Brand-Rex opens doors to new Customer Experience Centre and R&D labs

April 9, 2015 by

Brand-Rex, the leading data networking solutions provider, hosted customers and local community representatives at the official opening ceremony for the new R&D laboratory and Customer Experience Centre in Glenrothes, Scotland. Guest of Honour was Sir David Murray Chairman of Murray Capital.

Martin Hanchard, CEO Brand-Rex said:” We are delighted to welcome so many good friends of Brand-Rex to the official opening ceremony of what represents a significant investment in the future of the company. The new facilities not only demonstrate our continued commitment to basic research and innovation but also the faith we place in a highly qualified and creative engineering team here in Glenrothes.

“We operate in a fast evolving and extremely competitive global market place that demands constant innovation in new enabling technologies. With this investment and additional investments planned in our High Performance Laboratories in Leigh, Manchester we are further extending our ability to meet the needs of our customers today and into the future wherever the internet of things may take us.”

Kennedy Miller, technology and ecology manager, guided attendees through the company’s outstanding commitment to the environment highlighting the company’s carbon neutral status and the introduction of a range of carbon neutral products. Brand-Rex is set to meet its target of 25% carbon reduction during 2015.

Miller explained that sustainability is not only about social responsibility, it’s a profitable activity. “A £300k investment has resulted in £1million of cost savings over three years,” he said, “and of course the cost savings recur each year.” Miller also mentioned a number of large projects secured for which the company’s ecological credentials had been a key deciding factor.

Technical marketing manager, Eddie McGinley, explained the company’s R&D roadmap including new products for 40 Gigabit/s, 100 Gigabit/s and 400 Gigabit/s applications. He explained the need for constant R&D and new higher speed products to meet the datacentre and enterprise markets’ requirements to handle an exponentially growing amount of data transmission.

Brand-Rex chief administration officer George Hannides gave the local flavour by outlining the company’s involvement in the local community supporting youth activities, schools and local charities. He also announced that Brand-Rex would be increasing its local support by 25 per cent in the following year.

Filed Under: Brand-Rex, Client, Data Centre, PR Agency Tagged With: , , ,

Who on Earth would use a Data Centre in Norfolk?

November 5, 2014 by

GVA0059-MigsolvNorfolkDataCentre_Hall1-of-two_DataHalls“Who wouldn’t, if they knew that facts?” was the reply from Charles Carden, director at GVA Connect, the specialist data centre division of international real estate agent GVA.

Announcing the availability of some 30,000 square feet or 1,200 racks-worth of space which is ready for customer install in this operational data centre; Carden explained that, in terms of terrorist threat levels and costs, the Gatehouse data centre operated by MigSolv in Norwich is on a different plane to those in The City and in urban centres.

“With the UK currently on a ‘Severe’ terrorist threat alert, we all know that the capital, London, and other major cities are the key targets. Norfolk on the other hand is not seen to be on any likely target list, and as such is a much lower risk area for highly critical storage and data processing,” Carden continued.

The MigSolv Gatehouse data centre not only benefits from being ‘out of the way’ and not in the line of terrorist threat, it has nonetheless been built to the highest levels of security and sustainability.

Two large data halls are separated by a massive bomb-blast earth mound so that in the very unlikely eventuality of an event at one, the other is fully protected. The perimeter of the nine acre site is protected by a three metre steel fence with microwave intrusion detection along its entire length. Plus, there’s CCTV and infra-red on the outside of the site and biometrics on the inside so there’s no possibility of unwanted visitors to your racks.

“It will be a surprise to many people,” says Carden, “but there’s quite a large technology community in Norwich – meaning that MigSolv doesn’t have to farm out its facilities management or security. The entire site is staffed by MigSolv employees.”

The site is very well connected, with a number of mainstream Tier 1 carriers on site with dual redundant connectivity. And, unlike London, the electrical supply is not in short supply. Norwich has an abundance of power availability and the site also has UPS and generators provided on an ‘n+1’ basis for guaranteed 99 per cent uptime.

Many of the London data centres are in London Docklands which according to the UK Environment Agency is on a 20 year flood-plane (that means on average it floods every twenty years). The Gatehouse data centre is 39m above sea level, in other words the likelihood of flooding is: probably never.

Another big plus for clients of the MigSolv Gatehouse data centre is that the entire site is PCI DSS compliant for the processing and storage of credit card and other financial transaction data. Surprisingly few data centres carry this accreditation. A long list of accreditations and standards employed can be found on the MigSolv website here: http://www.migsolv.com

“Unlike many of the data centre properties available through GVA Connect, this data centre is up and running with fully operational technical space available immediately,” said Carden, adding that parties interested in discussion requirements from one rack through to 30,000 square feet should contact him on +44 207 911 2529 or charles.carden@gva.co.uk.

Ends

 

Filed Under: Data Centre, DATACENTRE.ME, GVA Connect, PR Agency

New Research Proves Data Centre Operators Got Their Forecasts Right.

May 7, 2014 by

Research Shows Switch from Operators to End-Users
in the Data Centre Market
New research just undertaken by GVA Connect, the data centre specialist division of property agents GVA, showed that the take-up of data centre space by end-users such as enterprises and government agencies was up by a massive 67 per cent over this time last year.

“We reported in February that Data Centre Operators had ramped up their acquisitions of data centre space to some 830,000 square feet,” said GVA Connect director Charles Carden, “this new research shows that Operator commitments are now being rewarded with significant extra uptake of both co-location and wholesale data centre space by end-users.

“Total take-up (including operators and end-users) for the quarter to March 2014 remained comparable to the same period in 2013. Within that, the end-user volume transacted jumped from a total of 3MW in Q1/13 up to a total of 10MW in Q1/14. The average transaction was over 500kW” said Carden, adding that the team at GVA Connect is anticipating an increase in transactional activity from Q3/14 onwards, driven largely from the US.

The new GVA research showed once again that London, as a leading international data centre hub continues to account for the significant proportion of activity, Carden revealed that over 80% of total UK take up in Q1 was within the London Synchronous Locations (locations which deliver round-trip latency of under three milliseconds) with the remainder of uptake spread across the UK.

Said Carden, “this research indicates a healthy increase in overall data centre activity in the UK and continued occupier confidence following the noticeable increase in market enquires reported in Q4/13.”

GVA Connect sees the trend for IT outsourcing as set to continue as corporate IT budgets are relaxed and occupiers seeks to secure capacity on a scalable, OpEx basis to accommodate future demand.

The 60 per cent increase in end-user uptake is of course good news for existing data centre operators and highlights the positive outlook for those data centres such as the Nottingham Portal recently added to GVA Connect’s client list.

An existing 1.6 MVA data centre site with a number of revenue generating customers, ‘Nottingham Portal’ has significant potential for expansion – all of which is fully consented. Commenting on the Nottingham Portal, Carden said, “just one mile from Nottingham city centre, the site is centrally located in the UK and, having been originally developed by British Rail in the 1980s for its own IT needs, is alongside what was the British Rail National Fibre Network and as a result is extremely well connected.”
Carden concluded, “Cloud service providers, technology and media-related requirements continue to dominate the market and we predict further success with both acquisitions and disposals on behalf of clients and a high activity year for GVA Connect as the leading data centre property agency.”

