February 25, 2021March 2, 2021 by Matt Seaton

London East Build Blog – Weeks 45 and 46

We’ve enjoyed an exciting fortnight of changes at NLE for this instalment of the Build Blog, with a large number of big ticket items landing on-site.

This has resulted in notable change throughout the facility over the past two weeks, across a number of key areas. The most striking of these has been the siting of our new generators, which now sit in their final positions in our front compound.

Weekly overview

Alongside the generators arriving – which are having a full canopy refinish in anthracite grey next week – we’ve also taken delivery of our first containment pod, including racks and the cold aisle system. This has resulted in major visual change in Data Hall 1.

We have a time lapse of the generators arriving and landing in place coming very soon, so watch out for this on our socials.

The first containment pod can now be assembled in Data Hall 1, which will be another major milestone in the deployment of our new facility.

Fence — We’ve now completed the physical installation of the turnstile and return-angle fencing that make up the main personnel entrance of the compound – the anti-climb rotating arms match those found at London Central

Generators — Here we see our new generators arriving to site, on two articulated trailers with lifting equipment

Sign — The backing board of our new sign being installed, with the protective film still in place

Cabling — A look at the first delivery of fire cabling, ready for installation to begin next week

Van — We installed our new lightbar to the van this week, which brings the vehicle to completion

Van — The van enjoyed a deep clean on-site this week, which was overdue in terms of removing the winter road salt that’d slowly been building up in the colder weather

The installation of our exterior building sign was quite a momentous occasion, as it’s the first time this facility has been properly branded with our logomark. This is the exact same style of sign as seen on the side of our London Central facility, with the diffused backlighting that really makes the sign pop at night.

The first instalment of armoured cabling to arrive, which will make up the bulk of the main underfloor power routes, will total somewhere in the region of eleven tons. The fire cabling within the building, which covers all detection and alarm systems, will total 2.5km in length.

We’ve had lots of custom made parts arrive over the past few weeks, destined for installation and / or use throughout the facility. One such item is a custom fork lift plate, which has been designed to take racks from the loading bay up to either floor level. This is a heavy duty steel plate welded to fork sleeves, which is low profile enough to drop straight into each loading dock.

What’s next?

The on-site schedule really picks up in the next week or two, as things begin to move on the end-out works. The site has a large number of trades beginning work, including the fire team, generator canopy refresh team, lift engineers, and a team who will be heading up adjustments to the skin of the building as part of our cooling system(s). This is all happening alongside the main power contractors beginning work, following completion of all design and design testing.

We’re very excited to share the progress!

February 12, 2021February 25, 2021 by Matt Seaton

London East Build Blog – Weeks 40 to 44

Visual updates have been somewhat limited throughout January, hence the delayed publishing of this five week instalment of the Build Blog.

The bulk of time and effort on-site is still being spent on end-out plans, and getting the energisation works underway. Alongside this, we’ve also been carrying out supplementary works in a number of areas, to keep things progressing while time is spent on final stage plans.

Weekly overview

In terms of physical on-site work, we’ve been keeping tempo with a range of works across a number of areas, all of which have helped to keep visual progress steady (but comparatively limited) while the next phase is executed behind the scenes.

Because visual change is somewhat limited at the moment, we have a lesser number of photos available in this instalment, however they do show various changes and arrivals throughout the site.

Switchgear — Some of our switchgear and electrical distribution infrastructure has started arriving on-site, destined for LV rooms and data halls – our primary LV boards are still being manufactured, and will be with us soon

Distro — Here we see one of our Mardix intelligent distribution boards, this variant being for M&E equipment with integrated ATS, freestanding for test placement in Data Hall 1

One of our new Ortronics ODFs, which will handle fibre distribution at NLE

Lighting — The ground floor lighting has progressed, with the overhead cabling seen coming together here in Data Hall 4 – the left side shows an area which has been loomed, moving towards the right, which is being held apart until it’s ready to be bundled, in order

Checkerplate — The ground floor access corridor with completed checker plate, to match the first floor – checker plating for phase one is now very nearly complete

Turnstile — A view of the turnstile frame now in place, pending final completion, which has been slightly delayed thanks to the very visible snow

Scaffold — Again snow-related, preparative works on the roof have been postponed due to the visible weather – access for this initial preparation work is via our scaffold tower, as seen here

Doorstops — A small addition, however all internal door systems have now had their door stops fitted, to prevent over-opening and damage to doors and/or walls

The first KVM / crash cart is now on-site ready for client use in Data Hall 1 – this is an Ergotron model, which we’ll be deploying across the board here at NLE, along with their monitor mounting systems in the build room

The ground floor areas that were due checker plate cladding as part of the phase one roll-out have now had all areas completed, aside from a couple of missing sheets; we’re now waiting on additional material to arrive with us. This will also allow for checker plating and associated bash protection to be installed in the loading bay, where equipment will be lifted to each level loading dock for both the ground and first floors.

