Behind The Scenes: Cabling Our Data Centre

At the moment our data centre has over 3264 cables that physically connect our servers to each other and the Internet. With more than 26,000 wires punched so far, maintaining and managing the DC really is a full time job! Cabling is planned with precision as it’s important to keep our racks tidy and organised, (as well as beautiful looking!) just in case we need to perform emergency maintenance.

With the latest delivery of servers, it provided us with the perfect opportunity to showcase our cabling!

The cables in our data hall are colour coordinated according to function.

• Pink cables connect servers to patch panels. These cables are patched in last, so are easily accessible in the unlikely instance where emergency maintenance is required.

• Purple cables run along the top of the racks, connecting the server-side patch panels to the switch-side patch panels.

• White cables connect the server-side patch panels to the switches. The switches are the hub of the data centre - the point at which all servers are connected and can communicate with each other, as well as the global Internet network.

• Yellow cables running from the switches are our data centres fibre connection which connects our existing network points in Equinix LD5 and Telehouse East Docklands where we connect to the wider Internet.

• Blue cables connect to servers and provide our DRAC or Dell Remote Access Controller connection. This allows our Sysops team to control servers from a remote location. It means that we do not rely on the Internet to control our servers, rather our own private network, which can not be interrupted by external forces, such as a DDOS attack.