Infrastructure

Forestry & Land Scotland embrace cloud technology

Nutanix has announced that Forestry & Land Scotland (FLS) has upgraded its data centre infrastructure to a hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI), selecting the Nutanix Cloud Platform to support a workload of 300 virtual machines. FLS opted for Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) on Microsoft Azure. With Nutanix NC2, it has been able to migrate the whole data centre to Azure without the time, effort and expense of re-engineering applications for native deployment. Founded in 2018 as part of the Scottish devolution process, FLS manages over 1.5 million acres of national forests and land. To meet the short term IT needs of a newly devolved Scottish government agency, at the same time, supporting its move to the public cloud in line with a cloud-first government policy, it was required to rapidly revamp its legacy on-premises data centre. FLS was already using Microsoft Azure to provide for disaster recovery of its on-premise data centre, so naturally, the organisation first looked at re-engineering for native operation of its applications on that platform. It soon realised that NC2 for Azure would be a better, quicker and more cost-effective approach, enabling it to stretch its existing environment seamlessly into the cloud and migrate workflows at its own pace, without having to transform or re-engineer the code in any way. The migration also offered immediate benefits in terms of both performance and on-demand scalability. It resulted in a significantly smaller data centre footprint, in terms of both physical space and power and cooling requirements. As with the original data centre project, Mahlitz, Nutanix was able to help by arranging a proof of concept trial of Nutanix NC2 on Microsoft Azure involving actual FLS production workloads.

CtrlS and EECO plan Thailand's hyperscale data centre

CtrlS has signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with EECO (Eastern Economic Corridor Office) to lease a 10ac land parcel for 50 years, located in Chonburi province. The land will be used to build a 150MW data centre in the Greenfield campus and mark its first international market expansion and hyperscale data centre in Thailand.   At a time when digitalisation across Thailand, deployment of 5G, and improved connectivity with highly efficient submarine cables, with countries such as USA, China, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan, is making the country an attractive hub for digital infrastructure, the data centre development in the EECO will attract both international and domestic hyperscale and enterprise customers. Speaking on the MoA, Sridhar Pinnapureddy, Chairman, CtrlS Datacenters, says, “Through this collaboration, we aim to serve customers’ needs for digital services, both domestic and international. The data centre is designed to meet hyperscalers’ needs in addition to serving high end IT/compute needs of domestic enterprises.” He adds, “We see this data centre as a unique opportunity to contribute towards development of Thailand’s eastern region and offer a robust diverse option for international customers and partners for establishing their footprint in the country and region. Thailand is strategically well positioned at the centre of Southeast Asia and we strive to bring investments and international customers to the country through our data centre.”        The site also offers proximity to submarine cable landing stations for AAG (Asia America Gateway) and ADC (Asia Direct Cable) systems, making this data centre a point of connection equipped with submarine and terrestrial cable networks to connect to other data centres and industrial estates. It is also close to the EECO startup incubator and is elevated relative to flood prone areas, with mean sea level > 40m. The EECO is geographically diverse from Bangkok and is at the intersection of multiple fibre paths north and south.

Start Campus and EXA to expand network route

Start Campus has announced that EXA Infrastructure (EXA) has committed to invest in two new diverse and redundant terrestrial routes in Sines, Portugal.  EXA’s strategic network expansion in Sines links Start Campus’s Sines Project, a 495MW hyperscale data centre development, to its backbone in Madrid, Spain. The new connectivity hub will be the gateway to European, African and American digital platforms.  The key location of the project further strengthens Portugal as a connectivity hub for Europe, providing access via transatlantic cable landings and EXA’s expansive terrestrial network route. Steve Roberts, VP of Network Investments, EXA Infrastructure, says, “EXA continues to invest and expand our network to ensure we are enabling the growth and success of our customers. We are witnessing an increasing demand for enhanced connectivity routes in and out of Southern Europe and we are pleased to partner with Start Campus to power this demand by connecting Sines to our pan-European backbone.” Set to be ready for service in late 2023, the project will be a large hyperscaler data centre ecosystem. It benefits from ocean water cooling systems, high voltage power grids, and high capacity international fibre optic cables. Being fully powered by renewable and affordable energy, the company also offers a 100% sustainable campus powered by 24x7 renewable energy facilities, resulting in a low Total Cost of Operations (TCO) for its customers. Last year, it signed an agreement with EllaLink. The partnership provides a framework of cooperation between the two, guaranteeing that the infrastructures interact, knowledge is shared, and synergies are established to promote Sines as a new digital hub in global data network systems.  Today, Sines is directly connected to Lisbon, Madrid, Fortaleza, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. In the future, the connectivity will be extended to Marseille, Barcelona, Casablanca and more.

