Colt DCS is continuing to carefully monitor the COVID-19 situation
Data CentresLondon, UK, 29 Sep 2020
**No further action has been taken today**
As news develops around the spread of Coronavirus, Colt is continuing to carefully monitor the situation closely. Our Business Continuity (BCM) and Health and Safety teams have well-established plans that have been put into place and we are prepared for any potential impact to our network or operations.
Colt has experienced BCM and Health and Safety teams working around the clock to monitor and manage the situation as it evolves.
Colt operates to the ISO 22301:2019 standard where all identified critical business functions have proven business continuity plans which employees are trained on and the plans are annually reviewed, exercised and/or tested.
Colt operates a global network and has multiple operational centres around the world with strong and well tested continuity plans.
Colt has remote working capabilities for employees in all regions.
Colt is working closely with its critical supply chain to manage any potential impact.
We are following World Health Organisation (WHO), Centre of Disease Control (CDC) and local authority advice globally and in the cities and regions affected. Our priority remains the safety of our employees, customers and partners.
Should you have any concerns, please contact your account manager.
With immediate effect the following measures are in place across all Colt Data Centres worldwide:
Customers are requested to follow the advice and requirements of the government to minimise the number of staff and contractors visiting our site, attending for critical work ONLY. It is your responsibility to comply with government requirement when determining which of your activities are ‘critical work’ and to ensure that your staff and contractors are complying with Government guidelines on travelling to work. Reducing the number of people on site, reduces the risk of cross-infection.
In line with your focus on undertaking only critical works, customers are requested to stop or minimise deliveries to our data centres, only delivering goods that are in support of critical works and which can be collected within 5 days.
In addition, to ensure that DCS follows Government and industry best practice to minimise the spread of Covid-19, we are taking the following steps:
Common and communal areas will be closed and vending machines turned off with immediate effect. Please ensure that any of your team attending site, seek to avoid contact with other people on site and at all time maintain a social distance of 2 meters.
Remote Hands Services will be working in a way to avoid interpersonal contact. Requests should be pre-arranged using the normal process, however please note there may be delays in fulfilling requests due to the current circumstances and higher than usual demand. Where possible we are looking to have Remote Hands resources monitoring the Kayako ticketing system remotely. We remain committed to responding to tickets raised within our standard business response times.
We will be postponing non-essential Planned Preventative Maintenance, particularly those activities that require the attendance of third party resources. We stay committed to maintaining the availability of our service. Postponing non-essential maintenance allows us to maintain social distancing and to allow an increased level of remote working, mitigating any potential impact of infection.
Colt reserves the right to assess the urgency and need of access requests to its premises, node and data centres on a case by case basis. In some cases, a postponement of such access shall be agreed.
We have now issued mandatory working from home for staff as a strict measure across all countries, unless they have been identified as working in a critical business function. In which case they have been issued with letters of authorisation to continue to work on colt premises for critical work only.
Colt requires all those who wish to access Colt’s premises to view and confirm the following:
Not have contracted flu or have had flu-like symptoms, with a temperature above 37.5° or a cough with serious breathing problems.
Not having been or not being aware of having been, in recent contact within 14 days of a person affected by Covid-19.
Not having received communication from the authorities about close contact with a person infected by Covid-19.
These measures will remain in place until further notice.
If you require further information around Colt network services during this pandemic please visit www.colt.net/go/Covid-19 where further information is available.
Business Continuity and Health and Safety plans in place for all Colt locations, should they be required.
INFORMATION
Where can customers find updates about the COVID-19 measures and the status of the Data Centres?
Regular updates related to COVID-19 can be found on this page.
Information is reviewed and updated regularly. If you have a specific question you can not find the answer to, please reach out to your Account Manager or Service and Contract Manager. Alternatively, you can send an email to dcscustomersuccess@colt.net systematically ensure that from simple to more complex solutions, we make our data centres as efficient as possible.
What is the escalation path for COVID-19 related issues and concerns?
Colt Data Centre Services has a BCP and Senior Management Structure in place to address questions, minimise and mitigate risks.
Colt Data Centres Services operates to the ISO 22301:2019 standard where all identified critical business functions have proven business continuity plans which staff are trained on and the plans are annually reviewed, exercised and/or tested. Colt Data Centre Services;
Have a dedicated global team of certified Business Continuity professionals.
Complies with all country government and health authorities’ guidance and instructions.
Incident Response reviews.
Co-operates to the industry standard Bronze, Silver and Gold Incident/Crisis management model which is regularly exercised.
The general escalation process relating to Operation and Maintenance of the Data Centre is described in the Operations Manual and should be followed as usual. The latest version of the Operations Manual can be found on the Data Centre Services customer portal.
Do you stay compliant with the procedures and processes in the Operations Manual?
Our standard operating processes and procedures will be managed as usual but we ask our customers to minimise the amount of activities in our Data Centres to critical works only. We will continue to follow government advice and guidelines on social distancing and hygiene for those on site.