-ends-

 

Photos
Photo of Charles Carden, Director of GVA Connect available at: http://turt.co/dcme49p1 [user: pics | pwd: pics] Caption: “Charles Carden, Director of GVA Connect”

Photo of Nottingham Portal Data Centre available at: http://turt.co/dmce49p2 [user: pics | pwd: pics] Caption: “Nottingham Portal Data Centre – currently for sale”

Contacts for further Editorial information
Charles Carden GVA
E: Charles.Carden@gva.co.uk
T: +44 20 7911 2529
and
Phil Turtle DataCenterIndustryPR
E: phil.turtle@turtleconsulting.com
T: +44 7867 780 676

Filed Under: Client, Data Centre, DATACENTRE.ME, GVA Connect, PR Agency

High Levels of Connectivity Announced For London Gateway Data Centre

April 7, 2014 by

Unknown to the majority of the data centre community, London’s new Gateway Data Centre in London’s West Thurrock sits on top of a massive level of Internet connectivity.

The Thurrock area is thought by many in the industry to be provided only by four carriers: BT, KPN, Cable & Wireless (now Vodafone) and Colt Telecom. However, the new 50MVA Gateway data centre sits a mere 20 metres from Fujitsu’s Data Centre and their 6,000 km UK national fibre backbone.

The network gives direct connectivity through a diverse routed ‘figure of 8’ diverse network through Birmingham and Leicester to Manchester, Southport and Leeds. This ensures that direct low-latency access can be immediately available (subject to contracts) to some 400 Tier-1 and Tier-2 Carriers via London’s Telecity (Harbour Exchange), Telecity (London East) plus Global Switch (London East). The network also gives direct access to peering exchanges LINX and LoNAP plus easy connection to AMSIX and NLix. High levels of network security are also available with all Fujitsu routes being classified for either IL3 or IL2 and suitable for a variety of financial, government and military uses.

Announcing the connectivity research Charles Carden, a director of GVA Connect (the data centre specialist division of property agents GVA), said: “Not only are the connectivity options for the new Gateway data centre superb, we believe from our research that a number of further carriers are considering fibre digs into the area, which is earmarked to become the London East data centre hub, over the coming years. ”Diverse dark fibre routes are possible to The City of London, London’s financial centre, and estimated to have round-trip latency of just 0.19 to 0.2 milliseconds. The availability of BT, Colt, KPN and Cable & Wireless plus Fujitsu’s IL-3 and IL-2 secure IP transit network gives access to some 400 possible carriers and High Density Computing capabilities (thanks to the 50MVA power potential) mean that The Gateway Data Centre is now demonstrated to be one of the most capable sites currently available.”

The Gateway facility is located close to the M25 London Orbital motorway and with easy physical and electronic access to the UK’s financial centres in The City and London Docklands.”

Gateway Data Centre consists of a 2.3 hectare site designed to have 8,000 square metres (86,000 sq. ft.) of white space with a gross internal floor area of 19,500 square metres (210,000 sq. ft.). With up to 50MVA of power potentially available, the Gateway Data Centre is ideal for high density as well as normal density computing uses and is only a few kilometres away from the New York Stock Exchange’s disaster recovery and European Hub data centre in Basildon.

The new Gateway Data Centre already has all necessary planning permissions and is a secure site within an existing trading estate. It can be rapidly delivered as either: ‘Shell and Core’, ‘Powered Shell’, or it can be ‘Fully Fitted’ to customer requirements.
Full plans are available for the conversion of the existing building and these can be viewed by contacting Charles Carden at GVA Connect’s London Stratton Street office. Or visit www.gatewaydatacentre.co.uk

Photos

CGI illustration available at: http://turt.co/dcme31p [user: pics | pwd: pics] Contacts for further Editorial information
Charles Carden GVA
E: Charles.Carden@gva.co.uk
T: +44 20 7911 2529
or
Phil Turtle DataCenterIndustryPR
E: phil.turtle@turtleconsulting.com
T: +44 7867 780 676

TO UNSUBSCRIBE: Please reply with NO GVA (or NO DATA CENTRE if you don’t cover data centre topics at all) in the subject line as appropriate

Filed Under: Data Centre, DATACENTRE.ME, GVA Connect, PR Agency Tagged With: , , , ,

As 200th Installation Announced, Direct-Air Evaporative Cooling Becomes Mainstream

March 26, 2014 by

EcoCooling, the leaders in direct-air evaporative cooling today revealed they have completed their 200th data centre cooling installation using the energy saving technology.

 

“Using CRECs (computer room evaporative coolers) instead of the conventional CRAC units (computer room air conditioning units) can save over 90 per cent of the energy needed to cool a data centre,” said EcoCooling managing and technical director Alan Beresford, “we are very pleased to announce Serve The World as the 200th data centre to adopt this solution at its 600kW Oslo facility in Norway.”

 

Data centre engineers are by nature very cautious and it has taken a number of years for the CREC cooling to be accepted as a safe and reliable alternative to expensive refrigeration-based CRAC cooling. Serve The World now joins a list of highly respected data centre operators able to operate with PUEs (power utilisation effectiveness) of 1.2 or less regardless of the level of occupancy in the data centre.

 

Other data centres which have grasped the power and cost saving EcoCooling CREC cooling technology include Insurance company Unum, UK telecoms companies BT and TalkTalk, public sector organisations Humberside police and Warwickshire County Council plus colocation specialist Capgemini, as well as Cambridge University and RNLI (the Royal Naval Lifeboat Institute)

 

Within the 200 installations there are data centres with power consumptions from 10kW to 1MW. For a 1MW installation the EcoCooling CREC solution would require only around 40kW of power compared to as much as 1000kW with conventional CRAC cooling. This saves the cost and infrastructure for 960 kW of power.

 

Aberdeen University Data Centre – cooled by EcoCooling CRECs has been awarded Data Centre Project of the Year in the BCS & Computing UK IT Industry Awards – covering the UK’s entire IT industry. Aberdeen beat off competition from Tesco, Capital One and the NHS.  A number of best practices including the deployment of EcoCooling CRECs has led to a PUE of less than 1.1.

 

EcoCooling’s direct-air cooled data centre projects are spread far and wide beyond the UK with installations also in New Zealand., Germany, Ireland and the latest Norway-based Serve the World.

 

Explaining how the CREC technology works, Beresford said, “in temperate climates there are up to 365 days every year when so-called ‘free cooling’ can be employed. On a fair proportion of these days it is simply enough to pass air from outside through the data centre servers and other active equipment at a suitable rate and no cooling of that external air is needed at all. On the remaining days, it is sufficient to use a very simple technique of water evaporation which takes heat out of the incoming air and cools it sufficiently to cool an entire data centre.”

 

“Concerns of data centre engineers about the use of fresh air in data centres have not materialised.  With over five years operational experience and research data now available from these 200 installations the EcoCooling CREC design principles and process controls have proven to provide a resilient and efficient cooling system. I think the list of major players that have fully researched the topic and have then implemented EcoCooling technology demonstrates that data centre engineers can now consider this power saving technology as being fully ‘of age’,” Beresford concluded.

 

Filed Under: Client, Cooling, Data Centre, DATACENTRE.ME, EcoCooling, PR Agency, Tech PR Tagged With: , , ,

New Cooling Solution Brings Major Savings To Telecoms And Server Rooms

March 26, 2014 by

For several years now Data Centres have been cutting the cost of cooling by 80 to 90 per cent thanks to direct-air evaporative cooling.

