Data Centre Projects: Infrastructure Builds, Innovations & Updates

neutrality.one expands into Jeddah to support KSA’s vision for 2030

neutrality.one has expanded its global network to Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) with the launch of a Point of Presence (PoP). The PoP will provide direct, low-latency connectivity between Jeddah and Marseille, France. The move will support the KSA’s vision for 2030 by accelerating digital transformation in Saudi Arabia’s rapidly evolving digital economy. neutrality.one is serving international service providers and enterprises throughout the country and enabling their connectivity requirements locally and globally. With its presence in the KSA, neutrality.one is able to provide international customers with a cost-effective, turn-key solution that supports last-mile access and brings the region closer to its digitalisation goals. “KSA has emerged as one of the most exciting markets in the Middle East and has one of the world’s fastest growing digital economies. Our presence in Jeddah will provide low-latency connectivity that supports the KSA's vision for 2030, enabling local and global organisations to seamlessly connect their applications and services across the region and around the world,” says George Szlosarek, CEO of neutrality.one. “Jeddah has emerged as a critical hub for serving our customers and we look forward to helping them to accelerate their digital transformation journeys and benefit businesses, users, and society.” Utilising the Jeddah Center3 data centre will enable neutrality.one to spin-up connectivity that supports cloud-based applications for enterprises and service providers throughout the Middle East and beyond. Customers benefit from global connectivity, optimised network performance and secure end-to-end networking to drive productivity and growth. “Jeddah is a natural jumping off point for connecting Africa, Europe and the Middle East. It gives us a strategic hub in a key market while creating opportunities to connect high-growth markets with low-latency networking. We’re already seeing demand for networking in and out of Jeddah and see it as a strategic location for expanding our footprint,” says George. “This is the beginning of our next wave of growth and we’re very proud to be kicking this off in the KSA.”

Secure I.T. Environments completes upgrade for Thurrock Community Hospital

Secure I.T. Environments has announced the completion of an Air Handling Unit (AHU) upgrade project for Thurrock Hospital, part of Essex Partnership University NHS Trust (EPUT). The project was instigated as part of the Trust’s desire to move to more energy efficient units as those in the data centre reach end of life, having been installed with the original data centre designed and built by Secure I.T. Environments in 2009. Secure I.T. Environments undertook all aspects of the project, offering a full turnkey solution and covering the supply, installation, commissioning, and testing of new units, as well as the disposal of all replaced equipment at the site. Run as a two-phase project, Secure I.T. Environments replaced two AHU units at a time, with an emphasis on ensuring that data centre services to the hospital would be unaffected with no downtime or impact on performance. The old AHUs were replaced with much more efficient FlaktGroup Direct Expansion Multi-DENCO air-cooled units, with low noise external condensers. All units were fitted with water detection, air flow monitoring, temperature and energy monitoring sensors. New Automatic Transfer Switch (ATS) panels were also fitted, as well as other related electrical upgrades completed. The final touch was the completion of flooring modifications and repairs to ensure the new AHUs fitted into the existing data centre raised access flooring. Following the completion of this work, Secure I.T. Environments was asked to upgrade all original data centre internal lighting with new LED energy efficient lights. The Thurrock Hospital data centre has been maintained by Secure I.T. Environments since 2009, covering fire suppression, EMS, room checks and cooling solutions. Steve Senter, Technical Infrastructure Manager at EPUT ICT Services, says, “As ever, Secure I.T. Environments has done an excellent job of ensuring our data centres are as efficient as possible, performing all upgrades with no disruption to our operations and consideration for all those working at and using the hospital.” Chris Wellfair, Projects Director at Secure I.T. Environments, adds, “Replacing the AHU units in such a critical environment as a hospital data centre has to be handled with care, to ensure that it does not impact the provision of patient services. When the time comes to undertake this work, we take great care to ensure there is minimal disruption, allowing clients to quickly reap the rewards of a much more energy efficient cooling system, which is so important in today’s climate of much hotter summers and rising energy costs.”

