Infrastructure

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. 

Equinix to expand digital infrastructure platform in Malaysia

Equinix has planned to open its first data centre in Kuala Lumpur in Q1 2024, following its expansion announcement last year to enter Malaysia with a data centre in Johor. The company’s expansion is expected to provide greater digital infrastructure capacity in Malaysia to address rising demand from local and global companies expanding in the country. As Malaysia enters Phase 2 of its MyDIGITAL blueprint for a digital economy, demand for digital infrastructure is expected to remain robust. According to Synergy Research, Malaysia is already the third largest data centre colocation market in the ASEAN region, and is predicted to have a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 11% from 2022–2027. The company’s new facility aims to accelerate the digital vision and establish Malaysia as a hub for colocation in ASEAN and a regional digital economic powerhouse. The new facility in Kuala Lumpur, named KL1, together with the recently announced JH1 in Johor, will provide digital infrastructure that businesses need to capitalise on the country's digital economy. Jeremy Deutsch, President, Asia-Pacific, Equinix, says, "Over the past several years, we have witnessed Malaysia emerge as an increasingly strategic location for global digital infrastructure, and we believe it to be an attractive destination for data centre growth and investment. Following our initial investment in Johor, we are excited to add another data centre in Kuala Lumpur. By expanding platform Equinix in the two most strategic metros, we will enable Malaysian businesses, as well as multinationals with a presence in Malaysia, to leverage a trusted platform to bring together and interconnect the foundational infrastructure to power their success. We believe the two data centres will fuel Equinix's existing data centre momentum and support Malaysia's aspirations as a digitally driven connectivity hub." The KL1 IBX data centre will be located in Cyberjaya within Kuala Lumpur. Cyberjaya is a key part of the Multimedia Super Corridor in Malaysia, a government designated zone to promote and boost the country’s digital economy. The first phase will provide an initial capacity of 450 cabinets and colocation space of 1,300m². When fully built, it will provide a total of 900 cabinets and colocation space of 2,630m². It will enable global networks, content providers and enterprises to exchange high volumes of internet traffic via Equinix Internet Exchange. Internet service providers will have access to new digital corridors to exchange data directly with other internet service providers. KL1 and Equinix Fabric will enable customers to deploy their infrastructure to connect with cloud service providers, including Alibaba Cloud, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure, safeguarding their business-critical data in a private and secure environment. In Asia-Pacific, Equinix currently operates 51 data centres in 13 metros across Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea and Singapore, with expansions announced in Indonesia and Malaysia.

Cirion strengthens with new data centre facility in Peru

Cirion has announced that it has started construction on a new 12,000m², 20MW carrier-neutral data centre in the industrial district of Macropolis in Lurín, Peru. The new data centre is expected to open in the first quarter of 2025 and will be well-equipped to meet the needs of hyperscale cloud service providers, carriers, content providers, and enterprises that require scalable infrastructure. The facility will have access to a business-friendly environment, renewable energy, diverse metro and long-haul connectivity to major cities and tech hubs in the region, and proximity to international subsea cable networks to facilitate minimal latency between Latin America and other regions. In line with the company's Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) strategy, and its commitment to technological innovation, the new facility will be one of the energy efficient data centres in the region, with PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness). “The development of this new data centre is another important step in our journey to grow our platform of low-latency, interconnected data centres and establish a thriving digital ecosystem across Latin America,” says Facundo Castro, CEO for Cirion Technologies. “In a world where data-driven and multi-cloud technology is advancing the way we work and live, and data is the pillar for ground-breaking business decisions, it’s important for data to be properly stored, processed, assured, and analysed. The surging popularity of IoT, 5G, AI, networks, and streaming content has fuelled an unrelenting demand for capacity, and data centres are critical to keeping these services running.” The Lurín-based data centre will be directly connected through redundant fibre to Cirion’s existing ecosystem-dense data centre in Lima, located only 35km away, and integrated into the company's broader carrier-neutral platform comprising 18 data centres across Latin America.