 

Market leader EcoCooling has now developed a smaller unit ideal for the telecoms room and small server rooms which have historically been some of the most expensive locations to cool due to the highly inefficient and often unsuitable refrigeration cooling units deployed.

 

Launching the new 15kW evaporative cooler, EcoCooling’s managing and technical director Alan Beresford explained, ‘small office-type air conditioners have been used to cool areas such as telecom rooms and small server rooms, but these are not really suited to cooling IT equipment and can be very inefficient. Refrigeration coolers naturally use a lot of energy and in-fact office type coolers simply aren’t designed to deal with the high levels of concentrated heat produced by modern servers, routers and switches.’

 

Often, to remove 15kW of heat from a server room the energy requirement to run the refrigeration coolers would amount to a further 15kW of electricity.

 

The new EcoCooling evaporative cooler requires a mere 400watts to remove 15kW of heat.  This can save over £10,000 per year in cooling costs.

 

With one leading University already looking to deploy 60 of these units – and save over 500kW of power the new product is set to be extremely popular!

Also, while refrigeration-based coolers whose efficiency gets far worse when they are partially-loaded, the new EcoCooling units are highly efficient at low loads.  5kW of cooling will require less than 50W of electricity.

 

The new 15kW cooler from EcoCooling requires no external condenser unlike conventional air conditioning units and is a self-contained compact unit at just 1.4m x 0.9m x 1.9m.  The units are also designed for ease and speed of maintenance and all maintenance is carried out inside the building.

 

The very simple installation method means the 15kW EcoCooling unit is significantly less expensive than conventional external units making the massive energy savings available to small server and telecoms rooms.

Filed Under: Cooling, Data Centre, DATACENTRE.ME, EcoCooling, PR Agency, Tech PR Tagged With: , , ,

UK Data Centre On The Market – Ideal For Overseas Entrant to UK

March 26, 2014 by

GVA Connect, the data centre specialist division of property agents GVA, has taken new instructions to market an existing 1.6 MVA data centre ‘Nottingham Portal’ with the potential for expansion to 18 MVA and 70,000 square feet of space – all of which is fully consented.

Announcing the availability, GVA Connect director Charles Carden said, “Nottingham Portal data centre is just one mile from Nottingham city centre and nine miles from J24 of the M1 motorway. The site is centrally located in the UK and, having been originally developed by British Rail in the 1980s for its own IT needs, is alongside what was the British Rail National Fibre Network and as a result is extremely well connected.”

Phase 1 of the data centre is partly operational with customers occupying around 3,000 sq. ft. and producing an existing income stream.
Three further data halls have already been created meaning that some 8,775 sq. ft. of additional technical space can be delivered with 1.6 MVA of reserved power via the site’s dedicated 2MVA, 11 kV transformer.
Expansion

Planning consent exists to allow the existing facility to be extended to some 70,000 sq. ft. of gross space with Phase 1 having been altered to facilitate this work to go ahead with ease. Phase 2 of Nottingham Portal data centre has been designed as a high density Tier 3 facility providing an additional 35,000 sq. ft. of technical space and allowing power and cooling in N+1, N+N or 2N configurations to suit customer requirements.
Dual 18 MVA diverse power feeds have already been surveyed and would be available within 18 months. Additional land can also be made available adjacent to the data centre site if required. Said GVA Connect’s Carden, ”this site is ideally placed for an out-of-London UK data centre with readily available power, connectivity and land. It’s in a low risk area of a major city in the midlands of England.

 

With existing customers and an existing income stream it would make an ideal low risk, low-cost expansion option for either an existing UK data centre operator or an overseas entrant to the UK market.” Full details are available for the existing data centre and consented plans the expansion. These can be viewed by contacting Charles Carden at GVA Connect’s London Stratton Street office. Or visit http://turt.co/dcme42

-Ends-

Photo:   CGI illustration of the Nottingham Portal data centre is available at: http://turt.co/dcme42p   [user: pics | pwd: pics]

UNSUBSCRIBE: Please reply with NO GVA or NO DATA CETNRE in the subject line as appropriate

 

Filed Under: Data Centre, DATACENTRE.ME, Fibre/Fiber Optics, GVA Connect, Industry News, Infrastructure, PR Agency, Tech PR Tagged With: , , ,

Research shows Data Centre Space Take-Up Jumps 18 Per Cent

February 14, 2014 by

 

Gateway Data Centre Exterior

Gateway Data Centre Exterior

Research just released by GVA Connect, the data centre specialist division of property agents GVA, showed UK take-up of data centre space amounted to 830,000 square feet (gross retail area) in calendar year 2013.

 

“This represented an 18 per cent jump in data centre space take-up over the previous year,” said GVA Connect director Charles Carden, adding that the company expected take-up to remain at this level during 2014.

 

Confirming London’s position as a leading international data centre hub, Carden revealed that over three quarters of the 2013 data centre take-up was within the so-called London Synchronous Locations (locations which deliver round-trip latency of under three milliseconds).  The second most popular location was Manchester with the remainder of take-up spread across the UK.

 

Said Carden, ‘Not only does this research indicate a very healthy increase in data centre activity, the average power requirement – at over 500kw – demonstrates that the majority of these new projects are of a very significant size.

 

GVA Connect sees these figures as a very sound indicator of continued occupier confidence declaring that this follows-on from the steep rise in both the number and size of enquiries they reported in Q4/13.

 

“We continue to see an increase in serious enquiries from US operators for space in both UK and right across EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa),” said Carden.

 

Availability

Availability of data centre space in the London Zone is illustrated by new data centre space such as Gateway in London’s West Thurrock (gatewaydatacentre.co.uk).  This has the ability to deliver up to 86,000 square feet of data halls, 50MVA of diverse power, excellent connectivity and 2.0ms round trip latency to the City of London. Similar opportunities currently exist at both London’s Bracknell and Perivale data centres (bracknellandperivaledc.com) which, like Gateway are available as Shell and Core, Powered Shell or can be delivered as Fully Fitted data centres to specific customer requirements.

 

Also currently available are self-contained opportunities within existing established London region data centres such as 30,000 to 50,000 sqft of space at Heathrow in West London with 41MVA of power and 50,000 sqft at Croydon in South London with dual 10MVA potential. (gvaconnect.com/heathrow   gvaconnect.com/croydon ).

 

In the regions too there are data centre opportunities such as the Portal Data Centre in Nottingham with excellent connectivity, existing clients on lease plus planning consents to expand to 70,000 sqft of gross space with power expandable to over 10MVA via diverse feeds.

 

Rising trend

GVA Connect also reports a further rising trend in interest for data centre space from corporate users, cloud service providers and media-related businesses – indicating a relaxation in IT budgets as we move into 2014.

 

Carden added, “We anticipate enquiry and activity levels remaining steady at this higher level throughout 2014 with transactional activity driven by USA operators in Q3/14 and Q4/14. With GVA Connect being  the leading data centre property agency we are ideally placed to assist with both lettings and acquisitions during what promises to be a high-activity year.”

 

 

Filed Under: Data Centre, DATACENTRE.ME, Fibre/Fiber Optics, GVA Connect, Industry News, PR Agency, PR Company, Structured Cabling, Tech PR Tagged With: , , ,

Raritan Solves The Intelligent PDU Retrofit Problem Without Downtime

January 30, 2014 by

Raritan, leader in high accuracy intelligent power monitoring and metering has designed a completely new retrofit power monitoring system suitable for both new and existing data centres. The technology is designed for ‘live’ installation, without any need for downtime or business interruption.