Schneider Electric delivers cooling infrastructure for University College Dublin

Schneider Electric has worked together with Total Power Solutions to design and deliver a new, high efficiency cooling system to help reduce the PUE of University College Dublin’s (UCD) main production data centre. UCD’s data centre was originally designed to accommodate high performance computing (HPC) clusters and provides a platform for research at its university campus. University College Dublin is the largest university in Ireland with a total student population of 33,000. It is also one of Europe’s leading research-intensive universities with faculties of medicine, engineering, and major sciences, as well as a broad range of humanities and other professional departments. As part of a new strategic development plan to free up space at its central Dublin location, the IT services department made the decision to revise and revitalise its data centre cooling architecture to make the facility more energy and space efficient, as well as more resilient and scalable. In response to a public tender, Total Power Solutions, experts in power and cooling infrastructure design and installation, worked with Schneider Electric to secure the contract with a bid to replace the existing data centre cooling system with a Uniflair InRow Direct Expansion (DX) solution. Schneider Electric’s InRow DX cooling technology offers many benefits including a modular design, more predictable cooling, and variable speed fans which help to reduce energy consumption. A scalable and efficient cooling solution for UCD  The new solution at UCD is based on 10 independent InRow DX cooling units, which are adapted to the server load to optimise efficiency. The system is scalable to enable UCD’s IT Services Group to add further HPC clusters and accommodate future innovations in technology. This includes the introduction of increasingly powerful central processing units (CPUs) and graphics processing units (GPUs). The InRow DX cooling units work in conjunction with UCD’s existing EcoStruxure Row Data Centre system, formerly a Hot Aisle Containment Solution (HACS), and provides a highly efficient, close-coupled design that is suited to high density loads. Each InRow DX unit draws air directly from the hot aisle, taking advantage of higher heat transfer efficiency and discharges room-temperature air directly in front of the cooling load, which significantly reduces the need for humidification. “We designed the system to allow for the addition of four more cooling units to meet future requirements for facility expansion and changes in server technology. The overall effects of installing the new system are greater resilience and peace of mind, more efficient use of space for the benefit of the university’s main function of teaching, greater efficiency of IT infrastructure and consequently, a more sustainable operation,” says Tom Cannon, Enterprise Architecture Manager at UCD. Resilience and future expansion Each independent cooling unit also provides additional redundancy in the system, so that if one fails the others have sufficient capacity to continue delivering cool air, ensuring uninterrupted operation of UCDs IT equipment and services. Together Schneider Electric and Total Power Systems also worked to increase the resilience of the system and remove a major single point of failure, which previously existed. This is another major benefit to the university and eliminates risk of outages at critical times such as clearing and examinations. Further, the condensing elements of the cooling system have also been relocated to the roof of the data centre, freeing up significant space formerly used for external cooling plant and equipment. This has released additional land for redevelopment to house new student and university facilities, and the building is now home to an Applied Languages department, illustrating the low noise levels of the DX system compared to the equipment it replaced. The increased efficiency of the new cooling system has also lowered the data centre’s PUE, reducing its energy consumption and its ongoing operational expenses. “The Daedalus data centre at UCD hosts everything from high performance computing clusters for research to the centralised IT that keeps the University running. Total Power Solutions and Schneider Electric worked together to deliver a new, more efficient, and scalable data centre cooling system. The installation took place in a live environment with no downtime, in the midst of extensive construction activities on UCD’s Belfield Campus,” says Paul Kavanagh, Managing Director, Total Power Solutions. “For UCD, having an efficient and highly effective cooling infrastructure was critical to both their HPC research infrastructure and their general IT operations,” adds Marc Garner, VP, Secure Power Division, Schneider Electric UK and Ireland. “By working together with Total Power Solutions, we were able to successfully deliver the new cooling architecture, which will provide UCD with greater resilience of their critical IT systems and will meet the demands of this prestigious university for many years ahead.”