The Paratus Group announces new data centres in Angola

The Paratus Group is celebrating 20 years in Africa by announcing it will construct Angola’s first Tier-IV by design data centre in Luanda. This complements the existing two Tier-III by design data centres that the pan-African telco already owns and operates in Angola. It is the fifth certified and carrier neutral data centre operated by the company in Southern Africa. Chief Technical Officer at Paratus, Rolf Mendelsohn, who is participating at the Pan-African data centre exhibition and conference as a panellist, says, “The new data centre will be constructed on a 30,000m2 plot, will have the capacity to house over 2,000 cabinets, and will have a total IT power capacity of more than 10MW. It is a natural evolution after having built other world-class data centre facilities in Namibia and Zambia recently. It will be the biggest data centre in Angola and not only complements our existing data centre offering, but will cement our network in Angola as a major hub in the region.” The company currently has four Tier-III by design data centres in Southern Africa. With the opportunities presented by the activation of the Equiano subsea cable and by the growing digital economy, it has established itself as a player in igniting the possibilities for hyperscalers, cloud and infrastructure providers and multinational enterprises. Rolf adds, "Colocation of critical infrastructure in data centres is becoming indispensable to businesses wanting a digital economy advantage. We will support this by providing the necessary infrastructure and services to give businesses what they need to actively compete in the fourth industrial revolution (4IR).” The company owns and operates data centres in Angola, Namibia and Zambia. All Paratus data centres have been ISO 9001, ISO 27001 and PCI-DSS certified.

BDC expands data centre in Kuala Lumpur

Bridge Data Centres (BDC) has announced that it will expand its hyperscale data centre campus, MY03, located at MRANTI Park, Kuala Lumpur. This expansion provides an additional 48MW of IT power to hyperscalers and enterprises in Malaysia and Asia Pacific.   BDC has signed an agreement with Malaysian Research Accelerator for Technology & Innovation (MRANTI) to develop three buildings and a 132kV substation. With the expansion, MY03 will offer a total IT power capacity of 64MW. The expansion project comprises two phases. Phase one is planned to be ready for service with 16MW by Q3, 2025. Phase two is scheduled to begin operations by Q4, 2027. BDC and MRANTI held a signing ceremony in Kuala Lumpur which was witnessed by Dzuleira Abu Bakar, Chief Executive Officer of MRANTI; Khairil Anuar Sadat Salleh, Chief Commercial Officer of MRANTI; and Dz Shing Lim, President, Bridge Data Centres. The establishment of the data centre campus entrenches Malaysia as a desired destination for data centre investment in the Asia Pacific region. Located strategically in the vicinity of central Kuala Lumpur, the park spans across a vast area of 686ac and supports the entire innovation process with a focus on driving the commercialisation of ‘impact technologies’ in key industry sectors to foster sustainable development. “Last year, we introduced a comprehensive and integrated approach to transform MRANTI Park from a property-focused sector into a leading 4IR hub in Malaysia. This master plan aims to achieve a gross development value of RM20bn, land leases worth RM2.8bn, and the creation of 8,000 jobs by 2027,” says Dzuleira Abu Bakar, CEO of MRANTI. “We recently launched the country’s national testbed for 5G through the government-led MRANTI 5G Experience Centre to fast-track new innovations in a more enriching data-driven future. Today, we are excited to announce the expansion of Bridge Data Centres within MRANTI Park, aligning perfectly with MRANTI Park’s expansion strategy,” says Dzuleira.

Pulsant identifies digital disparity across the UK

According to a new research from Pulsant, seven in ten (70%) UK IT decision makers believe there is digital disparity in the UK. The data indicates that 78% of IT decision makers think more investment in local technology infrastructure is needed to meaningfully support regional growth – rising to 89% for those outside of London. Edge computing was highlighted by 89% of IT decision makers as important, suggesting that reduced latency and high-speed connectivity are key priorities. Edge computing would bring compute and data storage capabilities closer to regional use cases, delivering local businesses with high-performance connectivity and storage to areas that have not necessarily benefited from them before. Commenting on the findings, Simon Michie, CTO at Pulsant, says, “With data, connected devices, remote users and latency-sensitive applications all growing exponentially, there’s pressure right across the UK to enable digital access for everyone. The government’s levelling up agenda simply must bear fruit if UK businesses are to meet rising user expectations, and that requires meaningful investment in infrastructure across the board. “With platformEDGE, we bring edge computing to every region of the UK through our unique multi-regional network infrastructure. Whether your business is in Manchester, Newcastle, or Edinburgh, we want every business to be able to take advantage of edge computing to develop new products, reach new markets and reimagine operations.”

