March 24, 2017 by Matt Seaton

Introducing your new Customer Lounge

‘Usual’ is not a word that often enters into our vocabulary here at Netwise. We like to do things differently. After all, that’s why people enjoy using our facilities – we mix enterprise-grade data centre services with world-class supplementary amenities, something our customers relish in everyday.

Build Room One received a full makeover towards the end of last year, much to the enjoyment of our clients. This has now been followed up with a full overhaul of the Customer Lounge, which to this point had been a fairly uninspiring white room.

Customer Lounge

The space is now our personal ode to London Bridge and Bermondsey, the area in which our London Central data centre calls home. We’ve designed the space to be warm and inviting, which is in contrast to the highly technical spaces found throughout the rest of the building.

White technical spaces can feel somewhat anodyne over extended periods of time, so this space offers customers some respite and escapism from the high-tech environment of the data hall and associated work spaces.

Two of the walls have been completely clad in reclaimed ethically-sourced wood, giving the space fantastic texture and an altogether natural feel. This extends into a set of shelves, which follow the same design.

Bermondsey

Additionally, we’ve put in soft architectural lighting which complements the new wall textures very nicely. You’ll also find a vintage tea-stained Union Jack on the wall and a range of London themed bric-a-brac and vintage technology kit on the custom wooden shelving (with plenty more coming soon). In the not-too-distant future, we will be adding an oxblood chesterfield sofa to complete the look, replacing the two tub chairs currently occupying the space.

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Union Jack

Customer Lounge

Customers familiar with our new Build Room will be very pleased to hear that we’ve installed another overhead sound system for use in the lounge, with the amplifier and control point in the centre of the work desks, underneath the flying Union Jack.

Future plans include vintage games consoles, a coffee machine and additional work lighting at each desk.

It truth, this is a space that needs to be experienced in person to fully appreciate it. If you’d like to come in for a coffee and a look around, please do let us know.

Also, watch this space for an exciting new addition to our Customer Kitchen, coming very soon.

February 21, 2017 by Matt Seaton

Build Blog – One year on

When we began the lengthy design and build process for our new London Central data centre, we decided to start a comprehensive build blog which would track the progress made each week, including photographs of the changes and a short write up of what’s been happening.

This ended in July 2015, shortly after we soft-opened the facility to existing clients. From a technical standpoint, the facility was indeed ‘finished’, however we still had plenty of additions to make with regards to customer amenities. We officially launched the new facility in February 2016, after completing another run of works inside the data centre.

We posted our first build blog update in November 2016, which documented the overhaul of our much-loved Build Room for data hall one. We’re now almost exactly a year on from our official launch event, and so thought it would be a good opportunity to provide an update post that documents all the changes we have made over the past 12-18 months.

This photographic tour of the facility shows all of the key spaces in their current configuration, bringing the build blog fully up to date with the facility as it stands today.

Our NOC screens command centre stage in our open plan office.

All workstations in our office now have a triple-screen setup.

Our open plan HQ office has become a real hive of activity over the past 12 months.

Our much-lauded meeting room is a real favourite with site visitors.

Two large conference screens sit at the head of our Vitra board table.

Our reception now sports a sleek desk with custom white logo.

We have a new tube status readout screen above the main entrance, for the convenience of visitors as they leave.

A look up at the soaring atrium in the main entrance.

Our new Customer Lounge is very much a space that will evolve over the coming months, but it is already a uniquely interesting space that our customers love to use.

Our dedicated customer kitchen, while still a blank canvas awaiting further work, is rarely pictured.

Our electrical intake room has had colour coding for both A and B sides applied, with further colouring to come soon.

Our shower facilities received a full make over shortly after opening.

Build Room 1 received a full overhaul recently, much to the praise of its users.

The two workstations in Build Room 1 are always ready for customer use.

A look down the length of Data Hall One as it stands today, an ever-evolving modular space.

An alternative view of Data Hall One, this time from Row B/C.

A look at the new optical distribution infrastructure recently upgraded in Data Hall One.

We have additional improvement works scheduled for 2017, including additional perimeter fencing with razor wire and a man trap, the deployment of additional rack and cooling capacity in data hall one, as well as improved on-site amenities for both customers and staff.

January 19, 2017 by Matt Seaton

Frank Pearson joins Netwise Hosting

We are very pleased to introduce you to the latest member of our ever-growing support team; Frank Pearson.

Frank Pearson

Frank is now a part of our critical out-of-hours support team, looking after customer support enquiries that come into the NOC overnight.

Digital security is where Frank excels, with a vast array of real-world experience to draw from in helping our customers with their support requirements. With work for the likes of Google on his resume, you know you’ll be in very safe hands if you happen to deal with Frank during a support case.

Frank is also an integral part of our internal development team, assisting with the build and execution of new systems and software solutions that benefit our customers on a day-to-day basis, with a keen focus always placed on security.

Our support team is growing, with additional operatives joining us over the next few months. Keep an eye out for further introductions coming soon.

November 30, 2016November 28, 2016 by Matt Seaton

London expected to break the 400MW supply barrier in 2017

London, Europe’s foremost colocation centre, is expected to surpass the 400MW supply milestone for the first time in 2017, according to the latest European Data Centre Marketview report from CBRE. This will make London the first European city to break through this barrier, as we head out of what has been a record-breaking Q3 of this year.

Total data centre supply across the ‘big four’ FLAP markets (Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam and Paris) has now reached 879MW, after a 20MW supply increase over Q3 2016. As an impressive indicator of growth here in the UK, 13MW of this 20MW total comes from London alone.

Graph credit: CBRE Research, Q3 2016

A big driver behind the growth in London is the opening of Telehouse North Two, which launches this winter. The Netwise Hosting team will be in attendance of the official launch event as we continue to build out our presence in Telehouse North and the campus as a whole.

Our London Central data centre continues to welcome new tenants as we head into 2017, as well as facilitating the impressive growth of our existing customers as they expand. We have additional pods coming online in the new year, which will ensure we meet ever-growing demand and operate as Central London’s leading independent data centre service provider.

November 25, 2016November 25, 2016 by Matt Seaton

Build Blog – Build Room 1 Update

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Our last official Build Blog entry was in July 2015, shortly after the soft-opening of our facility to existing clients. That was nearly 18 months ago, and it’s fair to say that the facility has evolved fairly extensively since then.

Anyone that knows our data centres will understand our obsession with quality and progression, which permeates everything we design and build here at Netwise. As much as the build room for Data Hall 1 functioned perfectly well, it’s fair to say that we are not huge fans of plain white rooms. The inclusion of the sound system in September was of course a welcome addition, however the space was still lacking some imagination.

Build Room 1 now adheres to our new technical design direction, which will follow suit in Data Hall 1 in 2017. The space has 360 degree wrap-around checker plate cladding, and a newly inviting entrance to Data Hall 1 – giving a greater indication that you are entering the primary technical space inside of the facility.

The old white space masked up for painting

First coat of paint on both wall and door

The finished paintwork

The first of the check plate being installed

A look at the more intricate corner detail

A look across the build room as the checker plate reaches completion, with work benches re-positioned

The space returned to normal function, pending final orange accents

February 2017 will mark our first anniversary since officially launching to the public. Check back here in late February for a special Build Blog post; one year on, which will detail all of the changes to the facility since launching.