Keeping data center Nikhef Housing up and running during annual maintenance

Nikhef, the Dutch National Institute for Subatomic Physics, has played an important role in discovering the Higgs boson a decade ago. This particle, which is crucial in physics, proves that there is a universal influence that gives mass to particles. However, Nikhef was also involved in the creation of the World Wide Web! The Nikhef Housing data center was founded through the need to make large data files quickly accessible. Naturally the energy supply of this data center had to be maintained properly, which Stahlhöfer takes care of, with Bredenoord’s assistance.

Nikhef.nl: one of the first three websites in the world!

It’s nearly impossible to believe nowadays, but in 1992 there were only three websites in the entire world: CERN, SLAC and Nikhef. The world wide web was developed by CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research. Nikhef, a research facility associated with CERN, played an important role in supporting this new technology. This is why Nikhef Housing was founded, a data center focusing on connectivity. Nikhef Housing is one of the largest internet hubs of Europe and hosts over 140 organizations, which includes the largest internet exchange AMS-IX, other internet exchanges such as NL-IX and ND-IX, telecom operators, carriers, internet service providers and DNS servers.

Annual maintenance

Every year preventive maintenance takes place at Nikhef Housing, during which it is crucial that the data center remains operational. For this purpose Stahlhöfer Electrotechniek Amsterdam and Bredenoord developed an extensive maintenance plan. This starts with the so-called Factory Acceptance Test (FAT). The machines that require maintenance are set up at Bredenoord in Apeldoorn, after which the usual working conditions are simulated during a live test.

A Bredenoord engineer on site all week

At the start of the maintenance at Nikhef Housing Bredenoord sets up two 1250 kVA gensets to take over the data center’s emergency power supply. Stahlhöfer can then service the uninterruptible power supply (batteries) and gensets of Nikhef and CERN. In addition, two loadbanks from Bredenoord test the machines set up at Nikhef and write up power reports for insurance purposes. Throughout the maintenance week Bredenoord engineer Jos Karman is on site from early morning until the end of the day to coordinate Bredenoord’s part in this operation. This maintenance asks a lot of commitment and preparation from all parties involved, because having no internet access is simply impossible nowadays!