Customer Stories

The Robotics Downtime Problem Hyperscalers Don’t Talk About And How One Solved It

Author: Kevin Bowersox

As robotics and automation become increasingly critical to live data center operations, businesses need more than modern technology. They need reliable operational support to keep systems running efficiently across multiple locations. 

The Challenge

Our client, a leading communications platform relied on robotics and automated guided vehicles (AGVs) to support important operational workflows in data centers.  

Robotics support largely depended on coordination between site operations teams, remote engineering resources, and third-party vendors. When issues occurred, multiple teams often had to coordinate before a root cause could be identified. 

The process typically required site personnel to gather information, determine ownership, open support tickets, coordinate with remote teams, schedule vendor involvement, and arrange onsite access for troubleshooting. Even relatively straightforward issues could take days or weeks to fully resolve, while more complex problems involving routing, commissioning, or site readiness often required significantly longer timelines. 

As robotics deployments expanded, so did the complexity of maintaining system availability and operational readiness across multiple sites. The existing support model became increasingly difficult to scale consistently across a growing number of facilities. 

Our client needed a solution that would reduce reliance on travel-based support, improve onsite responsiveness, and create a standardized approach to robotics operations across all participating sites. 

Why We Were Selected 

We had been their robotics partner long before this challenge emerged, working daily alongside their teams, stakeholders, and third-party vendors. That familiarity meant we could move fast, identifying, onboarding, and managing the right field engineers while never losing sight of the safety, security, and compliance standards hyperscale environments demand. 

We designed a structured approach that emphasized process discipline, stakeholder communication, issue ownership, and continuous operational improvements. We also demonstrated our ability to serve as a bridge between multiple stakeholder groups.  

The Solution 

We created a structured support model designed specifically for live data center environments. The goal was to improve how robotics issues were identified, documented, escalated, tested, validated, and communicated throughout the support lifecycle. 

Phase 1: Discovery and Operational Assessment 

We assessed existing robotics support workflows, documented failure scenario escalation paths, access requirements, safety expectations, and recurring operational bottlenecks. 

This discovery phase established baseline measurements for issue ownership, response times, training needs, and persistent support challenges. It also helped identify opportunities to improve visibility, accountability, and communication throughout the support process. 

Phase 2: Field Engineer Onboarding and Deployment 

Next, we identified, onboarded, and deployed Robotics Field Engineers to key data center locations. 

Each engineer was trained and aligned with customer expectations around safety, security, troubleshooting procedures, documentation standards, communication protocols, and escalation requirements. 

By creating a dedicated onsite presence, our client gained immediate access to personnel capable of performing readiness checks, troubleshooting robotics issues, coordinating with vendors, validating fixes, and supporting day-to-day operational requirements. 

The Results 

We built a dedicated Robotics Field Engineer support model that strengthened our client’s operations across multiple hyperscale data center locations. Key outcomes included: 

• Faster onsite triage and response for robotics-related issues. 
• Reduced delays caused by unclear ownership and fragmented escalation paths. 
• Fewer handoffs between site teams, remote support groups, and third-party vendors. 
• Improved support coverage across multiple data center sites. 
• More consistent troubleshooting, readiness checks, and documentation practices. 
• Stronger alignment around safety, compliance, communication, and operational expectations. 

The benefits extended beyond robotics uptime alone. 

For leadership, the new model provided greater visibility into site-level operations, robotics performance, and a more scalable approach to supporting robotics programs across multiple locations. 

For site teams, having knowledgeable field engineers onsite created clearer ownership, faster local follow-through, and improved communication during issue resolution. 

Vendor partners also benefited from receiving more complete and actionable issue reports. Instead of spending time reconstructing incidents from fragmented information, vendors received comprehensive diagnostic packages that included logs, timestamps, photographs, robot identifiers, site context, and retest results. 

This allowed vendors to focus more quickly on solving problems and validating corrective actions. 

Looking ahead

As robotics scaled across the data centers, we had to rethink how we supported them. The goal was simple: less complexity, faster response, and fewer disruptions for a team already running a live environment.

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Kevin Bowersox, Project Manager

If your teams are looking for experienced robotics automation or field engineering support for your data center operations, we can help. Connect with us to learn how our robotics and field engineering support experts can help you improve data center operations and develop a scalable approach to support your robotics programs across multiple locations.