the traders’ desktops, with connections using KVM screen extender technology delivered over the structured cabling network. There are several different manufacturers who should be able to provide this type of solution, at a cost. Another variation to this approach is to use blade server technology in the equipment room rather than PCs. This approach has a greater capital cost, but a reduced rack space equipment footprint and simplified operational support.

COMMISSIONING THE SYSTEM The provision of air conditioning facilities is likely to constrain when the equipment room will be available for the installation of active technology equipment. As technology project leader you should not assume the air conditioning system will be available on the day on which the hardware and pipework has been installed and connected. Once electrical power is available the commissioning process of a gas refrigerant system can take two to three weeks. The first stage is to pump out the air from the pipework and ensure the pipe system can maintain a vacuum. This process takes a couple of days. The next stage is to load an appropriate amount of gas into the system and undertake initial tests. During the gas loading process it might be necessary to prevent other people from working in the immediate area. The system then needs to be tested and certified by the manufacturer’s engineers. It will need to be left running for a while in a closed equipment room environment while it is checked for leaks and that there are no condensate leaks.


The acceptance testing will entail checking that the system correctly handles failover situations and cold start situations. Once the manufacturer has handed over the air conditioning system, it might be possible to start installing heatsensitive equipment in the technology room. However if this process begins before the complete construction has been formally handed over, the situation on coverage for maintenance of air conditioning faults should be resolved. If the unit is only covered by warranty there might be a slower response time to fix any problems. In this situation the project team might wish to liaise with the main contractor to arrange maintenance cover for the air conditioning system.

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Cabinets and racking

RACKING Open-frame racking might consist of a simple two-post or four-post metal frame, typically about 79 in (200 cm) high and 20 in (51.5 cm) wide, in which technology equipment and cabling equipment, such as patch panels, is mounted in a vertical stack. The frame is normally bolted to the raised floor or in some cases to the subfloor. Rack frames may be bolted side by side to form a row or there might be additional space between the racks to allow the routing of vertical cables. Racking offers a low-cost and space-efficient method of mounting equipment and cable termination panels. However it does not provide any security or provide any control over the flow of cooling air over the equipment. The rack usually has some type of base plate that can be bolted down to provide some stability, but to provide full stability the rack should be connected to adjoining racks and also have an overhead stability bracing strut or cable ladder connecting the top of the rack to another firm structure. A full-size rack frame will support up to 350 Kg/750 lb depending on its design, but any heavy equipment such as a large network switch should be located to the base of the frame to improve stability. Where the rack frame is being used to hold cable patch panels, it will need good vertical cable management guides to support both the fixed network cable coming from the trading floor and the patch cables. Depending on the number of cables to be housed and the size of the service loops, this can amount to up to a 12

Cabinets and Racking ❙ 329

in (30 cm) cable management system at either side of the rack. These incoming cables should be combed and bundled to avoid tangling. The service loops of spare cable can aid the retermination of the cable if necessary in the future. Horizontal cable management guides should be provided at regular intervals at the front of the rack to support traversing patch leads. A suggestion is that a horizontal cable guide is placed between a pair of patch panel plates. Where possible separate horizontal guides and patch areas should be provided for any fibre optic cords. The technology project leader will need to ensure that plenty of vertical and horizontal cable management guides, mounting kits and stabilization kits are specified when the equipment is originally ordered. Often manufacturers offer a configuration tool or service that can be used to calculate the required parts. Some of this equipment can be on long lead times, and a parts shortage might not be realized until equipment is in the process of being installed. Where the racking houses patch panels, it should be organized in a structured and consistent manner so that it will be obvious to support personnel where the cables end. For example voice patch points might be in one rack, the next rack might be for the trading floor and the third rack for the inter-server patching; or perhaps different patch racks will be assigned to different areas of the trading floor, with voice at the top of the rack, data switch patches in the middle and patch points to the floor at the bottom. Where possible a block of approximately 20 per cent of spare space should be left free for expansion in a rack when it is first designed. This will allow for unexpected minor reconfiguration. Whichever patch design layout methodology is decided on, this must be discussed with the cabling contractor and documented at an early stage. Before any orders for racks and associated accessories are raised there should be a complete bill of materials for each rack. There should be clear documented agreement on who will construct and install the rack frame and who will install which item in which location. The delivery lead times and temporary storage requirements should have been agreed with the technology project leader. Subject to agreement from the main contractor it should be possible to install the rack frames, cable handling and other passive items such as patch panels when the raised floor is available. It will not be necessary to wait for the equipment room air conditioning to be commissioned. If the site is susceptible to earthquakes it might be necessary to provide additional support and anchor points. Those facilities will need to be installed and ready before the racks are installed, though during installation work such as cable termination on the patches it might be necessary to unhook the support temporarily to allow access below the raised floor.


The person responsible for managing the installation of the racks should carefully plan the work needed to cut holes in the raised floor tiles beneath the racks before the racks and support spreader plates are installed. Similarly she or he should check for the correct (planned) positioning of power and earth wires required for the racks. If overhead data cabling is to be delivered to the racks, the installation planner will need to ensure that overhead cable trays, waterfalls, ladders and cable ducts are installed in the right place before the racks are installed. The path of the cable trays and so on should be checked on the site drawing but also visually inspected on site, if necessary temporarily marking the position of the racks on the floor with masking tape. The on-site inspection can help spot problems that are not obvious from plan inspection. (Hint: drawings are not always complete and accurate.) Each frame of the racking should be electrically earth bonded back to the earth bonding plate as a matter of safety even if it only houses passive network components. The patch can be the termination point for many cables from all parts of the trading floor site, any of which might be exposed to high-voltage currents. The connecting of earth bonding cables and tags should use purposedesigned components that will ensure good electrical contact. The earth cable should not be daisychained between frames, but in preference the earth bonding wire should feed back to a common earth point. Racks should be clearly identified with permanent labels as soon as they are installed. The labels should conform to the equipment room numbering strategy. There is a large range of equipment racking and equipment cabinet suppliers such as APC, Rittal, Sharkrack, Liebert, AMCO, Great Lakes and NER.

FLOOR-STANDING CABINETS Equipment cabinets are available in a wide range of configurations, designs and sizes. For the purposes of this book a common standard of 42 U capacity and a standard 19 in (48.4 cm) internal mounting width is assumed. The external footprint can vary from about 24 x 24 in (60 x 60 cm) to 31.5 x 43.3 in (80 x 110 cm) in the common form depending on the design purpose of the cabinet. For example the 24 x 24 in footprint might be used as a cabling cabinet, whereas the larger size could be a server cabinet. You will easily find examples of other configurations. The point is that the designer of the equipment room configuration should be alert to the variations and plan on that basis, but design and subsequent maintenance can be simplified if a standard width, depth and height is utilized. The quality and features of a cabinet will tend to be reflected in the price. The layout designer might have to inspect several manufacturers’ offerings before deciding on an appropriate choice of cabinet. In some cases there is an existing


corporate standard, but the designer should consider whether old standards necessarily take advantage of the new cabinet features available. The choice of supplier and model will be balanced on cost, size, footprint, features, range of accessories, availability, robustness and quality. Some design compromises will have to be considered. For example it would be wasteful to use a full-specification server cabinet for a cable patch facility, but for future flexibility and compatibility it might be decided to use the heavier, larger cabinet. Some cabinets are available in flat-pack kit form which can reduce the cost, but increase the amount of labour needed to install the cabinet. This approach can be useful in sites where the access routes are limited or temporary storage space is not available on site. The shipping height and width of a pre-assembled cabinet can be substantially greater than the actual unit. If not carefully considered this might be an issue when the cabinets are delivered. These are some of the features to consider when selecting a cabinet: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Will the cabinet size house the required equipment? If servers are being housed, is there sufficient room for cabling at the rear? What is the space at the front of the cabinet when equipment has been installed? Is there plenty of space for cabling routes inside the cabinet with good provision for tie-down of cables? Is the mounting depth and width configurable, and are the U positions numbered? Can cables enter the top and bottom of the cabinets? What power strip (PDU) facilities are provided? Are adjustable feet provided to assist levelling on the floor? Is it possible to remove and reverse the front and rear doors if necessary? What door options are there available (for example solid, mesh, glass, split double doors)? What is the range of cabinet door locking facilities? Some suppliers provide remote lock control and monitoring. Can the side panels be removed, and are they lockable? What are the arrangements for the top panel? What earth bonding arrangements are available? What stability and anti-tip options are there? How robust and safe is the construction, and what is the quality of finish? What is the range of accessories in terms of mounting kits, shelves, trays, cable management, blanking panels? Are caster feet provided? What colours are available? What arrangements are there for spare parts? Will the cabinet facilitate the safe installation of heavy equipment?


• • • • • • • •

Will the cabinet bear the weight of full installation? What security options are provided? What monitoring facility options are available with the cabinet range? What are the cooling path and air flow management features? Are there cable management features for the tops of the cabinets? What is the delivery lead time and what shipping methods are available? What is the cost of the cabinet? What warranty is offered and what is the replacement policy?

Having looked at the technical needs the person responsible for cabinet design should analyse the cost of various options, taking into account the various impacts of life cycle costing. Are the cabinets going to be used for two years or 10? If the shorter period, is a lower specification appropriate? Planning for cabinet installation should be as thorough as that described for racking above. Data cabling should be planned in advance. The cabling contractor will need to know the position of the cabinet on the floor plan, which cables are to be delivered and to what position within the cabinet. My team prefers to install a small patch panel at the head of the cabinet to which all intercabinet cables for that cabinet are delivered. Normally these inter-cabinet cables originate from the main patch panel. Equipment mounted in the cabinet requiring network connection is patched to the in-cabinet patch panel. Generally patching within an individual cabinet is achieved using direct interserver patch leads. The planning process should have already determined the position of the cabinets. This should be double-checked by marking an outline of the cabinets on the floor with masking tape prior to the actual delivery. This examination should extend to checking the swing scope of doors. Any holes needed in the floor tiles should be cut prior to delivery of the cabinets, and the cutting take place outside the equipment room. The installation route should be walked a final time to determine any obstacles prior to the delivery and installation of the cabinets. The area should be clean and dust-free before cabinet installation takes place. If heavy cabinets are being wheeled into the room it is best if possible to temporarily replace floor tiles containing air vents along the path with solid tiles. This will help to prevent impact damage to the vents from the cabinet casters. While installing the fittings in the cabinets, any nearby floor air vents should be covered to prevent small screws from accidentally dropping in the vents. The data cables feeding the cabinet might enter the cabinet either at the top or from under the raised floor surface. If the raised floor is functioning as an air conditioning plenum it is preferable that data cabling is fed into the top of the cabinet, as underfloor cables could disrupt the cool air flow. If the cabinets in a


row are of equal height it will be possible to mount cable troughs on the top of them to provide containment for the data cable. Cable tray waterfalls or ladders will be needed above the cabinets to provide a support for cabling feeding the cabinets, with the correct cable bend radius to cable trays or ducting overhead. As the cabinets as installed in position they should be levelled and any side panels attached if necessary within the row of cabinets. The cabinets should be loosely bolted to adjacent cabinets and fastened down to any floor-based fittings. The inter-cabinet fastenings should then be tightened according to manufacturer instructions. Bolting adjoining cabinets together also helps to distribute the weight load of individual cabinets. Cabinet doors should initially be left off while initial power cabling, data cabling, panels, shelves and guide rails are installed in the cabinets. The doors should be replaced when the initial cabinet configuration has taken place. The keys for the doors should be labelled and secured in a key safe at this point. Equipment cabinets should have dual-sourced power strips mounted in the rear of the cabinet. In this case dual sourcing is taken to mean each power cable being connected to a different power breaker at the main distribution board. With this arrangement it is possible to provide dual power to essential servers which will remain powered if one circuit breaker should accidentally trip. The power fly lead from the power strip should be connected subfloor (or overhead) to a suitable power socket located in the proximity of the cabinet. Power breaker switching arrangements on the equipment room PDU board should be such that it is possible to easily electrically isolate individual cabinets. Normally the power source for a cabinet will be UPS battery protected, but situations can arise in the case of limited UPS capacity when building mains power is also provided to a cabinet to power nonessential items. In this case the ‘raw’ power strip should have a different colour coding and socket type. The power strips should be equipped with plug-securing clips to prevent the accidental dislodging of power plugs. Power strips should always be equipped with power present telltale lights. Some specialized cabinets have an electrical bus-bar system and/or a low voltage DC system. If these are planned the project team leader should seek specialist advice from the system manufacturer to ensure that the installation is properly planned. No power should be supplied to cabinets until a safety check has ensured that the cabinet has been safely earth bonded. The safety check should be repeated once power is supplied to the cabinet. The safety checking should ensure the earth bond connection within the cabinet is extended to loose items such as doors and shelves. This safety check should be a documented procedure for each cabinet.


Active equipment should not be installed until the inter-cabinet data patch has been tested and signed off by the cabling contractor. Once the data and power cabling to a cabinet have been completed and tested, the interior should be given a thorough clean to remove any dust, odd plastic sleeving or loose copper wire fibres. The process of installing servers and network equipment in the equipment cabinets should not take place until the following has taken place: • • • • • • • • • •

data and power cabling completed in the equipment room; cabinets secured to the floor air conditioning tested and commissioned; power supply tested; fire alarm and fire suppression system commissioned; room pressure testing completed; ceiling, if any, installed; decoration works in the equipment room complete; leak detection installed and tested; full cleansing of the equipment room, subfloor and ceiling void.

These precursor activities can all create dust if remedial work is needed. The dust can seriously damage the servers and network equipment. Installation work in the cabinets should be governed by a cabinet plan document: in other words, installation engineers should work to a coordinated plan. The plan should be of sufficient detail that the patch ports and power sockets to be utilized for each device are pre-documented. During the installation work there should be a process of independent quality inspection to ensure that: • • • • • • • • •

cabling standards are followed; network and data feed cables are properly documented; work is neat and tidy; direct inter-cabinet cabling is prevented; equipment is placed in the correct position and securely mounted; correct network ports are utilized; rubbish is removed; power connections are secure; asset registers are maintained, including heat load and weight loading plans.

This monitoring of installation in cabinets should particularly apply to the engineering work from external vendors, some of whom can be notorious for putting cabinets, servers and cables in the wrong place. A control process should be in


place which ensures from the time of raising the original order that vendor installation plans are checked against the technology project plans. Vendors often use third parties to undertake all or part of their installation work in equipment cabinets, and these third-party personnel must be controlled.

WALL-MOUNTED CABINETS In small equipment rooms there might not be sufficient space for floor-mounted equipment cabinets. It could be appropriate to use a wall-mounted cabinet to house technology equipment. There is a wide range of suitable cabinets. Special consideration will need to be given to how maintenance personnel can access the cabling at the rear of servers or network switches. The process of moving a system box to gain access could detach important connections or cause damage to optical fibre cables. One approach is to provide hinged shelves which can swing out the server/switch when access is required. The fixtures for wall-mounted cabinets should take due account of the weight of a fully loaded cabinet plus the stresses induced by maintenance work. It is usually most effective to install a steel frame against the wall on which the actual cabinet is mounted. Cooling arrangements, temperature monitoring and adequate air flow should be carefully designed for any wall-mounted cabinet containing active equipment. In a dusty environment some form of air filter built into the casing might be necessary. Any metallic wall-mounted equipment cabinet and its door should be properly earth bonded. The earth bond wire should route back to the common earth point used for technology equipment. If the cabinet is mounted on a metallic frame, that should be earth bonded. The power switching arrangements should be easily accessible for any active equipment in the cabinet. There should be a master switch that will allow the quick isolation of power to the cabinet. Any remote switching of electrical power should be capable of being locally overridden. If the cabinet is housed in an insecure area, consideration should be given to access control and monitoring.

PATCH PANELS Patch panels act as a central interconnect exchange, where it is easy to redirect the data and voice connections between technology in the equipment room and also connections to the back office or trading floor. The patch panel helps to make structured cabling simple to use. Without the patch panel permanent data/voice


cable would have to be disconnected and reterminated every time equipment changed position. In extreme cases cables would have been removed or relaid during office or server moves. Permanent cables (UTP voice/data) are terminated in small standard sockets. Those sockets are mounted in metal plates called patch plates. Groups of patch plates form a patch panel. Connection between the cable sockets is achieved with flexible patch cords that have matching plugs at each end. The patch cords are designed and constructed to match the signal transmission capabilities of the main structured cable system. Similar patch panels can be created for optical fibre, coaxial cables and serial data connection. For UTP structured cabling a patch plate typically contains one or more rows of 16 or 20 patch ports. The permanent solid-core structured cables from the trading floor, office or other cabinets are mounted by the cabling contractors using special tools to push the copper UTP conductor wires into insulation displacement connectors. In some cabling deployments the structured cables are supplied to site pre-terminated with the patch sockets, which are then mounted on the patch plates. One cabling system uses angled patch plates which project out from the patch panel, which allows 24 ports across to be comfortably accommodated in a standard 19 in (48 cm) mounting rack. One of the quality inspections that the technology project team should undertake with the wiring at the back of a patch is that only the minimum length of copper conductor has been unravelled at the end of permanent data cable prior to mounting at the back of the patch socket. With Category 6 cable the unravelling should only be approximately 3/8 (0.375) in (1 cm). If you can see 0.5 in (1.25 cm) of inner twisted pair exposed there might be a problem. The cables feeding into the back of the patch sockets should not be under stress and should not be acutely bent in a way that exceeds the cable specification. The patch sockets should be numbered according to the agreed and documented scheme, and the cables at the back of the patch should also be numbered with a sleeve-mounted label. Switching the connection between permanent cables can be done in an instant by unplugging and replugging the patch cord at the front of the panel, so when users move from one office position to another, their PCs and/or telephone handsets can be reconnected to the central server, via structured cabling, by simply changing connections at the patch panel. The patch panel is a location of frequent and easy change in the technology room. If the patch panel is not well organized and clearly labelled it is easy to accidentally disconnect a service that is critical to the whole business and not just a single individual. Consequently it is sometimes helpful to have colour-coded sheaths and patch points for the data and voice cables used in the trading room and equipment room environment. For example:


Blue White Grey Red Yellow

Data Voice Public announcement/video Inter-cabinet patch/other services Optical fibre

This might be reflected in the colour of the patch cords/leads used to interconnect such services, but in practice that is unlikely to be continued unless the support engineers in the equipment room are well disciplined and trained. The patch or cable outlet points should reflect the colour of the underlying cable. Any chosen colour scheme should be compatible with existing standards in the organization. It should be noted that if the sheathing of the UTP cable is special purpose such as LS0H or plenum rated, it can require extra time to obtain colours different from the normally used colour, such as blue. It might even be necessary to arrange a production run at the manufacturer. This could have lead time implications for the project, and there might be a minimum supply amount of say 5,000 ft (1.27 km) of cable. Colour coding should not be the only indicator of purpose. Some engineers are colour blind. The organization of the patch panels should keep the critical service connections located away from the connections for individual personnel. Patch cords/leads should be pre-manufactured by specialist suppliers to the appropriate cabling category standards, which should match or exceed the main structured cabling system. The project team should arrange for a good supply of various lengths of patch cords so that the shortest necessary length of patch lead is available to connect any two patch ports. In any event the total patch length should not exceed 30 ft (9 m), and the use of patch extender connectors should be avoided. When inserted in the patch port there should be no tension on the patch cord/lead. Patch leads should be supported by cable guides, trays and rings mounted on the patch rack/cabinet.

SERIAL DATA CABLE PATCHES AND SERVER Some devices in the equipment room might have only a serial data interface, such as RS232, for console connection or other purposes such as printer or modem connection. There are limitations on the cable lengths that can be used without line driver technology. Typically RS232 is good for up to 120 ft (35 m). For ease of connection within an equipment room it might be necessary to provide a (straight through) serial cable patch system rather than having bespoke cables between cabinets. It is possible to use serial/console servers that can extend serial link connectivity over a LAN, WAN or dial-up link. Lantronix


and Blackbox are examples of companies that provide such devices, which give secure remote access to serial ports.

CABLE MANAGEMENT IN RACKING AND CABINETS Cable management refers to devices, techniques and procedures designed to provide physical support for voice and data cabling. These also help to keep cables tidy and easier to maintain. The physical support is necessary to prevent stresses or damage to the cable, which can damage its transmission capability. Movement of the cable where it enters a connector can damage the electrical connection or cause fatigue cracking in the conductor. Damaged cabling can create outright failure, intermittent faults or partial degradation, giving rise to operational difficulties where it is difficult to identify the cause. These types of intermittent failures can be particularly damaging to customer relationships. In a trading room environment and supporting electronic trading systems they can be disastrous, with significant business risk costs. Transmission degradation can reduce the effective bandwidth of the overall data network, as retry data packets are automatically generated by network equipment to replace damaged transmissions. Data cabling naturally tends to chaos during installation and operational maintenance unless there are good cable management procedures and devices. That can create a mass of tangled cables where it is difficult to move a cable for fear that another service will be disrupted. Providing cable management facilities increases the cost of initial installation, but will reduce the ongoing maintenance effort to a far greater extent. Cable management and tidiness will impact the efficiency of cooling in cabinets and racking. Untidy cabling will impede free airflow at the back of devices. Poor patch cable arrangements at the front of cabinets can impede the cool air flow at the front. Poorly conceived cable management arms for removable servers on sliding drawers can impede the exhaust from server cooling fans when the server is pushed back into the cabinet.

Vertical Within the context of equipment room racking and cabinets, vertical cable management refers to the support and containment of cables rising/falling vertically on racks and cabinets. It can be confusing that this can relate to the ‘horizontal’ cabling of a structured cable system, but in reality it is visually obvious. The vertical cable management needs to provide adequate space for the cables to run within cabinets and also provide support devices. In some


older-style cabinets there could be a lack of space, but modern designs allow a sensible amount of space. The cable management containment/space for data cables should either avoid proximity to power cables or bus bars in the racking/cabinet, or provide metallic shielding from electromagnetic interference. The cabinet/racking should provide plenty of points for mounting cable straps which can be used to tie down cables or bundles of cables. The cabling space should be easily accessible to facilitate the addition and removal of cables, but at the same time should provide protection from damage to the cables. Where there is a substantial number of cables arriving at one point, such as at a patch panel or a high-density network switch, the project team will need to ensure that the contractor provides high-capacity cable containment and management. A full-height patch rack (7 ft or 2 m) might require a 12 in (30 cm) wide containment space alongside the rack for vertical cabling. The service loops of spare length of horizontal structured cable will allow flexibility for retermination/patch moves within the frame, but will consume a lot of space in the vertical cable management. These service loops will represent a heavy weight of cable that must be supported by the cable management system if stress failures are to be avoided where the end of the cable is punched down in the socket connectors.

Horizontal cable management on racking Horizontal management takes the form of trays, guides and lacers mounted to the front and/or rear of racking and cabinets. They are designed to take the weight of cables and to tidily convey the cable to the vertical management. This type of management is not always necessary if there is good vertical management, but it is useful if there are a lot of patch leads/cords running horizontally, particularly at a patch panel where patch cords are running horizontally from adjacent frames. From the project management viewpoint the project leader should check with the cabinet designer that an adequate amount of horizontal cable management is provided where patch cords/leads are used.

Lacers Lacers are a cable management device that usually comprises a sturdy metal strip with holes punched regularly to allow the mounting of cable ties and strips. They are used to support the weight of cabling and to facilitate a tidy installation. They are designed to be mounted either vertically or horizontally in a cabinet or rack. Other lacers can be designed for wall mounting.


Combs Combs are a special type of cable shelf that can be mounted horizontally or vertically on racking or cable trays. The outer edge of the comb is a series of ‘fingers’ that are used to guide cables as they break out from the main direction of the cable run. The fingers provide some support, but primarily prevent the cables from straggling untidily from the cable shelf.

Grommets and guides Grommets should be used where cables pass through an opening in a metal framework such as an equipment cabinet. If the framework has been well designed the edges of openings will be rounded and a grommet will not be necessary. However if the cable rests against the sharp metal edge with any form of tension or vibration there will be an opportunity for cable damage. If there is a bundle of cables passing over the edge there will be increased chance of damage to the cable in contact. Grommets might be available pre-shaped to fit the aperture, but failing that it is possible to purchase grommet strip that can be quick-fitted (and glued) over the sharp metal edge. Cable guides should be considered to maintain the correct minimum radius of curvature where the cable changes direction and passes over an angled edge such as metal framework. The technology project leader should have assessed whether the main cabling contractor has allowed for grommets and guides in the contract bid, and compliance should be checked during the installation work. Similar controls should be imposed on third-party suppliers that install their own cables.

Sizing/number of cables UTP data cables vary in diameter and cross-section. When the cables are bundled together the space needed to run them through ducts, in cable trays, in racking and cabinets can vary considerably depending on the shape and diameter of the cables. The cabling contractor should be able to advise on the diameter needed in ducts for various bundles. This sizing information will be needed to enable accurate planning of the route for the cable trays, ladders and ducting required to guide data cabling to the equipment cabinets and racking. If there are many cables it might be necessary to have additional trays running in parallel to avoid overfilling the trays. Patch racks or racks containing high port count network switches are particularly prone to a high cable density. Ducts, cable trays and racking cable management in the equipment room should be filled to no more than 70 per cent of capacity initially, to allow space


for maintenance of cables in the future. The planned positioning of cabinets can be affected if there are a large number of cables to these cabinets and there is not much space in the ceiling void/subfloor to run them. This means that calculation of the number of cables and their route to cabinets and racks must be completed early in the design stages of an equipment room layout. If the space is cramped and the number of cables is high, the design process might require several iterations.

Cable trays and the like Data cabling from the trading floor will be one or more substantial bundles of cables which have to be routed from the floor to the ceiling area of the equipment room containing the patch racking. If the equipment room is on the same level as the trading floor, at some point the structured cable bundles must rise up a wall. If the equipment room is on a different floor level it might be necessary to guide and support the cable bundles in building riser ducts. Local fire regulations might require combustible cables to be housed in metal ducting, or the space in risers and concealed spaces to be protected by water sprinklers. Suitable advice should be sought during the planning for any such building cable installation. These bundles of cables will need to be supported in the ceiling void above any suspended ceiling before dropping down into the patch racking. Further cable comprising the inter-cabinet data cabling will also have to be guided in the ceiling void. The most effective method of providing cable pathways for the large bundles of cables is to mount cable trays or cable baskets up the walls and in the ceiling void. A cable tray is normally a broad perforated metal channel. A cable basket is similar but fabricated from strong metal mesh. The data cable bundles can be gently strapped to the tray/basket to provide support and guided routing. The cable trays and baskets will need junction points where the data cable bundles change direction. Where data cable drops down from the ceiling void it will need a specially shaped curving tray/basket that can take the weight of the cable bundles while maintaining the correct minimum radius of curvature. The name ‘waterfall’ is taken from the flow of cables cascading over the edge of the tray to the cabinets below. If cables are merely draped over the (sharp) edge of a cable tray there is a potential for cable damage from the weight of cables pressing the bottom cable against the edge. In some cases where cables pass between the cabinet and/or racking rows, it might be appropriate to support horizontal cables on a small metal ladder. This is generally only suitable for a small number of cables. Ladders can also be used to bridge the vertical gap between the top of the cabinet and the base of the waterfall.


OPTICAL FIBRE Optical fibre cabling is delicate. It is usually presented in a thin flexible orange plastic sleeving that contains one or more fine optical fibres, which are the transmission media for laser light signals. The high data rate achievable with optical fibre depends on good transmission capability, which can be compromised if the surface of the fine optical fibre is damaged through excessive bending, stretching or compression. The transmission failure might be total or (perhaps worse) it could be still operational but degraded. A degraded transmission capability might not be noticed immediately even though it reduces the throughput of the overall network. Optical fibre should be supported gently in cabinets and racking. It should not be bundled with copper UTP cables. When traversing cable trays, waterfalls and ladders the fibre should be contained in its own flexible ducting to protect it from damage from other wire or sharp edges. The optical fibre should not be sharply bent at any time or dragged under tension. That action can cause damage that is not visually apparent. The termination of optical fibre at patches and connectors should only be undertaken by trained and skilled engineers who are equipped with the correct termination equipment and testing equipment. Optical fibre patch leads should be manufactured offsite by specialist companies. Those personnel involved in the use of live laser data transmission connections must be briefed on the safety aspects. When optical fibre is specified the mode of transmission will also need to be specified, for example whether it is a single mode or multi-mode transmission fibre.

Fibre termination boxes Where an incoming optical fibre is terminated on a patch panel or in an equipment cabinet, it should be mounted as an optical patch point in a purpose-designed fibre termination box. The termination box will have suitable cable management guides incorporated so that the design minimum bend radius is not transgressed. The guide will usually accommodate a complete spare loop of optical fibre cable to avoid flexion or stress damage at the terminator. The optical patch sockets exposed at the front of the patch will be capped to prevent accidental display of the laser transmission beam conducted by the optical fibre. The termination box usually has a front cover door to protect the patch points. The termination cabinet should be marked with labels warning about the presence of laser light. This is particularly important for the laser light


generated for long-distance fibre connections, where the power utilized can be quite high and potentially damaging to unprotected eyes. In some cases the incoming optical fibre terminates directly on the target network equipment, but a proper termination box will reduce potential for damage to the fibres. Optical patch points should be separate from copper UTP patch cabling points.

Media conversion In some installations incoming signal cables such as serial data (eg RS232, X21), coaxial or optical fibre terminate in a reception frame rack. Transmission to the destination cabinet is then over the fixed inter-cabinet structured cabling system. To achieve this it might be necessary to install media-converter devices between the structured UTP copper cable and the incoming feed. The feed is converted back to the original format with a reverse media converter device at the destination cabinet. This approach gives greater flexibility to move equipment around the equipment room. It also avoids the need for fixed ‘alien’ cables delivered direct to the cabinet, or specialist patches installed for the different cable types. The problem with using media converters is that they might provide an incomplete functional or signal conversion. They introduce an additional point of failure and can complicate the process of fault tracking and analysis. If the technology project team decide to use media converters in the equipment room or on the trading floor, they should ensure that such devices have been tested using appropriate servers before the main data cabling process has been completed in the equipment room/trading floor. If this is left too late in the process there might be the problems of running extra cables after the room has been sealed and decorated. Where media converters are used they should be properly documented, including details of the socket pin configurations that have been employed. Arrangements should be made to ensure that spare media converters are retained for urgent replacement of any failed units. The media converters should be securely mounted in the cabinet or place of use. I once had to deal with a live operational situation where there was an intermittent failure on a business-critical trading data feed. Eventually the problem was tracked to an undocumented obsolete media converter unit located between floors connecting unlabelled cables in an unlit building riser some distance from the main equipment room. Needless to say the unknown engineer should have felt his ears burning from the opinions voiced when the cause was finally detected. The business clients were understandably unsympathetic about the poor engineering which had cost them so much money.


LABELLING SCHEME AND DATABASE Cabinets and racking should be labelled and recorded in a database with a standard numbering scheme listing cabinet position, vertical position or U numbers occupied, servers, network equipment, circuit details, power connections, heat load, weight, asset numbers, patch connections and so on. The cabinets and racking should themselves be clearly labelled, with strong permanent labels firmly attached in a clearly visible position. It is helpful if the ‘U’ position is also marked on the rack frames and the cabinets. The labelling scheme should allow for an expansion in the number of cabinets or a reorganization at some point in the future.

SERVICE VENDORS’ CABINETS Some service vendors will need either to install their own cabinets or to have dedicated space reserved in cabinets. They will need cable routes and ducting to their equipment. The service engineers installing this equipment and cabling will not know your priorities, but will be working to other external rules and pressures. These people are often from third-party organizations which profit from undertaking the work as quickly as possible so they can go elsewhere. Unless controlled, these people will take shortcuts. They will assume that power is unlimited and that heat/weight capacities do not apply to their installations. The technology team leader must ensure that external service vendors conform to the project standards and documentation. The vendor requirements must be part of the plans and schedules. Their installations must be documented to the same standard as the rest of the project, with no excuses. Their cabinet space requirements, the heat output, the air flow, the power and earth bonding requirements should be documented at an early stage in the negotiation process prior to agreeing an order. The service vendor engineers should be asked to produce clear method statements beforehand of what works are intended, delivery plans, what storage is needed, where they will install and when. Only when the project team leader has been satisfied on the plans should a work permit be issued. You should warn the vendor that if its personnel do not follow the rules they will be escorted offsite at the supplier’s own risk and cost. There should be documented agreement on who has responsibility for the security of installed equipment and any items that are delivered on site. On arrival the engineers should be shown the areas where they are permitted to work. Any connection to your own systems should be by your own project


team. The work should be supervised by skilled technicians from the technology project team during the installation process, and inspected at completion for adherence to standards. The area should be inspected for safety and tidiness, and any rubbish removed by the supplier’s engineers.

TIDINESS An untidy rack or cabinet is a poor installation. There are no excuses for it. The technology management team should not tolerate such work. Rubbish should be safely disposed of following the installation process or put in storage if the packaging needs to be retained.