atNorth opens sixth data centre in the Nordics

atNorth has formally announced that its third Iceland data centre, ICE03, is now fully operational with an initial capacity of 10MW, following a swift 11 month build. This brings its total number of operational data centres up to six, with one additional site, FIN02, in Finland under construction. The new site is a milestone in the company’s overarching goal to scale ahead of increasing demand for high-performance computing requirements at a time when cost-efficient sustainable infrastructure is in more demand than ever. The site is located in a strategic position. As Iceland is ranked in the top 10 markets for data centre location, atNorth’s Iceland entry recently won the ‘location’ category at the Tech Capital Global Awards, which aims to recognise a geography for its attractiveness and investor friendly climate when dealing with digital infrastructure investors. This is an ideal location for data centres, largely due to its access to a highly skilled workforce and cool climate, which is crucial for cost-effective cooling of data centre infrastructure. The country also has an energy supply run on a closed grid powered by 100% renewable hydro and geothermal energy sources. Iceland also benefits from fully redundant connectivity and now boasts multiple undersea fibre optic cables connecting the country to the UK, Ireland, North America, and mainland Scandinavia. The ICE03 site offers expansions possibilities of up to 50MW and is located 250km north of Reykjavík, where other data centres are predominantly located. This geographical separation offers advantage in terms of disaster recovery and enhanced security. By diversifying the location of its data centres, atNorth reinforces its commitment to ensuring a high level of data protection and business continuity for its clients. Additionally, the town of Akureyri is a thriving technology hub and the new centre will offer job opportunities to an already highly skilled workforce.   Iceland’s cool climate and abundance of energy sources allows businesses to tap into an infrastructure with renewable energy and great connectivity resulting in significant cost efficiencies. ICE03’s accessibility, being only 10 minutes from an international airport, presents a new joint opportunity for atNorth to deliver high-precision services to European businesses as these businesses look to decarbonise and migrate IT operations cost-efficiently.  “We are delighted to be expanding our presence in the Nordics once again with a third site in Iceland,” says Eyjólfur Magnús Kristinsson, CEO, atNorth. “With six operational sites across three Nordic countries and another in development, our commitment to meet increasing demand in the industry through continued expansion is evidenced. Furthermore, our dedication to sustainable best practice supports our goal to become the service provider of choice for eco-friendly high-performance infrastructure.”

