Progress continues with Phase 2 development works at Netwise London East (NLE), as we head into the warmer summer months.
Data Hall 2 is approaching completion, which will be another fantastic milestone to reach in the total development journey of our newest facility. There have been solid advancements made in all aspects of the Data Hall 2 roll-out, with the most notable being the progress made on power and cooling infrastructure.
As before, we’ll keep things brief, and move straight onto the progress shots:
Here we see the underfloor electrical containment starting in Data Hall 2The island area seen in the centre here is the eventual position of Pod 1 within this spaceThe containment provides direct pathways to every possible rack footprint within a data hall, and provides safe routes for all other supporting infrastructure cablingSeeing the containment routes come together is always a pleasing visual change in the sub-floor area of each hallAs with Data Hall 1, the underfloor power for racks in this space is deployed using several kilometres of cabling, to mounted underfloor commando socketsGreat care is taken to ensure that A and B power feeds to each client rack do not cross over, only meeting at the point of use / rackHere we see some of the immaculately laid cabling for the A-side feeds reaching Pod 2Each cable runs between a given rack position and the relevant power distribution board for that side of the power delivery systemHere we see the commando sockets at the point of termination, along with the earth bonding flowing in behind, for the racks and for the raised floor system itselfThe cable runs here ensure no cross-over between A and B feeds on the under-rack containment, which is now more visible at this stage of the installationAs always, we’re absolute sticklers for quality and detail, even when it will rarely / never be seenThe mains ring which spans the underfloor area and supplies our cleaners sockets is now also in placeThe cable drums for this part of the build are certainly smaller than those required for the LV room fitouts in Phase 1, but these still clock in at around 400kg per drumAside to underfloor cabling, the remaining bulk of the termination work is found in each of the four PDUs, and the dual-fed mechanical boards – all finished in striking orangeThe distribution boards have by far the highest concentration of terminations to be undertakenThe in-board terminations are just as carefully handled as everywhere else – a work of artThis is one of four power distribution boards in Data Hall 2The cold corridor area of Data Hall 2 has also continued to develop, as the evaporative system is now plumbed in for supply, and has its drainage in place, ready for commissioningThe hot air exhaust plenum is ready for the commissioning of the extract fans in due courseThe first floor store room has been acting as our development side office, providing a space for site meetings, plans, and all other items necessary for a project on this scale to move ahead successfully
Further to the visual updates above, the supplementary / backup air conditioning system is also nearing the point of commissioning, with the pipework installation underway, following the same routes as with the system for Data Hall 1.
Once Data Hall 2 is livened up in terms of the power delivery system(s), the full commissioning works for the primary and secondary cooling systems can begin, which will bring the room to the point of safe occupancy (pending the fitout of the containment Pods, of course!).
We’ve been extremely pleased with progress on-site in the last few weeks. One thing that continues to shine through above all else is the quality of the work, which is something we and our clients alike have come to expect from a Netwise data centre. Every detail is carefully considered, resulting in a truly remarkable facility that we can be proud of for many years to come.
Working Phase 2 around an already active data centre has added additional challenges, not felt during Phase 1 (whereby the site was unoccupied by client deployments). While none of the works undertaken as part of Phase 2 pose any risk to live client services, there are many considerations to bear for enabling continued client access while many areas of the facility are being actively worked on.
We’ve been making steady progress on Phase 2 of our deployment plan at Netwise London East (NLE). This includes the total completion of Pod 2 in Data Hall 1, and large strides towards the onlining of Data Hall 2 in the coming months. This will be followed shortly thereafter with the base infrastructure deployment for Data Halls 3 and 4 later in the year.
We’ve been moving ahead firmly across various areas of general infrastructure, electrical and cooling systems for Data Hall 2, with the primary evaporative cooling system now in place ahead of commissioning. The feeder connections from the LV rooms to the in-hall distribution boards are now also in place, ahead of the main electrical works for the diverse rack feeds beginning in the coming weeks.
