Infrastructure

EXA Infrastructure announces CEO appointment

EXA Infrastructure, a fibre backbone and transatlantic subsea cable infrastructure provider, ensuring secure and resilient services, has announced that Jim Fagan is appointed as Chief Executive Officer, effective 1 August.  Jim is joining EXA from Aqua Comms where he has been CEO since May 2023. Prior to Aqua Comms, Jim worked at Global Cloud Exchange, where he played the key role of Chief Revenue and Strategy Officer as part of a small team which lifted the business out of bankruptcy and ultimately sold it successfully to 3i, the UK-based private equity and venture capital company. Jim has an extensive career in the telecoms and data centre industry working within United States and internationally with companies including Telstra, Pacnet and Rackspace. Since November 2023, Nick Read, Executive Chair of EXA Board of Directors, has been providing CEO oversight to EXA and leading the search for the future CEO. He will continue to provide this oversight until Jim joins and then will actively support him grow the business, moving forward, in his role as Executive Chair. Nick says, “This announcement marks the next phase in EXA’s growth story, where we will see EXA continue to focus on strategic investments to support our customer growth driven by cloud, content and AI. Jim brings a deep sector knowledge and a comprehensive understanding of our customers coupled with the ability to optimise our operations to ensure we excel in industry leading service delivery.” Jim remarks, “EXA Infrastructure is recognised in the industry for its unique footprint of owned network assets and a skilled team that specialise in digital infrastructure. I am excited to join at this pivotal moment, where the data growth demand driven from AI, will need to be met by secure and resilient players like EXA.” 

Zayo Group’s ‘near-net’ expansion brings 100G connectivity to businesses across Western Europe

Zayo Group has announced that thousands more businesses throughout Europe can access up to 100G connectivity, thanks to its near-net expansion. This development enhances the connectivity options for businesses across the UK and Ireland, Netherlands, Germany, and France. It provides robust and high-speed network solutions, meeting customers' evolving IT infrastructure needs, and allowing Zayo to easily connect organisations near its fibre infrastructure. Currently, Zayo provides approximately 7,000 buildings across eight key European markets with near-net connectivity. Expansion is planned throughout 2024 in London, Manchester, Amsterdam, Stuttgart, Berlin, Dublin, and various markets in France. Omdia data highlights that 63% of enterprises have invested in a private data centre to achieve 100G connectivity, whilst 54% are partnering with multiple public cloud providers for the same outcome. Zayo’s near-net expansion removes this need by delivering reliable, scalable connectivity for thousands more businesses near its fibre infrastructure. Michael Katz, VP of Products and Technology, says, “Too many businesses rely on incumbent broadband services, which can significantly hinder performance and productivity. Our near-net expansion leaves this issue in the past for thousands more businesses throughout Europe. We will bring our suite of connectivity services to the front door for companies that have previously struggled with unreliable connectivity options, streamlining the process, and creating an environment where they can easily adopt cloud systems and innovative technologies to help their businesses thrive. Zayo designs, builds, and delivers the highest quality, low-latency networks to markets throughout Europe, and this is just another step forward in our continued expansion plans.” Ian Redpath, Research Director at Omdia, says, “74% of enterprises need a 100G connection to support their own private and multiple public cloud data centres. Zayo’s near-net expansion extends fibre infrastructure directly into many more client sites, enabling 100Gbps high capacity, low latency, arterial connectivity required to support today’s modern, cloud-centric, IT infrastructure.”

