The NEXTDC engineering team addressed the fault tolerance requirement for an Uptime Institute Tier IV-Certified data centre in two ways: The addition of differential fault protection and isolation transformers to the electrical system; and the complete fire-segregation of each power string.

Whereas many Tier IV designs rely on a significant increase in redundant infrastructure, B2 only required an additional extra RUPS unit (+1) to be added to the number of units required to support the facility (N) for the electrical system to achieve a Tier IV level of fault tolerance. As a result, if an electrical fault develops on any one part of the system, that part is very quickly isolated — and in the case of fire, contained — meaning that although the amount of systems supporting the load has been reduced from N+1 to N, the rest of the system remains unaffected. That ‘rest of the system’ (i.e. the remaining N capacity) automatically ramps up, ensuring continuous availability of power throughout the data centre without interruption.

NEXTDC’s engineering team explored recent advances in cooling technology and developed simplified and highly segregated cooling system solutions, which are fault tolerant and meet each data centre’s cooling requirements. One common feature is the use of a series of incredibly efficient, stand-alone modular cooling units, which are a crucial factor in achieving the system’s fault tolerance.