TESTING AND SUPERVISION A cabinet or racking installation requires little in the way of formal testing. There will be testing for the installed cabling and equipment such as power tests, heat testing, cooling testing and airflow testing. However during the installation process there should be a constant process of inspection to ensure the quality of work, the correct positioning of items, the safety of installation, the adherence to standards and the tidiness of the results. The cost of wrongly installed items and the responsibility to fix the problem within a suitable timescale should fall on the personnel or organization undertaking the installation. These tests and inspections should be recorded, and actions scheduled for follow-up where necessary. The issues database is a sensible location for such records. A person from the technology project team should be made responsible for the inspection and certification of work in the cabinets and racks. He or she should have sufficient experience and training to be able to understand the technology and safety factors involved, and the authority and powers of sanction to deal with situations where cabinets or equipment have been wrongly installed. For the purposes of this book I use the term ‘cabinet master ’ for this role. This person might be a member of the operational support staff. The cabinet master should review plans and method statements with the personnel responsible for the installation of equipment and cabling. This process will entail checks against the cabinet master plan, the equipment installation schedule, the power budget, the weight budget and the patching plan. The method statements should be inspected to ensure that safe methods will be used and that the installing engineers are adequately trained. The cabinet master should ensure that those undertaking cabling and patching are aware of the


cabling standards. He or she will need to ensure that the schedule of works does not interfere with other installation or construction works. The site of the cabinet should be inspected prior to installation to ensure that space is available, and that appropriate data cabling, power supply and cable management is available. Each cabinet should be clean and dust free. The cabinet master should ensure that the installation engineer is suitably equipped with tools and current installation diagrams. It is not unknown for engineers to arrive on site with out-of-date plans. The cabinet master will arrange access if the cabinets are normally locked for security purposes. If KVM, network ports, firewall permission or data storage facilities are required, the cabinet master will check that the installation engineers have obtained appropriate approvals from the managers of those areas. The cabinet master should ensure that adequate lighting is available for installation work to be undertaken safely. When the physical installation work has been completed it should be inspected by the cabinet master (or representative) before sign-off. Any faults should be documented and a resolution procedure agreed before sign-off. If the work is of obviously poor quality, a photographic record should be maintained for discussion with the engineer’s management. Typical items for inspection are: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

power cables secure, supported and tidy; power leads within cabinet, and no inter-cabinet power leads; small transformers suitably secured; power leads plugged into the correct source, eg UPS power strip; power switches on the equipment suitably accessible; no other equipment/cables disturbed; data cabling/patching tidy, with adequate cable management facilities and completed to standards; any additional signal cables or fibre optic delivered to the cabinets as a result of the installation correctly routed, labelled and protected; any copper cable from an external building source provided with adequate lightning protection; patching within the cabinet or via the main patch panel, with no patch leads running between cabinets; no cables trailing across floors; data cables correctly tied back and supported, with suitable stress relief provided and no abnormal bend radius; cables and servers correctly labelled according to asset records procedures; cabinet air flow correct; blanking plates in place at the front of the cabinet to cover unused positions in the cabinet (this prevents hot air from the rear of the cabinet mixing with cool air at the front);


• • • •

equipment is securely mounted, with screws and bolts tight and heavy weights suitably supported; if the equipment is mounted on sliders or swing-out brackets, these are operating smoothly and safely; cabinet doors in position and able to close without obstruction; the cabinet and surrounding area clean and tidy, with all tools and rubbish removed.

POWER CONTROL AND CONNECTORS Power strips are normally mounted in pairs at the back of a cabinet. US-style plugs and sockets tend to be the most space-efficient. There are different plug sizes depending on the power drawn, but the C13 plug is most common. The power strips should be should be equipped with plug clips to lock the plugs from accidental disconnection. The plug cords/leads used to connect from the strip to the equipment should be of the correct length to avoid surplus cable at the rear of the cabinet. A large tangle of over-length power cords can disrupt cooling airflows in the cabinet. I prefer right-angle plugs to connect into the power strips. A schedule of power cord/lead requirements should be calculated when the cabinet layout design takes place, and a suitable stock of the correct lengths ordered prior to the cabinet fit-out process. If surplus power cable length cannot be avoided, it should be neatly tied back with plastic cable ties when the equipment is installed in the rack/cabinet. Power strips bearing UPS power should be differentiated from those bearing raw building power. Normally this differentiation is by power strip colour or by socket type. The power strip might have a master switch built in, but it should also be switched at a central breaker panel. The individual strips should be fed from different power breakers on the equipment room distribution board. The sockets on the power strips should be numbered, and information about which equipment is powered by each socket should be held in a central database. Some power strips will have the capability of remote operation/control. Usually this is via a TCP/IP connection. Thus a remote operator will have the capability, via a web browser, to remotely monitor/control the power to individual sockets on the power strip. Through this it is possible to power cycle (switch on/off) any individual piece of equipment without the need to visit the equipment room. Remote power control can be useful in the crisis handling of air conditioning or stand-by power problems at a remote site. It makes it possible to remotely switch off nonessential servers or to undertake a power-shedding strategy.


These ‘intelligent’ power strips can also be used to undertake sequenced power switching. This can be used to reduce the impact of the simultaneous start-up power surge when power is restored to racks and cabinets after a power cut. While it is possible to undertake power switching manually by operational staff, it is invaluable to have the remote capability for those times when operational staff cannot be present on site. This might be during overnight support or if a major incident in the locality, such as a terrorist bomb, prevents access to the building. If the equipment mounted in the rack or cabinet needs a large number of small power transformers, a separate power socket board should be mounted in the rack or cabinet. This power board should be designed with sufficient space between the sockets to accommodate the extra size of the transformer body. The socket board should have mounting points that allow the tie-down of the transformer by plastic cable ties.

WEIGHT BUDGETS AND POSITIONING The design planning for the equipment room will have produced an estimate of the weight of the proposed equipment, which should have been checked against the floor loading capabilities of the equipment room. There should be a weight budget for each cabinet when it is configured. However during the process of construction and installation, equipment specifications and installation location will change. The cabinet master should ensure that the weight of equipment as delivered is rechecked at the time of installation and reconfirmed against the weight budget. If the weight budget for an individual cabinet looks likely to be exceeded, action is needed to assess the impact. The floor loading during the installation process should also be checked. Suppose for example an equipment room contains a large battery-filled UPS cabinet and nearby there is a fully loaded server rack. During the construction process a large fire safe is delivered to the room by four large workers. If that safe is wheeled past the UPS cabinet, the weight loading in that area, of say 3 square metres, could approach 4,000 kg. The point loading on an individual raised floor pedestal could be between 500 and 1,000 kg. That point loading might exceed the support capability of the subfloor and cause structural damage. Office buildings are now built to relatively fine tolerances and do not have the capacity to bear the loads that some older builds can sustain. The design strength of a floor also often differs in various places within the floor. The project team supervising the trading floor and equipment room technology installation should be aware of those limitations and be careful not to exceed them.


SECURITY AND LOCKBOXES Some services mounted in cabinets in the equipment room might require additional physical security where only one or two personnel are allowed access. Examples of this are trade settlement authorization servers, firewalls, voice recording servers, building access control servers and video recorders for security monitoring. As part of the design process for the layout of the equipment, there should be a procedure to assess the security requirements for each server, network device and voice system. That security rating should be documented, and where necessary action taken to ensure security-critical devices are appropriately protected. There is a range of security options ranging from security cages for the area containing the racks or cabinets to secured co-location cabinets and security lockboxes. Like most good security systems the approach to security in the construction and design should be layered: • • • • • • • • •

controlled access to the building; secure construction of the equipment room; door alarms to detect forced entry or doors left wedged open; a secure equipment room where only authorized personnel are allowed; secure areas within the equipment room; intrusion detection equipment monitoring the area; purpose-built security cabinets within a secure equipment room; continuous video monitoring of the security cabinets, front and back; good cabinet key security arrangements, with unique locks on each security cabinet door.

When the trading floor and equipment room are being constructed they should be monitored by personnel who have been trained to be security aware. In later operation there should be effective security procedures enforced. Any security environment should be independently reviewed during the design process, tested after construction then audited during operation. Co-location cabinets are purpose-built cabinets divided into two or three separately lockable sections or bays. The cable management for each section is independently protected. Lockboxes are security boxes which can be mounted in existing racking or cabinets. They have suitable ventilation and cable arrangements. It is also possible to equip cabinets with remotely controlled and/or alarmed door locks. These may be linked to an access control system that requires the presentation of a security badge or card before the cabinet door is released. Vibration sensors and door alarms can be installed to detect attempts to break into the cabinet or lock box.


In some cases it may be appropriate to install a rack-mountable UPS device in the cabinet to maintain power to security devices in the event of a power outage. Even in secure equipment rooms the risk remains of an ‘inside job’, where authorized personnel steal or damage equipment, or arrange access for unauthorized personnel. In a recent series of equipment raids at a bank in the City of London, a thief was given access by an authorized badge holder at some time during the day. Later in the evening the thief opened the door for more thieves who quickly pulled out approximately 20 high-value servers directly from the unsecured server cabinets and made off with them. The servers were placed in a wheeled bin and wheeled out past a security guard. Those servers were actually live at the time, and the theft was discovered when on-call systems engineers alerted by operations staff in New York visited the equipment room to find out why the servers had suddenly powered off. Locking devices can be added to servers and cabinets to make their unauthorized removal very difficult. This will help to slow down the activities of thieves who have been able to bypass the other security layers. Servermounted alarms can facilitate remote alerts when a server is removed without authorization. Coupled with good security video monitoring, these procedures can deter malicious actions. It is much more effective if such security is built in to the design of the equipment room rather than added as an afterthought.

MONITORING High operating temperatures can shorten the life of equipment and increase failure rate, so if the design and configuration of cabinets can actively monitor temperatures, operational risk and cost will be reduced. In the design of equipment cabinets containing active powered equipment, the project team should consider having temperature monitor sensors installed. These should be routed back to a sensor monitor that is capable of raising an operational alert if the temperature in the cabinet becomes too high. This monitoring should be continuous, with sample temperature measurements being taken on a regular basis for subsequent reporting and analysis. It is possible for a cabinet to run hot, but not actually exceed the maximum limit for the equipment contained in it. Modern servers are usually equipped with an environment monitoring capability, but this capability should not be used to replace separate cabinet monitoring. Some of the power strips for cabinets and racking are equipped with power monitors which can visually display the amount of electrical power drawn from the power strip. Some power strips with remote operation capability can


transmit the power usage data to central controllers/web pages. Power monitoring can be utilized in various ways: • • • •

to predict the amount of heat generated by a cabinet/rack; to check the power usage against the power budget for the cabinet; to detect increased load from external sources, such as power over UTP; to avoid situations where the cabinet power load would exceed the circuit breaker rating.

If the cabinet is equipped with ventilation fans they should also be monitored for operation status, such as rotation speed sensors. An alert should be raised if the fan becomes faulty. Other monitoring previously mentioned for secure applications is access monitoring in the form of cabinet door sensors to detect unauthorized access. There are many devices available to support these monitoring activities, some of which are marketed by cabinet manufacturers and environmental systems manufacturers. One notable example is the Netbotz[tm], which combines a robust camera, environment sensors and external sensor ports. This device has local processing capability, is network addressable and has a wide range of alert/monitoring capabilities such as motion detection, temperature, power, dial modem connectivity, e-mail and web interface alerts. The Netbotz can be provided with a central management server capability. If the equipment room is located in an earthquake or hurricane zone, consideration should be given to the provision of building motion sensors linked to the environmental monitoring system. If excessive motion is detected in the building structure, alerts can be raised to trigger a business continuity response by operations staff. Alert capability should be operative on a 24 x 7 basis.

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Servers

The servers supporting a trading room and back-office business environment will support a wide range of business functions. Some of the servers will be owned by the business or technology department, while a good proportion will be specified and/or supplied by third-party service organizations such as market data vendors, exchanges and settlement agencies. The servers will support a wide range of technical functions including: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

general purpose file and print servers; database servers; customer relationship management (CRM) servers; document storage; e-mail servers; web servers; firewall, intrusion detection, spyware and/or combined threat servers; identity and security servers; market data servers; settlement application servers; messaging servers; analytical and calculation engines; remote terminal servers; voice logging servers; application build and patch servers;

Servers ❙ 353

• •

anti-virus pattern servers; data storage engine servers.

Those servers can be physically large, with multiple shared applications, dedicated to sole services, or blade servers where many processor boards are located in one frame. The servers might have single processors or multiple processors with a massive amount of processor memory. The servers could be rackmounted or free-standing towers. Using blade servers can greatly reduce the complexity of inter-cabinet cabling. They can reduce the equipment room footprint needed to house the servers and also aid flexibility in the rapid deployment of new servers and services. Successfully used, they can reduce the overall heat load compared with a similar number of individual servers in the equipment room. However caution should be exercised in putting too many eggs in one basket. Not all external service suppliers will want to support their products on blade servers outside their control. The blade configuration can focus many important services in one or two cabinets. The business risk consequences of a single cabinet failure could be extensive unless proper and careful resilience planning has taken place. The range of possible servers is far too complex to describe in any detail in this book, so I shall concentrate on the role of the technology project team. Within an organization there are likely to be teams of specialist systems engineers who provide the technical support for the server environments. The task of the trading floor technology project team is to provide the environment that will facilitate the deployment and transfer of servers. The project team will have to manage the technicians and help ensure that precursor facilities such as network cabling and optical fibres are in place. Some of the servers will be interdependent, and the project team should help the technicians in establishing appropriate scheduling. Some of the servers will depend on external network links being available before they can be commissioned. The project team will have to undertake substantial research with the systems engineers, desktop support team and business application support personnel when establishing the budgets to ensure that all required servers and licensing have been identified. The servers will be catalogued, allocated space on the cabinet plan and their network identities and positions pre-designated. There will be a complex task of scheduling and resourcing the facilities required to transfer application servers, file servers and so on in a safe and reliable fashion prior to the cutover of live operations. The project team will need to ensure that adequate provision has been made for resilient configuration of the servers. This resilience might be at the main trading floor equipment room site and/or a remote facility. The deployment planning for the servers must also factor in any features needed locally to match the business


continuity planning. The project team will need its own BCM planning in terms of being able to roll back to previous server facilities if major problems occur during the move. The system transfer process might require extensive change control documentation and approvals from the operational support staff in existing data centres. If the trading floor project is a move from an existing site, the project team must ensure there is management of the retirement of obsolete servers. This might also involve planning the retrieval of historic archive data from the old servers. It could involve the team in supervising the removal of unwanted servers and services by external vendors and lease companies.

SERVER MOUNTING Where possible the mounting of servers in cabinets should utilize mounting kits that are designed to match the server boxes and also the rack/cabinet where the server will be placed. Heavy servers should if possible be mounted on rails that will allow the unit to be safely slid in or out as required. Personnel involved in installing the servers should be given a brief training session covering such issues as safety rules, evacuation procedures, the emergency power isolation process, and any planned construction activity taking place at the same time. Cabling standards, security and asset recording should also be covered. They should have access to the equipment room plan and the cabinet plan. The supervising manager should ensure that those undertaking the installation work have good lighting and the correct tools for the installation work. If the team are installing heavy servers they should be given access to a suitable trolley so they can safely move the units. There should always be sufficient people around to ensure the safe lifting into position of any heavy items. Prior to the installation the cabinet site should be inspected to ensure that it is ready to receive the server, and that correct power and air conditioning will be available. There should be no trip risks or fall opportunities where the installation is taking place. The cabinet door should be temporarily removed while the server is being installed. The location should be capable of being made secure once the equipment has been installed. Servers should be installed in the cabinet from the base upwards rather than top down. The initial weight being placed lower will reduce the chance of the cabinet being tipped. It is also better for safety during subsequent maintenance work if heavier servers are placed lower in the cabinet. Any cables that might catch as the server is installed should be safely tied back prior to installation. It might be necessary to provide temporary support for the server to

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hold it in position while it is being bolted in place. A new server will normally be accompanied with printed installation instructions, and they should be studied before the installation work is undertaken. The materials and parts list should be doubled-checked against the items to hand before the installation process commences. The interior of the server should be given a quick visual inspection to check for packing material and also check that components are in their correct place. It is not unknown for small high-value items such as processor chips, disks and memory to become ‘lost’ during shipping. Prior to lifting the server, the box and cabinet/rack should be inspected for any exposed sharp edges that could cause cuts to the people installing the equipment. While this is unlikely with modern equipment it does sometimes happen.

CABINET SERVER POSITIONING Financial trading businesses often have duplicate servers for essential business processes such as market data feeds. The resilience gained from this is greatest if the stand-by server is located in an alternative data centre; however there might be business or technical reasons for it to be located in the trading floor equipment room along with the primary device. In this case the stand-by server should be separated electrically and on a separate network from the primary server. Usually the stand-by server is located in a different cabinet in a different row from the primary server cabinet. The provision of remote access features for servers will enable support staff to perform most of their support and monitoring work without ever visiting the physical servers in the equipment room. There will however be situations where there is no alternative to an actual visit to view or perform a physical action on the server. The visiting technician’s role will probably be focused on one business function, such as market data servers or file and print servers. In the design of the cabinet layout it is helpful if servers for the same business function are grouped physically in one area. In that way technicians will only have to visit one area in the equipment room to perform their job. Some devices might need frequent physical access during their operation: for example tape storage devices, and those where the video monitor or keyboard has to be located next to the serving device. It makes sense to position these in cabinets in an easily accessible part of the equipment room. The heat output from equipment mounted in cabinets can help to determine equipment location decisions. Several hot cabinets in close proximity can unbalance the heat load in an equipment room.


The weight of configured cabinets and servers can also govern the distribution of cabinets. If the floor has limited weight-bearing capacity, it might be necessary to spread heavier items to different locations in the room. The incoming cable path and inter-cabinet/rack cabling requirements can also govern the position of cabinets and racks. Patch racks are normally close to the point where the horizontal structured cable enters the room. The telecoms MDF, the trading turret system and the LAN switches will probably be located close to the patch panel system to minimize the amount of cables running between the units.

SERVER COOLING When technical staff order server equipment for installation to trading floor equipment rooms, they generally give no thought to the heat output and cooling. That can be an expensive mistake which is not identified until after the server has been installed and is in operation. I have seen large investment banks that needed to postpone business expansion plans because the heat load of servers was uncontrolled and their data centres ran out of cooling capacity. The heat output from servers and blade systems will govern where the servers are located in the cabinets and where those cabinets are located. Other cooling methods might be necessary, such as water cooling for the cabinet or direct water cooling for the processors contained within the server. Generally cabinets tend to be hotter at the top, so servers that are prone to heat damage should be located lower in the cabinet. The air flows within a cabinet can be disturbed by several factors such as other equipment extract fans, untidy cabling, the position of vent tiles from the raised flow air plenum, the type and design of the doors of the cabinet or even a lack of blanking panels in unused positions in the cabinet. The cabinet master or the person responsible for designing the cabinet plan should take those factors into account. However personnel involved in installing equipment in cabinets or on racking should be given awareness training so they can identify potential problems. The people responsible for ordering any type of server from suppliers should be alert to the air flow requirements, the heat output from the server when operational, the front/back temperature gradient needed and any special mounting arrangements. That information should be documented and discussed with the cabinet master before the equipment is ordered. Similar investigations should be undertaken for servers supplied by third-party service vendors such as telecoms vendors. When planning the servers for a new trading floor equipment room, future expansion needs should be predicted as well.

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Where water cooling is required for any server, the supporting infrastructure must be considered at an early stage in the trading room project. The routing of the necessary coolant piping, leak detection, drip trays and drains can have an impact on the design of the equipment room. Water-cooled cabinets will have a different footprint requirement from standard cabinets.

SERVER POWER SUPPLY Servers will be supplied with their power supply units (PSUs) already installed. However the technician should show preference for redundant PSU options during the server selection process. Each installed PSU should be capable of powering the server if the one of the PSUs fails. When mounted in the rack/cabinet the server PSUs should be connected to alternate power strips to protect from power failure as a result of PDU breakers tripping. Server monitoring should have the capability of creating an alert when a redundant PSU fails during operation.

SERVER REMOTE ACCESS AND KVM It should be a design objective that servers in an equipment room can be operated with little or no need for actual physical intervention. Most of the features for this can be achieved using remote terminal connection over the network. However situations will arise, such as operating system lockup or panic, where facilities external to the server processor will be needed to control the operation. These facilities are particularly relevant for business continuity management and for centralized operation of branch office-based equipment. Some servers are constructed with independent control cards which can monitor power and temperatures. Some servers are compliant with the IPMI (Intelligent Platform Management Interface) standard, which allows significant independent control and monitoring of the server via dedicated network or modem connections. Where the server system detects a failure in the support environment or in the operational capability of the server, it should be capable of generating an alert and delivering it to a monitoring centre. There are alternatives such as the HP ILO and RILOE cards or Dell DRAC cards, which can provide remote administration when the primary server operating system is not available. One of the problems that used to exist in equipment cabinets was finding space to house and connect monitor display screens to servers. These were bulky and generated a lot of heat. This problem has been largely overcome by the improvements in keyboard video mouse (KVM) devices which provide remote


connection to the video, keyboard and mouse ports of a server. This allows permanent switchable connection to servers from support desks outside the equipment room. Some KVMs provide further extension of the facility by the use of TCP/IP technology, which allows authorized support staff to operate the server from any network-connected place in the world. The trading floor technology project leader should ensure examination of any planned server deployment to confirm what arrangements have been made for remote monitoring and remote operation. Those arrangements should be acceptable to the operational standards of the organization. This information and procedures for its use should be part of the operational handover document. Prior agreement with operations management should be made if new technology methods of monitoring/remote support are being introduced as part of the trading floor project.

SERVER NETWORK AND HBAS The financial trading business will place substantial reliance on the data networks used by the servers in the equipment room. The servers are likely to have dual network connections to the data switches that serve the back office and trading floors. If one network path from a server fails, an alternative should be available in a resiliently switched configuration. As data storage needs grow exponentially, the location of the actual storage is migrating from disks installed in the servers to specialized data storage devices. The high-speed connection from the servers to the data storage devices is often over dedicated high-speed backbone networks which bypass the traffic sent to client PCs. The server connection to the high-speed networks will be achieved using HBAs (host bus adaptors) connected by optical fibres. These high-speed data flows might be switched using special fabric switches. The design of resilient local and remote storage clusters is a specialist subject. This technology might not be needed for smaller sites. There might be separate resilient data backbone networks for market data traffic between servers, calculation engines, video streams, and also for traffic to data backup devices. The role of the technology project team is to ensure that suitable skilled design work has allowed for the backbone networks and the necessary resilience solutions. Any solutions proposed must be signed off by the IT operations management as compatible with current strategy. The networks team should confirm that adequate provision has been made in the network and the routers and switches. To do this the networks team must understand the potential data traffic flows and priorities between parts of the infrastructure.

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As technology project team leader you might have to guide and influence a decision on a server network that meets both the broader corporate strategy needs for cost-effective data storage and the high demands of the trading floor/back-office intensive technology. You should also be wary of adventurous technicians trying to promote their pet projects on the back of the trading floor project budget. Business continuity planning can affect the design of the high-capacity wide area network links to the business continuity site, and also the decisions on which servers, if any, are located offsite. You must ensure such planning has taken place. The planning for the server network should be largely completed before the cabinet layout and inter-cabinet cabling specification is undertaken. If not, there might be a need to call back the cabling contractors to open the ceiling and lay additional fibres between cabinets.

SERVER CONFIGURATION Some of the servers installed might be new and some might be existing servers moved from another location. The process of installing the operating system and base applications can be lengthy, possibly using images loaded from a jump start server or from CDs. It might be necessary to install additional software update patches to bring the server up to the current version of the operating system used by the business. This is likely to require external network connectivity to a patch source. The technicians should undertake this as a matter of course, but the trading floor project team should check that such updates have been planned and actioned. Once the software build and initial configuration process have taken place the technicians involved should create a disk image copy. This will allow a fast restore if required. You will need to ensure that suitable facilities are in place for the secure storage of the media holding the initial system image copies. The objective should be to allow a fast bare metal restore if needed. Any such arrangements should be documented and compatible with the current operational procedures of the business. Similar arrangements should be considered for the servers installed by third-party service providers, such as market exchange feed servers and voice recorders. The organization’s security policy might require a software tool to be used to scan the server to identify any aspects of operating system configuration that could represent a security vulnerability. The security policy might dictate that this process must take place before the server is allowed to communicate with other servers. It could also dictate that third-party servers must be scanned. This process can introduce delay into the deployment timescale, so the project team


will need to ensure that a suitable allowance has been included in the plan. In addition to the scan it might be necessary to add monitoring tools that detect unauthorized changes to the system configuration. The server configuration process should ensure that suitable anti-virus software has been installed and that a detected virus reporting procedure is in place from the time of switch-on. There should also be an active system of provision of virus pattern and anti-virus program updates as soon as the servers have been configured. The configuration of servers should allow for emergency situations, such as power outages, where it might be necessary to gracefully close applications and shut down the server. The technology operations management will need to be consulted on the design and implementation of such procedures. The rules governing prioritization and triggering of such events will require business management input. All these server configuration issues should be a matter of routine for skilled systems engineers. As trading floor project team leader you should check that the technicians are aware of the corporate standards, and that as server configuration work proceeds it is correctly documented. In some cases equipment installed in an equipment room such as a voicerecording system has data and computing server technology embedded. Procedures need to be in place to ensure that operating system patches, antivirus software and security scanning have been arranged for those ‘hidden’ servers. The project team will need a clear understanding on how updates are applied and who funds the relevant software licences.

SAN AND NETWORK-ATTACHED STORAGE In addition to servers containing their own disk storage there is range of data storage technologies, with an alphabet soup of differing acronyms, that might be appropriate to trading room support. Some systems can be built from appropriate components while others are purchased as complete systems from such organizations such as EMC, IBM and NetApp. Generally these devices handle higher data volumes and transaction rates. They protect from the impact of disk failure and simplify the management of data storage. It is also possible to facilitate high-speed disk access by placing solid state disks on the path between the servers and their network storage device. These devices, though expensive in terms of data capacity, can significantly improve retrieval/storage time for critical applications. For the purposes of the trading floor project, it should be noted these storage devices will need power, air conditioning, rack space and suitable network

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connectivity. Expert advice will be required to choose the most cost-effective and reliable system that will also map to the business IT strategy. Often the decision on the supplier is made by the organization’s IT department. More information on such technologies can be found in many good books, and on the manufacturers’ websites. As project leader you must ensure decisions on this type of device are made early in the project timescale, so it is known what space, power and network connectivity is needed. The decisions on network bandwidth and topology should take BCM considerations into account. If a third-party supplier is used for the data storage system, it might be necessary to reserve unused space in the equipment room for potential expansion of its equipment. You will also need to determine which cost elements are directly attributable to the project budget and which should be absorbed at a corporate level. Whichever storage technology is chosen, a local magnetic tape archive device is likely to be required to make security copies of the data held on the storage device/network. It will also be required to restore lost data. The tape units are often large and generate a lot of heat in operation. The rack space requirements and power/heat needs should be checked carefully. Where SAN technology is used it can place considerable demands on the data network structure. Careful network design will be required in advance to ensure that the data storage traffic is safely switched and routed. Compatibility between servers, their operating system versions, interface cards and the network fabric switches used to handle the data storage traffic can be an important factor. If the wrong selection is made there can be a substantial delay to the project while the problems are resolved. You should be alert to the potential problems and ensure that suitably skilled people are scheduled and assigned to the task of design and implementation. In the operation of the devices some storage space in a fire safe will be needed for an on-site copy of the magnetic tapes used for backup, while the primary copies are held securely offsite. This should be conveniently located nearby in the office. If the equipment room is operated remotely and has no local IT staff, the task of inserting and removing tape cartridges might fall to local administrative staff. It might then be necessary to make special arrangements so the administrators can access the tape units without compromising the security of the equipment room. If the local turnover of administrative staff is high, it might be worth installing a remote network-accessible video camera overlooking the tape unit. This can be invaluable for remote support technicians in resolving support calls from the local staff. You should ensure the servers and tape backup unit are equipped with good storage management software to automate the process, and to raise central alerts should file backup or recovery fail to complete successfully.


As part of the decisions on data storage, backup arrangements should be planned for the desktop PCs and workstations on the trading floor and back office. In most organizations the technology department has procedures and policies for the desktop PC backup and restore process. The trading floor project team should ensure that a suitable solution, acceptable to operations staff, is in place at the time of handover to the business. This type of facility will be needed when transferring the data from PCs in the old offices to the new site, particularly if it is an overnight move where old PCs are left behind and the trading staff have new PCs. For small trading floors in branch offices another method of providing secure data storage is to hold the main servers and storage centrally. A wide area network-connected local file cache server handles most storage requests from the trading floor and back-office staff in a timely fashion without prejudicing the available network bandwidth.

SERVER VIRTUALIZATION AND CONSOLIDATION It is possible to reduce the physical number of servers held in the equipment cabinets by using server virtualization techniques. This can have a substantial impact on the heat and cooling demands for the equipment room. However, undertaking this work at the same time as a trading floor construction project increases the project risk. Delays are highly probable during the process of pilot running and resolving technical issues of server virtualization, and these might impact the trading floor project. My general advice is to try to keep the construction project as simple as possible, and to decouple the server virtualization or consolidation process. However if the organization has already successfully undertaken server virtualization elsewhere, it might be possible to reduce the number of servers if it is necessary to save on power/cooling requirements. Recent developments in multi-core processor technology, such as the SUN T1 processor, could also be used to provide server consolidation by taking advantage of the greater processing power and reduced power consumption. As with server virtualization, care should be taken to allow adequate time for testing to avoid these activities becoming part of the trading floor project plan critical path. It is unlikely that the servers provided by external vendors such as trading exchanges and market data vendors can be included in the server virtualization process. Such organizations like to maintain control over the configuration of their servers. Bypassing the recommendations on server set-up would mean that a data feed service is unsupported by the supplier maintenance contract. That unsupported function would probably breach a compliance rule.

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Network equipment

Data networks provide an essential part of the trading floor and equipment room technology infrastructure. As trading floor voice technology migrates from analogue signals over dedicated copper conductor wires to VOIP technologies, the significance of good data networks will become even greater. Ironically the ability to provide services over a simple single data cable in a trading room environment actually increases the technology complexity and technology risk to deliver the converged services. Many of the services delivered to the trading floor, such as voice, market data and message backbones, are sensitive to network delays and congestion. The increasing dependence on a single technology, such as TCP/IP, will increase the risk of commercial damage should the network technology fail or become degraded. In a poorly designed network a single faulty device or cable might interrupt or damage the network availability to the whole trading environment. The design of trading floor and associated equipment room networks should be structured to separate high-volume high-priority data traffic into network backbones, albeit some might be virtual backbones in the high-capacity switches. Where data network services are delivered to the trading desk it should be by dedicated network cables for each service, such as voice, file server and market data. While it is possible in theory to merge the data traffic on to a single link, this should be avoided. Running extra network cables to a desk costs roughly £30 (US $50) per cable if it is planned and done at the time of installation. That cost is tiny compared with the business risk of a network problem


degrading transmission or locking out both the phones and PC to a trading desk at the same time. Data networks are not reliable. All too often I have seen extensive network failure induced by operator action (some dumb fool unplugging the wrong cable), network interface card failure, programming error creating network flooding, network worm or network cable failure. Intermittent errors can be worse in that they are difficult to find and insidiously sap the confidence of the traders. The design of the network should be resilient so that a single component failure cannot cause widespread loss of service. The technology project team should ask the network designer what the impact will be should any one of the major network elements fail. External network links to the building will also fail, perhaps because of a power failure in an exchange or a worker cutting through a cable. The design of the wide area network and its equipment should be on the basis of recovery from failure.

SWITCHES AND ROUTERS The project team member responsible for the design of the data network should analyse the business, security and technology requirements. From this she or he should divide the network into logical and physical segments that are joined by the routers and switches. Typically there are the following types of switch function group: • • • •

switches for connections from desks on the trading floor and back office; switches for market data traffic backbones to other business servers and also to the trading floor PCs; switches between data backbones, sometimes termed core switches; storage network switches.

These will need to be configured for resilience to allow rapid recovery from outages, and where possible to allow continued business operation when a single failure or network jam occurs. Routers tend to be used for connection with external network links and other wide area network connections. The output from those might be direct to servers or via intermediate switches. There can be a wide variety of incoming data technologies used and data rates delivered, such as ATM, T1 and xDSL. The network engineer must design the logical and physical structure of the data network carefully to ensure good performance and resilience. Trading floors and equipment rooms will have designs that tend to separate the different

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network protocol layers. Experienced network engineers will avoid mixing the equipment vendors within a switching or routing layer, even trying to keep to the same software release within the equipment. Their design will often separate voice, video, data storage such as iSCSI, and data traffic over the network in a logical and physical manner. The resilience design will need to ensure that network fail over and recovery is quickly achieved if one of the central switches fails. The network structure is often layered to separate external traffic from internal traffic. Your task as project team leader is to ensure that the appropriate design work is done and validated. The design work and chosen network transmission and signalling protocols might need to be agreed with corporate network architects. Appropriate ranges of network addresses must be allocated and registered with the network architect. The designer will also need to ensure that the higher-level operating system protocols such as WINS and DHCP are supported and made available in the correct logical position. Meeting these requirements and the range of external interfaces can involve ordering a substantial number of specialist component network frames and cards. There can be long lead times on the delivery of such items. These should be carefully worked into project timescales and closely monitored, as delay on a single critical network card can potentially delay the whole infrastructure project. It is not unknown for specialist network cards to be dead on arrival when the network is being constructed. You should ensure there are suitable arrangements for the immediate swap-out of failed units. The maintenance arrangements for swap-outs vary from country to country, and can be complicated if the original card is purchased in another country. Questions on availability should be asked early in the project, and not left as a problem to be discovered when the equipment has been delivered. The designer will need to ensure that the network equipment has good remote monitoring and management capability. This might require the purchase of additional software and extra support arrangements with a central network monitoring team. Switches and routers might be logically configured from a remote site once the physical installation has taken place, or the devices might be pre-configured prior to delivery. It might be necessary to upload software upgrades for the switches and routers as part of their deployment. This work will require scheduling and suitable personnel assigned to undertake it once the equipment room has been constructed and made available for installation work. The configuration and parameters of network equipment are usually stored in permanent memory cards such as flash memory. You should ensure that suitable arrangements are made for the creation of security copies, and that they are placed in a convenient local secure location once configuration has taken place.

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The switches and routers will be given some security protection by the use of passwords, with various authority and function levels assigned. Initially the passwords might be set locally by the installation engineer. However in any type of corporate network it is highly likely that the security settings will be based on a network security system such as TACACS+ or RADIUS, which provides centralized control over the passwords on attached network equipment. The trading floor project team should give careful consideration to the scheduled implementation of central control of network passwords. Centralized control can slow down installation work, as permissions are sought for changes to be made to network configurations. However it is likely that connection to the main corporate network will be not permitted until router/switch passwords have come under the control of the central network administration. The delays are likely to be acute when the network control centre is in a different time zone.

