Events

Matt Dawson to help build team cultures at DTX + UCX Manchester

Manchester will play host to the north’s biggest digital and IT transformation event in May - with World Cup-winning rugby star, Matt Dawson, the former Director General of MI5, Dame Stella Rimington, and Greater Manchester Mayor, Andy Burnham, headlining as the city gears up for Tech Week 2023. Digital Transformation EXPO (DTX) has been a firm fixture in the region for seven years, running previously as IP EXPO. The 2023 event will see the greatest gathering of enterprise IT and digital professionals yet - with thousands flocking to Manchester Central on 17-18 May for keynote speeches, regional case studies, interactive panels, technical workshops and community socials. In light of enterprise IT teams feeling mounting pressure to balance accelerated innovation with cost optimisation, the event will focus on the cornerstone theme: ‘Together We Transform’. Uniquely placed to encourage collaboration, the combined showcase DTX + UCX Manchester 2023 will connect leaders in cloud, networks, data, devops, cyber security and the modern workplace to tackle the coming challenges together. Attendees will discuss and debate how to optimise tech stacks, unravel legacy data systems, design a next-generation engineering strategy, operate feature-rich modern workplace toolsets, build threat-responsive ecosystems, and meet changing customer demands. Matt Dawson - who is fast approaching the 20-year anniversary of his World Cup victory - will reflect on a long and varied career in a keynote interview on ‘Finding your edge: how to overcome weakness, trust your intuition and lead a team through hard times’. He will offer insights on how to build a world-class team culture, the lasting value of critique to guide tactics and what it takes to be your best, on and off the field. Dame Stella Rimington - the first woman to become Director General of MI5, and dubbed the real-life M from James Bond - will share how to lead in times of challenge and change. Revealing how she has navigated a life of unexpected opportunities, Dame Stella will discuss why human insight is still critical to success when assessing information, even as artificial intelligence advances at rapid speed. Greater Manchester Mayor, Andy Burnham, returns to close the show on day one with a first-look at the digital vision laid out in the Greater Manchester Digital Blueprint for 2023-2026. Other big hitters on the line-up include John Hobson, Chief Information Officer at Kellogg Company; Ben Morris, Global Director of Cyber Security at The Hut Group; Mivy James, Digital Transformation Director at BAE Systems Digital Intelligence; Adam Lindsay, Director of Business Operations at Groupon; Leanne Fitzpatrick, Director of Data Science at The Financial Times; Rob Black, Technology Director at Beauty Bay; and Risk Alkunshalie, Head of Technology at Manchester Airports Group. The brands behind cutting-edge enterprise IT technology will also be ready to showcase the tools needed to power a digital future. Taking centre stage are Dell, AWS, Okta, Ring Central, Blue Jeans, Threatlocker, Slalom Build, Sophos, Intel, Sentinel One and Gamma, along with many other exhibitors. Head of Research and Portfolio Development for DTX, Natasha Taylor, states, “Manchester is a world-leading hub of technology and innovation, which makes it the perfect place to host the biggest digital transformation and IT event the north has ever seen. “This year is going to be the best yet - featuring a phenomenal line-up of guest speakers, a huge variety of exhibitors and some surprises on the show floor. “We’re proud to bring together teams from all realms of the enterprise IT space, across every industry, to share ideas, tackle the latest challenges and troubleshoot tricky problems. Every year we witness the real-time collaboration needed to drive the delivery of ambitious transformation plans. “DTX + UCX Manchester is the place where great minds discuss ground-breaking ideas, and we can’t wait to hear what the big topics of conversation are this year.”

