Monday, July 05, 2010

Belgacom signed the European Code of Conduct for datacenters

On June 3, Belgacom signed the European Code of Conduct for datacenters.

What is it this Code of Conduct about?

The electricity that is needed to run datacenters makes up for a substantial share of the electricity consumption in the European Union. By 2020, the estimated electricity consumption of 56 TWh per year in Western Europe is expected to increase to 104 TWh per year. The rapid growth in energy consumption has serious consequences. It is important to maximize the energy efficiency of datacenters to keep carbon emissions under control, as well as to efficiently manage the strain on the infrastructure, caused by the increase in energy consumption.

The European Code of Conduct has been created in response to this increasing energy consumption in datacenters and the need to reduce the related impacts on environment, economy and energy supply security. The aim is to inform and stimulate datacenter operators and owners to reduce energy consumption in a cost-effective manner without jeopardizing the reliability and operational continuity of the services provided by datacenters.

The Code of Conduct aims to achieve this by improving understanding of energy demand within the datacenter, raising awareness and recommending energy efficient best practice and targets. It is a voluntary initiative aimed to bring interested stakeholders together, including the coordination of other similar activities by manufacturers, vendors, consultants and utilities.

Datacenter owners and operators, datacenter equipment and component manufacturers, service providers and other large procurers of such equipment are invited to participate in the Code of Conduct, to help address the issue of energy efficiency and to reduce the carbon footprint of datacenters.

What does the Code of Conduct mean in practice?

As a datacenter owner, Belgacom signed the Code of Conduct. We are determined to meet the commitments relevant to our organisation’s category. In other words: we will measure our efforts, describe how we measured them and provide a yearly report on the progress that has been made.

The following data will be collected monthly and reported annually (by February 28 for the previous year) to the JRC (Joint Research Centre):

  • - energy consumption for main IT equipment;
  • - total facility energy consumption;
  • - if more meters are installed, data should be reported for these meters, including a description of the equipment included in the energy consumption;
  • - IT rated electrical load capacity of the facility.

    • More information can be found at: EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres
    or Google ‘European code of conduct for datacenters’.

Monday, July 05, 2010

Did you know… about power interrupts on the grid?

Next to the ‘need for speed’ there is also the ‘need for power’. Servers and other datacenter equipment are in constant need for electrical power. But are you aware of the number of interrupts that happen on the electricity grid? On April 21 at 4:20 PM we experienced a power cut of 29 minutes and 34 seconds at the Netcenter in Machelen. Our DUPS and diesels took over, avoiding a power interrupt for our customers. Such a long interruption is rather exceptional. Shorter interruptions happen quite regularly. An average of 12 power interrupts per year and per datacenter is not unusual. Needless to say our customers are not aware of these interrupts, as our backup systems do what they need to do when an power interrupt occurs.

Standard housing : Equipped rack space

Connectivity from 1U up to a Cage

rackspace

We provide EIA RS-310 C standard rack server space (19” ) in 1U, 1/4 rack, 1/2 rack, full rack or even Cage formats.

Footprint for robotic libraries or digital jukeboxes is available as well.

Equipped rack space from bare footprint up to Cage format

Connectivity

We offer up and down-burstable IP connectivity for limited bandwidth quantities ranging from 128 kbps to 1 mbps. For larger quantities, we provide direct fiber or ethernet connectivity with sustained bandwidth to the internet.

Other connectivity options are offered through the WICE Firewall appliance via E1 lines, PRI interfaces and corporate VPN gateways.

Safety and redundancy

The power systems in our data center are designed to run uninterrupted even in the unlikely event of a total power outage. All servers are fed with conditioned UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) power that will run if utility power fails. The UPS power subsystem is N+1 redundant with instantaneous failover in case the primary UPS fails.

In the event of an extended power outage, on-site diesel generators can run indefinitely. Generators are regularly tested to ensure functionality in the event of an emergency.

The professionalism inherent in every one of those features is the best argument to store your data somewhere else than in your office’s basement.

Our Colocation service:

Reduced investment costs

Technologies like SAN, MSA, corporate VPN or remote storage can be enjoyed without the load and risks of the investments involved. We offer access to this kind of technology by carrying the investment cost and consequently deploy and service it for a number of organisations for a fixed monthly charge.

Economies of scale and professional management at a fixed monthly charge ensure a competitive TCO.

Excellent environment

We strategically isolate your equipment in datacenters optimally constructed for the purpose of housing technical equipment. You will benefit ideal environment conditions and redundant connections to data and/or telephony providers.

All of our products benefit:

  • - 24/24 access control
  • - Stabilized environment, temperature and humidity
  • - Fire protection based on Argon gas
  • - Redundant power feeds, backed up by diesel generators

Stringent management

We take care of your data and connections, freeing your mind from unnecessary IT issues so that you can stay focused on your core business.

  • Our engineers are certified by industry leaders for infrastructure and server management.
  • Our support staff and monitoring systems are balanced to optimally cover EMEA time zones.
  • All server systems in our datacenter are remotely manageable and we are able to resolve hardware malfunctions from anywhere.

One-stop shopping

The high degree of granularity in our solutions creates an excellent opportunity for many organisations to cope with new IT needs.

In addition to typical housing and connectivity services, WICE provides you with a complete range of hardware solutions and software appliances, from mail servers to more advanced content management systems or payment solutions.

Of course, most of our products are designed to be branded according to your housestyle.

Faithful hardware

Consistent and coherent selections of hardware technology and platforms have resulted in a scalable industry-standard network in perfect condition. WICE provides redundant cluster technology or individual servers with built-in hardware redundancy.

We have hot-standby equipment in place, ready to take over functions of compromised hardware.

99,9% availability

When people rely on your websites and application interfaces 24 hours a day, unscheduled downtime is not appreciated. Our solutions are designed for use in business-critical environments, and therefore our systems architecture is redundant in multiple aspects. Most of all, our 10 years of online presence have proven we’re up to the task.