VAST Data in conjunction with Commvault, has announced that the two companies are enabling Expedient to deliver Service Level Agreement (SLA) to its customers, without the conventional expense associated with legacy infrastructure. Expedient is a full stack cloud service provider to transform its IT operations through multi-cloud solutions and manage infrastructure services. The service provider selected VAST to help drive greater operational efficiency and performance for customers with data protection services from Commvault, and has seen an additional data reduction since moving to VAST’s data platform, on top of Commvault’s front-end deduplication. “With VAST and Commvault, Expedient is partnering with the best software companies in the industry to deliver the most innovative IT solutions in the market,” says Bryan Smith, Chief Executive Officer, Expedient. “Our customers depend on us to manage their IT infrastructure to allow them to focus on their core business, and through these partnerships, we are improving the performance, reliability, and scalability for our customers, resulting in a higher service level and improved recovery time. That translates to better business outcomes for the short and long term.” VAST has enabled Expedient to retire its legacy Direct Attached Storage (DAS) target, in order to achieve: Rapid ransomware recovery Infrastructure consolidation at scale Improved data reduction through Commvault + VAST integration 80% less power, space, cooling Archive economics with NVMe performance Bryan continues, “We were very impressed with VAST’s consistently high data transfer and secondary data reduction. For instance, normally, sealing a deduplication database would cause storage consumption to increase as it requires all new data signatures and blocks. However, as VAST was able to identify the incoming blocks, it was able to deduplicate that data regardless.” “Together with VAST, we are enabling solution and service providers like Expedient to help their customers recover their historical backups at a much faster rate to ensure their business and operations continue to run undisrupted,” says Alan Atkinson, Chief Partner Officer at Commvault. “As we finalise our new validated design based on this successful use case, we are excited to see how our partners and customers will take advantage of this deep integration.”

Schneider Electric delivers data centre project for Loughborough University

Schneider Electric has delivered a new data centre modernisation project for Loughborough University, in collaboration with its elite partner, on365. The project saw Schneider Electric and on365 modernise the university’s IT infrastructure with new energy efficient technologies, including an EcoStruxure Row Data Center, InRow Cooling solution, Galaxy VS UPS and EcoStruxure IT software, enabling the university to harness the power of resilient IT infrastructure, data analytics and digital services to support new breakthroughs in sporting research. As Loughborough University is known for its sports-related subjects and is home to world-class sporting facilities, IT is fundamental to its operations, from its high-performance computing (HPC) servers which support analytical research projects, to a highly virtualised data centre environment that provides critical applications including finance, administration and security. To overcome a series of data centre challenges, including requirements for a complete redesign, modernisation of legacy cooling systems, improved cooling efficiencies, and greater visibility of its distributed IT assets, the university undertook the project at its Haslegrave and Holywell Park data centres. Delivered in two phases, the project firstly saw on365 modernise the Haslegrave facility by replacing an outdated raised floor and deploying an EcoStruxure Row Data Center solution. The deployment of this significantly improved the overall structure, enabling an efficient data centre design. During the upgrade, it also brought other parts of the infrastructure under the IT department’s control, using new InRow DX units to deliver improved cooling reliability, and provide it with greater ability to cope with unplanned weather such as heat waves, which had adversely affected its IT and cooling operations in the past. Use of this solution also created a new space for future IT expansions and extended a ‘no single points of failure’ design throughout the facility. This made the environment more suitable for a new generation of compact and powerful servers, and the solution was replicated at Holywell Park thereafter. Further improvements in resilience and efficiency were also achieved by Schneider Electric’s Galaxy VS UPS with lithium-ion batteries. “At the foundational level of everything which is data-driven at the university, the Haslegrave and Holywell data centres are the power behind a host of advancements in sports science, and our transition towards a more sustainable operation,” says Mark Newall, IT Specialist at the University of Loughborough. “Working with Schneider Electric and on365 has enabled our data centre to become more efficient, effective and resilient.” The university has also upgraded the software used to manage and control its infrastructure. It has deployed the company’s EcoStruxure IT platform, providing it with enhanced visibility and data-driven insights that help identify and mitigate potential faults before they become critical. This, in conjunction with a new three-year Schneider Electric services agreement delivered via on365, has given the university 24x7 access to maintenance support. The university also utilises a large distributed edge network environment, which has in excess of 60 APC Smart-UPS protecting it. As part of its services agreement, all critical power systems are monitored and maintained via EcoStruxure IT, providing real-time visibility and helping IT personnel to manage the campus’ network more efficiently.