FIREWALLS A firewall server has become an essential item for trading floor equipment rooms. It can be used to provide a network barrier between the internal data network and: • • • • • • •

the corporate wide area network; BCP sites; exchange feeds; market data systems; internet connectivity; virtual private area networks; VOIP interfaces.

The server is likely to have a resilient configuration with dual (or more) system units. These resilient pairs or clusters of firewalls are usually in active–active configurations with load sharing. In the event of a failure there is less likely to be an interruption of service. There might be firewalls isolating different business areas on the same site, or in larger organizations separate firewall structures for different business units. The configuration of firewalls can be affected by the risk profile of the data traffic passing through them. For example high-risk external internet traffic might be directed through a different firewall from the one used for lower-risk business to business connections. You should ensure the company security policy is considered when the firewalls are designed and implemented.


From the project viewpoint the objective is to install the firewalls in a timely fashion, and to ensure that the security rules (policies) have been programmed into the firewall databases. This work needs to be complete before the testing of servers that utilize external networks. It might be possible to import policies from other firewalls in the organization, but they will need to be tailored to the external IP addresses relevant for the new site and its suppliers. Some tailoring will be required to map the network addresses of the internal network devices located in the trading floor and data centre. Scheduling this configuration work can be complex, as the rate of progress often depends on obtaining information and testing support from multiple external suppliers, and also developers or operational staff within the organization. Some of the network protocols for exchange feeds and market data feeds use a range of bespoke network port addresses. These might have incomplete documentation, making the task of finding the correct settings for the firewall a complex one requiring a lot of testing. During the process of configuring the firewall, the technician might need a network sniffer device to check exactly what types of data traffic are arriving and departing. Special arrangements might be required to borrow one of these expensive test devices and to securely store it when not in use. It might be possible to use a laptop computer for much of the testing, but only if the project team have ensured that suitable software has been obtained and is available on site when needed. The technology project team will need to ensure that the configuration of the firewall and its testing is scheduled at a time convenient for the rest of the server installation team. After the initial physical installation, much of the firewall configuration might be undertaken remotely from an offsite location. However the project team will quickly find that the remote process is aided greatly if someone works locally in the equipment room to support the remote actions. Corporate rules might require any changes to firewalls to take place outside normal working hours, and this should be worked into the schedule planning. Part of the testing for firewalls involves confirmation that the configuration is actually resilient in the event of a failure. The failure testing will probably require a scheduled timeslot of its own when other technicians do not need access to the external network. The technicians might also need to undertake or commission network penetration testing from external locations. The project team should ensure that the firewall is properly documented, that backup copies of the configuration are securely stored, and that any administration access, local or remote, is properly secured by the use of appropriate authentication methods such as passwords. Some form of intrusion detection system (IDS) will normally be installed or provided to monitor the access attempts via the firewall. In a trading floor


construction project this is normally handled by the corporate security team. However the technology project team has a role in ensuring that appropriate IDS facilities are included in the planning and are properly implemented in a timely fashion. Some of the infrastructure equipment might be designed for external remote support using IP technology. Examples include: • • • • •

power strips; environmental monitoring; IP video cameras; PABX; presentation facilities such as video projectors.

It is normally desirable to isolate these control facilities from the main data networks for security reasons. In some cases these devices also have out-of-band connectivity, such as through an external modem dial-up connection, which can be used to bypass firewall security. The firewall policy and strategy should provide a secure environment for such devices: access must be authenticated and logged so they do not become a backdoor for hackers. While the structured cabling system might be used to deliver IP signals to the devices, the cables and patch points should be physically separate from the main data patch panels, possibly in a locked box to avoid accidental connection.

XDSL Internet links such as ADSL (asynchronous digital subscriber links) and SDSL (symmetric digital subscriber links) can be used to provide low-cost connectivity to the internet. This can be useful for trading floors located in small branch offices or small businesses, to reduce the overall cost of wide area network links. For example it might be possible to direct low-priority network traffic that is not time-sensitive via an internet virtual private network (VPN) to avoid congesting high-cost direct data links, and to use xDSL as a stand-by data link in case a primary circuit fails. The xDSL might provide local internet connectivity for such services as web browsing. Several factors need to be taken into account before allowing the long-term use of xDSL. The service is ‘session based’ and is inherently unreliable: it could run without problems for months but it is subject to failure. A stand-by provision, such as running redundant services via alternative PTTs, should be considered. Bandwidth availability and response time are not predictable. The xDSL service bandwidth will be shared with other people or businesses.


The service is absolutely insecure, so any sensitive data transmitted over the link must be encrypted and the xDSL link must terminate in a corporateapproved firewall. The role of the technology project team is to ensure that if xDSL is used, it is done securely and in a reliable configuration. Conversely the team should ensure that xDSL is not overlooked as an opportunity to reduce ongoing operational costs. In one situation my team encountered, a 128K dedicated link to a remote trading floor office was costing approximately £100,000 (US $150,000) per year. The link capacity was frequently exceeded. A carefully planned ADSL link solved the capacity problem at a low cost. xDSL is sometimes useful if a trading organization has to service a large number of small clients. Previously it might have been necessary to install an expensive network of dedicated links, requiring a lot of planning, vendor interaction, customer interaction and engineer visits to configure each circuit. VPN links over xDSL provide an alternative low-cost solution that is quick to implement. An ADSL internet service is sometimes useful if the business wishes to provide internet connectivity for visitors. The LAN cabling for the raw internet connection should be physically isolated from the normal business LAN. Even this ‘raw’ internet connectivity should be provided with some firewall protection.

WIRELESS LAN A trading organization is likely to require a wireless LAN (WLAN) for personnel on site with mobile devices. WLANs are inherently insecure and have a limited bandwidth shared between the users. As a consequence they are unlikely to replace physical structured cable connections to the trading desks in the near future. It is possible to overcome bandwidth problems by increasing the density of wireless access points, and careful balancing of zones and power output from the access point. However for desks with fixed PCs and trader turrets there is no real advantage over a good-quality point-to-point copper or optical fibre connection for the network. Most laptop computers are equipped with wireless connectivity. Some method of controlled access should be provided for WLAN connections. The data connections should be encrypted using keys that are changed frequently. There need to be monitoring facilities for unauthorized intrusions on the WLAN, and detection of unauthorized WLAN created by users. An unauthorized WLAN originating from a network PC could create an access path to the main corporate network that bypasses all the security measures and firewalls.


Some organizations enhance their WLAN security by treating it as insecure and placing a firewall appliance between the WLAN and the corporate network. Connectivity through the firewall is implemented using VPN technology from the mobile devices. Where there is a frequently changing population of casual users it might be appropriate to consider the use of WiFi access administration software, similar to that in use at public hotspots. Examples of suppliers of these types of system are Nomadix, Alepo, Hotspotway and Aradial. As financial regulators increasingly demand that all electronic messages are logged for compliance purposes, it effectively becomes mandatory that unauthorized WLANs are prevented in the trading floor and back-office areas. Network security specialists have frequently found cases where traders and office staff have used USB WLAN plugs in their PCs for personal purposes. These provide a potential security risk. In more malicious situations rogue WLANs have been set up with directional antennae that beam the signal outside the building, and avoid general security scans. The trading floor technology project team will need to ensure that there is a sufficient number of wireless access point antennae mounted around the trading floor and back office to give a good coverage for mobile devices. The network technicians will need to ensure that the bandwidth zones do not interfere with neighbouring zones. An early part of the investigation process should be a monitoring exercise to check whether neighbouring businesses have an existing wireless LAN that could interfere with the backoffice/trading floor WLAN. Software tools such as Airmagnet and its associated devices can help detect intrusions and isolate rogue devices. Those wishing to examine the capabilities of a WLAN system will find further information on www.Arubanetworks.com It is possible to purchase the software tools described above or seek consultancy depending on the most appropriate solution for the project. The technology project leader will need to discuss this with the networking team manager as this can involve an ongoing support commitment for the networking team. The general advice from wireless network security specialists is that the wireless network should be treated as an external network separate from the main internal wired data network. VPN facilities should provide for corporate wireless network users who need to access to the internal company servers. It is possible to use directional antennae that can project the wireless signals to defined areas. This can prevent interference with nearby networks and also reduce the opportunity for eavesdropping by anyone outside the business premises. It is also possible to use WLANs for connecting to video security cameras. This can reduce cabling requirements, but the signals can be jammed by anyone wishing to disable the cameras.


MODEMS The use of dial-up modems in support of trading areas is now much less common, but where they are used – for example, for sending faxes from servers – security precautions and installation issues should be considered. Modems should be banned from the trading floor and back-office areas unless specifically authorized and documented. It is all too easy for a dial-up modem to bypass network security controls such as the firewall. Additionally if a desktop PC is infected with rogue dialler programs, enormous telephone bills can be built up. If fax capability is needed, it is generally better if the faxes are sent via a fax server or fax service. This will make it easier to retain archival copies of faxes where this is necessary for business or regulatory purposes. Dial-up modems and ISDN modems are sometimes used as backup for lowcapacity leased lines. If these are configured as part of a trading floor roll-out, the project network team should carefully test that the failure switch-over and reset works correctly. I have seen an incorrectly configured ISDN unit create an unexpected bill of £120,000 (US $180,000) in international call charges for a backup link. Modems can be used to provide ‘out of band’ connectivity to servers and network equipment located in the technology rooms of branch or satellite offices. When these services are in place it is possible for a support engineer to dial into the remote site via the public switched network. This facility can be extremely useful if for some reason the main data link to the branch is unavailable. Obviously the security setting of the modem needs to be carefully considered to prevent unauthorized access, for example by invoking the use of callback on the modem. Out-of-band security for console access can be enhanced by the use of serial link controllers, such as the Lantronix SLC range. These devices typically have a range of authentication methods based on industry standards coupled with secure link encryption technology. In some cases external modem access is given to external vendors who provide support and maintenance for servers and also applications. When the modem facilities are being planned for installation, it might be necessary to consider manual switching facilities that only allow access when an operator physically connects the modem. If any of these modems are to linked into a network management software tool, it might be necessary to provide modem models that have remote management capability built into them. The task of the trading floor project team is to ensure that modem requirements for both users and servers are documented and that a suitable environment is provided to house the modems. The security and parameter setting of each modem should be documented carefully, particularly if the device served by the modem also has a connection to the main data network. Any user manuals relating to the modems should be retained and secured for handover when the


site becomes operational. Modems should be noted in the asset register, and the maintenance support arrangements for them documented. In planning for the modems the project team will need to ensure that an adequate number of analogue PABX or exchange circuits are available. Note that modems can also be found in fax machines, drink and snacks vending machines, alarm systems and other electromechanical equipment such as UPS and air conditioning. These might require some telephone cabling and PABX port capacity. The organization might wish to plan and implement constraints on the destinations that modem phone circuits can contact.

MAINTENANCE AND SUPPORT The technology project team should ensure that the network equipment and circuits have an adequate level of maintenance and support coverage during the deployment period. It must be decided whether there is 24-hour coverage or normal working day coverage, and what response time is required for reported faults. While the trading floor and equipment room will not have production operational status during the deployment process, it will be important that any equipment or service faults are fixed quickly, or the project timetable will be prejudiced. Any new equipment should have standard warranty coverage, but probably on the basis of return to the manufacturer for replacement or exchange. In the tight timescale of a trading floor construction project, there should be arrangements for faulty equipment to be swapped on site without delay. The project team should also ensure that the local supplier that provides support has an adequate stock of spare components for immediate swap-out of failed units. As part of the contract negotiations with the supplier or manufacturer it should be confirmed that the commissioning engineers will have easy access to spare parts. There is a cost associated with maintenance coverage, so a suitable amount should be included in the project budget. The maintenance fees should come under the umbrella of any corporate agreement on global or regional business. In some cases when a trading floor is being opened in a new country or location, the local suppliers might not have access to the manufacturer global schemes. This is yet another item to be negotiated with the account manager. Any agreement on support and maintenance will need to be synchronized with the operational side of the business so that it can be successfully handed over at the end of the project. If the network service link is provided by a third party and your organization is the ‘B-end’ of the service, this can complicate support and maintenance, particularly if the vendor does not consider the service to be live.


NETWORK TOPOLOGY AND WAN I have already mentioned that the internal LAN should be segmented to separate high-volume or high-priority data traffic, and that the configuration should be resilient to allow recovery from failure. The location of the trading floor site might create a requirement for wide area network (WAN) connectivity to other parts of the organization and/or to a disaster recovery site. Similar to the LAN structure, the WAN structure should have a resilient design that will allow continued operation if a telecommunications link fails. In a corporate environment it is likely that the WAN will carry data traffic for other parts of the organization and not just the trading floor. Typically the WAN circuit structure is triangulated, double triangulated or has a bidirectional loop structure to provide protection from single link failure. Where possible at least two different circuit suppliers should be used to provide protection from a supplier exchange failure. The project team leader must ensure that appropriate questions have been asked to determine the actual national and international routing of incoming circuits. The trading floor equipment room might act as a hub site for other smaller locations. As a consequence the project network team might be involved in coordination of the installation of data links to those sites. The technology project team should work with the main network team to devise a solution that matches the business needs of the trading organization. This might well require extensive discussions about bandwidth needs, traffic prioritization and cost allocation. The project network team will need to ensure that the WAN links have a sufficiently low end-to-end circuit transmission latency for any applications that will run over them. There might also be discussion about the responsibility for ordering and project managing the delivery of the circuits needed to deliver the WAN. You should be aware of the cost implications of where the circuit order is raised. The team will need to ensure that any implemented WAN topology is tested for reliability, resilience and recovery efficiency. Some of the external network links might have dialled circuits or xDSL links as stand-by. The effectiveness of the stand-by links should be tested.

SUPPLIER RELIABILITY AND RESILIENCE In choosing the suppliers for network equipment and communications services, the project team should ensure that the vendor has a reputation for reliable delivery and operation. The provision of telecoms and network services often involves many different parties in a sequential process. This multiplies the risk of supply delays.


Telecoms companies grow by acquiring other companies. Sometimes this means they inherit poor-quality personnel. A supplier might have good staff in the organization’s primary centre of operation, but there is no absolute guarantee that the reliability will extend to a remote location. Part of the project team’s task prior to raising orders is to evaluate the performance and reliability of the local telecoms provider, and to deal with the situation if the local team is not delivering. Cultivating a good relationship with the account manager can help to resolve such issues, but the team should be ruthless in chasing down any projected or actual failure to deliver on time. The team should have accounts with at least two local suppliers of a manufacturer’s equipment, so if one supplier fails to deliver for any reason the other can be called on. It is not unknown for a supplier to divert items to a more favoured customer at the time of equipment scarcity.

ISP SERVICES The business will already have registered its main internet domain name, but the trading floor migration might create a need to register additional domain names and external IP address ranges via the local internet service provider (ISP) of choice. There might be a need for locally connected internet data links for internet e-mail and local browsing capability, in addition to the main corporate facilities. In some cases the corporate security policy might ban this type of connection, but where it is allowable the project team should ensure that suitable resilience is configured into the connections. The service should continue if there is a failure at the ISP, possibly using an alternate or redundant link to an alternate ISP. At the time of specification the project network team should give due consideration to building in facilities to mitigate denial of service attacks. The business should consider using multiple alternative ISPs so that connectivity can be maintained if operational difficulties arise with one of them. The alternates should not be located in the same part of the country, or a regional outage could affect both ISPs. Technology such as the Stonegate product can be used to provide resilient VPN bonding across disparate ISPs, so that if one fails the traffic is automatically routed via another.

KVM KVM (keyboard video mouse) technology provides the capability to move the monitor, keyboard and mouse an extended distance from a desktop PC or


server. A range of technology methods are used to achieve this. Some are based on IP technology and have no distance limit; others based on signal conversion will stretch up to 300 ft (100 m) depending on the cable type. More recent versions allow extension of USB ports and sound ports from the PC or server. Some other technologies provide ‘bus’ extension that allows the extending positioning of PCI card devices such as screen controller cards and CD-ROM device controllers. In a normal configuration a local interface device (CIM) is plugged into the KVM port of a PC, and connected via structured cabling to a switch unit in the equipment room. The switch unit is rack mounted, except for small installations. The output ports of the switch are connected by the structured cabling system to a breakout unit located on a desk in the office or trading floor area. Depending on the switch and software capabilities, the person controlling the screen and mouse will be able to ‘see’ and operate one or more PCs or servers as though they are located under his or her desk. This capability avoids the need for monitors and keyboards in the equipment room. The supporting technicians can be located in comfortable office areas. Most devices need to reserve only one structured cable per KVM output deployment. Simple KVM devices allow a one-to-many configuration, where one KVM position controls two or more PCs. More sophisticated devices allow many-tomany switching, where multiple client positions can access multiple PCs and servers. The technologies based on IP allow truly remote control of PCs and servers over long distances, but this comes at a greater initial capital cost and involves higher ongoing maintenance fees. As the capability to switch between a larger number of servers and PCs, increases, so too does the security headache of controlling who is authorized to access which server or PC. Enterprise-level KVM systems such as Raritan, WEY systems and Avocent have sophisticated control schemes that maintain a database of permissions. This capability is administered by a designated master controller server supported by local slave servers.

Business requirement While KVM technology was originally developed for controlling multiple servers, it can also be used to move desktop PC system units from under desks into the equipment room. This reduces noise and heat in the office areas. Some traders and back-office staff have several PCs but limited desk space for screens and keyboards. A simple local KVM device can allow use of just one screen, which can be switched between the local PCs at the push of a button. There are various reasons for a business unit to use KVM technology or screen extender units to move PC system units to the equipment room, including:


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noise reduction in office areas or meeting rooms; heat reduction in office areas or meeting rooms; security, to prevent unauthorized access to PC system units or theft from the office; space saving on top of and under desks; aesthetics, to prevent clutter in a prestige area; hot desking, where different users use the same screen, but different PCs; shared PC usage, where personnel need only occasional access to a PC; moves and changes cost reduction strategy, where personnel can be easily and quickly moved without physically moving their PCs.

This technology implies increased capital investment and maintenance fees. It will also increase the amount of rack or cabinet space required in the equipment room, for the KVM switch equipment and the relocated PC system units. This will increase the space requirements, inter-cabinet cabling, air conditioning load and power load in the equipment room. These additional costs should be approved by the business units concerned. The project leader should be sure that the KVM and rack-mounted PC/blade choice will allow the use of multiscreen cards if this type of interaction is needed by users. For example a business user might want one mouse that flows freely between multi-screen configurations on the desktop. A normal KVM to multiple PCs or blades will not permit that ease of action. There can also be hidden operational benefits. Office and trading staff are less likely to interfere with the PC configuration or to load unauthorized software. This will lead to a reduction in support calls to the IT support service and improved efficiency of personnel as they focus on their primary tasks. KVMs also make it easier to gain physical access to the PC system unit to perform maintenance. The support staff can temporarily switch the user to an alternate PC while they work on the PC needing maintenance. There is no need to disrupt the workplace when accessing the PC.

Limitations of KVMs KVM technology can be sensitive to the length of cables used to deliver the signal from the system unit to the desktop display. This can give rise to ghosting or colour distortion of the image displayed on the screen. The project team will need to ensure that careful checks are made with the supplier of the KVM system that the cabling system proposed and length of cable runs are acceptable for the chosen system. If possible there should be supplementary testing using the planned cable type, and the PC models and applications that will be in use on the trading floor.


There is no guarantee that higher-specification cable will perform better with KVM technology. Some manufacturers found that while their analogue KVM technology worked well with CAT5 UTP structured cabling systems, it did not work so well with CAT6 cabling. My team was told this was because the different twist structure gave different conductor lengths, and this meant the video signals were out of alignment. The KVM system might not support the screen resolution of the PCs in use on the trading floor and back office. This information should be checked when making a purchasing decision. Analogue KVM technology will give better mouse responsiveness than the IP KVM technology. The IP KVM signal can be subject to slight delay because of network latency and loading. The system should be tested with the range of mouse devices that will be used in the office. Mice technologies and how they deliver signal output vary considerably. While KVM manufacturers have made great progress in this area, it is still worth testing. The KVM device might not deliver all the signal data output types generated from or input to the PC system unit. For example software might require a smart card or USB dongle. Any such non-standard applications will need to be tested before commitment can be given that the PC in question can be moved off-desk. I would advise you not to believe KVM supplier claims about compatibility, but to perform suitable testing.

Remote operation Most computer operating systems allow remote control of servers from a desktop PC over a data network or a dial-up telephone link. However the remote access does not give 100 per cent of the features available to a local connection. For example if the operating system of the remote machine has hung up or is in a ‘panic’ it might not respond to remote commands. Some system commands should not be allowed across the operating system level data link for security purposes. The security configuration normally defines commands as being allowed via local terminal devices. KVM systems however are external to the server and take the signals that local peripheral devices would see. Some KVMs can also be used to remotely control the external power switching to a device. This external control capability can allow a remote operator to fully control a server as though she or he is physically present next to it. Any remotely accessible KVM system effectively bypasses the locks of the doors to the equipment room. The KVM should have its own security system, including link encryption, to allow control over access to the remote PCs/servers. Access via the KVM should be logged so that it is possible to


track usage of the system. The systems often allow security control at an individual level and also at a role-based level. Remote access to the KVM via the network should have firewall protection with specific policy rules to give a further layer of security. The implementation of the KVM system might be spoke and hub: this allows central control of servers and controlled local access capability. The capability to remotely control servers via a KVM can reduce operational costs by reducing the need for local IT operations. The remotely operated KVM can also boost the business continuity capability by allowing continued operation of servers while physical access to the building has been denied as a consequence of an incident. A terrorist incident could see a large area of a city suddenly evacuated and cordoned off by the security services. I have known a remote KVM system to remove the need to fly engineers to a site to deal with operational issues. The savings on flight and hotel expenses and engineer time can make a major contribution to the cost of a KVM system. These savings can accrue during the project and during the operational life of the technology equipment.

Installation considerations The project team will need to make a decision on the use of KVM and the number of ports to be serviced at an early stage of the project design. The decision will affect structured cabling design, patch rack design, equipment cabinet planning and network security design. Such decisions can have a significant project budget impact. The KVM system will become a critical part of the infrastructure and should be provided with good UPS power support. There might be a case for the KVM equipment to have its own dedicated UPS device which preserves operational capability in the event of main UPS failure. Blade server configurations might have inbuilt KVM systems. The project team should try to select blade systems where the inbuilt KVM is compatible with the main KVM system management software. The installation schedule will need to ensure that the KVM system is installed and ready before the server installation process takes place. If remote data network access can be arranged for the KVM, it can reduce the amount of time that technicians are needed on site to configure servers. Temporary ADSL network connection could be appropriate here, to allow remote access to the KVM when the primary network connections are not ready for service. Part of the control process during the server installation programme will be ensuring that the correct KVM security permissions have been created in preparation for the server installation. Procedures should be in place to ensure the KVM configuration details are securely copied.


Alternatives to KVM devices In some cases KVM technology is not appropriate or is too costly for desktop remote extension. One alternative is the use of blade servers in the equipment rack, running Microsoft Terminal Services or Citrix, with small network computers such as the Wyse S90 located at the desk end. Some work is needed to ensure that all the application software can be run using such thin client techniques. As another alternative PC extension techniques, such as the ClearCube, provide a compact profile PC that can be mounted in a cage in a cabinet in the equipment room. The desk is provided with a small remote unit to connect the keyboard, mouse and monitor.

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Financial data services

Construction of a new trading floor and back office will require existing financial data services to be transferred or new services acquired. The technology project team will have the complex task of scheduling transfers, providing or supervising the provision of servers, arranging circuit deliveries and installing software on desktop PCs. Delays often occur during the delivery of such services, so the project team might also have to develop strategies for temporary solutions. The work will involve market data specialists, software developers, desktop support personnel, the network team, the security team and the business continuity management (BCM) team. To a great extent the tasks of these teams are interdependent and interlocking. The project team will have to deal with the conflicting priorities that these operational staff will face from their routine daily workload. Financial data services tend to be expensive to license, so it is likely that the process of moving to a new trading floor will precipitate the rationalization of service use. It is a time when new deals can be struck with vendors. The project team will also have to ensure that redundant services for existing facilities are cancelled to avoid excessive costs. The cancellation request might have to be submitted months ahead of the planned date of transfer if contractual terms for cancellation are to be met. Similarly the incoming costs for financial data services will have to be agreed and allocated to the cost centres that are funding them. If the move to the trading floor also entails a technology refresh of the operating system or a change to the market data vendor, it might entail the amendment or redevelopment of programs and macros that have been used to

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access the data in the market data or exchange feed. Those changes will have to be tested and packaged ready for the software system used by the organization. Depending on the organization cost control structure, it might be necessary for the project budget to fund such changes. Once again the first task is to undertake a detailed survey of the financial data services that are in use. The team must establish who uses which feeds, and whether any new services will be required as a consequence of the trading floor move. The organization might already have that information documented on a database. The market data specialists, trading support and back-office support teams will then need to be consulted to establish whether any changes are needed, and authorized, for the new trading floor and back office. From this process it should be possible to create a summary schedule of services required and the necessary server and data feed links. Information will have to be sought from the vendors about equipment that will need to be placed in the equipment room. This combined information can then be fed into the equipment cabinet, network and power planning for the equipment room. Discussions will be required with the network team to add to data networks (LAN and WAN) the features required to support the various financial services without any network delay. The design should also provide for suitable network resilience for the financial data services. The market data systems might require their own backbone LAN segments to handle the high-volume data feeds between the financial systems servers. Some financial data service systems are designed solely for operation over a LAN environment. This can give operational problems if the requirement for business resilience means that the data centre servers are housed in split geographic locations. Discussion will be necessary with the security team to ensure that the firewalls are configured to allow the financial data feeds through. This usually entails the project team contacting the feed vendor to check out which protocols, IP addresses and network ports are required for use through a firewall. The connection of external feeds to the firewall will need to be balanced for resilience purposes. When the feeds are in place, the network connected and the servers commissioned, the project team will need to conduct performance and resiliency testing to ensure that the design can cope with heavy workloads and partial system failures.

TRADING SYSTEMS AND SETTLEMENT SYSTEMS Some financial organizations handle part of their financial trading transactions through systems provided by third-party companies such as Reuters. Similarly


part of the trading settlement is undertaken using work stations and servers provided by third-party organizations. In effect both the service and the hardware are rented from the third-party supplier for some of these situations. In other cases the system runs on the organization’s own hardware. The role of the technology project team in these cases is to coordinate the installation and also make sure that facilities such as space and power are provided on the desktops and in the equipment rooms. The technology project team will need to monitor any external negotiations on the provision of trading systems to ensure that there is clarity on who has responsibility for various tasks arising from deployment. They will need to ensure that costs are correctly allocated. The consultancy rates for market data vendors and settlement systems technicians are very high, particularly if any overtime is involved. Those costs should be avoided if possible, and any situation arising that could delay their work should be carefully monitored so that a formal decision can be made before agreeing to increased fees. It is often more cost-effective for the organization to use experienced certified third-party system engineers rather than the market data vendor’s own engineers. Where such externally supplied services are planned to be used, the project team must ensure that the systems adhere to the security policies of the host organization and that good procedures have been arranged for anti-virus software and operating system patching. The systems must be identified on the asset record system so that support staff can differentiate between external and internal systems. Trading systems support might be provided by an external organization, and calls to the help desk ‘forwarded’ to it. Historically externally provided trading systems have been inefficient in terms of the equipment room space required to house the third party’s servers. In the planning process the technology project team will have to quickly identify the space, power, data cabling and LAN and WAN network requirements for such equipment. In some configurations the third party might want to deliver external cables directly to its own equipment. In some cases, probably now historic, the vendor might request that non-standard equipment cabinets are deployed. The technology project team will have to mediate in those cases to ensure that the technology deployment does not compromise the network security or environment of the equipment. When deploying systems produced by financial exchanges from around the world, the project team might encounter logistical problems if an exchange employs a local third-party contractor to undertake the local installation work on its behalf. The team will have little or no choice of supplier, in that the business is likely to mandate the use of a particular financial exchange. The best approach in these cases is to be tough about imposing standards from the early dealings with the exchange, but to expect that delays will occur and budget


time on the basis the initial installation might not work correctly. These problems can be particularly acute in dealing with some European exchanges during the ‘holiday month’ of August. Any deployment work should be subject to ‘permit to work’ procedures. The technology project team should ensure that adequate arrangements are made in planning the migration of trading systems and settlement systems to allow for business continuity and also the need to revert to previous trading arrangements if the trading floor migration goes disastrously wrong on the go-live day. One problem that can arise when moving to a new location is that the exchange insists on setting a new trading/settlement identity code for the trading organization. This requirement might mean that all the organization’s counterparties have to be advised of the new code and the date of the change. This issue should be dealt with by the operational staff for the back office, but the technology project team should ensure that suitable planning takes place. In most cases a way can be found to avoid these problems.

MARKET DATA FEEDS Delivery methods for the market data feeds to the building can vary considerably. The installation may be a simple telecommunications circuit terminating in a server (typically UNIX). The delivery might be partially by satellite dish with a back link by telecoms circuit. The feed might be by data fibre or just as a channel from a high-capacity point of presence installed in the building. If a satellite dish is envisaged there might be special local government rules governing the positioning of the dish on the exterior of the building. It could require a special permit, and this can lead to delays in approval. Whichever delivery method is used, the technology project team should keep control of the installation process. They should inspect the vendor’s plans for resilience, including power, network physical routing, telecom links, LAN configuration, market data server configuration and database server configuration. The proposals should be expandable without large step costs if the market data user population increases on the trading floor. Any installation work should be subject to ‘permit to work’ procedures. Clarity should be sought on who is responsible for maintaining the servers and network switches that have been provided by the vendors. In branch offices, cost-efficiencies can sometimes be obtained by sourcing the market data feeds from a central site. This will normally require the provision of local cache/gateway servers and also the bandwidth availability on the corporate wide area network. Market data vendors often charge high recurring


costs for the provision of local network tails. In any such proposal for the provision of market data services, the technology project leader should check that comparative costings have been made by the market data team. Market data feeds normally have a pricing mechanism that depends on the number of users accessing a particular range of data sources. The trading floor project roll-out process should ensure that the feed usage cost is mapped to the individual users and their cost centres. Business management approval should be sought for the consequential operational costs that will be attributed to their trading staff. The technology project leader should ensure that the market data support team have looked at sourcing the data from alternative sources. I have often seen long-term cost savings from undertaking such research. A new trading floor is an ideal time to trigger negotiations with the market data vendors, and the deadline of the go-live date can be a useful bargaining ploy.

PERMISSIONING The market data system might have a permissioning database that is used to record the features individual users or systems are allowed to access. In other cases the vendor will use a method of central permissioning or licensing usage. Part of the planning process by the market data team will be ensuring the smooth transition of licences from one site to another. Most vendors allow a temporary overlap of licences at no extra cost during relocation, but this has to be negotiated. If new market data usage licences are required, clearly these should be ordered as part of the project. However care should be taken to ensure that any corporate discounts or licence pools are allowed in any negotiations.

RESILIENCE Market data and exchange feeds will fail during operational periods. There is a wide range of reasons for these events. Sometimes the fault is at the central source; at other times the cause is network or equipment failure. When a failure occurs it can disrupt business trading and settlement operations. The design of the financial data systems should anticipate failures. Redundant resilient design should be proposed as part of the trading floor roll-out, though clearly any incremental costs should be agreed with the business. During the deployment process tests should be done to ensure the resilience measures function properly.


As part of the business continuity planning it might be necessary to provide duplicate data feeds to an alternate site, on stand-by in case the BCM plan needs to be invoked. The feeds will need to be tested on a regular basis to ensure that they are functional. However with negotiation it is usually possible to reduce the full cost of the feeds from the supplier on the basis that it is a BCM site. The technology project team leader should ensure that such negotiations have taken place where appropriate. They are best done at the time of ordering the primary facilities. Similar arrangements might be possible for trading systems provided by external suppliers.

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Desktop PCs

The provision of desktop PCs in a trading room and back-office environment will present several challenges to the technology project team. There might be a need to provide new PCs or to move existing PCs overnight from another site. This type of technology is very exposed to the client user population, and any faults are usually immediately apparent. In the transfer process the traders and back-office staff will look to find a PC environment that is very similar in appearance and functionality to what they left on the previous working day. To achieve a smooth deployment of PCs will entail a lot of careful research, planning, coordination, installation, configuration and testing prior to the actual move/go-live date.

REQUIREMENTS As was mentioned earlier in this book, a detailed inventory of existing PCs and applications should be undertaken at the start of the project. This inventory information should be adjusted with any additional information about new staff or expansion of business to form a complete picture of the requirements for PCs in the new offices. Each PC configuration detail record should be examined to establish whether the device needs to be replaced or upgraded in terms of hardware, operating system, monitor screen type, security software and applications.

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Some PCs might be leased or rented, and this could affect the cost of arranging any upgrade. The software on the machines should be analysed and documented to establish which versions are in place and what software patch level has been reached. The project team will then need to work with the business to establish, for each PC, whether it will be moved to the new location or whether a new PC will be purchased. Where new PCs are purchased an evaluation exercise might be required for how application software is licensed on each new machine. Part of the planning process might be to introduce remote terminal server facilities to simplify the configuration of desktop facilities for legacy applications. The inventory should identify those PCs supplied by third-party service providers such as Reuters trading systems or external brokerages. There must be plans specifying who will arrange the move or replacement of such devices, and what happens for the retirement of redundant third-party PCs.