Winners announced for Data Centre World Awards 2023

The winners of the Data Centre World Awards 2023 were announced during a grand ceremony at Data Centre World on 8 March, taking place at ExCeL London. The awards recognised the people, innovations, and operations within the data centre industry that have gone above and beyond to achieve outstanding excellence in the sector. Special Contribution to Improving Energy Efficiency WINNER: EkkoSense (on behalf of Three UK) Three UK worked with EkkoSense to secure initial cooling energy savings across four sites of 200KW, representing a 10-15% data centre cooling energy saving in just 10 weeks. Most Successfully Delivered Data Centre WINNER: Vantage Data Centres In March 2021 Vantage was contacted by one of its strategic customers who urgently needed significant IT capacity in South Africa. A few months later, Vantage commenced the build of a major carrier-neutral data centre campus in Johannesburg (JNB11), its first in Africa. Delivery took place ahead of schedule in just 10 months, with zero lost-time incidents over 1.5 million working hours. Green Data Centre of the Year WINNER: CSC IOT Centre for Science CSC is the hosting entity and data centre provider for EuroHPC pre-exascale supercomputer LUMI. The LUMI site in Kajaani, Finland was selected due to availability of vast amount of local renewable energy and ability to utilise excess heat in to town’s district heating system. While having the potential of reducing 12,400 tons of CO2 annually, LUMI is able to save up to 40% of electricity costs by selling the waste heat. Best Data Centre Operator WINNER: Vantage Data Centres Vantage CWL11 Cardiff meets global, national and regional demand for colocation and hosting, all from a highly scalable single site campus at pricing half that of London. Opened for business in 2010, CWL11 is a continuously evolving colocation data centre operated by Vantage Data Centers, which acquired the 50-acres site from Next Generation Data (NGD) in July 2020. There has not been a single outage since the facility was opened in 2009. Environmental Product of the Year WINNER: Interact Interact offers a machine learning tool that addresses these issues by balancing embodied carbon, materials usage, and energy efficiency to get the best net environmental outcome. Its recommendations enable data centre managers to achieve the same or greater amount of compute power, with drastically reduced server footprint and energy draw. Special Contribution to Improving Resilience Through Innovation WINNER: ICTS ICTS’ Viridian started out as a simple dashboard, but through extensive consultation with data centre clients, it expanded into something much bigger. Viridian brings data centres physical security solutions together in one single, customisable platform. Data streams are contextualised dynamically assess risk and calculate optimal service delivery paths based on live-threat data and operational activities. ICTS incorporates all site-specific security procedures, KPIs, and the SLA into Viridian. Best Talent Developer WINNER: UTC Heathrow and partners UTC Heathrow and Partners provides an education that encourages life-long learning by empowering students with transferrable engineering skills to become responsible engineers to meet the needs of the data centre sector today and tomorrow. The ten partners supporting the Digital Futures programme include CNet Training, Virtus Data Centres, CyrusOne, CBRE, Amazon Web Services, LMG, ARK Data Centres (Crown Hosting Data Centres Limited), Yondr, Kao Data and Soben. Innovation Product of the Year WINNER: QiO Technologies QiO Technologies are an industrial IoT AI software products company supporting energy-intensive and asset-heavy industrial sector companies to rapidly deliver on their sustainability and net zero agenda.

The Data Leaders Summit (25 April, The Carlton Tower, Jumeirah, London) is a closed-room event for senior decision-makers in charge of data management, analytics, automation and insight. It’s an unmissable opportunity to get ahead of the latest trends, strategies and visions connecting the data ecosystem. Hear from industry trailblazers from the likes of BBC, John Lewis Partnership, Global, Cabinet Office Digital and more! Find out more here.  Please note that the Data Leaders Summit is only accessible to qualifying attendees.

