The Story of One Data Center

The other day I visited the opening of a promising data center — Oversun.

Many probably haven't heard of the company Oversun-Mercury, but I was minimally aware of it, since I periodically check Lebedev's website (mainly the business critique section) and saw the logo creation process there. Quite unusual, I must admit.

It all started with a small conference held in the Southeast Administrative District prefecture building — a place painfully familiar to me, since literally five minutes' walk away is the institute where I spent the best years of my life. :)

Three people spoke at the presentation — Igor Ioshpa (Director of Development), Pavel Bakanov (Director of the Network Operations Center), and Alexander Dembovsky (Project Administrator).

Each of them talked about their area, which I'll find easier to retell using excerpts from official sources rather than trying to recall from memory — the abundance of nuances would have been impossible to remember anyway. Speaking of remembering — during the conference, the laptop running the presentation went into sleep mode, and upon waking demanded a password.

Looking at the Mac and the locked Vista wallpaper, I couldn't help but recall the recent incident with Steve Ballmer — "Steve, please sign my laptop, it runs Windows, I swear!" :)

So, let's get down to business. The Oversun data center is a commercial project located in a large building near Aviamotornaya metro station — anyone who studies at MEI or MTUSI probably knows the great electronics store "Forum" — it's right in that area. Immediately after the presentation, we took a bus to the data center building.

There are no strategic facilities nearby that could pose potential threats — no factories, gas stations, or residential buildings (so as not to disturb peacefully-minded citizens' sleep).

According to the creators, the data center is one of the most modern in Russia and meets all international standards — primarily intended for implementing the most resource-intensive and technologically advanced projects.

Power Infrastructure

The computational heart runs on two transformer substations, supplying a combined 4.5 MW of electricity.

Power stability is ensured by numerous uninterruptible power supplies and diesel generator sets.

According to the presenters, if external power fails, the generators can provide full operation of the entire data center for over ten hours (without additional fuel deliveries). And yes, power availability is 99.982%.

Network Architecture

The data transmission network is built on equipment from the world leader in telecommunications — Cisco Systems (USA). The fault-tolerant network core consists of Catalyst 6509NEB switches and GSR 12406 series routers. Security systems are implemented on the high-performance Cisco ASA5580 firewall with 20 Gbps throughput and the IPS 4270 attack prevention system, which detects all known types of attacks.

Independent fiber-optic trunk lines leading to the major Russian communication hubs M9 and M10 have a total throughput capacity of 70 Gbps with the ability to scale up to 400 Gbps, ensuring reliable internet connectivity.

Per-rack bandwidth can reach 10 Gbps. The data transmission system is managed by Cisco Systems certified staff. Packet delivery success rate is 99%, and packet transmission latency from the client equipment port to the carrier port does not exceed 30 ms.

With its own points of presence at the M9 and M10 communication hubs, the data center can provide channel leasing services not adequately represented in the market. The optical lines allow organizing up to 96 communication channels with Internet providers and companies interested in direct peering with the data center (which enables gradual throughput scaling without excessive spending on expensive DWDM equipment).

Physical Layout and Cooling

The entire data center space is divided into two large sealed zones, which can collectively hold approximately 200 server racks.

Fifty of these racks have liquid cooling installed. Cooling for the sealed zone with air cooling is provided by a precision air conditioning system with cold air output under the raised floor (which sits at 70 cm height and supports loads of 1,200 kg/m²).

The main cable routing runs beneath the raised floor as well.

Air temperature in the racks is maintained in the range of 18 to 21 degrees Celsius with humidity between 49-53%.

The standard rack load is approximately 7 kW, and at the client's request, additional equipment can be installed, such as KVM switches or managed power distribution units (PDUs) allowing real-time power parameter monitoring.

The liquid-cooled racks (Schaefer Unoqle) can dissipate up to 30 kW of heat output — they are connected to four enormous chillers (GeoClima) located outdoors.

Security

As for security, the building has 24/7 video surveillance, an airlock-type passage system between rooms, and the rooms themselves are equipped with modern security and access control systems (TAC and I/NET SEVEN) with proximity card authorization.

Regarding the network structure itself — in addition to hardware firewalls, traffic is separated into virtual networks (VLANs on Cisco switches), with centralized antivirus scanning, authorized SSL certificates, and more. All password procedures are already strictly regulated, software is updated with enviable consistency, and plans include periodic security system testing with simulation of various types of attacks.

Fire Suppression

The gas fire suppression system deserves special attention.

Thanks to numerous sensors, the system can operate in automatic mode — in one of the corridors, there are special installations with two independent pyrotechnic triggers that can very quickly extinguish even a repeat ignition with gas (which is highly unlikely).

All gas fire suppression systems are backed up and connected to uninterruptible power supplies.

Impressions

It was genuinely interesting to wander around the building — you have to admit, you don't see something like this every day. There was a constant feeling of being on some military base or in a building housing foreign supercomputers. Everything was neat and clean — excellent!

The building's corridors are decorated with busts of famous people. There was even room for busts of the Strugatsky brothers — after all, the data center's name was born in one of their stories (Oversun — a jump through the sun).

And that's where our tale ends... and whoever listened — that was pointless, because this is text. :)

Best of luck!