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They must have had to do extra work to cover for the failing South African electricity supply. Awesome news as a South African. Guess Amazon's network blows aw

by hendry 6y ago

They must have had to do extra work to cover for the failing South African electricity supply. Awesome news as a South African. Guess Amazon's network blows away TENET? ;)

Havoc 6y ago
I'd imagine they'd stick the datacenter somewhere that doesn't get regularly blackouts. I don't think you'd want to use generators that often
- joeraut 6y ago
  South African data center providers seem to have nailed reliable generator power - "...their systems are designed to operate continuously and effectively, regardless of whether they receive power from the national grid." [0] I don't want to imagine the cost. On another note, load shedding (i.e. scheduled blackouts) have been implemented pretty uniformly fortunately, with areas following different published schedules - there's even an app for that! [1] [0] https://mybroadband.co.za/news/cloud-hosting/336800-how-south-african-data-centres-have-prepared-for-load-shedding.html https://mybroadband.co.za/news/cloud-hosting/336800-how-sout... [1] https://sepush.co.za/ https://sepush.co.za/
- SideburnsOfDoom 6y ago
  > Africa (Cape Town) is the 23rd AWS Region, and the first one in Africa. It is comprised of three Availability Zones That means 3 data centres.
  - Havoc 6y ago
    Quite. South Africa has a string of rolling black-outs though...some lasting as long as 8 hours at a time during bad spells. Some you'll be running off generators as primary source (with no backup) far more than you'd normally expect even if you have multiple data centres. Easiest way around that is to locate it in an area exempt from the rolling blackouts as I said.
    - sgt 6y ago
      There hasn't been an 8 hour blackout in Cape Town due to loadshedding. The longest was 4 hrs I believe. They have a plan to get this sorted out in a year and a half, in the meantime DC's will just have to rely on their power redundancy (which has to be in place anyway).
  - inopinatus 6y ago
    A common misconception, but no, AWS AZs are not DCs. A single AZ may be composed of multiple data centers[1], and a region may incorporate facilities that do not serve a public AZ[2], or that supply other capabilities[3]. [1] They'd be necessarily close together due to speed-of-light constraints. [2] You may infer this from S3's triple-zone replication, which is still somehow magically fulfilled in regions that only have two public AZs. [3] most obviously, Direct Connect.
    - SideburnsOfDoom 6y ago
      You're right, I should have said "at least three data centers" It was in response to parent comment saying "the datacenter", which seems to be assuming that there was only one. But there will be multiple.
    - mjlee 6y ago
      To clarify, it means at least 3 DCs per AWS documentation. https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/global-infrastructure/regions_az/ https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/global-infrastructure/regio...
      - darkwater 6y ago
        Oh, very nice link, thanks! > AZ’s are physically separated by a meaningful distance, many kilometers, from any other AZ, although all are within 100 km (60 miles) of each other. This answers my previous question I guess EDIT: well, actually, no. I wanted to know distance between DC in the same AZ :)
        EwanToo 6y ago
        If you really want to know, you can look it up on wikileaks https://wikileaks.org/amazon-atlas/map/ https://wikileaks.org/amazon-atlas/map/
    - darkwater 6y ago
      Do you happen to know how physically far can be AZs in the same region? The EBS sticking to the same AZ hints that they may be not that close, but I'm also very surprised to discover that 1 AZ != 1 DC
nostrebored 6y ago
One thing to keep in mind is that each Availability Zone operates on independent power infrastructure, and each Availability Zone has independent power infrastructure! https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/global-infrastructure/regions_az/ https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/global-infrastructure/regio...
- ignoramous 6y ago
  James Hamilton [0][1] and others [2][3][4] have given pretty good overview over the years of the AWS infrastructure. [0] AWS Innovation at Scale (2014), https://youtu.be/JIQETrFC_SQ https://youtu.be/JIQETrFC_SQ [1] Tuesday Night Live (2016), https://youtu.be/AyOAjFNPAbA https://youtu.be/AyOAjFNPAbA [2] Operation of the AWS Global Network (2019), https://youtu.be/UObQZ3R9_4c https://youtu.be/UObQZ3R9_4c [3] Foundations of AWS Infrastructure (2018), https://youtu.be/gH46jrFfiCc https://youtu.be/gH46jrFfiCc [4] Exploring the AWS Global Network (2018), https://youtu.be/tPUl96EEFps https://youtu.be/tPUl96EEFps
  - WoahNoun 6y ago
    He's also written about AWS infrastructure (and electricity infrastructure in general) on his blog. Fascinating stuff. https://perspectives.mvdirona.com/2017/04/how-many-data-centers-needed-world-wide/ https://perspectives.mvdirona.com/2017/04/how-many-data-cent... https://perspectives.mvdirona.com/2017/12/when-you-cant-afford-not-to-have-power-redundancy/ https://perspectives.mvdirona.com/2017/12/when-you-cant-affo... https://perspectives.mvdirona.com/2017/04/at-scale-rare-events-arent-rare/ https://perspectives.mvdirona.com/2017/04/at-scale-rare-even... https://perspectives.mvdirona.com/2018/11/1227/ https://perspectives.mvdirona.com/2018/11/1227/ https://perspectives.mvdirona.com/2019/02/aws-nitro-system/ https://perspectives.mvdirona.com/2019/02/aws-nitro-system/

by hendry 6y ago

They must have had to do extra work to cover for the failing South African electricity supply. Awesome news as a South African. Guess Amazon's network blows away TENET? ;)

