Energy situation and continuity of cloud services

Since the summer of 2022, many media outlets have discussed the looming power shortage in Switzerland and Europe for the first months of 2023. To what extent could Office Maker's Cloud solutions be affected?

The Geneva-based company Infomaniak (which hosts the Office Maker cloud servers) has communicated on the subject. Here is a summary of its announcements:

• Continuity of services : Infomaniak's infrastructures can operate in total autonomy for three days thanks to redundant generators powered by fuel oil. To date, this resource is not threatened by a shortage and the generators can be continuously replenished without affecting the availability of services.

• Electricity savings : the energy efficiency indicator (PUE) of our infrastructures is already below 1.1 (annual average) compared to a European average of 1.8. Prizes and awards regularly reward our ecological approach, which we initiated in 2007.

• Possible restrictions : Infomaniak is in contact with the OSTRAL to be exempted from possible restrictions, because we host critical data and applications (emergency services) or public utility sites (hospitals, municipalities, etc.).

• Energy autonomy : we will create solar power plants until we produce as much energy as we consume. The first power plant will go into production in March 2023 with a capacity of 600 kWp. The solar modules were ordered from Meyer-Burger, a company that develops its products in Switzerland and manufactures them in Germany using renewable energy.

So this news is positive. However, it should be noted that a possible shortage of electricity could still affect some Office Maker users at their workplace if their electricity provider were to proceed to load shedding. We suggest that you check with your provider and if possible take preventive measures to avoid unwanted interruptions.