Software & Applications

Kao Data Partners with Vorboss, offering Specialist Low-Latency Connectivity for Fintech

Kao Data, has today announced a new partnership with Vorboss to expand its low-latency, resilient connectivity capabilities at its Harlow campus. Vorboss, a leading London-based connectivity provider is continuing to engineer its fibre network, which offers resilient high-capacity connectivity across the UK and into Europe. Kao Data’s Open Compute Project-Ready (OCP) data centre design provides Vorboss with a strategic Point of Presence (PoP). Their direct fibre connection offers increased resilience for end-users with even the most complex of requirements using direct links from London’s financial hubs to the UK Innovation Corridor and into all European metropolitan cities. The collaboration offers superior connectivity alongside high density, scalable HPC environments of 25kW and above to cater for AI applications delivering quant and grid computing. “Financial data science is a complex and high-growth market sector, requiring data centres that can truly support the demands of AI and compute-intensive research and trading platforms,” says Spencer Lamb, VP, Kao Data. “Expanding our carrier neutral partnerships with fibre from Vorboss provides direct access to additional high-quality network capacity and will help meet customer requirements for dedicated low-latency and high-performance connectivity.” Vorboss provides market leading enterprise connectivity including wholesale leased lines, DIA, MPLS and public cloud connections over a world-class network resiliently engineered for exceptional uptime. Using Vorboss-owned fibre, Kao Data clients can benefit from low latency, high-performing connections with handoffs available in over 25 data centres throughout the UK and Europe. “Vorboss is known for its innovation and expertise in the financial services sector, and Kao Data understands the competitive advantages that dedicated fibre offers to this crucial segment of UK businesses,” comments Vorboss CEO, Timothy Creswick. “It’s particularly fitting to be offering fibre connections to the site where fibre optic technologies were discovered over 50 years ago and we’re excited to see this collaboration maximise return on investment for many organisations.”

Data and HR experts form pioneering ethics board to tackle misuse of AI

Data science company Profusion has launched the UK’s first data ethics board to incorporate leaders from HR, academia, law, data science and cybersecurity. The Data Ethics Advisory Board will be to provide the wider tech industry with guidance on how to tackle complex ethical issues emerging within data science. This includes challenges around privacy, security and responsible use of AI tools. It is hoped that the decisions made by the Board will help to set moral standards which will inform businesses that use data science.  To ensure the Board provides a range of views, experts from a number of disciplines have joined, including: Camara (HR director, Co-op), Dr Hastilow (Head of digital manufacturing - civil aerospace, Rolls Royce) and Dodhia (Neuroscience undergraduate student, Cardiff University). They join specialist legal board members to offer diversity of thought to this challenging topic. Natalie Cramp, CEO of Profusion, states: “At Profusion we’re regularly dealing with data projects that are the first of their kind. There is no road map or set of standards we can look to to ensure that we’ve considered all the implications of our work. Whilst data science has amazing power for good, we recognise it can sometimes have unintended consequences. This is why we formed the Ethics Advisory Board. We believe that the wide range of views and experience will enable us to make the best decisions, and in time create a roadmap to support the wider data industry.”  Khyati Sundaram, CEO of Applied, says: “There are countless examples of how data misuse can lead to serious real world consequences. By bringing together voices from different industries and backgrounds we can examine and debate different aspects of these problems, providing guidance that may help to create industry-wide ethical standards.” 

Schneider Electric and Elite Partner APT Deliver Data Centre Digital Transformation for Newcastle City Council

Schneider Electric, has delivered a new data centre digital transformation project for Newcastle City Council in collaboration with Elite Partner, Advanced Power Technology (APT). The initiative included consolidation of existing data centre capacity, upgrades to infrastructure and deployment of next generation management software to ensure efficient digital service delivery for the council’s e-government strategy. The project aims to improve Newcastle City Councils ability to deliver e-government services to 300,000 citizens and businesses. Applications within the facility include council tax collection, social and library services, education and road traffic management, whilst supporting other essential public service bodies such as the NHS and the Police. The data centre replaces three server rooms, each containing a number of disparate UPS and cooling systems which in need of maintenance. The Council chose EcoStruxure for Data Centers and Schneider Electric’s system architecture for its new data centre. The system, designed and built by APT, consolidates the council’s IT infrastructure in a single data hall. To guarantee uptime in the event of a power outage, the Council installed Schneider Electric modular and scalable range of Galaxy range UPS’s, offering N+1 redundant configuration and extended runtimes. APT has also deployed EcoStruxure IT Expert, Schenider Electric’s next-generation DCIM software to drive efficiency and provide monitoring, improved maintenance schedules and proactive alerts to system issues. The new data centre improves Newcastle City Council’s ability to ensure service continuity and increases efficiency for a lower cost of ownership. A benefit of EcoStruxure IT Expert software is the ability for operators to monitor power consumption. With the new data centre designed to house IT and network devices in contained aisles, visibility of energy consumption and environmental data, enables the power and cooling systems to be operated with optimum energy efficiency. EcoStruxure IT Expert enables the facility to deliver cost-effective hosting services to other local bodies. Around 10% of the data centre’s real estate is leased out to other public sector organisations. By carefully monitoring the power supply to each rack, the Council can accurately charge for hosting services, producing a revenue stream that helps to offset its operating costs. “Previously, we were able to withstand a loss of power for 20 minutes,” says James Dickman, Senior ICT Solutions Analyst, Newcastle City Council. “we can operate for three hours on UPS batteries if required and can use our backup generator to provide alternative power in the event of a loss of our mains supply.” “The management capabilities of EcoStruxure IT has resulted in improved visibility of the data centre operations and offers a ability to mitigate issues,” states John Thompson, MD of Advanced Power Technology. “With more detailed insight, Newcastle City Council can increase the resiliency of the IT Service to improve the customer experience.” “With IT, connectivity and digital demands growing, the data centre plays a crucial role,” comments Marc Garner, VP, Secure Power Division, Schneider Electric UK&I. “APT’s expertise in data centre design, build and installation have been pivotal in the success of this digital transformation project.” “As a public body we are looking for ways to improve cost and energy efficiencies,” continues Dickman. “Schneider Electric and APT were able to design and deliver a data centre that meets our needs and expectations. The facility enables us to meet our service commitments to stakeholders while minimising the carbon impact.”