Vertiv to showcase latest innovations at Data Centre World

Vertiv will unveil its newest products and solutions at Data Centre World on 8-9 March at ExCeL London. Vertiv will be presenting the latest advancements in power, cooling, and IT infrastructure solutions for data centres at the VIP Lounge, offering visitors the opportunity to learn from its team of experts and experience its innovative technology, first-hand. Visitors to the event will be able to see a demo of the new Vertiv XR app, which allows data centre operators, IT managers and channel partners to use virtual reality technology to visualise Vertiv products in the location they would occupy in any given facility. The virtual representation aids today's data centre decision-makers by enabling them to better understand how the infrastructure supports their compute and impacts their physical footprint. In addition to networking opportunities, Vertiv will be presenting four informative sessions over two days, covering topics such as dynamic power, infrastructure optimisation, low voltage power transmission and liquid cooling innovations. Details of the sessions can be found below. Alex Brew, Regional Director, Northern Europe at Vertiv, says, “We are excited to talk to conference attendees about the latest in energy efficient technologies for edge and enterprise data centres, including liquid cooling, chilled water cooling, and prefabricated modular solutions. These technologies can also be explored virtually in the Vertiv XR app.” Vertiv’s presentations at Data Centre World are: 8 March: Vertiv Dynamic Power and New Technology - presented by Russell Bulley, Senior Application Engineer, at 11:00 in the Energy Efficiency, Cost Management and DCIM Theatre. How to Optimise Infrastructure and Management in White Space for Any Type of Data Centre - presented by Slawomir Dziedziula, Director of Application Engineers EMEA, at 12:00 in the Facilities and Critical Equipment Theatre. 9 March: Low Voltage Power Transmission via Busbar - presentation by Russell Bulley, Senior Application Engineer, at 11:30 in the Energy Efficiency, Cost Management and DCIM Theatre. How Innovation in Liquid Cooling Unlocks IT Power Potential - Driving Data Centre Sustainability - presented by Nigel Gore, Senior Director, Liquid Cooling, at 14:00 in the Facilities and Critical Equipment Theatre.

GF Piping Systems at Data Centre World London 2023

GF Piping Systems will display complete corrosion and maintenance-free piping solutions, as well as pre-fabrication support to help data centres simultaneously reduce costs and increase efficiency, from 8-9 March at Data Centre World, held at ExCeL London.  Data centre demand is increasing globally, however, their power consumption cannot increase proportionally. Global warming and power availability are already dominating the decision making of the industry today, and there is a need to design and operate facilities that are more futureproof. At Data Centre World London 2023, Swiss flow solutions provider GF Piping Systems will display products that help data centres become more cost-effective, reliable and sustainable. The company will focus on COOL-FIT, a completely pre-insulated plastic piping system that optimises a wide range of refrigeration applications, including data centres. The system features a three-in-one design consisting of a PE100 carrier pipe, a highly efficient and vapour-tight insulating foam, and a high-density polyethylene outer jacket. The carrier pipe is corrosion and maintenance-free, while smooth inner surfaces prevent deposits. Furthermore, the combination of the highly efficient foam and the low thermal conductivity of polyethylene leads to a 30% higher energy efficiency than metal alternatives. Additionally, GF Piping Systems will present its prefabrication capabilities at Data Centre World London. The company has more than 14 prefabrication facilities around the world that allow customers to plan piping systems according to their specific needs while simultaneously reducing the time and effort required for the installation. To visualise the customisability of these complete solutions, visitors of the booth will be able to experience a prefabrication skid as well as virtual 3D installations. Visitors will also be able to experience ultrasonic non-destructive testing (NDT) live at the booth. NDT transmits ultrasonic waves through materials to detect any flaws within and is a proven method for evaluating butt and electro fusion welded high density polyethylene and polypropylene. By conducting NDT analyses directly at the prefabrication stage, the welding quality for demanding application such as data centres is ensured. Mark Stuart, Data Centre Director Europe at GF Piping Systems, emphasises, “Our lives are becoming ever more digital, and this is only sustainable if we optimise data centres to run efficiently in every way. We believe that we can make a positive impact with our complete solutions and look forward to discussing the future of data centre cooling with visitors in London, as well as future editions of Data Centre World in Frankfurt, Paris, and Singapore.”