Vertiv, a global provider of critical digital infrastructure and continuity solutions, has announced key enhancements to its dedicated offering for channel distributors and resellers. According to Omdia, Vertiv is already ranked at first place in the three-phase UPS market globally, capturing 16% of the market. With these enhancements, its highly efficient and market-leading three-phase uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) from 10 to 60kVA, including the Vertiv Liebert ITA2 and its complementary services, are now available in the Vertiv Solution Designer tool and shipping from stock in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). According to Omdia’s UPS Hardware Market Tracker and Analysis 2022, there is an increased demand for three-phase UPS in EMEA from markets outside of cloud, colocation, and telco. These include retail, wholesale, healthcare, manufacturing and other industries. By 2026, the three-phase UPS market in EMEA is expected to grow from $1.66 billion in 2021 to $2.07 billion, a CAGR of 5.84%. “Digitalisation is being leveraged by companies of all sizes and industries, which leads to an increased need for efficient solutions to protect small and medium sites against power outages,” says Karsten Winther, EMEA President at Vertiv. “The strategic addition of three-phase UPS to our IT channel portfolio allows partners to serve a broader market with industry leading solutions, enabling businesses to leverage the latest technologies and accelerate their digital transformation journey.” “As an official Vertiv partner and system integrator for over 30 years, we are seeing more and more opportunities for three-phase UPS systems,” says Ronald Lagerberg, Team Leader Energy Solutions at Endenburg Elektrotechniek. “The extension of Vertiv’s IT channel portfolio expands our options, enabling us to gain substantial logistical, administrative, and financial advantages while enhancing our ability to serve end-users. We look forward to integrating these cutting edge products into our offerings." The Vertiv Liebert ITA2 features a true online double conversion technology, a unity power factor and an extremely compact rack/tower design. Compared to single-phase systems, three-phase UPS allow higher power capacity and up to 99% efficiency in ECO mode. With the offering, expert support on product selection, set-up and performance optimisation throughout three-phase systems’ entire lifecycle is now available also through the channel market. In fact, the three-phase UPS offering is enhanced with customised on-site and contract services specifically designed for the channel, while also leveraging the company’s top tier service network. Having a large portfolio of UPS solutions dedicated to the channel market means that partners have access to a wide range of power protection options, including medium power solutions that allow businesses to expand their digital footprint while still working with their trusted channel partner. Vertiv provides a comprehensive range of specialised services designed to complement channel partners’ business models. The extensive service expertise offers a smooth experience for all parties involved, providing seamless support across their entire service offering, including on-site services, lifecycle services and digital services such as remote diagnostics and incident management. Moreover, partners can leverage Vertiv software solutions to empower asset management capabilities and offer the best experience to their end users. In addition to UPS systems, the company’s broader critical infrastructure portfolio is designed to operate more efficiently, increase capacity and potentially lower TCO while integrating seamlessly with the customer’s existing infrastructure, enabling partners to expand revenue streams and increase margins. With manufacturing facilities across Europe and the world, Vertiv solutions can be made available when and where they are needed. Partners can also access dedicated configuration tools linked with an ecosystem of technical and commercial support teams. Vertiv’s multi-award winning Partner Program features benefits and incentives to equip, develop and reward partner engagement. The addition of the Liebert ITA2 UPS to its IT channel portfolio also enables EMEA resellers in participating countries to earn more points through the Vertiv Incentive Programme (VIP), which allows partners to easily earn rewards without the need for any reporting. Bonus points are uploaded into the Vertiv Partner Portal monthly, and the partner only needs to log in to redeem them.

Qarbon Technologies launches platform for integration of data centre infrastructure

Qarbon Technologies has announced the official launch of its SaaS solutions, which it says is set to transform the global data centre industry. Qarbon’s founders include data centre, telecom, and technology veterans with more than a century of combined global experience. Today, almost every data centre in the world runs a unique infrastructure stack, making customers contend with a nearly endless array of data sources across their operations, including connectivity, power, water, air conditioning, monitoring, security, and inventory. Customers must employ dedicated resources to access, aggregate, clean, convert, and integrate this data into their own business systems. This highly manual workflow makes it nearly impossible for customers to monitor, manage, or automate their data centre operations in real time, thereby increasing costs, creating service challenges, and generating audit issues for their businesses. Despite huge investments in digital transformation, accessing the data in the data centre remains a highly manual process. Qarbon enables the true digital transformation of data centres, from real estate to technology platforms ready for infrastructure-as-code, by creating an open, neutral, standards-based orchestration platform for data centres and their customers. Qarbon’s Founder and CEO, Robert Davidson says, “Qarbon transforms the data centre experience for operators and customers globally, making it more efficient and secure, and enabling true, real-time automation and infrastructure-as-code. We are developing a category-creating enterprise SaaS solution that gives customers seamless access to the data they need about every data centre they use. Qarbon enables customers to use the data centre solutions they want, when they want, where they want.” Qarbon’s first product, LATTICE, is in trials with multiple industry-leading early adopters and is scheduled for a beta release in Q3 of 2023. The SaaS-based platform onboards the entire tech stack of each data centre, providing users with a single, ubiquitous interface between the operator and their business systems which eliminates the complexity, friction, cost, security, and observability issues caused by today’s predominantly manual workflows. LATTICE will launch with cross-connect order orchestration and a roadmap to automate (including integrating AI/ML) all the data generated by data centre infrastructure. This will include power, water, security, air conditioning, temperature, humidity and inventory, along with the physical connections and operating processes that tie it all together. In addition to cost-savings, automation, enhanced security, and auditability, LATTICE will also enable seamless, standardised reporting of ESG data, including Scope I and II CO2 emissions. Customers will be able to access real-time, standardised power, water, and CO2 data for their data centre related ESG reporting through a button click. Qarbon’s public launch follows the close of its $5.5 million seed funding round, led by Meta Technology Capital. Qarbon also unveiled an Industry Advisory Board of data centre and telecom industry heavyweights, welcoming as Senior Advisors Randy Brouckman, CEO of EdgeConneX; Marc Halbfinger, CEO of PCCW Global; Pieter Poll, former CTO of CenturyLink; and Tony Rossabi, Co-Founder of OCOLO and former Managing Director at Digital Realty/Telx.

