Data Centres

Equinix's SG1 data centre experiences hour-plus outage

Equinix says two data halls impacted.

Paul Mah

Paul Mah

— 2 min read
Equinix's SG1 data centre experiences hour-plus outage
Photo: Equinix. Photo of the newer Equinix SG3 data centre, located beside SG1.

A major power outage took down at least two data halls at Equinix's SG1 data centre in Singapore just before noon today, possibly the first for this facility.

Outage at Equinix SG1

The hour-plus power outage has already been rectified by this time, but here's what I know so far.

  • Power outage from 11:09am to 12.24pm.
  • Impacted at least two data halls (Level 4, 6).
  • Happened during scheduled maintenance work.
  • Static transfer switch (STS) involved; fallback to diesel.

In an official statement I received, Equinix says the power outage was due to equipment failure during routine maintenance.

Differing accounts

However, two separate contacts directly impacted by the SG1 data centre outage told me slightly differing accounts.

  • Human error: One told me that work was scheduled on power feed 1. But that both feed 1 and feed 2 were turned off due to human error.
  • Multiple halls: Another estimated that multiple data halls were affected, based on how many network engineers were present.
In response to this post, the PR agency for Equinix contacted me to reiterate that only two data halls were affected, and that the outage is not caused by human error.

According to one of the contacts, some engineers who arrived at SG1 early were stuck briefly at the security foyer as the access gantry system was down.

Critical network hub

Equinix SG1 opened in 2000 and has a relatively modest 13.5MW of capacity.

However, its power capacity belies the data centre's outsized role as a critical networking hub not just in Singapore, but the broader region.

  • Billed as the most network dense DC in region*.
  • Over 190 networks directly accessible through SG1*.
  • Commonly lauded as a "carrier hotel" even by rivals.

Notably, SG1 is 1 of 3 GPRS Roaming Exchange (GRX) peer points globally. GRX is a centralised hub for mobile phone users to access data services when traveling abroad.

To be clear, GRX is designed such that traffic is shared between the 3 primary peering points. It's also not known if GRX equipment at SG1 were affected.

*2015 data.

The Internet hiccups

Indeed, my Alta Internet router emailed me an outage alert at 11.11am, though it came back up within minutes. Kudos to the team behind the ViewQwest network.

Still, the outage poses an uncomfortable question: is there too much dependency on a single data centre here?

For now, Singapore is developing the Digital Infrastructure Act (DIA) to strengthen its foundational digital infrastructure layer. It is expected to be ready later this year.

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