With the final utility connections now upon us, and the last elements of our stage one internal fit-out now reaching completion, we’re now tantalisingly close to welcoming our first clients into NLE.
A large portion of the facility has in fact been ready to receive client systems for some time now, however as is always the way with projects of this scale and complexity, a number of tasks did run into delays for various reasons as we headed into the back quarter of last year.
Weekly overview
As much as this is a five week update – one of the longest spanning periods to date on the NLE Build Blog – it is somewhat light in visual change, as we’ve been focusing most of our attention on systems integration. Naturally, this is an incredibly important and complex part of onlining any new data centre, however it does prove a tricky side of the project to relay visually.
Regardless, we do have some photo updates to relay this time around.
We’re now finalising some of the last monitoring and control system integrations, including the monitoring system seen here forming part of our supplementary cooling infrastructure in Data Hall 1Here we see one of the many MUXs we have across all of our POPs, which we now have branded for usOur core network has been building up to the point of full commissioning in layers, as various devices across the facility come online for the first time – here we see the first phase fibre layer landing in place on the B-sideWe have now fully deployed the internal network at London East, from core to edgeThis is the same across both the A and B sides of the core network and distribution network – there will of course be further internal connections made across this platform as the first client systems land on-siteThe A and B ODFs in Data Hall 1 are now also fully online, supporting our own infrastructure requirements, and ready to handle cross-connects and transit for clients as they begin to deploy live systemsODF B in Data Hall 1 is presently more busy than ODF A, as this is where a larger quantity of our own management links come back to, due to the positioning of this ODF within the room and wider buildingThe private pod we have ready for one of our clients is fully commissioned, including custom access control, and the now fully-trimmed security panel which segments this secure space for the clientWe’ve begun the installation of the new security glass system in reception, which will place the on-duty guard in a segmented area, which also secures the route to the on-site NOCThe track system for the glass is being fitted here, which will house the large, custom-cut 10mm thick security glassThe system will be comprised of a large sheet with slim opening over the desk, and a large floor-to-ceiling door and glass infills to the side, with access controlVarious supplementary signage and notices have also been distributed throughout the facility, including the custom fire zone map which sits alongside the main building alarm systemWe’ve pre-emptively started rolling out some more infrastructure in Data Hall 2, which remains in a partially fitted out state – this is the Honeywell PSU and control interface as part of the monitoring / BMS for this spaceThe final piece of the puzzle for our HV connection arrived on-site, and has now been pulled in and jointed – this is the largest diameter cable drum to arrive at NLE to dateThis is specialist HV cable for connecting into our transformer, and comes on the drum as a pre-cut triplex length to be pulled in as a single pieceWe had further civils underway as part of this final connection, which required a small amount of additional excavation in our demise, and another dig in the road nearbyIn addition, we have two other digs happening simultaneously in the nearby area as further services arrive to site ready for openingWe’ve also completed a fully custom installation of Intelimonitor SCADA screens in each LV room, which show live status information on our generator system, which read from the sets and breakers in real-timeHere’s a closer look at the SCADA screen in LV Room B – this is a custom mounted Surface Pro, running the custom software and screen output for our particular setup
Much of the work in this period has been happening in less visual areas, including the onlining of systems and bringing them into our centralised control and monitoring platforms. This has been an ongoing part of the commissioning process for some time now, and is nearing completion.
The facility is in a position to accept client systems on a pre-staging basis, with all internal power systems online.
As we head into the final month of Q1, we’re extremely excited to be as close as we are to full readiness. We’re expecting the first client systems to begin rolling into the facility in March, which will of course be the most major milestone of this project to date.
What’s next?
We are continuing with our extensive commissioning works, which span all areas of the facility and its various systems.
All the while this is happening, the final elements relating to our core utilities are being finalised, which will bring phase one of our build to a conclusive state. There will be a certain amount of post-onlining works, which could be dubbed ‘phase one-point-five’, ahead of the later technical space expansion into Data Hall 2, which will be phase two.
We even have some early interest in our ground floor data halls for singular client project use, so it could be that plans for internal expansion are indeed brought forwards, depending on how these things come together in the coming months.