i3 Solutions Group secures patents for greater data centre resiliency

i3 Solutions Group has been issued two patents by the USPTO (US Patent and Trademark Office) for its Adaptable Redundant Power (ARP) topology control solution for mission-critical electrical power systems. ARP is a hardware and software control system that overcomes the inflexibility of common data centre electrical designs, solving the service level agreement (SLA) disparity problem whereby power supply chain systems are fixed but IT load demands, and criticality are variable. At the same time, ARP addresses constraints associated with traditional static power topologies which can restrict access to available data centre power, often leaving costly stranded capacity unused and increasing end user costs. This is an acute challenge for the wholesale colocation industry, which does an admirable job securing and deploying grid power capacity, but is often unable to fully or optimally utilise it - causing energy waste and higher costs. Benefits of ARP Ed Ansett, Founder and Chairman of i3 Solutions Group, says, “Every business has low to high levels of application criticality and interdependency. Through developments such as Kubernetes, IT can be orchestrated to reflect this. However, when it comes to electricity, the power chain is fixed, wasteful and difficult to change. ARP is a way to flex the power SLA to match the IT workload SLA without the considerable expense of rewiring the entire topology design.” By enabling power service levels to be aligned with that of the IT load, ARP provides a range of benefits to both data centre operators and their IT customers. ARP enables applications and the hardware they sit on to be provisioned with varying levels of electrical power resilience. Today, it is obvious that not all IT workloads are equal - for example, a dev ops project for a marketing campaign versus live financial transactions workloads in retail or merchant bank, or a network rack compared with a super compute cluster. However, the way power is delivered using a fixed topology does not differentiate in terms of criticality, treating all workload destinations equally. ARP is different because it can automatically provide power resilience across the topology that is dynamically matched to the criticality of the IT load. ARP solves inherent redundant power challenges too Traditionally power chain designs for data centres are based on a chosen level of capacity, resilience and redundancy of N, N+1, N+2 and less commonly 2N, 2N+1 and 2(N+1). But once the topology is decided and deployed it is fixed. It is then expensive, time consuming and extremely difficult to change. ARP addresses this. ARP can also provide Inherent Redundant Power (IRP). Where some electrical designs leave ‘power pockets’ (assigned power that is unused) - IRP accesses previously trapped or stranded power and prevents it going to waste by utilising it to provide additional levels of redundancy. Power-as-a-Service offers from colocation data centres one step closer ARP offers colocation data centres the opportunity to create new business models based on their power infrastructure. One of the advantages, for example, is that ARP enables a staggered approach to infrastructure roll out which responds to end-user load and not design criteria. By treating power as a service right from the construction phase, ARP addresses many flexibility issues which have surfaced for modern data centre operators. While data centres will continue to be designed as physical buildings which are broken down into halls, ARP modules are flexible enough to provide power across multiple halls. ARP therefore enables developers to move away from traditional and capitally intense methods of infrastructure deployment - up-front design, source, pay for and roll-out the full site requirement for genset, switchgear, UPS, PDU and ancillary equipment, and then wait for the demand to arrive.