Datacentre AM4.

You can find a huge datacentre on the outskirts of town which is called AM4. It is located in the eastern part of town called Science Park, home to one of the largest concentrations of sciences. The AM4, a 72 meter high tower, was built next to the AM3 because the capacity of this latter building was not enough anymore. The owner of the building is called Equinix, a company from Silicon Valley. The buildingcosts are estimated at € 166 million.

What is stored in these buildings and what is their function?

In these buildings you can find big halls with a large number of iron cabinets. Servers are being locked up in these cabinets. Different customers, like Google or Netflix, can rent space for data on these servers.

On these servers you can find your facebook photo’s, tweets, data concerning Google and if you watch a Netflix film you can find it here as well. A lot of other commercial enterprises make use of this centre here but  organisations of the state as well.

There are a lot of security-people walking around. Only the people from Equinix who maintain the servers have regular access. Protection against sabotage is secured for instance through a moat around the building and handscanners used by security-people. A team of programmers are protecting the system against hackers. This is ofcourse very important because otherwise the danger exists that the economy of the Netherlands could become severely damaged.

Because the important machines are on the first floor they will stay dry in case of a dykebreach. The moment there is a power outage eight ship engines will take over.

Amsterdam is one of the most important internet hubs in Europe. A lot of company’s (around 80 %) use Amsterdam for their internet communication. It takes about 50 milli-seconds to reach another internet point in Europe. After London it is the biggest centre of data in Europe!

Amsterdam, the 6th of May 2019

Sources:

-Architectenweb b.v.

-Dutchitchannel.nl

-Bright.nl

-De Volkskrant. Tjerk Gualthérie Van Weezel,10th of august 2017

Interior
(free copyright)