Another 12 months in the books, and another record-breaking period for Netwise, which we’re immensely proud to share with our clients and stakeholders as we look ahead to another equally exciting year.
As we step into 2024 for the first time this week, we’ll take a moment to look back and appreciate the year gone by; the first full year of live operation at Netwise London East.
The headline is that development works have continued at pace at our London East facility, as we prepare to bring Data Halls 3 and 4 online in early 2024, enabling our next phase of growth and expansion.
Engineering works continue at NLE
At the point of closing out 2023, we’ve pushed development works into all corners of our London East facility, with upstairs now fully deployed (Data Halls 1 and 2), and downstairs deployment underway (Data Halls 3 and 4). The site has been a hive of activity over the past year, and we have plenty to show for it.
Notable projects from 2023 include:
We fully deployed Data Hall 2 – the second active Data Hall within NLE welcomed its single long-term tenant in 2023; a major milestone for both parties. We enjoyed watching the space fill out with a wide range of cutting-edge hardware in Q4 2023.
Phase 2 works have ramped up – while we technically included the build of Data Hall 2 in the Phase 2 works schedule, the real meat of this phase comes in the form of Data Halls 3 and 4. These two new halls are being readied for occupation in early 2024, with the closing stages of 2023 seeing real traction in this area; Data Hall 4 now has its primary cooling system deployed, as well as much of the core electrical distribution infrastructure.
Josh Carvalho joined as Engineering Manager – in September, we expanded our team with the joining of Josh, our new Engineering Manager. Expect a full introductory post very soon.
NLC again exceeded its design PUE, reaching a remarkable 1.09 – back in 2022, London Central achieved a real-world PUE of just 1.11, beating the design PUE target of 1.12. In 2023, we managed an incredible 1.09. We’re extremely excited to see where we can get NLE as occupancy rates rise rapidly, looking towards the design target of just 1.05.
We added a range of niceties and features to NLE – we rolled out a range of new features at our London East site, such as on-site EV charging, recycling and general waste points, Dyson hand dryers throughout the building, improvements to lighting, additional Naturewall cladding; all of which we hope will improve customer experiences inside the facility.
Our next round of software development works began – in the closing stages of the year, we set in motion a wide range of software development works, including improvements to our customer portal (for power and bandwidth monitoring), an in-house IP management tool, and the roll-out of our own QR code check in system, the latter of which has been working well for us since its full roll-out in the summer.
The general focus over the past 12 months has been to expand into the current footprint at NLE more completely, moving from the initial deployment phase of a single hall, to making use of all four halls within the current building. We now have active works underway across every sector of the site.
London Central has also seen its fair share of input, largely in the form of ongoing maintenance operations, with activity across many critical systems. NLC is also now home to our significant stock of APC racks, which are being pre-staged there before heading to NLE for active service.
Beyond the exciting physical development works, we’ve posted exceptional financial growth metrics again in 2023, which will support our ongoing expansion aspirations, and of course contribute to continued rock-steady reliability for clients all around the world. Base revenues for the year grew by just over 30%, which for our fourteenth year of trading is something we’re extremely proud of.
Adding to our core power infrastructure over the past 12 months has certainly formed a main component of our ongoing expansion activities
We have some very exciting news to share about additional future expansion at London East very soon – enabling Phase 3 of development – taking us to new heights at our ever-evolving Canning Town address.
In June 2024, we will be permanently retiring our London Central (NLC) data centre from active service.
This article will explain why this is happening, as we look to shift all active services across to our new London East (NLE) site.
Background
London Central has now been serving clients for nearly a decade. We welcomed our first anchor tenants to the facility back in 2015, having taken control of the shell in 2014, building what would become our flagship site and a landmark London data centre for the following 10 years.
After the wildly successful launch of our new London East facility in 2022, London Central now simply falls short of our exacting standards for data centre design and operation as we look ahead.
The reasons for closing London Central at this point in its life cycle are plentiful, but the most important are:
The site no longer meets our standards for efficient, sustainable data centre design and operation.
