OVHcloud datacentre fire: Efforts underway to bring affected cloud customers back online

OVHcloud has moved to assure customers that a clean-up effort is underway at its datacentre campus in Stasbourg, France, as the firm battles to restore services at the site in the wake of this week’s fire.

As reported by Computer Weekly, a fire broke out at the site on 10 March 2021, which resulted in one of the four datacentres it operates there being destroyed (SGB2), and another suffering partial damage (SBG1), with four of its 12 server rooms destroyed.

“The other OVHcloud datacentres in Strasbourg were not affected by the fire…[but] are currently switched off but undamaged,” said the company in an update to customers, published on 11 March 2021.  

The cause of the fire is currently under investigation, the document confirmed, and OVHcloud customers across the continent continue to experience service interruptions and downtime as a result.

In the meantime, the firm said it is “doing everything we can to ensure to continuity of service” and working on a plan to relaunch the datacentres on-site that were unaffected by the fire, and bring SBG1 back online too.

The company also has reserve capacity available within its other datacentres, of which there are 15 within Europe alone, that will be made available to affected customers, the statement confirmed.

Additionally, the firm has committed to ramping up the in-house production of new datacentres servers over the coming weeks to replace those lost during the fire.

“We have a stock of new servers at the Roubaix and Gravelines sites [in France], ready to be delivered to the majority of affected customers. We will further enhance availability in these datacentres, with the production of nearly 10,000 new services in the coming weeks,” the statement added. “Affected customers will be notified about this process as soon as possible.”

OVHcloud has further warned customers to be on their guard about potential phishing attacks, as cyber criminals may seek to capitalise on the fallout from the fire by sending out nefarious emails.

“We are that our customers exercise caution around the emails they receive,” the document warned. “In times of crisis, it is common for malicious activity (phishing, spam, etc.) to increase. It is more important than ever to stay alert.”