POWER The power requirements, both steady state and at switch on, should be documented for each planned PC in the new office and trading floor environment. These requirements should be entered into the power and heat budgets for the area. If the PCs have additional screen cards, processors or disk drives installed, this should be noted as these additional items can have a substantial impact on power consumption. The inventory process should identify whether the applications running on the PC or the business function of the user require the PC to be provided with a protected uninterrupted power supply (UPS), a generator-backed power supply or routine building mains electrical power. If UPS power is required it might be necessary to check the plans for electrical supply cabling to the trading floor/office area to ensure that suitable UPS power sockets have been designated at the planned location. Where laptop computers will be in common usage the desk should be provided with easily accessible power points for the transformer unit. If it is anticipated that a desk position will be frequently used by visitors from other countries, it will be helpful for it to be provided with power sockets that match the plug configurations (and voltage) of their home country. The electrical power analysis should identify those PCs that can be switched off when power shedding is required, and those that have a business-critical need to be powered until the last possible moment. Power shedding might occur at times of electrical crisis or simply as part of an overnight power-saving scheme.


This analysis of power needs for PCs must be completed before the design of power cabling to the floor and the specification of UPS and stand-by generator facilities has been completed. At the very least some estimates of PC power usage will be required. If it is not possible to meet that construction planning timescale, it might be necessary to schedule additional works to install UPS power cabling and sockets, or to provide local UPS devices adjacent to the desks. If it is not possible to provide sufficient power at the desktop in the office areas, it might be necessary to introduce facilities to house the PC system units remotely from the desk. The power needs analysis can also affect the cable management design for each individual desk. For example it might be necessary to find space to install additional power socket strips in the desk to accommodate UPS requirements.

SOFTWARE BUILDS A roll-out programme for PCs in the trading floor and back office will most likely involve the installation of one or more software build ‘packages’ to ensure that a standard environment is delivered. When new PCs are to be deployed, this build process might involve the obliteration of factory-installed software and its replacement by the standard operating software build for the organization, before installation of the relevant application packages. These software packages or ‘business overlays’ might vary depending on the function that the PC performs. The build process will need to ensure that the correct build relevant to the business area is installed on each individual PC. The build process for PCs will normally entail the delivery of standard software packages via a LAN connection and then the automated running of scripts to install the packages on the PC. The results of the script processing will need to be monitored to ensure that the software build process has successfully been completed, with remedial action in the case of failure. If there is a tight timescale and user desks are not in place, it might be necessary for the project team to create a ‘build area’ for PC software building. The logistics of applying the builds will need to be reviewed to ensure that they are realistic. For example if it takes 30 minutes to ‘build’ the software on a PC and there are 1,000 PCs, the duration of the task could be significant if resources are limited or mistakes are found after the first processes are completed. The physical space required for handling during build work and temporary storage of the PCs can be substantial. The project team will require a build server to be located on the LAN in the location where the build process is taking place. Largescale software installation builds are rarely effective if the build server is at a remote location attached via a slow data link or WAN connection. The project

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team will need to liaise with the software support team to ensure that correct versions of software packages are replicated to the local build server and that effective change control procedures have been adopted. As part of or after the build process, the PC will need to be personalized to ensure that any local user details or features are added. Personalization might affect identity settings and any network configuration settings. Some PCs might have multiple screens attached, and this will entail additional testing to ensure that the screens work as needed. Some PCs might have specialist audiovisual services such as TV adaptors or video conferencing devices requiring configuration. The build work for each PC should be tracked on a central database, with provision for ensuring the follow-up and correction of problems. The process of creating the software build packages and testing that they work satisfactorily can take some time to complete, so it should be planned for completion well before the build scripts are needed. There should be a programme of developer and user tests to ensure that the build script packages correctly configure the PCs for their appropriate operational use. Evaluation of the test results, subsequent bug fixing and retesting can take some time. The project budget should have good provision for the necessary support work. There might be a need for several iterations of the package testing. If as part of the move it is decided to upgrade or refresh the standard PC operating system, the project team will most likely find that the testing work is much more onerous, as incompatibilities are found between the new operating system and existing applications. The project team will need a complete schedule of applications to coordinate the testing of applications against the new version of the operating system. The testing might identify incompatibilities that cannot be resolved within the trading floor project timescale. In this case the project team will have to work with the users to plan for a work-around or the retention of the old equipment/operating system. It might be possible to outsource the software build process to the PC supplier or to a third-party organization. For this to work successfully the script writing and testing must be flawless. Note that not all software applications are suitable for installation using a predetermined script process. The exceptions should be identified and appropriate plans made for manual installation (locally or remote) on an individual PC basis.

PC DEPLOYMENT Deployment is the physical process of getting the PCs out of the boxes and installing them under the desks of users. At this point the PCs might have the correct software build installed, or this could be done in situ once the PC has been


installed. The objective is to have a working, properly connected PC available for user acceptance testing. At the time of deployment the PC should be properly documented and recorded in the corporate asset register. Details of the PC should be loaded at the time of deployment into any system support tool such as the help desk database. Much of the physical work of moving and setting up PCs can be undertaken by relatively unskilled personnel if they are given a quick training session. However the assembly process should be supervised by a technology technician or manager who is used to working in the trading floor environment. The PC and screen will need to be unpacked and installed at the desk. The positioning of the PC should have been previously documented and agreed with the user. Depending on the design of the desk there might be a purpose-designed enclosure for the PC or a mounting bracket. The PC should be securely mounted under the desk to prevent it from tipping over. It should not be mounted on the desktop as this reduces the amount of available workspace for the user. Where possible the PC system unit should not rest on a carpeted surface or floor as this will tend to increase the amount of dust that is sucked into it during operation. The positioning of the PC should not interfere with the user’s legspace. A monitor arm to support the screen will lift it from the desk surface, leaving more free space on the desktop. Well-designed monitor arms allow plenty of flexibility for the user to position the screen comfortably. As part of the deployment planning for screens it will be necessary to create a schedule of screen-mounting components required, such as multi-headed monitor arms, knuckle joints and VESA plates. Some of them have long delivery lead times and need to be ordered in advance. Creating the schedule can be an awkward task if the trading population and back office have complex requirements for screen mounting on their desks. It should include an allowance for spares, as it is inevitable that requirements will change from the time when the plan has been ‘finally’ agreed with the user population. Cables from the PC and the screen should be tidily contained in a flexible cable management system and where possible guided through any cable management structure built into the desk. Surplus cable length should be neatly coiled and supported by cable ties or strapping. The objective is to prevent cable tangles and to keep them tidy. The desk power sockets should be checked to ensure that power is available. If not, the PC should not be connected to the power socket. Electrical engineers might be working on the cabling elsewhere, and subsequent power surges could damage the PC. Once installed, cables should be checked to ensure there is no stress at the connectors or undue tension in the cables. The cabling route should be checked to ensure the cables do not run over any sharp edges which could cause damage,

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and will not become tangled with users’ feet. Network patch cables should be checked to ensure they have been plugged into the correct ports. The correct cable colour schemes should be used. Power leads should be checked to ensure they have been plugged to the correct power socket, so if the PC is designated to have UPS power, its power cable should be in a UPS socket. The power points at the desk should have been given a prior safety test, but the electrical equipment once installed should be given a further electrical safety test as part of the deployment process. That test should be documented and certified. The positioning of the PC, its mouse, screen and keyboard should be given a health and safety check to ensure it is ergonomically sound. There should be a check for any glare on the screen from other lighting that could obscure visibility. The PC should be switched on and given basic testing prior to disposal of any packaging material. PCs are usually very reliable, but it is not unknown for them to be dead on arrival. When basic tests have been performed the packaging should be disposed of, and any software CDs or documentation relating to warranty, software licences, delivery notes, invoices, import taxation or system ownership retained in a secure location. The PCs should be left running for a while and then the desks checked to ensure there are no obvious hotspots or poorly ventilated areas. After basic testing the system should be checked for network connectivity to ensure that the PC can ‘see’ the appropriate network services. A system inventory discovery task should be run on the PC to ensure that the correct system components are present on it and centrally recorded. A security scan should be run to check for the absence of virus and Trojan programs, and that a PC-level firewall is correctly configured with only necessary network ports available. A vulnerability test should be run to ensure that unwanted default user accounts have been removed from the PC. Some organizations as a default disable diskette drives and CD drives to prevent the loading of unauthorized software. The deployment process is the time to confirm that the disablement has taken place. As part of the deployment process it might be necessary to personalize the setup of the PC to suit the planned user. There might be connections to nonstandard equipment such as scanners, pen tablets or local specialist printers. Some positions might have multiple screens that require mounting on multi-headed monitor arms, possibly switched by local KVM units. Some desks might have desktopmounted USB hubs, biometric or smart card readers. The project team should have ensured that the PC deployment schedule lists these specialist requirements, and the time the specialist configuration is to place. Some of the configuration work might have to be postponed until the eve of operational handover, as the work might depend on equipment that is in operational use elsewhere.


A checklist sheet should be printed for each PC so the personnel deploying the PC can record that tests have been completed, and so any identified unresolved problems can be documented and logged on a central fault-logging database.

IDENTIFICATION Any deployment of desktop PCs should ensure that the assets are identified by means of an asset tag. The location of the asset should be noted in the support database, perhaps using the desk number as an identifier. The asset tag should be serially numbered using the organization asset numbering scheme, and should have a machine-readable barcode or radio frequency identity (RFID) tag. Where possible the manufacturer serial number should be noted when the equipment is first labelled. This number will be important for subsequent maintenance claims, warranty claims, leasing records and equipment disposal records. As a supplement there should also be a process of remotely readable data labelling. This might be a number generated by asset control software and permanently stored in a memory device, such as the disk or CMOS. An alternative is a processor serial number or MAC (medial access control) number from the network card. That number should also be recorded on the support databases so support staff can identify which PC is involved when they are undertaking remote support. The deployment and asset tagging is an ideal point at which to mark the PC and associated peripherals with hidden ownership markers. These contain microscopic particles in a lacquer spray or paint. The particles are manufactured with a coding that is unique to the subscribing organization. Examples of this are Smartwater and Microtrace’s Microtaggant. Provided that suitable warning labels are displayed in the office area, this can be a significant deterrent against theft.

SECURITY The period from when the PCs are first deployed at desks until the offices are fully occupied carries a high risk of equipment theft. As well as the direct monetary loss, this can cause a substantial indirect cost if it delays operational handover of the project. A major loss of equipment can expose the project to supplier lead time delays for replacement, and the added burden of rebuilding the software on the replacement PCs. Some thefts involve the theft of expensive components, such as processor chips, but leave the system boxes in place. This type of theft might not

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be obvious until the users visit the site at the time of project handover, and create the need to invoke an expensive project reversion process. The project team should ensure that good security measures are in place 24 hours a day when the PCs have been deployed. If the building is undergoing other construction works, the security measures might require full-time security guards located on the trading floor. Human guards should be supplemented by secure access control, video surveillance and motion detection sensors. Prominently displayed signs warning of secret equipment marking can be a good deterrent, particularly if they are written in the languages spoken by workers on the site. Another security measure is to embed RFID tags in the system unit and have scanning coils or readers at the exits to the rooms. While these measures are not infallible, they do deter thieves. When desktop PCs are unpacked from the manufacturer packing they might be accompanied by software CDs. These CDs and their serial numbers can have a monetary value. Arrangements should be made from the secure storage of such items. The project team should also confirm that the business insurance has been extended to cover the IT equipment on site while the site is not permanently occupied. The insurance should cover the cost of replacement equipment, shipping costs, software rebuild and consequential business risk. After initial deployment testing, PCs should be password protected to prevent unauthorized access. Laptop computer security can also be a problem. As a general rule laptops should not be left unattended in an office area or trading floor, particularly when external construction staff are present. There is a range of purpose-built lockable cabinets available, which can be used to house them overnight. Where they are planned to be used in the office during the working day, the desktop should be provided with secure mounting points, which can be used in conjunction with security cables.

SUPPLIER AGREEMENTS The trading floor project team should gain advantage from supplier agreements in the process of desktop PC deployment, but for this to happen successfully the project leader must ensure the project needs are well communicated to the supplier account manager or salesperson. Advance information on project timescales and delivery schedules can help the account manager to work within her or his own organization to allow timely delivery. Similarly if both parties keep each other informed on unexpected delays it can help a


smooth implementation. If there is a tight timescale and/or limited resources, the external supplier can provide a useful resource multiplier. In this context suppliers might be able to help on the following aspects of deployment: • • • • • •

local secure stockpiling of PCs; customs clearance; software preloading and system configuration; delivery to the trading floor and unpacking; installation and testing; asset labelling.

If the project team plan to make use of such services, they should ensure that the services offered are carefully documented and are subject to contractual agreement. The team should understand the financial impact, and protections should either party have to delay its part in the programme. The documentation should clearly define expected service levels and completion metrics even if the deployment services costs are bundled in the purchase price of the PCs. There should be a clear understanding of when ownership of the equipment transfers and what insurance cover is provided as part of the service.

LICENSING Before any software is installed on the new or transferred PCs, the project team should ensure they understand the software licensing arrangements. The organization might have regional or global agreements with the software manufacturer, but these might not be valid for the new site or country. The team will need to be sure that licences can be transferred from old machines to new desktop PCs. They should not assume that simply because software is in use, it is already licensed. Some users might have an unlicensed copy of a program on their existing PC, and expect it to be available on their new PC. If it is then licensed, the project team will have to make appropriate charges to a central fund or to the business unit involved. If software licences are to be retired as part of the move to the new offices, the project team must make sure they are documented and appropriately resolved. Software maintenance contracts might need to be adjusted or the licences transferred. Often software is bundled with the cost of the supplied PC but is not required because of other licensing arrangements. It might be possible to negotiate a reduction in the price of the PCs or to offset the bundled licence against other licences that are required. Usually the supplier will not be willing to make

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any adjustment, but there is no harm in trying to use the bundled licences as a negotiation point. Licensing arrangements should be checked, both on the desktop device and at new servers that will service client software, for: • • • • • • • • • • • •

operating systems; e-mail and messaging tools; office software; anti-virus software, adware and Trojan removal tools; firewall software; fax server and clients; software deployment clients; PC management and inventory clients; document image software; disk defragmentation software; remote terminal client software; local database software.

Where market data or exchange feeds are required, it might be necessary to make a temporary agreement with the vendors to allow access pending the transfer of operations to the new site.

SERVICE AGREEMENTS Service agreements with an IT support agency should be in place from the time the PCs are installed on the desktops. Active support on these devices might be postponed until the full project handover takes place, but the documentation and support charging arrangements should be in place ready to be activated from Day One of the operational activity. A unit might be found to be faulty during the period between installation and operation, perhaps during user acceptance testing. There should be clear agreement on who has the responsibility and authority to provide maintenance support. The PCs should be included in any automated software patching schemes run by the organization so that the operating systems, applications and security tools are kept up to date during the period from deployment to live operations. Preparations should be made to cancel support arrangements for PCs that become redundant when the new trading floor opens for business. For in-house services this might be a simple transfer on a spreadsheet or database entry, but for external services it might require contractual agreement and possibly generate a termination penalty.

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23

Clocks and time stamps

The trading process needs to have accurate time information embedded in the deal or trade record. Massive amounts of money are traded in a market where prices of the financial instruments are volatile over time. If there are disputes on trades it will be absolutely essential that a proven time line can be reconstructed. The reconstruction might involve written deal tickets, voice recording, computer records and other records such as faxes. Financial market regulators will take a dim view of an organization that cannot demonstrate accurate control of time recording for trading and settlement activities. It is essential that a trading floor and back office has an authoritative and accurate time source, and that time is clearly displayed in such a way that all traders and back office staff can see the same common time. That time should be consistent with the local time used in that locality. Timestamp machines should be synchronized to the central reference time. The internal clocks in desktop computers are not reliably accurate. If you visit an office where there is no time policy and look at a few PCs you will find that the time shown on the screens varies from PC to PC. Similarly the traders’ wristwatches, PDA displays and mobile phone clocks do not have a consistent time source. The need for time accuracy has been around for a long time. I saw a situation in 1988 where a trading company saved a substantial amount on dialled call cost by trapping dialled calls to the ‘speaking clock’ run by the telephone company. All such calls were automatically diverted to a single internal extension that had a speaking clock service. This avoided the situation where traders each

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dialled the external speaking clock and left it running continually on one of their speaker boxes. They did this because the wall clocks were not accurate.

TIME SERVERS The most reliable method of providing a central reference time is to have a time server device located in the equipment room. These are not large and will fit within one U slot in a cabinet. Typically this has a highly accurate inbuilt clock oscillator and the supplementary capability to automatically check against international radio time sources or the Global Positioning Satellite signal. There might be the need to run a coaxial signal cable (Belden 9104) (with suitable lightning protection) to a roof-mounted antennae. As an example Symmetricom and Galleon offer wide ranges of suitable time servers and time policy management software. It is also possible to use a normal PC or server as a time server running something like the NTP process. This can synchronize with other time servers running NTP over the network (corporate or internet) to deal with individual processor clock time drift. However it is possible to interfere with the time held in that server, so a dedicated time server is likely to be a more reliable and secure option. It is also important to synchronize the time used on: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

application servers; file and print serves; settlement servers; programmed trade servers; database servers; identity servers; e-mail servers; market data servers; firewalls; VPN servers; voice and call logging systems; storage and archive systems; voicemail systems; CCTV monitoring systems; access control systems.

The PCs on desktops should be configured to reference the central time server and adjust their internal clocks. Some PC and server operating systems have authentication processes which depend on all servers and PCs being accurately


synchronized. It might also be corporate policy for all servers to be globally set to the same common time standard, such as Greenwich Mean Time or Universal Coordinated Time (UTC), and to have the local time offset set to an appropriate value for the location. An accurate auditable time source is an essential element for the process of authentication of electronic documents. The technology project leader should check that the time policy has been incorporated in equipment deployed in the equipment room. This should also be checked for equipment for third-party servers, though their configuration might not cater for local time setting, but instead be reliant on their own central clocks.

CLOCKS Clocks should have a large clear display and be mounted high on the walls around the trading floor and back office. The display should be digital, such as an LED display, showing hours, minutes and seconds. The positioning should be such that the view is not obstructed by glare or building columns. Ideally each person should be able to see at least two clocks from where he or she sits and stands. The clock can form part of a large digital display board. The clocks should be automatically synchronized with the central time server. This will require some signal cabling or structured cabling to be laid in place from the time server when the building is furbished. There are alternatives involving wireless signals, either from local transmitters attached to the time server or from national time sources.. The clock will also require a reliable power source, although some of the more recent models can use power over ethernet (PoE) as a power source. If analogue clock faces are used there should be sufficient local functionality for the clock to adjust to the correct time synchronization after a power failure. In a trading floor it is usual to have clocks that display the local time in the time zone of other financial trading centres. These clocks normally have a large notice nearby specifying the region to which the time on the clock relates.

BACK OFFICE AND FRONT OFFICE TIME STAMPS Some trading processes involve paper-based tickets or forms which are written out when the trade is undertaken. The trade might then be physically passed to a counterparty broker on the same trading floor. The time of trade and verbal confirmation might need to be accurately recorded on the ticket. The simplest way to ensure the accuracy of this is to locate a time stamp machine on traders’

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desks. Similar time stamp machines might be required on the desks of backoffice staff, particularly if the settlement or confirmation process involves a verbal procedure. The most effective method of ensuring that the time and date shown on the time stamp is accurate is to use a central time reference server. The individual time stamp machines are connected by the structured cabling system back to a central time server provisioned for the time stamps. The time stamp server should use the central time server as a reference device. Amano Time Validation Systems is an example of such a centrally controlled time stamp system. Some time stamps have a local clock and battery backup so it is possible for the time stamps to continue operating during a power outage. The technology project team will need to ensure that such devices are supplied and located in the correct position on the desktops of the front-office and back-office staff.

ACCEPTANCE TESTING FOR TIME SYSTEMS The acceptance testing will need to ensure that all devices requiring time synchronization are correctly synchronized and that in the event of a power failure functionality is maintained and correct time information is restored. The testing should also determine what happens when a device is connected that has the wrong time recorded. The result should be that the time is quickly synchronized to the central device.

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24

The programme

This section of the book deals with the actual process of building the trading floor and data centre facilities. It is assumed that plans have been approved, the budget has been raised, people have been assigned and the technology has been ordered. As technology project team leader you have arrived at the new building and are facing bare concrete floors and a bare concrete ceiling void. You are accompanied by the building contractor’s representatives, and construction workers are on site. This is the time to take a deep breath, roll up the sleeves and get the whole process rolling forwards. The working process now changes gear. The commitment in working hours for technology project team members changes from a routine working week to an as-required basis. People are now on call 24 hours a day.

THE ‘KICK OFF’ MEETINGS As the project moves into the phase where IT technology deployment commences, the first stage is for you to call the key project team members together in a kick-off meeting to review the plans, their readiness and budgetary issues. The initial focus will be on data cabling, power, air conditioning and constructing the shell of the equipment rooms. Most of that work will be undertaken by external contractors, probably appointed by the main building

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contractor. Until these primary works are in place there is not a lot of actual deployment work for the technology equipment, but there will be a lot of planning work, preparatory actions and order tracking to be undertaken by the technology project team. You should agree with the project team exactly who will attend site to inspect the progress of the building and cabling works. It might be you, individual discipline leaders or representatives. This will need to be a regular process, either continuous or once a day. You will also need to arrange and attend similar kickoff meetings with the site management team. You or your representative will need to meet with the project managers of the contractors who are installing the base technology infrastructure such as data cabling to review their plans. This meeting would be in conjunction with the main contractor construction project managers, but the emphasis will be on checking that the IT needs are met, including the planned schedule of works. Throughout this process you should keep in touch with project steering group members, sponsor management and the technology heads who are providing supporting staff. You should meet with the project accountant at this stage to review the budget, current and projected expenditure. The proposed control mechanisms and authorizations should be reviewed to ensure that the accountant is thinking along the same lines as you. I have found it helpful for the project accountant to be given an early visit to the site, if possible, so that she or he can visualize it. Failing that, working through floor plans and photographs will help.

ESTABLISHING A SITE OFFICE One of the first steps is to establish a site office, either on the construction site or near it. The site office might not have walls, it might just be an area on a floor. The area should be reasonably secure and free from wind or rain. As the construction process progresses it is likely that the site office location will be moved to make way for construction work. The site office could be a shared facility with construction management. The office should be equipped with a table or two, some cheap robust chairs, one or more phone lines, some lighting and power for laptop computers. The tables should be big enough to spread construction drawings. A portable generator might be needed to provide light and power while work is under way on the building electricity supply. The office should be equipped with a lockable metal cupboard, secured to prevent its unauthorized removal, to hold working documents. It should have a noticeboard for urgent and mandatory notices.


The site office will be your temporary base, from which you coordinate actions and monitor progress on site. While the area might be uncomfortable and noisy, there is no real substitute for being on site as construction and fit-out progresses. It will be a location known to the engineers and tradespeople, where they can visit when they need to check details of plans. It is a location where site visitors or deliveries can be registered. Once the site office is secure it could become the project area, depending on size, where the project team support and safety equipment is housed. Early in the project the site office should be provided with internet connectivity, possible as ADSL over the phone lines to the site office. Another early requirement will be a large whiteboard where problems and options can be discussed and reviewed by team members. A site office will not exist by accident. It will need to be planned in advance with the agreement and commitment of the main building contractor, who needs to include provision for it in the construction schedule. Clearly the costs should be part of the main project budget. Other items that could be installed in the site office include: • • • • • • • •

first aid kit; safety equipment; toolkit; secure cabinet for camera and laptops; stationery items; kettle, beverages and cups; water cooler; rubbish bin.

MEETING FACILITIES The process of installing IT infrastructure technology requires a lot of review discussions and progress monitoring. To achieve this the participants will need to meet on a regular or ad hoc basis: either face to face, over a voice conference link or using a combination of both. The fit-out work at a new office site is inevitably very noisy. There will be much drilling, grinding and hammering as cabling and ductwork is installed. This loud background noise will prevent effective meetings. The site office, if on site, will probably be too noisy and not large enough. You will need to find a location nearby that is quiet and large enough to house the team for formal or large ad hoc meetings. When the process of installing the structured cabling, technology and trading desks is in full swing it is likely that most of the lead technicians will be on site.


The option of holding meetings back at the headquarters office will be unrealistic unless the trading floor site is colocated with the headquarters office. The location will need tables and chairs. It should have a conference phone or speaker phone facility. A flipchart stand or whiteboard will be useful for illustrating discussion points or using a video projector. There should be a booking system to avoid meeting clashes.

DELIVERIES The planning process and ordering process should create a schedule of planned deliveries to the site, but it is inevitable that team members or suppliers will not adhere to the schedule or that ad hoc deliveries will take place. You will need to agree a delivery reception point with the construction contractor management and also ensure that the site security personnel are aware of the arrangements. Provision should be made for someone to receive, inspect and arrange suitable storage of any deliveries. That person should maintain a delivery book, receive any delivery notes and make sure the deliveries are correctly notified to the person expecting them and to the project accountant. Here I call this person a ‘delivery coordinator’. The delivery coordinator should be on hand to conduct the supplier’s delivery personnel through a safe delivery route within the construction area. She/he should ensure that the delivery personnel have been warned of site safety arrangements. If the delivery is a drop-off at a reception area, the delivery coordinator should arrange suitably trained and equipped personnel to move the items to the technology storage area. The ownership of delivered items and the responsibility for safe keeping of delivered items should be identified. It might be necessary to take out additional insurance cover for valuable deliveries. Just prior to the expected delivery date the project team member or administrator responsible for the order should contact the supplier to confirm the delivery arrangements. If the building is brand new it might not have a postal code or a street name assigned. The project team should have a pre-prepared notice with a map and instructions for delivery. Any temporary storage assignment for large deliveries should be reconfirmed with the site office before the delivery. Lifts (elevators) might have to be reserved with building management or site management in advance for the purpose of specific large deliveries. Prior arrangements should also be made for the legal and safe disposal of any packaging should a supplier unpack a delivery on site. Most suppliers arranging the delivery of large or heavy items will undertake a prior site survey to discover where the items will be stored and whether there are


any delivery obstacles. These include weight restrictions on floors and elevator, narrow or low doorways, stairs and awkward corridor bends. In some cases the route might require the temporary removal of doors, windows or walls. The arrangements for any temporary structural changes should have been agreed with the contractor in advance. It should be clear which budget will carry the cost. The project delivery coordinator should confirm the route with the supplier, and prior to the delivery check that the agreed route still exists or that necessary works are in hand to provide it. As a security measure some site managers will not accept delivery trucks, lorries or vans unless there has been prior notification and scheduling by the technology project team with the site security team. On a smaller scale, but equally important, the project team should make arrangement for postal deliveries on site: to the site office, security reception, or a post box at a nearby office or post office. If these arrangements are not made there will be a risk of losing important notifications from suppliers or authorities. Crane deliveries might be needed of large or heavy items that cannot be transported in the lifts (elevators) or up the stairwell. It might be necessary to remove windows, or to undertake the delivery before the windows are installed. Cranes are generally used to deliver large items to the roof of the building, including such items as generators, switching gear and air conditioning units. They require good advanced planning work, as special authority will be required to close the road where the crane is situated. Usually the provision of cranes is organized by the supplier of the heavy goods.

SITE STORAGE During the process of constructing the IT infrastructure, storage space will be required to temporarily store equipment, desks, materials, cables, boxes and so on. You should not assume that storage space will automatically be available on site. It might be necessary to negotiate it in advance. There might be extra costs associated with using storage space if the office site has not been handed over to the client organization. There could be lease negotiations in progress that would be prejudiced by early occupation of office areas or an implicit acceptance that work has been completed. One possible solution is to rent a storage area that is close but external to the construction site.

Security cage Items of any significant intrinsic value should be stored in a security cage to prevent theft, misuse or damage. A temporary security cage can be quickly


constructed in the designated office area from steel mesh sheets or expanded metal lined with polythene sheeting and fitted with a temporary door. Modular cage systems are also available that allow quick construction. Clearly the area chosen should be sheltered from wind and rain. The top of the cage should be waterproofed. The cage should have a small mesh size to prevent items being passed through the gaps in the wire. A security cage can also be a room temporarily assigned for the purpose, but it will need a secure door with goodquality lever locks, and any suspended ceiling will have to be secured. The project team will need to arrange for monitored access to the security cage, so that access is only by team staff and that only authorized items are removed from or placed in the secured area. The circulation of keys to the cage should be closely controlled. Storage space might be limited, so there might need to be a schedule of who needs storage space and when. If there are a large number of small items or packages it can be helpful to provide some low-cost metal shelving in the security cage.

Building supplies The construction team will also need temporary storage on the site. Generally these items will be too bulky to fit in the security cage. Stored construction materials should be kept away from the secure technology storage area, particularly if they are dusty or a fire risk. Some supplies or materials such as reels of data cable might not have a great financial value, but the lead time on delivery of such specialist items might require these too to be kept in a security cage, since their loss could prejudice the project timescale. You should ensure the team are alert to such issues.

Moving As construction and fit-out work progresses the storage area will most likely have to be moved to different locations. The project team will need personnel to transfer the stored items. The moving process should be supervised in order to reduce loss.

TROLLEY, CHERRY PICKER AND PALLET LIFT Various devices can be used to aid safety and speed the process of delivery and installation. These can be rented or purchased as appropriate. Some might be solely used by construction workers, but on occasion they can sensibly be used by the technology engineers.


A robust hand trolley can be very useful to assist in the movement of loads around the construction site. It will reduce the temptation for team members to try to carry them. A heavy network switch or server, or perhaps a heavy large plasma screen, is much more safely transported on a flatbed trolley than by a couple of struggling engineers. Similarly a hand-operated pallet lift can be of great use in moving heavy pallet loads such as equipment cabinets, batteries for a UPS and stacks of PC cartons. Usually a pallet lift is provided by the supplier when the initial delivery takes place, but one on site can be a great help if there are loads to be moved around. A cherry picker is a height-adjustable platform where the operator can safely stand. It is wheeled, sometimes powered, and is really useful during the installation of high-level cabling and equipment. These types of item are normally hired for the required duration. In the past my team has negotiated their rental and shared usage with the main construction contractor.

LIFTS (ELEVATORS) Office buildings normally have service lifts (elevators). Once the windows are in place the service lift will be the primary route for goods arriving at the delivery bay and being transported to the floors where fit-out work is taking place. These lifts are subjected to a lot of rough handling and abuse so it is not unusual for failures to occur. If the project team is expecting a major delivery, a breakdown of the service lift can be a big problem. It might be possible for the building manager to arrange for lift engineers to be on stand-by for a quick response if problems arise. Disputes with neighbouring tenants can be avoided if it is possible to reserve use of the lift while the delivery is taking place. If large or awkward objects are being delivered the interior of the lift should be given protective lining to prevent damage to the surfaces. Similar protection should be fixed to the doorways from the lift. Extruded fluted polypropylene protective sheeting such as Cordek’s Correx range is highly effective for this purpose. Any person from the technology project team who might use the service lifts should be trained in use of the controls and shown the points of the building accessible via them.

VEHICLE PARKING Most trading floors are located in city areas where street parking is restricted. The building will probably have a loading bay for deliveries and possibly


limited car parking facilities in the basement. If you commute to the site by car you might be able to reserve a temporary parking space for use during the project. This normally requires some fast footwork to beat other people with the same idea. The building management team will want to schedule deliveries by suppliers where possible so that a queue of lorries (trucks) does not build up at the loading bay. There might be competing demands from other tenants. It is worth ensuring good communication with the building management team over delivery planning and the prompt clearance of deliveries. A willingness to be flexible if problems arise will also pay dividends.

LADDERS AND PLATFORMS The project team should arrange access to stepladders and/or raised platforms for high-level installation or monitoring work, such as cabling at the top of a cabinet, checking ceiling void installations and installing high-level TV screens. External contractors will arrange for their own ladders, but they will only be around for limited periods, and the team will need high-level access at other times. Some low-level steps should be provided for midheight installations. Any person using ladders or raised platforms should be given safety training prior to use. The ladders should be clearly marked as team property: it is easy for workers tidying unmarked ladders to accidentally move them offsite.

RUBBISH The technology project team should have a clear policy on rubbish arising from the installation work. There will be a mixture of office waste and industrial waste. These will need appropriate separate disposal methods. Unlike the normal office environment there will be no office cleaners emptying bins overnight. The main contractor might arrange collection and disposal, or the technology project team might have to make their own arrangements. In many countries there are regulations concerning the disposal of hazardous waste. A licence might be required and documentation might need to be retained to prove that proper disposal has taken place. It is necessary to check on what is classified as hazardous waste. Electrical equipment such as PCs, screens, fluorescent light tubes and scrap cable often falls within this category. According to a recent item on the BBC website, there is sufficient mercury in a standard fluorescent tube to pollute 30,000 litres of water.


Rubbish collected should be clearly marked as requiring disposal. This will avoid the danger of unskilled labourers wrongly disposing of items. For office waste such as cups and waste paper, a good supply of robust bin bags and bins will be needed. The method statements of people undertaking works on behalf of the technology team should define their planned actions for any rubbish that will be generated. You should ensure that installation work is inspected to ensure that all rubbish has been properly treated for disposal and placed in the correct location.

PROTECTION Ensure that provision is made for protective shielding or padding on walls and corridors in preparation for deliveries of technology equipment. Corrugated polypropylene sheeting (approx 1 in (3 mm) deep) such as Correx will provide a robust covering. If the installation path is close to windows or glass walls, additional padding should be considered to prevent breakages. If heavy equipment is to be wheeled across decorative floors, protective boards should be available to spread the loads and to prevent scratching. The main contractor will usually take care of such issues, but the technology team should check on them. If the protection was not included in the original contract it will be an additional cost.

NOISE The impact of construction noise on meetings has already been mentioned. If the project team have to work in areas of loud construction noises, you should consider providing noise muffling or active noise suppression headphones. Simple disposable foam earplugs work quite well, but are not liked by all. A supply of earplugs should be readily on hand to protect unprepared personnel. Adjacent business areas might complain if there is excessive construction noise during business hours. You should check on neighbouring occupancy and ensure the team is aware of the constraints. For example I have encountered recording studios on the floors above the site, and an adjacent court room. Normally the installation of technology does not create a great deal of noise, but there might be a blanket ban on potentially noisy works for certain time periods. You do not want a lawyer to appear in the doorway with an injunction demanding that noisy works cease forthwith.