We’ve had a busy start to the year as final stage works continue, taking us towards close-out on phase one at London East.
Our core team got to enjoy some much-deserved time off over the holiday season, ready for action as usual in the new year – one which is set to hold a wide range of milestones for Netwise.
Weekly overview
We’ll get straight to it with the photos this time, as we’ve got lots of changes to show our readers, which have materialised in both the run up to and exit from the holiday season.
We added a nice wide angle lens to our photography arsenal over Christmas, which will help us properly capture the scale of our new facilityHere we see Data Hall 1 in its completed state, ready to receive customer deployments in due course – Phase 1 will see the onlining of Pod 1, with the position for Pod 2 (assuming the standard full-length application) seen in the foreground A look across Data Hall 1 to Pod 1, containing Row A and Row BOur new wide angle lens helps us get in close to areas that would otherwise be difficult to properly show on-screenThis end of the first pod, seen held open while final work is undertaken, will be a private entrance for a client who has elected to take segregated spaceThe stylised vision panel privacy etching has now also been applied to Data Halls 3 and 4, until the rooms go liveA more visible view of these on the doors to Data Hall 3, which will be removed when the room goes liveThe staging of our own resilient core is now well underway, with all hardware in position, and cabling now approaching completion (more visibility on this next time)We’re now also able to begin fully integrating the new site, as systems come online and mix with our live operationThe core racks again follow our colour coding from London Central, with the A-side being yellow, and the B-side being blueThe core racks now also have customised overhead troughs to enable easier and safer cable routing between the rack and ODFOur reception is really taking shape now, with our custom reception / security desk now in place, ahead of the glass enclosure installation coming soon – the site is already manned 24×7 in preparation for launchOur new brushed welcome sign is now in place at the main customer entry way, leading to the data halls and technical spacesThis sign follows the same design as the NOC signage we have at both of our data centresThe NOC screens at London East are now online, and pending final completion in terms of display configurationThe LV rooms now each contain folders documenting the LV designs, for easy engineer access, and are soon to be fitted with additional smart screens for generator status readouts, in addition to the already very detailed ComAp controllers – you can also see one of the first aid kits located here, which have now been fitted throughout the facilityOur new wide angle lens has allowed us to capture the scale of our main switchgear more completely, with the full seven metre span visible here in LV Room BThe same full-view of the board in LV Room AThe view across to the UPS and distribution in LV Room AOur small acoustic rack in the NOC, which handles local NOC communications, has now been cabled in its final configurationOne of the major tasks undertaken on our arrival back after Christmas was the final load bank test of our newly deployed backup generator systemThis load bank test enabled our generator engineers to run the system up to significant levels during the configuration stage, to simulate the building load as it will be once client deployments begin landing on-siteWe were able to simulate a load of 780kW across the whole system, before running generator each up to around 500kW to soak test on a per set levelHaving use of this unit for the week of commissioning ensures that our backup power systems have been tested sufficiently up to suitable load figures, which is not possible using building load at this point in timeWith the unit running, a large amount of heat is produced (top exit), which is how the energy requirement is createdThis is a view of the fire control and extinguishant panel outside of LV Room B, which shows the custom badges we’ve had made for these units throughout the building – details, details, details!Here we see pre-staging for our in-house assembly line for producing the circuit monitors, which will sit under each live client rack, and enable power metering which is PDU-agnostic
It’s an exciting time, as we begin to see many aspects of the new site ‘go live’ for the first time. Aside from some final elements due to close off in the coming few weeks, the site is now essentially service-ready, with some early deployment options for particular clients taking shape.
One system that we’ve been excited to see take shape is our new fully-integrated CCTV and access control platform. While we still have our long-retention continuous recording setup on all cameras, we now also have AI-driven motion tracking and sensing, which means that our system is able to follow visitors around the site automatically, generating points of interest as event triggers. This is also tied into the door entry system, which can actively track activity in the facility and record contextualised snapshots from nearby angles, to create journey data for future reference (if ever required). This level of automation is fantastic for enhancing our security.
