New location, proven technology: dataforest goes back to the roots — and expands into “firstcolo”

Admittedly, we have reduced the excitement curve a little by the fact that our website has basically already leaked the new location - but we would still like to officially and ceremoniously announce that we moved into another data center at the end of last year, namely the firstcolo in Frankfurt. Anyone who has known us for many years will remember darkly: didn't we move out about five years ago?

Strictly speaking: no. The data center we moved out of back then was another data center from the same operator. And as long-standing customers may still know, the move was primarily due to lack of space. Back then, we were still a bit green behind our ears and thought we could manage our growth permanently in a single data center. Well, we were completely wrong, because our space was finally coming to an end at the end of last year: Space, electricity and air conditioning had reached capacity limits. In addition, more and more customers want a wider selection and location redundancy and we are of course happy to comply with this!

Where it says dataforest, there is dataforest inside

Anyone who is worried now is not the usual one at the new location dataforest quality We can reassure you: As usual, we provide all our services within the data center autonomously. This means that we only purchase racks, electricity and air conditioning from the operator and have rented our own contiguous space for this purpose. We do everything else ourselves, including the selection of rack PDUs. In plain language: This is exactly what you get dataforest network and the DDoS protection For which we are known — a fact that, mind you, you can rely on at any other location — and are also completely independent of the operator's network operation. Due to the geographical proximity to our other locations, the new area will be managed by the same dataforest employees as before.

Network building

At the new location, we are using our proven combination of Juniper MX480 as a router and Arista DCS for core switching, each fully redundantly equipped and therefore designed to be highly available. To enable clean cabling of our racks, we also operate our own core rack at the new location, which we use to connect all other racks centrally. The core rack, in turn, is connected to the dataforest backbone in Interxion FRA8 via redundant (intersection-free) optical fibers. Hardly worth mentioning because it's standard for us: Of course, every rack is also redundantly connected to the core switching infrastructure and has redundant circuits and, as usual, we don't do things by half — instead of connecting Switch A to Power Feed A and Switch B to Power Feed B, every Switch that we operate is connected to two power feeds. We have continued this redundancy concept up to the management network, which allows us to administer our network components both via Ethernet and via serial consoles. The management network is operated “out of band” and is therefore independent of our own network in order to be able to react in case of an emergency.

Which dataforest products are operated in the data center?

So far, we only offer dedicated servers and colocation (HE housing and entire racks) at the new location. We have set up customer WiFi for our colocation customers - by the way, now in all dataforest data centers.

Existing servers are not being actively migrated to the new data center. In the long term, we want to expand our presence with several locations and are not planning to close down existing space. Customers with their own VLANs at multiple locations can book optional transportation services to connect the locations privately.

For now, we have equipped our space with 18 racks (i.e. a complete row of racks), but are already planning to expand the free space with additional racks in close cooperation with the operator. Of course, this will also create interesting image and video material!

Technical data

We are located in a newly expanded section of the data center, for which the entire air-conditioning technology and power supply have been renewed in accordance with the latest standards. Here are the most important data:

• staffed 24/7 with technical staff
• Biometric access systems (fingerprint scanner)
• Intruder alarm system (EMA)
• Video surveillance of the entire data center
• Early fire detection via RAS/VESDA system, automatic fire department alerting
• Argon gas extinguishing with pressure reduction and silencers
• Fire-fighting due to suffocating and oxygen-displacing extinguishing action
• Air conditioning units with N+2 redundancy available
• Particularly high efficiency due to direct free cooling via filtered and treated outdoor air
• Electrical installation with surge protection and regulated energy distribution
• Power supply via separate sub-distributors

In particular, the dual redundant power supply impressed us: It has two independent power rails, which provide the A feed and the other the B feed, each feed being redundant in itself, as it is each protected by its own UPS and its own diesel generator. The UPS systems are also inherently redundant so that they can be maintained without overriding redundancy. In order to reduce the probability of failure due to production errors, different UPS and control cabinet manufacturers were used for each power feed. The probability of an outage on both feeds is therefore extremely low.

Certifications

The firstcolo FRA4 has the following certifications:

• ISO/IEC 27001:2013
• ISO 9001:2015
• PCI-DSS
• TÜV-certified data center level 3
• 100% green electricity

The day of construction in pictures