Object on a "floating" foundation for protection against earthquakes.
My name is Pavel, I manage a network of commercial data centers at CROC. Over the past 15 years, we have built more than a hundred data centers and large server rooms for customers, but this facility is the largest of the foreign ones. It is located in Turkey. I went there for several months to advise foreign colleagues on the construction of the facility itself and the cloud.
There are many contractors here. Naturally, we often communicated with the local IT intelligentsia, so I have something to tell about the market and how everything in IT looks there for a Russian person from the outside.
The foundation legs are essentially articulated joints that allow shifts and jumps.
Market
The market is similar to the Russian one. That is, there are local flagship companies that, out of economic justification, look at the bleeding edge, wait for the technology to be tested for six months or a year, and take it for themselves. We do this in some departments of banks, retail and various technology businesses. Then there are Western world-class companies that come to the country with their own standards: infrastructure is being built under them. And there are laggards who are trying to get out of the 80s and 90s in terms of technology, management approach and consciousness in general. Nevertheless, the Turkish market itself lags behind ours in about the same way that ours lags behind Europe. They are just now beginning to look at commercial data centers, as we were N years ago in Russia.
State regulation is no less than ours, and, in particular, the local analogue of Rostelecom - Turktelecom - has about 80% of the country's telecom market through communication channels. I did not fully understand the scheme, but for providers, minimum rates are set, which should not be reduced in competitions. As a result, the communications infrastructure is actually a state monopoly, and all services on top of the infrastructure are commerce, but very dependent on state regulation.
Almost the same story as with personal data, we have. Only here we are talking about critical systems, not personal data. These critical systems cannot be taken out of the country, the data must be stored locally. Therefore, powerful data centers are needed, and therefore this data center was built with seismic protection on a “floating” foundation. Many server buildings here are seismically protected in a different way: by strengthening the structures. But for servers it's bad. In the event of an earthquake, the racks will shake. This data center simply floats in an iron lake of hinges, like a duck, and the racks seem to hang in the air - they do not shake.
Regarding data centers: there are very few providers who take well-organized operation processes seriously. We can say that it is only emerging here. It's hard to find a large Uptime Institute certified facility. There are many small ones, and many of those that have only Design. Operational Sustainability - only two data centers, and only one of them is commercial, while only one queue is certified for commercial. Optimized.
In the Russian Federation, three data centers already have even UI TIII Operational Sustainability Gold (two commercial ones for renting out machine rooms in parts, and one corporation for their own needs), two more are Silver. Here it must be said that TierI, TierII and TierIII are a measure of downtime. TI is any server room, TII - critical nodes are duplicated, TIII - all nodes without exception are duplicated, and the failure of any of them does not lead to the shutdown of the data center, TIV - "doubled TIII": the data center is actually military.
At first, we could get a TierIII project. Moreover, they were received both by TIA and by Uptime. The customer looked only at the third level. Why it is - according to the standard for the construction of contact centers or data centers - is not very important. Then only UI certificates and even IBM began to be quoted. Then customers began to understand the levels of TIII. There are three of them: that the project meets the requirements, that the object is built according to the project correctly, and that the object works and supports all the regulations. This one with regulations and “in practice, everything has been working out for several years” - this is UI TIII Operational Sustainability.
Why am I all this: in Russia it is already normal to announce tenders for TIII data centers to purchase places for the placement of your hardware. There is a choice. In Turkey, it is simply not possible to find suitable TIIIs for a tender.
The third feature is that service providers are under stricter supervision in comparison with the Russian market. If we have received services for telematics or communication, then the owner is responsible for the systems. Then you rented out servers - and you are no longer in business. It seems like it’s none of your business: your tenant is mining there or something worse. This topic is almost non-existent here. In fact, here every data center provider has an obligation to explain that specifically you could not prevent illegal actions at all. I explained badly - they will take away the license.
On the one hand, this adds another bunch of documents and complicates entry into outsourcing infrastructures for business and state-owned companies, and on the other hand, the level of reliability is higher here. If you are talking about IaaS, then there will definitely be security services such as DDoS protection. As usual, customers in our market include:
- Oh, we have a web server there, the site will spin.
- Let's put protection against didos.
- No, who needs it? But leave the phone, if they attack, then we'll set it up, okay?
And then they put it right away. And companies are willing to pay for it. Everyone is very risk-averse. Ask the provider for specific implementation details along the traffic path. This also results in the fact that when a customer comes to IaaS with a designed system, we can tell him:
— Oh-oh-oh, woo, you have some non-standard specs for physical machines here. Take the standard ones or look for another service provider. Or expensive...