 

Operators of legacy data centres often look enviously at more modern facilities with intelligent power distribution units (PDUs) and their metering and monitoring reports. Without these modern systems, data centre  operators cannot easily tell how much additional equipment they can safely put in a rack – or how dangerously close they are to tripping a circuit breaker. (If a circuit breaker trips a whole rack or even row could lose power – with disastrous results for services and customers).

 

The problem in most legacy data centres has been that retrofitting in-line PDU’s involves downtime, which is normally unacceptable. Until now, that is.

 

Launching the new product, Raritan’s Richard May said, “Raritan’s new BCM (Branch Circuit Monitoring) needs no downtime for installation. It uses high accuracy split-core clamps that simply attach around existing supply cables.  The data from these clamps is combined with voltage monitoring information.  The non-invasive BCM installation then supplies the business with invaluable data including, power (kW), apparent power (kVA), energy (kWh) plus power factor (PF) as well as load balance on three-phase systems.”

 

Each Raritan BCM unit can monitor the incoming single phase or three phase feeds to a distribution panel plus up to 21 tributary or branch circuits to the rack’s A&B feed PDUs.

 

Multiple BCM units are connected together for larger panels and network connections are made using Wi-Fi or RJ45. Utilising industry standard SNMP protocols, the unit cleanly integrates into existing management and data collection systems.

 

Information is Power

Raritan BCM integrates direct to the Raritan Power IQ and dcTrack management software systems in exactly the same way as intelligent PDUs in new data centres.

 

This means that by the non-intrusive installation of Raritan BCM and either Power IQ or dcTrack software, legacy data centres can now easily have the full functionality enjoyed by newer facilities:

–       An increase in available power by ensuring that branch circuits are suitably loaded but never overloaded.

–       Avoiding pockets of ‘stranded’ (and hence un-used) power, maximising your data centre investment.

–       A complete, accurate view of branch circuit loading

–       Improved balance of loads

–       Monitoring and ensuring that breaker-trips are avoided except in true emergencies.

–       Accurately bill customers/users or user departments for energy usage.

–       Accurately measure PUE

–       Support energy saving and ‘green’ initiatives.

For more information visit  www.raritan.eu/bcm or contact Raritan at sales.uk@raritan.com or +44 207 090 139

 

Filed Under: Client, Copper Cabling, Data Centre, DATACENTRE.ME, Industry News, Infrastructure, PR Agency, PR Company, Raritan, Structured Cabling, Tech PR Tagged With: , ,

Data Centre Alliance Elects Industry Senior Names to Board of Governors

January 9, 2014 by
Steven Norris, President of Data Centre Alliance

Steven Norris, President of Data Centre Alliance

Data Centre Alliance – the global not-for-profit industry representative body has elected six of the industry’s most powerful and respected chiefs to its Board of Governors.

 

Announcing the new appointments Date Centre Alliance (DCA) President Steven Norris (himself a former UK member of Parliament who held the position of Parliamentary Private Secretary in the Departments of Trade & Industry, Environment and Home Office) said, “In just two years the Data Centre Alliance has grown from being the brainchild of Simon Campbell-Whyte and Steve Hone to the highly respected industry representative body it now is.

 

“As such it is fitting that some of the most senior people in the industry should decide to give freely of their time and expertise to grow the DCA’s scope and influence wider and indeed globally. DCA has achieved several major milestones this year including the first ever government research funding – by the European Union – for project PEDCA. DCA has also launched the somewhat secret world of data centres, and their importance to society, to the public and businesses with two major special reports in conjunction with The New Statesman, a major international political and business publication.

 

Those taking up posts on the DCA Board of Governors are:

Adriaan Oosthoek –   DCA Chairman

Adriaan is Colt’s European Executive Vice President of Data Centre Services. He has worked in the data centre industry for 12 years and brings to the DCA a deep understanding of the colocation and wholesale data centre markets. He was also formerly UK Managing Director of Telecity Group.

 

Professor Dennis Kehoe – DCA Vice Chairman

Dennis is CEO of AIMES Grid Services and previously was Saxby Professor and Royal Academy of Engineering Research Professor at the University of Liverpool. He is also a non-executive director with a number of technology start-up and spin-out businesses.

Dennis continues a second term as Vice Chairman where his experience and expertise in major government funded R&D projects is invaluable. Future R&D funding for the industry, will remain a key focus for Dennis within the DCA.

 

Andrew Jay – DCA Senior Vice President for Governments and Policy

Andrew is Executive Director with international property and real-estate advisors CBRE where he runs the world’s largest data centre real-estate advisory team and publishes regular industry research reports.

Andrew will lead a drive against Governments’ mis-aligned policies and financial incentives.

 

Matt Pumfrey – DCA Senior Vice President for the DCA Technical Council

Matt is CEO of Smart Carbon Control and a director of Get-Smarter Energy.  Formerly also with Serco, he has over 15 years experience in the telecoms and technology sector.

Matt takes board responsibility for the DCA’s technical council and committees. His role will be to oversee the work of these groups and to establish further technical groups in line with the ever changing needs of the industry.

 

Rob Coupland – Senior Vice President for Training and Skills

Rob, is managing director at TelecityGroup and formerly with both NTL and Cable & Wireless. He brings 15 years plus years of experience to his new position on the DCA Board of Governors.

In his new role, Rob will build on his involvement with the recent DCA Graduate Bootcamp to establish firm links into schools, universities and commercial training organisations – to ensure that the data centre industry can avoid the currently forecast skills shortage.  Coupland’s appointment complements TelecityGroup’s corporate initiatives to facilitate apprenticeships in the technology sector throughout Europe.

 

Andrew Green – DCA Senior Vice President for New Markets

Basing himself between London and Hong Kong;  Andrew is a director at PTS Consulting. He joins the Board to spearhead the DCA’s expansion as representative body around the world.

He joins with pan-European DCA establishment well underway thanks to project PEDCA. He will focus on the need to establish DCA Chapters in the world’s major data centre locations to ensure that the DCA is fully representative of the industry for it’s members throughout the globe.

 

Ciaran Flanagan – Vice President

Ciaran is head of EMEA data centre initiatives for technology giant ABB and was previously head of data centre strategy with Nokia as well as roles with Intel and Verari Systems.

Ciaran joins the Board of Governors to make his supply-side experience available in a consultative capacity.

 

Nominations Invited

Three further Senior Vice Presidents (SVP) posts on the DCA Board of Governors have been announced and nominations are invited from experienced senior individuals prepared to give their time and expertise for the good of the industry.  They are:

  • SVP for Standards and Certification
  • SVP for Legal Affairs
  • SVP for Investment and Funding
  • SVP for Germany

Nominations can be submitted via this link http://turt.co/dca31

Filed Under: Data Centre, Data Centre Alliance, Industry News, Infrastructure, PR Agency, PR Company, Structured Cabling Tagged With: , ,

UK Government Breathes Life Back Into UK’s Essential Data Centre Industry

December 16, 2013 by

Steven Norris, President of Data Centre Alliance

The UK Government has finally recognised the economic importance of the Data Centre sector – one of the few industries where UK plc has a world lead – by their inclusion for the first time ever in a Government announcement.

