Commissioning gates (definition of “ready”)

We do not define readiness by a date or a press release. We define it by commissioning gates: acceptance tests and operational prerequisites that must pass before workloads are admitted and before expansion phases proceed.

Why this matters (inference)

Inference is continuous, bursty, and user-facing. That means:

• failures are immediately visible to end users,
• degradation (not just outages) matters,
• operations discipline is part of the product.

Gate categories (what we validate)

Power (electrical)

• Power-path verification under load simulation
• Failover behavior and alarm correctness
• Telemetry integration and operator workflows

Cooling (thermal)

• Thermal stability under sustained load
• Control behavior under simulated faults and recovery
• Headroom policy aligned to density posture

Networking (latency + throughput)

• Baseline latency and throughput measurements
• Segmentation verification and tenant boundary checks
• Failover tests (as applicable to the design)

Security (physical + operational)

• Access control workflows and logging
• Monitoring coverage checks for critical zones
• Visitor/contractor workflows with clear ownership

Operations readiness

• Runbooks (MOP/SOP) exist before go-live
• Severity model and escalation paths are defined
• Maintenance windows and change control posture are agreed

What “pass” looks like

Each gate results in:

• test artifacts (what was tested and how),
• pass/fail criteria,
• remediation plan (if needed),
• a clear decision: proceed, hold, or redesign.

Read next

• Procurement checklist (RFP-ready): /procurement/rfp-checklist/
• Operations reference: /reference/plugin/
• Facility architecture: /reference/configuration/