Global Switch data centre suffers power issue

A power issue on level two of Global Switch’s Sydney data centre sent some customers offline for approximately half an hour this morning.

Linked gallery: Inside the Global Switch Sydney data centre

One of facility's two power distribution paths ceased working for a "limited number of clients" at about 10.20am. Sources identified this as Phase 'B'.

Equipment that used two sources of power continued to function throughout the outage; however, smaller servers and network equipment that accessed a single power feed went offline.

According to Global Switch's Commercial Manager Damon Reid, no service level agreements were breached.

"Every client has the capability to be fed by two distribution paths," he said, noting that Global Switch recommended that customers connect to both paths.

"A very small number of customers had a loss of power on one feed. Wherever possible, clients should take advantage of two feeds of power."

PacNet, HarbourMSP, Exigent, and Servers Australia were among those affected.

Servers Australia's managing director Jared Hirst said his customers were affected for only “three to four minutes” before staff re-routed traffic to back-up equipment at Equinix.

A PacNet customer service representative said the call centre was “being bombarded with calls” due to a “network issue” that lasted about one hour, until noon.

Reid said Global Switch was working with an unnamed service provider to investigate the root cause of the interruption, and would communicate its findings with clients "as necessary".

Updated at 3.05pm to include information about Global Switch's service level agreement and ongoing investigation.