Data center maintenance: applications and future research directions Mostafa Fadaeefath Abadi, Fariborz Haghighat and Fuzhan Nasiri Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Concordia University – Sir George Williams Campus, Montreal, Canada Abstract Purpose – One of the most critical infrastructures is a data center (DC) because of it having many servers, computers and other equipment. DCs provide online services for various companies in the information technology (IT) industry. DC facilities should provide reliable online services while addressing the required quality and performance level considering maximum reliability and availability. The purpose of this study is to represent and classify the main findings in this area and to identify the main research gaps and shortcomings from the perspective of research. Design/methodology/approach – This paper provides an organized and systematic literature review focusing on topics regarding the operation and maintenance (O&M) management of DCs. Findings – Although there are several studies on O&M management systems for industrial systems and facilities, a limited number of studies with few methods and models have focused on DCs so far and these facilities require more attention. This paper identifies the issues and challenges for DC buildings and facilities and provides a conclusion of the findings to highlight the main research limitations for discovering new potential methods as future research opportunities. Research limitations/implications – The paper has highlighted the main practical issues of DCs in terms of maintenance management. Several research works have been discussed specifically for DC’s maintenance, which makes this paper a credible source for researchers, maintenance managers and companies involved in the area of DC. Because several of the reviewed literature were based on real case studies, decision-makers in the DC maintenance sector can take advantage of new research on maintenance scheduling to reduce the costs of maintenance. Originality/value – The paper has presented a comprehensive list of frequent keywords in recent publications related to O&M management for DCs. It has provided a categorized list of publications based on by their topic, methodology and case study. Because this paper has discussed research works specifically for DC’s maintenance, it is a credible source for researchers, maintenance managers and companies involved in the area of DCs. Keywords Operations management, Information technology (IT), Maintenance management, Facilities management (FM), Data center (DC), Maintenance scheduling Paper type Literature review 1. Introduction A data center (DC) is a major infrastructure and facility which contains a high quantity of servers and computers to provide internet services for many companies in the world (such as Google, Amazon, etc.). The term “data center” may have different meanings from various points of view and there are also some other similar names such as data hall, data farm, data warehouse, computer room, server room, etc. which have been used by researchers and scholars. According to U.S. Environment Protection Agency (EPA), DC is a type of principle electronic equipment that is used for processing data (server devices), storing the data (storage equipment) and communications including networking tools and devices. DC Data center maintenance Received 17 September 2019 Revised 16 December 2019 22 January 2020 Accepted 19 February 2020 Facilities © Emerald Publishing Limited 0263-2772 DOI 10.1108/F-09-2019-0104 The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/0263-2772.htm