What’s next?
Next up, we’ll be continuing with commissioning works across the board, as we liven up all areas of the site.
While the earliest stages of 2021 naturally followed in the footsteps of the year prior (one which we’d all like to forget!), things did turn for the better, and we have enjoyed a return to normality for the most part, both in work and at home.
This year has again been one of major development for us here at Netwise. London East has turned from a basic envelope with free-standing equipment to an energised data centre, which has been a wonderful thing to see take shape. We’re now very close to welcoming in our first client deployments at the new site.
Heavy investment in our future has naturally continued this year, with London East taking centre stage in that regard. Development of the new site continued on from last year, and has been underway at considerable pace for the entire 12 month period.
NLE has of course sat front and centre of our development programme, however we do have a large and ever-growing operational data centre business spanning four other locations, which means we’ve had a busy year aside to the build project.
Notable projects from 2021 include:
We neared completion on London East – our brand new data centre is almost ready to throw open its doors to new and existing clients. Phase one completion is now expected in January, following a design and build process which has spanned the length of the global pandemic so far, starting back in April 2020.
Ralph Wall joined as Sales Manager – Ralph joined as our new Sales Manager at the start of the year, assisting with the development of our sales process.
We rolled out a major network upgrade – in a staged upgrade action which spanned several months, we upgraded our core routing fabric in all core locations to support ongoing growth.
We announced our enhanced partnership with Zayo – in May, we were able to officially announce our new relationship with Zayo, as they bring their services into NLE to support our network, and to establish their own point of presence in the new facility.
Our POP in Telehouse expanded into North 2 – driven by client projects, we have now expanded our presence on the Telehouse Docklands campus, with the extension of services into the North 2 building. This hangs off the side of our Supernode in the original North building, and adds three further footprints to our estate there.
We always knew that 2021 would be a springboard year for us as we moved beyond the difficulties of 2020. We posted solid growth last year – which we hope remains as the toughest in recent memory – and as such had high confidence in accelerated growth in 2021. This certainly did come to fruition, as we posted by far our most impressive financials to date, which have further solidified the rock-solid stability we provide for our loyal customers.
Our clients continue to rely on our services around the clock, more now than ever before, so our continued growth and development ensures that we remain able to provide the world-class data centre services that we’ve become so well known for, onwardly enabling rapid client-side growth as the economy recovers further still.
In December, Netwise turned 12 years old, having incorporated back in 2009. We can’t quite believe that we celebrated our tenth anniversary two whole years ago. The next milestone anniversary will be our 15th, which is now just three years away – we can’t wait to see where we stand by then!
It’s fair to say that we had very humble beginnings, as illustrated by our first ever set of servers. This photo actually dates back to around 2005, which is when the first ideas that would later evolve into the first iteration of Netwise began to gestate.
Here’s a small gallery showing a few highlights along our journey so far.
To have moved from a set of old IBM tower servers to where we are today is something we’re very proud of. London East is our third private design and build project in our 12 year history, and our metro network now spans six buildings in five locations across London. Beyond our on-net capabilities, we now look after client deployments in 15 facilities, which span seven countries around the world.
On the opening of London East, we’ll have two active private data centres, providing us with 430 client enclosures. This can be expanded to 520 enclosures via a possible expansion route at London Central, and we have scope for taking this up to over 1,000+ total enclosures long-term, with possible plans for campus development at London East.
Looking ahead
With so much already in the pipeline for 2022, it’s safe to say that we’re all very excited for the year to come.
Taking NLE up to full speed is naturally the number one priority, aside to our usual headstrong mission of providing our clients with truly exceptional data centre services in our live locations.
Much like our active private facility, Netwise London Central, our newest data centre is again powered by renewable energy, and makes use of world-leading technology to ensure it maintains one of the lowest capacity PUE figures in the country (NLC: 1.12, NLE: 1.05). As organisations now begin moving towards their net-zero targets more aggressively, we’re proud to sit at the very forefront of the green infrastructure chain, ensuring our clients can scale up their mission-critical technology without fear of inflated carbon impact.