(Data centres are the giant computing factories that drive industry, commerce, the cloud and social media.)

 

Said Data Centre Alliance President and former Minister of Transport Steven Norris, “The Chancellor of the Exchequer finally recognised Data Centres in his Autumn Statement as the major industry and economic wealth creator that they are, by removing the punitive tax regime that had been making the UK non-competitive in this business and forcing companies to off-shore their data centres.

 

“Britain is a world leader in the Data Centre industry and the Climate Change Levy had been wrongly applied to it because the Government, and indeed the public, were totally unaware of its existence! Something we at industry body the Data Centre Alliance (DCA) have been working hard this year to change. The Chancellor’s Autumn statement plus the winning of the first ever European Strategic Research funding for Data Centres now demonstrates that DCA has succeeded in bringing this previously unseen industry onto the Political agenda.”

 

Norris went on to explain that the Data Centres are buildings full of computer servers that power things like Facebook, Twitter, E-mail, the Banks all big businesses. Airline booking systems, Air Traffic Control, the NHS, city traffic lights and in fact just about every part of our lives are controlled by these massive data centres.

 

“The UK was one of the very first countries to develop Data Centres out of our world-class telecommunications and mainframe computing industries,” Norris said, “and we were in serious risk of loosing what are effectively the UK’s only remaining ‘factories’.”

 

We refer to them as ‘factories’ because they store and make information out of raw data. They are massive – often the size of five or six football pitches – and can consume as much electricity as a small city. “What the Government is now starting to understand is that it is essential to protect and grow one of the few industries where UK plc still has a world lead,” said Norris, “and we are delighted that DCA’s efforts in representing the industry to them have, in such a short period of time had such significant results.”

 

As recently as June 2013 when the DCA in conjunction with the UK’s foremost political magazine New Statesman produced the UK’s first mainstream expose of the hitherto ‘hidden world’ of data centres, no Government Minister could be found to write a contribution, because they were unaware of this massive sector.

 

The publication of that Special Report and a personal briefing by DCA to Greg Baker Minister of State at the Department of Energy and Climate Change brought about an instant interest. So much so that by the time of the second DCA/New Statesman Data Centre Special Report in August 2013 Minister of State for Universities and Science David Willets wrote a leader article recognising the importance of the sector and noted that Government Ministers Vince Cable, Michael Fallon and Ed Vaisey had all now been to visit Data Centres!

In the New Statesman/DCA special report, Willets wrote:

“Data centres are a crucial part of that infrastructure, and are an area that the government needs to understand better. They are the physical, tangible manifestation of the somewhat invisible and ethereal concept which is the internet. They are absolutely fundamental to a successful and vibrant information economy in the UK, supporting some of our biggest global companies, and our research institutions. London’s successful financial sector could not function without the state-of-the-art data centres in areas like Docklands, enabling computer-based and low-latency trading.

Data centres are the tangible manifestation of the ethereal internet

Moreover, in the UK we are good at putting together data centres – and this is expertise we can export to the world at a time when global spending on data centres is predicted to reach $149bn next year.

Concluded the DCA’s Executive Director Simon Campbell-Whyte, , “We are delighted that the UK Government has now recognised the imperative to grow and support this sector. And, although as an organisation we represent the industry globally we believe that this is a major milestone in the success of UK plc and are proud that we were able to achieve this on behalf of our members.”

 

“It is of course only a first step, and we are standing by to assist UK Government and Governments worldwide as they come to terms with understanding and supporting the digital factories that now power the global information economy.”

Filed Under: Client, Comment and Opinion, Data Centre, Data Centre Alliance, Industry News, PR Agency, PR Company, Sector, Tech PR Tagged With: , , , , ,

New 12MVA Substation Arrives at London Perivale Data Centre

November 28, 2013 by
London Perivale Data Centre Substation

London Perivale Data Centre Substation

New 12MVA Substation Arrives at London Perivale Data Centre

Work is now well underway on the building of a new 12MVA substation at London’s Perivale Data Centre. The substation is fed from the national grid by two dual resilient 11kV feeds, either of which will be capable of supplying the full 12MVA load.

Perivale One is the first data centre to have gained planning permission – and now power – on the 20 acre site in West London, owned by Hermes Real Estate Investment Management Limited (HREIML). HREIML intend for the Perivale Park site to become a major data centre in this strategic, well powered and highly connected location.

Jane Rampin of Bracknell and Perivale Data Centres said: “Assembling the essential infrastructure elements for a data centre is costly and time consuming. Securing 12MVA of power and facilitating its delivery to site has been a critical step in bringing Perivale Data Centre to fruition. This success demonstrates HREIML’s commitment to the scheme and our ability to deliver.”

HREIML is working in partnership with GCE Data Centres to deliver phase one, a purpose built two storey data centre at Perivale Park. This phase, which already has full planning consent, is offered for lease as a 30,000 sq ft powered shell, translating to some 15,000 sq ft of net technical space. With the new substation build running to plan, it is expected that the site will be energised next month.

David Willcocks, Director, Jones Lang LaSalle commented, “Opting for a powered shell data centre solution can shorten a clients’ build time by two years. HREIML and GCE have already done all the time consuming and expensive works to identify a site with plenty of power and fibre connectivity, drawn up plans and obtained full planning consent. The picture is complete with 12MW of power, secured and delivered.”

A data centre needs connectivity as well as power and HREIML, in conjunction with GCE, has at least ten high profile carriers poised to bring fibre into the Perivale Data Centre. These include BT, Colt Telecom, CWW, EasyNet, Geo Networks, Global Crossing, Redstone, SSE (Neos), Verizon Business and Virgin Media.

Low latencies are important to a successful data centre and the sites strategic location, between the City and Slough and inside the M25 ensures that they remain low.

The partnership also brought forward another powered shell data centre scheme at Bracknell, in the heart of the Thames Valley region, one of the UK’s primary tech hubs. A 78,000 sq ft powered shell scheme, Bracknell Data Centre is now available with high levels of connectivity, planning consent and 10MWA of power and is also about to be energised.

Jones Lang LaSalle and GVA Connect are joint lettings agents on the scheme

Filed Under: Client, Data Centre, DATACENTRE.ME, Industry News, Infrastructure, PR Agency, PR Company, Tech PR Tagged With: , , , , ,

DiskShred warns of rising PCI-DSS data destruction issues for UK corporates

November 5, 2013 by

“Under the PCI DSS rules, if you do not comply with the required standard, you may lose you ability to accept credit and debit cards from your customers – which is arguably far worse than a hefty fine from the ICO” — Philip McMichael, Operations Director, DiskShred

 

Disk Shredded Data Fully Destroyed

Disk Shredded Data Fully Destroyed

Leading data storage destruction specialist DiskShred (www.diskshred.eu)  has warned UK companies that process credit card transactions – which accounts for almost all SMEs and larger businesses – of plans to dramatically ramp up the security requirements under Version 3 of the PCI DSS rules due later this year.

 

Developed by the card payments industry in close consultation with the Payment Card Industry (PCI) council, the PCI Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) consists of 12 significant requirements including multiple sub-requirements, which contain numerous directives.

 

These directives – which apply to most organisations that process payment card transactions – allow businesses to measure their own payment card security policies, procedures and guidelines.

 

Most experts agree that revision 3 of the PCI DSS rules will see the scope of the rule’s external audit requirements extended to cover many more companies, as well as impose harsher requirements on all companies who accept credit and debit cards from their customers.

