UK heatwave knocks out O2 data centre

A UK data centre operated by telecommunications group O2 was knocked out of action for several hours yesterday after unseasonably hot weather caused air conditioning to malfunction.

The mobile operator’s London-based data centre failed after two systems overheated, leaving customers in some parts of the UK with limited network access for much of yesterday afternoon and evening.

"An air conditioning failure in one of our London sites caused two nodes which carry network data to overheat yesterday," O2 said in a statement. "This resulted in intermittent data access for customers in some parts of the UK. Full service was restored by 1am today."

London data centres are often caught out by freak hot weather in the summer. Last June, hosting provider Level 3 suffered a four hour outage at after a chiller unit in its London facility malfunctioned, taking customers including website Last.fm out of action.

Peter Done

Peter Done is managing director of Peninsula Business Services, the personnel and employment law consultancy he set up having already built a successful betting shop business.

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