With large organisations in the UK now being tasked with publishing their net-zero transition plans by 2023, we’re expecting a surge in uptake at London East in the next 24 months, which is perfectly positioned to cater for highly efficient, renewably energised deployments at scale.
We’re also hopeful for seeing the continued return to normality for everyone, which does seem to have hit another slight stumbling block this month, what with the reintroduction of controls in response to the Omicron variant. Our general COVID response is still in place across our private data centres, and we will continue to adapt this as necessary.
We’d like to wish all of our stakeholders a fantastic New Year, and a prosperous 2022. We look forward to sharing it with you.
The final stages of phase one are progressing nicely, with a wide range of commissioning and integration works now underway across the site.
It’s very exciting to see critical systems that will soon be delivering service to end users begin to come online, with hardware now starting to land in core and distribution racks for the first time.
Weekly overview
It’s been another busy few weeks on-site at London East, with the bulk of our time and effort now spent on technical commissioning work, and on the completion of outstanding finer details, as we head towards the end of the year.
Our heads are very much down as we approach the holiday period, to ensure that we reach our status targets before the new year. As such, we’ll keep this post brief, and move straight onto the photographic updates.
Our compound security fence has had its signage applied, which includes warnings about CCTV, razor wire, and other important informational signs – these span the full length, and all facesThe main visitor entry point to the facility has now been completed, including full privacy / security panelling, and our site name vinyls – London Central is having brand new panels and updated vinyls installed to match very soonThe CRAC and comfort cooling condenser plant is now fully installed and commissioned, and sits in a corner of the main compound – this will have its own small sub-fence installed as part of phase twoA look across the front compound to our generators, which have now had their identifier vinyls appliedThe simple yet bold branding found throughout NLE continues outside, with the large format numbering now in place on our four generatorsAll interior signage is now complete, with this view showing the first floor directional signage in the main corridor, to direct visitors as they leave the lift and staircase atriumAll four of our riser access areas have had custom grills installed, to allow for safe and easy engineer access at any level – these are custom-cut GRP grills, installed on a custom steel frame, unique to each riser and their various penetrationsThe data hall cooling control systems are now full commissioned, and the area is now being actively controlled by the new system – here we see the main status screen for Data Hall 1, which has had a fully custom holding display built to show real-time information from within the spaceThe final stages of the power system commissioning works are underway, which includes all integration settings on our main switchboards – this is a view of the main status screen in LV BThe network rollout has begun at the core, which will be followed shortly thereafter by aggregation and management roll-out in the data halls – here we see ODF B in Data Hall 1 being prepared for fit-outThis is the temporary setup in ODF B, which enabled some of the commissioning works to proceed ahead of having the main network in place – this also shows the custom vertical mounting arrangement we’ve deployed in these cabinets, to house switchesHere we see the UPSs in LV B at around 75% completion, pending the final UPS being rolled into place in the empty position on the left, which is as far as this room will see deployment during phase oneThis is the front view in LV A, showing the fully completed UPS setupThe rear view of the UPS arrangement in LV A, with this space now phase one complete (aside from finishing touches to come post-commissioning)The staging of our own core has now begun for both A and B sides – here we see the A side, with the main comms rack now staged ahead of cabling, which will happen once the ODF is also fitted out in the coming days, at which point the side panels will be fitted back onto the main rackHere we see the B side, which again has the ODF fit-out to follow – this side contains some of the BT infrastructure delivered to site, so is further along in terms of deployment
We’re very pleased with progress, and we are very much enjoying the sight of things coming together. Being at the point whereby hardware is being installed into racks is another major milestone in this project, and an aspect of the build that our team tend to enjoy most as data centre professionals. This is when the facility begins to truly come to life, and systems are interconnected and brought into the Netwise ecosystem for the first time.
While there’s still plenty to be done in the weeks leading up to Christmas, we’re also all looking forward to our company Christmas party, which is now only a week or so away. We’ve got plenty to look back on this year, so we’re thrilled to get everyone together and celebrate our achievements.
What’s next?
