NorthC has activated the temporary, redundant power supply and cooling systems at its data center in the Dutch town of Almere at 9:30 AM this morning. The restoration of power arrives six days after the fire on May 7 took out the facility. Customers’ IT systems are now being restarted in phases. At the same time, the investigation into the cause of the fire is ongoing.
The recovery process was anything but smooth. Following the fire on May 7, it became clear early this week that a recovery within 72 hours was not feasible. A critical component from a European supplier was delayed in delivery. That delay pushed the intended deadline back by two days.
The impact of the outage caused by the fire—the cause of which remains unexplained—was widely felt. Organizations ranging from Utrecht University to the Dutch Chamber of Commerce and public transport operator Transdev faced disruptions of all kinds.
Redundant design
NorthC aims to be able to switch to the regular power grid later, without further interruptions, and without any issues. That analysis has now begun. The temporary installation will remain available as a backup until that transition is complete.
In parallel with the technical restoration, account managers and technical specialists are personally contacting all customers using the Almere location to go over the reconnection procedure. In this way, NorthC aims to ensure the restart proceeds as smoothly as possible for all parties.
Cause still unknown
Meanwhile, specialists are investigating the cause of the fire. The fire broke out on May 7 around 8:45 a.m. at the rear of the data center, where technical facilities are located. All employees were evacuated in a timely manner; smoke development in the server rooms remained limited thanks to the fire separation in place.
NorthC manages more than twenty data centers in the Netherlands, Germany, and Switzerland. The Almere data center is part of the Dutch core network.
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