The ground floor has also had its final lighting systems cabled and energised, meaning that all site lighting can now be removed – a great milestone in terms of this becoming a self-supported utility it its final guise.

The main front-of-building turnstile came back to us late last year, having been to our powder coaters to ensure a match with the existing system at London Central. This was installed towards the end of 2020, however has yet to have its internals fitted to the overhead containment tray. This will be done when weather permits, given the current snowy state of the UK earlier this week!

Some of our new electrical boards have started arriving on-site. These are largely our new Mardix units, which have been built in a number of varieties depending on the end use case, and delivered in our signature orange. These really pop against the otherwise monochrome data halls, turning out just as we had planned. The larger of the two orange board types each hold a self-contained ATS to allow for dual incoming feeds for all critical M&E equipment.

Most of the VESDA equipment is now on-site, aside from the red pipework that will be installed to collect the air samples. This forms part of the final fire protection plans, which are being completed in the next couple of weeks.

You can also see that our comms panels (ODFs) from Ortronics have arrived, which will be used to handle and distribute fibre from each A and B core. These will be installed as part of the network roll-out at London East, which is set to begin later in this final stage of works.

We’ve also had a team up on the main roof this week, however things were postponed slightly due to adverse weather. Despite there being no issues with the roof, we’re electing to have the roof resealed for our own peace of mind; something we did at London Central also. This will lead onto roof and skin adjustments for apertures in due course, both for personnel access and our cooling system.

What else has been happening?

The bulk of progress in January has definitely fallen into the ‘else’ category when it comes to the Build Blog, as the vast majority of time continues to be spent on desk work, bringing together the final elements that will enable client services to go live at NLE.

Those elements include LV and HV electrical, which form the bulk of the end-out process. The transformer equipment and the generators fall into this work category, which were ordered this week. We’re very excited to share the delivery of these items as they begin to land with us!

We’ve also finalised plans for everything on the fire protection side of the project, which will be installed concurrently with the main power systems.

Excitingly, we’re also having some really interesting conversations with organisations interested in taking space from day one. These range from simple DR services to support primary systems elsewhere, through to full private pods, custom designed to requirement.

What’s next?

We have a very large shipment arriving with us soon, holding all of the containment for the first pod of racks in Data Hall 1 – this is something we’ve been excited to receive for some time, and equally something we’re very excited to share with you here.

February 5, 2021February 5, 2021 by Matt Seaton

How to handle a fast-growing business

On top of the list that all business owners want to have is growth; expected or unexpected.

With internet access meaning companies are more connected to their clients than ever, whether it be due to wise business decisions, an unforeseen upsurge in demand, or even ‘going viral’, your small business may have to face this challenge head-on at any time. For this reason, it pays to be prepared.

If you have a fast-growing business in today’s world, there’s one concern that should be on your mind more than any other. Data.

The need for small businesses to store and analyse data is more and more crucial. In fact, utilising the information that you are already storing can lead to a 15% increase in sales, so including data management in your plans is key.

Let us show you how a colocation service provider can help you when your business grows quickly.

Stay connected

An increase in demand can make or break a business, and often the first signal of an ill-prepared company is their website crashing due to sudden increased load.

By allowing this to happen, you could be seriously damaging your chances to take advantage of those all-important conversions, as there is no guarantee that potential customers will be patient enough to come back when you are back up and running.

The core of this problem lies in a server not being able to cope with the demands placed upon it.

The use of a colocation data centre can help in avoiding this type of problem, meaning you’ll have access to a scalable setup, prepared to handle the challenges of a sudden surge in popularity. Colocation data centres have redundant network connections, offering peace of mind that your critical systems will continue to run smoothly at all times.

Critical software applications will also run faster when deployed centrally, from a data centre. This means that your staff only need to focus on the work at hand. Should there be a need to resolve an issue, you can avoid having to unload it onto your in-house IT department, as tickets are easy to raise and can be attended to by a professional whose only focus is resolving your problem.

