IT ROOM
SPECIFICATIONS
Best Western Asia Server Room Guideline
Revision April 2019
Best Western Operations Asia
[email protected] IT Room Specifications:
Location and dimensions
The IT Room must be located in an area that minimizes the likelihood of exposure to fire, water,
Corrosive fumes, heat and smoke from adjoining areas.
The IT Room must be accessible but not be located on or near a public area or busy corridor.
The presence of the IT Room must not be advertised by any signs or labels.
The IT Room must have a floor area of at least 15m2.
Physical entry into the IT Room must be restricted by door locks.
Access to the IT Room must be to named individuals or job roles.
Construction
The IT Room must be located away from areas susceptible to flooding i.e. no water pipes should
be located in/above or in the walls around the IT Room.
Air ducts servicing other areas of the hotel must not pass through the IT Room, or dampers must
be provided.
All walls, floors and ceilings must be watertight including any openings.
All walls, floors and ceilings must have at least a one-hour minimum fire resistance rating carried
to the underside of the construction.
Doors must have at least a thirty minute fireproof rating.
All materials used in the IT Room construction must have a flame-spread rating of 25 or less.
The IT Room must be a dust free environment i.e. hung ceiling, finished walls and smooth,
uncarpeted, floors.
The floor-loading rating must be at least 512kg/m2.
Lighting must be connected to the property’s emergency power source.
Sufficient 42 Unit Communication and Server Cabinets must be provided to hold all the property’s
IT hardware and allow room for 50% future growth.
Electrical Power
All IT equipment must be powered off a dedicated branch circuit that conforms to the following
statements:
The circuit must have an insulated wire conductor, equal to the size of the phase conductor, for
grounding the equipment.
The branch circuit grounding wire must be tied to a single insulated ground point at the
distribution panel.
The distribution panel insulated ground point must have a grounding wire connecting to either a
service ground or a suitable building ground.
At least 60 Amperes capacity should be provided to the IT room with a 32 Amp fuse.
Please note: “Ground” means dedicated ground, not neutral.
The conduit or the utility box must not be used as the only grounding means.
Fire protection and suppression
The IT Room must have an automatic pre-action dry sprinkler system FM200.
The system must support independent zoning for IT Room and provide audible and visible alarms
at the fire annunciation panel.
The system must support automatic discharge via cross-zoned smoke detectors. The system
should support a thirty second delay before release on the second alarm.
Temperature control
The IT Room must have an independent air conditioning system capable of sustaining an air temperature
between 18°C and 21°C.
The system must conform to the following statements:
A malfunction alarm/high temperature alarm displayed on the property’s engineering or fire panel.
Be powered off the property’s emergency power source.
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Where static electricity is an issue, a humidity control device capable of maintaining 40% - 50%
relative should be installed.
The IT Room has a raised floor. (Optional)
The IT Room to have a portable extinguisher, appropriate for electric fires, located within the IT
Room.
A sign should be located next to the extinguisher clearly showing its purpose.
Structured Cabling
As the building is a high resized building the structured cabling will be:
1- Horizontal – Unshielded Twisted Pairs UTP – Category 6 or above from each point to the edge IT
closet located in the same floor per wing.
2- Vertical – Fibre optics multi-core to act as the back bone connecting each of the edge IT closet to
the main core closet located in the IT room.
Secure IT Closets – Edge Cabinets specifications:
Ideally, all IT hardware and equipment will be located within the property’s IT Room. However, for larger
properties whose floor plans and building layout dictates that category 6 cable runs extend beyond 90
meters secure IT closets will be required. The secure IT closets must meet all of the following
requirements:
The IT Closet must be located in an area that minimizes the likelihood of exposure to fire, water,
corrosive fumes, heat and smoke from adjoining areas.
The IT Closet must be accessible but not be located on or near a public area or busy corridor.
The presence of the IT Closet must not be advertised by any signs or labels.
Physical entry into the IT Closet must be restricted by door locks.
Sufficient Communication and Server Cabinets must be provided to hold all the necessary IT
hardware and allow room for 50% future growth.
All IT equipment must be powered off a clean circuit within the property.
The IT Closet must be covered by the buildings standard fire protection and suppression system.
The IT Closet must be covered by the buildings standard air conditioning system. Ideally this
system should be capable of sustaining an air temperature between 18°C and 21°C.
Unshielded Twisted Pairs Cabling:
Category 6 Cabling
All voice and data cabling within the property must be delivered using Category 6 (CAT6) cabling.
This cabling must conform to the following statements:
The cabling should be supported by trays and ducting within the property’s wall, ceiling and floor cavities.
Cabling distances:
Category 6 cabling intended for use with TCP/IP (data/voice) traffic must only be used for
distances less than 90 meters; for distances in excess of 90 meters, fiber optic cabling must be
used.
Category 6 cabling for use with analogue voice traffic can be used over distances more than 90
meters (for bath rooms in this case).
Voice cable runs that extend over 90 meters must be interrupted by patch panels located in a
secure IT closet within the data cabling 90 meter limit.
The cabling should be properly terminated using RJ45 faceplates within the hotel.
All the property’s cabling should be aggregated in the IT Room or individual floor IT Closets
(where necessary) using patch panels.
Proper cable management should be used on all cabling within the IT Room and IT Closets.
Both ends (the RJ45 faceplate and patch panel) should be clearly labelled.
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Four cabled RJ45 ports for a back office workspace must be provided.
Six cabled RJ45 ports for a Studio Apartment must be provided.
(one for the telephone on the desk, one for the telephone next to the bed, one for High Speed
Internet Access, one for Interactive TV system, two as spare).
In the case of suites the formula will become:
Seven cabled RJ45 ports for a One Bedroom Suite must be provided (two in the bedroom, four in
the living area).
Cabled RJ45 ports should also be provided in front of house areas where telephones, televisions,
workstations and network printers are planned to be located.
In F&B Outlets and any other outlet the formula is: For every Point of sale Terminal, there should
be at least 3 RJ45 Ports. In addition, 1 RJ45 port is required for Credit card processing terminals.
Fibre Optic Cabling
Typically, fiber cabling will be used to connect the LAN equipment in the IT Room within the
Secure IT Closets distributed around the building.
The fiber cabling must terminate on fiber patch panels either within in the IT Room or relevant IT
Closet.
The fiber runs should be clearly labelled at both ends.
Sufficient fiber runs should be provided to support the multiple potentially separate LAN’s –
Wireless, HSIA, IP Telephony, Back Office, IP enabled building services, IP Enable Televisions,
etc…
The developer must obtain the type of fiber (wavelength, colour, connector) used by the cabling
contractor so that the correct fiber ports on the LAN equipment can be purchased.
All fiber cabling must be covered by the industry standard 20 year warranty.
