Inside Vodacom’s impressive new data centre
Vodacom opened its new 3,000-square meter data centre in Midrand in July 2014 – an energy-efficient facility aimed at helping the company deliver on its new cloud strategy.
This is Vodacom Business’s eighth data centre in South Africa, and is also the biggest and most advanced facility in its stable with a Tier III Design Certification from the Uptime Institute.
Vodacom highlighted that the data centre was built in-line with its green philosophy, and was designed to have a minimal impact on the environment.
The new data centre is already hosting some services, and is set to grow to one of the country’s major hosting operations.
MyBroadband took a behind-the-scenes look at the new Vodacom Data Park.
Vodacom Data Park
The new Data Park represents a significant network infrastructure investment by Vodacom Business.
The site is focused around managed hosting services, but also hosts co-located customers and internal solutions.
Here is the data centre from the outside.
Vodacom Data Park
Vodacom Data Park entrance
Security
The data centre has many levels of security, including 24-hour guards, biometric authentication, 110 digital CCTV cameras, and bullet-proof protection on doors and other areas.
The data centre uses a building management system to remotely monitor devices such as generators, electrical systems, fire systems, fuel tanks, and air-conditioning units.
The alarms are monitored 24-7 via SMS and from the control centre by onsite security staff.
Security at entrance
Biometric entrance control
Data centre access control
Data centre space
The data centre provides 3,000 square meters of hosting space across three levels.
New data centre space
Server racks
Empty DC space
Secure hosting (from older Vodacom DC)
Under the floor (from other Vodacom DC)
Power resilience and fire protection
The Vodacom Business DC has multiple layers of protection against an electricity outage, including uninterruptible power supplies (UPSs), battery backups, and two 2600kVA diesel generators.
The data centre is also heavily protected against any instances of fire.
UPSs and power feeds
Backup batteries
Diesel generator
Generator room sound barrier
Fire protection
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