Tier III data centre launched in Phuntsholing

The facility offers to provide 99.982 percent availability of services to its customers

lyonchhoenTech: With Bhutan Telecom (BT) launching a certified tier III data centre in Phuentsholing, yesterday, individuals, entrepreneurs, and organisations across the country can now host their computer systems and information in a safe and secure location, within Bhutan.

The data centre will provide 99.982 percent availability of services to its customers, which indicates the amount of time the services are guaranteed.  The 99.982 percentage roughly translates to about only two hours outage in a year.

Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay launched the data centre in Phuentsholing, yesterday.  It is the country’s first tier III data centre  certified by the Uptimes Institute in the USA.

The centre will offer three major services to customers.

It offers rack space for both single phase and 3-phase power, in which organisations can keep their servers, cage services and cloud services.

Cage service is when a particular client does not want even BT officials in the centre to access their data, except for housing and maintaining the server and data.  Cage services are relevant to banks, officials said.

The centre is composed of multiple distribution paths, with equipment that are dual powered.  The centre also has multiple uplinks and has a concurrently maintainable site infrastructure.  This means that the centre is linked by two uniform power connections with two uniform cables, in which one will function if another is damaged or is under maintenance.

In addition to the hosting services, the BT data centre will also provide remote hands services and managed services.

In the remote hands service, a client can call and have the host do any changes to the data as required.

The centre will also procure equipment for clients, if there is demand.

Further, the data centre building is managed by the Intelligent Building Management Systems (IBMS), which helps in providing a secure environment for protecting the clients’ data.

Lyonchhoen Tshering Tobgay also made it very clear that the service reliability of 99.982 percent should be maintained as per the tier III design certification.

“Tier III is Tier III, ” lyonchhoen said, pointing out it must be ensured such reliability is provided. “I need 99.982 percent.”

Lyonchhoen also said he would have high regard and appreciation if the data centre provided such reliability.

Lyonchhoen said that, if the reliability was not provided in the initial year, the goodwill would be lost, and that it would be difficult to regain the goodwill.

Lyonchhoen also highlighted how Bhutan’s first tier III data centre was different from those abroad.

“Our centre is a clean and green one,” he said, pointing to the renewable energy used by the centre. “We have to market this green data centre to the world.”

Lyonchhoen also pointed out that the centre was in a pollution free environment and a politically stable one.

BT CEO Tshewang Gyeltshen said reliability of 99.982 percent would be ensured. “Yes, we have to maintain it,” he said, adding that BT staff would be monitoring the centre 24×7.

BT professionals, Tshewang Gyeltshen added, would continuously monitor the performance of the data centre system through live management. “Everything is systemised, so it’s possible.”

As constant power is critical for data centres, the CEO said a back up system of two diesel generators has been provided.  A total of 12,000 litres would be available onsite for the two generators.

“The generator will automatically start if there’s power interruption,” Tshewang Gyeltshen said.

The data centre is also built in such a way that small earthquakes  will not be able to hamper its service.

The data centre already has five clients, whose websites are being hosted by the centre.

Officials said the number of customers couldn’t be fixed because customers differ in size and service demand.

BT has invested Nu 167M to construct this centre in Phuentsholing.  BT chose the border town because of it is close proximity to the international gateway.

Source: http://www.kuenselonline.com/tier-iii-data-centre-launched-in-pling/#.VOjZ_vmUeSo