Some major infrastructure components are reaching end of serviceable life, requiring overhaul / refit.
Available site power can no longer support the increased requirements of client systems as we head into a new era of computing power.
While refit was an option we workshopped for a considerable period (until very recently, in fact), it would have still required completely gutting the site to bring it up to standard, and there are some aspects of London Central (namely available power in the area) that would still leave the site lagging behind our future capability requirements as we continue to expand operations.
More on our new standards for efficiency and sustainability
Our ongoing commitment to efficiency and sustainability formed a core component of the London East design journey, and has left the legacy systems at London Central lagging behind in every metric.
A view of the legacy CREC system servicing Data Hall 1 at London Central
The cooling infrastructure at NLC is our first-generation evaporative system, and while this has served our clients very well over the years, it is now legacy technology, and in the hottest days of the year it struggles to keep supply temperatures in-check. We have to bolster this with additional roll-in cooling in peak summer temperatures, which is highly inefficient, and represents a manual intervention process; something always best avoided.
The latest generation CRECs as deployed at London East
Despite London Central still performing at the very sharp end of global efficiency metrics – with a real-world PUE as low as 1.09 in 2022 – London East is set to achieve a truly exceptional PUE of just 1.05. It is this new level of excellence that we’re striving for across the board.
More on critical infrastructure maintenance
All critical infrastructure has a design life, and many aspects core to service delivery at London Central are now showing signs of age.
The in-row UPS system design methodology at NLC can be seen here during the early stages of fit-out
The UPS systems are now legacy models, and have seen out their design life, meaning they’d be due for a full replacement in the very near future. We are seeing a higher failure rate of internal components as a result, which has required a dramatic spike in maintenance actions in the last ~18 months.
Our diverse LV rooms form the beating heart of NLE, and are dedicated to housing our new modular UPS systems (alongside critical distribution and control systems)
A dramatic overhaul of the entire site would be required to bring things up to standard, both in terms of correcting core system age-out, and the fabric of the building itself, such as new wall and flooring systems to better match the deployment flexibility of our London East design.
Rather than investing very heavily in London Central to complete a full internal overhaul, the decision has been made to direct such investment into the continued development of our London East location, as it has far better underlying utility support to enable decades of future growth.
More on next generation computing requirements
As technology continues to develop at considerable pace, so too do the requirements of data centres to match the ever evolving needs and expectations of next generation systems and users.
Thanks in no small part to its centralised, primarily residential location, London Central suffers from a lack of available power in the local area. This hindered expansion of the site into the planned second data hall space on the ground floor, a space which could never reach its full potential as a result.
The compact electrical intake room at London Central suited the scale of the location, however it cannot be compared to the core power infrastructure deployed at London East
We’ve seen a dramatic uptick in higher density power requirements, for tasks such as AI, ML and GPU-accelerated computing. As such, London East has been designed from the ground up to cater for much more power hungry workloads, both in terms of average capacity and peak capacity.
The main switchboards at London East, as seen here in LV Room B – just one of these boards is many times the size of all the distribution infrastructure at NLCHaving our own on-site HV transformer infrastructure forms a central component of the power capacity level-up at London East
The increased capacity we have available to us at London East comes as a result of its very close proximity to a major substation (the same which powers the Telehouse Campus in Docklands), as well as a central location within Canning Town’s most major light industrial region, which has been designated with increased access to available power, in support of its economic impact.
In summary
London Central has been an incredibly successful location for Netwise, spring-boarding us from a 20 rack ‘proof of concept’ data centre right through to our new high specification campus-style site in Canning Town.
The lessons learned through the design and build of London Central have directly fed into the operation at London East. It exceeds London Central in every single metric, thanks in no small part to the evolution-ready DNA it has inherited from our previous build projects. With each iteration of our data centre design and implementation programme, we have taken enormous leaps forward; London East is no exception.
