Each year data centers around the Netherlands open their doors to visitors as part of National Data Center Day. Organized by the Dutch Data Center Association, the seventh annual event took place on November 9th. Bart-Jan Smit, a Global Account Manager for Sims Lifecycle Services, joined other members of the Association for tours at BIT and ITB2 facilities.
BIT offers tailed colocation services at three data centers in Ede, centrally located in the Gelderland region. Within their colocation space, visitors learned how BIT powers and cools the space, and about available network and cloud connectivity options. BIT demonstrated how their two direct distribution stations ensure they provide a robust network with no downtime. To ensure service can be maintained, aggregates are tested monthly and once a year the data centers run on them completely. Security is also a critical concern for clients within colocation data centers, and BIT explained the strict security practices in place within their facilities.
The tour at colocation provider ITB2’s facility focused on security and energy use. ITB2 achieves Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of 1,07 and will receive a Datacenter Dynamics EMEA Award in recognition of this accomplishment.
“What a nice opportunity to visit working data centers and see them from a client’s point of view. I enjoyed seeing the facilities and hearing what the priorities for the operators are.” said Bart-Jan. “The more we understand data center business needs, the better equipped we are to provide our on-site decommissioning and data destruction services when requested.”
To find out more about the end-of-life services that Sims Lifecycle Services offer to data center clients please visit: www.simlifecycle.com/data-center/