A major milestone was passed today as our new PDU (Power Distribution Unit) was installed and powered up. We'll have 160kVA available in phase one of the build, and an additional 160kVA in phase two, scheduled for later this year. This means we'll have over FOUR times more power in this section of the datacenter compared to our original facility next door. In our current space we have two 75kVA PDUs. We can pull circuits from 110V to 208V at 20 or 30 Amps. We're barely at 10% of our overall power capacity, with lots of room to grow, so we have the luxury of being very flexible with our potential clients' power needs.

In other news the fire suppression work continues. Unlike wiring a PDU, which is about bring a few really big fat wires from the UPS panel to the PDU itself, this is lots of little wires, sensors, conduit, dectors, alarms, bells, buttons, lights, buzzers, baffle servos, and of course the suppressant tanks themselves. Remember those games when you were a kid where you would spot the difference between pictures? Let's play!

These two photos were taken from roughly the same spot, about a week apart. In the top photo you can see the skilled electrician from VECA installing components of the suppression delay actuator by the facility doorway. You can see all of the detector and sensor wires hanging here and there, whereas in the lower photo you can see all the equipment installed, at least in the ceiling mounted units. The sensor and detector network is quite extensive, with 45 units placed in locations all over the facility. They are small and not very visible in the photos above, except where mounted on the HVAC plenum above the electrician, though a few are visible in the latticework of steel in the ceiling area. Speaking of fire suppression, we've opted for the newer technology of "Ecaro25" for this new facility.

Ecaro25, like FM200, is a non-lethal gas which performs the task of fire suppression without any damage to equipment. Our facility is rigged with a pre-action water system as well, which means that it is plumbed with water sprinklers, but their pipes are dry. In the case of an actual fire the Ecaro25 system seals the room and discharges the gas, only if this fails will the sprinkler system be charged with water. Building code requires the sprinklers be present, but we have mitigated the risk of their discharge by installing the Ecaro25 system as the first line of defence. It is a very cool system, and serves as an excellent safety net for your investment in equipment.

After the fire suppression work is complete, we'll be erecting the ladder rack system for cable management, network distribution, and lighting support. After that is in place we'll begin caging areas already set aside for waiting customers. We have already sold roughly one thousand square feet of this new facility. If you have the need for caged, private access floor space in a top tier datacenter with plenty of electrical power in the Seattle area call digital.forest's sales department soon, because it is going fast!

Chuck Goolsbee
V.P. Technical Operations
digital.forest