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.