Digital Transformation Week announces networking party at the Levi’s Stadium

Digital Transformation Week North America returns to the Santa Clara Convention Centre in California on 17-18 May 2023. The next edition will explore the critical technologies and approaches needed to improve customer engagement and drive your organisation’s digital culture. Digital Transformation Week North America is not another talking shop for digital transformation, but a senior level forum for enterprise-level decision-makers seeking to explore and evaluate new technologies and strategic approaches to drive innovation in their business. Official networking party at Levi's Stadium Alongside the packed conference agenda, innovative tradeshow and exhibition, Digital Transformation Week will host an exclusive networking party following the first day of the conference. The event will be hosted at the Levi’s 501 Club at the Levi’s Stadium, home of the San Francisco 49ers. Paid ticket holders will have the chance to enjoy an evening of networking and create contacts with some of the industry’s biggest names from 6pm to 10pm, following day one of the conference. “The networking party will allow you to share your experiences of the day and will provide the opportunity to meet with existing and new business partners in a more relaxed setting, with free food and drinks provided.” This opportunity is open for Gold Pass Holders, Ultimate Pass Holders, speakers, press, sponsors, and exhibitors. What else to expect? Over the course of two days at Digital Transformation Week you will have a chance to listen to knowledge-packed presentations from digital transformation experts from leading brands such as Netflix, Lionsgate - Motion Picture Group, Sephora, United Airlines, Uber and many more! Gold tickets will offer an opportunity to listen to knowledge-packed presentations and panel discussions featuring key players sharing their expertise and insights surrounding digital transformation. The event agenda promises to discuss such hot topics as: digital workforces and the future of work, robotic process automation, quantum computing, using AI to understand behaviours, risk and security, Hybrid Cloud, Digital Twin, and Headless Tech Strategies, and much more! Ultimate ticket holders will have a chance to join additional sessions at co-located expos, including: edge computing, IoT tech, blockchain, cyber security and cloud, and AI and big data. Also visit the free-to-attend exhibition and tradeshow to connect with some of the world’s biggest tech companies including IBM, MicroFocus, Couchbase, Emnify, and more, all of which are implementing the latest technology innovations within their sectors. Tickets Early bird tickets are now available at a discounted rate of 40% off, but hurry as the prices will increase on 20 March. Be sure to secure your spot at this event as it’s not one to miss. Don’t miss out, secure your Free ticket, Gold Pass or Ultimate Pass here.

Crestchic returns to Data Centre World exhibition

With the data centre market ever changing, and our reliance on data increasing, live exhibitions have become essential in dictating what’s next for the industry going forward. This is why Crestchic Loadbanks will be returning to Data Centre World London to discuss the importance of loadbank technology and its role in ensuring that data centres can remain up and running. Crestchic will be participating in London’s Data Centre World exhibition in March 2023. The Crestchic team will be on hand to answer any questions visitors may have about renting or buying a variety of backup power testing and heat load testing systems. Joining over 10,000 like-minded professionals, decision-makers, pioneers, experts and suppliers who are collectively working towards achieving next-generation data centre capabilities, the Crestchic team will be on stand for the two-day event on 8-9 March 2023 to showcase our product offering, including: • Resistive-only load banks typically up to 300kW for heat load testing. • Rack mounted server emulators for heat load-testing. • Capacitive load banks to test with the leading power factor often associated with servers. • Large multi-megawatt, medium voltage load bank packages to test and synchronise multi genset systems on a common bus with a lagging power factor. • DC load banks to test UPS systems for close battery analysis and discharge performance. • Resistive-reactive load banks for testing the whole system operation in an emergency change-over scenario. Paul Brickman, Group Commercial Director for Crestchic comments, “As our reliance on data increases, it is more important than ever that data centres can test their facilities under real working conditions to ensure power supplies cannot be interrupted. “Preventing power outages and maintaining productivity is key for these mission-critical environments. Load banks are a key part of both the data centre commissioning and ongoing testing of backup power solutions, as well as for heat load testing to mitigate risk during operation. “As always, we are keen to meet decision-makers from the data centre market, who are looking to improve how they manage power for new and existing data centre campuses.” Building on past successes, this event is for anyone looking to develop their understanding of the data centre market, and source solutions and service providers that can support them in cost management and risk mitigation.