Asperitas wins deal for immersion cooling for Crédit Agricole

Immersion cooling specialist Asperitas supports the datacentre scale up of the Chartres site. The Asperitas technology, will enable the bank’s data centres to reduce their costs and environmental footprint, preparing for a future with more computer driven applications, with high density solutions required. In 2018, a project with Asperitas was installed for Credit Agricole, the technology was validated and met their Tier 4 data centre and enterprise standards, qualifying for their datacentres. The project managed 40% of the bank workload in Chartres. The module was exposed to weather fluctuations, performing exceptionally. The next step of the project is to install multiple Asperitas modules in two datacentres, taking up 150 square meters of floor space. Rolf Brink, Asperitas CEO says: “I am delighted that Crédit Agricole, has chosen Asperitas to support their scale-up. The simplicity of the AIC24 modules make it a solution, without having to change environmental infrastructure, this outcome enables Crédit Agricole’s next step in development. Having multiple modules on the French site will impact on their data centre performance, efficiency and sustainability.” The AIC24 solution will meet the demand for high density compute on a system. It uses a natural convection driven fluid circulation. This approach enables immersion cooling to be both climate independent and fully heat reuse ready. Making use of the shell immersion cooling fluid, the solution is suitable for the most demanding data centres and allows for efficient cooling. Sundeep Kamath, Global Marketing Manager for Process Oils at Shell adds: “We are excited with this success. Shell is committed to working with our partners to develop solutions. Data centres today consume 1% of global energy, this is expected to grow with exponential amounts of data generated. This solution offers – increased compute performance, lower costs, and lower CO2 footprint. Shell is deploying this technology for our own computing and are very happy to see a leading bank like Crédit Agricole choose this solution.” Jean Buet, Senior Officer, Head of Datacentres, Crédit Agricole comments: “The solution provided by Asperitas allows us to increase the density of our data centre without major work. We can offer a high thermal density solution that meets both growing demand and new technological challenges. We have now decided to deploy this solution.” The multiple module installation is scheduled for before the end of 2020, with Asperitas working alongside Dell Technologies to provide integrated compute solutions.

Vertiv introduces monitoring solution for small and medium-sized edge data centres

Vertiv, a global provider of critical digital infrastructure and continuity solutions, has introduced Verti Environet Alert, a new software offering that brings enterprise-level infrastructure monitoring and management capabilities to smaller data centres and edge facilities. Available globally, Vertiv Environet Alert is affordable and easy to use, eliminating the two most common barriers to the deployment of monitoring and management tools in these types of environments. Vertiv Environet Alert delivers real-time, vendor-agnostic monitoring of critical infrastructure systems and alerts the appropriate personnel immediately when those systems are at risk. The software acts as a single pane of glass, with a new, modern and intuitive user interface that delivers visibility and data to users. Users can customise the data points that are monitored and reported to focus on what they need to most effectively protect and optimise their business. “SMBs often lack robust visibility over their networks because monitoring and management solutions for critical infrastructure have not been able to economically scale for smaller operations,” said Steve Lalla, executive vice president for service and software solutions at Vertiv. “This lack of purpose-built monitoring has an impact on business functionality by increasing risk and costs. Vertiv Environet Alert provides the required functionality to stay connected with critical infrastructure and ensure necessary business continuity.” Vertiv Environet Alert provides monitoring, alerting, trending and data organisation capabilities for companies in such verticals as healthcare, financial services, government, education and other industries that rely on smaller data centres and edge facilities. It is compatible with SNMP devices and integrates via a published API with other network management tools, data centre infrastructure management (DCIM) software, and building management systems to enable a complete view of network operations and streamline management of those systems.