Commissioning and integration will consume the bulk of our time on-site at NLE, ahead of the holidays. This will prepare the space for occupation in January. We’re extremely excited to see the new site integrated into our existing architecture in the coming weeks, becoming the fifth major POP on our metro network.
We’re also getting into the Christmas sprit on-site, which is always nice!
We breathed life into many of the main power systems for the first time in this instalment, with commissioning actions underway on our primary switchboards and our backup generator systems.
The push towards phase one completion has seen many exciting milestone events reached in a short space of time, which is always great to see. We’ve energised the main switchboards, integrated and tested the generator failover, and removed the temporary site power, amongst a range of other system commissioning tasks.
Weekly overview
Things are sharpening up quickly on-site, as a wide range of systems begin to spin to life for testing and commissioning, ready to begin serving client kit in due course.
We’ve hit a number of milestones this time around, including the testing and commissioning of our cooling systems throughout the building (both critical and comfort), and the same point reached on our fire detection and extinguishant panels, both building-wide and the enhanced systems in critical spaces.
The speedgate area has been carpeted through from the main entrance and reception, to finish off the space ready for client arrivalsThe cooling systems throughout the building have now been commissioned and tested, with cold and warm air now available in all critical spacesOur UPS commissioning is well underway, with the main units now interconnected with the UPS output boardsThe building is now powered through the primary switchgear and distribution boards, with all temporary site power now fully decommissioned and removed A look across Data Hall 1 after it’s had its initial post-work clean, with one of the supplementary AC units open for commissioningA look across Data Hall 1, towards the first pod of racksThe four CREC units have now been brought to life, with cooling, recirculation and extraction now tested and provenBoth the primary CREC and supplementary CRAC systems feed into the shared underfloor plenum, which will distribute closely controlled air to all footprints in DH1The entrance into the cold corridor in Data Hall 1 is the first view of our new signage design language (just visible here!)The view towards the A-side power distribution in Data Hall 1, with ODF A visible on the right hand sideThe primary CREC system has now had all filters installed – here we see the 28x quad-fin air intake filters, this being the first layer of filtration before hitting the multi-stage filtration inside each coolerIt’s been very exciting to see the cooling system spun up for the first time, and fantastic to see the real-world culmination of all our design and simulation workHere we see some of the detail as you enter the cold corridor from Data Hall 1, showing the lighting system and the access hatch for the otherwise-sealed extraction loopOur warehouse and loading bay now has large floor lettering / numbering on each receiving dock door for quick and easy identification while loading and/or unloadingThese large format letters / numbers all form part of our new design language, which has now begun to roll out throughout the facilityWe’ve opted for a more modern approach to our signage at London East, an evolution of the design at London Central – simplicity and clarity is the main order of the day hereAll internal signage is now direct-application vinyl, in our custom font to match all digital and print assets – aside from a few 3D logo and type elementsHere we see one of the larger multi-directional signs to guide visitors around the facilityEach corridor and main customer route has multi-directional signage in place to guide visitors through the buildingThe frosted / etch effect pod door vinyls have returned, as found at NLC as part of our rebrand in 2019Visitors will now see wifi access points and access control beacons in various places throughout the facility – the wifi is an extension of the mesh deployed at London Central, meaning you’ll automatically connect at East if you’ve already done so at Central
As you can imagine, with much of the work on-site now commissioning actions, presenting this visually for the build blog is tricky. We’re hoping to put together another fly-through video soon, to show phase one completion.
Another unseen but extremely critical area which reached completion this time around is our fire stopping, which has now seen all additional wall apertures cut in since initial construction fully sealed and certified. This ensures that the building fully complies with our extremely strict fire design and operation policies.
With all of the broad strokes of the project now complete, we’re able to begin working through the more detailed finishing work, while system commissioning actions continue.
What’s next?
As is to be expected at this point in the project, more of the same.
We’re quickly moving towards welcoming in our first client systems, with the final set of work ahead of this to focus on UPS systems, network integration, and general facility commissioning (things like onlining our NOC for CCTV and systems monitoring).