And in Turkey it will be like this:
“Oh-oh-oh, ah-ah-ah, you’ve got specs for physical machines stuffed here. Let us buy this hardware for you and rent it out to you already, just sign for three years, then we will give good prices. And better for 5 years at once!
And they sign. And they even get a normal price, because any contract with us involves insurance against the fact that you buy hardware for the project, and then the customer bucks and leaves in two months. And he won't leave here.
More differences in mindset
When a customer comes to Russia, the dialogue is something like this:
— Sell the cloud, here are the technical requirements.
They answer him:
- We looked at the technical requirements, it will cost 500 parrots.
He is such a:
— 500? Yes, what are you? No, 500 is very expensive. How many of them are servers? 250? And another 250 for what?
Schedule for him. And then the continuation:
- Come on, let's take a part of my iron, it's almost not old. My specialists will help you set up. There is a license for VMware. Zabbix fighter here. Come on for 130, except for servers?
It doesn't say that anywhere, but it's assumed that when it cost 500, all the risks were on you. When it costs less, and a part is done by the customer, it turns out that he took the simplest thing, and you are left with only risks. And then, in the course of the project, he still often tries to throw risks there. It's like you're used to Dell hardware, but open source software doesn't care, let's give you Supermicro from the year before last. And in the end, the whole risk model is just trash. And in a good way, it is necessary to take not for 500, but for the whole 1000.
You may not understand what I mean right now. I used to think that this was a story about budget optimization. But this is not the case. There is a strange thing in the mentality of a Russian person - to play constructors. I think that we all didn’t play enough metal with holes in childhood, we grew up, and it’s interesting for us further. And when they bring us a newfangled big thing, you want to take it apart and see what's inside. Plus, you will report that you pressed the supplier and used internal resources.
The result is not a finished product, but an incomprehensible constructor. So, before the first major contracts in Europe, it seemed unusual to me that they did not allow to complete the assembly of parts of the customer's product. But it turned out that this slows down the services. That is, instead of making a typical service and perfecting it, service providers are engaged in customization for local clients. Together with the customer, they play constructors - they finish custom parts to make it work. But in Turkey, on the contrary, they want to take ready-made services so as not to modify them later.
Again, here is the difference in mentality. If we have a provider like us who comes to a large customer and talks about an enterprise application that will affect half the company, then two professionals are needed. One - from a provider who will show everything, tell and open the guts. The second is from a business that will figure out how and what lands, where it works. This is not about integration and not about external interfaces, but about the core of the system, which is not visible from the outside. We are tinkering with it when buying. And then the customer comes for a solution, and he is not very interested in what is inside. Nobody gives a damn. It is important for the customer that if you promised that it works, that it really works great, as you promised. How it does it doesn't matter.
Maybe it's just a little more trust in each other. Which again is dictated by the responsibility for any problems. If you screw up big, you risk your entire business, not just one client.
This echoes the mentality of the locals. They are very open to each other. Because of this openness, they have a highly developed relationship. We formalize a lot of things, and they have this: “Well, you trust me, I trust you, so let's go, you will make a project.” And then all informal things are simply done without any questions.
Therefore, by the way, it is very easy to sell managed services. This process was much more difficult in Russia. In the Russian Federation, you are dismantled for screws. And then the whole outsourcing of finished products scatters like pies.
People
On the other hand, we do not have to meet in person for any reason. Personal communication solves less than just attention. And here attention and personal communication are one and the same. And questions are not resolved by phone or by mail. You need to come to the meeting, otherwise the locals will not do anything, and the matter will not move forward.
When you asked us for information in the spirit of “Send the config”, the admin took it and sent it to you. It basically doesn't work that way. And not because they are bad, but because on a subconscious level: why does he not love me so much that he scribbled a letter - and that's it? And how to communicate?
Contacts must be maintained constantly. If you need local people to help you in the data center, then you need to come once a week, and not discuss it remotely. An hour and a half there and back and an hour of conversation. But if you save this time, you will lose a month waiting. And it's all over the place. It is absolutely incomprehensible with my Russian mentality to catch “What did you want this from us remotely?” or “Why didn’t you come?”. As if they did not see the letters, did not perceive. They were not offended, but simply put them off somewhere until your arrival. Well, yes, you wrote. Here he is, now we can discuss. Let's start with this one from two weeks ago, marked "ASAP". Grab a coffee, tell me calmly what happened...
