It’s been another very busy stint of work over at Netwise London East, as we continue to deploy Data Hall 3 and Data Hall 4.
While we’ve taken a relatively lengthy break from the #BuildBlog since the last update, the same cannot be said for the development schedule itself, which has been continuing at pace without pause.
Let’s get straight to the photo updates:
This all sits alongside a whole host of additional organisation-wide projects, which includes the full upgrade of our entire core network, across all on-net locations. This will see the staged upgrade of all routing assets on our core network, to cope with ever-increasing demand from our clients. Telehouse has already been undertaken, with our London East site to follow in the next couple of weeks. Equinix LD8 will follow shortly thereafter.
We’ve also had another major round of development work undertaken on our customer portal. This predominantly concerns the backend of the system, with a custom IPAM administration and deployment module now live. We also have additions to the client-side coming very soon, which will improve the booking, tracking and handling of deliveries.
We’re tantalisingly close to announcing some very significant expansion news, but we’ll have to hold back on that for a little while longer – keep an eye on announcements in the coming weeks / months.
We’re thrilled for you to meet Nathan Desmond, our Technical Manager.
Nathan joined us from a fast-rising career in critical technology for a major UK retailer (the one with the excellent, tear-jerking Christmas adverts!), overseeing their internal data centre operations. Nathan’s broad experience across multiple disciplines will assist in taking the customer experience at Netwise to the next level, as we continue to grow our dedication to true in-house expertise.
Nathan joined the Netwise family in late 2022, and has been making an incredibly positive impact on our operation ever since. His addition to the core Netwise management team came as expansion continued at our London East facility, taking Data Hall 1 to capacity, welcoming a single client to Data Hall 2, and building out Data Halls 3 and 4.
Nathan has already proven invaluable in the continued development of bleeding-edge technology in and around our world-class data centres.
We very recently deployed a major upgrade to part of our core network, at our Supernode in Telehouse North. Nathan naturally played an integral role in the success of this roll-out, from planning, to physical adjustments, through to completion.
You can expect to meet Nathan busy working across all corners of our data centre estate, keeping your mission-critical data centre services in tip-top shape. You may even find his expert input on the odd support ticket from time to time depending on the issue at hand.
Another 12 months in the books, and another record-breaking period for Netwise, which we’re immensely proud to share with our clients and stakeholders as we look ahead to another equally exciting year.
As we step into 2024 for the first time this week, we’ll take a moment to look back and appreciate the year gone by; the first full year of live operation at Netwise London East.
The headline is that development works have continued at pace at our London East facility, as we prepare to bring Data Halls 3 and 4 online in early 2024, enabling our next phase of growth and expansion.
At the point of closing out 2023, we’ve pushed development works into all corners of our London East facility, with upstairs now fully deployed (Data Halls 1 and 2), and downstairs deployment underway (Data Halls 3 and 4). The site has been a hive of activity over the past year, and we have plenty to show for it.
Notable projects from 2023 include:
We fully deployed Data Hall 2 – the second active Data Hall within NLE welcomed its single long-term tenant in 2023; a major milestone for both parties. We enjoyed watching the space fill out with a wide range of cutting-edge hardware in Q4 2023.
Phase 2 works have ramped up – while we technically included the build of Data Hall 2 in the Phase 2 works schedule, the real meat of this phase comes in the form of Data Halls 3 and 4. These two new halls are being readied for occupation in early 2024, with the closing stages of 2023 seeing real traction in this area; Data Hall 4 now has its primary cooling system deployed, as well as much of the core electrical distribution infrastructure.
Josh Carvalho joined as Engineering Manager – in September, we expanded our team with the joining of Josh, our new Engineering Manager. Expect a full introductory post very soon.
NLC again exceeded its design PUE, reaching a remarkable 1.09 – back in 2022, London Central achieved a real-world PUE of just 1.11, beating the design PUE target of 1.12. In 2023, we managed an incredible 1.09. We’re extremely excited to see where we can get NLE as occupancy rates rise rapidly, looking towards the design target of just 1.05.