Is there special number or email address for COVID-19 related questions?
The general Colt Data Centre Services Operations Manual can be found on the customer portal.
What is the general policy on working rules for employees and operational teams?
Colt Data Centre Services is actively monitoring national government and the World Health Organisation for updates and taking appropriate actions.
Colt Data Centre Services has to reduce the risks of our staff being infected while maintaining service to our customers, as of Monday 23rd March 2020 implemented near 100% various Isolated working protocols including, but not limited to:
Work From Home for all non-operational teams.
Split Teaming for all operational teams that are required to be on site.
Gaining local authority permission for field engineers to travel.
BCP & CRISIS MANAGEMENT PLAN
Does Colt Data Centre Services have a Pandemic Plan that can be shared with customers?
Yes, Colt Data Centre Services does have a Pandemic plan. The plan can be found on this page above.
Does Colt Data Centre Services have a crisis management plan?
Yes, Colt Data Centre Services operates following the industry standard Bronze, Silver and Gold Incident/Crisis management model which is regularly reviewed and training provided.
Has Colt Data Centre Services initiated a crisis management committee for COVID-19?
Yes, Colt Data Centre Services Crisis Management Team regularly validates the status for each Data Centre.
All risks will be reviewed and acted upon working with local site management and aligned to the advice and restrictions imposed by local government.
Measures that will impact the functionality of Data Centres will be communicated accordingly. The continued operation of the facilities are our priority along with the Health and Safety of our employees, contractors and customers.
What happens in the event of an incident?
The standard incident process will be triggered and the situation responded to accordingly, depending on priority levels.
Currently, on site engineers or remote monitoring is in place for all our sites. We are working with suppliers and partners to ensure we mitigate and have backup solutions in place should an event take place.
Do you have Emergency Operating procedures (EOPs) in place at each site?
We have general EOPS and SOPs in place.
CONFIRMED & SUSPECTED CORONAVIRUS CASES/SYMPTOMS
As a customer, do I have a duty to advise if one of my team who has been on a Data Centre site has symptoms or is a confirmed COVID-19 case?
We request our customers and contractors inform Colt Data Centre Services if an employee, or other, undertaking work on your behalf;
Has visited the Data Centre and is a confirmed COVID-19 case.
Has been in contact with a confirmed COVID-19 person recently.
In the event of a suspected or confirmed case at site what is the plan to mitigate further infection?
After a suspected or confirmed case of COVID-19 having been on site, the procedure for disinfection will be started immediately for shared areas.
Access may be limited or suspended during cleaning and impacted customers will be informed as soon as possible at the time and based on the scenario.
For those we can identify as having been in direct/close contact with the infected individual, will be informed and asked to self-isolate for 14 days.
Is there any likelihood that Colt Data Centre Services has to close an entire Data Centre after a confirmed case?
Colt Data Centre Services has taken preventative measures in order to keep all the Data Centres fully operational.
In unlikely and exceptional circumstances Colt Data Centre Services reserves the right to temporary close the Data Centre Facility to visitors until the disinfection process has been completed and the crisis team provide the approval to release the “closed” status.
What health declarations does Colt Data Centre Services require?
Colt Data Centre Services requests and asks for confirmation that anyone coming to site (which should be limited to critical works only) does not have an flu/flu like symptoms, a cough or a high temperature (above 37.5°) nor been in direct contact with someone known to have COVID-19 or symptomatic of the virus.
ACCESS
Does Colt Data Centre Services define conditions to allow engineers on site for performing critical tasks?
Yes, we have a list of conditions that need to be met before an engineer can enter the Data Centre:
The site visit is for a critical task only and limited to the task.
Standard access procedures are followed.
No flu or flu-like symptoms, a temperature above 37.5° or a cough or breathing problems.
No close contact with a person affected by Covid-19 recently (last 10 days) and
The person has not received a communication from the authorities about close contact with a person infected by COVID-19.
Are there any restrictions to moving around site?
Yes, to minimize the spread of infection, Colt Data Centre Services has taken some protective measures:
We strongly advise minimising the use of dedicated/exclusive office space (if applicable).
Social distancing should be observed in all circumstances: distance between persons is a minimum of 2m.
Can an engineer bring their own food and drinks into data halls?
No, under no circumstances can food and drinks be brought into the Data Centre Halls. We strongly advice that engineers leave drinks and food in a locker or their car and will make use of it outside the Data Centre Halls.
Is there any indication of enforcement of restricted visits to your DC facilities, yet?
Currently, we have minimal levels of engineering staff on site with the appropriate government permissions in place to be there (where applicable) or we have remote monitoring in place for a limited number of sites.
Should restrictions on movement become more severe we will review and communicate accordingly.
What happens with confirmed cases?