Schneider Electric to bring data centres of the future to DCW

Energy security, infrastructure resiliency and sustainability have all become focal points for the data centre sector and at Data Centre World 2023, Schneider Electric will showcase its EcoStruxure for Data Centres solutions portfolio - combining connected products, apps, and analytics to deliver a new vision for the data centres of the future. On stand D530, Schneider Electric will demonstrate end-to-end solutions from across its secure power, power products, power systems and services businesses to share how it can support customers as a digital partner for sustainability and efficiency. Critical power and cooling Schneider Electric’s dedicated critical power zone will feature its Galaxy VS and Easy Modular UPS range. Schneider Electric Galaxy UPS includes its patented eConversion technology, offering 99% efficiency, without compromising availability for increased availability and reduced operating costs. Easy Modular UPS is the company’s new medium UPS offer, providing an easy to use, easy to service and easy to maintain critical power protection solution, with optimum reliability. Furthermore, the critical power zone will host Schneider Electric’s Power Systems offers, including its medium voltage (MV) SMAirSeT, an SF6-free Modular MV Switchboard. This green and digital modular air-insulated switchgear solution combines pure air and vacuum technology to replace greenhouse or alternative gases. Data centres at the edge As part of its stand, Schneider Electric has also created an edge computing zone, which will showcase its edge infrastructure solutions alongside its alliance partners. This will include its EcoStruxure micro data centre’s with Stratus ftServer for industrial manufacturing environments. The zone will also showcase Schneider Electric’s APC Smart-UPS Ultra - the industry’s first 3kW and 5kW 1U single-phase UPS, which are designed to deliver more power, flexibility, and intelligent monitoring in the smallest footprint. Smart-UPS Ultra enables IT and data centre professionals to address many of the challenges with deploying infrastructure in distributed IT and edge computing environments, enabling efficiency and uptime for critical applications everywhere. The power of DCIM 3.0 At Data Centre World, Schenider Electric will demonstrate its data centre infrastructure management (DCIM) software capabilities, including its open and vendor-agnostic EcoStruxure IT platform. EcoStruxure's IT Expert goes beyond incident solving and prevention, providing advanced remote monitoring, visibility and alarms, predictive maintenance, and data-driven recommendations to mitigate security and failure risks in data centres. It will also share its Digital Twin capabilities including its Aveva Software Solutions and ETAP simulation platform. The company says that its ETAP’s integrated digital twin platform offers the world’s most comprehensive suite of enterprise solutions and specialises in the simulation, design, monitoring, control, operator training, optimising, and automating of power systems. The stand will also host an Augmented Reality (AR) experience for visitors, showcasing its other software, sustainability, and service capabilities alongside virtual demos of its complete portfolio of technologies for sustainable, efficient, and resilient data centres, including its Uniflair cooling Direct Expansion portfolio. Empowering sustainability and efficiency During Data Centre World 2023, Schneider Electric will share its sustainability, efficiency, and data centre services expertise in three different speaking sessions. The first, led by Schneider Electric Account Manager, Elite Partners, Sophie Wilson, takes place on 8 March from 10:10am-10:35am in the Design and Build Theatre. This fireside chat will bring together data centre design and build consultancies from across the UK and Ireland including Advanced Power Technology, EfficiencyIT, and Total Power Solutions, to explore customer use cases within the defence, life sciences, healthcare, and enterprise sectors, and answer the question, ‘How do we engineer the future of data centre efficiency?’ At 10:45am on 8 March, Schneider Electric will deliver its first keynote speech at the event exploring the convergence of electrification and digitisation, and how the company’s vision for Electricity 4.0 will build the sustainable, resilient data centres of the future. Taking place in the Keynote Theatre and led by Steven Brown, Segment Director, Schneider Electric, the keynote will look at the impacts of energy volatility and share best practices on how to mitigate risk by leveraging sustainability services, software, and resilient infrastructure. Its third speaking session will be led by the services business on 9 March from 10:40am-11:05am in the Keynote Theatre, looking at the role of services in extending the lifecycle of your data centre.

