The Portuguese company Águas do Douro e Paiva (AdDP) is investing nearly €300,000 ($342,000) in the construction of a new disaster recovery data center.

The company aims to strengthen the resilience of the systems that support water supply to approximately 1.8 million people in northern Portugal.

The new infrastructure is part of the company’s technological modernization strategy and is designed to ensure the continuity of IT, telecommunications, and industrial control systems in the event of failures, maintenance work, or incidents that could affect the main data center.

Beyond the size of the investment, the project reflects an increasingly widespread trend among critical infrastructure operators: strengthening their disaster recovery capabilities through redundant data centers capable of maintaining the operation of essential services.

Full details haven't been shared, but the new data center has been designed with a high-availability architecture and incorporates redundancy in all critical systems, including the power supply, uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems, climate control, and communications.

According to the company, each of these subsystems can single-handedly handle the facility’s full load, eliminating single points of failure and allowing maintenance work to be performed without interrupting service. The infrastructure also includes a high-security technical room featuring fire resistance, environmental control, automatic detection and suppression systems using clean agent, and specific measures to protect data and critical equipment.

Interconnection with the main data center is provided via AdDP’s proprietary fiber-optic network, which ensures high-capacity communications and reduces dependence on external infrastructure.

AdDP is responsible for the collection, treatment, and supply of water for public consumption to 20 municipalities in Portugal.

This piece was automatically translated from DCD's Spanish site and edited by a member of DCD staff.