We’ll keep things brief this time around, so let’s get straight to the update photos:
Here we have some of the additional cabling required to bring the next phase online at NLEEach of our data halls require a significant quantity of cabling to link them back to our diverse LV roomsWe’ve certainly worked our way through a healthy number of large cable drums at this stagePulling in these large armoured cables between floors can certainly be a challenge for the teams involved in this workWith the main power cabling route handled under the raised floor at NLE, certain areas are cordoned off while works are underway, however disruption is generally kept to no more than a couple of hours at a time, per areaThese cable routes are already populated with live service power, as Data Hall 1 is fed via the same risers – here we see some new cabling ahead of being tied and cleatedThe longer of the two routes for the DH2 power delivery is from LV A – here we see the longer run with some of the cabling loose laid into the underfloor ladderThe cabling routes flow down the risers to the diverse LV rooms, once they leave the main corridor(s)Considered placement of the large cable drums is vital in ensuring a smooth run-off of the cabling into the raised floor area – the same can be said for the cable rollersDrum placement must consider disruption, ease of access, and result in the least possible amount of free tail once the cable is fully releasedData Hall 2 has a range of components ready for installation, including some of the distribution boards, and the custom-made ODFsThe primary cooling system for DH2 is now in place, that being our evaporative system which famously delivers our world-leading PUE figuresAs with DH1, we have space for seven CREC units, however we have deployed four initially – it is not expected that additional coolers will be needed, however installing them later would be a straightforward additionThe cold corridor filtration system and overhead extraction loop are now complete for DH2 – this is taken ahead of the lights being installed, hence the low light conditions and temporary insulation panelsPod 2 now has a range of active client deployments within it – in fact, Row C is now almost entirely accounted forPod 2 now also completes the full in-hall ODF to ODF pathway using the overhead ladder and trough systemHere’s a view of the back end of Data Hall 1, with both rear Pod entry door systems in view, and the CREC system for this roomThis is the view inside Pod 2, as viewed from the rear entry doorsOur Build and Break Room is now fully fitted out, and sees great use already by our clientsThe function of this one space is split at our London Central facility, which makes use more tricky, so we decided to consolidate amenities at London East for an improved visitor experienceThe wall features continue here, to tie in with other areas of the facilityWe’re particularly proud of our customer kitchen here, which has been expertly installed by our in-house facilities team, to the highest specificationBe sure to check out the Build and Break Room on your next visit
We now have a dedicated roof hatch system installed over the storage mezzanine, for easier, direct access to the roof, which is important for speedy access to our heat extraction loop. We’ll update readers with photos of this area next time around.
We’re expecting to see a dramatic uptick in progress on Data Hall 2 in the next few weeks, as we head towards the peak activity period which will enable occupation of the space. This will also provide some additional visual change to enable a more in-depth update, which is something which has been lacking since the completion of Phase 1 – we apologise to our regular Build Blog readers for this!
We are very excited to announce that our London Central (NLC) facility has once again exceeded expectations in terms of energy efficiency. NLC’s design PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) is an impressive 1.12, but the annualised real-world PUE for the last 12 months was a staggering 1.09 – an improvement over the already remarkable 1.11 achieved the year prior.
NLC is our facility in Bermondsey, London, which we opened in 2015
For those unfamiliar with the concept of PUE, it is a measure of how much energy a data centre uses for computing compared to how much energy it uses for supporting load, such as cooling, UPS losses, fire systems etc. The goal for data centres is to have the lowest possible PUE, as this indicates the highest level of energy efficiency.
Even just meeting our design PUE would be impressive for a London data centre, but to exceed this by such a significant margin is something we’re hugely proud of.
We have consistently demonstrated our commitment to sustainability and energy efficiency across all aspects of our operation. This latest achievement is a testament to our ongoing efforts to reduce our carbon footprint and promote sustainable practices in the industry.
A real-world PUE of 1.09 ranks among the lowest PUEs reported by data centres worldwide, indicating that the facility is operating with a high level of energy efficiency and with minimal energy waste.
We believe that data centres have a significant role to play in mitigating the impacts of climate change, and we are proud to be leading the way in this effort. Our innovative approach to energy management, combined with our state-of-the-art technology and cutting-edge infrastructure, has enabled us to achieve these outstanding results.
