SINGAPORE — A steady nerve is crucial when keeping watch over hundreds of data centres worldwide, facilities essential to the frictionless online banking, messaging and AI services that society relies on.

Analysts sit surrounded by digital maps and dashboards at the Singapore command centre of US firm Digital Realty, a major global operator of the warehouse-like sites filled with whirring servers.

The goal is not simply to react when something breaks, but to detect warning signs, such as a sudden rise in temperature, early enough to prevent disruption.

Daniel Naing, 37, and his colleagues handle thousands of system alerts flagging signs of trouble each week.

“If I panic, my team members will panic. So even though inside I may be nervous, I cannot show it,” he told AFP.

The command centre and its two sister hubs, in Europe and the United States, provide round-the-clock oversight of more than 300 data centres across six continents.

Digital Realty rents its server space to around 6,000 companies big and small, with power disruptions and equipment failure the most common issues faced.