Data Center Pictures

[Karl]

Well, I've decided to take some updated data center pictures, and I'm also linking to this from our Data Center page, so people can get a better idea of our facilities. If there is anything else you would like us to photograph, just say so and we'll see what we can do. If you have any questions about what you see, etc. don't hesitate to ask either.

Note: The pictures were taken by me with a relatively inexpensive digital camera, so I apologize for any incorrect photo composition or blurriness, etc.

First, here is the building, 350 E Cermak, from the outside, I didn't take this picture, but you can see it is a fairly substantial 8 story brick building, 9 if you count the 9th floor, which is all mechanical and related equipment. It has roughly 130,000 sq. ft. per floor. The building was initially built (construction began in 1917 and ended in 1929) as the main printing facility for the Donnelley printing business as well as their corporate headquarters. This made the building perfect for data centers then are high floor loads for the printing presses and 14' ceilings. The building has developed into Chicago's premier carrier hotel, housing hundreds of networks and hundreds of thousands of sq. ft. of usable data center space.



This is what you'll see when entering the building, the lobby and security desk. Everyone entering the building must be on the approved access list, any guests are required to be accompanied by someone on the access list. In addition, the security staff keeps an eye on cameras through the inside and outside of the building 24/7.

Yes, I know the picture is blurry, it is to protect the identity of the security personnel... Ok, ok, it is just blurry because it seems I don't know how to properly take a picture, but you get the idea of what it looks like. Squint, and maybe it won't look as blurry?



Once you've passed the initial security desk you'll go up the elevator to the 2nd floor, and our suite is right outside the elevator. To get through the first door you need to have an access card. After getting through that door, the picture shows you what you see. Straight ahead is the data center, with double doors to make it easy to bring in large shipments, etc. (the freight elevator is right down the hall) and to the right is the door to our support office, where all of our support staff spend their time when they're not working in the data center. You can also see to the right of the office door the key card and fingerprint scanner. To get into the data center you need to walk past our 24/7 manned support office and pass the biometric+key card scan; we definitely take security seriously.



Now inside the data center you will first see our storage area, used for storing customer equipment, commonly needed supplies (power cables, network cables, fiber, etc.), and then spare hardware for our dedicated servers.

Image removed, as the storage area has been moved to a locked cage in the back of our space. New picture should be arriving shortly.

To the right of the entrance you will see one of the two sets of 5 Liebert HVAC/CRAC units. These 10 units provide enough cooling to the facility that even if one failed while the data center were at full capacity there would still be adequate cooling.



After that, you will see a fair amount of space available for future growth and future customers. In the picture you can also see some spare telco racks in the background as well as the overhead basket rack, which is installed throughout the data center space.



Here you can see the HVAC vent setup. The setup is all overhead cooling, but with the large number of vents, roughly one vent per two cabinets, it gives us a lot of control to affect the amount of and direction of airflow, allowing us to easily control any hot spots, etc. In addition, the vents are configured in a manner to maximize our cold-aisle/hot-aisle configuration. In the top-middle you can also see one of the many smoke (VESDA-like) detectors installed throughout the facility. These smoke detectors are extremely sensitive and are installed every 15-20 feet.



Our data center facility has two independent power feeds, fed from completely independent UPS and PDU systems, both of which are backed by diesel generators and dual power grids. This allows customers to get fully redundant power to their cabinets for any critical servers/equipment. We have power pre-installed above the cabinets, so we can deploy a large number of cabinets very quickly, though the outlets are not fastened to the cabinets, so we can allocate the power as needed, giving us flexibility. We have portions of the data center dedicated to 120v AC power and others for 208v AC power, so we can meet basically any AC power needs. behind the power install you can also see a closer picture of the overhanging basket rack.



Now here are just some pictures of our rows of cabinets, etc. Nothing too special to point out in these.







Finally, something not all that important, but a bit fun. This is the company Wii and plasma TV. The TV was originally purchased for conventions, etc., though we can't let it go to waste when we're not at a convention, so we hooked it up to a Wii. This is available for both employee and customer use.



Again, if anyone wants to see anything else or has any questions, just ask.

[Karl]

For those of you who don't believe that the picture above is the 2nd set of doors, here is the first set of doors. There are security cameras on both the outside and outside of this door to assure that the 24/7 security can clearly see if there is an issue of attempted forced entry, etc. You can also see the key card scanner to the right of the door and the suite number, suite 240.



One other thing to note is that the data center had been previously built out in 2006 by British Petroleum, so it is built according to their high standards for redundancy and security. They were outgrowing the space quicker than they had planned and relocated to a new data center elsewhere in the building. The space had initially been built out by 360 Networks in 2000-2001, but almost everything had been upgraded and/or replaced when BP moved in in 2006.

Here are some pictures of dedicated servers in racks, as was requested:





Here is the cabling on the back of some dedicated servers, relatively neat and clean. Using the shorter 3 ft. power cables is a big help.

[CordM]

Nice. Plenty of room for expansion =]

[NickCatal]

I actually got into a conversation with one of the desk security people about how exactly you would need to go about breaking into that place. We went through a few different options and came to the conclusion that the only way to effectively break into the place and get out with someone's equipment would be to actually buy the building.

So don't worry

[dsc2010]

Originally Posted by NickCatal

I actually got into a conversation with one of the desk security people about how exactly you would need to go about breaking into that place. We went through a few different options and came to the conclusion that the only way to effectively break into the place and get out with someone's equipment would be to actually buy the building.

Well I would imagine that if enough people showed up with automatic weapons they could coerce their way in. But why bother when the CIhost datacenter is just a little ways away and you can apparently walk in and take what you'd like no questions asked \zing.

Anyways, these are the first pictures of the new data center that I've seen, and it looks incredible. With all that space for expansion I can hope one day economies of scale will bring SF server pricing down to the Softlayer area (although I understand that Chicago is more expensive to operate in).

[Ray]

A couple of quick things.

Yes. With a lot of weaponry, someone could probably get into the building. As nice as the security is, I'm sure the majority of them would rather not die protecting trying to protect something in which they have no real vested interest. I wouldn't say it'd be automatic, but you do need security access or an escort to get into the building. Security could, in theory, allow someone in.

Getting out with a large amount of equipment would possibly be a different story. Checking out is also required. I also believe that they have security buttons, similar to those in banks, that notify the police of an issue, though I'm not 100% sure on that. One of the larger Chicago police stations is only a few blocks away. It wouldn't take long for something to be done about that button being pushed.

To top that... Someone trying to steal something would have to know exactly where to go. While some of the major data centers are labeled, there are seldom signs identifying the customer(s) that occupies the space. At ~130,000 square feet per floor, it's easy to get lost inside of that building. It is not a fast process to get in, get out, or walk to another suite.

I'm not saying that it's impossible, but I think that these factors alone make it very unlikely that something of that nature would happen. I'm probably not considering other factors.

And not too many people have the means to buy the building. Digital Realty Trust bought it for $140 million, and they got a steal. Add the work they've put in, I am 100% sure the place is worth quite a bit more than that now.

[Justec]

If you have something more top secret than the very proactive security that is obviously provided you probably have enough money to run you own special data center.... maybe with lethal gas on break in or something

On another note I really want to come up to Chicago now for a visit (i mean business trip). I mean come on a Wii in the DC is just awesome!

[Maha]

heh, very nice...

[Justec]

Well I got my very own Wii and Im practicing now!!! Watch out!

[redhotservers]

A picture of actual servers inside of the cabinets would be nice