COVID-19
The coronavirus (COVID-19) has an increasing impact on public life and the economy.
NewTelco has activated its Business Continuity Plans (BCP) to ensure the safety, welfare
and support of our customers and colleagues, and the continued operations and
maintenance of our services.
We are closely monitoring the spread of COVID-19 and are following the recommendations
of global and local public health authorities in all regions in which we operate.
Our facilities are 100% operational and we are taking all possible measures to ensure we
can maintain this service level while ensuring the health and safety of all who interact with
our facilities. We are proactively reviewing our position and, as more information becomes
available, we will continue to update our Business Continuity Plans accordingly.
We therefore ask you to support us in our pandemic planning and consider the following
points:
- Reduce data center accesses to the operational minimum;
- If employees of your company have recently traveled to an area identified by authorities as a risk area or already show symptoms of disease associated with
coronavirus,please do not visit the data center; - The same applies if employees of your company have had contact with a person from risk area or with an infected person and suspected cases of infection in the last 14 days;
- Data center campus tours should not be conducted;
- In addition, ensuring preventive measures for your employees is also important for us, as this is the only way to guarantee comprehensive protection;
- If symptoms of illness are observed during the visit of data center or office – end the visit, avoid contact with anyone and inform your contact person from NewTelco by telephone or e-mail;
- If acute medical assistance is required, follow the emergency procedures on site.
Please inform your contact person from NewTelco by phone or e-mail about confirmed cases
of coronavirus in your company and share the information, if the infected person has had
access to the data center.
Frequently asked questions
Pandemic planning is governed by a business continuity plan. This plan includes preventive
and reactive measures, which are implemented taking into account the risk situation. A BCP
team has been established to coordinate the implementation of the necessary measures.
Within the framework of risk management, the development of COVID-19’s global distribution
is monitored daily. Our employees have been informed how they should act in case of
suspicions, including an internal notification to a central point of contact.
To ensure that we continue to have the most effective responses to this situation, specific
actions include:
- Promoting the awareness of transmission of infectious diseases in the workplace to all users at NewTelco facilities: employees, customers and their associated parties, contractors, suppliers, etc.
- Implementing self-isolation where applicable;
- Encouraging standard hygiene practices at work;
- Provision of disinfectants;
- Reduction of access to sensitive data center areas to the operational minimum;
- Restrictions on employee travels;
- Preventive leave of absence for the incubation period for employees who have privately travelled to high risk areas;
- Supply chain monitoring of critical service providers;
- Issuing of protective equipment to minimize the risk of work-related infection or transmission.
Until further notice, prohibiting employees attending work related events that incorporate
large gatherings. NewTelco requests all customer and third party providers acting on or
behalf of NewTelco or our customers to follow these guidelines where applicable.
- An internal reporting procedure for suspicious cases has been implemented. The basic
principle is that a report is made by telephone, the suspicious cases are recorded centrally,
and employees are required to stay home for the duration of the incubation period, if the
suspicion is justified. Employees is instructed to contact a doctor. Employees must inform HR
if the suspicion is confirmed. When assessing suspected cases, an analysis of possible
contact persons is always carried out to assess whether further measures are necessary.
The health of people who work for us or visit us has the highest priority; therefore, the
medical care is ensured in accordance with the official regulations in this case. The BCM on-
call service is notified immediately and activates the crisis team. The crisis team evaluates
which location is affected and decides to send people home and ensures that the official
instructions are followed. In this case, the affected data center would be monitored remotely
in order to continue the maintenance of security and operational facilities. During the remote
monitoring temporary access requests and delivery of goods for the affected data center
have to be denied. The travel restrictions, imposed as part of the preventive measures, have
reduced the risk of cross-site infection. Customer communication takes place via the defined
emergency contacts.
Substantial services for data center operation, such as the supply of power, cooling,
connectivity and access protection to the data center area, are guaranteed even without
manual action.
In case, if the authorities restrict access to an area where one of our data centers is located, the affected data center would be monitored via another data center location in order to
continue the maintenance of security and operational systems. Contact would be made with
the authorities and customers would be informed of the access restrictions.
Critical service providers have been identified as part of the Business Continuity
Management. These will be included in the pandemic preparedness plans with appropriate
communication. This includes a query of the current situation and the measures implemented
to protect business processes. In addition, they were requested to provide information
immediately if there was a risk that the services could no longer be provided. Should it
nevertheless occur that a service cannot be provided, the technical infrastructure of the data
centers is designed to remain productive even in the event of longer downtimes of service
providers.
The health of our employees and clients has the highest priority. Through the preventive
measures that have been implemented, face-to-face appointments have been reduced and
where possible replaced by virtual appointments. Internally, access has been reduced to the
minimum. Event centers are operated at some data centers. The renting out of these event
centers is suspended until further notice. The same applies to internal campus tours. These
measures may lead to a slight reduction in service. The continuation of the core services –
the secure and highly-available data center operation – is ensured by preventive and
business continuity measures.
Within the scope of construction, project management, service providers and suppliers are
monitored for delivery capability. This ensures early identification of bottlenecks and the
selection of alternative solutions. The development of coronavirus’ spread and the effects on
supply chains are difficult to predict. Should delivery problems or restrictions in services
occur that lead to delays in construction, contract partners are informed at an early stage.
The plans are internal documents only. Please see FAQ’s and if you have a specific question
please get back to your responsible contact person of NewTelco and they will check if they
can share the information with you.
Please get back to your responsible contact person of NewTelco.