by Matt Seaton

London East Build Blog – Weeks 11 and 12

A short-and-sweet instalment of the build blog this time around, as the real meaty content starts in anger from next week.

It’s been another fortnight of completion and tidy-up works across a number of areas at London East. This will be the final post of what has effectively been a prelude to the main build blog content, which will begin on Monday – the envelope installation process.

Weekly overview

We’ve spent time this past fortnight across a number of areas, to bring open tasks to their conclusion ahead of the main envelope installation. We’ve also spent time away from the NLE project, with ongoing maintenance and improvement works at NLC, and the finalisation of our new core node deployment at CLL.

Mezz 1
A look at the finished lifting edge, now nosed in checkerplate, and pending the fitment of a protective mesh backing
Mezz 2
Another look at the protective nosing now fitted to the storage mezzanine lift aperture
Mezz 3
Contrasting top step nosing fitted to storage mezzanine staircase
Go Pro
We’ve now setup our permanent timelapse Go Pro rig to document the main mezzanine and containment envelope installation

As you can see, we’re fairly light on fresh visual content for NLE this time around, both in part due to the nature of the work, and also due to time spent on other projects in the past couple of weeks. This will all change in a very big way next time around, which we’re all very excited about.

What’s else has been happening?

In other news, much time has been spent back at NLC this past two weeks, across a number of areas. The bulk of the time has been spent finalising plans for the primary construction work to begin at pace next week; logistics mainly.

We’ve also completed other works outstanding at NLC, and finalised the commissioning of our new POP at CLL.

NLC Checkerplate
A view of the end-wall checkerplate installed to the rear of Row A, in Data Hall 1 at NLC
CLL
A view of our new core rack in CLL, containing the routing and MUX infrastructure for this location
CLL
A look at the top half of the core rack, showing a compressed version of our Supernode setup in THN, and still pending installation of the MUX hardware for all route options
CLL
A look at the containment pod we now occupy at CLL, which now also contains client systems delivered with on-net services
CLL
Our custom flight cases enjoyed an outing throughout this process

Busy times indeed for the team at Netwise, as we maintain ongoing growth and expansion like this across our estate, as works continue at NLE.

What’s next?

Next time around, we’ll be reporting back on progress of the main envelope build. We have two teams coming in from Sweden to undertake the first phase of the envelope, which will be the large mezzanine structure destined to contain all of the technical spaces in the new facility.

Drawing
A look at the ground floor data halls, with racks positioned temporarily for scale, pending final containment pod layouts, which are highly adaptable / flexible
Drawing
Another look at the ground floor data halls, with racks positioned temporarily for scale, pending final containment pod layouts, which are highly adaptable / flexible

We’re very excited! We hope you’ll share in the next few months of the build with us, which will be the most transformative of the entire process.