What put the bug in the year 2000 for a friendly joke

It is a high grey facade of pollution, which blends well in this popular district of Eastern Paris. No sign to identify it. The "data center" Telehouse, 7 000 metres square of cables and computer machines, real vortex where converging applications and the knowledge of companies, goes invisible to outsiders. And if it focuses a bit on its outskirts, a vigil arises on the sidewalk and quickly ask you to go your way. The Interior must cross several sas in the engine room, under video surveillance constant. This fortress is so well kept, if it is of vital importance to the economy of the country. Because behind its walls are stored data from large enterprises, or even their entire information system.

Today, all CAC 40 companies have recourse to such centres to reduce it budgets become huge and rapidly increase their capabilities when the need arises. Another asset of "data centers": failure on a server, applications continue to run, because all infrastructure are replicated in multiple data centers - a vital for banks, awards, large distribution area, in short, for all financial transactions. It includes the equipment at the time the construction of infrastructure of time by the club "France for centers", created by ("Les Echos" from March 30, 2010).

New phenomenon: small companies also began to turn to these storage specialists, encouraged by the rise of the "cloud computing": software are no longer on the personal computer, but in the network, so in a "data centers". Need to connect to the Internet to its accounting, write reports, manage its human resources... Finally, the Government is considering to outsource its management computer, today dispersed in a thousand more or less modern rooms. It is therefore not innocent that an envelope was scheduled for the centres and the "cloud", in the great loan. Talking about some 700 million euros. Orange Business Services, Thales and Dassault systems, Allied for the occasion, are on the lookout for this manna.

A "hub" Internet

In General, "data centers" are hubs, where the large global operators come to connect with each other. France Telecom, Verizon, Deutsche Telekom, Tata or NTT exchange thus the Internet capacity. It's called a "hub". Without them... Internet would simply not exist. There is, here and there, small islands telecoms, and large empty pipe under the oceans.

In Paris, the "data center" Boulevard Voltaire is much more strategic that there is such that two centres in the capital, where yet grow headquarters. "Find a computer Bay here, this is gold. "Everyone wants to connect to it," confirms Charles - Antoine Beyney, one of the founders of BSO Networks, a small operator Internet specialized in the service business. Between banks, media, computer providers, better not to attract attention. "If a bomb explodes here, half of the French Internet may fail, and stock indexes dégringoleraient because all CAC 40 companies information systems are connected," to alarm the young entrepreneur. Not surprisingly, in those circumstances, Telehouse is reluctant to disclose the names of customers...

In prestigious neighbours, BSO has the privilege of having its own "room" on the spot: a cage of square metres, fifteen where he stored several rows of black metal cabinets. This beautiful scheduling contrasts with the cage on the other side, that of the general public access provider Free, where drag rolls of fiber, a computer opened, a Briefcase, an incongruous Chair in this mineral universe. Under key, switches and routers rumbling, BSO, and customers. Multicoloured cable railways run ceiling - what are, in the literal sense, the information highway, just feed the main router of the operator at a rate of 100 gigabits per second. As electrical wires, they are carefully buried under a false antistatic floor, because, if too much crowded, their electromagnetic fields could debilitate the hard disks and communications. Colocatrices companies are afraid of everything: waves that disrupt their delicate data, water, to bypass altogether them, thieves, the looters, and the fire, which could ravage them.

But their number one concern is heat. On the three stages of data center Paris, trays are kept at a pleasant temperature of approximately 22 degrees. The air is dry, and, in an alley two - by saving measure-, a cold breath monte soil. Cool these stacks of machines that will heat up day and night, seven days a week, to purchase 10 megawatts to EDF. Power consumption equivalent to that of a town of 35,000 people!

An army of digital cicadas

Here, you can already add new servers, regrets Charles - Antoine Beyney: "In the older centres, power density is maximum." Clients are monitored very closely. Telehouse is our General breaker monthly and overflow, we pay penalties greater than EUR 1 000 per kilowatt hour. "Therefore, not surprising that some bays remain half empty: without energy for cooling, cannot add devices. Customers consuming more intensely as Limelight, proximity hosting specialist, are obliged to make a vacuum within a radius of 2 m on their servers. Strange show as this all white and clean cage where grésillent, as an army of digital cicadas, dozens of finer than decoders machines. Despite all the precautions taken to lower the temperature, an electrical fire may still occur. In this case, once the fire alarm is triggered, it remains exactly five minutes to evacuate the plateau, until a gas released by the security system not be hunting until the last breath of oxygen. Mortally effective...

In the end, the visitor wondered: "data centers" are they not machines to make unlikely disaster scenarios This is not quite true... Sometimes, the accident occurs, reflects Charles-Antoine Beyney: "A Courbevoie, a few years ago, a poorly managed centre announced more electrical capacity that could withstand." The day where a UPS fell, power cuts are chained for seventy-two hours. We had to send 30 technicians to move 250 servers during the night. Our intervention was saved from bankruptcy four of our clients. "When all the memory business, Governments and even the content of our personal computers will have moved in remote centres, the failure will become even more frightening. What put the bug in the year 2000 for a friendly joke...