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DICE Corporation’s new level of redundancy with active-active data centre

DICE Corporation has announced the transition of its second UL 827A data centre to an active-active state for signal processing in the security industry this week.

Both DICE active-active data centres are located in the United States and are separated geographically to meet life safety UL standards. For additional redundancy, the data centres are powered by two different electrical power companies in addition to generators, battery backup, and other power technologies. Multiple ISP feeds from various carrier groups, including DICE’s sister company IPtelX, are also connected to the sites.

The key difference between active-active and active-passive data centres is in their function. Active-active centres in this case mean that signals are sent to both data centres actively and both centres process the data. In an active-passive setup, the backup data centres only receives the signal in case of failure at the primary site.

Prior to moving to an active-active state, DICE operated its second data centres as a passive centres to back up its main centres. Because of the IPtelX partnership, DICE has control over the carrier switches and software, actively controlling the flow of signals to each centres.

“One of the biggest advantages of this achievement is that it allows us to actively run our backup equipment, rather than in reaction to a possible centre failure,” said DICE Corporation President and CEO Cliff Dice, in a company statement.

“Load balancing alarm signals across multiple centres is very difficult for any provider in the alarm industry. In fact, most alarm companies have issues moving signals from centre to centre. However, because our sister company is a carrier, we have made changes in the telecom infrastructure to accomplish this between our UL data centres.”