 

According to Philip McMichael, Operations Director with DiskShred, this will impose a far more stringent set of security requirements when companies dispose of their data, especially where the IT equipment has reached an end-of-life situation.

 

“We’ve all heard the horror stories of customer data appearing on the hard drives of computers sold on auction Web sites – resulting in fines from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) under the Data Protection Act. Under the PCI DSS rules, if you do not comply with the required standard, you may lose you ability to accept credit and debit cards from your customers – which is arguably far worse than a hefty fine from the ICO,” he said.

 

“Thankfully we can offer an on-site service that provides a hard drive and data storage device destruction facility that conforms to all necessary governance standards – shredding the data storage down to confetti-sized pieces – and providing a complete compliance audit trail, thanks to on-truck CCTV facilities and staff who are CRB checked on their backgrounds,” he added.

 

McMichael, whose firm has been in the IT asset disposal business since 2001, went on to say that DiskShred has the necessary EU accreditations to do what it does – and a few more besides – which is why almost three quarters of its business comes from repeat or client referrals.

 

And with other legislation – including the aforementioned Data Protection Act – and the Companies Act, imposing increasing levels of data security duty of care on company directors and their senior staff – there is also the spectre of the Government introducing custodial sentences for individuals who breach data protection laws to contend with.

 

And this, says DiskShred’s Operations Director, is where his firm’s fully auditable on-site data storage device destruction service can provide a hassle-free way of avoiding corporate angst over breaking the law or required governance standards. It’s also why on-site destruction is essential, “A company needs to be sure its hard drives definitely made it into the shredder without any ‘en-route diversions’ into the wrong hands”, McMichael said.

 

“Our observations suggest that no matter how effective the data security and destruction rules within an organisation, the human element will always mean that rules can be deviated from – and corners will be cut. People get tired, become bored and even turn to crime depending on the circumstances,” he said.

 

“This is why we believe that on-site media shredding – to verifiable minimum standards, backed up with criminal background checks on the staff completing the process and CCTV footage to act as the ultimate audit proof,” he added.

 

“Our approach is the only sure-fire way to prove to regulators, the Police and clients, that the data held on your storage devices is gone forever. So whether you have 50 or 5000 disks to destroy, we can move our trucks on to your site and shred your hardware in front of your eyes.”

Filed Under: Client, Data Centre, Diskshred, Industry News, PR Agency, PR Company, Sector, Software, Tech PR Tagged With: , , , ,

Mayor of London congratulates Virtus Data Centres on commencement of works at LONDON2

November 4, 2013 by

Boris Johnson City HallLondon, 5 November 2013 – Virtus Data Centres Ltd, (Virtus), London’s flexible and efficient data centre specialists has announced its plan for expansion of its London data centre portfolio and the start of construction of its second site in West London, LONDON2.

Virtus’ new flagship data centre is designed to meet the growing demand for scalable, reliable, on-demand colocation services and will be the first in London to deploy a new ground breaking fresh-air, evaporative cooling technology that dramatically decreases energy consumption, bringing site power usage effectiveness (PUE) to below 1.2, delivering substantial savings to Virtus’ clients.

 

By using this evaporative cooling technology together with solar panels, ground water from its own well, chimney racks for heat extraction, highly efficient UPS systems, and other innovative technologies Virtus LONDON2 will be the most energy-efficient data centre in London. It will reduce its environmental impact even further by using 100% green power from renewable sources and heat pumps to recirculate heat generated by the IT equipment into communal areas.

 

Mayor of London Boris Johnson welcomed the new investment in Virtus LONDON2 and commented “I’m delighted that Virtus has chosen to invest in London again. London is leading the global digital technology revolution and is the world’s leading technology hub with great British technology, creativity and innovation.  Up and coming companies like Virtus are at the heart of that whole explosion of talent in London and I’m delighted to see them using so many state of the art ways of saving energy and improving efficiency.”

 

Steve Norris, Chairman of Virtus Data Centres, and himself a former Mayoral candidate added: “Virtus is one of London’s technology success stories, growing fast in the 3 years since we opened the door of our first site in Enfield.  That growth is  fuelled by the boom in technology, media and mobile activity in London. We wanted our LONDON2 facility to be right at the cutting edge of environmental efficiency and we’re proud of what we’ve started.  We’re also looking at other sites for LONDON3. Virtus’ on-going commitment to innovate in-line with the way businesses need data centre space ensures that our customers can rely on maximum flexibility, quality, service and value.”

Filed Under: Case Study, Data Centre, Industry News, Infrastructure, IT, PR Agency, PR Company, Tech PR, Virtus Data Centre Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Virtus Data Centres becomes the first provider of Colocation To The IBM Solutions Store

October 24, 2013 by

Virtus, London’s flexible and efficient data centre provider, announced today that it has joined the IBM Solutions Store, providing Colocation options to complete the stack of offerings within the IBM Solution Store – from the data centre to the application.

 

IBM’s Solutions Store is a collaborative marketplace for industry leading IBM-focused vendors and end-to-end solutions providers – including managed service providers (MSPs), independent software vendors (ISVs), cloud service providers (CSPs) end users (such as corporate IT departments) and now with the addition of Virtus: colocation data centres in London.

 

Announcing the new move, Virtus CEO Neil Cresswell said, “For most MSPs, ISPs and CSPs the solutions they build within this environment will need a ‘home’ for the servers and networking equipment.  That home can now be an IBM Solutions Store London data centre owned and operated by Virtus.

 

“Virtus already has a thriving community of MSPs, ISVs and CSPs growing in its highly flexible and efficient data centre space in London. So it makes perfect sense to become part of the IBM Solutions community and deliver the high quality colocation facilities these partners need in order to complete their IT projects,” added Cresswell.

 

For Solution Store end users, beginning-to-end IBM solutions are now available through IBM and its partners, and for IBM Solution Store partners, efficient, flexible, high-quality connectivity-rich and affordable colocation is available directly from Virtus.

 

As an IBM Solutions Store Partner, Virtus will offer cooperative and collaborative marketing and business development initiatives with other Solutions Store Partners who provide complementary services such as managed services, or application hosting. Virtus will also offer partners office space and demonstration facilities at its data centres for them and their clients.

 

Virtus’ track record of not only 100% uptime, but also of successful implementation of data centre environments, matches the quality and commitment of other partners in the IBM Solutions Store. Virtus has helped numerous MSPs, ISVs and Cloud providers to design solutions and then rapidly deploy them.

 

Flexibility and affordability are high on the list too – with products like the recently launched CoLo-on-Demand; Virtus’ colocation costs were recently reported to be half those of Docklands-based data centres. Building connectivity-rich data centres means that there are also many high quality competitive carriers available at Virtus facilities.

 

“With our flexible product offerings, unique outer London locations (as little as 0.17 milliseconds round trip latency to London’s financial centres), our eco-efficient designs and the lowest possible TCO in London,  Virtus is the ideal colocation partner for IBM based IT solutions,” said Cresswell

 

“Above all we help our partners to find new business opportunities and we pride ourselves in being the most flexible and ‘easy to do business with’ data centre company in London.”

