BBC News, Thomas Sparrow, Mundo,
Miami, 31 January 2013
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| Access to one of the building's floors requires US government clearance |
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It may be
one of central Miami's most recognisable buildings, yet only a few people know
what goes on inside the sturdy concrete block with massive spheres on its roof.
The cube is
the Network Access Point (NAP) of the Americas, one of the world's largest data
centres, which redirects most of the digital information that comes from Latin
America.
About 90%
of data traffic from Central and South America passes through the south Florida
facility before continuing to its final destination.
The NAP is,
in short, one of the internet's brains - facilitating people's online activity,
according to Douglas Alger, author of The Art of the Data Center.
"If
you send an e-mail, download music, do social networking or buy something, the
equipment to make it happen is based in a data centre," he tells the BBC.
In his book
Mr Alger describes 18 data centres around the world - including NAP - which
play an important role in global digital communications.
"Many
of them face the outside world, but you also have others that are really
private and support the activity being done by specific businesses," he
adds.
Tight
security
Security
measures are especially strict at the NAP, and it is rare to be granted access.
Miami's Network
Access Point
- Located in central Miami, NAP is a purpose-built data centre designed to withstand category five hurricanes
- Construction started in 2000, and it came online in June 2001, just after the dot-com bubble burst and three months before 9/11 - "the worst time in internet history to bring a company like this one online", according to NAP engineer Ben Stewart
- The building has an uninterrupted power supply provided by 12 systems
- More than 160 carriers exchange information
- The six-storey 750,000-square-foot (70,000-square-metre) structure is full of cables and computers.
It may seem daunting but on a tour of the site Ben Stewart, NAP's senior vice-president for facility engineering, offers assurance.
"Many
people do not understand what the internet is," he says. "They think
it is a very complex thing to understand, but it is very simple."
He likens
the operation to an international airport.
Instead of
passengers with excess baggage there are e-mails with heavy attachments,
instead of aircraft carriers - internet carriers.
Just as
airports have security checks, he says, Miami's concrete cube features its own
X-ray machines and sniffer dogs as well as internet-based firewalls, intrusion
detectors and other protection devices.
That is why
carriers and customers as diverse as Subway restaurants, the library of the US
Congress and several US government agencies also use the facility owned by Terremark.
As most of
their information is sensitive, no cameras or other electronic devices are
allowed. Access to the third floor - 125,000 square feet entirely dedicated to
US government users - is restricted to US citizens and requires government
clearance.
Centre's
heart
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| A team of experts ensure the centre is kept safe and operational |
Their job
is to make sure this digital hub is kept safe and operational, no matter where
threats might come from.
The heart
of the operation is the so-called peering room - an area on the second floor
where internet networks are connected, so that each network's customers can
exchange information.
About 18 or
19 gigabits per second go through the NAP's peering fabric, says Mr Stewart -
the equivalent of about 36,000 songs per second.
The centre,
he adds, is "a playground for an engineer".
The NAP,
unlike other data centres, rents its equipment and space to private and public
customers, so that they can share information between them.
"For
our customers, the main attraction is primarily up time," he explains.
"If
you are an internet company, if you have got a store front or you are streaming
video, you need to be in a facility that is not going to go down."
To prevent
any service interruptions, the walls have 7in (18cm) thick, steel-reinforced
concrete exterior panels; the building has no windows, and it is located in one
of the highest parts of Miami.
What's
more, the satellite dishes on the roof are covered, so no-one can easily
determine which way they are pointing.
Risks
But what if
a devastating weather came to south Florida, such as Hurricane Andrew, which
wrought unprecedented havoc in 1992? Would the internet crash in Latin America?
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| Internet users in Latin America are unlikely to be aware their data passes through the Miami centre |
According
to the engineer, if NAP stopped working, it would also stop sending the signals
that indicate it is receiving information. Routers would therefore stop sending
data via that path and would seek a different one.
Users might
feel that their information took longer than normal because it would have to
take alternative routes, but it would eventually reach its destination.
This
ensures that "internet communications never fail, even if NAP Miami
crashes - which won't happen," he assures.
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