The ship engine on the roof of our Swiss data center not only brings a holiday feeling to Dübendorf, but above all security for our customers and partners of the Netstream cloud and streaming services.
The mysterious data center roof
«And what do you think we have on the roof of our data center?» my colleague Daniela asked me meaningfully on one of my first days at work. I could already tell from her smile that it wasn’t the satellite dishes that immediately came to mind. Nor could it be a tangle of cables, surely. I should mention here that this is my first job in the IT industry. So what was it?
Fortunately, I didn’t have to guess for long, because I would never have come up with a ship engine! A ship engine?? How cool is that?! And what was it doing on a rooftop? My first thought was of the beach bars with heaped-up sand that you find on rooftop terraces in many cities. But that could hardly be the reason.
Once you knew it, the answer was completely logical and obvious. In the event of a power cut, our ship engine is the sheet anchor for the operation of our own data center – and therefore also for the cloud and streaming solutions of our customers and partners. Or should I say: for their «sea of data»…?
What a UPS has to do with network availability
Fortunately, in Switzerland we have a reliable energy supply and only rarely experience power cuts. And when they do happen, they usually last only a few minutes and are limited to a region. That really is a stroke of luck when you imagine the economic damage such an interruption can cause. At this point, I also realise how essential network availability is for our customers and partners, and that we protect their business from such an outage. And how much trust they place in us when they choose us as their cloud partner.
Thanks to my colleagues and a little research of my own, I know that in the event of a power cut, the – careful, long name – redundant uninterruptible power supply system (UPS) in the Netstream data center kicks in first. This means that powerful batteries take over the power supply for our servers, storage and network components for a short time. This allows us to continue providing the Netstream cloud and streaming services to our customers and partners without delay or interruption. However, the batteries are only used to bridge the time the emergency generator needs to start up. They provide «first aid», so to speak. But who takes over from our first responders?
The sleeping giant on the roof
This is where the ship engine mentioned at the beginning comes into play. Thanks to this blog post, I know that it serves as a redundantly operated standby power system in our data center. While the batteries are in full swing supplying power, our sleeping giant on the roof wakes up and, with a loud hum, takes over the power supply as an emergency generator. It takes just a few seconds for the colossus to be fully operational and relieve the batteries of their work. Then it impresses as a real powerhouse: the diesel-powered generator produces an output of 700 kVA. Should the worst-case scenario of a prolonged power cut ever occur against all odds, the ship engine would need refuelling for the first time after 48 hours. This can be done continuously while it carries on doing its job. Refuelling it is likely to be spectacular, as the tank is also located on the roof of the data center. Of course, we are all glad that nobody has ever witnessed this, as it has not been necessary so far.
Monthly tests for emergencies
To ensure everything runs smoothly in an emergency, the systems are tested once a month, explains my colleague Erik Amgwerd, who works as an Infrastructure Engineer at Netstream. The ship engine is then put through its paces for 30 minutes. You can feel Erik’s enthusiasm when he talks about the power of our ship engine.
Better a ship engine on the roof than by the sea
For our customers and partners, the giant on the roof of the Netstream data center means the greatest possible security. Thanks to it, they can continue to navigate the sea of data at full steam and use their cloud-based Netstream services, even in the event of a prolonged power cut.
I realise: the ship engine we have up there on the roof is 1000 times better – and more spectacular – than any beach bar.
With that in mind: full steam ahead, and ahoy Netstream Cloud!
