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by Matt Seaton

The big chill this summer

Cooling

We’re very proud of the cooling system we have in place at our London Central data centre. It’s one of the key components in achieving our world-leading capacity PUE of 1.12, and provides us with free air cooling for an impressive 60-70% of the year.

The system combines simple evaporative cooling principles with advanced active damping and attemperation to maintain our strict temperature and humidity thresholds throughout the year.

Couple this with our pod-based cold aisle containment systems, and we have an incredibly fine level of automated control over the environment in our data halls.

Our cold northern European climate lends itself very nicely to running such a system, as it allows for the process of evaporation to take place largely unimpeded, and likewise provides us with the climate we need for our free air cooling operation.

We are 100% committed to keeping our facility cool around the clock, which is why we’ve just invested in a secondary cooling system to supplement the primary setup – this time an upflow A/C system from Denco.

 

Why add air conditioning?

It’s a valid question. Why are we adding a traditional refrigerant-based system to our data halls if we have a super-efficient CREC system in place with N+2 resilience?

It all comes down to the physical process of evaporation, and the limitations this process faces when temperatures rise and humidity reaches saturation point.

When humidity levels are relatively low, the air has plenty of capacity to take on moisture, which is required for the process of evaporation to take place. The higher the humidity level, the less effective this process becomes.

Denco AC

There will always be a trade off when it comes to cooling a data centre in an eco-friendly fashion. The very technologies that allow free cooling for much of the year – and cooling with up to 95% efficiency for the rest of the year – also find their limitation point as temperature and humidity metrics rise.

Given our climate, it is of course always possible to achieve an effective drop in temperature. It’s very rare that we see over 85% humidity here in London, nor do external temperatures often exceed 32C. We’re making this investment as an ongoing commitment to our clients – we take pride in providing best-in-breed data centre services, which is why we will always go above and beyond the baseline to ensure the rock-solid supply of key utilities at all times.

Average Temperatures

Average London temperatures plotted across the year

It would be easy to continue with CREC alone; after all, even on the very hottest days of the year, the system does chill the air very effectively, and temperatures in the cold aisles remain well within operating limits.

But that’s not the way we do things here. The real answer is to provide supplementary support to this system when required.

 

When will this be used?

It is only during the very hottest and most humid days of the year that our CREC system will receive a little help from the new CRAC system. It will also bolster total site resilience, with a total increase in cooling capacity in both full and degraded states.

The new Denco upflow units, again configured in a resilient A+B setup, will fill the cold corridor with chilled, dehumidified air, which the CREC system will in turn draw into the evaporators to further cool (if required) and push into the overhead air plenum.

CREC

The new system is controlled dynamically from our existing cooling controllers and BMS, which ensures total operational harmony at all times, with full automation and monitoring.

Alongside use when required, the system will be periodically tested throughout the year to ensure smooth operation at all times.

 

What does this mean for our green credentials?

In short, nothing much.

We pride ourselves on delivering services with one of the lowest PUE ratings in Europe, and we want it to stay that way. With the system spooled up, our active PUE will rise slightly, however the yearly average will see no effective change.

We will continue to lead the way in London for highly-efficient, low-impact data centre services.

PUE aside, we’re doing a lot more in terms of going green this year:

 

What else are we doing to ‘go green’?

We have a continual commitment to offering green services to our end clients.

Next month, we will be running our London Central data centre entirely on renewable energy. There will be more on this massive development in September, as we also move ever closer to increasing the total power capacity on-site. Watch this space.

by Matt Seaton

Working at one of London’s premier data centres

Netwise NOC

Would you like to work at one of London’s premier data centres?

Data centres are, without question, the epitome of the modern high-tech working environment. Cutting edge technology, ultra resilient infrastructure, a constant stream of exciting new projects; what’s not to love?

There are very few career opportunities which offer such broad access to the latest and greatest innovations in mission-critical infrastructure and systems, with a complete focus on leveraging this technology to better the business operations of organisations around the world.

 

Why data centres?

The data centre industry is booming, particularly here in London, which is one of the world’s foremost business and connectivity hubs.

As more and more end user services move into ‘the cloud’, the global reliance on data centres increases day-by-day, and there is no sign of this slowing down. In fact, demand for data centre services is set to grow exponentially over the coming decade, and far beyond.

Data Hall 1

The demand placed on data centres continues to rise everyday. Countless digital services are now delivered entirely over the web, all of which are delivered from data centres around the world.

Much of the global economy now relies entirely on the data centres and networks that make up the international web of interconnected facilities more commonly referred to as ‘the internet’.

It can be said without hesitation that the data centre industry is very much set to become the foremost technological powerhouse of the next 50+ years.

 

Life at Netwise Hosting

We pride ourselves on designing, building and operating the very best independent data centres.

Not only do we provide a world-class technical environment for our customers, we also provide our team with an exceptional, dynamic working space that we can all call home.

Alongside all things high-tech, we also provide our team with the modern working conveniences found at most FTSE100 tech firms; lounges and kitchens, shower facilities, a staff bar complete with professional table football, an outside decking and seating terrace complete with BBQ for the summer, as well as many team outings to top London entertainment spots.

