V3.co.uk was taken on a tour of hosting company Strato's datacentre in Berlin, Germany.

The 4000 sq/m site has been used by Strato since 2003 and is home to approximately 16PB of data. Information from the firm's own HiDrive cloud storage service is also stored here.

There are over 35,000 servers at the site, and the facility has enough energy running to power approximately 5000 German households.

To keep the site running 24/7 there are six transformers, with each 3.5 tonne behemoth generating one megawatt of power.

Six giant diesel engines are also on standby in case of power failure, with each capable of generating one megawatt of power, also. These engines are tested once every month and can go through around 80 litres of fuel in 15 minutes.

The site has an average Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of 1.55, but this does drop to 1.3 when fresh air cooling is used.

The industry average PUE is 2.6, with the best practice generally regarded as 1.3. Microsoft and Yahoo have achieved 1.2, while the Merlin datacentre in Swindon claims to be the most sustainable with a rating of 1.1.

01 Mar 2011