IICTI Certified Data Center Infrastructure Specialist

Holders demonstrate that they can apply and evaluate data center design standards, tier topology and site selection, critical power architecture and redundancy topologies, air cooling engineering and airflow management and liquid cooling and high-density AI/HPC infrastructure, plus 7 further areas, in realistic professional scenarios, as defined in the AQSCERT scheme for Data Center Infrastructure Specialist.

Who it is for: Professionals working, or preparing to work, in data roles.

1. 01Data center design standards, tier topology and site selection7% of the exam

   • Evaluate data center designs and sites against availability standards and business resilience requirements.
   • Scope: ANSI/TIA-942-C, Uptime Institute Tier I-IV topology, EN 50600 availability and protection classes, BICSI 002 and site risk assessment for hazards, utilities and connectivity.
2. 02Critical power architecture and redundancy topologies13% of the exam

   • Design critical power systems that eliminate single points of failure and meet target availability.
   • Scope: MV/LV distribution, 2N, N+1 and distributed redundant topologies, UPS architectures and eco-modes, lithium-ion BESS, generators and fuel systems, STS, busway and selective coordination.
3. 03Air cooling engineering and airflow management13% of the exam

   • Diagnose and optimise thermal performance of air-cooled white space using measurement and CFD analysis.
   • Scope: ASHRAE TC 9.9 thermal guidelines, hot and cold aisle containment, CRAH/CRAC and fan-wall systems, free cooling and economisation, delta-T optimisation and CFD modelling.
4. 04Liquid cooling and high-density AI/HPC infrastructure6% of the exam

   • Architect liquid-cooled, high-density infrastructure for AI and HPC clusters, including retrofit of existing facilities.
   • Scope: Direct-to-chip cold plates, rear-door heat exchangers, single and two-phase immersion, CDUs and technology cooling loops, OCP specifications and 50-130+ kW GPU rack power and cooling design.
5. 05Structured cabling, white space and rack engineering15% of the exam

   • Design physical infrastructure layouts that support high-speed networks, density growth and maintainability.
   • Scope: TIA-568 and ISO/IEC 11801 cabling, MPO/MTP, OM4/OM5 and OS2 fibre for 400G/800G, cable pathways, rack and floor load ratings, seismic bracing and white space layout.
6. 06Energy efficiency, sustainability and regulatory reporting7% of the exam

   • Evaluate facility efficiency and lead sustainability improvements that satisfy regulatory reporting obligations.
   • Scope: ISO/IEC 30134 KPIs (PUE, WUE, CUE, REF), EU Energy Efficiency Directive data center reporting, EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres, ISO 50001, heat reuse and renewable PPAs.
7. 07DCIM, BMS/EPMS integration and OT security7% of the exam

   • Architect integrated monitoring and control systems that give secure, real-time visibility of facility infrastructure.
   • Scope: DCIM capacity and asset management, BMS and EPMS integration, Modbus, BACnet, SNMP and Redfish telemetry, digital twins and IEC 62443 security for facility OT networks.
8. 08Fire protection, physical security and electrical safety12% of the exam

   • Evaluate life-safety, fire and physical security controls for compliance and effectiveness in critical facilities.
   • Scope: NFPA 75 and 76, clean agent and water mist suppression, VESDA early detection, EN 54, layered physical security and access control, ISO/IEC 27001 physical controls and NFPA 70E arc flash safety.
9. 09Commissioning, critical operations and maintenance management8% of the exam

   • Lead commissioning and concurrent maintenance programmes that sustain availability without introducing risk.
   • Scope: Commissioning levels 1-5 and integrated systems testing, Uptime M&O practices, MOP, SOP and EOP authoring, preventive and predictive maintenance, IR thermography, battery testing and CMMS.
10. 10Resilience engineering, failure analysis and incident response5% of the exam

    • Diagnose facility failures and design corrective measures that measurably improve resilience.
    • Scope: FMEA and FMECA, single point of failure analysis, fault tree analysis, root cause analysis of outages, human-factors error reduction and post-incident review.
11. 11Capacity planning, lifecycle economics and colocation strategy7% of the exam

    • Evaluate capacity and sourcing options and lead infrastructure investment decisions over the facility lifecycle.
    • Scope: Power, cooling and space capacity forecasting, stranded capacity, TCO and CAPEX/OPEX modelling, modular and edge deployments, colocation SLAs and contract evaluation.

Question types

Single choice 100%

Delivery

Online (remote proctored), Test centre, On-site (corporate)

Retakes

Up to three attempts within any 12-month period. A 14-day waiting period applies after a first unsuccessful attempt and 30 days after a second. Each retake requires a new booking and fee. Retakes draw a different randomised form from the question bank.

Provisional cut score — psychometric validation is required before live delivery. Blueprint v1.0.

1. 1

   Register

   Create a free account and start the programme.

2. 2

   Practice

   Online practice test (coming soon).

3. 3

   Training

   Optional

   Online course or classroom — or skip it.

4. 4

   Certification

   Independent exam and certification decision.

Training is optional and does not by itself confer certification. Find a training partner