Furthermore, the design PUE of our latest data centre, Netwise London East (NLE), is just 1.05. Reaching a facility’s design PUE target does require a high level of capacity utilisation, which takes time following launch (though helped by our modular design and deployment philosophy), however we couldn’t be more excited to see where our real-world figures lands at NLE in the coming months and years.
NLE opened in 2022, in Canning Town, and is on-track to be one of the most efficient data centres in the world
We would like to take this opportunity to thank our team and our customers for their continued support. We remain committed to driving innovation and sustainability in the data centre industry and look forward to continuing to push the boundaries of what is possible.
As we head into another exciting year here at Netwise, we would again like to take pause in January to appreciate the year gone by. 2022 was another important year for Netwise, most notably for seeing live client services deployed inside of our new Netwise London East (NLE) data centre for the first time.
We also began development on Phase Two of the London East development cycle in the very same year, just six months after our first anchor tenant entered Data Hall 1.
Since launching with Pod 1 back in early 2022, a further 28 racks have since joined total capacity in Data Hall 1, taking the space to its 56 enclosure capacity
As seems to be the recurring theme for all Netwise annual retrospectives, 2022 again represents a huge year for us in terms of investments. We’ve continued with our build-out of NLE, following on from Phase One completion earlier in the year.
We’ve seen a fantastic range of new client installations across our entire estate, along with the continued expansion of existing client systems, as our roster of exemplary customers leverage their critical deployments to grow and thrive.
Notable projects from 2022 include:
We soft-opened NLE to client installations – without question, our largest single project achievement in 2022 has been the introduction of live client systems to Data Hall 1 for the first time. You can catch up with the build, from start to finish, on our Build Blog.
We deployed Pod 2, Data Hall 1 at NLE – almost as quickly as we got Pod 1 online, it was time to get Pod 2 deployed to keep pace with new installations at NLE. The containment system for Pod 2 landed with us in the summer, and saw the first new system installed in September, across seven of the 28 new enclosures.
Phase Two of development at NLE began – in the closing stages of the year, we made great strides towards the next stage of development at London East. Data Hall 2 will form the first part of this next phase, with the cooling and extraction pathways now cut into the fabric of the building.
Nathan Desmond joined as Technical Manager – in November, we expanded our team with the joining of Nathan, our new Technical Manager. Expect a full introductory post very soon, to do full justice to this very important milestone.
We expanded our European locations in Marseille and Amsterdam – we’ve deployed new systems in both Marseille, FR and Amsterdam, NL, as we continue to support international clients with their pan-European installations. This takes our global spread of live deployments to 15 locations around the world, from our five PoPs in London, to as far away as Kuwait and Singapore.
NLC exceeded its design PUE, reaching an impressive 1.11 – our London Central facility officially beat its design PUE of 1.12 in early 2022, achieving a real-world annualised PUE of just 1.11 across 12 months. That makes NLC one of the most efficient data centres in the UK (and the world), particularly when coupled with our wider sustainability measures, such as our exclusive purchase of 100% renewable energy. In fact, our own London East facility will likely be the only data centre in the UK to beat this, with a design PUE of just 1.05 – a truly impressive figure.
As is clear to see, 2022 has certainly been dominated with all things NLE, following the soft-opening in May, and the continued investment in the space as we expand into our newest facility.
This doesn’t mean that our London Central facility (NLC) hasn’t seen its fair share of developments alongside, with some key monitoring upgrades deployed onto our generator system, amongst other minor upgrades and improvement works. With NLC running at near-capacity, it’s fantastic to see the natural efficiencies that come with taking a facility to its true design capabilities, a position many data centres rarely reach.
From a wider perspective, we’ve enjoyed another brilliant year in terms of growth, which is driving our rapid expansion into all corners of the new data centre. We pride ourselves on our stable, predictable growth trajectory, which is how we maintain our rock-solid reliability for clients around the world.
2022 also saw unprecedented changes in the global energy market, resulting in a noteworthy upswing in wholesale rates. This has been felt across both domestic and commercial sectors of the market, and has certainly been the most difficult aspect of the year to deal with. The future is still uncertain, however we are seeing positive indicators in the wholesale market which point towards more stability in 2023, which we’re very much hopeful for.