In summary, London East:
Is more sustainable
Is more efficient
Is more resilient
Is better connected
Has greater rack capacity
Has better customer amenities
Enables high power density deployments
Has improved in-house engineering capabilities
Utilises more advanced technology across the board
London East’s on-site customer amenities are industry leading
15 years of prior design and build experience has fed into London East, which is an enormous level up for Netwise, sitting comfortably as one of the highest specification data centres in London (and beyond), and one of the most efficient in the world.
While this has been in planning for quite some time, a final decision on timescales and logistics could only be confirmed and locked in very recently. We’ve given as much off-ramp as possible for this change to take place, while also factoring in the various interwoven factors that make up a large, complex strategic change such as this.
The future
Our future now sits firmly in the build out of our London East campus. We have plans to extend our current 224 footprint space to nearly 400 footprints in the next 12 to 24 months. Beyond this, we have early-stage plans that could see a localised campus with extension options of over 1,000 footprints. We’ll have more news on this in due course.
London East also has approved plans for on-site solar generation, as well as EV charging which is already available in the front compound / car park – both plans we wanted to see happen at NLC, but without the localised means to do so.
We grew by nearly 26% in 2023. No small feat for a company approaching its 15th birthday, and thanks in large part to what London East has brought to the table. This is why our future focus rests squarely on a site which can scale with us long into the future.
In addition, we are always on the lookout for acquisition opportunities to extend our private data centre estate into other areas in London and the surrounding regions. As sad as we will be to see London Central close its doors, we’re extremely excited by the prospect of welcoming new clients to London East, as we make this our highly-scalable new home for the next phase of our growth cycle.
We’ve been reasonably quiet with the #BuildBlog of late, with focus squarely on the deployment of additional capacity at London East, leaving little room for deep dives into progress (unfortunately!).
But we’re now back with this latest instalment, as we begin tracking progress on Data Halls 3 and 4.
Looking back on our last instalment of the build blog, Data Hall 2 was still very much under construction. This space is now fully fitted out as a private data hall for a single client, and is now under occupancy.
We’ve also got plenty of other updates to report across a range of areas within our London East facility, thanks to an ongoing development programme which extends beyond footprint capacity alone.
Let’s move onto the update photos. This first set were actually taken back in June, however the next instalment of the build blog ended up getting significantly delayed, so here they are:
This was the view across Pod 1 in Data Hall 2, as of June 2024The view across Pod 2, again in June 2024This is the A-side ODF in Data Hall 2 being pre-staged in the summerThe view across to ODF B, as works continued in Data Hall 2 this summerThe checker plate bash protection was also fitted to the perimeter of Data Hall 2 around this time – this is the view of ODF A being pre-stagedPre-staging the ODF enclosures allows for a speedier fit-out once the cabling process beginsSome of the control system cabling is being run overhead hereA view across Data Hall 2 as pre-containment works concludeThis view of LV Room B shows another UPS being rolled into place, ready to support Data Hall 3 in the near futureHere we see the A-side ODF in Data Hall 2 with some initial flood cabling underway, prior to termination – these are management cables, responsible for things like monitoring systems and CCTVThis is the internal view of a CREC control system unit, with the front cover and control screen removed, as internal terminations conclude ahead of commissioningData Hall 2 just prior to having the racks and containment rolled in for assemblyWe jump forwards slightly here, to a view across the now assembled Pods 1 and 2 in Data Hall 2 – this is taken from the rear of the hall, showing the custom layout for this client (the reasons for which will become clear further down in this post)
Now we can catch up in time to where things stand today, with the next run of photos from the past couple of weeks – apologies for any gaps in progress, we’ve been very busy!
