Free Net Business Solutions launched its third data centre and its network operations centre at the CX2 Computer Exchange in Cyberjaya, Malaysia on 26 June.

The new CX2 data centre adds to its first data centre launched in Century Square, Cyberjaya in 2000 and its second in Menara Aik Hua, Kuala Lumpur which was launched in 2008.

“All our data centres adopt ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) international IT managed services best practice methodologies, are ISO/IEC 27001 information security management system certified, provide guaranteed 99.99% uptime service level, meet Telecommunications Industry Association Tier 3 data centre infrastructure design requirements and are ready for Tier 4 – the most stringent requirement for the hosting of mission critical computer systems, and we're working towards acheiving the ISO 20000 IT Service Management (ITSM) Certification by the first quarter of 2010,” said Free Net chief executive officer Billy Lee.

CX2

The new CX2 data centre is located on a hill at an elevation of 40 metres above sea level, comprises an East Wing and a West Wing, together providing a total of 14,670 sq metres (157,500 sq ft) of floor space. The East Wing has four floors of 1,630 sq metres (17,500 sq ft) each, whilst the Wesst Wing has five floors, each of the same floor space. The data centre floor has a loading of 10 kilo Newtons (kN)/sq metre, whilst the facility area has a loading of 12 kN/sq m and a water detection system connected along the perimeter of the data centre.

“Its precision air conditioning system incorporates N+ 1 redundancy and maintains the internal environment at a constant temperature of 22 °C +/- 1 °C and a relative humidity of 50% +/- 10%,” said Free Net vice-president of sales, Chin Sui Lee.

To provide redundancy, its mains power is provided from Tenaga Nasional's power generating stations in Kapar and Serdang and fed via their respective switch yards and via four interconnected sub stations to provide dual 33 kV incoming power. As a further insurance, the CX2 data centre also has 6 x 400 KVA uninteruptible power supplies on each floor, which together provide 10 minutes of up to 2 MVA of backup power to give suffcient time for its eight 2MVA diesel generators – four for each wing -- to come fully on stream if required. The site can store enough fuel for 24 hours generator support, whilst its refueling contractor mist respond within four hours.

Incoming telecommunications connections come via two separate trenches to serve both wings, with two main distribution frames (MDF) and two data risers each, with a cable tray for interconnection between the risers in both wings, all of which provide redundant external data connections for its customers. Wired data centre network connectivity is provided by multiple operators, including Maxis, Time, Telekom Malaysia, Fibrecomm, Fibrerail, Paneagle, Cyberjaya Fibre Metro Network, Jaring, Free Net, VADS and MyIX, whilst wireless connections are provided by Celcom, DiGi, maxis and U Mobile.

Early warning smoke detection is provided by laser-based High Sensitivity Smoke Detectors (HSSD) augmented by multi-sensor smoke and heat detectors, whilst fire protection is provided by a fine mist spray with droplets which float in the air like a gas, augmented by fire hose reels to manually fight the fire in its early stage, fire hydrants, as well as portable carbon dioxide (CO2) and multi-purpose dry chemical fire extinguishers.

All doors are monitored and secured 24 x 7 by a proximity card access system, whilst private vault access is enabled via a biometric fingerprint scanner. Multiple closed circuit TV (CCTV) cameras are located around the facility with 10 days of video recorded stored online and 90 days recording stored remotely.

From the downturn to prosperity

Founded in 1998 during the Asia economic crisis, Free Net has become one of Malaysia's leading information technology outsourcing service providers of data centre services, managed services, network services, 24 x 7 service desk, business continuity services and IT solutions services, with links to 12 countries in North America, Europe and Asia, including the United States, China, South Korea, Japan, India, Pakistan, Australia and neighbouring countries South East Asia.

It's customers include multinational corporations and top 100 local companies and organisations of all sizes from various industries, including in the financial services, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, IT, media,  entertainment, manufacturing and retail industries, as well as non-profit organisations.

They include companies such as the Malaysian mobile messaging solutions company Macro Kiosk, a multinational fast food company whose hosted enterprise application serves the Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, a financial services company for which Free Net hosts its financial software; a telecommunications company for which Free Net hosts its mobile messaging application.

It provides them with IT outsourcing services in six core areas – namely,Data Centre Services, Managed Services, Network Services, Service Desk, Business Continuity Services and IT Solutions Services that are strategically built to cover the complete IT infrastructure ecosystem.

They include dedicated routers, switches, firewalls and all other necessary physical infrastructure; server co-location, private vault, floor space rental, regular data backup, tape rotation, power cycling, server uptime monitoring, remote hands support to OS tuning, server clustering, database replication, high-availability implementation.

Its managed services include monitoring of the customer's hardware, software -platforms, management of data and tape backups, data recovery, off-site tape storage, tape dispatch and many more.

Its expertise includes Microsoft Windows NT, Windows Server, Small Business Sever and popular Linux operating systems; Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Domino, Blackberry, Surge Mail, Smarter mail and Postfix messaging systems; Windows, Linux and Symantec backup solutions; Cisco, Juniper, Fortinet and WatchGuard networking equipment; Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle and MySQL databases; Microsoft Hyper-V, VMware, Virtuozzo and Citrix Zen virtualisation; Hewlett Packard, IBM and Dell servers and storage platforms; SharePoint, AD, LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol), IIS (Internet Information Services), Apche Webserver and Tom Cat applications; Whatsup Gold, MRTG, Ping Plotter, Cacti and IBM Director monitoring and systems management.

It also provides on-site support, remote monitoring and support, applications management, various types of network and bandwidth management services, a proactive service desk, disaster recovery management and business continuity services, as well as IT solutions and services including consulting design and deployment services, hardware and software services, storage solutions, system optimisation and virtualisation services and others.

It has Internet service provider (ISP), Applications Service Provider (ASP) and Vopice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) class licenses from the Malaysia Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) – Malaysia's communications and multimedia regulator.

Free Net has partnered with leading vertical industry experts and technology leaders, including hardware and software manufacturers to provide a range of IP-based services.

It's a VMware VIP Professional Partner, Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, IBM Blue Circle Member and HP Blade Elite Partner, in addition to being a member of the Asia Pacific Network Information Center (APNIC) and Malaysia Internet Exchange.