POWER, HEAT AND WATER The project team will need access to electricity, water and in cold weather some form of heating. These might not be automatically available on site until the final stages of the fit-out. You or your nominee should have checked in advance what would be provided, and if necessary made arrangements such as renting water coolers and generators, or having temporary power cabling hooked into a nearby supply. Where water is provided there also needs to be a method of disposal, such as an empty drum reserved for the purpose. The facilities need to be made secure, or when the team arrives in the morning they will find that 15 workers have piggybacked onto their power supply and their water cooler has been drained. If the team have to rely on a generator for power, there must also be provision for the safe storage of fuel and its replenishment. Any sensitive electrical equipment connected to the generator should be protected by a smoothing transformer and/or a UPS device.

LIGHTING The site office, the equipment rooms and office areas will need electric lighting to enable technology installation and testing work when natural light is insufficient, including at night and late in the evening. The main office lighting might not be available until the later stages of the fit-out process. You should liaise with the builder to ensure temporary lighting is provided in the areas where the technology team and suppliers will be working. Any approach corridors should also be lit. Ensure that the lighting will be available out of hours when the construction workers are not on site. Hand lanterns and emergency lights should be available for the team so they can cope safely with power failures. Team members should be asked to keep LED torches in their toolkits so they can be sure of finding their way in the dark. Temporary light stands and inspection lights should be made available, with a suitable reel of power cable extension, so lighting can be temporarily extended into dark areas that are not normally lit such as the building risers, ceiling voids and basement rooms. This equipment can be easily rented from construction equipment suppliers, but the team should check that the plugs and voltage will be compatible with the power supplies site.


SANITARY PROVISIONS AND COMFORT The project team will need access to toilet and washing facilities on site. Check with the site manager what facilities can be made available. The team might want their own supply of toilet paper, hand towels and soap as the common facilities are unlikely to be well maintained. Sometimes technology technicians will not tolerate the facilities and standard of cleanliness accepted by construction workers, so it is not unusual to negotiate access to alternative facilities. Diligent exploration of the locality or a chat with the landlord’s agent will usually turn something up.

LANDLORD Here, by ‘landlord’ I mean the person or persons controlling the day-to-day operation of the property, who could be premises services managers from the client organization, representatives of the main leaseholder or representatives of the freeholder. These people have the task of preserving the good state of the building and ensuring that the tenants receive appropriate services. The landlord’s agents normally have detailed knowledge of the structure of the building, detailed plans and knowledge of how services such as power and water have been implemented. You should aim to build a good and open personal relationship with the landlord’s agents right from the start of the project. The primary formal contact with the landlord will most likely be via the main contractor while the building works are in progress, but a good direct relationship from the technology team will help with issues such as permissions to undertake works, and resolving technology-based problems such as cable routing through risers or shared service areas. Informal discussions with the landlord’s agents on the proposed schedule of technology works and progress will keep them informed and much more receptive to requests for permits or the reservation of shared services such as the service lift (elevator). An agent who has been kept in the loop will quickly warn if the fit-out works are causing problems with other tenants, local regulations or lease conditions. This is far preferable to delivery of a formal notice. There will be a formal aspect of the negotiations with the landlord, covering for example leases and permissions to undertake works. These will most likely involve the project steering group, lawyers and agents. During the negotiations you might need to be careful about revealing potentially prejudicial information. However negotiations are far more likely to reach a


win/win result if both parties have an open informal understanding of each other’s problems.

HOURS OF CONSTRUCTION When the technology installation project starts, you will quickly learn the normal working hours of the construction workers and their management. In my experience work tends to start early each day, from around 7.00 am, and run until 4.00 pm in the afternoon, normally on five days a week, but this varies depending on local working practices and/or religions. When construction project deadlines are tight these hours might be extended or a shift pattern introduced. Project team members might need to be on hand to supervise construction work undertaken near to technology facilities. The technology team might want to take advantage of quieter periods when construction workers are offsite, or they might need to know when the construction workers will be available to finish works or carry out temporary works that affect the technology deployment timetable. Any request from the technology team to the main contractor to vary the time of construction works, even for short periods, could lead to a request for a variation (increase) in fees.

WORKING AROUND CONSTRUCTION WORKERS You should brief the technology team members on the factors to be taken into account when working in the vicinity of construction workers. Most of those I have dealt with are hard-working people who want to get their job done quickly and to a good standard. If time is taken to build a working relationship with them it will create a friendly and helpful environment. However if team members are rude to the construction workers the effects can be very counter-productive. The construction workers often spot problems that the supervising managers have missed. If the relationship between the construction workers and their managers is good they are far more likely to point out the problems and suggest solutions. The site foreman or site manager will be regarded as all-powerful by the construction workers on the site, so if the technology team needs to request a change in the way that construction works are undertaken, the request should be made via the site foreman. Asking the site workers directly normally just leads to problems.


However the average site worker will not have the slightest understanding of the delicate nature of technology equipment, its susceptibility to damage or its high cost. Workers will not realize that dropping heavy objects on data cables causes damage. They will not think twice about standing on system units, roughly moving the units or covering them in dust or construction waste. The technology team will need to keep a careful eye on the site workers so their actions do not damage the infrastructure. If any workers persist in damaging practices, the project team leader should not hesitate in asking the site foreman to remove them from the site. Working on construction sites can be unsafe. Workers might drop tools, building materials or ladders on other people. Materials might be stacked dangerously. Power cables can be unsafe. Members of the technology team who have worked mostly or entirely in offices might be unaware of the dangers. They should be briefed on construction site safety before they are allowed to work in the area. Site workers can originate from many countries, and they might not understand either English or the local language. The project team should realize they might not understand what is said to them. While most site workers are honest people, it should be realized that any valuable item left unsecured and unattended on site will be stolen. This particularly applies to power hand tools, laptop computers and cameras. The site workers will regard security measures and dust prevention measures as obstacles to their own work. Security doors will be wedged open, alarms will be bypassed to stop the noise. The technology project team might need to employ their own security personnel to protect the technology from the construction site workers.

WORKING AROUND IT PEOPLE IT technicians involved in trading floor roll-out projects will normally be experienced staff who are well motivated and have a good technical understanding of the equipment that they are installing. However, unless they have experienced similar trading floor build projects, they will be used to an environment where the primary infrastructure is already in place. They will expect without thinking that power, light, equipment cabinets, air conditioning and cabling will already be in place and working ready for their installation. One of the tasks of the project leader is to prepare the IT technicians for a different approach to their working practices.


Safety I indicated earlier that IT technicians should be given safety training before they are allowed to work on site. That training should be tailored to suit the environment they will find on site. They should be warned about building site dangers. When they arrive they should be escorted around and re-warned of the dangers: • • • • • • •

Where there is any overhead working in progress they must wear correctly fitting safety helmets. Where any heavy lifting is involved they should be given training on how to lift, when to use trolleys and also be supplied with safety boots. If the team members are using ladders they should be given training in the safe use of them. If they are installing equipment in cabinets or racking and those cabinets/racks have power supplied, the technicians should be shown how to isolate the power supply if necessary. If they are working in an enclosed area with an armed gas fire suppression system, they should be shown how to isolate and reactivate the system; They should be shown the evacuation routes that will be used in the event of an emergency and introduced to the person who acts as the safety/emergency officer. Before attending the site they should have been given training in basic first aid. When they arrive they should be shown the location of the first aid kit and safety notices.

Preparedness All too frequently I have had to deal with situations where an IT technician has arrived on site, but is unable to complete the scheduled work because he or she has not prepared correctly for the task. Such failure can have serious knock-on effects if other people are depending on its completion, or if external suppliers have been scheduled to be available at the installation. If the technician has flown in from another country the costs and delays can be even worse. The following is a list of items which should be pre-checked. Some of these will seem obvious but I have seen most of them cause problems. Technicians should check, before setting out, that: • •

they have the address of the building where they are supposed to undertake the installation; they know the location of the equipment room in the building;


• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

they know who to meet on arrival at the site; the equipment room exists and has been finished ready for installation; air conditioning is available if needed; the site will be secure to prevent theft after the installation; the site (technology) management are aware of when the technician will be arriving for the installation; the equipment to be installed has been ordered and delivered to a secure place which will be accessible when the engineer is on site; the equipment has cleared customs, and duties have been paid in full; they have assembly instructions for the equipment; they have correct documentation for any equipment and software that they are carrying with them; the delivery has been checked for completeness, and that the correct items have been delivered in an unbroken physical state; the correct connector and power cables for the equipment have been delivered; if cable media adaptors are required, they have the correct devices; the racking/cabinets are in place, cabled and with power; they know which racking/cabinet location has been designated for the installation; they have the correct tools, mounting kits and shelves to perform the task; if the equipment is heavy, they have access to resources to lift it; they know the network ports and patch panel addresses assigned to the installation task; if remote network access is needed for the installation, the links to the remote site actually exist and the bandwidth capacity is sufficient; the remote support staff, such as the firewall team, have completed preparations for the installation and will be accessible at the time of installation and testing; if change control procedures are necessary to permit the deployment of the equipment, the correct approvals have been given and a time schedule approved; they have the correct software licences and licence serial numbers to undertake the installation of the device; arrangements have been made to include the device in remote monitoring and update support.

Quality of work In a trading floor environment many of the systems are interdependent. A piece of poor installation work can cause substantial disruption and delay. The IT technicians should be reminded that their installation and testing work must be


of the highest quality. The approach must be ‘right first time’. Any shoddy workmanship, unsafely or poorly mounted equipment must be ruthlessly removed and put right. Any attitude that a piece of work is ‘good enough’ or that the technician will ‘sort it out later’ should be suppressed. The project leader should remove from the project any engineer or manager who tolerates poor work, and refuse to fund that person’s work. This emphasis on quality should be reinforced during project meetings and by a process of inspection throughout the life of the project. There should be a very clear statement that shoddy work will be rejected. It should be made clear to the technicians that they must report any shoddy or incomplete work they find. Temporary fixes are occasionally necessary, but they should only be carried out with the express permission of the trading floor technology project leader.

Shared space Once cabinets and the network are available in the equipment room, there will probably be a period of intense activity as servers and network devices are installed. This period of intense activity might require technicians to work in a shared space using shared resources, sometimes in relatively cramped conditions. There might well also be constraints on the amount of secure space and desk space in the build room/area. The project team might need to sequence work carefully to avoid congestion. The planning submissions provided by technicians will have assumed they will be working in an area of unfettered access, but they will soon realize that is not so.

Team working You should encourage team working between the IT technicians assigned to the trading floor and equipment room roll-out project. There is often an opportunity for different disciplines to assist each other during the deployment process without prejudicing their own project timescales or increasing personnel costs. For example the personnel involved in the roll-out of desktop screens could also be used to help roll out trading turrets. It seems an obvious move, but unless considered in advance it could be overlooked.

SUPERVISION Good planning is perhaps the key critical success factor for a trading floor project, but it is closely followed by the need for good supervision of the project


work. Supervision is a constant and continuous process of inspecting the timely progress and quality of work performed for the project. The supervision process needs both a proactive and a reactive approach to problem detection and resolution. Other important parts of the supervisory process are firm budgetary control and regulation of documentary procedures. The supervisory process should detect instances where the planning process has been faulty or where changed circumstances require a change of plan. You as project leader and your delegates should continuously inspect the project work. Where you spot a problem or inconsistency, you should record the issue and either deal with it immediately or schedule a brief review. This requires you to be fully conversant with expected timescales and the services to be delivered. You should regularly formally inspect the site of the trading floor, back office and equipment rooms, looking for problems or the symptoms of poor-quality work. Part of the process of supervision is that the technicians objectively review their own progress and quality of work. The technicians and managers should monitor the progress of their suppliers to anticipate whether projected delivery timescales will be achieved. Regular joint review meetings should briefly focus on what has been achieved, but the greater focus should be on where actual or potential problems have occurred. If a solution cannot be quickly identified, the issue should be spun off to a submeeting of directly involved managers and technicians, with a brief to report back to the next meeting or sooner if necessary. All such issues should be logged in a central issues database and tracked until resolved or closed off. When installation work has been undertaken by team members, IT technicians or external contractors the work should be independently inspected for quality, adherence to standards and completeness. If there are no problems the installation should be recorded and signed off. Where there are a large number of devices installed it might be necessary to undertake sample inspections.

SITE INSPECTIONS The initial construction works will take place to build basic structures such as the equipment room(s), and install structured cabling, air conditioning and power systems, and raised floors. This will be required before the main IT infrastructure installation can take place, though there might be some overlap. The builders will undertake those works according to the agreed plans for the areas concerned, with the main contractor supervising the works. There will no doubt be contractual conditions and responsibilities that specify the quality of the works. However as technology project leader you should take part in site


inspections of the works as they progress, with representatives of the main contractor. You might see that works have not been undertaken to the specified requirement, or that the original plans were wrong and some changes are required. Note that where changes are requested you should agree the cause with the site management. The changes should be documented as change or remedial works. Changes to requirements will attract additional costs from the contractor, so there should be an appropriate change control and authorization process in place. Major changes might require the approval of the project steering group before commitment can be made. It is important to spot faults or changes in the construction work as quickly as possible. To fix them might be impossible or very expensive at a later stage. The builder or subcontractors might accept blame for something that has been done wrongly, but that is little consolation if it delays the whole project. It is far better if you are proactive in looking for possible construction problems. Below is a list of the typical issues that can be inspected during construction. Some are appropriate at the early stages, while others become more important later in the construction phase. Clearly this is by no means a complete list and will need to be varied according to circumstances.

Floor surface • • • •

Was the concrete surface dry and free of dust before works commenced? Have old cable and unused pipes been removed from the floor? Has the surface been fully sealed to prevent dust and cover sharp edges? Are there any signs of unresolved leaks in either the ceiling or floor?

Cable trays • • • • • •

Are the trays in the correct position, following the planned layout? Are they correctly mounted or suspended below floor and in the ceiling void? Are the trays of the correct specification? Do the trays have sufficient capacity? Do the trays have earth grounding properly installed? Are the trays mounted in the correct vertical locations?

Structured cabling • • • •

Is the cabling running to the correct positions? Is the cabling properly mounted on the cable trays and free of tangles? Are bend radius specifications being followed? Is the correct cable type, colour, sheathing being used?


• • • • • • •

Are the cables labelled? Do the cables cross any sharp edges? Is there any proximity to power cabling or other interference sources? Will the cables fit under the raised floor? Is cable tray capacity exceeded? Is the installation method satisfactory, with no crushed or stretched cables? Are the joints at connectors properly made?

Power cabling • • • • •

Is power cabling and tracking delivered to the correct places under the raised floor and in the ceiling void? Is the power cabling mounted on cable trays and/or clipped to the surface? Does the power cable path run closely parallel to structured cable? Has waste from the cable installation process been removed? Are fire stops installed where cables pierce fire-resistant walls?

Raised floor in office areas • • • • • • • •

Is the floor the right height? Does the floor obstruct any doorways? Are the correct raised floor tiles being used? Are floor tile stringers in place? Are the edges correctly supported? Are metal surfaces properly electrical earth bonded? Is it clean under the raised floor? Are the tiles level?

Floor boxes and grommets • • • •

Are the floor boxes or grommets in the right places? Are the correct sockets installed? Has the correct provision been made for UPS power in the right locations? Are the box lids facing in the correct direction?

Equipment room • • • •

Does the room have the correct internal dimensions? Is the room in the right place? Do the walls run from floor slab to ceiling slab? Are floor reinforcement plates in the correct positions, if needed?


• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Are the building pillars located as expected? Are the walls of the correct fire rating? Has security reinforcement been built into the walls? Has a vapour barrier, extra sound insulation or extra heat insulation been built into the wall if adjoining building conditions dictate? If EMF shielding is specified, has it been built into the walls and properly grounded? Are the building risers where expected? Has an exhaust duct been installed for extinguisher gas? Has the building air supply been appropriately configured? Are the equipment room doors in the right place and of the correct specification? Do the doors open in the correct direction? Is the raised floor the correct height? Has the correct floor tile specification been used? Have the correct raised floor support pillars and system been installed? Is the floor fully supported for vertical and lateral load? Are there any loose or wobbly tiles, particularly at the edges of the floor? Are raised floor ramps and steps in the right place? Has the floor and ceiling pan been sealed to prevent dust? Are there any unwanted service pipes overhead or below the raised floor? Are floor vents of the correct type and in the correct position? Are the structured cable trays and baskets in the correct position? Is the structured cable delivered to the correct position? Are the structured cable waterfalls in place? Are the signal cables in place for fire alarms and building management systems? Are the power cabling and controls in the correct place? Have correct earth grounding arrangements been provided? Are lighting luminaires installed in the correct positions? Are the air conditioning units in the correct positions? Is the room clean and dust-free? Is there any obstruction or rubbish under the raised floor? Have all decorative works been completed? Are drip trays and their drains in the right place? Have appropriate fire stops been installed where cables and plastic pipes pierce the walls? Are there any unsealed holes in walls or ceiling?


BUDGET You will have assigned the budget to the various technology discipline heads, and will need to work closely with the project accountant to track the actual and committed expenditure. As equipment is delivered and installed it will need to be signed off by the appropriate manager as ready for payment according to the various terms of contract. The project accounts should be able to clearly differentiate planned expenditure from expenditure arising from changes. There should be a clear document trail to prove correct authorization for expenditure on changes. An effective and enforced purchase order procedure will be essential for the whole budget control process. A major cost element for a trading floor project is personnel time, overtime working and travel and expenses. The project leader should lay down clear rules for how travel, other expenses and overtime should be approved, in advance, by the appropriate project signatory. Cross-charges from other departments to the project should only be accepted if supported by appropriate approval and tracking documentation. Accurate and promptly produced timesheets, with correct cost codes, will be essential to tracking expenditure. If there are a substantial number of team members, timesheet tracking will be aided by the use of a network-capable timesheet software package. You will need to provide regular budget updates for the project steering group. A reporting template for team members can help to ease that burden.

METHOD STATEMENTS When works are undertaken in the equipment room or other areas affecting the IT infrastructure, the project team should insist on a process of method statements. This is in effect a brief document where the contractor describes: • • • • • • •

what works will be undertaken; what methods will be used; whether the procedures will involve ‘hot work’ or penetration of fire barriers or room pressure barriers; when the work will be undertaken, including overtime working; delivery planning; who will undertake the work and qualification to do the work; who is supervising their work and their contact details;


• • •

safety considerations and risk assessment taken into account; environmental assessment such as noise or dust created by or during the works; rubbish removal and tidiness.

The method statement in effect forces the contractor to formally plan the works to be undertaken, and it gives the project team the opportunity to check what is proposed to be delivered. The statements should be issued before the work is commenced and should be included as part of the ‘permit to work’ process. This procedure helps to prevent unauthorized works and also requires that experienced and qualified staff are used when appropriate. You should ensure that the project team members have incorporated the time required to assess and approve method statements by contractors into their project timelines. This process can be applied not just to external contractors, but also to technology engineers working for the trading company. Both the main contractor and the landlord’s building management team might have their own method statement and permit to work requirements. These requirements should be taken into account when designing the procedures to be used by the technology project team’s contractors. Once the technology project team have accepted responsibility for an area, such as an equipment room, they should require the main contractor to provide a method statement before undertaking works in the areas or supplying services such as electrical power. Method statements are essential, and probably part of the landlord’s house rules, when any ‘hot work’ is undertaken. Hot work includes any work requiring an open flame or welding process. Similarly any work on electrical systems must be documented in advance when the work takes place without turning off the power.

INSURANCE Suitable insurance for the project site, personnel and equipment should have been organized during the project planning phase. The project leader should now take the opportunity to confirm that insurance has been obtained and appropriate certificates raised. The terms of the insurance might include constraints and exclusions. When items are shipped delivered on site by third-party suppliers, care should be taken to establish who has a duty of care for the equipment and what risks are covered by the transit insurance, if any. The purchase orders or the accompanying documentation should clarify whether the items are shipped at the risk of the supplier or not.


Additional insurance might be required for project team personnel travelling to a new site, possibly overseas. Where existing company insurance is in place the project leader should seek confirmation that coverage extends to the new site, particularly if it is an unfinished building site. Medical insurance might not cover people operating outside their normal country of residence, for example. The coverage should be checked and any deficiencies addressed.

PROJECT RECORDS The chaotic environment of the site office for a trading floor fit-out is not the most conducive for maintaining documents and records. It is all too easy to misfile, lose or throw away important documents. Relatively minor documents such as change requests can have significant monetary value if they are needed as evidence in support of claims or disputes. The individual technology discipline lead managers will also accumulate documentation as they agree specifications and raise orders with suppliers. The results of site inspections might be essential for legal staff to pursue claims against warranties or leases several years in the future. The project administrator should have a location where she or he can file original copies of documentation in a consistent fashion. At the end of the project the documentation should be properly archived in long-term storage to enable retrieval for warranty claim or other purposes. The work expended on properly archiving the documents is easily justified in comparison with the possible consequences if documents are not safely stored. The central register must store both paper and electronic documents. For easy remote access the team should consider scanning paper documents to provide a secondary electronic copy. Documents originally generated in an electronic format should be translated to Adobe Portable Document Format (pdf) to allow sharing. If you have followed the team software recommendations posed earlier in this book, the project team should be equipped for this situation. Where there are confidential project documents that require distribution by e-mail to team members, they should be encrypted to prevent their being read by unauthorized parties. This is particularly important if the messages are transmitted over the internet, where wrongful addressing or snooping could result in unintended disclosure. When redundant or obsolete paper copies of documents require disposal they should be securely shredded, once the project administrator has confirmed that suitable archive copies exist.


ACCESS CONTROL Trading floor sites are unlikely to be secure during the construction process. The main contractor might have a system of security passes and a perimeter security guard, but that is unlikely to be very effective. The IT infrastructure installed in a trading floor and associated equipment rooms has a high value and is susceptible to theft and damage if not protected. The consequential costs of delay arising from damage or theft are much greater that the list value of the equipment. There might be an insurer requirement that the perimeter of the construction site is provided with physical security, such as fences and barriers, before any high-value technology equipment can be installed. Access control can also be used to prevent people from exposing the equipment room to dust from building works or from delays caused by unauthorized works taking place. You should introduce procedures so that only authorized personnel are allowed near the expensive technology equipment. This could involve the early commissioning of the access control system at inner perimeters such as the equipment room itself, and any security cage to protect the equipment room in preparation for the installation of equipment. The equipment room should be fitted with securely lockable doors as soon as possible after its construction. The members of the project team should be briefed on security awareness and reminded to challenge anyone who is not clearly authorized. The access control system, if compatible with other offices, should make use of the corporate security system. Corporate employees should not be allowed unescorted site access unless their pass has been granted approval by the technology project leader. You should also define the time periods when a pass permits access to the site. Any electronic access control system should be supplemented by a human security guard when value equipment is on site.

COMMUNICATION During the programme of trading floor and equipment room construction, rollout and testing a significant part of the task of the project leader will be to ensure that the various participants communicate effectively with each other. You must be proactive in dealing with this need. You will spend a lot of time on the phone and in face-to-face meetings making sure that issues of the day and progress are discussed. Where matters of detail need to be recorded or copied to


other people, e-mails will probably help, but for primary communication in the active environment of the trading floor project the emphasis should be on spoken communications. The project leader and the technology discipline managers should visit their personnel and contractors as the roll-out work is taking place, and discuss progress. These informal discussions can often highlight problems that have not been reported in formal meetings. You should be a common sight on the trading room floor area and the equipment room. The easy availability of telephone voice conference facilities give the opportunity to quickly add relevant participants to the dialogue if they cannot be physically present. Encourage your team members to reiterate the main agreements and actions at the end of the conversations to ensure that all parties understand what was agreed. A follow-up e-mail from the conversation can help to keep other people informed of the outcome. The project team should have regular formal team meetings, perhaps once a week, with agendas and minutes, where current problems, delays, priorities and progress summaries are discussed. The emphasis should be on bringing solutions to the meeting, so problems should be discussed in advance to reach agreement on the solution and planned actions. Raising the problems and solutions at the meeting gives other team members the opportunity to discover if they are affected or need to contribute. The outstanding issues log should also be tracked to ensure that appropriate actions are being followed through and to highlight any issues that would turn into problems if not resolved. Intranet or internet access to a central issue database system, coupled with a regular telephone voice conference, can help consistent tracking of the issues.

PROGRESS MONITORING In the planning process the technology managers forming the project team will have created project plans and recorded them using a project management tool such as Microsoft Project. The plans should be baselined at a common point, such as budget approval, then kept up to date by the individual managers. The managers should assess actual progress against planned progress, and load a measure of that into the plan for current purposes. Simply relying on the team members to record time spent on the task is unlikely to give meaningful results. The actual progress should be objectively assessed and any new constraints or factors to the plan taken into account. This has to be a realistic assessment of progress compared against known commitments and new


developments. The managers should also assess the progress of their suppliers and make a judgement on whether they will meet delivery dates. You should take time to discuss these updated project plans and make your own assessment of whether their recorded progress and remaining task load is realistic. If you do this in a spirit of helpfulness rather than blame, team members are likely to be more objective about their performance. You will need to know as soon as possible about any potential delays or non-delivery so that remedial action or resourcing action can be initiated. In some cases a delay will have no impact, but the underlying reason should be established in case there might be problems with other more critical activities. You should arrange for suppliers to be asked to identify time periods when they expect to be busy and might have problems with delivery. For example if supply is requested during a holiday month such as August in continental Europe, the supplier reaction time might be slower. It is usually difficult to plan all project details to a great level of completeness, and events will happen in a way different from what was expected. You should keep an eye on the critical path(s) on the project plan to see whether early delays or unexpected events could cause problems later in the project. The project administrator should be able to take on the job of updating the central project plan. This might require a complex software tool and project model that can automatically drill down into subplans. However a simple summary plan, updated from the various team plans, is frequently as effective. The individual team managers will be unlikely to have a lot of free time for the maintenance of complex project plans, where it is all too easy to get lost in the detail. You will need to be able to report progress to the project steering group meeting and to the project sponsors. A simple one or two-page high-level ‘traffic light’ report on progress, coupled with a brief financial expenditure/budget report, is normally sufficient. If significant project problems have arisen they should be mentioned in the report, with a note about the seriousness, but a detailed list of issues should be avoided unless specifically requested. You should check the progress on project plans for the main construction works, and work that information into your technology project plan. This information should in turn be passed on to the managers in the technology project team. Clearly delays or changes in works sequence can impact the technology project work. Commercial information or decisions from the project steering group and business directors could also impact the project progress. You will need to assess that information and if it is allowable to do so, discuss it with the team. If the information is confidential, however, you might need to make any project impact assessments alone.


PROJECT CONSTRUCTION STEERING GROUP The trading floor, office and equipment room construction process should have a steering group responsible for monitoring overall progress This normally comprises senior representatives from the construction contractors, trading business representatives, business premises and facilities management and also the technology project team. It should meet on a regular basis, possibly weekly, to inspect progress and to make executive decisions on the future path of the construction process. It should report to the main project steering group that has already been formed by the business. The construction steering group might be tasked with oversight of project progress certification and arbitration when there are conflicting construction project priorities to be resolved. As technology project team leader you should have an executive voting membership on this group. The usual practice is to agree major decisions outside meetings, but for the steering group to ratify them. The steering group meetings are not the place for lengthy discussions. You will no doubt have to take part in other management meetings, such as technology steering groups and technology architecture groups, to ensure that any technology is conformant with the corporate technology strategy.

PROJECT CALENDAR The project team should have a project calendar document. This will list each day during the project life and show significant planned project events and milestones. Example entries are: • • • •

equipment room available for cabinet installation; trading floor structured cabling handover; wide area network connected; trading turret system handover.

This provides a simple document which can be easily understood by non-technical personnel. It is also a basic planning aid to use during meetings.

OUT OF HOURS CONTACT Building a trading floor and the associated technology rooms is not a nine to five job. Some of the work will have to be undertaken outside normal business hours.


If the project team members have base offices in different time zones the impact can be worse, with the potential need to hold teleconferences late at night or early in the mornings. Points arising during those conference calls might make it necessary to contact other personnel at home. Technology installation staff might work late into the evenings, over weekends or during public holidays to achieve projected timescales or to take advantage of non-business hour periods. Unexpected events during those works might give rise to the need to contact other members of the team who are not on site – who might be asleep, on holiday or even at a barbecue. The project team spirit should be such that if a team member receives an urgent call when not at work, he or she should respond and help. The suffering of one person should be regarded as small compared with the greater needs of the whole team (and the project timetable). For this type of contact to be feasible you will need to do some pre-planning. You should require team members to always carry a mobile phone, with spare charged batteries if necessary. The company can help by arranging and paying directly for mobile phone contracts with a high call cost limit. Visiting technology engineers from other countries should be given access to locally provided mobile phones or SIM cards that generate local call charges, to avoid international mobile call charges. You should maintain a complete list of home contact phone numbers and personal mobile phone numbers for the members of the technology project team. This list should also include managers of the construction works, the landlord’s agents, the project steering group members and other senior directors. This list should not be generally released, except maybe to a trusted administrator. When a project team member is on site (out of hours) and needs urgent support to solve a problem she or he should be able to call either her/his own manager or you directly. The decision can then be taken whether to consult others. This arrangement does not preclude normal working relationship contacts between team members. Project team members should be provided with virtual private network (VPN) connections from their own homes so they can access the company network and the trading floor out of hours. This will enable support of problems both at the trading floor site and at the existing business site. Those personnel who have to travel frequently should be provided with secure authenticated access to a laptop computer equipped for VPN access while on the move. You should have a separate phone line installed at your home as a hotline on which you can be contacted for urgent project business. This will allow urgent contact if your home phone is tied up with personal business or you are already on the line to other team members. All members of the project team should be given access to a telephone voice conference system so they can set up ad hoc conference calls without the need for advance booking.


PROJECT DIRECTORY The project administrator should create a project directory listing the business contact details of all team members and their roles. This directory should extend to supplier contacts and other key personnel in the wider construction team. Other useful phone numbers, such as security guards, technology equipment rooms, central technology, support services, taxi services, restaurants, local doctors and dentists, hotels and airline companies should be added. This list should be available in a constantly updated version on the project team intranet site for reference by project team members. The file containing the directory document should be in a printable format so the team members can carry a printed copy as well.

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Testing during rollout

Testing procedures will take place as the equipment and services are rolled out to the trading floor, back-office areas and the equipment rooms. The installations and initial tests will be phased according to the construction schedule. For example, one of the early deployments will be electrical power. The electric power cabling and switching should be in place and tested before other equipment is deployed. The installation engineers will most likely have test procedures to ensure that their equipment or installed service works properly. These tests are unlikely to be comprehensive and will almost certainly be carried out in isolation from the other systems. The technology project leader has a responsibility to ensure that the systems and services are properly tested, in a timely manner, before they are accepted for user acceptance testing (UAT). By timely I mean that the tests are performed before dependent installations are completed, and that sufficient time is allowed to undertake remedial work and subsequent retesting. The supplier might well undertake tests and pronounce the service or system to be working. The project team should require the supplier to provide documentation of the tests performed as part of the original supply contract. The project leader should ensure that a battery of structured tests are available from the technology project team members before the initial provisional handover is permitted. These tests should have been budgeted, planned and documented from an early stage of the project. The tests should not be limited to the technical functionality, but should be a part of a properly structured test sequence that takes


into account the role of the system or service in a trading room business. The budget should provide sufficient funding for retesting after remedial works. The project team should ensure operations staff are involved in the test planning process. This will help prepare the operations staff for their acceptance of the live facilities at handover or during UAT. As project leader you should to monitor the expenditure of personnel and services in these tests. However failure to perform effective testing at the appropriate time could lead to substantial consequential costs arising in subsequent operational losses and remedial work. Proper testing is essential, and the project team should never assume that equipment and services will work correctly. If the testing is performed once that the trading floor and equipment rooms have been released by the main contractor/landlord to the client, there will be an additional cost pressure attached to the testing. If for example the trading floor/office space is 90 ft x 60 ft (30 m x 20 m) and is located in a major financial centre, the weekly opportunity cost of ‘lost’ rental/taxes and capital finance could be as much as £15,000 (US $27,000). Those costs can escalate dramatically if a new team of traders cannot start business on time. In planning the project you should work with the business management to decide the most cost-effective method of testing. A set of generic questions is listed below. There is no doubt that for individual devices and services, much more detailed test plans will be required. •

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Does it work? – Does the system or service work properly according to specification? – Are any facilities missing that should have been provided? – Have all configuration parameters been set and safely copied? Failure testing: – What happens when there is a failure? – Does the failure impact unexpected systems or services? – Does the system recover from failure? – Is the recovery time acceptable? Safety testing: – Is the system or service safe in operation? – Is the system or service safely located? – Is the physical installation, if any, correct? – Can the system or service be safely switched off? – Is the system correctly grounded and tested for safety? Capacity testing: – Does the system or service support normal loads? – Does the system or service support the maximum design and peak loads? – Does the system or service support minimum loads? – Are response times affected by loading?

Testing During Rollout ❙ 435

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Location testing: – Are the systems or services delivered to the correct locations? – Have the systems or services been delivered to the wrong locations? – Is expansion capability available at the correct location? – Are the delivery routes correct and located as approved? Environmental testing: – Does the system consume/provide the correct power? – Does the system overheat in operation? – Is the noise or vibration output acceptable? – Is the display signal, if any, clear to see in normal operating conditions? – Is the deployment satisfactory in ergonomic terms? – Have nearby environmental risks be resolved? – Is the system or service physically secure and in suitable accommodation? Monitoring testing: – Does the system/service have appropriate monitoring facilities? – Do the monitoring systems work and report system/service variances? – Do monitoring alerts display in the correct place? Quality testing: – Is the system fully mounted in a clean and tidy fashion? – Have the correct connectors been used? – Is there any sign of damage? – Is the system documentation available? – Are the installation certificates available? – Is the system of the correct physical size and capacity? – Have the correct genuine components been used? – If new components were specified, have they been supplied? Licence and maintenance testing: – Is the service/system correctly licensed? – Are maintenance arrangements in place? – Are spare parts, if any, correctly stored? – Do update procedures work correctly and are exceptions reported? – Is the system or service correctly documented?