Filed Under: Client, Data Centre, Industry News, PR Agency, PR Company, Sector, Tech PR, Telecoms, Virtus Data Centre Tagged With: , , , , ,

Virtus Data Centres sponsors IP Expo – The ONE place for ALL the big questions

October 16, 2013 by

Virtus, the provider of London’s most flexible and efficient data centre solutions, announced today that it is sponsoring IP Expo at London’s Earls Court  on the 16th and 17th October.

 

Neil Cresswell, CEO of Virtus, commented: “I am delighted that Virtus is sponsoring the IP Expo; one of the major events bringing together all players of the modern interconnected digital market place. Virtus understands the needs of the Cloud world and is committed to developing flexible colocation products to help start-up and established Cloud and IT service providers flourish easily. We see an interconnected marketplace as being essential in reducing costs for end users and believe flexibility, efficiency and agility are key in this fast changing IT environment.”

 

To address the modern requirements of Cloud and IT service providers Virtus has developed CoLo-on-Demand and Connectivity-on-Demand products which are designed to give customers the flexibility to purchase colocation services and bandwidth on an on-demand basis, which matches their on-demand business requirements. For the first time, Cloud and IT service providers can flex up or down on space or power consumption by giving only a day’s notice. They pay for what they actually use so their costs are in line with their revenues.

For more information on the CoLo-on-Demand and Connectivity-on-Demand products or to talk about Virtus’ new exciting flagship data centre in Hayes come and see us on stand G31.

 

=ends=

About Virtus

Founded in 2008, Virtus is the provider of the most flexible, high-efficiency data centre solutions for cloud/managed service providers and corporate end users in London.

 

We exist to help our clients transform their businesses with flexible, modern and efficient data centre and connectivity solutions, which can be delivered in just a few weeks. Virtus’ unique ability to scale data centre services and connectivity bandwidth up or down on demand ensures clients benefit from the lowest TCOs available in London.

 

The high quality and resiliency of Virtus’ facilities, operations and connectivity services are second to none and ensure reliability, performance and security of your IT. Our environmentally efficient and connectivity-rich services are delivered from centres that we have built, on land that we own, located in prime but cost effective locations close to the centre of London.  Our solutions are available in innovative, flexible commercial packages. Our centres are becoming the heart of the power and connectivity driving the growing cloud and IT services community in London as well as financial, media and mobile businesses.
By owning and designing our data centres we maintain an emphasis on high power density and environmentally friendly cooling technology to deliver the lowest PUEs in outer London (less than 1.2) maximising efficiency and minimising cost and environmental impact for our clients.   This efficiency when combined with our unique locations and flexibility drives significant TCO savings through reductions in power costs, optimisation of powered space, flexible contract terms such as ‘pay as you use’ or ‘pay as you grow’ models and savings on connectivity due to geographical location to central London (less than  0.2 of a millisecond). Through these innovative offerings, Virtus are challenging the traditional London data centre landscape.

 

Our resilient and secure Tier 3 facilities have 100% uptime track records and SLAs, and are designed to be flexible for handling a broad range of requirements from a rack to a customised branded hall, high density, low density or a combination of both, for a day or a decade, for businesses of all sizes and in flexible and affordable packages.

 

Today we continue to innovate in-line with and beyond the way businesses of all types buy data centre and connectivity services, to ensure we exceed our clients’ expectations in quality, flexibility, service and value.

 

For more information please go to: www.virtusdatacentres.com or contact us on twitter: @VirtusDCs.

Filed Under: Data Centre, Industry News, PR Agency, PR Company, Tech PR, Virtus Data Centre Tagged With: , , , ,

Steep Rise In Data Centre Space Enquiries says GVA Connect

October 15, 2013 by

Gateway Data Centre Exterior-W600Comment just released by GVA Connect (gva.co.uk/datacentres) – the company’s data centre property agency – notes that enquiry levels for data centre space demonstrated a steep month on month rise during quarter three of 2013 (03/13).

Said Charlie Carden, a director of GVA Connect, “This steep rise was not only in the volume of enquiries but also in the average size of space/power requirement compared to previous quarters. This is a good early indication of health returning to the data centre sector.

“These encouraging figures for the data centre economy follow GVA Connect’s recent announcement of the availability of a new data centre called Gateway in London’s West Thurrock (gatewaydatacentre.co.uk). With 86,000 square feet of data halls, up to 47MVA of diverse power and 2.0ms round trip latency to the City of London, Gateway is available as a Shell and Core, Powered Shell or Fully Fitted data centre.

Returning to his industry commentary Carden said, “The recovery is already evident from the serious increase in enquiries from US operators not only for space in the UK but across EMEA.

“Existing operators and potential new entrants are now investigating the UK market to satisfy requirements from their enterprise clients – many of whom are seeking to move to global outsourced IT solutions”.

A further rising trend, according to GVA Connect is the increase in interest for data centre space from corporate users – indicating a relaxation in corporate IT budgets. The same upward trend has also been noted from telecoms and media-related businesses.

“Being the leading agent for the marketing of UK data centre space”, concluded Carden, “We’re anticipating further rises to be driven by USA operators in Q2/14 and we’re well placed to assist clients in both lettings and acquisitions “.

 

 

Filed Under: Client, Data Centre, Industry News, IT, PR Agency, Tech PR

ABB Joins Data Centre Alliance – To Contribute To ‘The Good Of The Industry’

October 14, 2013 by
Simon Campbell-Whyte, Executive Director at Data Centre Alliance

Simon Campbell-Whyte, Executive Director at Data Centre Alliance

ABB, a world leader in power and automation technologies has joined industry representative body the Data Centre Alliance (DCA) at its highest level of membership – as a Platinum Partner.

 

Explaining why the company has joined, ABB’s head of the data centre sector for ABB in Europe Ciaran Flanagan said, “We at ABB see the Data Centre Alliance as a trusted advisor to the datacentre industry in terms of standards, innovation and research for the future. It is also rapidly becoming ‘the voice’ of the industry. Membership represents a great opportunity for ABB to better understand end-user requirements and focus our research and development appropriately for our mutual benefit.

 

“We look forward to working with the peer vendors and end-users to discuss future technologies and trends – and how these might help the industry better contribute to the common good. Also to help develop the human capital required to address the challenge.

 

“The format and objective of the Data Centre Alliance, in our opinion, promotes the sharing and benchmarking of concepts and performance amongst the members”.

Flanagan continued by explaining that ABB had decided to join at the Platinum Partner level because: “We clearly see and understand the value of the Data Centre Alliance to the industry and we want to participate at a significant level”.

 

ABB’s major focus will be on contributing to the DCA, he said. “We intend to share ABB’s vision for the future of the sustainable data centre. We will support the DCA by sharing new understanding that results from our corporate R&D efforts and we will invite the DCA members to engage with us as we assess new opportunities for improving datacentre performance.

 

“Our global network of data centre professionals can be leveraged by the DCA to share experience, best practices and standards from our customers who are willing to engage,” said Flanagan.

 

Commenting on ABB’s membership, Simon Campbell-Whyte, executive director of the Data Centre Alliance said, “We are delighted to have ABB on-board and that their focus is on contributing for the greater good of the industry. That exactly mirrors the aims and objectives of the Data Centre Alliance.

 

He continues, “I know that by ‘giving’ in this way they (and many other members who give their time and efforts so selflessly) will reap significant rewards in the long-term both by recognition in the industry and by being able to profitably align their R&D programs to the true and energy needs of the global customer base.”

