Imagine : You need to make an important payment to secure a deal you have been working on for months , but the bank ’ s website has gone down . Or perhaps you ’ re on the way to the airport and find that you cannot access your flight information or electronic boarding pass because you can ’ t connect to the Internet . Or you find that you are unable to sign into your account just when you need to find that email from your wife about your daughter ’ s birthday party . Or maybe , like Olympic hero Mo Farah , you just want to check your fantasy football team . The world we live in today is one that is defined by electronic services and communications , from the way we do business to the way we talk to our loved ones , and we expect access to these things all the time , 24 hours a day , seven days a week . But this would be impossible if the companies that provide them do not have the foundations in place that allow them to perform the modern miracles that they do . That ’ s where I come in . I run the place that has become as important as the power station that keeps the lights on in your living room , or the gas works that keeps your radiator warm in winter : My name is Mike and I ’ m a data centre manager !
The data centre may not sound so important , but all those vital banks of servers that are used by companies all across the world need to be housed somewhere .
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‘ The world we live in today is one that is defined by electronic services .’ |
And that somewhere needs to be secure and provide a reliable and specialist service .
The first part of my job began years ago , when I transitioned to the operational phase of the site I now manage , a state-of-the-art data centre in Chessington . The building was built along specific requirements and fitted with the latest specialist infrastructure along with the consultation of our key stakeholders , and now covers an impressive 131,000ft 2 with 50,000ft 2 of white space covering five 10,000ft 2 data halls .
Hands and eyes
Typically , my day begins early , and before I leave the house I will check the overnight email traffic and the progression of any Remote Hands Services tickets . This ‘ hands and eyes ’ service is one that we provide around the clock , and means that our clients can ask us to physically check any issues that they may have with their servers .
Reliability and security are our paramount concerns , and after arriving on site I will generally review any overnight issues and catch up with the security staff and maintenance team .
Our server suites or data halls are supplied with uninterrupted power supply ( UPS ) and generator back up , which will provide continuous power if there are issues with the main electricity supply . The electricity supply
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through the national grid can usually be relied upon , but on the rare occasion there is a mains issue , such as a power blip , our suites are supported initially by a bank of batteries . Meanwhile the generators will start , run up to speed and take the building load . Our design model means there are three generators per suite which operate in what we call an N + 1 configuration , meaning we only need two generators to support the suite . The added advantage of our design ensures that we can comfortably carry out any maintenance on any part of the system at any time , whilst ensuring that there is absolutely no down time for our clients .
In addition to the resilience at any of our sites our security protocols are also key for any of
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12 | June 2017 |