Secure I.T. Environments installs micro data centre for Barnet Hospital ICU

Secure I.T. Environments has announced the completion of a project for Barnet Hospital, designing, supplying and installing its custom 42U Micro Data Centre 3 at the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU), supporting those wards. The new edge micro data centre provides critical network services and communications for the operational side of the ICU, and includes passive air-conditioning for up to a 12kW load. Designed to a high security specification, the cabinet is secure against access or damage by the general public, and will provide a new level of reliability over the previous data centre. It took three days to install, and involved the movement of equipment between old and new cabinets, structured cabling of the new cabinet, power supply installation, and testing. Secure I.T. Environments will also be providing maintenance for the cooling system in the new data centre. Chris Wellfair, Project Director at Secure I.T. Environments, says, “Intensive Care Units can be one of the most challenging locations in a hospital to install a data centre, as reliability and security are critical characteristics for any technology used. Our micro data centre range not only meets that standard, but can handle high density applications with ease, and fit elegantly and quietly into any environment.”

Cologix announces a new data centre in Northern Virginia

Cologix has announced the completion and pre-lease of its new 120MW Scalelogix data centre in Northern Virginia. Built within seven months, from permitting to commissioning, the three-story, 455,000ft2 Scalelogix ASH1 data centre, located in Ashburn, Virginia, is designed for hyperscalers’ massive capacity and edge traffic demands from the ground up. This facility has been pre-leased by a major global technology company and went into service in May 2023. “We are aggressively expanding our hyperscale edge portfolio across North America in response to growing demand from major global cloud providers and large digital enterprises,” says Chris Heinrich, Chief Revenue Officer, Cologix. “With their massive scale and top-tier performance, our data centres provide high-speed, ultra-low latency and highly secure access to fixed, 5G and public cloud networks that today’s businesses require for success.” The Scalelogix ASH1 facility is located in a global corridor known as ‘Data Center Alley.’ The city of Ashburn is an interconnection hub for the eastern US and a gateway to Europe with the concentration of cloud computing infrastructure. Colocation and connectivity in this area provide a strategic advantage to customers who want easy and secure access to a critical global data corridor. ASH1 is one of three new Scalelogix data centres to be launched in the next year, including facilities planned in Columbus, Ohio and Montrèal, Canada.  “Many positive factors contributed to the project’s successful and efficient timeline, including transparent partnerships and communications with all parties involved every step of the way,” says Cologix’s Chief Development Officer, Nathan Hazelwood. “I am so proud and appreciative of the entire team, our invaluable partners and vendors, as we’ve built a superior facility that will provide exceptional capabilities for our customers doing business at the digital edge.” The company’s new facility is designed with the following features: The cooling system is designed for maximum energy efficiency complete with free cooling capability designed and built-in day one. It also includes hot aisle containment with up to 35 cabinets per row. The facility provides Ashburn Meet-Me-Rooms (MMRs) designed for hyperscalers and customers. It is also part of its interconnection ecosystem of 700+ network providers, 350+ cloud providers, 30+ public cloud onramps and six internet exchanges. It includes multiple physically separated, diverse and secure MMRs while offering multiple diverse fibre entrance vaults to the campus. Its security office includes an anti-intrusion system, CCTV system, biometric scanners and badge access. 30% of the building is programmed for customers’ needs inclusive of dedicated office space, storage and other amenities. It is built with MERs, which are prefabricated modular assemblies built out with electrical infrastructure that can be rapidly deployed at a data centre facility. MERs support a wide range of equipment with varying contents dependent on customer needs and electrical topography. The facility will have several EV charging stations available for all customers, employees, vendors and partners to use while at the data centre. The majority of copper, steel, refrigerants and concrete from the prior structure that was in place while constructing ASH1 has been recycled, reducing the use of new materials and disposing of other materials in an environmentally conscience way.