 

ABB’s success in world markets is attributed to its very strong focus on Research and Development with 17 corporate research centres and an unflinching determination to invest in R&D whatever the market conditions.

 

ABB is able to boast that many of the technologies underlying our modern society – from high voltage power transmission to revolutionary ship propeller systems – come from their R&D and commercialisation efforts.

 

The most recent such technology being a completely new DCIM (data centre infrastructure management) solution called Decathlon®. This has been deployed by Green Datacenter AG initially at its Zurich West data centre and shortly to be installed by them company-wide.

 

Concluding, ABB’s Ciaran Flanagan said, “I very much hope that all of the major players in the sector who’ve not yet joined DCA will take our example and join – to contribute to the greater good of the industry”.

 

To find out more about the Data Centre Alliance or join please visit www.datacentrealliance.org/join

Filed Under: Client, Comment and Opinion, Data Centre, Data Centre Alliance, Industry News, Infrastructure, PR Agency, PR Company, Sector, Tech PR Tagged With: , , ,

New Report “Perspective” Finds Virtus London Data Centre Is ‘Great Quality At Half The Cost Of the Docklands’

September 25, 2013 by

Citing Virtus LON1 data centre as “North London’s Hidden Gem”, a recent site survey report by colocation and data centre consultants Colo-X has found that the facility represents ‘high quality at half the cost (per kW of IT load) of Docklands based facilities 11 miles to the south’.

 

In the blog post on the Colo-X website, authored by Colo-X founder Tim Anker, he states, “Virtus Enfield presents really well. The facility is clearly well specified and well maintained.  All areas throughout are spotless and, though spotlessness itself has little impact on the technical resilience, I think it shows the overall approach and professionalism of the facility operator”.

 

Anker goes on to state that “The quality of the investment shows.” and “The investment has been made to create a facility to meet the most demanding of users.”

 

Welcoming the opinion, Virtus CEO Neil Cresswell said, “It’s really pleasing to have this type of praise from someone like Tim and Colo-X.  Tim is probably the world’s pre-eminent expert on the London data centre market, it’s all he does and he’s been doing it a long time.  He’s very knowledgeable, very detailed and I’d imagine he’s been inside more London data centres than anyone alive, so to have this kind of praise from him is about as good as it gets.

 

“At Virtus we are focused on delivering the best quality, flexibility, service and value available in the London DC market.  It’s great that the spotlessness of our LON1 facility, the critical attention to detail of our team and the best of breed build, operational systems and procedures we use are recognised as being of the highest quality available.

 

“Quality is important, ultimately we exist to help our clients deliver new modern mobile, media, data and cloud technology based services and revenues to their customers, more cost effectively, more quickly, more securely and more reliably.  High build and operations quality are very important elements in delivering that promise to our customers and the reason we have had a 100 per cent uptime record since Virtus LON1 opened on 11 March 2011.

 

“I think many data centre users are not aware that Virtus LON1, a modern data centre of such high quality and flexibility is the only commercial data centre in North East London, ideally close to Docklands and The City (less than 11 miles away and 0.17 milliseconds round-trip latency). It’s also one of the best connected facilities in London, with access to over 200 Network Providers and as many global Tier 1 and 2 ISPs as many of the other well connected facilities in London.”

 

The new report’s technical findings were that Virtus LON1 facility at Enfield:

–       Now comprises nine distinct data halls ranging in size from just under 400kW up to 1MW.

–       Has an average power density of 1.5kW/sq.m and typical rack densities range from 3.5kW (16amps) up to 10kW in contained cold-aisle pods.  (Virtus states that racks of up to 35kW are also available for Very High Density computing requirements.)

The new Virtus CoLo-on-Demand product means that a start up cloud provider can take a cabinet with only 1kW commitment and simply pay for power usage (which includes cooling) on demand.

 

Of the CoLo-on-Demand service Anker said, “In my mind this flexibility is absolutely perfect for service providers who historically have been tied into fixed contracts – this means they end up paying for more capacity than they need.  The flexibility from the new Virtus product means, for the first time, service providers can easily flex up and down – just like the products and services they are now offering themselves.

Filed Under: Client, Data Centre, Industry News, Infrastructure, PR Agency, PR Company, Sector, Tech PR, Testimonial, Virtus Data Centre, What Editors Say Tagged With: , ,

New Gambling Tax Legislation Signals Return To The UK For ‘Offshore’ Data Centres

September 25, 2013 by

VTS0088 Steven Norris - Headshot - Chairman - Virtus Data CentresThe UK Government is introducing a new law which will remove the tax advantage from betting, gaming and online bingo companies operating their data centres offshore in so-called ‘tax havens’.

“The effects will be more far reaching than these companies realise,” said Stephen Norris, former MP and chairman of Virtus Data Centres, ” From 1st December 2014 not only will UK betting and gaming operators lose their £300 million/year tax advantage, they will soon realise that they are paying way over the odds for electricity, Internet bandwidth, other services and staff airfares for the running of their data centres.”

 

Norris, who is also president of the Data Centre Alliance, continued to explain that with these extra costs – and the inconvenience of having their data centres in far away in places like Gibraltar, Isle-of-Man and the British Virgin Isles – gaming companies will quickly feel the pinch. “These excessive costs will seriously bite into their bottom-line once the tax advantage disappears.

”We forecast that they will soon wish they were enjoying the much cheaper energy and bandwidth costs (plus the convenience of being close to home) of having their data centre located in a state-of-the-art facility like Virtus’ London data centres,” he said.

 

The change to tax law is being introduced because the UK government has identified that it is losing some £300 million in tax revenues from UK gaming companies, many of which have relocated their data centres to a low tax economy.

 

Under the current law the sales transaction is deemed to take place in the data centre, hence the current tax advantage from having the data centre located in a low tax economy.

 

The new law will redefine the ‘legal place’ at which the transaction is deemed to take place. It will now be the address of the UK gamer or gambler’s ISP (Internet service provider), which means that it will be subject to UK taxation no matter where in the world the data centre is located.

 

Neil Creswell, CEO of Virtus commented, “All gaming company CEOs and CFOs will already be aware of the tax situation, but few yet realise the double-hit from also needing to rapidly cut their excessive datacentre costs. Bringing gaming data centre operations back to London is the simple, quick option.”

 

Virtus London Data Centres make an ideal location for gaming and gambling companies to onshore their data centre operations. The Virtus LON1 facility, for example, is a very high spec Tier 3 data centre with low PUE and a 100 per cent uptime record. It is only a few minutes off the M25 at Junction 25, making it highly accessible for IT staff.

 

LON1 offers cheap and fully ‘green’ electricity (thereby avoiding CCL – the climate change levy tax). Also, being carrier-neutral, it has a large number of highly competitive carriers present including Level(3), Virgin, Geo, Pacnet and C4L. Virtus LON1 also has fast-fibre connectivity to all corners of the UK via Openreach.

 

Creswell concluded: “Gaming company CEOs and CFOs have a lot to think about in the coming year. We at Virtus are expert at migrating data centre operations into our data centres without interruption to clients 24×7×365 online businesses and so are ideally poised to help.

”We’ve migrated dozens of customers and host a number of gaming companies in what are, we believe, are the most modern flexible data centres in London.”

 

For more details please visit www.virtusdatacentres.com

Filed Under: Data Centre, Industry News, PR Agency, PR Company, Sector, Tech PR, Virtus Data Centre Tagged With: , ,