DAVID WATKINS
DATA CENTRE SECURITY
DAVID WATKINS
TITLE: SOLUTIONS DIRECTOR COMPANY: VIRTUS DATA CENTRES INDUSTRY: DATA CENTRES
David is a data centre specialist and has worked with VIRTUS since 2009, leveraging his 30 + year career. His work involves collaborating with clients to provide innovative and customised solutions.
he says.“ In addition to hardware resilience, this requires operational agility and well-practised emergency response protocols.
“ Ultimately, preparation hinges on the principle of self-sufficiency, in the event of grid failure. The more a facility is prepared for this the better it can protect uptime and meet service-level commitments.”
Arturo adds:“ The ability to provide continuous power quality and availability under these conditions isn’ t optional. The Heathrow incident demonstrated that high-density infrastructure without sufficient backup leads to rapid systemic failure. Tests must be conducted under realistic conditions, to show the ability to maintain high efficiency and reliability under significant environmental stress.”
With such events in mind, resilience remains mission-critical – both when it comes to physical security and cybersecurity.
“ Data centre operators design and build facilities to operate at 100 % utilisation. Solutions to do this include a combination or all of the following: on-site power generators, fuel cells and battery energy storage systems( BESS),” says David Watkins, Solutions Director at VIRTUS Data Centres.“ But for those technologies to be useful, operators should have appropriate support contracts in place to enable ongoing operations such as refuelling of generators, including diversity of suppliers.
“ It is also imperative that operators have the expertise and ability to execute additional maintenance that may be required if generators are required to provide power for extended periods of time. Living quarters on site is also useful to enable staff to stay at the facility, in the event that transportation to and from the data centre becomes challenging.”
Relying less on the grid is necessary, but infrastructure challenges remain With the recent grid failures in Spain, Portugal and the UK, conversations are now starting to emerge over the need for data centres to reduce their grid dependency, while enhancing power availability.
“ The most effective way to reduce grid reliance is to invest in on-site power generation and storage – whether through solar, gas turbines or large-scale uninterruptible power supplies( UPS),” Stewart says.“ These systems can significantly reduce operating costs and improve environmental performance.
datacentremagazine. com 197