Atkore heads to Data Centre World 2023

The new Atkore Unistrut Aisle Containment System - the latest concept in modular aisle containment for data centres - will be unveiled at Data Centre World (stand D40, ExCel, London) on 8-9 March. Exhibiting for the first time at the show, Atkore will also be showcasing a broad range of metal framing, cable management and flexible conduit systems from its brands including Unistrut, Flexicon and Vergokan and Marco. The Atkore Unistrut Aisle Containment System provides a fast and efficient means to manage heat dissipation, according to the maker. Benefitting from off-site manufacturing, every component part is precision cut and undergoes rigorous quality control to deliver a simple on-site installation. The bespoke-design system comprises the containment enclosure and all cable management components, including cable ladders (welded and pre-galvanised), cable trays, cable baskets, and trunking. Finite element analysis, alongside consistent reproduction of all component parts in a controlled factory environment provides data centre managers with the additional assurance of reliability and dependability. Mark Halsey, Global Product Director for Cable Management and Protection at Atkore , will be discussing the many benefits of this combined containment and cable management solutions’ approach during the show. His talk, on the 8th of March 2023 in the energy efficiency, cost management and DCIM theatre will focus on the growing trend for offsite construction and how this can help data centre operators meet the custom needs of their project. Modular, off-site construction The modular design, as opposed to traditional on-site stick build, cuts installation time and complexity. This can reduce congestion with other trades and increases the safety of the installation. For example, all component parts arrive pre-cut and require no onsite preparation or welding, eliminating the hazards of hot works. The design can be configured to accommodate the needs of any project, with predictable and consistent costs. This includes adjustable bottom columns that account for variances in the slope of the floor and cantilever arm assemblies that enable quick, in-unison height adjustments. To further improve the ease of installation, the new solution can be integrated with the Unistrut celling grid. This enables the system to be suspended from the ceiling, with cable management added or adjusted to suit. High quality and repeatability All products incorporated into the Atkore Unistrut Aisle Containment System meet global data centre specification and are designed according to DfMA (Design for Manufacture and Assembly) and FEA (Finite Element Analysis) methods. Daniel Tew, UK and Ireland Sales Director for Atkore Unistrut, comments, “Operators are facing increasing pressures to meet the global demand for data and need every advantage they can get to build at speed, without compromising on quality or increasing cost. That’s why we’re launching the Atkore Unistrut Aisle Containment System. “Our engineers have purpose-designed the system to be fast and efficient to install and to reduce complexity on-site. Built in our quality-controlled manufacturing facility, every component is cut to the desired length in a controlled environment and is therefore of a proven standard. “All components will be manufactured in the UK or Europe and stamped with a batch number. This acts as a guarantee of their quality and enables them to be traced back to the steel manufacturer in the event of any issues. “We’re excited to be bringing our new Atkore Unistrut Aisle Containment System to Data Centre World 2023 and look forward to discussing its benefits with data centre professionals from across the globe on stand D40.”

RMS to showcase cabling expertise at Data Centre World

RMS is set to showcase its specialist cable management systems at Data Centre World on 8-9 March 2023. The team will be exhibiting a range of products designed to boost efficiency and quality for those responsible for building data centres. On display will be modular solutions, such as corridor frames comprising pre-installed cable containment, as well as the Dataline EMT system, which securely transports fibreoptic cabling. Peter Willsher, Managing Director at RMS, says, “Data storage is becoming increasingly more complex, driving the need for more innovative cable management systems when constructing data centres. Data Centre World is an opportunity for us to demonstrate how RMS is responding to this demand. “Visitors to the stand will be able to see our latest data centre products and how we can tailor solutions to meet specific design criteria. This bespoke offering is essential for many data centre projects, ensuring clients achieve more certainty in terms of costs, materials, installation times and carbon content.” Part of Tech Show London, Data Centre World takes place from 8-9 March 2023 at Excel in London. The RMS team can be found on stand D1050.