Google & Oracle Turn Off Servers In The Heatwave

Uploaded on 2022-07-21 in FREE TO VIEW, BUSINESS-Services-IT & Telecoms

The infrastructure of our digital world is not keeping up with climate change. As record temperatures hit much of the Britain on Tuesday 19th July, tech giants Google and Oracle suffered outages as cooling systems failed at their data centres in London. When the temperature reached  40.3C (104.5F) in eastern England, the highest ever recorded, data centers couldn't take the heat.

Selected machines were powered off to avoid long-term damage, causing some website resources, cloud services and other machinery to become unavailable, taking numerous websites offline.

Data centres are large highly secure buildings that hold banks of computers and are the powerhouses behind many online services. But the concentrated computing power generates heat so powerful that cooling is essential.
Both companies say the problems have now been resolved.

Oracle published a notice about the problems on Wednesday 20th July. "Following unseasonably high temperatures in the London region, two cooler units in the data centre experienced a failure when they were required to operate above their design limits," the company wrote in a status update. "As a result, temperatures in the data centre began to climb, which caused some systems to shut down as a protective measure," said Oracle. The company said the issue was resolved, in an update posted on Wednesday morning.

Overheating also hit a Google Cloud data centre in London. "... there has been a cooling-related failure in one of our buildings". In order to prevent damage to machines and an extended outage, the firm said it powered down some of them. The problem was fixed by 07:00 BST on Wednesday 20th July and the company said that only a "small set of our customers" were affected, they said

Because the data processed can be highly valuable to their customers, data centres are built with many back-ups, including plenty of cooling capacity,  but with warnings that very hot days will become more frequent in Britain, technology firms are speeding up the exploration of greener cooling solutions and computer systems that consume less power and generate less heat.

Google:     Oracle:     BBC:      The Register:    ResearchSnioers:    Press United:     Yahoo: 

You Might Also Read: 

A Massive Datacenter On Single Chip:

 

« Millions Of Canadian Households & Businesses Offline
FBI Issues A Warning To Users Of Crypto Currency Apps »

Infosecurity Europe
CyberSecurity Jobsite
Perimeter 81
Cyrin

Real Attacks. Real Tools. Real Scenarios.
Schedule a demo

Sign Up: Cyber Security Intelligence Newsletter

Directory of Suppliers

Syxsense

Syxsense

Syxsense brings together endpoint management and security for greater efficiency and collaboration between IT management and security teams.

CYRIN

CYRIN

CYRIN® Cyber Range. Real Tools, Real Attacks, Real Scenarios. See why leading educational institutions and companies in the U.S. have begun to adopt the CYRIN® system.

Infosecurity Europe, 3-5 June 2025, ExCel London

Infosecurity Europe, 3-5 June 2025, ExCel London

This year, Infosecurity Europe marks 30 years of bringing the global cybersecurity community together to further our joint mission of Building a Safer Cyber World.

IT Governance

IT Governance

IT Governance is a leading global provider of information security solutions. Download our free guide and find out how ISO 27001 can help protect your organisation's information.

XYPRO Technology

XYPRO Technology

XYPRO is the market leader in HPE Non-Stop Security, Risk Management and Compliance.

Assure Technical

Assure Technical

Assure Technical offers a holistic approach to Technical Security. Our expertise and services span across the Physical, Cyber and Counter Surveillance domains.

Navista

Navista

Navista's hardware and software modules are especially designed to ease the deployment of secure networks.

Sonatype

Sonatype

Sonatype protects the world's enterprise software from security, compliance, licensing risks, while reducing application development and deployment time.

Engage Black

Engage Black

Engage Black provides solutions for securing and protecting cryptographic keys, data at rest, and data in motion.

WizNucleus

WizNucleus

WizNucleus develops, markets and supports a software platform (Cyberwiz-Pro) that enables Critical Infrastructure enterprises to ensure the future state of their cybersecurity and remain compliant.

Cyber Intelligence (CI)

Cyber Intelligence (CI)

Cyber Intelligence is an award winning 'MSC status' cyber security education and training company.

Innovation Cybersecurity Ecosystem at BLOCK71 (ICE71)

Innovation Cybersecurity Ecosystem at BLOCK71 (ICE71)

Innovation Cybersecurity Ecosystem at BLOCK71 (ICE71) is Singapore's first cybersecurity entrepreneur hub.

National Cybersecurity Competence Centre (NC3) - Czech Republic

National Cybersecurity Competence Centre (NC3) - Czech Republic

NC3 has been established in response to growing demands for practically applicable products and solutions for ensuring cybersecurity of critical and non-critical information infrastructures.

Accel

Accel

Accel is a leading venture capital firm that invests in people and their companies from the earliest days through all phases of private company growth. Areas of focus include cybersecurity.

SecureStrux

SecureStrux

SecureStrux are a cybersecurity consulting firm providing specialized services in the areas of compliance, vulnerability assessment, computer network defense, and cybersecurity strategies.

Visible Statement

Visible Statement

Visible Statement is a computer-based delivery system designed to insure the retention and recall of your most important security training messages.

Boxphish

Boxphish

Boxphish provides a proven solution to reduce Human Error and Cyber Human Risk via automated learning journeys and intelligent phishing simulations.

Robo Shadow

Robo Shadow

Robo Shadow are trying to bridge the gap between the top tier organisations that can afford everything and everyone else who has to “Make it up as they go along” when it comes to Cyber.

Liminal

Liminal

Liminal is a boutique strategy advisory firm serving digital identity, fintech, and cybersecurity clients, and the private equity / venture capital community.

NAK Consulting Services

NAK Consulting Services

NAK is helping organisations to create Secure, Agile IT Environments. Our goal is to be the trusted advisor and managed service partner for our clients.

Spirit Technology Solutions

Spirit Technology Solutions

Spirit Technology Solutions is a modern workplace services provider committed to delivering solutions that embody our core principles of security, sustainability, and scalability.