Power outage at Telehouse North disrupts UK internet services

What happened

On the morning of 6 February 2020, a power failure was reported on the third floor of Telehouse North in London, beginning at about 7.45am. Reporting linked the disruption to BT Broadband customers and ISPs that rely on BT Openreach. Telehouse said a circuit breaker had tripped and that a specific and limited group of customers in the building was affected. The company later said an equipment failure had led to the disruption, and that all services were fully restored by 1.30pm.

Contributing factors

Telehouse reported a tripped circuit breaker and, separately, an equipment failure. It did not state which piece of equipment failed, or that the equipment failure caused the breaker to trip.

Lessons learned

1. Data centre operators should maintain redundant power paths so that a single circuit trip does not cut service to dependent networks.
2. A clear restoration sequence, agreed with customers, shortens disruption when only part of a building is affected.
3. Timely updates to carriers and ISPs help them coordinate recovery for their own customers.

Source

datacenterdynamics.com