Don’t compromise on power protection

By David Bond, Chairman, Centiel UK When we are ill, we consult a doctor, a trusted expert in the human body, to diagnose and appropriately treat the problem. They will also advise on how to best prevent a recurrence of the problem. Hopefully, we don’t listen to “old wives tales” that guarantee an immediate cure. The same common sense applies with the diagnosis, help and advice for critical power protection. Nobody would knowingly purchase an inferior UPS, but how would they know a good UPS from an inferior one? If you’re not a UPS expert, it’s easy to fall for sales talk and marketing speak, but just like a doctor won’t try and ‘sell’ you unnecessary medication, real UPS experts will act as trusted advisors and will only act in their customers’ best interest. No sales 'spin', just facts and sound advice. While Centiel’s team of UPS experts don’t swear an hypocritic oath like a doctor does, every Centiel employee signs up to a set of core values which keeps the best interests of customers at the heart of everything they do, namely:   We always behave with integrity We are honest and open in our business transactions We treat our customers, suppliers and each other with respect We constantly strive to improve our customer service We never compromise on health, safety or environmental matters Finding the best way to protect critical power is a complex topic. Therefore, Centiel’s expert team act as trusted advisors to all customers, including data centres, hospitals and all IT facilities, to ensure they always have the optimal UPS solution, whilst reducing their Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and maximising their system availability. Centiel’s engineers and UPS solutions experts and are not required to 'sell' UPS. Instead they establish long term relationships by offering their wealth of experience and expertise. By taking time to understand the challenges faced, they always provide the best advice in relation to solutions based on best practice. It's this long-term vision and close relationships with Centiel’s clients which led to the development of its industry-leading UPS solutions. For example, Centiel recently launched StratusPower, which shares all the benefits of the award-winning three phase, true modular UPS CumulusPower - including '9 nines' (99.9999999%) availability to effectively eliminate system downtime; class leading 97.6% online efficiency to minimise running costs; true 'hot swap' modules to eliminate human error in operation – but now also includes long-life components to improve sustainability. StratusPower minimises TCO because of its class-leading efficiency and low maintenance costs and it is fully scalable, so is unlikely be outgrown.   Centiel’s experts help organisations around the world understand TCO calculations and provide best recommendations to protect power from day one and into the future. Armed with this information, informed decisions can be made about the most appropriate option to protect critical power, reduce carbon footprint and maintain the highest level of availability. So just like you would consult a doctor to maintain your optimal health, when it comes to looking at UPS solutions, don’t compromise. Choose experts who will provide best advice to protect your critical power. To arrange a discussion or for more information, click here.

The role of generator maintenance in ensuring power resilience

Until now, renewable energy plants in Germany have not been set up for emergency power supply in the event of a power outage. That is about to change, thanks to the award-winning LINDA research project and Crestchic’s load bank technology, which is a critical part of the solution.  What is the LINDA project?  Funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, the project looks at how renewable energy plants could supply power to a local 'island' grid in a decentralised way in the event of a power failure. The project, Local Island Grid Supply and Accelerated Grid Reconstruction, with Decentralised Generation Plants in the Event of Large-scale Power Outages (or the more simple 'LINDA'), seeks to explore, test and implement ways of making power generation systems use renewable energy sources for emergency power supplies.  In 2018, phase one of the project, which involved partners from across academia and industry, including the Augsburg University of Applied Sciences, the Technical University of Munich, LEW Verteilnetz and LEW Wasserkraft, and KIMA automation, won the ISGAN Award (International Smart Grid Action Network) and the Bavarian Energy Prize. The project included the development of a new emergency generator that successfully integrated renewable decentralised power generation systems, including photovoltaic systems, hydroelectric power plants and a biogas plant, into an independent island grid. In the event of a power failure, the system was designed to supply a local grid with electricity power from existing renewable energy sources.  Emergency power - limitations of the current approach  Historically, emergency power generators have been operated in such a way that power failures can result in a temporary lapse in supply while the generator kicks in. As well as causing momentary outages and fluctuations in supply, these backups are usually supplied by diesel generators. With the new approach, the system is designed to provide a continuous supply in the event of a power failure, using power from multiple decentralised systems, and crucially, favouring renewables as a backup power source.  In pilots of the system, LINDA was able to guarantee the uninterrupted power supply of households in the test communities. This was done without costly retrofitting of the current systems, providing an important building block for the energy transition and improved security of supply. LINDA 2.0 - automating backup power  In the second phase of the project, LINDA 2.0, the research team is developing a supply concept with battery storage and a diesel generator to provide an additional backup power supply. As well as providing a backup, the system is being designed to automatically balance the fluctuating power generation from decentralised systems and the energy load itself. As well as ensuring a stable and secure power supply without interruptions, the automation will enable the system to shift into emergency mode remotely, without the need for staff to be on site.  Bespoke loadbank solution helps to balance frequency  In order to automate the system, AVS - a German blackout management specialist that provides generators and grid stabilisation systems to a range of industries - worked with the team at Crestchic Loadbanks to create a fully automatic hybrid frequency-controlled power control for generators up to 1300kVA.  Dubbed AVS Greenomic, the solution allows the system to prioritise drawing on renewable energy, for example, CHP, wind power or photovoltaic systems, in order to provide backup power in a blackout scenario, allowing diesel fuel consumption to be reduced by up to 80%. The load bank itself provides a stability of voltage and frequency when switching between different power sources, and maintains a constant 20% load on the generator. Any oversupply of energy is also consumed in a controlled manner, helping to balance the power generation system and smooth out any frequency imbalances. Mike Derbyshire, European Area Sales Manager at Crestchic, explains, “We’ve worked with AVS for a number of years, so were delighted to collaborate with them on a bespoke solution that would meet the requirements of the LINDA project. Our standard loadbanks and controllers were adapted to allow AVS to add their own control system, and we added additional fuse protection, an interface between the loadbank and the Greenomic assembly and the power connections themselves, all of which enables the system to balance the frequency and ensure and reliable and stable supply. It’s a high-profile project and we’re pleased to have been able to use our technical experience to support and enable the project goals.”

