How we keep you safe during a heatwave

Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve seen record-breaking temperatures of 40C in the UK, red weather alerts due to extreme heat and heatwaves lasting days at a time. And according to research, these things will become the norm by 2050. While businesses were taking care of keeping their offices cool, one thing they didn’t think about was the effect that the heat can have on their servers. 

Physical hardware gets hot when it’s using a lot of power. Take your phone, for example; if you are playing a game on it for an extended period, you will start to feel it heat up in your hand. The same thing happens with servers. They use a lot of power, so they get really hot over time. If you combine the heat they produce due to usage and the scorching temperatures outside, your hardware will start to suffer. You will experience performance issues at best, and your hardware will overheat altogether in worse-case scenarios.    

A common mistake companies make is storing their servers in a small dusty room hidden in the office building. These hideaway rooms aren’t equipped with an inadequate cooling system, often go unmonitored and in some cases have no supply backup in case things go wrong. Additionally, many of these offices operate on a 9-5 basis, so if your servers overheat or fail out of hours, there is no one around to help fix it. 

If you are in this situation and need a solution, you can store your servers in a reputable data centre with colocation. 

Colocation (sometimes known as “colo”) is the practice of renting space for your servers and other computing hardware at a third-party provider’s data centre facility. Typically, colocation services include the building in which everything is housed, networking, physical security, redundant power and cooling components, which then support the servers and storage provided by the customer.

Any customers who house their equipment in our data centres can rest easy knowing that their equipment is housed at the optimum temperature. We use STULZ air conditioning, a leading temperature and humidity management technology provider specifically created for mission-critical applications.

Also, because we specialise in managed hosting, our data centre is monitored 24/7/365. This also includes temperature monitoring, so if there is a sudden spike in heat, we can counteract it to keep your equipment safe. 

Additionally, we also have a range of systems to help keep your equipment safe, including:

A N+1 Riello UPS redundant power supply so that in the event of a component failure, CWCS have multiple power supply backup components that do not participate within the system during normal operations.

A FM200 Fire suppression system, also known as HFC227ea, FM200 is a waterless fire protection system and is discharged into the fire within 10 seconds, suppressing the risk immediately.

Electronic and NFC door systems for authorised personnel only, so you know that your servers are safe.

Remote KVM access 24/7/365 over IP access allows remote operators to access the console of your co-located servers via the internet or private network. 

Last but not least, we also offer access to the data centre 24/7/365 for when remote KVM access isn’t appropriate and you need to come on-site.

Having your servers housed in a safe purpose-built environment gives you absolute peace of mind, especially during heatwaves where the weather can impact your ability to run your business effectively. 

Our Colocation Hosting services are available from our facilities in Nottingham, Manchester & London Data Centres. We provide the optimum environment to house your hardware. With security at the core of everything we do, you and your servers are in safe hands.

To find out more about our colocation services visit our webpage or contact our sales team.