Here we see Pod 1 inside of Data Hall 2, which is now handling live servicesThis is a custom, installed-to-request workbench area for the private tenant of Data Hall 2, which sits behind the shortened Pod 2Having access to your own private data hall allows for additional deployment options, such as these storage cabinets for spare componentsThis view across to Pod 2 in Data Hall 2 shows the inter-pod cable ladder in place, which is now handling active connections for this tenantThis is a view of both live pods in Data Hall 2, ahead of some final finishing touches, such as the pod door vinyls and some custom lighting options as selected by the clientHere we see the rear of Row D in Data Hall 1 – the next wave of racks will be deployed as part of Data Halls 3 and 4 in Q1 2024; we now have very limited availability, so get in touch early if you need assistance with spaceThe ground floor is in full development mode, as general non-essential access is now closedAs part of the next phase of development, works are now well underway for bringing Data Hall 4 online, with 3 to follow shortly thereafter – here we see one of the many cable drums in Data Hall 4, as it is prepared for installationThe ground floor arterial corridor for power cabling is now being filled with the critical power routes required for the next two halls at London EastThese routes support diverse critical power runs for rack PDUs, as well as supporting power for mechanical systemsThis is a cable entry aperture into Data Hall 4, which has been skinned to allow for easy fire sealing once all cabling has been finalisedHere are the CRECs in place for Data Hall 4, including all of the custom containment and blanking for the additional unit positions, matching the design for Halls 1 and 2The rear-facing air intake louvres have been cut in for both Halls 3 and 4, ahead of system commissioning in due courseHaving additional UPS systems in pre-staging will speed along the deployment time for Halls 3 and 4This view inside of LV Room A shows one of the newly arrived UPS systems undergoing some staging works, with internal access granted via removal of a side panelWe’ve also undertaken a round of improvement works in the front compound – we now have on-site EV charging via our fast-charger, which will be available for use very soonWe’ve also now marked out parking bays, and installed some Armco to better guide client movements in the front compound, and to protect the sliding vehicle gate more comprehensivelyOur loading bay has had some storage upgrades, including this full-height pallet racking wall, which has been loaded up with components to form part of our future expansion phasesWe’ve developed a custom storage solution for our APC PDUs, with some of our on-site stock shown here making use of this new hanging systemWe now have direct internal roof access, via this custom hatch, which has a detachable ladder system, for easy and quick personnel access to the roof for inspection of our hot air escape routesEach floor now has a dedicated waste handling area, allowing clients to dispose of both general waste and recyclables with greater easeAll toilets within the facility now have Dyson hand dryers, something we have carried across from our London Central facility – these are on backlit standoffs for an added luxury finishOur custom check in system has now been live across both of our facilities for a little while, with the introduction of our new QR code system – this has been performing well for clients, representing a massive improvement over the previous systemOur reception area now has the same Naturewall cladding as our Build and Break Area, and as found in some other common areas, to continue through this visual motifThis also effectively boxes in some major cabling routes, which is always welcomed over having such things on display in reception
As you can see, despite the delay in getting this build blog instalment posted, we’ve been rather busy.
We’ll continue to get our head down with development work on the run up to the new year, as demand for our services remains exceptionally high. We hope to have another update prepared for our avid readers in the next couple of months.
We also have some further news on the horizon with regards to continued expansion, which we hope to be releasing early next year. Needless to say, we’re very excited for what 2024 will bring.
We’re very excited to announce our position as the main shirt sponsor for the South Berkshire Hockey Club this year, as the new season begins in earnest.
It’s already been a competitive start to the year on pitch, with some solid results posted in just the first month of action; the Ladies’ 1st team is now already sitting in the top half of the league, having been promoted to the South Central Women’s Premier Division 2.
The Ladies’ 1st Team
The Men’s 1st team has had a slightly more difficult start to the season. The opening schedule has not been quite so kind to them and to date it’s been three competitive but fruitless games. However this is expected to put them in extremely good stead for their next set of fixtures, at which point the team is anticipating traction for the rest of the season.
The Men’s 1st Team
Our support of the SBHC has enabled an additional weekly Monday night training session, allowing their performance teams to push on in their new leagues, while keeping costs accessible to players in what has traditionally been known as an expensive/classist sport.
The Men’s 1st Team
Our Technical Manager, Nathan, is a long-standing member of the SBHC, which makes supporting them this year even more special for Netwise.
