Telstra International has completed its latest Black Building Test at its state-of-the-art London Hosting Centre (LHC) – Docklands. The tests simulate a full electrical outage in order to test all business continuity systems, thereby highlighting the security and reliability of its hosting and telecommunications infrastructure. The process is repeated annually and forms an integral part of the company’s ongoing commitment to improving customer service.
Jason Friedler, Head of Hosting, explains: “The Black Building Test plays a crucial role in ensuring we continue to provide our Global Data Centre customers with secure and uninterrupted services, even in the event of complete failure of the local power grid. This is a great opportunity to identify and eliminate any weaknesses in the system in a controlled environment.”
Lack of transparency within industry
Demand for business continuity services continues to grow, yet there is a lack of clear information about the reliability of services in the marketplace. “Customers looking for potential partners can often be confused and have difficulty trusting industry claims of business continuity,” he continues. “The hosting and network industry generally does not share this level of transparency, or provide such detailed evidence to support claims of resilient infrastructure.”
Telstra pioneering best practice
This is something which Telstra is hoping to change. Murray Hankinson, Director - Corporate Development, Strategy and Global Marketing, comments: “We are asking the industry to work together for the benefit of customers considering hosting and managed services, and to make transparency a key part of best practice. We believe that by communicating more with our customers and by talking openly about initiatives such as Black Building Tests, we can achieve a greater level of trust with them.”
Telstra International provides a portfolio of Global Data Centre solutions. For more information or for details about the Black Building Test, please contact your account manager.