Vertiv names Intec Microsystems as new distributor for the UK and Ireland

Vertiv has announced a new strategic partnership in the UK and Ireland with Intec Microsystems, an IT hardware, software and services distributor. The partnership brings together the expertise of Intec Microsystem’s highly capable sales force across the UK and Ireland and Vertiv’s ever-expanding suite of best-in-class products, solutions, services and asset management hardware and software. Vertiv’s Partner Programme, combined with the Vertiv Solution Designer product selection tool, and a growing partner-focused Marketing Centre resource library, dovetails perfectly with the add-value approach that Intec Microsystems already brings to its reseller network. In partnering with Intec Microsystems, its evolving channel segment continues to grow and deliver true depth of distribution offering to its expanding reseller partner network. Vertiv continues to invest in growing its sales team, partner programme, incentives and tools. This is backed by further investment in its UK & Ireland distributor partners to bring further opportunity, availability and value to the market.

Vertiv launches UPS for edge and mid-sized applications in EMEA

Vertiv has introduced the Vertiv Liebert APM2, a new energy efficient and scalable power solution to its uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems portfolio. The Liebert APM2 is compatible with lithium-ion (Li-ion) and VRLA batteries, and features a compact design that can scale from 30kW to 600kW in a single unit. It offers significant energy savings as compared to less efficient alternatives, and can also parallel with up to four matching units for additional capacity or redundancy. It is a CE certified UPS system available in 400V in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and Asia. To satisfy the increasing power needs of edge computing applications, as well as the constrained space typical of these sites, it delivers a greater power output in a smaller footprint than similar capacity solutions, with the models requiring up to 45% less space than the predecessor UPS, Vertiv Liebert APM. The Liebert APM2 operates with high energy efficiency in all modes, up to 97.5% in double-conversion mode; up to 98.8% efficiency when operating in dynamic online mode, which draws power through the bypass line and uses the inverter for balanced output and as an active filter; and up to 99% when operating in ECO mode, which takes advantage of stable grid input conditions to leverage the bypass line. All modes are automated based on user preferences. The intelligent paralleling feature facilitates load sharing among multiple power modules, even across multiple units. This enables balanced unit runtime and offers automatic failover for enhanced system availability. Intelligent paralleling has also been shown to contribute to energy efficiency. “Vertiv has introduced, in Liebert APM2 and other UPS systems, enhancements that improve operational efficiency and can contribute to a reduced data centre PUE, while also maintaining system availability,” says Giovanni Zanei, Senior Director, AC Power Global Offering and EMEA Business Leader at Vertiv. “In particular, the dynamic online feature, built on a robust global platform launched in 2018, enhances the already impressive UPS efficiency and has been adopted by energy and availability conscious customers, including many colocators.”

atNorth announces Chief HPC Officer as Gompute acquisition closes

atNorth has announced the appointment of Daniel Persson to the Executive Team as Chief High Performance Computing (HPC) Officer. The appointment follows atNorth’s recent acquisition of Gompute, provider of HPC and data centre services that Daniel co-founded in 2002. The acquisition and subsequent appointment of Daniel is part of atNorth’s ambitious plans to scale effectively to meet the increasing demand for cost-efficient and sustainable digital infrastructure. The business remains committed to providing the best-in-class HPC services. Daniel is a well-known and proven industry leader, having co-founded the HPC business Gridcore/Gompute in 2002 and played a key role in the development of the Gompute HPC platform. Under his leadership, the Gompute HPC platform and atNorth’s HPC-infrastructure-as-a-service solution will provide customers with a compelling pan-Nordic full-stack offering tailored to HPC and AI workloads. “I am thrilled to join atNorth as we continue to drive innovation in the data centre and HPC industry,” says Daniel. "atNorth’s extensive growth plans and high-quality leadership make for an exciting journey, and together, I am confident that we can meet the future needs of the industry by utilising the best in sustainable high-performance infrastructure.”

