by Matt Seaton

Build Blog – Build Room 1 Update

Our last official Build Blog entry was in July 2015, shortly after the soft-opening of our facility to existing clients. That was nearly 18 months ago, and it’s fair to say that the facility has evolved fairly extensively since then.

Anyone that knows our data centres will understand our obsession with quality and progression, which permeates everything we design and build here at Netwise. As much as the build room for Data Hall 1 functioned perfectly well, it’s fair to say that we are not huge fans of plain white rooms. The inclusion of the sound system in September was of course a welcome addition, however the space was still lacking some imagination.

Build Room 1 now adheres to our new technical design direction, which will follow suit in Data Hall 1 in 2017. The space has 360 degree wrap-around checker plate cladding, and a newly inviting entrance to Data Hall 1 – giving a greater indication that you are entering the primary technical space inside of the facility.

The old white space masked up for painting

The old white space masked up for painting

First coat of paint on both wall and door

First coat of paint on both wall and door

The finished paintwork

The finished paintwork

The first of the check plate being installed

The first of the check plate being installed

A look at the more intricate corner detail

A look at the more intricate corner detail

A look across the build room as the checker plate reaches completion, with work benches re-positioned

A look across the build room as the checker plate reaches completion, with work benches re-positioned

The space returned to normal function, pending final orange accents

The space returned to normal function, pending final orange accents

The space returned to normal function, pending final orange accents

The space returned to normal function, pending final orange accents

The space returned to normal function, pending final orange accents

The space returned to normal function, pending final orange accents

February 2017 will mark our first anniversary since officially launching to the public. Check back here in late February for a special Build Blog post; one year on, which will detail all of the changes to the facility since launching.

by Matt Seaton

Why choose London colocation?

Sometimes, you may ask yourself what the driving factor behind the critical importance of London as a colocation centre really is. After all, why not look into colocation options outside of the city, in the surrounding counties, or even further afar in a secondary market such as Manchester?

London data centre

The simple fact of the matter is that ISPs and colocation operators naturally gravitate towards centres of economic activity, where network density and commercial potential are at their strongest. In Europe, the most prominent hubs of this kind are London, Frankfurt, Paris and Amsterdam.

London and New York are currently estimated to be the world’s biggest retail colocation markets, according to TeleGeography, with each having at least 7 million square feet of gross data centre space. This of course makes London the largest in Europe – by a very considerable margin – over second place, Frankfurt in Germany.

Choosing colocation services in London means choosing to place your critical IT infrastructure in a location which lives and breathes excellence in global technology. Demand in the capital is high as carriers and service providers jostle for access in what is by far Europe’s most important technology hub. This in turn attracts a plethora of tech-start ups and international technology firms, who wish to call London home for their growing businesses.

London is arguably one of the best-connected cities in the world, with every major global carrier having a large presence here. By virtue of this, London is a vital artery between the USA, Europe and Asia – and being on-top of this pulsating technology centre provides you with the very best in connectivity, service and value.

As a consumer, your choice of service providers in the capital is dizzying – a luxury not found in many other metro-areas. Whether you require a single unit of colocation or your own private suite, there are a wealth of options available to you across the city.

Our private, bespoke London data centre is centrally located for easy access, yet remains outside the highly-congested City and Docklands areas. Additionally, our London Central facility is directly connected to both Telehouse North and Harbour Exchange / LD8, forming part of our own private high-capacity fibre ring. This allows us to combine best-in-class amenities with unrivaled Central London value.

We’d love to speak with you about your business requirements, and to tell you more about London as one of the world’s foremost colocation cities, so please do feel free to get in touch.

by Matt Seaton

Jubilee Line joins the night tube

It’s official – the Jubilee Line is now part of the night tube service here in London.

This is fantastic news for all users of the night tube, however we feel it will have particular resonance with those in the data centre industry. The Jubilee Line is a major arterial service for city-wide access to some of the most important London data centres, including Harbour Exchange / Equinix LD8, Global Switch and the Telehouse campus, amongst many other smaller facilities in and around the Docklands area.

More importantly, this now provides a 24-hour transport link between our London Central data centre in Bermondsey and the Docklands hub, which is perfect for users with services spanning multiple sites. No longer must engineers rely on slow and costly taxis to work on networks and systems which operate across the capital.

With our London Central data centre quickly becoming one of the city’s best alternatives to the now overcrowded, overstretched Docklands connectivity hub, this transport link will be a vital tool in speeding up out-of-hours engineering operations between sites.

At long last, the vital physical transport link that joins our private London data centre with our POPs in Docklands is finally coming to match the unrivaled dark fibre connectivity that links our facilities.

This extended nighttime service has been in operation from Friday October 7th, running on both Friday and Saturday evenings.

by Matt Seaton

Audiophiles rejoice

How many data centre operators do you know that offer clients fully integrated sound systems in their build rooms? We’re willing to bet that our London Central facility is the first.

Audio System

Put down those headphones – enjoy high-fidelity audio playback in our build rooms, with wall-mounted inputs which feed into ceiling speakers. After all, why does working in a data centre for hours on end have to be a boring experience?

Over the coming months, these systems will be fitted to additional customer-facing areas in the data centre, including the customer kitchen and customer lounge. Further to this, not only will you be able to plug in your own devices via jack or phono, we’ll also have a global library that you can access via our Spotify account. The building-wide system will also function as our internal public address system, for any critical announcements.

by Matt Seaton

Our Summer Social

We held our first summer social this September, inviting a selection of colleagues, customers, stakeholders, and general friends of the business for an informal evening of drinks and food by the Thames.

The night was a great success, and an excellent excuse to see out the last of the summer sun, before London is once again thrust into a cycle of long nights and frosty mornings.

We’d love to have put up some photos from the event here, but we were having too much fun to take any!

We’ll be hosting more of these socials in the future, so keep your eyes peeled – Christmas will probably be an ideal time for the next one!