Power supply in the Green data center
Our data centers are powered by our emergency generators in the event of a power shortage.
The federal government issued an alert in the fall of 2021 that power availability could be at risk and a power shortage could occur.
Green operates data centers for hyperscalers, cloud providers, many large corporations (financial and healthcare), and SMEs, performing an important economic function. For this reason, we have been classified as critical infrastructure by the federal government (DDPS, FOCP). A data center failure, e.g. in the healthcare sector, would have fatal consequences. Due to our responsibility as a data center operator and the current urgency, we are in constant contact with the federal government and the relevant agencies in order to assess the situation and initiate the necessary measures.
We are prepared - protection in emergency situations
All measures are defined in our BCM and the entire supply chain is mapped so that we are prepared accordingly in an emergency situation. Not only power shortages are events that must be ensured, but all emergency scenarios. With our diesel generators and the corresponding batteries, we are able to compensate for the smallest interruptions and to operate our data centers 100% autonomously even in the long term. Appropriate contracts and SLAs along supply chains ensure safe and smooth operation in case of emergency.
Our data centers are all equipped with diesel generators. With our diesel stock, we guarantee 48 hours of bridging security (continuous operation). After 24 hours of continuous operation, our BCM automatically comes into play with the corresponding action plans and ensures replenishment with diversified contracts and SLAs with diesel suppliers as well as coordination with the federal government. In the event of a power shortage, our diesel generators can be used to bridge power quotas and outages and ensure a reliable supply of power to the data centers.
Detailed information from the federal government can be found at the following link:
Autonomous power supply / external dependencies
External dependency: power autonomy outside data center infrastructure
Our data centers have an autonomous power supply and operation can be ensured within the Green backbone. The office complexes are also covered by the emergency power supply.
However, access to data via leased lines and internet lines and the power supply to the customer infrastructure outside our data center infrastructure is beyond our control. We strongly recommend that our customers ensure their own business continuity management so that the power supply to the data centers can also be guaranteed.
Dependency internet provider
We inquired with the largest internet provider. Below you will find the emergency concept and the challenges of internet providers in the event of a power shortage.
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Emergency concept Swisscom
Thanks to its power-autonomous design (batteries) on the 48VDC network, Swisscom can maintain operations in its regional control centers for 4 hours in the event of a power failure. Should the interruption last longer than 4 hours, Swisscom can request one of the approximately 65 EMERGENCY MOBs and thus also bridge a longer power interruption in a regional center.
Power autonomy
Thanks to its power-autonomous design, the Swisscom network can ensure the availability of fixed and mobile services for all customers for at least 1 hour in the event of a nationwide power interruption (blackout).- If the power blackout lasts longer than 1 hour, fixed-network services are guaranteed for all customers who have a direct link to Swisscom Central Office. In this case, however, the mobile antennas have a maximum power autonomy of one hour, which would result in an interruption of mobile connectivity.
- If the power failure lasts longer than 4 hours, there will be no connection in the connection network (access). However, the core network (backbone offices) and the services (data centers) have a power autonomy of at least 72 hours.
- Swisscom cannot make any statements about the power autonomy of the customer's own infrastructure (e.g. routers or internal network), as the corresponding solutions are structured differently depending on the customer and it can be assumed that there are also cases in which no local power autonomy is provided.
Electricity shortage and impact on Swisscom
As of the quota system, Swisscom is also affected. We are trying to be exempted from the quota system, as we have an important task in the national supply; initial talks with the responsible authority FONES and OSTRAL are already taking place. We are currently examining other scenarios in the crisis team and in collaboration with Business Continuity Management (BCM).
Shared office workplaces
Our office buildings are powered by installed emergency generators in the event of a power shortage.
In the event of an emergency situation, Green can provide emergency workplaces within a short period of time so that our customers can continue to access the infrastructure and data in the Green data center and initiate the necessary measures in the event of a power failure.
Should such an emergency situation occur, our customers will be informed in detail about the possibilities and framework conditions.
More sustainable with energy-efficient data centers
Only high-performance and efficient data centers form a sustainable infrastructure. Green has more than doubled its data center capacity over the last three years and developed as well as implemented new approaches to reduce energy consumption.
Green is doing everything it can to make data centers energy efficient, sustainable and secure.