Raising standards for data centers in Asia

An accredited data center plays a decisive role in the promotion of services, which greatly helps the sales team.

Every month, millions of new users of online services in Asia connect to the Internet. This contributes to a significant increase in demand for them and stimulates the creation of new information processing centers and the expansion of existing in the geographical range from Singapore to Thailand and Hong Kong.

Among many similar projects, emphasis is placed on accreditation. Thus, you can stand out among competitors, appear in a more favorable position before users, and increase your competitiveness.

Raising standards

In addition to well-known international standards such as Uptime Institute , ISO 27001 and PCI DSS , some of the most popular data centers in Asia are created locally or redistributed from other industries. In Singapore, there is a multi-level cloud security system (MTCS) standards, as well as BCA and IMDA Data Center Green Mark and Singapore's money management standards (MAS) for technological risk management (TRM).

According to Freddie Huang, head of engineering and operations in Telin Singapore, compliance with TRM is more in demand by financial institutions as a key requirement when choosing a data center provider. To keep up with this trend, the company is currently in the process of obtaining accreditation for the Outsourced Service Provide Audit Report (OSPAR), and is collecting recommendations developed by the Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS).

When it came to Uptime Institute standards, Huang made sure his department met the requirements of a compatible data center to support critical applications.

Dixon Tan, senior manager of China Unicom in Hong Kong, called Uptime Institute level accreditation one of the most famous in the industry and emphasized that one fifth of the company's customers need it.

“MNC and FSI are seeking this certification to ensure the availability of a data center. Operators of information centers are interested in obtaining accreditation, because it is absolutely necessary to increase competitiveness, ”Tan told DCD.

Increased demand

As mentioned above, a certified data center is important in helping the sales team to promote services. This is obvious, but John Duffin, managing director of Uptime Institute in South Asia, told us that data center operators should not try to obtain a certificate solely for the sake of a large client.

“You need to understand that the lack of a data center with a finished design would lead to great disappointment,” he said about the two-step process, “the design certification process requires effort. We take the completed set of drawings and place it in front of an experienced engineer to also provide a good overview for the rest of our colleagues. ”

“For the Constructed Facility certification, we are checking to see if the data center has really been created - no one else does. Then we conduct a 12-hour “Black Building Test” at full IT load. Our goal is the success of the client and his confidence that the center actually works, ”he explained.

Operators seem to be buying this, as evidenced by the gradual transition of the market from Tier-ready centers to Uptime Institute accredited data centers such as 1-Net North in Singapore and the growing list of Telkomsigma data centers in Indonesia.

“To meet demand, the Uptime Institute has expanded its staff to 17 employees working in the region today. Five years ago, I started from scratch, ”said Duffin. “I observe what is happening and notice that people are becoming more aware of this. There is high demand, and we have already made 40 presentations and conferences this year, ”he added.

Urban myths

When a certain standard gains momentum, a certain proportion of delusions are likely to appear. Duffin singled out those who annoy him the most, with the most common requirement for power.

“Everyone tells me that Uptime requires two external utilities,” said Duffin, emphasizing the misconception about Tier IV accreditation. According to him, it is necessary to be supported and fault-tolerant at the same time, and this is precisely the prerequisites for the accreditation of Tier III and Tier IV, which theoretically can be obtained even without access to a local electrical utility. Of course, a local power grid is preferable, as it is cheaper than diesel generators operating around the clock.

“There are no two energy companies. If you pay attention to other standards, they will be able to confirm this and will be right. But if you talk to an electrician who understands external systems about access to two power networks, the answer will be mixed, ”he said.

Duffin alluded to the fact that energy networks in most regions are monopolists, so their scale is quite impressive. The entire national state of Singapore, in fact, operates on a single energy system.

Finally, Duffin also emphasized that accredited Tier IV data centers are significantly more expensive than Tier III facilities. He pointed to NEXTDC, Australia's first Tier IV data center, which has accreditation evidence. “If you can build your Tier IV data center around N + 1 redundancy, you can have Tier IV at the same price as Tier III,” he said.