ISSUES AT OVH CLOUD
In this report, the fire department claims that the OVH Cloud data center lacked an automatic fire suppression system and a universal circuit breaker, which meant it took no less than three hours to shut off the power supply. Furthermore, the facility had a wooden ceiling, uninsulated electrical wiring, and a "free cooling" system. Such a system lowers air temperature by using natural cool air or water instead of mechanical cooling. As it turned out, this actually allowed the fire to spread even faster. As a result, the building was completely gutted, and surrounding data rooms suffered massive damage. More than 130 clients have since joined a lawsuit, claiming that OVH Cloud failed to take responsibility and that they have not been adequately compensated.
NIGHTMARE
According to Timo, the scenario described is a "nightmare." The impact of cloud service unavailability on business-critical applications is enormous. Beyond the obvious financial impact, the consequences can be even more severe: it can even put human lives at risk. At Fundaments, we are therefore very critical when evaluating our data centers. In terms of our service delivery, fire is one of the greatest risks when looking at our information security policy. For this reason, all data centers are assessed against strict continuity requirements during supplier evaluations.
These requirements dictate that a Fundaments data center must always have a minimum Tier 3+ classification. What exactly does that entail?
WHAT IS A TIER 3+ DATA CENTER?
A Tier 3+ data center is currently the highest achievable class for a Dutch data center. Such a facility accounts for every aspect of security, including guaranteed power supply, intrusion protection, water and fire detection, and climate control.
All these components must be fully implemented. In terms of security, this means that checks begin at the gate: unregistered visitors must go through a registration and authorization procedure. Access is not granted without approval from a person authorized by Fundaments. Furthermore, it must be clear at all times who is entering the data center, when, and where. Naturally, this must be monitored 24/7, which is why we always require local security surveillance with a manned reception desk. Additionally, multiple access factors are used, such as fingerprints, iris scans, or hand scans.
Beyond security, the crucial factors for hardware performance must also be in order. Take power, for example. In addition to using at least two different power feeds, these must be uniquely protected with UPS systems. This is necessary not only to absorb power surges but also to provide stable power. Furthermore, sufficient generator capacity must be available in the event of a power outage, supplied by diesel generators. Timo recalls that one of their suppliers was very sharp on this: "In 2019, we experienced a power outage in the Amsterdam region. While this specific data center was not affected, they still deemed it necessary to ask their diesel supplier to deliver—a good test to ensure this was secured even during times of potentially higher demand. We apply this kind of 'sharpness' in our own services, and we expect the same from our suppliers."
The final component regarding data center quality is climate. Naturally, cooling must be in order; we find that temperature does not necessarily need to be low, but it must be stable. There is more: humidity must be accurately measured and stable. When this is properly measured and controlled, the risk of the greatest nightmare—fire—is well managed. Fundaments' Tier 3+ data centers use sensors that locally measure air composition; if levels rise, indicating a short circuit or an incipient fire, the start of a catastrophe can be quickly detected and mitigated. Additionally, fire suppression is important; by using argon gas, oxygen levels in a data room can be lowered very quickly, extinguishing a fire rapidly. This measure is a last resort, but it ensures that the infrastructure is not damaged.
As described, many components determine the quality of a data center. Fundaments adds its own quality metric to its requirements list: the efficiency of a data center, expressed as the PUE (Power Usage Efficiency) value. This value indicates how much energy is required to operate the data center. Unfortunately, operating the cloud is still an energy-intensive business, so it is definitely worth doing everything possible to reduce the amount of energy required as much as possible.
THE TIER 3+ DATA CENTERS OF FUNDAMENTS
Fundaments has a fully Dutch platform, distributed across seven data center locations in the East, Central, and West of the Netherlands. These are all Tier 3+ locations. Furthermore, we believe it is extremely important that our clients can see for themselves how our strictly enforced and robust security is managed. We are happy to take our clients on a tour of one of our data centers. Would you like to take a look? Sign up here.
Want to know more? Call 088 4227 227 or email info@fundaments.nl.
