Equinix closes data centres to non-critical visits in France, Germany, Italy and Spain • The Register

Equinix has all-but closed its data centres in France, Germany, Italy and Spain as of Monday, March 23 at 8:00am central European time.

The COVID-10 protection measure means “visitors, customers, customer contractors and non-critical Equinix vendors will not be permitted to enter the IBX facilities” in the four aforementioned nations.

Elsewhere in the world – other than in Asia-Pacific locations – entry will be by appointment only as of 08:00 local time on March 25th. Customers have been asked “please limit appointment requests during this unprecedented situation for only the most urgent and critical work.”

Equinix offers a service called “Smart Hands” that sees its own people install customer equipment for customers. For business-critical requests that a client can’t fulfil, Equinix “we will evaluate fee waivers for our Smart Hands service on a case-by-case basis.”

Warehouses will be closed, but customers won’t be allowed to pick up incoming kit. Instead, Equinix staff will do the job and move equipment to either a holding bay or customers’ racks.

“Secure cabinet customers will also be able to continue to receive shipments at the IBX,” the company says, which is good news because renters of secure areas in data centers include hyperscale clouds. And AWS is a known Equinix customer in places where it doesn’t think its own bit barns are justifiable.

The decision to restrict data centre access “was made in accordance with our business continuity plans to minimize the risk of impact within our data centers while maximizing our ability to operate and maintain our services on behalf of our customers.”

And it ain’t over: the company’s notice and FAQ say “Given the fluid nature of the current situation, the list of IBX locations with restricted access could change.” The FAQ also states “If we are no longer able to support our on-site services in a particular IBX, we will notify you via an IBX Advisory as soon as possible” but also contains a pledge that “In the event a complete lockdown is required, Equinix is prepared to maintain the necessary on-site staffing levels required to support continuous operations.”

In the event a complete lockdown is required, Equinix is prepared to maintain the necessary on-site staffing levels required to support continuous operations

The measures also mean that Equinix’s conference rooms are off-limits, while visitors are asked to use break rooms very sparingly. No more than five people per party are welcome. And everything visitors might touch – especially door handles and the like – are being frequently swabbed with virus-killing potions.

Equinix has implemented a host of other small controls but you get the gist of it – the company wants to make sure its facilities don’t become seething petri dishes of infected techies. And if that means you can’t get in as easily as during non-Pandemics, suck it up in the name of flattening the curve and making sure there are enough healthy people around to ensure uptime. ®

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