We added a range of niceties and features to NLE – we rolled out a range of new features at our London East site, such as on-site EV charging, recycling and general waste points, Dyson hand dryers throughout the building, improvements to lighting, additional Naturewall cladding; all of which we hope will improve customer experiences inside the facility.
Our next round of software development works began – in the closing stages of the year, we set in motion a wide range of software development works, including improvements to our customer portal (for power and bandwidth monitoring), an in-house IP management tool, and the roll-out of our own QR code check in system, the latter of which has been working well for us since its full roll-out in the summer.
The general focus over the past 12 months has been to expand into the current footprint at NLE more completely, moving from the initial deployment phase of a single hall, to making use of all four halls within the current building. We now have active works underway across every sector of the site.
London Central has also seen its fair share of input, largely in the form of ongoing maintenance operations, with activity across many critical systems. NLC is also now home to our significant stock of APC racks, which are being pre-staged there before heading to NLE for active service.
Beyond the exciting physical development works, we’ve posted exceptional financial growth metrics again in 2023, which will support our ongoing expansion aspirations, and of course contribute to continued rock-steady reliability for clients all around the world. Base revenues for the year grew by just over 30%, which for our fourteenth year of trading is something we’re extremely proud of.
We have some very exciting news to share about additional future expansion at London East very soon – enabling Phase 3 of development – taking us to new heights at our ever-evolving Canning Town address.
We’ve been reasonably quiet with the #BuildBlog of late, with focus squarely on the deployment of additional capacity at London East, leaving little room for deep dives into progress (unfortunately!).
But we’re now back with this latest instalment, as we begin tracking progress on Data Halls 3 and 4.
Looking back on our last instalment of the build blog, Data Hall 2 was still very much under construction. This space is now fully fitted out as a private data hall for a single client, and is now under occupancy.
We’ve also got plenty of other updates to report across a range of areas within our London East facility, thanks to an ongoing development programme which extends beyond footprint capacity alone.
Let’s move onto the update photos. This first set were actually taken back in June, however the next instalment of the build blog ended up getting significantly delayed, so here they are:
Now we can catch up in time to where things stand today, with the next run of photos from the past couple of weeks – apologies for any gaps in progress, we’ve been very busy!
As you can see, despite the delay in getting this build blog instalment posted, we’ve been rather busy.
We’ll continue to get our head down with development work on the run up to the new year, as demand for our services remains exceptionally high. We hope to have another update prepared for our avid readers in the next couple of months.
We also have some further news on the horizon with regards to continued expansion, which we hope to be releasing early next year. Needless to say, we’re very excited for what 2024 will bring.
We’re very excited to announce our position as the main shirt sponsor for the South Berkshire Hockey Club this year, as the new season begins in earnest.
It’s already been a competitive start to the year on pitch, with some solid results posted in just the first month of action; the Ladies’ 1st team is now already sitting in the top half of the league, having been promoted to the South Central Women’s Premier Division 2.
The Men’s 1st team has had a slightly more difficult start to the season. The opening schedule has not been quite so kind to them and to date it’s been three competitive but fruitless games. However this is expected to put them in extremely good stead for their next set of fixtures, at which point the team is anticipating traction for the rest of the season.
Our support of the SBHC has enabled an additional weekly Monday night training session, allowing their performance teams to push on in their new leagues, while keeping costs accessible to players in what has traditionally been known as an expensive/classist sport.
Our Technical Manager, Nathan, is a long-standing member of the SBHC, which makes supporting them this year even more special for Netwise.
The club is renowned for its unwavering dedication to the sport, its inclusivity, and its exceptional track record in nurturing both youth and senior teams.
This new union between the South Berkshire Hockey Club and Netwise is a testament to our shared values and common goals, such as supporting local talent, enhancing community spirit, and aiming for success in everything we do, making for a perfectly aligned partnership.
With Netwise’s support, the South Berkshire Hockey Club is poised for a remarkable season. We are dedicated to upholding the club’s time-honored values of teamwork, sportsmanship, and dedication, and we very much look forward to sharing in their successes.