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The SBC Data Center 100,000+ (gross) square foot facility was opened in March of 1999, and was built to satisfy extreme hosting and data communications needs. The Internet co-location portion of the data center is over 75,000 square feet of raised floor space. The data center is a Telco-grade building, built to withstand natural disasters and an earthquake level 4. The facility is braced for seismic activity such as earthquakes, located in a flood free zone. The building's foundation is of slab-on-grade, reinforced concrete construction. This facility and the land it resides on are owned by each appropriate company.

Facility Security

The facility is protected and monitored 24/7/365 by security guards. At minimum there are five guards on duty (two during off-hours), not including the on-site 24/7/365 facility staff. Closed circuit surveillance cameras are installed on the interior and exterior of the building. Security officers and the local staff monitor these cameras and recorded video is digitally stored. This data is stored for 15 days if viewing is ever required.

Cabinet, Device and Cabling Specifications

Further security of operations is ensured by encapsulating devices within dedicated cage spaces preventing unauthorized access to the monitored and locked cabinet-style racks and devices. Power cables and all network cables have been secured in conduit for added security. The front and back of each cabinet is monitored and recorded by multiple closed circuit surveillance cameras.

Facility Cooling

The data center's average temperature of 70-72 degrees Fahrenheit with 45 percent humidity is achieved through the use of 86 Airflow rooftop mounted compressed gas units (N+1). This feeds to the 86 Airflow CRAC units that supply the data center with the cool dry air pushed through the perforated floor tiles. Each unit is 28 tons, for a total of 2,408 tons of installed cooling. Each condenser also has an associated water sensor to identify any failures.

Data Center Power

The data center receives primary power feeds from two separate substations which feed into the facility through separate underground routes. The primary feeds connect to separate electrical service switchboards which are crossfed with secondary ties that feed into separate MGE UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) Systems. Each redundant UPS room contains 6 UPS systems (N+1) which filter out aberrations to supply clean continuous power to the customer cabinets, and infrastructure equipment.

In the event of a power failure these UPS systems can supply 3,000 KVA, which will maintain operations for 20 minutes. These UPS systems feed to 22 United Power PDUs (Power Distribution Units), which are located throughout the data center. These PDUs provide redundant circuits which feed power. Each separate circuit in the PDU has spare capacity so that the power requirement can be met. Should the higher amperage be required, an additional whip/circuit will be extended to the rack or system location.

This UPS is connected to six two-megawatt Cummins Diesel Generators that will activate within eight seconds of power failure. Twenty four thousand gallons of fuel reside on-site to provide enough fuel to run all six generators at 100 percent capacity for 48 hours. While no condition exists in which all generators would operate under such conditions, a reference of scale would be to consider that operation of all six generators simultaneously would produce enough excess power to feed the entire local electrical grid. Power system testing includes testing of emergency switch gear at least semiannually through simulated power loss. UPS systems are tested on a monthly basis and generators are tested weekly. While the facility has experienced grid power loss, no customers have ever been affected by an outage.

Fire Suppression

A pre-action (dry pipe) sprinkler system with pressurized leak down detection has been installed above the floor throughout the data center and subdivided into multiple zones. Early warning smoke, particle and heat detectors are located above and below the floor to detect any potential problem. The system is connected to a 24/7/365 monitoring service both on and off-site. The system will only charge the sprinkler system once two detectors in a zone have been triggered. Once triggered, the thermal fuse in each sprinkler head must reach between 120 and 190 degrees to disperse water. In addition, FM-200 extinguishers are located throughout the data center to attack incipient fire outbreaks prior to sprinkler system activation.