Havoc 6y ago

I'd imagine they'd stick the datacenter somewhere that doesn't get regularly blackouts. I don't think you'd want to use generators that often

joeraut 6y ago
South African data center providers seem to have nailed reliable generator power - "...their systems are designed to operate continuously and effectively, regardless of whether they receive power from the national grid." [0] I don't want to imagine the cost. On another note, load shedding (i.e. scheduled blackouts) have been implemented pretty uniformly fortunately, with areas following different published schedules - there's even an app for that! [1] [0] https://mybroadband.co.za/news/cloud-hosting/336800-how-south-african-data-centres-have-prepared-for-load-shedding.html https://mybroadband.co.za/news/cloud-hosting/336800-how-sout... [1] https://sepush.co.za/ https://sepush.co.za/
SideburnsOfDoom 6y ago
> Africa (Cape Town) is the 23rd AWS Region, and the first one in Africa. It is comprised of three Availability Zones That means 3 data centres.
- Havoc 6y ago
  Quite. South Africa has a string of rolling black-outs though...some lasting as long as 8 hours at a time during bad spells. Some you'll be running off generators as primary source (with no backup) far more than you'd normally expect even if you have multiple data centres. Easiest way around that is to locate it in an area exempt from the rolling blackouts as I said.
  - sgt 6y ago
    There hasn't been an 8 hour blackout in Cape Town due to loadshedding. The longest was 4 hrs I believe. They have a plan to get this sorted out in a year and a half, in the meantime DC's will just have to rely on their power redundancy (which has to be in place anyway).
- inopinatus 6y ago
  A common misconception, but no, AWS AZs are not DCs. A single AZ may be composed of multiple data centers[1], and a region may incorporate facilities that do not serve a public AZ[2], or that supply other capabilities[3]. [1] They'd be necessarily close together due to speed-of-light constraints. [2] You may infer this from S3's triple-zone replication, which is still somehow magically fulfilled in regions that only have two public AZs. [3] most obviously, Direct Connect.
  - SideburnsOfDoom 6y ago
    You're right, I should have said "at least three data centers" It was in response to parent comment saying "the datacenter", which seems to be assuming that there was only one. But there will be multiple.
  - mjlee 6y ago
    To clarify, it means at least 3 DCs per AWS documentation. https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/global-infrastructure/regions_az/ https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/global-infrastructure/regio...
    - darkwater 6y ago
      Oh, very nice link, thanks! > AZ’s are physically separated by a meaningful distance, many kilometers, from any other AZ, although all are within 100 km (60 miles) of each other. This answers my previous question I guess EDIT: well, actually, no. I wanted to know distance between DC in the same AZ :)
      - EwanToo 6y ago
        If you really want to know, you can look it up on wikileaks https://wikileaks.org/amazon-atlas/map/ https://wikileaks.org/amazon-atlas/map/
  - darkwater 6y ago
    Do you happen to know how physically far can be AZs in the same region? The EBS sticking to the same AZ hints that they may be not that close, but I'm also very surprised to discover that 1 AZ != 1 DC

nostrebored 6y ago

One thing to keep in mind is that each Availability Zone operates on independent power infrastructure, and each Availability Zone has independent power infrastructure! https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/global-infrastructure/regions_az/ https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/global-infrastructure/regio...

ignoramous 6y ago
James Hamilton [0][1] and others [2][3][4] have given pretty good overview over the years of the AWS infrastructure. [0] AWS Innovation at Scale (2014), https://youtu.be/JIQETrFC_SQ https://youtu.be/JIQETrFC_SQ [1] Tuesday Night Live (2016), https://youtu.be/AyOAjFNPAbA https://youtu.be/AyOAjFNPAbA [2] Operation of the AWS Global Network (2019), https://youtu.be/UObQZ3R9_4c https://youtu.be/UObQZ3R9_4c [3] Foundations of AWS Infrastructure (2018), https://youtu.be/gH46jrFfiCc https://youtu.be/gH46jrFfiCc [4] Exploring the AWS Global Network (2018), https://youtu.be/tPUl96EEFps https://youtu.be/tPUl96EEFps
- WoahNoun 6y ago
  He's also written about AWS infrastructure (and electricity infrastructure in general) on his blog. Fascinating stuff. https://perspectives.mvdirona.com/2017/04/how-many-data-centers-needed-world-wide/ https://perspectives.mvdirona.com/2017/04/how-many-data-cent... https://perspectives.mvdirona.com/2017/12/when-you-cant-afford-not-to-have-power-redundancy/ https://perspectives.mvdirona.com/2017/12/when-you-cant-affo... https://perspectives.mvdirona.com/2017/04/at-scale-rare-events-arent-rare/ https://perspectives.mvdirona.com/2017/04/at-scale-rare-even... https://perspectives.mvdirona.com/2018/11/1227/ https://perspectives.mvdirona.com/2018/11/1227/ https://perspectives.mvdirona.com/2019/02/aws-nitro-system/ https://perspectives.mvdirona.com/2019/02/aws-nitro-system/