Instead of a console, they have a phone with a contractor. Because you promised, and you yourself came and you can't help but do it. Because he looked into his eyes and said. There is definitely something in this.
It's amazing what's happening on the roads. This is a thrasher. Nobody turns on the turn signals, they rebuild as they want. It's normal if people go into the oncoming lane through a double continuous line - you have to somehow bypass the bus. On city streets, where my Russian mind sees 50 kilometers per hour, they go under a hundred. I've seen a lot of shifters. Once I saw a shapeshifter at the entrance to a gas station. How they manage to do this, I don't understand.
If red is at the crossroads, this is not a topic to stop. "I went for soft pink." Then the resentment begins. Here someone was not allowed on his green, because someone else almost managed, but not quite. He can't stand it and goes, not when it's necessary at the traffic light, but when it seems fair to him. That is, blocking someone else on the perpendicular flow. Then it twists and the whole road is blocked. Traffic jams in Istanbul are, in my opinion, in no small part tied to a strange attitude to the rules. I was told that the provider market here is developing more slowly than Europe, according to approximately the same principle: clear rules are needed for infrastructure, and almost all of them are conceptual.
Lots of personal communication. Opposite my house was a local retail store like our Mega. So, they can deliver any product to the door. It's just such a service, you just say what you need. Or so I cut my finger, called the pharmacy opposite, asked to bring a plaster to the passage (for about 20 rubles). Brought for free.
All districts in Istanbul are with very expensive land, so every piece of it is used. And all cheap or not very expensive areas are built up close. The roads are one lane back and forth, or even one-way. Right next to it is a one and a half meter sidewalk, and then a house. A balcony overhangs the width of the sidewalk. It is strange to talk about greenery or a place for walking in such areas: you still have to walk to the greenery. What is most unpleasant: half of the roads are horizontal along the slope, and half are seriously inclined, 15-20 degrees is easy (for comparison: 30 degrees is the slope of the metro escalator in Moscow). Our signs "Caution!!! Seven percent slope!!!” seem funny. When it rains here, I don’t know if I’ll start rolling back on wet asphalt. It's almost like going up an escalator. Maybe in the rain you have to stop and go again. There are those who give back up.
The oldest metro line in Istanbul is 144 years old. In a sense, a cable car.
They constantly drink tea for any reason or without. It's an unusual taste for us, and I don't really like it. The feeling that a stronger brew is being made, and it is kept in the kettle. Boil to the limit to taste. There are stations everywhere like our thermopots, on top of it there are holes on which teapots are placed, in which tea leaves are hot.
For food, when I began to go out to dine with the locals, they showed me many almost home restaurants. The local specificity is that there are a lot of vegetables, a lot of meat. But there is no pork, instead of it - lamb.
They cook very tasty. What is most interesting - more diverse than we have in Moscow. With vegetables it is easier, warmer. Lots of different dishes. Another order of dishes: no salad, first and second plus dessert. Here the difference between salad, second and meat is very blurred. Delicious strawberries from March, melons and watermelons from May.
Muslim country, veiled women everywhere. But many do not wear short skirts and open arms - all around.
In the office, everyone is dressed in a very familiar way for us, there are no special differences in dress etiquette.
From other contrasts: as I said, the land here is very expensive, but at the same time there are a huge number of shops and shops everywhere where you can buy very cheap food and things. I was also surprised how they approach the issue of waste disposal. It seems that there is a separation of garbage by type, but in fact everything is thrown into one large container. And then special people with trunks of two cubic meters on carts rake out plastic, glass, paper during the day and take them for recycling. That's how they live ... Begging is not welcome. At least in its purest form. But in fact, some grandmother can “trade” paper handkerchiefs, approaching cars at the crossroads. He does not name the price, you can pay as much as you can. A lot of money is given and handkerchiefs are not taken away.
Well, they may be late for meetings, but no one will be very upset if you are late. Once our counterparty arrived three hours late, so my colleagues were happy with him. Like, it's great that you came, glad to see you. It's good that you managed to get there. Come in!
That's all about Turkey for now. In general, we participate in similar projects around the world as a technology partner. We advise and help local companies deal with technologies. Today it is more than 40 countries from the Middle East to Australia. Somewhere it is VR, machine vision and drones - what is now on the hype. And somewhere the good old classics such as technical support or the implementation of IT systems. If you are interested in knowing the specifics, we can tell you about some of the features.
Links:
- My mail: [email protected]
Source: habr.com