The club is renowned for its unwavering dedication to the sport, its inclusivity, and its exceptional track record in nurturing both youth and senior teams.
This new union between the South Berkshire Hockey Club and Netwise is a testament to our shared values and common goals, such as supporting local talent, enhancing community spirit, and aiming for success in everything we do, making for a perfectly aligned partnership.
Some of the Men’s 1st Team in action
With Netwise’s support, the South Berkshire Hockey Club is poised for a remarkable season. We are dedicated to upholding the club’s time-honored values of teamwork, sportsmanship, and dedication, and we very much look forward to sharing in their successes.
Progress continues with Phase 2 development works at Netwise London East (NLE), as we head into the warmer summer months.
Data Hall 2 is approaching completion, which will be another fantastic milestone to reach in the total development journey of our newest facility. There have been solid advancements made in all aspects of the Data Hall 2 roll-out, with the most notable being the progress made on power and cooling infrastructure.
As before, we’ll keep things brief, and move straight onto the progress shots:
Here we see the underfloor electrical containment starting in Data Hall 2The island area seen in the centre here is the eventual position of Pod 1 within this spaceThe containment provides direct pathways to every possible rack footprint within a data hall, and provides safe routes for all other supporting infrastructure cablingSeeing the containment routes come together is always a pleasing visual change in the sub-floor area of each hallAs with Data Hall 1, the underfloor power for racks in this space is deployed using several kilometres of cabling, to mounted underfloor commando socketsGreat care is taken to ensure that A and B power feeds to each client rack do not cross over, only meeting at the point of use / rackHere we see some of the immaculately laid cabling for the A-side feeds reaching Pod 2Each cable runs between a given rack position and the relevant power distribution board for that side of the power delivery systemHere we see the commando sockets at the point of termination, along with the earth bonding flowing in behind, for the racks and for the raised floor system itselfThe cable runs here ensure no cross-over between A and B feeds on the under-rack containment, which is now more visible at this stage of the installationAs always, we’re absolute sticklers for quality and detail, even when it will rarely / never be seenThe mains ring which spans the underfloor area and supplies our cleaners sockets is now also in placeThe cable drums for this part of the build are certainly smaller than those required for the LV room fitouts in Phase 1, but these still clock in at around 400kg per drumAside to underfloor cabling, the remaining bulk of the termination work is found in each of the four PDUs, and the dual-fed mechanical boards – all finished in striking orangeThe distribution boards have by far the highest concentration of terminations to be undertakenThe in-board terminations are just as carefully handled as everywhere else – a work of artThis is one of four power distribution boards in Data Hall 2The cold corridor area of Data Hall 2 has also continued to develop, as the evaporative system is now plumbed in for supply, and has its drainage in place, ready for commissioningThe hot air exhaust plenum is ready for the commissioning of the extract fans in due courseThe first floor store room has been acting as our development side office, providing a space for site meetings, plans, and all other items necessary for a project on this scale to move ahead successfully
Further to the visual updates above, the supplementary / backup air conditioning system is also nearing the point of commissioning, with the pipework installation underway, following the same routes as with the system for Data Hall 1.
Once Data Hall 2 is livened up in terms of the power delivery system(s), the full commissioning works for the primary and secondary cooling systems can begin, which will bring the room to the point of safe occupancy (pending the fitout of the containment Pods, of course!).
We’ve been extremely pleased with progress on-site in the last few weeks. One thing that continues to shine through above all else is the quality of the work, which is something we and our clients alike have come to expect from a Netwise data centre. Every detail is carefully considered, resulting in a truly remarkable facility that we can be proud of for many years to come.
Working Phase 2 around an already active data centre has added additional challenges, not felt during Phase 1 (whereby the site was unoccupied by client deployments). While none of the works undertaken as part of Phase 2 pose any risk to live client services, there are many considerations to bear for enabling continued client access while many areas of the facility are being actively worked on.
