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BackCurrent Assessment of Energy Supply
There are almost daily media reports on a possible energy shortage in Switzerland, which may occur in the latter part of this winter. Many things are still unclear at the moment, from the risk of this actually occurring, to the preventive measures that need to be taken and to potential consequences. As a cloud provider, we know how important reliable server operation is for our customers, which is why we would like to inform you of the facts we are currently aware of.
The cloud: virtual and physical at the same time
At cloudscale.ch, we offer our customers IT infrastructure "as a service". Virtual servers ranging from really small to really large can be created in no time at all and can then also be scaled and deleted again at any time. This saves our customers from having to procure and maintain hardware, operate data center infrastructure, and guarantee connectivity. It goes without saying, however, that computing power, storage space and network connections are still based on correspondingly dimensioned physical resources that cannot be moved at the drop of a hat in the case of a power failure.
Data centers have taken precautions
This makes it all the more important to have an energy supply that is as reliable as possible. For this reason, cloudscale.ch was extremely intentional from the outset in its choice of the data centers we use and that we also draw power from. The data centers at both cloud locations have two separate power supply lines into the building, two dedicated power supply lines to our hardware, plus UPS systems and diesel generators that kick in without delay in the case of a power failure. Franz Grüter, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Green Datacenter AG, which our customers know as the "LPG" location, was quoted in the Tagesanzeiger newspaper as saying: "Our data center will continue to work even in the case of a blackout."
The data center operators at both cloud locations are continuously monitoring the situation and taking further optimization measures wherever possible, e.g. with an increased diesel reserve and supply contracts. As far as we know, both our locations have already been officially classified as "critical infrastructure". In addition, the sector is committed to raising awareness among decision-makers of the significance of IT infrastructure for all areas of life.
Risk minimization through redundancy
It goes without saying that, here at cloudscale.ch, we are already committed to minimizing the consequences of isolated incidents, which can never be completely excluded, as far as possible. This means that our Internet connectivity is designed in a redundant manner with several direct connections to various IP transit providers with equipment on their side that is also protected by two circuits, UPS and diesel generators.
With two cloud locations that work independently of each other to the greatest degree possible, we also make it possible for our customers to build geo-redundant setups. This allows you to additionally protect yourself against worst-case scenarios, even though we are convinced that, thanks to the measures already in place, there is no need to fear power failures over the winter.
At the moment, nobody knows what will actually happen this winter given that influencing factors range from international energy markets all the way to the weather. The data center operators at both our cloud locations have, however, always taken precautions, which means that, thanks to UPS systems and diesel generators, they can also cover longer interruptions, thus guaranteeing continuous operation of our servers.
Long-term preparations will prove their worth!
Your cloudscale.ch team