We opened the Data Center in 2007. We started with a space of 116 square meters and have reached to over 800 in Bucharest and Cluj. The management of the Center involves many colleagues, from the technicians with whom we provide maintenance and operation activities to the people of the sales team with whom we carry out customer relationships. In an average business day, we probably perform hundreds of activities so that gigabytes of information are transferred, processed and stored. From the moment we receive a new request, in four hours all the instruments have been tuned and we are ready for the show.
Complex actions are coordinated by all teams. The Financial Department approves expenses and issues invoices, the Management Department plans and implements, the Marketing Department improves communication and engages in dialogue with our audience. Erwin Răducu, the Team Leader of the Data Center team, is the spring of ideas, people and activities that must be in sync so that we all listen to the same tune. Sometimes, we have to change the pace we had just gotten used to.
Erwin keeps the connection between the fast-moving divisions in the organization - unforeseen situations, specific customer requirements, events on the edge, and the more tempered divisions, responsible for the implementation of the company’s vision and organizational culture. One example is the execution of a plan for the migration towards our Data Center by means of armed security transport, all in a two-hour time frame. Or powering a 10kW rack, double the one we normally supply. We always try being flexible for our customers and deviating from the preset part, in order to explore new horizons.
Since 2007, their study, exercise and discipline have made us keep an operational uptime of 100%. Even if the breaks in the rhythm start becoming the tune itself, this indicator is the perfect performance towards which we keep on repeating. In order to harmonize with each other, in a polyrhythm created by emails, phones and console commands, we take our tempo from Erwin.
As in jazz, improvisation is built on a structure practiced up to the smallest detail by all team members. The difficulty of improvisation consists of balancing the stringency entailed by a perfect continuity of the activity, under the conditions of introducing some unforeseen elements, ready at any time to introduce noise in something that, until then, had followed the perfect trajectory. We listen to the request, but we follow a definite composition. Erwin’s role is to lead the right decisions on the short term, while taking into account the long-term goal.
The Data Center is in a constantly changing environment - supporting the necessary platforms for businesses relating to infrastructure and connectivity. According to a study published by IDC in April 2020, three quarters of the digitally determined companies - those that can use digital processes on a large scale - continued or supplemented their activities in the first quarter of this year. Our customers need both predictability and elements that singularize their experience with us, providing them with support for the changes they are going through.
We are constantly present in the Data Center with dedicated and specialized engineers who monitor and intervene when an unforeseen event occurs. Repetition leads to consistency and reliability, which ensures the stability of a 100% uptime. Erwin wants to have a certain process that we practice for any situation, and when something new comes up, he thinks, “which are the things that we can improve and which are the things that we could predict”.
For us, the quality of the instruments is essential for the perfect sound. Like John Coltrane’s Yamaha saxophone or Buddy Rich’s Ludwig drums, we only rely on the best equipment manufacturers for the Data Center - from cooling and electricity to computing power and connectivity.
It disciplines us towards performance, even if discipline sometimes involves routine, obstacles and discomfort. Sometimes we work with gloves and protective masks; sometimes we are separated by a buffer room so as not to meet between shifts, sometimes we wake up at night to solve an incident. Discipline is the structure on which we can choose the freedom of a plus or minus tone. It gives us confidence that what we have rehearsed for thirteen years helps us improvise.
“With a well-established routine, in which you take time to relax, to do sports, and also to work, you can go without much difficulty even through busy periods”. - Erwin Răducu, Data Center Team Leader, GTS Telecom.
