We sat down with Alex Liu, our specialist data centre Services Manager, to learn more about his role and how he works through day-to-day challenges on-site.
For the last three years I’ve been working on our NEXTDC projects, starting with M2 and later moving to the M3 project which are both complex data centre projects.
I’m primarily responsible for the design and services components of the project. I’m also responsible for managing contractors on site and do a lot of work during the commissioning phase to ensure it all goes smoothly. Aside from that, I also assist the estimating team and new business team from time to time, providing input and considerations from the services point of view.
At the core of it, the Services Manager handles the end-to-end of services in a project.
I have been in Services for about 3 years now. When I started at Kapitol, I was a Project Coordinator, looking after some aspects of services as part of my role which was the spark for me. As I got more experience and dove deeper into projects over time, the projects also got larger and I was given the opportunity to step up to the Services Manager role.
Services are the systems installed in buildings that make a building functional, safe and efficient. Some common examples include energy supply and distribution, lifts, air conditioning and lighting.
Services are critical when handing over projects, they typically revolve around electrical, mechanical, fire and hydraulics. But sometimes when you’re working on complex projects such as data centres, hospital or commercial projects, that’s when different kinds of services come into light like security systems, building management systems and CSMS.
Currently I’m working on our NEXTDC projects, which have a high level of intricacy during the commissioning process and getting everything ready for the integrated system tests at the end of their M3 project. It’s quite a complex project so it goes through a lot of scrutiny in terms of the levels of testing. The biggest challenge is bringing all the systems together and guiding that transition from design into a live facility smoothly.
At the start of every project, we look at energy efficiency and ways to minimise waste. At M3 we’re using solar power systems to power office spaces. We’ve also implemented rainwater tanks and recycling to be as efficient as possible. It’s been great working with NEXTDC as they’re always looking to improve and innovate on every project.
What I love most about my role is being involved from the design phase, delivering it and then seeing how all these pieces of the puzzle have come together at the end. As a Services Manager, you have to go through the commissioning phase and then help it become a live facility. You get to be there from start to finish, so there’s an immense sense of achievement at the end. When you see something on a piece of paper become a model then coordinating it, commissioning it, and seeing it become a live system… I think that’s what I love the most.