Data security

The integrity of your business is directly linked to how seriously you take protecting your data. Unfortunately, if you have a fast-growing business, the likelihood that you could be subject to a cyber-attack also increases, meaning that data security is essential.

In addition to becoming a target for hackers, another key consideration is the potential loss of data. The repercussions on a fast-growing business could be staggering, with Workspace reporting that 60% of companies that lose critical data close down within six months of the disaster.

With this in mind, it’s clear that this often-overlooked area is one to pay close attention to, to ensure that your business remains profitable.

Another danger to data security comes from not having systems in place to that allow for in house security. In most cases, a small business will permit all employees to access any data stored on their network, yet as a business grows this increases the risk of this information being compromised.

By placing data on remote servers and carefully controlling both digital and physical access, you can ensure that employees only see what’s necessary for their jobs. Rather than this being a reflection on staff, this added layer of security provides them with protection and demonstrates to any clients – as well as auditors – that data security is at the forefront of your business.

Keep costs down

Current success needs dynamic action if it is to be maintained. If you already have servers on-location that can handle your demands at present, there are costs involved in maintaining and potentially upgrading them.

Doing so can result in huge expenses. Everything from temperature regulation to hiring skilled technicians all will eat into your bottom line.

There is also the added factor of lack of office space. As a common side effect of a small business growing too fast, this can add strain on operations that can be damaging. Servers need to be stored, and with office space at a premium, it is understandable why many look to colocation centres to clear valuable space and service this need.

By using a data centre, you’re not only freeing up floor space, you also have the flexibility to expand your data storage capacity. The benefits of essentially future-proofing your business in this way cannot be overstated.

Subsequent savings can then be reinvested into your business, which can lead to an increase in revenue.

Take action now

Being able to capitalise on and maintain a fast-growing business requires a lot of hard work. For preventable issues to put any future success in jeopardy would be devastating.

On the other hand, being prepared for any eventuality by using a colocation service provider helps attain peace of mind, allowing you to focus on what you’re already doing right.

To find out more about what we can do for you, get in touch with us today.

February 3, 2021February 5, 2021 by Matt Seaton

Why a colocation service provider is a crucial part of your business data management

There are currently over 4,735 colocation data centres in 126 different countries. More companies are recognising the need for colocation services in properly maintaining their business operations. Otherwise, technical difficulties could cause their business to stall or even crash.

Colocation allows you to share data centre space with other companies, when housing critical IT equipment, such as servers. Installing your hardware in an offsite, well-managed data server can keep various operational and technical limitations from hurting your business. Meanwhile, you still have excellent control over costs, support, uptime and security measures.

Still on the fence about exploring a colocation service this year? Here are a few reasons you shouldn’t wait.

1. Save money

How can your company save money and boost profits this year? Colocation could definitely help.

In order to run your business efficiently and effectively, it’s important to look at ways to control costs. It’s extremely common for businesses in all industries to need notable IT infrastructure these days, particularly given the current reliance on remote working (which is likely set to stay).

On-site infrastructure can use a lot of power. The more power needed to run you setup, the more cooling you’ll need in turn. In other words, you’ll have to consider power and cooling costs, which can quickly drain budgets.

What about your bandwidth / connectivity? You’ll need to factor that in as well, and the chances of delivering this to a suitable standard for round-the-clock uptime is unlikely.

You’ll also need to hire well-trained staff to ensure your infrastructure works as intended.

Each one of these costs can very quickly add up.

When you share a data centre through use of a colocation service, you’re also sharing the energy costs. Meanwhile, you won’t have to worry about hiring and training a team. Instead, you’ll have peace of mind that trained professionals are already keeping your critical equipment safe.

Look for a managed colocation service that offers everything you need. For example, you might want to consider:

Space
Power
Connectivity
Security
Support
Redundancy / resilience

Being able to flexibly chose just the services you need to the relevant specification, like your connectivity services, will help you keep costs under control. At the same time, you won’t have to stress about outages anymore. That downtime could cost you money, and clients as well.

By switching to a colocation service, you can save money, focusing on making money instead.

2. Get more space

Access to rack and powered floor space is one of the main benefits of a colocation service. Your IT equipment is likely taking up a lot of valuable space in your office. You don’t really want to cram all of your critical equipment into a less-than-suitable room on-site, for many reasons.

If you’re hoping to expand your business, you might have to move your servers to another location, which could take valuable time. Beyond that, it’s also a stressful process.