The results of the testing process should be documented during the process for completeness. Pre-printed checklists for each of the systems and services will be helpful. Any issues or problems found should be recorded on a fault logging system to track correction activities and handle impact assessment.

ELECTRICAL POWER TESTING Power testing is in concept quite simple, but in practice can be somewhat complex, requiring careful planning and scheduling. The main contractor will


undertake power tests as part of the main construction/fit-out process and acceptance. You as technology project leader will need to ensure that specific power tests are done to ensure that the power system meets the technology needs. It is usual practice to coordinate technology power testing with the main building power tests. There needs to be negotiation with the various parties involved so that testing activities can be synchronized and the technology team have enough time and power cycles to undertake their own testing. The testing undertaken by the main contractor will involve checking for correct supply, correct electrical phases, correct operation of the emergency power down button, correct circuit breaker configuration, source switching and the correct configuration of the stand-by generator. The suppliers installing the uninterrupted power supply (UPS) system will liaise with the main electrical contractors or building contractors to schedule installation testing during the installation of the UPS components. Part of that UPS testing will involve charging and discharge times, possibly with the supplier temporarily installing load coils to simulate the operational electrical loads. The electrical power system will be tested to ensure that the stand-by system can be reverted to mains supply when full services have been restored. The main contractor will test stand-by electrical lighting arrangements and other partial load configurations for the main building services. Generator tests should include a test to confirm how long the generator will support the site using a secondary fuel supply, such as diesel. It will not be necessary to run fuel tanks dry during the test, but the test should be of sufficient duration to ensure that the generator will not overheat during extended operation and that a measured amount of fuel is consumed. During these tests the electrical load should approximate that to be found during normal operational business conditions. The generator test should ensure that the power is sufficient to maintain essential air conditioning without the technology rooms or the trading floor becoming overheated. Extended generator tests are an essential part of power testing if the building depends on such units for stand-by power. In one test I witnessed, the main diesel fuel tank was in the building basement while the stand-by generator was mounted on the roof. The generator had a small ‘header’ tank of fuel which gave sufficient fuel for it to start and run for a few minutes. However, it had not been noticed that at some point the fuel pump that delivered the fuel from the basement to the roof had been connected to mains electrical power. During normal test runs the generator was run while mains power was still available for the fuel pump, and other genuine mains outages were sufficiently short that the header tank had enough fuel to cope. The problem was only spotted during an extended test, where the building was wholly disconnected from mains power and the generator failed after a few minutes.


While the main electric power tests are taking place, the site will not be fully available to undertake technology installation work. Precautions such as switching off should be taken to protect sensitive electrical equipment during the main power tests. Normally such tests, in a shared environment, will take place over a weekend. Quite often the main power test sessions need to be repeated, so an experienced project leader will write off a couple of weekends as not available for any technology installation that requires lighting or electrical power. The technology project team electrical power testing will have similar objectives, but will differ in emphasis. Its aim is to ensure that each technology device or potential device is correctly powered, and that in the event of mains power failure the correct devices remain fully powered. Within the complex IT infrastructure environment, a single essential network device or server on unprotected power can sometimes prevent essential business activities during a power outage. Typical tests include: • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

When mains power drops, do all key servers, voice systems, data feeds and networks continue operation without interruption on UPS power? When mains power drops, do all key trading floor and back office systems, such as computers and voice systems, continue operation without interruption on UPS power? Are there any systems powered by the UPS that should be on mains power only? When the generator starts up, do any UPS-powered systems fail? When the generator starts, does the UPS system use that as its power source? When the generator starts, do any systems fail to restart and do any circuit breakers trip? When mains power is restored, does the generator run down without any systems failing? When mains power fails, do the air conditioning and chillers for the equipment rooms continue to operate using generator power or UPS power? Does the UPS battery capacity match the planned support capability when running under actual load? What is the actual load on the UPS? Does the UPS provide the correct voltage? How quickly does the UPS reach full charge after load testing? If a load-shedding policy has been devised for UPS-powered equipment, does it give the planned profile of power usage when activated? Are the circuit breakers correctly mapped to equipment cabinets, trading floor areas and office areas? When the individual breakers are tripped, are equipment power losses as expected? Can circuit breakers be restored on full office power load without retripping?


• • • • • • • •

If sequenced power switching is used to restore the electrical load, does it bring up the correct devices in the correct sequence? If remote power switching (with power distribution units – PDUs) has been installed, do these all work correctly following the switch to stand-by power and subsequent restoration? Is the power supply clean and without power spikes when operating under load? Do the trading floor/equipment room security and access control systems continue to function during a power outage? Do the fire/smoke detection, tannoy and alarm systems continue to function during and after a power outage? Does the gas fire suppression system continue to function? Does partial lighting work when the area is on a reduced power supply? Does emergency lighting work in the right places during total power loss?

During power tests the technology team will need personnel on hand to check equipment and power on the trading floor and in the equipment room. The team should be equipped with walkie talkies, check lists, torches and power testers. A basic power tester can be made of a plug, cable and electric light bulb. A command centre will be needed to coordinate the testing. One of the team must be in contact with the electrical engineering staff who are undertaking the power test switching for coordination purposes. In a multi-tenanted building there might be landlord costs associated with power testing that involves such items as shared generator test runs and total building power down. The other tenants might raise objections to the performance and/or timing of such tests. It is possible for the tests to be postponed at short notice. The project team should attempt to minimize this by trying to ensure that their tests coincide with those arranged by the main project construction contractors. Power testing will disrupt services or raise monitoring alerts for services that are remotely monitored. The technology project team should ensure that suppliers or service providers are warned well in advance. This will be an opportunity to test that suppliers and service providers can actually detect and respond to service failures. While it is unlikely that service provider engineers will be required to attend the site, there should be at least a telephone call from the supplier to confirm it has noticed the outage. The testing and results should be documented. If remote power-switching PDUs have been installed, a remote test should be run to ensure that the remote devices can be accessed and operated during a power failure situation. The test should ensure that the remote site is alerted when the power failure first occurs, and that it responds with the correct escalation actions without the need for local intervention. Procedures must be agreed in advance and documented for this remote support process to be successful.


EQUIPMENT ROOM TESTING The fabric of the equipment room should be checked in preparation for handover. The actual checks will vary depending on the features and design, but might include the following: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

equipment inventory rechecked in full; warranty documentation available; maintenance agreements known for each device and service; operational manuals for systems such as air conditioning, UPS, power switching, generators and fire suppression system produced and available for operational staff; thermal budget, floor load budget and power budget documents up to date; equipment room tidy and dust-free; all rubbish removed and spare parts stored; all lighting working, including emergency lighting; access control and intrusion alarm system working; emergency exit arrangements working properly; all cabinets fully secure and doors in place; all keys properly identified and logged in a key cabinet; fire/smoke detection operational and connected to the building management system; doors to room and service ducts secured; leak detection cables in place and functioning; leak containment and drain trays in place and inspected; all floor tiles and vents secure, level and in place; all window blinds and blast film correctly installed; all ceiling tiles in place and secure; walls clean and suitably decorated; fire suppression system charged and operational; hand fire extinguishers properly mounted; safety notices in place; all power switching properly working and protected; main PDU switching documented; all cabling tidy and properly secured; cable patch and structured cabling documentation available, in hard copy and database form; supplier contact lists available; magnetic media and optical media storage arrangements available.


AIR CONDITIONING TESTING The contractors and manufacturers will test the air conditioning system as part of the certification and warranty process. Those tests will confirm that the system is functional and has been installed to predefined quality standards. The suppliers might conform to standards such as ASHRAE Standard 127–2001 or CEN: prEN 14511–2, which are used to define efficiency testing for computer room air conditioning systems. During the fit-out of the trading floor and equipment rooms, some air conditioning balancing might be necessary as the heat load develops from new installed technology equipment. The technology project team should test various other aspects of the air conditioning system. Some of these tests might repeat those of the installation engineers and/or facilities managers, but they will help to confirm that the fundamental design of the whole system is correct for the operational requirements. The first tests are basic, and some should have been dealt with during the planning stages or early construction, but they are essential: • • • • • • • • • •

Are the correct areas being air conditioned? Are the temperatures correctly maintained? Does the system provide humidification/dehumidification? Are there any water leaks or condensate problems? Are air flows or air handling equipment in the office areas too noisy? Are there unexpected hot spots in equipment rooms? Are air flows into the equipment room filtered and fitted with fire dampers? Are coolant pipes insulated to prevent condensation/heating problems? Does the system work satisfactorily on a 24-hour basis and during nonbusiness hours such as weekends? Are the chiller units protected from accidental damage?

The next stage of the testing deals with air conditioning failure. Air conditioning equipment has many moving parts and belts that can degrade during operational life. Coolant materials can leak. The equipment will need regular maintenance which will require outages, but it is also highly likely that at some point it will fail unexpectedly. The overall system should have been designed to cope with failures. The high heat loads involved in technology rooms mean that the air conditioning is an essential facility for continued operation. A total failure of cooling in an equipment room will require that the technology equipment be quickly switched off to avoid overheating. The failure condition testing should also try out any heat load-shedding plans that have been developed for the business and technical environment. These heat load-shedding plans might be quite different from the plans devised for


electrical load shedding. The load-shedding plan priorities must be clearly agreed with the business and operational management. The actual tests performed depend on the design and configuration of the air conditioning system, but typical tests include: • • • •

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If the air conditioning fails, is this detected out of hours and is the correct alert raised? In the event of failure does a stand-by unit automatically start or is there sufficient capacity from other units? Does the operational cycle of air handling units perform as planned? Do hot spots develop when the system is running in stand-by mode? To test this might require the introduction of temporary heat sources to simulate the heat from equipment, external heat from sunlight and heat from personnel; If a single chiller unit fails, do the air handling units continue to operate on the trading floor and equipment rooms? How quickly does the trading floor or equipment room heat up, under simulated load, if the air conditioning is not present? How quickly can the air conditioning cool down the equipment room/trading floor when it is restored after a failure? How long is required to power down servers and network equipment if switch-off is required following an air conditioning failure? If the air temperature goes above a threshold level, do the secondary air handling units start, even if the primary system is already operational? In the event of building power failure, does the air conditioning continue to work in those areas powered by stand-by electrical power?

PRESSURE TEST Pressure testing of an equipment room is necessary to ensure that it is capable of holding fire extinguishing gas. The test parameters depend on the type of gas used, but typically the room should be able to hold a pressure for 10 minutes. These pressure tests should be satisfactorily completed by the main building contractor before the equipment room is handed over to the technology project team and any equipment or racking is installed. If leakage is discovered during testing, the remediation and subsequent retesting might require several cycles, with the potential for project delay. The equipment room pressure test should also identify that fire damping valves in air conditioning ducts penetrating the equipment room space close correctly when an alert situation is triggered.


If during the installation process for the main technology roll-out, works have pierced the walls of the equipment room or otherwise disturbed the sealing around cables or pipeworks, it might be necessary to repeat the pressure testing of the room. The permit to work procedures and subsequent inspections should include questions on whether the works might penetrate the gas sealing of the room. It might also be a requirement of the technology operations management that a further pressure test is undertaken before handover to live operations takes place. The tests are relatively simple, but will require the services of a specialist contractor to temporarily install pressure fans in a doorway to the equipment room, then measure for pressure leakage. The actual process only takes a few hours, but it will disrupt other installation work, so the event should be scheduled as part of the project timescale. If leakage is found it might be necessary to schedule remedial works and a retesting event. Care should be taken to ensure that any dust arising from these works is contained and removed without contaminating the equipment room.

NETWORK AND CABLING TESTING The structured cabling contractor will test the installed cabling and provide warranty certification that the structure conforms to specification. This testing process will normally ensure that cables are individually subjected to a range of automatic performance tests, and that the numbering system has been correctly applied. The results should be provided as part of the handover documentation and data by the contractor. The warranty should provide for remedial action should faults be detected in the cabling, if the cause involves the materials used or the method of installation and testing by the contractor. It is not an absolute guarantee that all faults will be removed. There are many reasons for cabling to be damaged during and after installation. Sources of electromagnetic interference might arise after the contractor tests have been undertaken. Other contractors might cause cable damage. The mounting of data ports on the trading floor desks or back-office desks might introduce errors. The project team should undertake sample checking of cabling as soon as it has been handed over to them by the contractor. An error-free result for a random sample of say 10 per cent of the cables and connector points should give a reasonable indication of quality. A team member plus one or more assistants equipped with a cable tester, such as Fluke, should be able to perform the tests. As an alternative an independent contractor could be retained to perform sample tests. These are some of the possible tests, although the testing might be more comprehensive:


• • • • • •

Are the connections from and to the correct point? Mistakes or changes during planning can lead to cabling being installed to the wrong location. Is the termination labelling consistent and clear? Have any ports been omitted? Are there any high-voltage or unexpected currents on the link? This test is best performed after power has been supplied to the premises. Are any crossed pairs or other faults such as cross-talk detected during testing? Can the expected data rate actually be delivered end to end across the installed cabling without a high packet error rate? This test might reveal problems where the length of the cable run is close to upper tolerances.

Once the cabling system has been tested it should be possible to install the physical switches and patches for the network and the data backbones. Firewall connections, server installations and external link connections should proceed. During this process, network addresses will be assigned, VLANs will be built, and name servers, identity and security servers will be installed. The building process will entail continuous testing as the server and network technicians iron out the bugs and get the systems working. As external connections are livened up, they will need to be routed through firewalls and tests performed to ensure that data transmission protocols and ports are correctly filtered. The technology project team should plan for whole systems network tests after the initial installation of servers and network devices and once they have completed their unit testing. The tests should evaluate performance and network recovery when single key devices ‘fail’ by being unplugged or unpowered. The design of the network should be resilient so that a single component failure does not cause a major business outage. Where possible in the event of a single failure it should be possible for backbone services to find alternative routing. Essential servers should be configured with dual network ports that automatically fail over should one of the network interface cards or attached network links fail. The fail-over of servers from network problems should be tested. If the network design is configured for remote operation, a test should be mounted whereby failure recovery is actioned from the remote site. Any induced network errors must be detected by the remote monitoring system, a suitable alert raised and recovery action triggered. The distribution of network services to the desktop should be diversified so that if there is a single network switch failure, it is possible for the individual users to quickly access alternative services. This configuration capability should be tested and documented. The testing should entail creating trading desks or back-office desks at the chosen locations, and then creating a network failure by powering down the main network switch associated with the desks. The failure


should affect only one service on a desk, and an alternative should be available nearby, or the problem be quickly resolved by repatching in the equipment room. Any such recovery actions should be performed on the basis of documented procedures only, as this will help to test the documented procedures. If possible, a single network failure should not affect adjacent desks. The project team should avoid a situation where a whole trading team is dependent on a single network switch for voice and desktop services. If a failure occurs there should be only partial degradation of services while a replacement device is activated. The network migration strategy should be tested to ensure that the network links, new address ranges, routers and switches can be switched over to the new environment without interruption to the new business location or to other sectors of the business that might be affected. If VOIP technology is being used as part of the new trading floor, it will be necessary to check that VOIP network control and voice paths can be safely switched to the new environment. The control signal paths for VOIP technology are often configured in resilient VLANS (virtual LANS), which should be carefully tested as part of the roll-out. A VOIP network design will feature access control lists (ACLs) that are configured on routers and switches to isolate the voice (and control) traffic from the main data networks. The testing should confirm that the ACLs are correctly configured.

PENETRATION AND SECURITY SCANNING Once IT technicians have undertaken the installation of the network, servers, firewalls, voice devices and so on, the entire infrastructure should be subject to security scanning to detect any inherent vulnerabilities or security weaknesses. Each server should already have been scanned for vulnerabilities during the installation process, but these tests are more holistic and test the entire infrastructure. After the initial infrastructure scan and remediation process, the technology system should be subjected to penetration testing by security specialists. The external network links, such as those to the internet, might have further network security devices such as e-mail scanning, HTTP scanning, spyware scanning, instant messaging (IM) scanning or unified threat management installed at the border of the network. Typically these are gateway ‘appliance’ devices and will require testing after their configuration. The tests should ratify that the correct parts of the network are protected and that the update network path for the appliance devices is valid and operational. If wireless LANs have been used they should be subjected to further specialist scanning to detect any weakness of security or any location where coverage is poor.


The security scanning should include any ancillary devices, such as networked printers, intelligent PDUs, the PBX and out-of-band modems that can be attached to the network. This security testing is particularly important with any equipment with remote access cards such as HP ILO or RILOE cards. The inadequate configuration of these cards can leave gaping holes in security. It is possible to obtain files infected with dummy software virus loads. During the testing process these dummy files should be ‘inserted’ at various parts of the infrastructure to confirm that they are detected during the routine virus scanning processes.

VOICE TESTING Voice testing entails testing the trader turret systems, the speaker boxes and intercom systems to ensure that good voice quality is available for both incoming and voice traffic. For dedicated voice lines (ring-down circuit) to remote sites, each circuit should be tested end to end and desk to desk to check the circuit sound quality in preparation for UAT. This testing will require coordination with technical staff at the remote end. Dial plans loaded on the system should be tested to ensure that they work correctly with the new telephone switch equipment. Microphone gain, noise cancellation, handset/headset volume, line feedback, line noise and line echo should be tested at each desk position. With digital desktop voice systems it is likely that no problems will occur during testing and much of the testing can be performed by a central station, but there should still be some evaluation at each desk. The testing should confirm that all the indicator LEDs and LCD panels function on the desktop units such as trading turrets. Where VOIP systems are used, the testing should be undertaken when the network has been loaded with a suitable volume of data traffic on any shared network routes. The testing will need to confirm that quality of service (QoS) and resilience have been correctly configured on the network devices. At the trading desks the technology project team should check that handset/headset jack connector points are correctly placed. The trader should be able to move around at the desk without becoming tangled in cables. Any gooseneck microphones should be easily accessible from the seated position.

VOICE RECORDING TESTS Voice recording testing should be undertaken at each position to confirm that voice conversations are recorded correctly, with good voice quality for both


incoming and outgoing calls. Confirmation should be obtained by testing that voice calls are safely archived, correctly and accurately time-stamped, for each desk location/handset, and that they can be individually retrieved. Each test should be documented to satisfy any compliance authentication. The test process should confirm that archive messages are safely despatched to remote storage and can be retrieved if necessary. The arrangements for retrieving messages from the old business site (after an office move) should be tested, as should the subsequent arrangements for returning archive copies to storage.

LINE OF SIGHT TESTING Line of sight testing involves a project team member sitting at each trading desk and visually checking that she/he can see other people and facilities, such as large plasma display screens or clocks. The clear line of sight might need to be with other trading teams, or just with other people in the same desk cluster. Line of sight issues should be resolved early in the planning stages when floor desk layouts are planned, but changes during the trading floor fit-out process can easily create problems. It is better that these problems are spotted during testing phase rather than on the first day of business when traders sit at their desks for the first time. Problems identified at this stage might be difficult to resolve if permanent or semi-permanent building structures are the cause. Any such problems should be logged as faults and discussed with business management representatives to see whether a solution can be found. This could require the repositioning of equipment or installation of extra items.

SERVER TESTING During the testing phase, servers should be tested to confirm that they are in the right physical position and that they have the correct physical configuration (disks, processor, memory). Items such as cooling fans should be working properly. Where the server is accessed via a KVM it should be confirmed that the servers are correctly identified in the KVM configuration. System monitoring and alert features should be checked as working properly. Tests should be undertaken to ensure that server devices are logged in central infrastructure management systems and that any alerts can be detected by operations staff. The server network connections and designated addresses should be confirmed as matching the asset records and installation plan. It should be


confirmed that the server has been subject to a security scan to detect configuration security vulnerabilities, and that the device has correct anti-virus software operational. The operating system should be confirmed as being at the correct level of patching. It should also be confirmed that the data handled by the server is part of the back-up and recovery cycle. In addition an image copy of the system should be available to enable a bare metal restore if necessary. If the server has been configured for resilient operation or is a stand-by device, tests should be performed to confirm that fail-over works properly. When the primary server is restored it should be demonstrated that the server can re-synch data records if necessary. If the servers are administered via a KVM system, the testing should ensure that the KVM system can withstand and continue to operate after the loss of a data link to a central control facility. If the KVM system has a local controller, system recovery and restoration of the configuration files should be tested for that device. These tests should be applied to all servers including those provided by external vendors and those embedded in other equipment such as voice recorders and security systems. Failure to have a consistent patching and antivirus regime can expose the business operations to software viruses and worms. There should be initial application testing on the new server configurations to confirm that the correct systems, configuration files and data sources are in place. The technology project team should have prepared a complete test plan for the initial application testing. These tests might require the advance preparation of test data, and access arrangements to test systems at third-party vendors such as exchanges. Where possible capacity testing should be undertaken to ensure that the server and application configuration has no hidden faults that would prevent the processing of normal or peak business volumes. Some faults do not become apparent until the systems are stressed with higher volumes of data.

MARKET DATA SERVICES TESTING Provision of market data services for a trading floor and back-office services is a complex task. It involves technical support issues, network design considerations, server configuration, resilience planning, licensing and good financial control. It is a technology directly exposed to the trading staff, and any problems will be immediately apparent to a very influential and impatient group of users. Thorough testing prior to live operations is essential.


Resilience and cache servers Incoming market data feeds are cached in specialized servers to enable redistribution in near real time to the trading floor (and back office). The testing should confirm that feeds are being correctly cached and that in the event of a single server or network failure, stand-by facilities operate correctly. It is usual for the cache servers to have their own network LAN backbone. The network should be checked for any transmission problems and appropriate bandwidth delivery. Historic market data might be held on time series database servers. The conversion/test process will need to ensure that suitable server access is available and that the databases provide sufficiently fast access for the user applications.

Feeds and feed handlers Market data feeds can be delivered by a variety of transmission methods, such as a local network provider point of presence within the building, satellite feed, across the corporate data backbone, an external LAN link, a high-speed data communication link or even a slow modem feed. Most trading floor staff will arrange for dual feeds so that if a primary link fails an alternative is available. You will want to ensure by testing that all market data feeds are provided and operational, and that appropriate resilience has been planned by the market data team. The feed vendor will normally require some type of feed-handling server to process the incoming data feed. In some cases the cache server performs that function. In larger corporations the data feed might be delivered from the main corporate data backbone via a caching gateway server. Gateway servers work well for small branch offices and avoid the higher cost of local data vendor connections. The testing process should establish that the feeds are delivering data in a timely fashion, that resilience has been configured and that the systems have been properly documented and licensed. The vendor contract will require that the servers are properly firewalled to prevent transmission of software viruses and worms from the trading floor site to the vendor’s main network. Testing should confirm that such protection is in place. As with all servers there should be proper provision for anti-virus software and operating system patching. Some organizations also insist on vulnerability scanning for vendor-installed market data servers.


Permissions Market data systems normally have a permissioning system that allows users to see various data groups or sources. The billing process of the vendor and closed user group controls will to a great extent depend on the permissioning system. The permissioning data might be held on a local database, at a central location administered by the client organization or on a central database held by the main data vendor. Part of the market data installation process for a new trading floor and/or back office is to ensure that the correct permissions are in place when the floor opens for business. In reality the permissions database(s) will need to be in place in time for the UATs. The technology testing phase should ensure that the permissions database has been correctly set up. Moving to a new location might lead to a change in the data sources used by an organization as a cheaper/faster source is substituted for the previous one. The testing should ensure that: • • • • • •

the correct users are licensed; redundant users are eliminated; new users are identified; each of the users has access only to authorized market data; lower-cost time-delayed data is used when appropriate; redundant data sources are eliminated and licence contracts cancelled.

Confirming the permissions information will entail a lot of liaison work by the market data team in conjunction with the user base. If the support of the market data has been outsourced to a third-party supplier it is possible that this will raise some conversion/support fees to be paid from the project budget.

User mapping Users will have profiles stored for the configuration of their most-used market data items, and will need to be able to access their existing profiles when they move to the new trading floor location. The technology project team should test that the transfer of user market data maps works successfully in the new environment. Depending on the system in use it might be necessary to transfer data from the home disk drive of the trader’s PC, or the trader configuration might be held centrally. If users have multiple screens attached to their PCs, the testing should confirm that the market data is correctly shown on the appropriate screen on the new trading desk. To confirm the user mapping it might be necessary to visit each desk in turn with details of the exact user requirement, and to test that the data is shown correctly.


Applications The testing process should confirm that the applications that depend on market data continue to function correctly in the new trading environment. Problems are most likely to occur when the traders have developed their own (undocumented) application macros. A move to a new trading floor will often involve the refreshing of office software tools, and the new versions might be incompatible with the macros. The original author of the macro might have long since left the organization, leaving an awkward problem for support staff. The planning process needs to identify any applications that might not work in the new environment, and to arrange for alternative solutions to be found, developed and tested. The testing process should check that all the proposed solutions work successfully in the new environment. The roll-out testing should also confirm that trading applications have correct software licensing. During the business of the trading floor users might have obtained unauthorized copies of trading support applications. The migration to a new trading floor is an ideal opportunity to tell them to ‘pay’ or lose the facility. Conversely if the move process makes a trading floor support tool redundant, care should be taken to note this and see whether the licence cancellation can generate a credit against other maintenance fees.

Exchange, trading and settlement connections Back-office personnel might need direct connections to exchanges and settlement agencies to clear trades and other instruments. These links can be interactive with a terminal interface, or possibly automated, with a server located at the client site. When a new service is installed or a service is installed at a new site, it is likely that the exchange or settlement agency will require trials to be conducted with the new equipment at the new site. There might be new authentication keys to be exchanged and/or line encryption units to be commissioned. The back-office and trading staff will need to plan any such test in conjunction with the technology project team and the remote exchange/agency. These tests should be performed before the main acceptance tests. This will help ensure that the systems are working at the start of the UATs. These tests are usually straightforward if the back-office staff are used to using the system, but sometimes unforeseen problems and delays can occur.

PC TESTING PCs will have been installed at the desks in preparation for the front-office and back-office users, with the latest versions of software and correct applica-


tions installed. In theory there should be no need to test the devices. If only life was that simple! There are bound to be some problems with the set-up that have not been noticed previously, or some changes of requirement that have not been documented. The technology project team should aim at a zerodefect live implementation and so should retest the individual PCs prior to the UAT. It is far better to eliminate faults than let users find them when they first switch on their PCs. A similar regime of testing will be required for laptop computers that personnel are planning to introduce to the new site. Some of the tests described below can be undertaken remotely, but others require inspection at the site of the desk.

Physical test of PC The device should be located in the correct physical position under the desk and securely mounted. Cables should be neatly secured without tangles. Power cords and data patches should be of the correct specification. Users should be able to access their PCs easily if they need to insert CDs and/or to switch off at the end of the day. The casing of the system unit should be properly secured, but should be accessible to support engineering staff. The positioning of the PC system unit should be safe and not interfere with the operator’s legs. The warm fan exhaust from the PC should not be directed onto other users. The PC should be properly asset labelled and its desk position should correspond to the entry in the asset register. The data held in the asset register should match the physical configuration of the PC. The identity of the desk ‘owner’ from the desk floor plan should correspond with the entry in the asset register. The PC should be connected to the correct desk PDU and network port as per the cabling/patch plan. When powered up the PC should start running and proceed to the correct menu screen. The PC should be subject to an electrical safety test in situ and be provided with a suitable certificate or marker badge to indicate the testing.

Desk layout Each desktop position should be inspected to ensure that provision has been made for the scheduled user. Not all works can be completed until the actual day of migration, particularly if the user’s PC is travelling from the old site, but any fault found during testing will be one less issue to deal with on the eve or first day of operations. A checklist sheet should be printed in advance for each user. The details should be tested for each desk:


• • • • • • • •

The location of the keyboard and mouse should be ergonomically suitable, allowing for whether the user is left or right-handed. The monitor screen(s) should be of the correct diagonal size, position and height. They should be securely mounted with working tilt and swivel capabilities, and not obscure essential lines of sight. The screen display quality should be clear, with the correct colours, and no interference from other magnetic sources. Cables should be tidily secured without being stretched. The cable management at the desktop should not be obscured. The telephone handset should be in the correct position, labelled with the correct extension number and correctly powered. The desktop should be properly labelled with the desk number and match the desk plan. If desktop cable extensions are provided for peripherals they should be properly mounted and tested to be operational.

The checklist sheet should be signed off and retained for future change control purposes. Any detected and unresolved faults should be logged on the fault control system.

Applications PCs will be configured for a range of applications. Some of those are installed on the PC hard disk, and others will be available via the network when the user logs on. The testing should ensure that the correct versions of applications have been loaded or are available. Except in a highly standardized environment, each PC should be checked individually. Individual personalization files or data might need to be copied from users’ existing PCs and modified to suit the new environment. Given suitable remote access tools it should be possible to perform this testing remotely. Part of the testing should be positive confirmation that the application is properly licensed. The application software check results and physical configuration data, such as processor type, memory size and screen type, should be loaded in the support database to facilitate the task of the help desk engineers. The applications may vary between business units. Some applications might be unsuitable for centralized packaging and require individual software installation on each machine. The application testing should ensure that the applications start correctly and perform basic functions on each individual PC. Some applications might require authentication or licensing devices, such as smart card readers or dongles, to be present on the machine before they will function properly. These cases should be identified in advance and special arrangements made for testing.


Some applications require specific infrastructure permissions such as dedicated firewall policy rules, hard disk encryption or authentication software certificates loading before the application can access remote services. Specific testing arrangements should be made for each machine on which they are to run. Some applications require direction to specific servers or services, for example HTTP proxy servers and market data services. Installation testing should confirm that these have been correctly specified. I have seen installations where wrongly configured web browsers swamped inter-office WAN links because they were pointed to the wrong proxy servers. Some applications, such as anti-virus software, personal firewalls, remote support clients and asset register client software, relate to administration and support of the PC. The testing should confirm that these packages are present and correctly reference the central management facilities. It should be confirmed that the PC is registered in central monitoring systems. The inspection process should also check for any unauthorized or unlicensed software. If necessary the software should be removed. The desktop PCs should be scanned via the network to confirm that their individual connections show only the correct TCP or UDP ports. Any faults that cannot immediately be cured should be logged in the fault control system for subsequent fixing.

PERIPHERAL DEVICES The trading floor and back office will have peripheral technology devices shared between users, such as laser printers and scanners. These should be installed and tested where possible before UAT. When testing the desktop PCs (and laptops), the technology project team should ensure that the devices are correctly set up on the network and correctly identified. The correct device drivers should be loaded on the PCs and the correct printer identities configured. The printers and scanners should be accessible and working in time for UAT. Sometimes printers, faxes and scanners have a closed user group of authorized users. The testing should ensure that only authorized users can access these secured services, via the network or by local access. If the devices are remotely administered by third parties, particular attention should be paid to the security issues.

ACCESS CONTROL TESTING The technology project team should work with the facilities manager to ensure the access control system and facilities are tested prior to the UAT of the new site.


Someone should be designated to attempt to bypass the access control and security monitoring system. Security companies can offer specialist support in these types of review. Coverage of the video monitoring system should be checked. Any dead zones should be identified and logged for a decision on remedial action. Successful functioning of offsite storage and retrieval of video monitoring should be confirmed. The access control system should be checked to confirm that it allows access only to authorized users at authorized times. Door alarms should be checked to confirm that they report unauthorized usage, such as being wedged open. Intruder alarms such as motion detectors should be checked for coverage and sensitivity.

SECURITY POLICY AUDIT As part of the testing process the project leader should have an audit undertaken to ensure that the environment is compliant with the organization’s security policy. As mentioned earlier, there should be early planning to ensure compliance. The audit will most likely provide an audit rating with a list of action points that will need remedial attention within a given timeframe.

BUILDING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM Most office buildings have a central computer system which is used to monitor and control the performance of the various facilities installed, such as air conditioning, air fans and duct valves, room temperature sensors, boilers, chillers, fire alerts, smoke detection alerts and intrusion alerts. These building management systems (BMSs) have a mixture of serially wired and network-attached sensors or actuators. The network will probably not be part of an IT network, but will have its own protocol, possibly a LON network. Each large business located in a multi-tenant building will probably have its own BMS to monitor building facilities that are specific to that business. The BMSs will be programmed to pass essential alerts and sensor readings between themselves. These requirements are specified by the mechanical and electrical engineers retained by the main construction contractor. Some of the IT-specific systems will also need to be cross-programmed into the main BMS and any BMS that is specific to the local business. Alerts and measurements will need to be cross-fed between the systems so that control can be maintained. For example a fire alert from the main BMS might cause the access control


system to ‘fail open’ emergency exit doors for the trading floor. A smoke alert from the equipment room VESDA system might be fed into the BMS to alert the building security team and premises management. The business’s remote IT operations staff might need to receive a signal at a remote monitoring site to the effect that a main building fire alert is in progress. The cross-feeding of signals and alerts should be discussed and agreed between operational staff and the building management. The testing process should ensure that the interfaces have been correctly programmed and that the correct alerts are raised at the correct locations. A programme of tests should be coordinated between the technology team and the building facilities management team to ensure that the various interfaces from and into the IT systems work properly and that the planned responses have been properly documented.

BUSINESS CONTINUITY MANAGEMENT Business continuity management (BCM) and facilities should be fully available from the first day of business. BCM plans should also include reversion planning should it prove necessary to cancel the move to the new site at very short notice or within the first few days of business. However careful the planning and testing, the risk of a failure is much higher than normal in the first few days of a major business migration. This can be mitigated by a phased business migration, but the technology and business management should have BCM facilities tested and available. I shall not go into the full details of a BCM test here, but simply mention that the business should be prepared to switch rapidly to the old facilities or perhaps to an alternate BCM site. The proposals should be documented and tested to confirm that they are workable.