Novva Data Centers announces new data centre in Las Vegas

Novva Data Centers has announced plans to open a new data centre in North Las Vegas, Nevada. Construction on the 275,000 square foot, 100MW, $400 million data centre began in October 2021, and the facility is expected to open in late 2023. The data centre, which will be located on a 20-acre campus, is Novva's third location, joining existing facilities in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and West Jordan, Utah. “Since our founding, Novva has sought to bring purpose-built, futuristic, eco-friendly facilities to the Western United States and we've been very selective and intentional with our site locations,” says Wes Swenson, Founder and CEO of Novva Data Centers. “North Las Vegas is an ideal location for a data centre because it allows us to take advantage of the abundant renewable energy alternatives, and its proximity to the California and regional markets. It is a great addition to our other western data centre locations.” “This also gives us another opportunity to implement our water-free cooling technology, which will save approximately 150 to 200 million gallons of water a year, and in 2024 we plan to deploy atmospheric water generation for landscape needs,” Wes continues. “The facility will also benefit from tax abatements from the state of Nevada, which were approved in the summer of 2022.” The new North Las Vegas facility will be built with sustainability in mind by using renewable energy, and replicate Novva's signature ‘wholocation’ experience. Wholocation refers to a combination of wholesale scale and retail colocation, which provides the ability to serve clients of any size and scalability needs - from those requiring one cabinet to 1,000+ cabinets. “North Las Vegas is a growing hub for global brands and innovative industries and Novva's new data centre will help to serve and attract top enterprises to our community,” says North Las Vegas Mayor, John Lee. “Novva's track record of building thoughtful, sustainable data centres proves they will be good stewards of local resources while bringing major value as North Las Vegas builds upon its reputation as a business hub.” The new facility was made possible with a recent growth equity investment which was announced earlier in the year. Novva plans to expand across the United States and expects to offer 1,000MW of designed data centre capacity by 2027 at several strategic, yet-to-be-named locations in addition to this newest Las Vegas site. The data centre will feature robotics, high density cooling using water-free technology, containment, renewable energy in partnership with NV Energy, and a wholly owned on premise substation. www.novva.com

Reading can expect £1bn economic boost from CityFibre rollout

A new report commissioned by CityFibre has identified that Reading stands to be a huge beneficiary from the rollout of future-proof full fibre infrastructure, which is now well underway across the town. The study by the consultancy Hatch, (Economic Impact of Full Fibre Infrastructure from CityFibre’s Network), estimates that, over a 15-year period, the positive impacts of CityFibre’s £58m investment in Reading will include £625m in productivity and innovation gains, £138m from a widened workforce, £18m in local authority efficiency savings and £384m in increased housing value. Technological benefits are also a major focus of the report, which demonstrates that CityFibre’s network in Reading will help realise £1bn gross added value (GVA) from 5G services, £249m from the Internet of Things and £263m from Smart City initiatives, like intelligent traffic management systems and street lighting. The continuing transition to home and flexible working, supported by full fibre access at home and in the office, is also unlocking access to a larger pool of labour for employers. In Reading, working productivity uplifts are estimated to exceed £35m. The direct impact of network construction is also identified as a major contributor to Reading’s economic growth, creating network construction jobs within CityFibre’s build partners and supply chain. Wherever possible, the new jobs will be recruited locally to support the rollout. As a whole, the UK stands to benefit from over £38bn in potential economic benefits. Productivity improvements and innovation are responsible for the largest impact, driving more than £22bn in GVA gains nationwide. This is due to the positive effect that far faster and more reliable digital connectivity has been shown to have on business productivity and innovation, increasing turnover and contributing to the formation of new businesses and business models. Stacey King, Area Manager for Reading at CityFibre, says: “This report demonstrates just how powerful and essential full fibre is as a catalyst for growth and as a platform for innovation and investment. “Reading is quickly becoming one of the best digitally connected towns in the UK, and the opportunity for residents and local businesses is huge. We thank residents for their patience as we progress with the full fibre infrastructure build here in a bid to offer more people access to some of the best broadband packages available.”