The conditions will be assessed based on the circumstances at the time and access will be reviewed according to areas of potential impact. Impacted customers will be advised accordingly.
More generally, we are asking customers to minimise their time at our data centres, limiting activity to critical tasks only. This will help to minimise the risk of cross-infection and enable us to keep the data centre operating normally.
What do I need to do if I need to get onto site urgently for critical work?
Please follow the standard Access Procedure. We ask for access requests to be raised 24 hours in advance.
However, if you have an urgent/exceptional request please call Direct Dial: +44 (0) 203 003 4584 for Service Support.
HYGIENE
Does Colt Data Centre Services provide extra cleaning of the Data Centre site?
Additional cleaning regimes are in place at all our Data Centres with an additional focus on high touch areas such as door handles, push panels, banisters and reception/access areas. Hand sanitiser is available on site.
Does Colt Data Centre Services provide hand sanitiser?
Yes, all our data centres are equipped with hand sanitiser.
Hand sanitiser can be found at reception desk areas.
Soap and hot water is available in the customer kitchen area and all toilets.
All people entering the Data Centre premises are asked to use the hand sanitiser and observe hygiene recommendations.
Does Colt Data Centre Services have masks on site that can be used by customers?
Colt Data Centre Services recommends that customers provide their own personal protection means (masks) if required as we cannot guarantee that all sites will be equipped. Adhering to social distancing guidelines and maintaining hygiene levels are recommended as a priority.
Will Colt Data Centre Services start taking temperatures of visitors?
In Asia temperatures are being taken of visitors to site. However, this is not fool proof and anyone displaying symptoms of COVID-19 or been in contact with someone known or suspected of being infected should refrain from coming to our site.
Will Colt Data Centre Services replace hand dryers with paper towels?
All toilets and kitchens in the Colt Data Centre Services Data Centres are equipped with paper towels.
Will Colt Data Centre Services disinfect rack keys and visitor cards when returned?
Yes, devices that will be exchanged (keys, badges) will be disinfected after each use.
DELIVERIES
Does Colt Data Centre Services keep the delivery process active?
Yes, but Colt Data Centre Services asks the customer to stop or minimise the deliveries to critical parts only and must be collected within 5 days or they may be destroyed.
What will happen to my delivery if I cannot collect?
In the event you can not stop, delay or collect your delivery within 5 days, you need to let us know and we may be able to store for an additional period under exceptional circumstances and upon management agreement.
Are maintenance activities completed following PPM (preventive maintenance plan)?
Yes, maintenance on critical infrastructure (Power, Cooling, Security systems, fire detection) will continue as planned.
Non-essential maintenance will be postponed in order to enable social distancing recommendations and to allow for an increased level of remote hands services resource. We will continue to assess this as the situation evolves.
How do you plan resources in potential reduced or isolated staff scenarios?
Colt Data Centre Services has to reduce the risks of our staff being infected while maintaining service to our customers, as of Monday 23rd March 2020 implemented near 100% various Isolated working protocols including, but not limited to:
Work From Home for all non-operational teams.
Split Teaming for all operational teams that are required to be.
Can you maintain a fuel supply for all the Colt Data Centres?
Yes, the distribution of fuel to our Data Centres can be maintained.
Does Colt Data Centre Services anticipate any delay or issues with supply of critical parts?
During a pandemic, Colt Data Centre Services regularly reviews and monitors the resilience of its critical suppliers to anticipate and mitigate risks to reduce any identified business impact in their service to us. Suppliers are requested to confirm whether, or not, their supply chain is heavily reliant on an area that has been impacted by
the pandemic and that they have proven contingency plans in place to meet their obligations to Colt Data Centre Services.
REMOTE HANDS
Does the Remote Hands Service remain operational?
Yes, Remote Hands Service will remain operational.
A Remote Hands Service can be requested via the customer portal as per normal process. If you are interested in a subscription for remote hands please contact your Account Manager or Service Manager if applicable.
Does Colt Data Centre Services have enough capacity to maintain the Remote Hands Services?
To limit the number of visitors attending a Data Centre site, we recommend our customer use our Remote Hands Service. We are working very hard to ensure we can continue to fulfil these services in a timely manner, but please note there may be some delay depending on demand at the time and the specific site.
If you are interested in a subscription for Remote Hands Service please contact your Account Manager or Service Manager if applicable.
OFFICE
Can we still use our dedicated office area on Colt Data Centre Services premises?
Colt Data Centre Services strongly recommends minimising the use of dedicated office space (where applicable).
RESOURCES
Do you have staff living near the Data Centre who can access the site if the area is restricted?
All our Data Centres have at least a minimal level of engineering staff on site or a monitoring and response team in place, to ensure the continued operation of the Data Centre. Should stricter measures come into place we will review and advise customers accordingly whilst adhering to government advice.
Talk to us
If you would like one of our data centre specialists to get in touch to discuss your requirements, please complete and submit this form*.
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