Hilversum, 20 June 2019NEP has completed the construction and set-up of its new data center at the Media Park in the Netherlands. Not only is it fitted with standard IT and storage equipment but the 700-m2 large space is also suitable for robust broadcast systems holding more than 300 19” racks.
In the Netherlands and abroad, NEP’s services are facilitated from its own modern data centers, which form the core of the media technology company. The entire service provision runs on technology and equipment that are centralized in the data center and, among other things, they facilitate centralized production, post-production, augmented reality, OTT content distribution and playout services. NEP’s success of these services and the wish to play an increasingly bigger role in the fields of streaming and centralized production created increasing demand for more capacity in the data center.
Own management
The fact that NEP has kept construction entirely under its own management – also from an international point of view – is unique. It means NEP does not have to depend on third parties, resulting in high levels of flexibility and scalability. This way, the data center can be geared more to the specific requirements of broadcast activities, bringing broadcast and IP technology together in one space. NEP’s data centers are linked to clients via the domestic fiber optic infrastructure and other data centers in the Netherlands. In addition, NEP has direct fiber optic connections with the Amsterdam Internet Exchange (AMS-IX) and a large number of international data centers.
Layer by layer
The plans for the large-scale expansion of its own data center were started a year ago. “We secured a lot of new and big innovative projects both in the Netherlands and Europe and that’s when you really need rack space if you want to be able to continue to facilitate the growth of services,” Johan Bakker – NEP The Netherlands Infrastructure Manager – explains. “All our facilities and services come together in our data center, so the design and construction thereof require the greatest possible care.”
100% uptime
Bakker: “We’ve thought of all the possible risks the technical systems of the data centers should be able to automatically deal with, like the new connection to the 10-kV high-voltage network in the Netherlands, with a capacity of nearly 3 Megawatt and NEP’s own redundant emergency power supply and cooling systems. We can’t afford to go black, so we aim for 100% uptime. Nowhere in the chain do we rely on single-design equipment. We’re building a data center that can’t be broken, really.”
During the past few years, NEP has shown it has the knowledge to build systems that meet the highest standards. Even in times when other companies were faced with service interruptions due to power and cooling problems, NEP’s data centers remained available. For instance, since its start at the Media Park in 2006, NEP has achieved 100% availability of the entire data center infrastructure.
The data center is set up in various phases and finally, there will be more than 300 new 19” racks. These new racks come on top of the more than 300 racks already in use by NEP in the Netherlands for its national and international managed services.