Xtel launches new data centre in New York City market

Amid a rise in cyber crime and digital transformation, Xtel Communications has announced its third data centre in the sought-after New York market. The facility, located in Newark, New Jersey, adds to the company’s growing data centre portfolio. Xtel’s other facilities are strategically located in Philadelphia and Plano, Texas. The addition of this new facility allows Xtel to expand its serviceable footprint of Dedicated Internet Access (DIA) via fibre-optic connections. In addition, the data centre will provide robust DDoS attack mitigation options to enable more secure environments. This is especially critical as these types of cyber crimes continue to increase at an alarming rate. In recent years, DDoS attacks have risen by over 151%. Other key features of Xtel’s New York market data centre include: Additional redundancy options for customers seeking more diversity in last mile fibre providers and fibre pathsDirect Connect options to SaaS (Software as a Service) and IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) providers, allowing the end-user customer to directly access these providers without having to traverse the InternetStrategic enterprise-level colocation services All Xtel data centres have the ability to maintain, operate, and monitor fibre optic backbones, voice platforms, and data centres. The data centres are part of a high availability ‘active-active’ network architecture, allowing for immediate service failover and load balancing between the data centres. Each data centre is annually re-certified for major compliance frameworks, including FedRAMP, FISMA, SSAE18, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, and Privacy Shield - GDPR. “As enterprises and businesses continue to scale and digitally transform, the addition of our New York market data centre adds critical cyber security services, connectivity and redundancy to a prominent, stable market with an ever-growing, favourable business climate,” states Brian Flynn, President of Xtel. “We continuously invest in our network infrastructure while regularly expanding our services and solutions portfolio to meet ever-changing requirements. We look forward to continued growth in this market and beyond.”

Vertiv supports Keele’s ambitious decarbonisation strategy

Vertiv has been selected by Keele University in Staffordshire, UK, to supply a highly energy efficient UPS system and battery back-up. The new solutions replace the ageing equipment in its data centres, and Vertiv expects it will play an important role in the University’s institution-wide decarbonisation strategy. Keele University is a long-standing Vertiv customer, and the relationship was recognised by industry experts as part of the DCS Awards 2022, where the partnership was awarded Data Centre Sustainability Project of the Year. With this new agreement, Vertiv will replace the University’s ageing UPS with a new scalable, efficient and space-saving solution. Vertiv will also provide a modular battery solution to help keep power supplies stable during outages and out-of-spec power input, allowing efficient management of the renewable energy produced on site. Over the last six years, Keele University has invested more than £1.2 million to reduce its carbon emissions and has pledged to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030. Besides hosting the first UK trial of hydrogen blending within a gas network and testing new smart energy technologies, the University is now producing its own renewable energy on site, thanks to solar and wind farms that feed power into a campus mini-grid. From a power distribution perspective, the campus operates like a small town. Keele University’s need was to minimise losses as energy is transferred from the grid to the UPS and on to the IT load, and to benefit from a new generation of batteries. As part of a plan to modernise the University’s two data centres, the team at Keele will leverage the Vertiv Liebert APM UPS with a 400 kVA capacity in a N+1 configuration. The new UPS provides reliable, double-conversion power topology that uses an innovative transformer-free design, resulting in energy efficiencies of 96% that can be enhanced to 99% using ECO Mode operation. Importantly, the new UPS delivers more capacity in a smaller footprint, and each of the new units utilises a modular and scalable configuration with ancillary cabinets designed to save space and cost over previous configurations. Vertiv will also replace a bank of ageing, open-air lead-acid batteries with modern, rack-based, self-contained battery cabinets. The new battery modules may be added or replaced with no interruption or risk to the connected equipment, when the UPS is not operating on the battery. Each battery module has monitoring and controls that isolate it in the event of a battery failure. The battery strings are connected in parallel to provide backup time and/or redundancy. Alex Goffe, Associate Director of Operations & Infrastructure at Keele University comments: “It’s no exaggeration to say that our partnership with Vertiv is mission-critical for the University. Sustainability is embedded in everything we do at Keele, and the new UPS and battery modules will play a crucial role in helping meet our energy saving ambitions. They will also help to enable business continuity across the institution. “The scalable nature of the new UPS provides us with a high degree of flexibility. If there is a need to grow in the future, we can add power modules into the frame to extend the power capacity of the system.” Alex Brew, Country Manager for Vertiv in the UK & Ireland, comments: "By harnessing our digital infrastructure solutions, Keele University can continue to be ahead of the game when it comes to energy efficiency. Keele is already a valued Vertiv customer, and we're delighted to be helping the institution as it continues on its journey to realise its ambitious data centre plans and institution-wide decarbonisation strategy."