SUPPORT DESK TESTING The support desk should be tested to ensure that it can access records of the personnel, desk plans and infrastructure inventory on the new trading floor and back office. The cutover transition of data and facilities should be tested to ensure that the users see no reduction in service levels. The full support desk facilities should be available for the UAT process when users start to try out the new facilities. The support desk personnel should be trained in any new support arrangements or personnel that are set up for the new site. They also should have access


to information on what happens to redundant systems and how archives from the old site can be accessed, for example voice recording and office voicemail. If the support desk uses a knowledge base to help the operatives, action should be taken to update it to reflect support of any new technology used on the trading floor or in the back office. If the support desk provides remote support by taking over the client PCs or using KVM technology, tests should be run to confirm that this process works successfully and that the support desk operatives are comfortable in using the technology. The technology project team should designate some ‘mystery shoppers’ to contact the support desk team using dummy scenarios to confirm that the correct support information is available to hand. During these tests it might be necessary for full PBX or telephone switch capabilities to be available. The support desk computer system should be tested to confirm that it can handle the expected peak volume of enquiries. This is particularly relevant if the system has to traverse a wide area network link. If the support desk is located externally and the trading floor is in a country where different languages are used routinely, there should be suitable testing to ensure that the trading floor and back-office staff can obtain support in their local or business language. Service delivery should be tested to confirm that response complies with the contracted service level agreements. Service metrics should be adjusted in preparation for the new environment. It might be necessary to re-baseline the performance levels. Suppliers should be contacted to prove their arrangements for delivery of supply, support and maintenance services in conjunction with the support desk. For example a PC supplier should be able to demonstrate the capability to configure and deliver a trader PC where the software has been built to corporate standards. Where the support process has been outsourced the project team should ensure that new support procedures have been contractually agreed with the operations management’s approval.

USER ACCEPTANCE TESTING The facilities of the new trading floor and back office should be subject to successful UAT before staff move to the new site. In this context ‘successful’ means there are no major faults that would prevent normal business operations. There could well be other identified faults, that the business decides are not an impediment to the move proceeding as scheduled.


Some faults permit the UATs to complete successfully, but present such a risk to business that the go-live date is postponed, for example if the main data link to the business premises does not have a reliable backup or stand-by alternative. The business risk of a sudden failure on the single link during business hours might be judged to be too large. These types of decision must be referred to the project steering group for ratification. The scheduling of the UAT activities might involve overnight or weekend working.

Preparation As technology project team leader you should be aware that the business management of the trading floor might not have experience of running acceptance tests for major new systems. The project team should be prepared to step in and help the business teams to design and prepare test situations and structure expected outcomes. This does not mean they should accept the responsibility for UAT: rather, they should advise on the thoroughness and completeness of testing. The technology team should help to arrange for test data files, and ensure that test output is not sent unintentionally to business clients. The technology team working with other members of the project steering group should make arrangements to guide the staff performing the UAT. This preparation should include: • • • • • •

a briefing on the project timescale; a briefing on the new site, layout of the offices and facilities provided; a site pack giving such information as contacts, maps, travel and parking facilities, site access control, local shops and restaurants; a safety and security briefing; a briefing on the support arrangements; change control and fault reporting procedures.

The technology project team should arrange for external vendor support to be available for the trading and back-office systems during the UAT. It will also be useful to have cabling contractors and electricians on call or on site to deal with any minor problems. The reception area should be manned by security staff or receptionists during the UAT process to control visitor activity. The access control system should be fully functional, with badge passes issued and permissions programmed into the control system. The project team should liaise with the facilities management to ensure that construction activities such as noise, fit-out works and power cuts do not interfere with the UAT activities.


Back office Some of the back-office system testing might be undertaken remotely from existing offices using data links to new servers, but a substantial part of the testing will have to be done on site at the new desk locations. The back-office staff must undertake substantive application testing to ensure that the full range of normal daily business can be completed within acceptable timelines. The project planning process should ensure that the back-office management have allocated sufficient personnel to allow testing to proceed while the team also support their normal duties. Sufficient time should be allowed in the project timescale to allow the back-office staff to undertake repeat testing should problems be found. There should be clear documentation listing all the systems and facilities that are to be tested by the back-office users. The users should confirm that the list is complete, and sign off each system as it has been tested. Any faults arising should be reported by the users to support staff for analysis and remedy if possible. Some resolution activities might require prioritization discussions between the technology project team and business management. All such faults should be recorded on the fault logging system. The UAT might require special test sessions to be organized with financial exchanges and settlement agencies. The technology project team and back-office staff should jointly agree their responsibilities in arranging such test sessions. During the UAT, back-office staff should be given the opportunity to meet jointly with the technology project team to review progress and to share views on any issues arising.

Front office The technology project team will need to work closely with the front-office management to ensure the trading personnel make time to undertake some UAT of their new environment. Each trading team should provide one or more representatives to visit the new trading desks and to check the installations for suitability for trading. The technology project team should make it clear that if the trading staff do not perform UAT their desks will be deemed to have been accepted. Every effort should be made to assist the trading staff in their tests. Support staff should be on hand to answer questions and log problems reported by the trading floor staff. Some traders with complex technology requirements might want to undertake a thorough test of the technology provided at their desks. The project team should take care to differentiate change requests from UAT faults. Change requests should be subject to a formal process so the costs and


project impact can be properly assessed. Proper financial authorization for any changes should be sought from business management. In the fast-moving world of financial trading it is highly likely that requirements will have changed since the original planning. Those changes should have been notified and planned during the fit-out process. The danger of accepting changes without control is that the trading staff will say the trading floor fit-out project was not done properly. The trading staff should be encouraged to check that: • • • • • • • • • • •

voice systems, such as trader turrets and speaker boxes, have been correctly provisioned; key maps on phones, trader turret and intercom systems have been correctly transferred; PCs and screens have been installed and correctly positioned; voice quality is good over the voice systems; speakers are in the correct position; desk positions are correct in relation to the business; trading desks have been installed to their satisfaction; there are no line-of-sight issues for items such as clocks, display modules, whiteboards; the air conditioning, lighting and noise levels are acceptable; they can correctly access their PC applications; they have sufficient power and connector points for desktop devices.

Technology operations The technology project team will hand over operational responsibility for the IT infrastructure environment to technology operations management at some time close to the live implementation date. In most organizations some of the operations staff will have been involved or represented in the fit-out project so the handover should contain no surprises. However the IT operations team should be given the opportunity to run acceptance tests on the environment before they accept responsibility. If any problems are discovered during the testing it is necessary to agree responsibilities for resolving them, and whose budget will bear the cost. The testing process should be contingent on completion of procedure manuals and warranty documentation. The operations team might decide to accept the testing undertaken by the trading floor project team, but even in that event there should be clear cutover points when the operations staff take on responsibility.


FAULT LOGGING Fault logging is important during the project test and UAT periods. During the installation of equipment, normally only faults caused by other systems, services and facilities that have been declared ready for use should be logged. Many small faults that arise during an installation are fixed as a matter of course, and it is pointless recording them unless there is a consequential loss or delay. However if during the installation process a fault arises that delays the installation, it should be recorded as a fault or issue so that progress on the fix can be tracked. The purpose of logging the faults is to enable progress chasing, control and prioritization of fault remediation. Another purpose is that the records might be required to pursue claims for compensation from suppliers or to resist additional charges from suppliers and contractors. Consider the following example. A data cabling contractor ’s engineers install structured cabling, working from an outdated version of a trading floor plan. At some stage the main contractor issued a revised plan, but the cabling contractor’s project manager overlooked it. The contractors test the cabling and offer it in good working condition. It has the correct number of data ports and uses the correct components, but the cables are in the wrong locations in the trading floor. The problem is not identified until the desktop PCs are installed at trading desks. As a result, the data cables have to be moved and reterminated. Some cable trays also have to be relaid, but fortunately the cables do not have to be wholly rerun. Relaying the cable trays requires the affected trading desks to be moved and then replaced. All the equipment has to be reinstalled and tested. There is sufficient slack in the project timescale to complete these works without impacting the main project timeline. The remedial cabling work should not be recharged, but someone must pick up the cost of moving the trading desks and reinstalling their equipment. If there is a dispute or the issue is referred to insurers, good documentation and proof of mitigation of resultant damage will speed the processing of any claim. Faults should be logged on a central database, with care taken to preserve referential documentation and contemporaneous notes relating to the incidents and consequential actions. These written documents should be supplemented where appropriate with photographic records. The amount of detail recorded will probably be greater than for a fault that occurs during normal operations. The records might need to be examined by lawyers. If the project team or support team is trained to use a standard note format it is much more likely that good records will result.


Issues versus faults versus changes versus variations The project team will need to develop its own definitions of faults and changes, which will be applied to the record keeping and prioritization of resolution. The definitions relate to a formal documentation and approval process. The following guidelines might be helpful.

Issue An unforeseen problem that prevents full delivery of a service or equipment. These can vary in criticality and priority. The issue might have a work-around solution, but needs action in the future.

Fault A delivered service or item of technology equipment that does not work according to specification. The fault can affect one person or many people. The fault will be fixed without changing the original specification.

Changes A service or item of technology works or is planned to work according to the original specification, but a change is requested, in the specification, timing or number of items required.

Variation A change request affecting or altering the work for which external contractors are contracted. Variations might give rise to subsequent technology ‘changes’.

Prioritization and approval Issues, faults, changes and variations generally need some expenditure of effort or resource before they can be resolved. They can also require a change to the project schedule, and this can lead to consequential costs. There will be many such events during the course of the project. It is one of the tasks of the technology project leader to keep track of such events or requests, and to ensure appropriate action is approved or the request rejected. You will also need to maintain a process that correctly prioritizes remedial action according to the importance and criticality of the fault. Major changes or faults could have a substantial impact on the project cost and timescale. Actions might need to be authorized by the project steering group even if the cost is absorbed in a contingency budget. As part of the


approval process, actions must be proposed and a formal cost estimate attached to them. A person should be responsible for obtaining approval signatures and tracking the costs arising. Suppliers and contractors should be clearly advised that no variation claim will be funded unless they have advance approval for the cost. These approvals should be formally documented by the project team. One way of controlling this is to raise supplementary purchase orders, but this might vary according to circumstances. Any resolutions affecting other operational areas might additionally require approval under the organization’s formal moves, adds, and changes procedure to ensure they do not impact the other business areas without prior agreement. Any issue, fault, change or variation should be subject to impact assessment. Perhaps the proposed resolution will not have any impact on the project budget, but it will affect life cycle costs. Any long-term cost implications should be brought to the attention of the operational business and technology management. The review of impact costs might give rise to a further change request at the project level, which might be funded by a charge from the project to operational budgets.

Packaged releases Where errors are detected in software during acceptance testing it might be better to prepare a packaged release of fixes than to attempt to resolve each fault individually on each machine, since the latter could leave it unclear what has been done on the individual PCs. You should ensure that suitable support engineers are available when needed to package such releases, and that time is built in the project schedule to allow for the packaging and release cycles. If all goes well new releases should not be necessary, but the time buffer should be there. The ability to release reliable software update packages is particularly important if the IT support staff are not on site and need to visit from a distance.

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26

Handover

If user acceptance testing (UAT) has been undertaken successfully and migration conversions have been properly planned and tested, the handover process should be painless and straightforward. It should be a case of guiding personnel to their new environment and being attentive to change or fault requests. There might need to be work to transfer equipment or data from the previous site during the handover period. Handover documentation should have already been completed and signed off by the users and operational staff. Handover usually occurs on the first working day following a weekend or public holiday. The final preparatory work will have been done during the weekend. Some handovers are phased by business groups to avoid the risk to business of a complete cutover at one time. The best cutover method should have been agreed by the steering group early in the project life, but modifications might be needed to the plan as the project proceeds. An executive committee should be available during the handover and empowered to make decisions quickly if unexpected events occur during the handover process. A process of regular progress assessment should be planned during the handover days. This should quickly feed back status information to the executive committee. Much of the handover planning will be concerned with the logistics of moving people and their office material to a new location. Responsibility for that planning will be handled by an administration manager, such as the facilities manager. By this time the technology issues should have been fully resolved, but


there should be a watching brief on the facilities manager’s plans to ensure that they are feasible and compatible from the technology viewpoint and plans.

PRE-HANDOVER MEETING Shortly before the handover date formal or ‘town hall’ meetings should be held between members of the project steering group and key members of the business units. During the meeting the handover arrangements should be explained, as should what is expected of the users. This briefing should be accompanied by a data pack containing such items as detailed schedules, access arrangements, safety issues, contingency planning and technology support arrangements. Each of the teams involved, including the technology project team, should present their part in the handover process to the meeting. If staff unions or staff associations are involved it is generally useful to hold pre-planning meetings with them to advise the representatives of what will be presented at the pre-handover meetings. This will give the representatives time to prepare responses to possible queries from their members. It also gives the opportunity to fix any problems the representatives identify during their briefings.

DOCUMENTATION A wide range of documentation should be handed over by the technology project team to operational staff or users. The scope of documentation will depend on the nature of the project and the pattern of responsibilities. Some documentation is likely to be paper-based, while other material will be on databases or electronic. Some of the documentation might be provided by the contractor or supplier. There should be a clear process for delivery of all this material to the manager/user and acceptance by the manager/user. Documentation should conform to any corporate standards, and in any event the technology project leader should ensure that its scope and content has been specified. Typical documentation includes: • • • • • •

as-built structural plans; desk layout plan; support desk data; dealing desk and office desk warranty; cabling plan, warranty and inventory; PC and desktop equipment inventory;

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• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

software inventory; software licensing and maintenance inventory; server schedule; server maintenance agreements; firewall and security server maintenance arrangements; cabinet plan and warranties; equipment room and trading floor heat budget; equipment room and trading floor power budget; equipment room and trading floor weight budget; software maintenance agreements; trader turret system manual, warranty and maintenance agreement; voice recording system manual, warranty and maintenance agreement; telecoms circuit inventory and support agreements; television feed agreements; video conference and presentation support agreements; market data and exchange feed schedule of contracts and support agreement; market data usage schedule; issues or known problems list; security policy audit review document; power circuit schematic; air conditioning (equipment room) manual, maintenance agreement and warranty; fire detection manual, warranty and maintenance agreement; fire suppression system manual, maintenance agreement and warranty; UPS manual, maintenance agreement and warranty; access control system manual, licences and maintenance agreement; video surveillance manual and maintenance agreement; maintenance and warranty calendar schedule; regulatory licence agreements; support contact list; disposals documentation; asset allocation and cost-sharing agreements; leasing and purchase schedule.

NEW STAFF When a new trading floor is occupied, new teams or additional staff often commence work at the same time. Special attention should be given to these staff, to ensure that all their technology is working correctly and they understand how to use it.


Some advance planning will be needed to ensure that the business managers have correctly notified the technology team in advance of any new users. This will facilitate the creation of new log-in identities, e-mail accounts and similar facilities. Arrangements should be made for technology staff to meet the new arrivals and help to sort out their technology facilities. A checklist should be prepared in advance for the typical features that are available to the particular roles associated with the user. Appropriate training should be available for the new users in applications relevant to the business. It is likely that the managers will forget to mention a member of staff, possibly a long-term visitor from another office. The project team should arrange for one or two spare sets of desktop equipment so that it is possible to quickly construct an additional position if needed. A set of approval documentation should be on hand to allow the sign-off of facilities needed at short notice. Conversely arrangements should be made to eliminate the authentication details of personnel who have left the organization.

FLOOR WALKERS AND TRAINING Plenty of support staff should be available on the trading floor (and back office) to assist personnel in using the new technology when the premises first open for business. The floor walkers should be readily identifiable, possibly through a brightly coloured jacket or T-shirt. This team should help the users register any faults or change requests arising during the first day of business. Specialist training staff should be on hand to assist trading staff with any new trading turret technology. Although the users should already have received training it will increase acceptance if skilled help is available to answer queries or to guide them through new technology features. Customer support staff of the turret manufacturer often assist with this task.

SNAG LIST The technology project team leader and managers should be on site looking for any unreported problems and creating a snag list of issues to be resolved. The managers should not rely on problem reporting by users, but actively go out to look for problems. During the initial business start-up users might tolerate faults that should be reported. For example there might be a poor response time from a system, which should be quickly addressed. The snag list should be reviewed regularly, together with error reports during the day, to see whether any serious problems are apparent. Minor problems

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should be prioritized to ensure that urgent business issues are dealt with promptly. The support staff should be briefed to warn users with low-priority problems that there might be a delay before they are attended to. The team members should also visit senior managers in their offices to see whether there are unresolved problems.

PERSONAL DEVICES The support team should have access to a good supply of power extension leads to provide short-term solutions to any problems found in connecting personal technology devices at the users’ new desks. If a short-term solution is put in place at a desk, it should be noted for revisiting. The technology project team should agree clear rules with business management over which, if any, of the users’ personal devices such as PDAs should be supported. No level of support might be authorized for some devices. Floor walkers should be alert to the security of portable devices and warn staff how to secure them to the desktop if necessary.

LOCATION CORRECTIONS No amount of careful planning will prevent one or two personnel being located in the wrong position on the trading floor. The technology project team should be equipped and resourced to enable the repositioning of a small number of staff during the first couple of days. Suitable change control documentation procedures should be available in preparation. It is helpful if some spare positions are left available on the trading floor and back-office desk plans, but this is not always possible. The business managers responsible for agreeing the desk plans will be apologetic, but there should be plans available to at least provide an interim solution for the business problem. Any change in location should be noted in the central desk plan document and/or staff directory.

SPARES During the first few days of operation it is likely that faults or damage will arise in a small proportion of the desktop technology equipment. The technology project team should ensure that a reasonable number of spares are held on site.


Some spares might also be needed to build new facilities to meet unforeseen requirements. The network port allocations should make an allowance for any such short-notice requirements. The spares should be stored in a secure location close to the trading floor and back-office areas.

SERVICE CUTOVER Planned procedures will need to be in place to cut over services, such as telecoms facilities, from the old site to the new site during the cutover weekend or period. The service providers will be experienced in such matters and will be able to suggest appropriate solutions provided they are given sufficient time to organize their resources.

LAUNCH PARTY Any new trading floor will most likely be launched with some form of party. This is an ideal time to obtain feedback from the business management and also to ensure that the technology project team is publicly thanked for their work in running a successful project implementation. The project team leader should arrange in advance for presentation mementoes to be personally prepared for the technology project team members and presented to them by the business management.

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Project wind-down

Following the handover of the trading floor and technology rooms there will be a great release of pressure on the technology project team. Individual team members will take long-overdue holidays, return to their normal operational roles or be assigned to other projects. However important tasks will remain, and the project leader must ensure they are followed through to completion. They might be handed over to operational staff, delegated or completed personally. One potential problem is that the project team will lose its project office when the new site is released to the business users. There will be much less demand for space in the project area, but there will be a need for somewhere to temporarily locate documentation and project team equipment, and to provide an address for correspondence and invoices. When the project took place overseas, there might be a need for further travel by members of the project team to resolve outstanding issues. These travel arrangements might be questioned by the central technology management for the department. This ‘criticism’ can be countered by working to maintain ongoing support from business management, and also by warning the project steering group at an early stage in the project that there might be post-handover travel and other costs.


CONTRIBUTION ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Soon after the handover of facilities to the operational business, as technology project leader you should make a point of personally contacting and thanking the key personnel from the other teams involved in the construction process. This includes the formal teams that report to the project steering group or the main contractors, but thanks should also be expressed to informal team members, such as those listed earlier in this book (see page 43). This helps build good relationships for any future similar project work. It also provides you with a channel through which the project members can mention any concerns that have not been dealt with through the normal channels of communication.

ISSUES LIST The project team will have a list of issues that have not been resolved by the time of facility handover to the operational business. These items should be closed out as part of a final exercise by the team. After discussion with relevant business and technology managers it might be possible to close some of the items on the list without further action. If so, the names of the people approving the item closure should be noted, together with documentation of the factors involved in the decision. Some items might have work in progress, and in these cases the project leader should assign agreed responsibility to individuals in the operational or development business management. It should be agreed and documented how work in progress is to be funded. It might be charged to the project budget, to a supplier or contractor, or to an operational budget. The works should be documented in the change control registers operated by the organization. After completion of agreement on responsibilities and authorities for the issues list, target dates and agreed levels of acceptable delivery, the list itself should be handed over to a senior manager. Business management and the project steering group should be told of the arrangements made to close the list.

VARIATIONS AND CHANGE REQUESTS At the end of the project a list of variations might be presented by the contractors. These are in effect extra charges for work undertaken or planned as a result of changes to the contract. The contractor should present evidence of approval of requests for change by an authorized representative of the client organization. In

Project Wind-Down ❙ 471

some cases the variation will be for the costs arising from a delay in works, where that delay has been caused by the client, for example if the project leader asked for workers to stop noisy work while voice technology was being tested. There should be no variation if the delay was planned and agreed in advance, but if it was not, and overtime was worked to ensure there was no project slippage, a claim might be justified. The technology project leader should review each claim and its supporting evidence jointly with the facilities manager to decide on its validity. There can also be counter-claims for variations when the main construction contract workers caused delay or rework by the technology staff or their suppliers. Throughout the process of validating the variations from both sides, there needs to be a certain amount of give and take coupled with common sense. The aim is to negotiate agreement, to avoid recourse to expensive legal action. As agreements are made they should be documented, with each party to the deal signing them off. You might want to document the reasons for the various agreements, so that a record is available if it is needed in the future. If a variation is large, acceptance of it might exceed your authority. It should be agreed in advance what authority you have, and what the procedure is when it is exceeded. In addition to variations there might also be requests for further changes, made by the business management or other parties. Such changes should be reviewed with the original requesters and with the executive management of the operational business. If approval is received it must be decided how best to implement the required changes. The changes could be assigned to standard operational change control procedures, or a new sub-project structure might be formed to control implementation. As with all changes, decisions about priorities must be made. You must ensure the relevant management authorities are involved in the prioritization process.

RETENTIONS As technology project leader you might become involved in discussions and decisions on the retention of payments. These usually relate to the construction and fit-out works, although sometimes they relate to technology works. Most construction projects involve a staged payment process, whereby payment is based on certification of progress, with an agreed proportion of the fee retained for a few months after completion of works, to allow for example for uncompleted or unacceptable work. It is likely that the facilities or building manager will take the lead in the negotiations, but you might be called upon to sit in on them and to provide supporting evidence.


Although the final payment should not be handed over until the works have been fully completed, the project team should be prepared to give evidence if it argues that the work is not complete or needs remediation. When decisions are made on retentions they should be clearly notified to the other party, with details of the actions to be performed before the final payment will be released. The reasons for the extended retention and details of those approving the decisions should be clearly documented for future reference, and the documents archived.

EXPENSES One of the ragged ends of project closure is the final assessment and payment of outstanding expenses for project team members and additional personnel working on the project. If (as I suggested on page 424) there is a schedule of anticipated expenses, it should be possible to identify any major outstanding expense claims. A notice should be sent to team members reminding them to either submit expense claims by a cut-off date, or contact the project accountant if there is a reason for delay. Where expenses are paid by cross-charge from another department or company a similar deadline notice should be issued. The project accountant will want to check that any cross-charge expenses are supported by evidence that they are appropriate to the project budget. Leases on any apartments retained for project team accommodation should expire or be cancelled, and a closing statement obtained from the agent before the premises are finally vacated. It is not unknown for unexpected bills relating to repairs, cleaning and furnishing replacements to arise at this point. Accounts for mobile phones, wireless internet services and voice conference facilities should also be finalized. The expense records should be checked for any unused airline tickets that can be returned for a refund. Documentation relating to project expenses must be retained for tax purposes, but most company accounts systems have existing procedures for this. Finally a contingency fund should be lodged to allow payment of expense claims once the project budget has been closed.

RETURNS AND UNDELIVERED SERVICES During the project some items of technology might have been returned to the suppliers as surplus to requirements or in exchange for another item. They should be tracked to ensure that appropriate refunds or credit notes have been provided by the suppliers. This is also an ideal opportunity to double-check


that promised discounts have been applied to goods supplied. These details should have been checked during the project but it is worth reviewing the bills received to confirm them. When there have been exchanges it is important that any serial numbers of the new equipment are correctly logged in the maintenance schedules. For example data cable might have been volume-purchased in advance by the contractor but the stock not fully used during the installation process. If the unused stock has material value and is reclaimed by the contractor, then depending on the contract, the organization might be entitled to a credit. The early estimates might have been substantially over requirement, or there could have been a minimum order quantity. It is also possible that vendors or contractors have made charges for services that were not supplied. An end of project review can highlight this, and a suitable claim can be made.

BUDGET CLOSURE Trading floor projects by their very nature have a defined lifetime, but they will leave behind a legacy of cost for technology that has to be funded by the business, including capital expenditure that is depreciated against future profits and taxes, and finance leases and loans to be paid from future income. Whatever method of funding is used, it is important that the budget closure ensures that the sharing of costs is accurately documented, and that complete accounting of costs has been achieved. Once the project team has dispersed and the project budget has been closed there will be no specific corporate entity to pay late-delivered bills. The company finance team will then be left with the headache of deciding which department to charge them to, so it is important to proactively seek out any outstanding charges. It should be possible to identify them from the purchase orders issued. You should use your knowledge of the project activity to review whether all charges have been applied.

Cross-charges In some organizations it is possible for major projects to be mistakenly crosscharged (to put it charitably) for work by other departments. This might result from a wrong account coding or a misunderstanding, for example. The project accountant will have been on the lookout for such mistakes through the duration of the project, but the budget closure process provides a final opportunity to reverse out any mistakes that have slipped past him or her.


You should help the project accountant to transfer any residual cost exposures to operational budgets. These should be few, but they should be considered. Similarly any large capital expenditure or lease obligations should be transferred to the budgets of other departments. If the financial planning has already been properly undertaken, there should be no shocks in this process. However changes to business and operational management, changes to business structure or changes in business market conditions might create a need for last-minute negotiations.

Tax retentions The project accountant should seek advice and confirm that there are no outstanding tax bills relating to the project. Sales and import taxes are normally paid on invoice or on delivery so there should be no concern about these, but local taxes or regulatory fees might have arisen during the project. Those should be double-checked and if necessary an accrual made in the residual contingency figure.

Discounts In the initial contract negotiations most suppliers will probably have offered some form of discount. Hard cash discounts are shown on invoices and are normally easily identifiable, so it is easy to check whether they have been applied. I have known them not to be, and then it is necessary to take action to obtain a refund. In other cases a soft discount might have been offered and agreed, such as the provision of future services or goods at a reduced cost, extra licences or a higher service level. In these cases action should be taken to ensure that the organization realizes the true value of the offer. First, documentary evidence of the discount offer should be archived so that potential beneficiaries can access it. Next, details of the offer should be communicated to the operational management so they can take advantage of it. Finally, the potential savings should be detailed in any post-project review so senior management are aware of the savings achieved.

Unrealized costs and liabilities You might be aware of costs associated with the project that have not been realized: perhaps a legal claim in process, or claims from the landlord of the building. The potential costs should be notified to the project steering group so they can decide the best course of action. If the costs relate directly to the technology facilities, it might be necessary to provide for them in the post-project contingency budget.


Some charges due for maintenance agreements might not yet have been levied. Any such liability should be notified to the relevant operational department.

Supplier notices Suppliers should be sent a notice warning of the closure of the project budget and reminding them to present invoices before the deadline. This should also detail the contact point for any correspondence after the cut-off date. These notices have little legal significance, but they will serve to wake up the accounts department and sales personnel.

Contingent reserve The project accountant should establish a contingency reserve amount depending on the identified liabilities, plus a margin for unanticipated amounts. It might be consolidated into a central ‘pot’ for the whole project.

DISPOSALS AND LEASE TERMINATIONS The process of creating a new trading floor and/or data centre and relocating to a new location inevitably leads to the need to dispose of some old assets. This is never a simple process of dumping the items in a rubbish skip or dumpster. Careful project management will have ensured that most items already have a properly documented disposal plan, but when the ‘empty’ premises are inspected there are certain to be other items that need correct disposal handling. The first task is to establish the ownership of the items. They might be leased from a finance company and need return processing. Lease returns can create quite a lot of paperwork. Unplanned terminations of leases can generate penalty payments, and appropriate funding must be found. It is sometimes more costeffective to remove the item to storage and pay storage costs. The asset might ‘belong’ to several departments in the organization, all of which must be consulted before disposal. The disposal should also be recorded in any relevant asset registers. Sometimes the item is transferred to another part of the organization, and you should ensure that the transfer and any associated liabilities are recorded in the asset registers. It might be possible to sell the item on the open market. This can be done by agents who deal with issues such as shipping, insurance, export licensing and payment collection. This often happens with trader turret systems, trader desks and phone systems.


Items that cannot be sold, returned or transferred must be disposed of safely and legally. There are increasingly strict regulations, and costs, for the proper disposal of technology equipment. It might be necessary to pay for specialist disposal. If the device contains magnetic, optical or electronic data storage it might be necessary to arrange the total wiping of the data before the device is released for disposal. For data of extreme sensitivity, it might be necessary to arrange the physical crushing of the memory device. All this can create a lot of administrative work, and you might need to engage a reliable third-party organization to do this. Licence transfer can be an issue, if for example a market data feed or market data user licence with evident value is no longer required. Again, transfer within or even outside the organization is sometimes a possibility. The number of licences in force might affect service support arrangements such as maintenance fees, and these should be considered and suitable arrangements made. Finally you will need to dispose of the equipment and services used by the project team members during the construction and fit-out project. The transfer of valuable equipment and licences could create an income flow into the project budget.

PROPERTY RELEASE Closure of a previous facility can release the need to hold some buildings and properties. Disposals are normally handled by the facilities or buildings manager, with help from lawyers as necessary, but some aspects might involve the technology project team. A building lease termination or property sale might require the property to be ‘made good’. This could simply involve hiring general contractors to rip out the old technology and then make good the building fabric, but if the building has shared tenancy it might be necessary to make very careful plans to remove technology such as legacy cabling that shares common ducting and cable trays without any disruption to other businesses. This type of removal must be carefully monitored and scheduled so that no damage or disruption occurs.

DOCUMENTATION You should ensure project documentation is properly archived for future reference. This typically includes: • •

contracts and preparatory documents such as RFPs and ITTs; requirements specifications;


• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

project plans and alterations; desk plans; cable inventories; telecommunications inventories equipment room and cabinet plans; site photographs; circuit and piping schematics; construction drawings, as-built plans; meeting minutes; e-mails and letters; fault and change logs; attendance logs and time sheets; change requests; maintenance agreements; licence agreements; purchase orders, expenses and invoices; service manuals; delivery and returns notes.

Where routine business records are maintained it is the responsibility of the operational department to make suitable archival arrangements. However you should keep a watching brief to ensure that no operational records are disposed of without the documented approval of the operational management. For instance, in one project I experienced essential business records being moved by operational staff to a temporary storage area without coordination with the project team management. Contract cleaners then disposed of the records as trash, and the loss was not discovered at the office until they were on a rubbish barge floating down the river for dumping. A team of several people had the unenviable task of sorting through the rubbish from the barge by hand.

POST-PROJECT REVIEW It is a useful exercise to undertake a full project review at the end of the project. That can establish what was done well and why, and conversely what was poorly done and what could have been done to improve matters. The performance against timescale should also be reviewed, and the review should look at the financial performance of the project. An experienced facilitator can help the review process. The objective is to arrive at recommendations for future projects in the organization so that they can be delivered better.


In reality, particularly with successful projects, it will be difficult to get the key players together after the project and to undertake a full and meaningful review. If there has been a major project failure, however, such a review is particularly beneficial.

479

Glossary

Given the technology basis of this book it contains many technical terms that describe Information Technology procedures and features. Some readers will not necessarily understand all of the terms used. In recognition of this we have prepared a brief glossary. Our apologies if you find other words not suitably explained. These are ‘field’ translations; the more academic of our readers will no doubt be able to provide correctly worded versions. ACL (Access Control Lists): this is a data network term used to describe the rules programmed into network equipment and servers, governing which devices are allowed to access network services. ADSL (Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Link): a method of providing cheap, fast and continuous data network connectivity, commonly the internet, over standard subscriber telephone wires. AHU (Air Handling Unit): a machine that provides air-conditioned air into offices and data centres and is part of a larger air-conditioning system. It sucks in air from the office, cools or heats it to the correct temperature, then blows it back out again. Also known as CRAC unit. blade server: a computer designed to fit on a single motherboard ‘blade’, which is fitted into a specially designed chassis frame that is mounted in an equipment cabinet. The chassis provides common services such as power and network

480 ❙ Glossary

connection. This is a very compact method of mounting individual computers in an equipment cabinet. BMS (Building Management System): a purpose-built computer system with remote sensors and actuators used to control the electrical and mechanical components of a building. The system centralizes control into one point from which the engineer responsible for the building can control facilities such as air conditioning and power. CAD (Computer-Aided Design software): a specialized software package which allows engineers to draw highly accurate engineering and building drawings. Cat6 (Category 6 UTP cabling): a modern cabling system standard used to provide a structured cabling system for voice and data networks in offices. Older versions, which are less capable, have lower numbers such as Cat4 and Cat5. The standard describes how the cables are constructed, minimum tolerances, data transmission capabilities and how it should be installed. CIM: in the context of this book CIM refers to Computer Interface Module. It is used to connect the video signal, mouse signals and keyboard input to and from a PC, and to deliver them over a long cable. There will be a corresponding CIM unit at the remote end of the cable. DECT (Digital Cordless Enhanced Telecommunication): this is a radio wireless technology used to deliver local telephone connection from a base station to cordless handsets. It has a range of up to 50 metres inside and 300 metres outside a building. Electrak: the trade name for a sub-floor power track system often used to deliver power in trading floors and office areas. It is low-profile, modular and has socket points at regular intervals. EMI (Electromagnetic Interference): unwanted electromagnetic signals generated and radiated by machinery and other electrical devices. EMI can interfere with the correct operation of sensitive information technology equipment. Gantt: a type of bar chart used to show planned and actual activity in a plan. It has scaled bars to represent the elapsed time of the activities. Some Gantt show the interactivity dependencies through the use of arrow symbols on the plan. grommets: in the context of this book these are moulded plastic sleeves used to line holes to prevent damage to cabling from sharp edges.

