COVID-19 Statement

From
John Corcoran
Chief Executive Officer

Global Switch has always been committed to prioritising the health, safety and welfare of all of our employees, customers and partners, and with the COVID-19 pandemic this remains our top priority.

Data centres are by their very nature key to the global digital ecosystem helping communities and businesses connect.  All of us at Global Switch recognise, now more than ever, our responsibilities to ensure that all our data centre facilities remain ‘Always On’ so that our customers can continue to operate in this complex and challenging climate.  Government lobbying both directly and via in-country trade associations has led to the recognition by some countries of IT / Communications and data centres being part of Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) and we urge all countries to adopt this policy.

All Global Switch data centres remain fully operational. They are designed and operated to be concurrently maintainable ensuring reliability. We have been liaising closely with our supply chain and service partners and I am confident that with their support, our own teams and our robust Critical Environments Programme we will continue to ensure continuity of service.

We have implemented a series of important measures as part of our overall Business Continuity Plan, to both maximise the safety of all those in our data centres and to ensure Global Switch continues to deliver world class service provision. The continuation of customer service is at the forefront of our operations.

Steps we have taken include:

• Mobilised our COVID-19 Task Force to consider and plan for the potential impacts on our people, business operations and the services we provide.
• Introduced additional access protocols for customers, partners and employees working in our data centres.
• Undertaken business impact assessments across our sites to identify and prepare for the continuation of services under a worst-case scenario.
• Implemented revised attendance patterns for all Global Switch staff and key service partners, with 24x7 shift cover in place to maintain critical services.
• Instigated split working rosters for all critical staff with social-distancing practices to help prevent the spread of the virus.
• Increased the frequency of cleaning, in particular those areas with higher footfall.
• increased regular communications to all stakeholder groups, including employees, customers and suppliers.

I would like to thank all our customers, partners and employees for their understanding and efforts to date with changes to our processes and working patterns.

If customers have any questions, they should contact their local Customer Services Manager in the first instance, who will endeavour to answer such queries as quickly as possible.

We continue to actively monitor and follow closely government and local authorities’ advice in all our locations and will provide further guidance if this evolving situation necessitates further changes to our policies, procedures or service provision.