DataBank completes expansion of third Atlanta data centre

DataBank has announced that it has completed the expansion of ATL3, one of the company’s three Atlanta area data centre locations. The expansion began in late 2021 and added more than 22,000 square feet of data centre space, bringing the total capacity to more than 44,000 square feet of white space and total raised floor space to 72,000 square feet. The construction project also increases the site’s total power from 1.5MW to 6MW. “We’ve been looking forward to completing this expansion project to further support our customers’ infrastructure needs and growth,” says Tony Qorri, DataBank’s Vice President of Construction. “Bringing this additional capacity to Atlanta aligns well with DataBank’s growth in the region’s data centre market and underscores its position as one of the prime emerging internet hubs in the South East United States.” Atlanta’s data centre leasing activity is the third highest in North America. According to Lisa Calhoun, a partner with the Atlanta based investment firm, Valor Ventures, growth is on an upwards trajectory marked by $1 billion of venture capital investments over the last year alone, representing an influx in demand for cloud storage. This investment is driven by thriving industries like healthcare IT, fintech, logistics, and manufacturing – sectors heavily dependent on strong communications infrastructure. Located in the Historic West End district, DataBank’s ATL3 colocation facility is a carrier-neutral interconnection hub with access to 10-plus on-site carriers and many internet, fibre, interconnect, and cross-connect options. The facility features security measures including dual-factor biometric authentication, 24-hour dedicated security guards, perimeter fence, mantraps, and CCTV.

Airedale by Modine launches with Corscale Data Centres

Following the announcement that Airedale has commenced full scale production at its new US chiller plant in Rockbridge, Virginia, the company has confirmed a significant order with data centre giant, Corscale, with plans for further business in the coming months. With Airedale by Modine cooling solutions set to be installed at Corscale’s Gainesville Crossing Data Campus, the company has secured a healthy pipeline for its OptiChill free-cooling chillers, AireWall fan walls and SmartCool ONE computer room air handling units. Corscale is focused on delivering sustainability at scale for hyperscale operators and enterprise clients. Following a substantial period of consultation, Corscale appointed Airedale by Modine due to its history of free-cooling technology paired with its in-depth knowledge and understanding of the data centre industry. Having worked closely with engineers from Corscale, Airedale by Modine has developed a specialised data centre chiller based on its existing OptiChill range. The Corscale chiller, with enhanced free-cooling, has been designed to meet North American safety standards, using American materials and components, to offer a world-class energy efficient solution. Engineering specialists at the chiller plant in Virginia have worked with their colleagues at Airedale by Modine’s centre of excellence in Leeds, UK, to deliver a cooling solution that delivers on performance whilst operating at higher water temperatures and fluid temperature differentials than traditional offerings, enhancing energy efficiency and free-cooling potential. Prior to the commencement of site deliveries, the team from Corscale will be invited to a witness test at Airedale by Modine’s brand new state-of-the-art laboratories in Rockbridge VA, where the units will be put through their paces under various conditions and tested at different heat loads, simulating the environment and conditions they will be operational under. The test centre at Rockbridge is capable of testing a complete range of air conditioning equipment up to 2.2MW (expanding to 5MW in future for water-cooled chillers), the climate temperature being fully controllable anywhere from 15°C/59°F to 52°C/126°F. Chiller The new Corscale chiller operates using twin screw compressors and has a number of special features, included to enhance efficiency and performance, including: • High capacity twin screw compressors offer reliability and flexibility, with staged capacity control • High water temperatures to suit modern data centre designs that prioritise sustainability • Enhanced controls, including fast start, input power limiting and intelligent management of compressors, refrigerant and pumps • An on-board variable speed pump to precisely match cooling demand, reducing waste energy expenditure while maintaining water-side temperature differential and saving on space and electrical distribution requirements • Optimised economisers to provide unmatched free cooling potential • 100% contained Glycol loop to isolate the economiser from the cooling loop and increase efficiency of the AireWall units • Enhanced controls platform, including redundancy back-up and fast-start mode, to minimise the risk of disruption in the event of mechanical breakdown • On-board active harmonic filtration, ensuring a clean power supply to the data centre, while saving on external plant requirements. Jonas Caino, Vice President at Airedale by Modine says, “We are delighted to announce our order with Corscale, as we start full-scale production at our first-class facilities in Virginia, the largest data centre market in the world. “Having invested heavily in our US production facilities, ensuring they deliver the same high-quality service and product that our clients have grown to expect and respect from our European production sites, it has been really interesting and enjoyable to work with our American-based colleagues on such a fantastic project and client as Corscale.” Jonas concludes, “This order is just the start for our Rockbridge facility, and I am excited to see what the next few years holds.”

