Building resilient infrastructure is only half the battle, argues Richard Graham, Industry Sector Manager at RS UK & Ireland, who explains why MRO planning needs to begin long before a facility becomes operational.

The UK’s data centre sector is entering a new phase of growth, driven by artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing and digitalisation. Operators are racing to deliver new capacity across the UK and Ireland, and significant investment is being channelled into designing and building resilient facilities. But an equally important challenge emerges once commissioning is complete: keeping facilities operating reliably – now and for years to come.

Bridging the gap between commissioning and operations

For many organisations, the transition from construction to live operation is where maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) becomes a strategic business function rather than simply a maintenance activity. Every maintenance decision has the potential to affect uptime, customer confidence and operational performance. With downtime estimated by a variety of sources to cost between £7,000 and £10,000 per minute, organisations can’t afford to think about maintenance readiness only after a facility has gone live.

One of the biggest challenges we see is the gap between commissioning and long-term operations. Once responsibility passes from project teams to operations and facilities managers, weaknesses can begin to emerge if MRO planning hasn’t kept pace with the build. We call this the ‘commissioning cliff’ – the point where responsibility changes hands, but the supporting MRO strategy has not fully matured. It’s a clear danger point.

RS’s recent research with the Data Centre Alliance highlighted this challenge. Only 27% of organisations surveyed said they had defined their MRO supply chain strategy during the design phase. 14% waited until commissioning, while 11% developed a strategy once the facility was already operational. One in five organisations had no formal MRO strategy at all, while more than a quarter didn’t know when one had been established.

For me, those findings reflect the incredible pace at which the sector is expanding. Organisations are rightly focused on securing planning permission, building facilities and bringing new capacity online as quickly as possible. The danger is that operational planning can sometimes become secondary.

I’ve seen organisations where engineers are left sourcing parts reactively, procurement teams are managing multiple suppliers without clear oversight and critical spare parts haven’t been properly mapped against operational risk. None of this is because organisations underestimate maintenance. It is simply because attention has understandably been elsewhere.

Availability of MRO parts is paramount in this industry, and delays caused by missing parts or inefficient procurement processes can quickly undermine the resilience operators have invested so heavily to create.

The real cost of fragmented MRO processes

When a critical component fails, procurement priorities change dramatically. Nobody asks what the replacement part costs. They want to know where it is, who has it and how quickly it can be delivered. Traditional purchasing models often reward the lowest cost, catalogue breadth and negotiated discounts. Yet the reality inside a live data centre is very different.

RS’s research found that 82% of respondents rate speed of delivery as very important when evaluating MRO suppliers, while 80% place the same importance on supplier responsiveness and support. Availability of parts follows closely behind at 71%. Price, although still important, ranked significantly lower, with just over half considering it the highest priority.

Rather than relying on engineers to source products during an incident, mature MRO strategies establish processes well before they are ever required. These include identifying the critical spares and consumables needed to support power, cooling and broader facility maintenance. Having the right stock on site and clear purchasing processes in place is vital. This supports smooth day-to-day maintenance and gives teams confidence that essential items will be available when they are needed.

Equally important is proactive category management. Instead of reviewing suppliers only when contracts expire or problems emerge, procurement teams should continually monitor the market, evaluate alternative sources and develop ‘what if’ scenarios that prepare the business for future disruption.

As recent global supply chain events have demonstrated, resilience increasingly depends on preparation rather than reaction.

Building resilience for the future

The demands placed on data centres are continuing to evolve, and MRO strategies need to evolve with them. We’re seeing facilities being developed well beyond the traditional London and South East market. New investment in places such as Manchester, Newport and Glasgow, as well as across Ireland, is creating exciting opportunities, but also raises new questions around supplier coverage, inventory positioning and response times.

Organisations should think beyond traditional linear supply chains and towards more resilient ‘supply web’ networks. Regional stockholding, multiple fulfilment routes and strong local support all become increasingly valuable as data centres expand geographically.

Skills are another issue the sector can’t ignore. Competition for experienced maintenance engineers continues to increase, while many highly skilled professionals are approaching retirement. That makes it even more important to create structured maintenance processes that reduce reliance on individual knowledge.

As our dependence on digital infrastructure continues to grow, expectations around uptime will only become more demanding. Designing resilient facilities will always be essential, but maintaining that resilience requires an equal level of planning and investment. Ultimately, commissioning should never be viewed as the end of the journey, but as the beginning of a new operational phase.

The organisations best placed for long-term success are those that treat MRO as a strategic capability rather than simply a maintenance function. By putting the right planning, partnerships and processes in place from day one, they will be better equipped to minimise risk, respond effectively when issues arise and deliver the levels of resilience modern data centres demand.

RS’s whitepaper, supported by The DCA, A spotlight on data centres… How maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) is central to their future, offers insights into a variety of themes shaping the future of data centre operations. It is available to download here.