Data centres are the backbone of modern digital infrastructure, housing critical hardware and data that power businesses and services worldwide. When fire strikes a data centre, the impact isn’t just physical - it’s digital, financial, and reputational. Globally, the industry averages around 1.5 significant fires annually, and each one leads to approximately 17.5 hours of disruption for affected facilities. For operators of multi-site UK data centres, these numbers represent more than just statistics. They reflect an ever-present risk to uptime and the need for a smarter, unified approach to fire safety.
Fragmented Systems. Delayed Response. Growing Risk.
In many data centre portfolios, fire detection and alarm infrastructure is siloed. Different sites use different systems. Maintenance teams are spread out geographically. Event logs are manually tracked. This creates blind spots. and when you're responsible for the uptime of high-availability environments, blind spots are liabilities.
By the time an alert is escalated, teams are already behind. False alarms trigger evacuations. Real incidents are missed and service-level agreements hang in the balance.
The Case for Centralised Fire System Oversight
At Drax Technology, we work with data centre operators across the UK who need better visibility, faster response, and more efficient control over their fire safety systems. That’s where out solutions comes in.
One of Drax Technology’s solutions is a smart platform that consolidates real-time fire system data from multiple sites into a single, live interface. It allows facilities and IT teams to monitor alarm events, fault signals, and compliance status centrally, no matter how fragmented the infrastructure is beneath it.
With our solutions, you can:
Centralise oversight across all data centre locations
Detect and respond to issues faster - before they escalate
Maintain automated, tamper-proof records for audit and compliance
Reduce the operational drag of juggling multiple platforms and vendors
Why It Matters Now
As data centres evolve to support everything from edge computing to AI workloads, infrastructure density (and power demand) is increasing. That means more electrical load, more battery systems, and greater thermal management challenges. All of which contribute to the growing fire risk.
Incidents like the OVHcloud fire in 2021 and others across Europe and the UK in recent years have highlighted a key point: no system is too advanced or too well-built to be immune from fire risk.
And with some UK data centres storing valuable information for the NHS, government, finance, and defence data, the stakes have never been higher.
Fire Safety Isn’t Just About Compliance - It’s About Continuity
Many data centre operators view fire safety through the lens of regulatory compliance which is important. However in reality, the cost of a delayed response often outweighs the cost of the fire itself. When systems aren’t talking to each other and alerts don’t get seen in time, response windows close resulting in uptime suffering.
Drax Technology’s solutions allows organisations to flip the script. With instant visibility and system-wide coordination, you can move from reactive to proactive fire risk management.
The Bottom Line for Data Centre Operators
If your organisation manages multiple data centre sites, ask yourself:
Can your teams see fire system status across all locations in real time?
Are alerts being acted on as quickly as possible?
Is compliance documentation automated or are they still manual and error-prone?
If any of those answers are “no,” you may already be running a greater risk than you realise.
With Drax Technology’s solutions, you get the oversight, speed, and assurance needed to protect your data centre operations - without adding complexity. Contact us today to find out how out solutions can help protect your uptime.
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