A datacentre is just a datacentre isn’t it? After all, isn’t it just a bigger version of the server room in the basement? But what about the huge datacentres that run cloud services? What’s it like inside the Microsoft datacentres that host Azure, Office 365, etc.?<\/p>\n
Last week, Microsoft’s Modern Workplace webcast titled “An Inside Look at Your Secure Cloud”<\/a> gave a sneak peek inside some of the Microsoft datacentres – comparing various generations and showing the improvements along the way.\u00a0 And, as you might expect, these are the very definition of operating at scale…<\/p>\n As Doug Hauger (General Manager for\u00a0National Cloud Programs at Microsoft) explained, organisations look to use a cloud datacentre for scale and professionalism.\u00a0 Anyone can run a datacentre but the Microsoft Cloud is about robustness and security – whether that’s how staff are monitored or the physical and logical security models.<\/p>\n Each time Microsoft moves into a new region (like the two regions that opened in the UK earlier this month<\/a>) there’s not just one super-scale datacentre but multiple facilities per region, providing redundancy and disaster recovery capability. Each facility has multiple power sources and multiple network ingress and egress points. Then there’s the investment Microsoft is making in physical infrastructure around the world – for example the joint project with Facebook for a new\u00a0Europe-North America undersea cable (MAREA)<\/a>.<\/p>\n Each time Microsoft considers expanding into a new market they perform a business case analysis on the potential opportunity, considering the scale that they will go in at (tens of thousands of servers). Microsoft now has more than 100 datacentres in 30 regions around the world (with four more under construction)<\/a>. Because of the huge range of locations covered, Microsoft is now the industry leader for compliance and certification – whether that is meeting global or local requirements. Then there is the question of meeting customer needs around data residency, compliance, etc. (for example with the German datacentres that operate under a unique data trustee model in partnership with Deutsche Telekom<\/a>).<\/p>\n With its cloud datacentres, Microsoft is aiming to meet customer needs around digital transformation, where the question is no longer “why should I go to the cloud” but one of “how to innovate more quickly in the cloud”. That’s what drives the agenda for where to geographically expand, where enhance scalability, etc.<\/p>\n Despite the question I posed in the opening paragraph of this post, a true datacentre is worlds apart from the typical server room in the basement (or wherever). The last time I got to visit a datacentre was when I was working at Fujitsu and I visited the London North facility<\/a>, an Uptime Institute\u00a0Tier III datacentre that won awards when it was built in 2008.\u00a0Seeing the scale at which a modern datacentre operates is impressive.\u00a0Then ramp it up some more for the big cloud service providers.<\/p>\n In the webcast, Christian Belady (General Manager Cloud Infrastructure Strategy and Architectures at Microsoft) explained that datacentres are the foundation of the Internet – they are where all the cloud services are served from (whether that is Microsoft services, or those provided by other major players).<\/p>\n There are several layers of physical security from the outside fence in, screening people, controlling access to parts of the buildings, even to cabinets themselves with critical customer data in locked cabinets covered with video surveillance. Used disks are destroyed, being wiped and then crushed on site! The physical security surpasses anything provided for on-premises servers and the logical security continues that defence in depth.<\/p>\n Ever wondered what happens to old disks in a Microsoft datacentre? They get crushed, on site: #Azure<\/a> #Office365<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/4wauIE7Lvz<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Mark Wilson (@markwilsonit) September 13, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n