Under the epidemic, IDC companies have no right to complain

At present, with the effective and orderly implementation of various prevention and control measures, the number of newly reported confirmed cases in the country, except Hubei, has been declining for the eighth consecutive day. Enterprises in many regions are gradually resuming work and production, and the impact of the epidemic on various industries and fields is gradually emerging. Among them, the tourism, catering, exhibition and other industries have suffered heavy losses.

Since the outbreak, the difficulty of epidemic prevention and control in data centers has been significantly lower than in other industries. As an Internet infrastructure, the IDC industry has played an important supporting role in the fight against the epidemic, and market demand has also increased significantly. However, under the epidemic, it is difficult for anyone to remain immune. As companies resume work in full swing, the negative impacts on the IDC industry have also emerged one by one.

Amid this epidemic, what are the "difficulties" and "non-difficulties" in the IDC industry? Here are some examples based on my personal opinion.

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Not difficult 1: The difficulty of epidemic prevention is relatively low

If we do not discuss IDC companies and only talk about data centers, the number of on-site personnel is not large, and the low density of people makes the possibility of people infecting each other lower than in other labor-intensive industries.

In order to prevent the epidemic, many urban communities and villages are currently implementing closed measures. Outsiders are not allowed to enter unless there are special circumstances. The body temperature of those entering is measured and their personal information is registered. However, for data centers, strict access control and entry and exit registration have long been routine requirements.

According to the author's understanding, all data centers have tightened access control, and measuring body temperature and disinfection have become necessary steps for entry. A data center manager told the Chinese IDC circle that they currently require that customers are not allowed to enter the site without special circumstances, but are assisted by on-duty personnel. Employees must also apply for authorization in advance when they arrive at the site and strictly register entry and exit times. Some data centers use an app online review process, which is strictly reviewed by the system. Only those who pass the review can enter the data center and computer room at the application time. The system can also determine whether the visitor is from an important epidemic area such as Hubei, and issue a reminder.

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The daily operation and maintenance inspection of the data center is periodic and the path is clear, which greatly reduces the difficulty of disinfection inside the data center. It should be reminded here that the 75% alcohol recommended by experts for disinfection during this epidemic is flammable, and some disinfectants (such as 84) are corrosive. When spraying the former, pay attention to fire prevention, and when spraying the latter, pay attention to diluting it to the corresponding concentration, and be careful about the spraying position to avoid corrosion of facilities and machinery.

Easy 2: Technology fights the epidemic and drives business growth

This point has been discussed a lot in the IDC circle in China. As the infrastructure of the Internet, data centers have played an important supporting role during this epidemic.

• From epidemic information release platforms to fresh food apps for residents to grab food at home;
• From the epidemic intelligence system and big data analysis system used by the government to the medical information system used by hospitals;
• From video websites that crashed due to a surge in traffic, to remote office software that temporarily added servers due to a surge in usage...
• Even virus sequencing and vaccine development are all guaranteed based on data centers.

Therefore, during the epidemic, the demand for data centers has increased significantly.

Some cloud data centers have received urgent requests from the National Health Commission and designated hospitals for COVID-19 cases to open services. Some regions have deployed epidemic systems on government cloud platforms, requiring cloud vendors and data centers to race against time to complete resource delivery.

The recent demand from industry customers for data centers, such as video software, fresh food apps, remote office, and online teaching aids, has increased significantly: DingTalk has urgently expanded its capacity twice, adding 20,000 cloud servers; Tencent Conference has urgently expanded its capacity by more than 100,000 cloud hosts in 8 days, with more than 1 million cores of computing resources invested; just today, Dingdang Express Pharmacy, which has expanded its server capacity by 30 times, still suffered a downtime due to a 50-fold surge in the number of users.

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Driven by the sudden increase in demand, the utilization rate of data center cabinets has naturally risen. The head of a data center marketing department revealed in an interview with China IDC Circle that the demand of its top customers increased during the epidemic, the platform utilization rate increased significantly, and appropriate expansion was needed in the future.

The continued rise in stocks of companies such as AtHub and Sinnet also proves that the market is optimistic about the IDC industry amid the epidemic.

In the fight against the epidemic, cloud computing, big data and other technologies have played an important role, and governments at all levels have also felt this in the process of joint prevention and control of the epidemic and precise decision-making. Technological progress cannot be reversed. After the epidemic is over, industries such as remote office and telemedicine will still have considerable demand, and the demand for government systems that have "tasted the marrow and tasted the sweetness" will even increase.

Everything has two sides. The epidemic has had an adverse impact on all walks of life in society, and the IDC industry is no exception.

Difficulty 1: Customer visits, data center tours, and customer server installation are difficult

The highly contagious nature of the novel coronavirus has led everyone to agree that "going out poses hidden dangers and meeting people is dangerous."

In order to avoid gathering of people, IDC companies can only work remotely. Customer visits and interviews must be avoided and can only be done online. Sales skills such as observing people's expressions and speaking in a timely manner will be greatly reduced.

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Business exhibitions, offline salons and other market activities in the first half of this year were also affected by the epidemic and were either cancelled or postponed.

Customer demand is increasing, but methods of acquiring new customers are being hindered. I wonder if the marketing departments of IDC companies want to cry or laugh now, or are they in a dilemma, crying and laughing at the same time? I hope you can share your experiences in the comment section.

There is no problem with the entry of customer servers, but many data centers want to say no to the entry and exit of customer staff. After all, in the current epidemic situation, no one can guarantee whether there are asymptomatic infected people in the subway car that the other party just sat in. Therefore, how to handle the entry of customer servers and how to do a good job of epidemic prevention during the entry process is also a difficult point.

Difficulty 2: Data center construction and procurement are even more difficult

Compared with the strict access control and small number of people gathering in data centers, the construction process of data centers can be said to be the exact opposite: the personnel composition of the construction site is complex, the number of people is large, and disinfection is difficult, so the difficulty of epidemic prevention and control can be imagined.

Therefore, many regions currently require that the resumption of construction projects be postponed. Some regions have put forward strict and detailed regulations for construction companies to resume work, such as "testing and recording the health status and whereabouts of employees, and testing body temperature at least twice a day". Some regions even require that work cannot be resumed before the epidemic is lifted. The construction of data center projects of various companies is of course also restricted. It can be foreseen that the original completion and delivery time of various data center construction projects will be delayed, and the annual business of data center companies will be affected.

Related procurement and bidding will naturally be affected as well.

Due to the epidemic situation, the author is temporarily unable to go deep into the data center to understand the specific situation. The above is the result of combing through information from multiple parties, and there are many shortcomings.