Inside NextDC's S1 Sydney data centre

While NextDC is in the construction phase of three new data centres in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, CRN took the opportunity to revisit the colocation provider's first Sydney data centre, S1.

One of S1's conference rooms, where NextDC meets with clients and partners to address their business needs.

A welcoming lobby area, technically not yet inside the official perimeter of the data centre itself, still required two security checks to reach.

Users carry keycards that are encoded with their fingerprint, both must be authenticated before access is granted into the data centre through these cylindrical gates.

On the lower levels are several staging rooms, where newly arrived IT equipment can be tested and inspected in clean rooms behind these doors.

NextDC says a loading dock such as the one at its S1 facility is unique among Australian colocation providers. This service area is used to safely and securely unload racks and equipment from the back of a truck directly into the facility.

In electrical terms, NextDC has an IT load capacity of about 14MW, in addition to the power required for the building itself. To keep that power on in the event of a mains power failure there are 17 diesel rotary uninterruptible power supply (DRUPS) families on site.

Each of these bays hold a 16 cylinder quad turbo 38 litre Perkins diesel engine with a 1670kVA capacity, a powerbridge with a 3-tonne rotary fly wheel, and monitoring equipment. Typically, mains power enters the building and passes through the powerbridge to spin the flywheel up to 3000RPM. If mains power fails, the spinning flywheel will be able to generate 15 seconds of kinetic energy, providing enough time for the diesel engine to kick in and take over from the mains.

Diesel control station inside one of the DRUPS bays.

Wide hallways and running cable, both above and below the floor, are abundant throughout the facility.

Service corridors lining the outside of the data halls themselves contain core elements of the power and cooling systems.

Two sets of power, A and B, are supplied through power distribution units, providing each rack with an A and B feed for redundancy.
A water-cooled air conditioning system passes cool air along under the floor, along with the power cables. Warm and chilled water pipes also run through this space. The cooling system can take advantage of outside air, when weather conditions permit, to increase temperature control efficiency.

Red rack doors indicate the hot aisles.

Blue rack doors indicate the cold aisles. The cold aisles are contained in glass housings to keep cool air contained and directed where it's most needed.

Hot and cold aisles beside caged sections of the data hall. The cages offer another level of security and tend to enclose several racks owned by a single client.

NextDC has developed a smartphone app that provides its customers with a visual representation of their rackspaces. The apps allow customers to digitally unlock their rack doors, offering clients a more flexible way to get to their equipment, given physical keys are protected onsite under staff guard.

Another view of the cold aisles.

NextDC's fire protection system consists of their very early smoke detection apparatus (VESDA) and 600 large cylinders of Proinert gas. If two smoke sensitive sensors are triggered, an alarm sounds and half of the available onsite gas mixture is deployed into the affected room. A mixture of argon and nitrogen, the gas decreases the amount of oxygen in the room enough to extinguish flames, while remaining safe for both humans and computer equipment.