Cisco commits to help accelerate a more inclusive, digital United Kingdom

By 2030, a more inclusive digital society could add £168 billion to the UK economy. That is why Cisco has committed to help accelerate economic growth across the UK through digital inclusion and innovation. Through investment in partnerships, projects and initiatives focussed on creating opportunity for people, organisations, industries, and regions across the UK, Cisco will expand its Country Digital Acceleration (CDA) programme, which has formed the core of Cisco’s decade long investment in UK innovation. Aligned to both the national and regional ambitions of the UK, the programme will focus on industries and public services best positioned to benefit from digital acceleration, aiming to support improvement on key issues such as digital skills, productivity, sustainability and the UK’s levelling up agenda. Guy Diedrich, Senior Vice President and Global Innovation Officer, Cisco comments “Today we mark a decade of collaboration between Cisco, the UK government, industry and academia to accelerate digital outcomes for the UK.” He adds, “From initiatives to train hundreds of thousands in digital skills, connect the most remote parts of the UK with 5G, and partnerships to foster a culture of innovation, we are helping cement the UK’s place as a leader in fields such as AI and quantum computing. We are extremely proud of what we have achieved together and delighted to be furthering our commitment to help the UK realise the potential of a more inclusive, digital economy - where no one is left behind.” New research from the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), commissioned by Cisco, finds that a more inclusive digital economy, that connects everyone in the UK, equips them with digital skills, and digitises key industries and public services, has the potential to not only add £168bn to the UK economy, but will provide societal, industrial and regional benefit. David Meads, Chief Executive, Cisco UK & Ireland says “As a nation, we have a heritage of invention that comes from all corners of the UK. With the power of technology, we believe that economic opportunity can follow that tradition.” He adds “Organisations are looking to digital to improve the way they work, operate, and compete on a global scale, but to fully embrace a more digital economy, with talent and innovation to support, there are fundamental issues that we must address. From the role of digital in creating more equitable opportunity and across the UK, to how we as a technology industry lean in to help close the digital skills gap.” Cisco’s CDA programme, which is a long-term partnership programme with governments, industry and academia, will focus on initiatives in sectors that underpin the UK economy and provide critical services that have opportunity to benefit from digital. From healthcare to education, utilities and transport infrastructure. In addition, the programme will align to emerging sectors – including those with a focus on technology to drive sustainable outcomes towards national net zero targets. To encourage innovation in industry and to recognise the need for support and guidance to bring solutions to life, Cisco will launch the first Fast Future Innovation Awards in the UK. From September, organisations will be able to enter to win one of three prizes to realise their ideas.