On 17 December last year, a magnitude 7.3 earthquake struck near Vanuatu’s capital Port Vila, killing 14 people and injuring hundreds, and causing widespread damage to buildings and critical infrastructure, electricity, and telecommunications services. That damage included the US, British, French, and New Zealand embassies, submarine internet cables, and satellite infrastructure.

Protection and recovery of core services and systems, including banking operations, is paramount in quickly responding to incidents of this severity. Restoring Bank of South Pacific (BSP) operations has been key both for the impacted community to access their accounts and also to support calls from organizations like the Vanuatu Emergency Services Association (VESA) for donations to help with the relief effort.

Despite power, internet, and satellite outages across Port Vila, BSP’s Micro Data Centre continued to support the bank’s full range of operations. The earthquake physically shifted the Micro DC 200mm both vertically and horizontally, but its robust design mitigated potential damage.

The Micro DC’s UPS ensured that critical systems remained powered while the generator started and stabilized. This seamless transition protected the equipment from power fluctuations and prevented downtime, allowing banking operations to resume as soon as communication services could be restored.

BSP’s Micro DC, pre-configured by Oper8 Global in the UK and deployed in 2019, has been purpose-built to ensure continuous and sustainable operating capability in server, storage, and network management.

“It’s a testament to the robust design of our Micro DC, an ideal solution to ensure operational continuity even under extreme conditions,” said Simon Gardner, CTO, Oper8 Global UK.

The Oper8 Micro DC incorporates all the critical infrastructure of a standard data center in a compact, rack-level form factor. It supports advanced technologies like liquid cooling, allowing rack densities to exceed 100kW. Tailored to meet each organization’s unique requirements of clients, the solution offers varying levels of redundancy to maximize uptime. Its sealed, IP66-rated enclosure prevents contamination, while room-neutral cooling ensures an optimal environment for IT equipment.

The BSP Micro DC features four 45RU, 800mm wide IT racks, two air conditioning racks, and dual UPS systems all configured in N+1 for enhanced reliability.

“Vanuatu’s earthquake and the significant aftershocks suffered in the region highlight the importance of designing data center solutions that account for environmental risks. In regions prone to incidents of this nature, it’s critical for vital services to continue to operate during a crisis,” said Gardner.

BSP had three of its branches and 50 percent of its ATMs in Vanuatu open and operational within a week of the earthquake, and EFTPoS services within two weeks.

The success of this deployment demonstrates how thoughtful engineering, high-quality materials, and redundancy planning can deliver exceptional data center reliability, even in the most hostile environments.