Course Description
Data centres are the physical foundation of the digital and AI economy, and their design determines availability, resilience, and cost across facilities worth hundreds of millions of pounds. With hyperscale and AI-driven capacity expanding at record pace, data centre design competence is among the most in-demand skills in critical infrastructure.
This course develops a comprehensive understanding of data centre design, structured around the Uptime Institute Tier Standard (Tiers I-IV) that is the global benchmark for facility reliability. Participants learn the physical infrastructure — electrical distribution, cooling, and building support systems — redundancy and concurrent maintainability, and the design process from initiation to commissioning, including the requirements of AI and high-density workloads.
What you will achieve
By the end of this training course, participants will be able to:
- Explain the role and classification of data centres
- Understand the Uptime Institute Tier Standard (Tiers I-IV)
- Apply redundancy models and concurrent maintainability
- Design electrical distribution and power infrastructure
- Design cooling and mechanical infrastructure
- Understand building, space, and support systems
- Address AI and high-density design requirements
- Apply the design process from initiation to commissioning
How the course is delivered
The course combines data centre design principles with the Uptime Tier Standard and a comprehensive design case study from initiation to commissioning. Participants work through Tier topology, redundancy, and infrastructure design decisions.
The programme balances electrical, mechanical, and resilience design, including the requirements of AI and high-density workloads.
Designed for
This training course is ideal for:
- Data centre and MEP design engineers
- Critical infrastructure engineers
- Facility and project engineers entering data centres
- Electrical and mechanical engineers
- Anyone designing mission-critical facilities
Daily programme
- The role and types of data centres
- Availability models and the Tier Standard
- Tiers I-IV: redundancy and fault tolerance
- Concurrent maintainability
- Electrical distribution design
- UPS systems and topologies
- Backup power and generators
- Power redundancy and paths
- Cooling fundamentals and CRAC/CRAH
- Airflow management
- High-density and liquid cooling for AI
- Mechanical redundancy
- Space planning and white space
- Raised floors and cabling
- Fire protection and physical security
- Building support systems
- The design process: initiation to commissioning
- Standards and compliance (Tier, TIA-942)
- Documentation integrity
- Design case study and review
Certification & accreditation
BII Certificate of Completion
BII Certificate of Completion Upon successful completion, participants receive a BII Development Institute Certificate of Completion with a unique reference code that is independently verifiable. Our certificates are recognised internationally and reflect successful completion of your chosen programme.