You can’t keep expanding your internal comms room space every time your company requirements grow.

Instead, consider an outsourced colocation service. Choosing a reputable colocation provider will give you the high-specification data centre space you need. They can also provide you with the flexibility to make changes whenever you choose.

By using a colocation centre, you can free up space in your own offices without having to worry about where your critical kit will end up.

3. 24/7 support

Does your on-site team know how to fix every problem you might encounter with your servers and other related equipment? By outsourcing to a colocation service provider, you won’t have to worry about this anymore. Instead, you’ll have expert 24/7 support available whenever you need it.

You’ll always have a team of experienced engineers to answer your questions. They can even help to improve your current setup.

Switching to a colocation data centre gives you a source of reliability, too. You won’t lose valuable time and money caused by equipment outages or downtime. Some data centres offer additional disaster recovery plans to help further prevent any possibility of downtime.

When storing your servers on-site, you could end up with a wide range of tough-to-resolve problems. Each problem can lead to unexpected costs as well. You could have a difficult time predicting your budget.

Storing your servers off-site, however, gives you that predictability. You’ll know exactly how much you’re paying each month.

4. Improve your security

Security issues have become a large problem in recent years. By switching to a colocation service, you can give your customers much greater peace of mind. You’ll know their private information is well-protected.

Colocation centres offer world-class security to their end customers. A provider might offer security systems like biometric scanners and coded access panels. Some offer anti-tailgating technologies as well.

What about their facilities? Many colocation buildings are guarded against tornadoes, floods, storms, fires, and other natural disasters.

Others utilise backup generators to make sure your servers keep running, even if the power goes out.

5. Boost uptime

Downtime costs companies about $5,600 per minute. That’s over $300,000 an hour when you’re dealing with a major outage.

Data centres are located in areas that minimise the risk of human-made and natural disasters. They make use of advanced electrical systems that can be relied on 24/7/365. By choosing a colocation service, you can reduce risks and improve uptime.

Does your company have a disaster recovery plan in place? Make a colocation service part of that plan for your business. This will help to ensure your critical systems keep running still running, before, during and after a disaster.

6. Scalability

Is your business prepared to grow? You’ll need to keep your IT infrastructure in mind. Otherwise, you could struggle to upsize (or downsize) based on your unique requirements.

Look for a colocation centre that offers scalable service options. They’ll help you adjust your services based on your current and future needs. That way, you’re never paying for too much space.

If you need to grow, you can scale up your plan as required. Failing this, you could struggle to provide your customers with everything they expect from your business.

Set up for success

Don’t let technical issues and server problems slow you down this year. Instead, consider making use of a colocation service. By choosing a best-in-class provider, you can set your business up for success in 2021!

Want to work with one of the UK’s leading colocation service providers? We’re here to help!

Get in touch with our team today to discover how we can help your business!

January 12, 2021January 12, 2021 by Matt Seaton

London East Build Blog – Weeks 37 to 39

Our team enjoyed some much-needed time off over Christmas, following a long run of works on-site at NLE in the closing months of 2020.

This first instalment of the Build Blog for the new year shows the current state of the facility as we head firmly into 2021 – the year in which our new site will launch to clients for the first time.

Before we start, did you catch our NLE envelope time lapse video? If not, here it is again for your viewing pleasure!

Weekly overview

The first few weeks of January have primarily been comprised of desk work, bringing end-out plans together as we enter the next phase of development.

As part of this, we’ve made great strides in finalising plans for our diverse dark fibre routes, which we will be announcing very soon.

Aside to planning work, we’ve also been completing some smaller tasks on-site, which have helped keep progress up despite the Christmas break and the focus on more general plans and scheduling.

So here’s an update of photos showing additional work completed since our last update, along with some general site photos to serve as a starting point for the Build Blog in 2021.

