Warning: Summer heat wave conditions could spell meltdown for UK businesses

Telehouse Europe advises on how to protect servers and prevent downtime

Telehouse Europe, one of Europe’s leading suppliers of secure colocation and data centre facilities, warns that if the UK reaches the predicted 100 degree Fahrenheit-plus temperatures this week then servers and other business-critical IT equipment are at huge risk from overheating which in some cases could cause a complete crash. In the instance of a complete system crash businesses could face permanent loss of valuable information, loss of revenue due to downtime and loss of customer confidence as well as damage to the brand. There is also the consideration of loss of employee productivity and the cost of damage to servers. This impact and the real cost of downtime is something that most companies have not considered, especially when critical information can be lost in a matter of seconds and all communication and daily workflow could be brought to a standstill.

Bob Harris, technical services director, Telehouse Europe comments “The summer of 2003 saw many businesses suffer due to high temperatures. We believe that these were not exceptional and that we will see more hot summers in the future. Businesses therefore need to think about how to protect themselves from the dangers of overheating both this summer and in the future.”

Philip Low, Founder and Director of BroadGroup, says: “Our recent research on data centres shows that business continuity and disaster recovery are major concerns for end-users. They need to pro-actively to safeguard their mission-critical data, to avoid being caught on the back foot when extreme weather conditions do occur.”

Telehouse Europe urges businesses to take precautions this week and for the remainder of the summer to ensure that systems maintain the optimum operational temperature without overloading power systems. It encourages CIOs and IT departments to play their part in combating the dangers of rising temperatures by:

• Ensuring company systems are regularly backed up and restore procedures are fully tested

• Understanding how each company server will react to high temperatures to allow contingency planning, i.e. will processing slow or just shut down

• Continually monitoring the ambient temperature around server cabinets, ensuring it does not exceed 26°C, avoiding major malfunctions due to overheating and high humidity

• Closing down non-essential servers if temperatures threaten to exceed 26°C, avoiding unnecessary heat output.

"Much like people, IT equipment suffers fatigue under extreme heat conditions," continues Bob Harris. "To prevent networks from slowing down it is important for companies to take the correct precautions prior to the temperature rise otherwise the projected loss of productivity will inevitably lead to other losses that businesses cannot afford."