Glossary ❙ 481

HEPA (High Efficiency Particulate Arrestor): an air filter that can remove fine dust particles. ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network): a telephone technology used to deliver a telephone service to handsets using a digital encoding during transmission. LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol): a method of storing directory information about people and computers. It can be used to hold user identities for sign-on to computer systems and also telephone contact details. MDF (Main Distribution Frame): a frame of metal or plywood where permanent cabling, normally telephone circuits, are terminated in patch block units. Copper wire pairs are then placed between the connector blocks to provide interconnection between the telephone circuits. NTP (Network Time Protocol): a standard method for delivering accurate time information from one computer system to another, normally over Internet Protocol networks. PBX (Private Branch eXchange): a private telephone exchange system for a business. It allows internal phone extensions to cross connect and also provides connectivity to the public telephone network. PDA (Personal Digital Assistant): a small hand-held computer. Normally sufficiently compact to easily slip into a jacket pocket. PIR (Passive InfraRed): an electronic device which detects motion, usually from the heat of the human body, and is commonly used to control light switching or intruder alarms. plenum: a chamber or area in a building which holds air that is used for ventilation and air conditioning. These are often found under a raised floor or overhead in a raised ceiling. They are relevant to this book in that they should be free of cabling that would give off toxic fumes in the event of a fire. POTS (Plain Old Telephone System): the old style public telephone system with copper wires and simple telephone handsets. QoS (Quality of Service): a data networking term describing a recent method that helps to ensure that no data is lost during transmission over a telecommunications link. This is particularly important for real-time services such as voice and video signal where any such loss of data will impair the quality of the voice heard or the video display. Most modern network devices are equipped with QoS facilities, but some of the older networks are not.

482 ❙ Glossary

RFID (Radio Frequency Identification): this is a technology whereby small processor chips are embedded in labels or tokens. When interrogated by a special reader device the RFID chip will respond with a wireless identification code. TDM (Time-Division Multiplexing): a method by which multiple voice telephone conversations are delivered across high capacity communications link. Fragments of each conversation are allowed a small ‘time slot’ for transmission on the high capacity link and are then reassembled at the remote end of the link for delivery. UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply): a device that uses batteries to deliver a continued mains voltage power supply if the mains supply itself fails or is degraded. UPS devices are normally used in conjunction with a standby generator. UTP (Unshielded Twisted Pair): a data cable where four copper pairs are used to deliver data or telecommunication signals. The pattern of twisting of the copper pairs minimizes electrical interference in the transmission. However, the wires are unshielded from external EMI. In shielded cables the shield takes the form of metallic foil or wire braid that encloses the protected connectors. VLAN (Virtual Local Area Network): a logical network path through a physical data network. The logical network route is mapped by the network switches and routers that allow only authorized traffic through. This technique reduces the amount of data network traffic broadcast across the whole network. VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol): digitized sound or voice conversations delivered across a data network. Often used to carry telephone conversations. VPN (Virtual Private Network): a logical network link where data is encrypted for privacy and delivered over the public internet. Only authorized senders and recipients can access the logical network. This can allow access to internal corporate networks from the external internet, provided that the user has the correct authentication, software and devices.

483

Index

abandoned cabling 237 accelerated programmes, costs of 181–82 access control 170–71, 207–08 construction sites 427 help desks 278 testing systems 453–54 access routes, back offices 256 accommodation for project teams 102 accountants 50, 183–84 acknowledgements 470 acoustics in meeting rooms 261–62 adjacent floors, heat gain from 39 administration budgets 111 administration facilities plans 84 administrative officers 48–49 Adobe Acrobat program 64, 65, 96 A-end circuits 292, 309 AHUs see air handling units air conditioning 35, 165, 315–27 commissioning 326–27 methods 317–18 other considerations 318–26 security 221 testing 440–41

air flow requirements 209, 323–24 cabinets 196, 213–14 air handling units (AHUs) 202–03, 212–15 heat generation 36, 39 space requirements 30, 322–23 alternate PTT trunk routes 309–10 analogue phone lines 128 ancillary rooms 28–29, 269–76 anemometers 94 anti-virus software 132–33 applications testing 450, 452–53 approval processes 179–80, 461–62 approvals, initial plan documents 87 archive facilities 133–34 asset registers/databases 97–98, 178, 189–90, 313–14 asset tags 396 auditors 54 Autocad program 96 back office desks and fittings 161, 252–57 initial layout plans 83–84 system testing 458

484 ❙ Index

backup servers 197 bad news, handling 68–69 BCM see business continuity management beams, supporting 209 behaviour in foreign locations 67–68 B-end circuits 292, 309 billing systems, telecoms 307–08 Black n’ Reds 99 blade servers 36, 114, 353, 381 BMSs see building management systems boardrooms 17, 31–32, 259–60 acoustics 261–62 equipment 263–64, 265–68 shielding 260–61 tables 264–65 windows 262–63 break-out areas 273–74 bribery 177, 178 briefings, initial 87–88 budgets 107–82, 424 administration 111 approval process 179–80 asset registers 178 boundary IT infrastructure items 155–74 building structure 110–11 business continuity features 109–10 capital v. revenue 174 closure 473–75 constraints 21–24 contingency issues 176–78 control 108–09 costs of delays and accelerations 180–82 initial recommendations 86–87, 108 new and old 112 reducing 178–79 scope 109 sustainable development 175–76 taxes, tariffs and duties 175 typical IT infrastructure items 112–55 build areas/rooms 105, 276 ‘build quality’ factors 16–17 building columns 208 building management systems (BMSs) 161–62, 454–55

building structure budgets 110–11 building supplies storage 409 business continuity management (BCM) 17–18, 109–10, 311, 389 testing 455 ‘business nature’ factors 14 business project teams 20 business requirements 9–19 deadlines 11–13 ‘environment’ factors 16–17 ‘marketing’ factors 19 ‘nature of business’ factors 14–15, 17–18 ‘people’ factors 10–11, 13–14, 15–16 cabinets 112–13, 195–98, 330–51 AHU 202–03, 212–13 cable management 338–43 floor-standing 330–35 inter-cabinet cabling 115–16 monitoring 350–51 patch panels 116, 335–38 power control 347–48 power strips 117–18 safety requirements 216 security requirements 217, 349–50 service vendors 344–45 space requirements 30 testing and supervision 345–47 UPS 201–02 wall-mounted 335 weight and position 348 cable management 113–15 back-office desks 253–54 cabinets and racking 332–33, 338–43 trading desks 244–45 cable television services 300 cabling 158–60, 224–39 abandoned 237 containment and protection 159–60, 199–200, 226–29 data 224, 225–26, 227–28, 233–37 databases 98, 293 earth/ground bonding 116–17, 157, 224–25, 232–33

Index ❙ 485

floor boxes 230–31 help desks 278 holes 214–15 intelligent patches 238 inter-cabinet cabling 115–16 lightning protection 238–39 meeting rooms 264–65 patch panels 335–37 PCs 394–95 power 119–20, 224, 229–30, 231–32 racking 328–29 reception areas 270 rooms for cabling 222–23 routes 227–28, 235–37 safety and security 216, 217 testing 442–44 trading desks 248 see also cable management cages, security 408–09 calendars, project 187, 430 call logging 285 call redirection services 286 calling card facilities 287 cameras digital 94–95 security 218, 301–04 capital v. revenue expenditure 174 carpeting of raised floors 157–58 casual staff 174 central registers 62–63, 426 certification 188 chairs 161, 255 change control, contract documents 74 change requests 66–67, 191–92, 458–59, 470–71 ‘changes’ definition 461 cherry pickers 409–10 chilled water use 35, 207, 317–18 Chinese walls 25 circuit inventories 26–27 circuit ordering, telecoms 308–09 circuit patching 293 cleaning before handover 173–74 clocks 299, 400–03

cold/hot aisle arrangements 213, 324–25 collection areas, equipment rooms 219–20 co-location cabinets 349 ‘co-location of teams’ factors 15–16 colour-coded sheaths 336–37 combs 340 communication 2, 57–69 bad news 68–69 behaviour in foreign locations 67–68 central registries 62–63 change requests 66–67 during construction work 427–28 e-mail and websites 65–66 feedback 61–62 issues databases 67 meetings 57–59 photographs 62 plans, drawings and charts 60–61 press and publicity 69 software standards 63–64 walk the floor 59–60 compliance officers 54 conference call facilities see video and voice conferencing facilities conference rooms see boardrooms; meeting (conference) facilities confidential documents 426 configuration and consolidation processes, servers 359–60, 362 constraints in contracts 73–74 construction plans, initial 82 construction steering groups 430 construction work timing 78–79 construction workers, working around 415–16 consultants 20, 48, 151–52 consultation of staff 51 contingency budget 176–78 contingency reserves 475 continuity see business continuity management contractors, main 78–79 contracts 70–77 change control 74

486 ❙ Index

coverage and constraints 73–74, 76–77 documents 72–73 evaluating 74–75 terminations 153–54 understanding 70–72 warranties and insurance 75–76 contribution acknowledgements 470 controls 183–92 accountants 183–84 documentation 184–88 initial plan documents 86 returns processes 190 standards 188–89 see also asset registers; change requests; security cooling systems 35–40, 212–15, 223, 317–18 servers 356–57 trading desks 38, 245–46 see also air conditioning; air handling units copying facilities 28, 39 corporate voice and data networks 310 corridors, in equipment rooms 204 cost centre allocation 154–55 cost constraints 21–24 costs, unrealized 474–75 crane deliveries 408 crisis control 192 CRM see customer relationship management cross-charges 473–74 cupboards 222–23, 256–57 customer relationship management (CRM), databases 98 data cabling 224, 225–26, 227–28, 233–37 general cable requirements see cable management; cabling data centre layouts see equipment rooms data network equipment, supply times 13 data port requirements 113–15 databases assets 97–98 cabinets and racking 344

cabling 98, 293 CRM 98 desk 186 equipment and services 26 issues 67, 96–97 software 64, 132 telecoms 306–07 user 283 ‘deadline’ factors 11–13 dealer board systems 124–25 DECT phone systems 298 delays, cost of 180–81 deliveries, project site 407–08 delivery areas, equipment rooms 219–20 delivery date flexibility 12 delivery notes 184–85 delivery routes, heavy equipment 211 deployment of PCs 393–96 desks, back-office 161, 252–57 plans 83–84 desks, trading 160–61, 240–51 air conditioning 325–26 cabling 244–45, 248 cooling 38, 245–46 databases 186 desktop 241–44 fan coils 165–66 layout testing 451–52 mounting 246–47 moves 14–15, 249 PDUs 163–64, 247–48 plans 24–25, 83 selection and planning 240–41 services 250–51 spare 250 system testing 458–59 desktop equipment 36–37, 141–43 desktop PCs see PCs desktop size and quality 241–44, 252 dial plans 285 digital cameras 94–95 direct phone lines 292 Directive on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) 153, 178

Index ❙ 487

directories, project 98, 432 directory enquiries services 284 directory facilities, telecoms 284 discounts 474 discretionary power 34 display screens 37, 267, 301 help desks 277 mountings 246–47, 255 overhead 300–01 disposals 153, 475–76 telecoms equipment 311–12 documentation archives 476–77 documents rooms 275–76 handover 464–65 management systems 97 door locks, electronic 171 doors and doorways 168–70, 205, 220, 222 double checking calculations 6–7 drainage systems 207 drawings and plans 60–61 ducting air 168 cables 159–60, 228–29, 340–41 dust control 321, 334 duties and taxes 175 DVD players 305 earth/ground bonding cables 116–17, 157, 224–25, 232–33 general cable requirements see cable management; cabling earthquake zones 199, 329, 351 electrical power requirements 32–34, 435–38 electrical rooms, space requirements 31 electromagnetic field (EMF) risks 42, 195 electronic door locks 171 electronic mail see e-mail Elektrac system 229 elevators 410 e-mail 64, 65 emergency power off (EPO) buttons 206–07

EMF (electromagnetic field) risks 42, 195 energy efficiency 175–76 entertaining suppliers 149–50 environment monitoring equipment 118–19 ‘environment quality’ factors 16–17 environmental risk assessment 17–18 EPO (emergency power off) buttons 206–07 equipment, project team 90–95, 99–101, 148 equipment and services analysis 25–28 equipment cabinets 112–13 equipment rooms 30, 193–222 air conditioning 165, 320 cabinets 195–98, 201–03 cabling 199–200 cleaning before handover 173–74 cooling 35–36, 212–15 ducting 168 environment monitoring 118–19 floors 156, 203–04, 211 PDUs 164 racking 198–99, 200–01 safety 215–16 security 207–08, 217–22 services 204, 205, 206, 209–10 testing 439 walls, doors and windows 168–70, 205, 208–09 essential power needs 33–34 evaluation of contracts 74–75 events schedules, outline 79–82 exchange connections testing 450 existing equipment/services inventories 26–27 expansion requirements data centre layout 194, 205 power provision 34 expenses, project team 149–50, 185, 472 experience, importance of 6 expert team members 47–48 facilities, project teams

89–106

488 ❙ Index

equipment 90–95, 99–101, 148–51 foreign site assistance 102–03 project, build and test areas 89, 105–06 refreshment and accommodation 98–99, 102 software tools 95–98 storage 101–02, 147 training 103–05, 151 fan coils, trading desk 165–66 ‘fault’ definition 461 fault logging 460–62 fax facilities 28, 172, 299 testing 453 feedback 61–62 feeds see market data feeds fibre termination boxes 342–43 file server space, project team use 95 financial data services 382–89 market data feeds 387–88 testing 447–50 trading and settlement systems 385–87 fire alarm systems 162 fire extinguishers 216 fire resistance and sealing 168–69 fire routes 215–216 fire safes 147, 217, 361 fire suppressant gas 210 fire suppression systems 129–30, 215 firewalls 138, 368–70, 385 first-aid kits 100 first aid rooms 274 first aid training 104 fittings back office 161 trading floor 160–61 flexibility of delivery date 12 floor boxes 230–31, 250 floor loading, equipment rooms 211, 348 floor plan, initial plan documents 82 floor-standing cabinets 330–35 floor tiles, equipment rooms 203–04, 332 floor walk process 59–60 floor walkers 466 floors, raised 155–58

foreign exchange losses 177 foreign site assistance 102–03 local awareness training 104–05 social behaviour 67–68 formal meetings 57–58 front offices see desks, trading furniture delivery and installation times 12–13 furniture description, initial plan documents 85 Gantt charts 61 gas for fire suppressants 210 generators 31, 166–67, 436 ‘grease’ payments 177–78 grommets 250, 340 grounding/earth bonding cables 116–17, 157, 224–25, 232–33 general cable requirements see cable management; cabling guides, cable 340 handover 463–68 documentation 464–65 launch 468 new staff and training 465–66 snag lists, corrections and spares 466–68 handsets, trader 290–91 HBAs (host bus adaptors) 358 headcount documents 24 headcount requirements 10–11, 24, 28 heat load-shedding plans, testing 440–41 heat maps 38 heating requirements 35, 413 heavy equipment, delivery routes 211 help desks 255, 277–78 testing services 455–56 high-level power 231–32 Hoot’n’Holler systems 291 horizontal cable management 339 horizontal data cabling 158–59 host bus adaptors (HBAs) 358 hot bed offices 271–72 hot/cold aisle arrangements 213, 324–25

Index ❙ 489

‘hot desk’ techniques 14 hot spots 39 ‘hours of business’ factors 11 hours of construction 415 hours of operation, cooling requirements 39–40 identification methods, PCs 396 IDSs (intrusion detection systems) 369–70 ILM (information life cycle management) 133–34 informal meetings 58–59 information life cycle management (ILM) 133–34 infrastructure description, initial plan documents 85 initial budgets 108 initial planning 78–88 initial plan documents 82–87 main contractors 78–79 outline schedules of events 79–82 union and management briefings 87–88 inspections of site 420–23 installation considerations, KVM systems 380 installation procedures, cabinets 334–35 installation support 152 insurance 76, 154, 425–26 insurers 55 intelligent patches 238 inter-cabinet data cabling 115–16 internet facilities 136–38, 283 project teams 90 internet service provider (ISP) services 376 intruder detection systems 170, 454 intrusion detection systems (IDSs) 369–70 inventories existing equipment/services 26–27 telecoms spares 312–13 ISP (internet service provider) services 376 ‘issue’ definition 461 issues database 67, 96–97 issues lists 470 IT people, working around 416–19

key cupboards 220 keyboard video mouse technology see KVM ‘kick off’ meetings 404–05 kitchens 274–75 Kopex cable protection 228–29 KVM (keyboard video mouse) technology 38, 120–21, 376–81 installation considerations 380 limitations 378–79 remote operation 379–80 servers 357–58 testing 447 labelling systems 330, 344, 396 labourers 174 lacers 339 ladders 116, 411 LAN (local area network) 135–36, 138–39, 385 wireless LAN 138–39, 371–72 landlords 52–53, 414–15 laptop PCs 397 for project teams 90, 148 large-scale printers 94 laser safety 93 launch parties 468 lawyers 50–51, 75 LDAP (lightweight directory access protocol) interface 284 leaders see technology project leaders leak detection systems 119, 207 lease terminations 475–76 legacy systems 153 librarian role 63 licensing requirements regulatory 55, 76, 476 software 26, 132, 133, 388, 398–99 life cycle expectations, initial plan documents 84 lifts 410 lighting requirements 37–38, 204, 263 during construction work 413 lightning protection 238–39

490 ❙ Index

lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP) interface 284 line of sight views 25, 83, 249 testing 446 listed building regulations 16 local area network see LAN local awareness training 104–05 location choice 9–10 location corrections 467 lockboxes 349 locks, electronic 171, 222 M&E (mechanical and electrical) engineers 315–17, 318 MAC (moves, additions and changes) processes 314 main contractors 78–79 main distribution frames (MDFs) 126–27 maintenance network equipment 374 telecoms equipment 311 management briefings 88 management facilities plans 84 market data feeds 128–29, 387–88 testing 447–50 marketing and publicity requirements 19 MDFs (main distribution frames) 126–27 mechanical and electrical (M&E) engineers 315–17, 318 mechanical rooms, space requirements 31 media contact 69 media converters 343 meeting (conference) facilities 31–32, 258–68, 305 project team use 92, 406–07 see also boardrooms meetings, formal and informal 57–59 ‘merger plan’ factors 15 method statements 424–25 microphones 265 Microsoft programs 63, 64, 65 migration of pipework 167–68 milestones 186–87 mobile phone facilities 286, 298, 305

project teams 91–92 modems 373–74 monitoring equipment 350–51 monitoring of construction progress 428–29 monitors see display screens motion detector systems 218 mounting equipment screens 246–47, 255 servers 113, 354–55 movement of stores 409 moves, additions and changes (MAC) processes 314 ‘nature of business’ factors 14 negotiation training 103–04 networks and network equipment 135–36, 363–81 corporate voice and data 310 firewalls 368–70 ISP services 376 KVM technology 376–81 maintenance and support 374 modems 373–74 network topology and WAN 375 patch leads 144 project team access 90 server 358–59 supplier reliability and resilience 375–76 supply times 13 switches and routers 364–68 testing 442–44 wireless LAN 371–72 xDSL 370–71 new staff, preparation for 465–66 noise levels 24, 41 during construction work 412 help desks 277 notebooks 99 ‘number of people’ requirements 10–11, 24, 28 numbering schemes, equipment rooms 198 office air conditioning

325

Index ❙ 491

office desks see desks, back-room office facilities plan, initial plan documents 85 office network patch and power leads 144 office plans, provisional 24–25 office services, space requirements 28–29 office software 63–64, 95 offline areas 219 offsite storage 147–48 operational costs, ongoing 23–24 operational staff 54 optical fibre cabling 225, 342–43 organizational procedures training 104 out of hours contact 430–31 outline schedules of events 79–82 outsourced teams 53 overhead costs, funding methods 71 overhead display screens and speakers 300–01 overhead services 209–10 overview, in initial plan documents 82 packaged software releases 462 pager services 305–05 pallet lifts 409–10 parking for vehicles 410–11 patching 113–15, 238, 293, 335–38 patch leads (cords) 120, 144, 337 patch panels 116, 328, 332, 335–37 serial data cable patches 337–38 PBX (private branch exchange) 123–24, 283 dial plans 285 monitoring 284 PCs 141–43, 245, 255, 390–99 cooling requirements 37 deployment 393–96 extension techniques 381 identification and security 396–97 licensing 398–99 power 391–92 project team members 90 software builds 392–93 speakers 144, 290

supplier agreements 397–98 testing 450–53 trading floor software 143–44 PDAs (personal digital assistants) 144–45, 467 PDUs (power distribution units) 163–64, 247–48, 438 pedestals (in raised floors) 157 ‘pepper and salting’ 230 peripheral device testing 453 permissioning systems 388, 449 permit to work schemes 187–88 personal digital assistants see PDAs personal storage facilities 256–57 phased payments 189 photocopying facilities 28, 39, 172 photographs 62 pipework migration 167–68 planning see communication planning; initial planning; preparation plans and drawings 60–61 plasma panels 141 platforms, raised 411 plenum under raised floors 214 podiums, in meeting rooms 268 PoE (Power over Ethernet) 32, 136 positioning of cabinet servers 355–56 post-project reviews 477–78 post rooms 272–73 power breaker cabinets 206 power cabling 119–20, 224, 229–30, 231–32 general cable requirements see cable management; cabling power distribution, underfloor 229–30 power distribution units see PDUs power failures 34 power leads 144 Power over Ethernet (PoE) 32, 136 power requirements 32–34 back-office desks 253 cabinets 333, 335, 347–48 cabling rooms 223 during construction work 413 equipment rooms 197–98, 210, 221

492 ❙ Index

help desks 278 high-level 231–32 PCs 391–92, 394–95 risers 232 servers 357 testing 435–38 power resilience 166 power socket boards 348 power strips 117–18, 333, 347–48 ‘precious documents’ 275–76 pre-handover meetings 464 premises choice 9–10 preparation 20–42 cost constraints 21–24 desk plans 24–25 EMF risks 42 equipment and services to be housed 25–28 headcount 24 heating and cooling needs 35–40 noise analysis 41 power needs 32–34 space needed 28–32 weight analysis 40–41 press contact 69 pressure testing 172–73, 441–42 pre-used equipment 112 price loading 71 primary project teams 44 print rooms 272 printing facilities 28, 39, 145 project team 94, 148 testing 453 private branch exchange see PBX procurement officers 48–49 programme of building 404–32 access control 427 communication 427–28 deliveries and installation 407–08, 409–11 establishing site offices 405–06 inspections 420–23 insurance 425–26 kick off meetings 404–05

landlords 414–15 meeting facilities 406–07 method statements 424–25 monitoring 428–30 out of hours contact 430–31 project directory 432 records 426 rubbish and noise 411–12 site storage 408–09 utilities 413–14 workers/staff and supervision 415–20 progress meetings 57–58 project areas 89 project calendars 187, 430 project cost items 21–23 project directories 98, 432 project leaders see technology project leaders project management methodology 187 project management software 95–96, 104 project site networks 90 project teams see business project teams; technology project teams projectors 90, 267 property release 476 protected power 33–34 proximity cards 170 proxy servers 137 ‘public access’ equipment racking 30 public announcement systems 299–300 publicity handling 69 contract clauses 76–77 publicity and marketing requirements 19 purchase order systems 97, 184 purchasing officers 48–49 racking 113–15, 198–99, 328–30 cable management 338–43 telecoms equipment 200–01 radio frequency identification (RFID) 220 raised floors 155–58 raised platforms 411 ramps, equipment room entrances 205–06 reception areas 32, 269–71

Index ❙ 493

receptionist telecoms facilities 298 reciprocal favours 177–78 recorded messages, telephone 306 records, project 426 recreation areas 273–74 recruitment, project management teams 44–45 redundant servers 197 refreshments for project teams 98–99 regulatory authorities 54–55, 76 remote access, servers 353–54 remote administration, trading systems 297–98 remotely controlled power strips 118 request for information (RFI) documents 72–73 request for proposal (RFP) documents 73 research, initial business management 21 residential accommodation, project teams 102 resilience requirements 17–18 air conditioning systems 40, 321–22 financial data services 388–89, 448 power 166 project teams 56 servers 353–54, 358 responsibilities, initial plan documents 86 rest rooms 274 retention of payments 471–72 returns processes 190, 472–73 revenue v. capital expenditure 174 reviews, post-project 477–78 RFI (request for information) documents 72–73 RFID (radio frequency identification) 220 RFP (request for proposal) documents 73 risers 30–31, 222–23, 232 risk assessments electromagnetic fields 42 environmental 17–18 noise 41 security 18 rollout see testing routers and switches 364–68

routing of cables 227–28, 235–367 rubbish 411–12 safes, fire 147, 217, 361 safety equipment 100–01, 215–16 safety training 104, 417 sanitary provisions 274, 414 SANs see storage area networks satellite services 27, 31, 286–87, 300 scanning facilities 28 schedules of events 79–82 schedules of goods and services required 74 screens see display screens second-hand equipment 112, 124 secondary project teams 44 secure e-mail 65 security 18, 29, 170–72, 191 cabinets and racking 349–50 cabling rooms, cupboards and risers 222 equipment rooms generally 169, 207–08, 217–22 PCs 396–97 policy audit 454 scanning 444–45 security cages 408–09 switches and routers 368 selection of project management team 44–45 self-contained environments 320 serial cable systems 337–38 server space, project team use 95 servers 130–32, 352–62 applications 133 cooling 356–57 installation 334 mounting and positioning 113, 354–56 networks and configuration 358–60 operating systems 132 power, remote access and KVM 357–58 storage 360–62 testing 446–47 virtualization and consolidation 362 service agreements, PCs 399

494 ❙ Index

service cutover 468 service desks see help desks service hatches 205 service vendors, cabinets 344–45 services and equipment analysis 25–27 services migration 167–68 services rooms, boardrooms 263 settlement systems 385–87 connections testing 450 sheathing of cables 225, 336–37 shielded rooms 260–61 shipping facilities and costs 101, 152 short message service (SMS) text service 305 shower facilities 274 sign-off certificates 188 site inspections 420–23 site offices 405–06 smoke detection systems 130, 162 SMS (short message service) text service 305 snag lists 466–67 social activities, project teams 56 social behaviour, foreign locations 67–68, 104–05 socializing with suppliers 149–50 software licensing 26, 132, 133, 143, 388, 398–99 project teams 63–64, 95–98, 148 trading floor 132–33, 143–44 software builds 392–93 ‘space per person’ requirements 10–11, 24, 28 space requirements 28–32 meeting and reception areas 31–32 offices 28–29 technology services 29–31, 322–23 spare equipment requirements 467–68 telecoms inventories 312–13 trading desks 250, 466, 467 speaker boxes 292 speakers overhead 300–01 PC 144, 290, 301

special telephone number ranges 286 squawk boxes 291 staff consultation 51 staffing costs 150–51 standards 2, 188–89 data cabling 225–26 software 63–64 statements of works 72 stationery supplies, project team 99, 151 steady-state power needs 33 steering groups 49–50, 430 steps, equipment room entrances 205–06 storage area networks (SANs) 133–34, 360–62 storage facilities construction sites 408–09 equipment rooms 206 meeting rooms 263 network-attached 360–62 personal 256–57 project teams 101–02, 147–48 trading floor and back-office 275 stringers 157 strip-out costs 152 ‘structure volatility’ factors 14–15 supervision of project work 419 supplier agreements, PC deployment 397–98 supplier notices 475 support desks see help desks support facilities plans 83–84 support team staffing 150–51 surveillance facilities 218, 301–04 sustainable development 175–76 switch-on power needs 33 switches and routers 364–68 tables, boardroom 264–65 ‘takeover of other businesses’ factors tanking, water handling 203, 207 tape data backup units/tape robots 134–35 tariffs 175 taxes 175, 474

15

Index ❙ 495

‘team co-location’ factors 15–16 ‘team types’ factors 13–14 ‘team volatility’ factors 14–15 team working, during project work 419 teams see business project teams; technology project teams technology budget v. building structure budget 110–11 technology choices 5–6 ‘technology’ factors 10, 12–13 technology project leaders 2–4, 5, 20, 43, 44, 45–47 technology project teams 20 equipment and facilities 89–106 networks, PCs and software 90, 95–98, 106 other facilities 94–95, 98–99, 100–03 space requirements 29–30, 89, 105–06, 147–48 stationery supplies 99, 151 telecoms 91–92, 150 toolkits 92–94 personnel 43–56 costs 150 experts 47–48 facilitation and training 55–56 leaders 45–47 other participants 50–55 procurement and admin officers 48–49 steering groups 49–50 training and cohesion 55–56, 103–05, 151 travel and expenses 149–50 telecoms 279–314 back-office provision 254 billing system 307–08 circuit availability 12 closets 119 databases 306–07 deployment 296–97 help-desk provision 278 implementation planning 295–96 installation costs 127–28

inventories 26–27 moves, additions and changes process 314 other considerations 308–14 project team 150, 431 racking for 200–01 remote administration 297–98 services 282–88, 299–306 trader voice equipment 288–95 training 297 vendors 280–81 telecoms managers 280 telephone extensions 290 telephone facilities, project teams 91 telephone feature training 284 telephone recorded messages 306 television services 145–46, 300 telex facilities 299 temperature monitoring equipment 118–19 temporary telephone lines 282–83 termination boxes 342–43 terminations of contracts 153–54 terrorist risk assessment/ protection 18, 218–19 testing 433–62 access control 453–54 air conditioning 440–41 building management systems 454–55 cabinet or racking installation 345–47 electrical power 435–38 equipment room 439 fault logging 460–62 line of sight 446 market data services 447–50 network and cabling 106, 442–44 PCs 395, 450–53 penetration and security 444–45 peripheral devices 453 pressure 441–42 servers 105–06, 446–47 support desk 455–56 telecoms systems 296–97 time systems 403 user acceptance 456–59

496 ❙ Index

voice and voice recording 445–46 tidiness requirements 345 tiles, equipment room floors 203–04, 332 time clocks 299, 400–03 time servers 401–02 time stamps 402–03 timescale planning, initial plan documents 86 timesheets 185 toilets 274, 414 toolkits, project teams 92–94 trade unions 51–52, 87–88 trader voice systems see voice systems, trader trading desks see desks, trading trading areas cleaning before handover 173 initial layout plans 83 raised floors 156 trading systems, financial data 385–86 connections testing 450 training at handover 466 phone features 284 project team members 55–56, 103–05, 151 trading equipment 297 travel and expenses, project team 149–50 trays, cable 116, 159–60, 340, 341 trolleys 94, 409–10 turnstiles 220 turret systems 124–25, 289 ‘24-hour operation’ factors 11 ‘types of teams’ factors 13–14 UATs (user acceptance tests) 456–59 undelivered services checks 472–73 under-desk storage 256 underfloor power distribution 229–30 unexpected expenditure 176–77 uninterruptible power supply see UPS union briefings 87–88 union representatives 51–52 unrealized costs and liabilities 474–75

unshielded twisted pair (UTP) cabling 233–35 UPS (uninterruptible power supply) 121–22, 201–02 cooling needs 36, 39, 165 desks 163–64 space requirements 31 testing 436 user acceptance tests (UATs) 456–59 user databases 283 user feedback 61–62 user mapping 449 user representatives 51 UTP (unshielded twisted pair) cabling 233–35 ‘variation’ definition 461 variations requests 470–71 vehicle parking 410 vent tiles 157, 204, 214 vertical cable management 338–39 vertical data cabling 159 VESDA (very early smoke detection apparatus) 130 video and voice conferencing facilities 139–41, 265–67, 304–05 project teams 58–58, 91 video monitoring equipment 171–72, 454 video presentation facilities 139–40 video switching 300 video tape recorders and players 305 video trading systems 290 virtual private network (VPN) software 98, 431 virtualization techniques, servers 362 Visio program 96 visitor galleries 17 visualizations, initial plan documents 84–85 voice conferencing see video and voice conferencing voice mail 285 Voice over Internet Protocol see VOIP

Index ❙ 497

voice recording systems, trading floor 125–26, 293–95 retrieval systems 295 testing 445–46 voice systems, trader 287–88, 288–95 testing 445 voice telecoms, project teams 91–92 VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) 98, 136, 279–80, 287, 444 ‘volatility of business’ factors 14–15 VPN (virtual private network) software 98, 431 walkie talkie equipment 92 ‘walking the floor’ 59–60 wall display units 146–47 wall-mounted cabinets 335 walls, equipment room 36, 168–70, 218–19 WAN (wide area network) 375, 385 warranties 73, 75–76 washing facilities 274, 414 water handling, equipment rooms 207, 210 water leak detection systems 119

web servers 137 websites, project 66 WEEE (Directive on waste electrical and electronic equipment) 153, 178 weight loading 40–41, 194, 211, 348 whiteboards 94, 267–68 wide area network (WAN) 375, 385 wind-down 469–78 budget closure 473–75 disposals and lease terminations 475–76 documentation 476–77 post-project review 477–78 retentions 471–72 returns and undelivered services 472–73 variations and change requests 470–71 windows equipment rooms 36, 208–09, 219 meeting rooms 262–63 wireless LAN (WLAN) 138–39, 371–72 work orders 184 written contracts 71 xDSL service

370–71

498

Index of advertisers

Digital Tigers

xi, 242–43, 302–03

IPC Information Systems

vii

www.digitaltigers.com www.ipc.com/MeetMax

London Stock Exchange 383–84 www.londonstockexchangeinfo.com/infolect; www.proquote.net Siemon ix, 366–67

www.siemon.com

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