We’re looking ahead to a very exciting year in 2023, as we continue to develop NLE (with be the deployment of Data Halls 2, 3 and 4), and even begin exploring options for campus-level lateral expansion to maintain our ever-important growth ambitions.
We look forward to sharing more exciting news with you as we head into 2023.
We’re now a little way into Phase 2 of development here at our London East data centre, with good progress made across a number of areas throughout the facility since our last update.
The deployment of Pod 2 in Data Hall 1 is well underway, with all racks now positioned and bayed, and with the first tenants in the space already deploying live kit. The complete containment system is now being installed, which will bring the capacity expansion project within Data Hall 1 to a close.
Beyond this, further work has been undertaken as part of the Data Hall 2 expansion project, as we prepare for that space to take initial occupancy in the early stages of 2023.
Aside to the data halls, we’ve also seen developments elsewhere, such as the onlining of our new lift, the installation of our new gates and razor wire system to the rear compound fencing, our new Naturewall welcome screen in the speed gate entranceway, and additional development work undertaken on our customer portal.
The Build and Break Room has also seen notable advances towards its completion and full opening, which is something we’re very excited about. We’ll be continuing to keep this under wraps for the time being, and will publish a separate update about this once ready for use.
We’ll get straight to it with the photos:
We began to position racks into place for Pod 2 early to visualise the space, and also to accommodate incoming client systemsThe first four racks in Pod 2 were positioned based on client requirement, followed by a further three as part of the same installationHere we see what the complete back-to-back Pods in Data Hall 1 look like, complete with inter-pod cable ladder at both endsThe full cold aisle containment system is next to be built as part of Pod 2The deployment of Pod 2 takes Data Hall 1 to maximum available capacity on rack space, giving us a good amount of headroom to grow into ahead of opening Data Hall 2 in 2023Our personnel lift had to be delayed due to supply issues, so we’re very pleased to now have this in place (as are many of our customers!)We opted for a glass sided shaft, and the lift has been colour-matched to the doors found throughout the data centre, to maintain our visual language throughout all areas of the facilityHere we see the lift as seen from the first floor atrium, where the platform will arrive for clients visiting Data Halls 1 and 2This is the view from the top of the lift, looking out over our main atriumThe lift sits in the main inter-floor atrium of the building, just along from the speed gates, which visitors will pass through to the technical side of the facility – the speed gates have also had a gate hold function installed, to allow for the glass blades to be held open to assist with any incoming kit via this access routeThe speed gate access area has had an upgrade, with a new welcome screen mounted to a Naturewall panel – we’re rolling out these acoustic Naturewall panels throughout the facility, in place of the greenwall accents found at London Central, so expect to see further updates on this as they’re installedThe Naturewall panels are made up of attractive timber slats, mounted to acoustically-treated felt boards, creating a beautiful and tactile cladding surface which wonderfully plays against the industrial metal finishes found throughout London EastWe’re still developing our final welcome screen for the speed gate access area, so visitors over the coming few weeks will likely see this evolve with each passing visitHere we see the newly installed razor wire to the rear of the building, along with post extensions and upgraded security gate – along with the usual auto-tracking PTZ cameras which encircle the external perimeter of all our facilitiesA view looking in the other direction along the rear of our building, through the fire escape staircase which leads down from the upstairs data halls – the other security gate and tracking camera at the rear can be see here alsoHere’s a view of inside Pod 1, which is an indication of exactly how Pod 2 will look on completion of its identical containment systemHere is the view across from Pod 2 towards the entrance to Data Hall 1 and Pod 1We’ve upgraded to the new Nespresso coffee machine and pod system at London East – this machine will be available to clients in the new Build and Break Room very soon
Progress is expected to pick up as we head towards Christmas, with several weeks of additional activity planned for the back half of November, which will focus on continued work inside of Data Hall 1, along with further preparatory works as part of the Data Hall 2 onlining process.
We’ll also be rolling out some new features on our customer portal and back-end systems, with further news to follow in that regard when suitable.