DH1 — A look at the checkerplate which flanks both sides of Data Hall 1 (and will follow in all other halls), protecting walls behind the outward-facing row of racks in each pod

DH1 — A look at the evaporative cooling system and cold corridor containment at the rear of Data Hall 1, with the flanking checkerplate on both sides of the room visible

DH1 — Here we see the rear of the CREC system in Data Hall 1, which is the cold corridor space

DH1 — One of the two supplementary air conditioning downflow units in place in Data Hall 1

DH1 — A look across Data Hall 1, to the temporarily placed racks, showing the second supplementary air conditioning downflow unit in place

DH2 — Here we see the two supplementary downflow AC units in place in Data Hall 2, ready for future occupancy

DH2 — This is the full blank system in place in Data Hall 2, which will be replaced with evaporative coolers at the time of conversion into an occupiable colocation space

DH2 — This closer view of the custom blanking system, which is used to create the dynamic cold corridor space, shows full population with blanks – there are final finishing blank strips to be installed along the top of the plinths, along the floor edge

DH2 — This is a rear view of the CREC blanking system in Data Hall 2, comprised exclusively of blanks, with the rear access panels for filter changes in the plinths visible along the floor line

First Floor Loading — Our first floor loading bay has also now been clad in checkerplate

Loading — A view down into the loading bay, as the warehouse checkerplate sheets for that area are test-fitted

DH3 — Data Hall 3 on the ground floor is currently being used as an extended storage room while works are ongoing

DH3 — An alternative view of Data Hall 3, and some of the items currently held in this space while works continue

DH4 — Data Hall 4 remains the emptiest white space inside the new facility at this time

DH4 — This view of Data Hall 4 shows the adaptable cold corridor space that will hold the future cooling plant for this space, in whichever format best suits at the time of fit-out – this also leaves options open for private room conversion for a single large tenant

This view from the rear corner of the DR suite space shows the room ready for future fit-out, later in the build process

Ground Floor Loading — This is the ground floor loading bay, looking out into the warehouse, which sits directly below the first floor space of the same nature

Ground Corridor — A look down the ground floor access corridor, with the entrances to Data Halls 3 and 4 seen on the right – this space will have its checkerplate installed in the coming weeks

Entrance — A view down the entry way ramp to the speed gates, which are close to having their integration completed

Lift — The first floor atrium at the top of the stairs, showing the lift internals nearing completion

Stairs — The view down to the entrance ramp, from the first floor atrium / landing, with what will be our two-story green wall clad in timber on the left

This is a view inside one of our LV power rooms, with some of the UPS and battery enclosures in temporary dust wraps held for future use in this space

This is the same LV room as above, looking out towards one of the the risers (left) and the ground floor loading bay

This is the second LV room, a reflection of the first, with the same kit in temporary dust wraps ready for future deployment

The reversed viewing angle from the above LV room, again showing a riser (right), leading into the ground floor atrium

The completed feature / texture wall in place in the NLE meeting space, which matches the tiles used on the large feature wall at the NLC NOC

Build Room — This is our new build room and customer breakout area, with some white goods now on-site ahead of kitchen installation in due course

The checkerplate is the most obvious visual addition since the last instalment of the Build Blog, covering the walls in all high foot fall customer routes. This gives much-needed protection and a great deal of added visual energy to the space. Custom plates for all high risk doors will also be installed soon.

The reason for having most of the ceiling tiles still in a state of removal is simply for ease of ongoing access. We still need easy accessibility above the grid for cabling overhead services during the build, and as such we will only be installing the tiles once access requirements calm down. This is to ensure the tiles are installed with the least amount of disturbance once in place.

As you can see from the wider facility photo set, the progress made in the last ~8 months is impressive to say the least. As a reminder of where we’ve come from in that time, we’ve included a set of day one photos of the space below.

Warehouse 1 — A view from the rear of the main warehouse area

Warehouse 3 — The main warehouse space, viewed from the front, with the existing amenities block in view

Office NOC — A view across the office and future NOC area

What our team have managed to achieve in this time is staggering (even more so as this all occurred in the middle of a global pandemic!), and we’re incredibly proud of everyone involved, particularly as we move onto the next phase of energisation, preparing us for launch later this year.

What else has been happening?

We’ve expanded our team!

We’ll be making the official announcement soon, although the hawked eyed among you may have already seen this causing quite a stir online.

We’ve also been going through our first ISO recertification audit, following our initial accreditation to both ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 back in 2017. This will renew our certificates for another three years, with annual surveillance audits covering the 12 month cycles in between. The scope of our certifications will be expanded later this year, to include the new NLE site. This is our first fully remote audit, thanks to the COVID pandemic, which has been an interesting new approach to the audit process.

What’s next?

Planning on the next phase of electrical works will continue, with a number of exciting developments to announce very soon.

We’ll also be continuing with a wide variety of supplementary works, which will includes taking delivery of our first customer enclosure pod; racks, containment, blanks etc, which will allow us to layout our first occupiable colocation space within Data Hall 1.