Kitchen

Reception

Open Plan Office

Board Room

The real question is, why wouldn’t you want to work with us?

 

We’re hiring Technical Support operatives

We’re on the look-out for new members to join our growing technical support team.

Working alongside Krystal Hosting, one of the UK’s fastest growing cloud hosting companies, we’re actively looking for new Technical Support operatives to join us at our London Central data centre.

Applicants would work out-of-hours from our high specification NOC, looking after our systems, infrastructure, and the customer support requirements of both our enterprise colocation customers, and Krystal’s 20,000+ strong cloud hosting customers.

If you think you fit the bill, and would like to learn more about this role, please take a look here. We’d love to hear from you.

by Matt Seaton

Business continuity in the face of terrorism

Disaster Recovery Suite

When business owners think of disaster recovery, more often than not they focus in on the most likely threats; flooding, fires, power cuts, and other common infrastructural issues.

Terrorism is often cited as an outside consideration for business continuity. After all, if you look at the raw statistics, it is a very unlikely occurrence. But when the UK endures three horrendous attacks in as many months, this is a topic that clearly deserves more attention.

The atrocities committed in London Bridge on Saturday 3rd June will be solemnly remembered for a long time here at Netwise, as will the awful attacks in Manchester and Westminster. The London Bridge attack hits particularly close to home for us, given our relatively close proximity to the area, and our regular use of Borough Market and the surrounding pubs for lunchtime meetings with our team.

Outside of the devastating loss of life, attacks such as the one in London Bridge really do serve to highlight the clear importance of reliable disaster recovery services for businesses up and down the country.

The knock-on effect of this economic impact is not likely a conscious consideration of the cowardly perpetrators, though it is a very real post-event consideration which adds dramatically to the gravity of their actions.

While many businesses are now fully on-board with the idea of outsourcing mission critical IT infrastructure to highly-resilient data centres, the physical side of business continuity is still an area often overlooked.

 

The knock-on effect

Failing to properly plan for an eventuality such as this can be devastating to any business. To further compound this, it also increases the effectiveness of the disruption and damage set in motion during the attack.

Outside of the horrific impact an attack like this has locally in the days following such an event, the ripple effect can be felt for much longer, with a far wider sphere of influence. Of course, this includes the economic impact caused through the disruption of business in the area.

The security cordon area in London Bridge and Borough Market contained hundreds of businesses, all of whom had limited or no access to their premises during this time. This cordon lasted several days – enough to cause serious disruption to businesses in the area.

We live in a time whereby these kind of considerations need to be taken seriously by all business owners. If action can be taken to lessen the impact of an event entirely out of your control, then it stands to reason that this is something that must be of critical importance.

 

Disaster recovery as a proactive counter-terrorism measure

London and the UK are clearly major global targets for this kind of terrorist activity, which is something we must work to combat on both a macro and micro level. Protecting your business against any loss of revenue incurred as a result of an event like this is to directly combat the impact this will have on the UK economy – no matter how small that contribution may be.

Having a business continuity plan in place, both for digital and physical operations, can be considered an effective, proactive counter-terrorist measure; one which any business can contribute towards.

To protect your business against the threat of a terror attack is perhaps the most valuable of all the DR advantages; particularly when operating in a major city. Not only does it present clear benefits to your own organisation, it also helps limit the damaging shock-wave effect an attack of this nature will have on the wider area.

Being able to carry on with ‘business as usual’ in the face of an atrocity such as the one felt in London Bridge is absolutely vital in minimising the social and economic impact this type of event will otherwise set in motion.

Naturally, this is a far cry from quenching the true source of the problem, but it is a proactive action that can be taken by organisations in dealing with the fallout from something as awful as a terror attack in a major UK city.

 

Disaster recovery for SMEs

Fully-featured business continuity planning has been a mainstay of banks and governments for decades, with private replica offices on standby for emergency use should something like this unfold. Likewise, larger corporations have also joined the physical DR revolution over the past ten years, making use of big-scale shared operations run by major serviced office operators here in the UK.

This service exclusivity has slowly been eroded over the past few years, with a number of operators (ourselves included) now delivering physical business continuity services for SMEs.

Long gone are the days of thousand-desk commits with the major DR service providers. We operate a dedicated Disaster Recovery Suite which can service single desks right through to entire run-of-suite operations, opening up this concept of protection to anyone and everyone.

Businesses of all shapes and sizes mould the economic landscape of the UK. It is commonplace for smaller, specialist organisations to be servicing some very large and important contracts, which puts extreme pressure on service and operational reliability, no matter what is happening outside. As such, it is no longer acceptable for any business to incur avoidable downtime, with DR services available at a per-desk level on a monthly service plan.

 

It is never too late to be thinking about your business continuity plan, and how this will safeguard your operations against any physical threat – acts of terror included.

Remember: good DR services should be close to your existing premises – for ease of use during an issue – but well outside of any hot-zones that would be considered a likely target for terrorist activities. Our London Central facility falls into this category; we are located in a quiet but easily accessible area between London Bridge and Bermondsey.

Learn more about our fully-serviced London disaster recovery suite.

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.

Flag

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.

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

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.