Centiel supports Sure’s data centres on net zero path

Centiel has completed a project to deploy its award-winning 4th generation, three-phase, modular UPS system CumulusPower in three of Sure’s Tier III data centres on Guernsey. Sure’s data centres on the Channel Islands keep some of Europe’s largest organisations’ critical data safe and secure in a location outside of mainland UK and Europe.  The upgrade to legacy equipment in data halls four, five and eight this year to CumulusPower has seen the whole facility convert to the latest technology, which offers significantly higher resilience and availability (nine-nines 99.9999999% which equates to milliseconds per year) than previously, in addition to achieving significant energy savings, costs and reducing carbon footprint. Due to the true modular nature of CumulusPower, it is highly efficient, meaning it runs at 97% efficiency compared with <80% for the previous UPS.  Simon Roger, Facilities Manager, Sure, comments, “We chose Centiel’s CumulusPower as the leading power protection technology on the market.  “I am pleased to say that the UPS replacements in data centres four and five are now complete with no more switching events required and the change requests are both closed. We have seen the predicted instant power savings equating to an estimated 20-30% approximately with the current IT load. The UPS are also uber reliable and take up less space and we have saved around seven racks on this installation which can be used for clients.” Due to the location of the Channel Islands, trained engineers usually need to fly to the islands to complete necessary maintenance work. CumulusPower’s modules can be ‘hot/safe swapped’ in a running load, therefore, Centiel has also trained Sure’s engineers in first level response. Sure’s team can now complete basic monitoring, diagnostics and maintenance of the UPS.  Simon continues, “CumulusPower is unique in the market because it enables UPS modules to be swapped safely by our trained team without switching the UPS off. This safe-hot-swap functionality means even if we need to replace a module and send it for repair, we do not experience any downtime, ensuring maximum availability for our clients.”

ICS Cool Energy expands with a cold store dedicated team

ICS Cool Energy has announced the expansion of its hire division with a management team dedicated to cold stores. The team of engineering specialists that will manage the UK fleet of low to ultra-low temperature containerised cold store solutions is: Ralph Howes, Cold Store Major Accounts Manager Lisa Townsley, Cold Store Business Development Manager, South Kayla Shaw, Cold Store Business Development Manager, North Mike Elver, Cold Store Senior Sales Engineer The company's cold store container units can be used where raw or finished products require temporary or long-term temperature-controlled storage to preserve or increase shelf life. Cold stores can add storage space and deliver high cooling capacity in combination with precise temperature control from fresh to deep frozen, even in the most severe applications with high ambient temperatures, frequent door openings and long running hours. The units can be also applied in R&D applications, where a temperature-controlled environment is required to enable Accelerated Life Testing (ALT) of critical components. ICS Cool Energy temperature-controlled containers are available in 10ft, 20ft and 40ft length and feature tried and tested refrigeration technology from Thermo King. The units can be plugged in the 360-500V, 50 or 60Hz power supply to ensure cold or frozen temperatures in the container. Designed originally for global, seagoing reefer applications, its containers are equipped with features that make them suitable as static cold stores. They are washable with wash down drains, have man trapped person alarms, lighting inside emergency escape release and conform to BRC audit standards. The units can also be adapted to meet customer needs with options including telematics, remote monitoring, and controlled atmosphere. Customers can also benefit from a modular approach, where multiple cold stores, joined together without connecting walls, can be linked with buildings without time consuming engineering, ground works, or long planning permission process.

Salesforce standardises global hybrid cloud infrastructure

Red Hat has announced that Salesforce is standardising its global hybrid cloud infrastructure on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Helping the company to drive business transformation at scale to meet customer demand, Red Hat Enterprise Linux provides a more flexible and consistent foundation for security enhanced hybrid cloud deployments. The platform enables Salesforce to free up valuable developer resources, while at the same time consolidating IT systems, all helping to generate better business outcomes for customers.  Salesforce is a customer-centric, innovation-driven provider of cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) systems, using a SaaS model to support a robust customer base. Over the years, Salesforce has continued to grow and evolve its offerings to incorporate breakthrough technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), automated self-service tools and real-time data insights to support customer business needs. In doing so, Salesforce relies on a massive IT footprint that spans hundreds of thousands of systems running in traditional data centre environments and in hyperforce, its platform architecture designed for the public cloud. With the migration, Salesforce intends to gain even more efficiency in its IT operations, enhancing developer productivity and fuelling greater innovation across the customer experience. Red Hat Enterprise Linux offers the necessary stability for modern IT workloads and enterprise-grade hybrid cloud deployments, enabling organisations to run applications anywhere while providing ease of management across on-premises and cloud environments. By migrating its global infrastructure from CentOS Linux to Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Salesforce seeks to realise key benefits such as: Optimised performance and efficiency across various hardware and software architectures, including ARM, which enables Salesforce engineering teams to more easily adopt breakthrough technologies without incurring new infrastructure demands. Meeting customers where they are with a hardened platform that can drive more consistent innovation across the hybrid cloud, from the data centre to public clouds to the edge, with the capacity to support unique customer use cases regardless of location or scale. Improved system security measures with Red Hat Enterprise Linux’s layered approach to IT environment security, including support for many of the latest cryptographic and secure computing innovations. Enhanced customer support experiences through Red Hat’s support team, enabling Salesforce engineering to focus on delivering customer value without being bogged down in the minutiae of managing an operating system at cloud-scale.