F E A T U R E

Terry Storrar , Managing Director , Leaseweb UK

Only recently , the UK government has highlighted the essential role that data centres play in the country ’ s economy and security , by classifying these as part of the critical national infrastructure . Along with power networks , transportation and communications services , if a data centre suffers any downtime , even for a short time , this can have significant and damaging implications for any infrastructures or services for which they provide the backbone support .

It is no wonder that data centre businesses must constantly strive to keep their services running 24 / 7 for customers in every industry sector .

This is even more critical now that many businesses and services heavily rely on data and connectivity to function – even at the most basic level – so data centre services must be available , dependable and scalable constantly .

The pressure is on data centre businesses to continually bolster their resilience practices along with safety and security measures to maintain services , and that includes managing these through the challenges of any threat , disruption or disaster .

Currently , replication and diversity are two key priorities to protect against downtime . With end customers fully aware that they need to replicate their data in multiple locations or with different providers , this needs to be built into a coordinated and agile business continuity plan . For data centre professionals , this means ensuring that data is accessible no matter where it is stored and that staff

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