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.
In late August, works began full-force on Phase 2 of our London East data centre build project.
While we won’t be publishing a Build Blog to the same degree as Phase 1 – the forthcoming modular roll-out of additional capacity will be less technically involved (and perhaps interesting) than the front-loaded primary build – we are still going to document this process, and put out updates as things progress.
Phase 2 will predominantly focus on two areas of expansion at London East; the deployment of Pod 2 in Data Hall 1 for an immediate capacity boost, and the full deployment of Data Hall 2, for mid-term growth enablement.
This phase is less time-sensitive than the initial build, and will likely be a split development phase as works continue in other areas, including our Build and Break Room and our new personnel lift, both coming in October.
Updates
We’re now a couple of ‘split weeks’ into Phase 2, and have some initial visual updates to share with our readers.
The first major works as part of Phase 2 involved the addition of the roof extraction cowls over the top of what will become the cold corridor for Data Hall 2This is the view from on top of the roof, with the seven extraction cowls nearest being the new additions for Data Hall 2, and the seven furthest away being the active service cowls for Data Hall 1These cowls allow for exhaust air to be extracted to atmosphere, if not required for any recirculation purposes – our new roof fall-arrest system can be seen in the foreground here, installed this summerThe new cowls are an exact copy of those servicing active loads in Data Hall 1, allowing for the weatherproof venting of hot exhaust airThere are a lot of materials and components which go into each data hall – the duct sleeves seen here are for the eventual 28 intake louvres to be cut into the rear of the building for the forthcoming second data hall (of four in this building)The components to make up another three of our containment pods arrived to site this week, allowing for the deployment of another 84 racks across halls 1 and 2We’ve also added a couple of other niceties to the facility as part of this phase – here we can see our custom engineered glass floor tiles, which we’re placing in strategic locations to show off the quality of our sub-floor fit-outHere are another set of these tiles in the main stairway atrium, showing the large trefoil runs between LV rooms – these will all be lit in due course, to make this even more of a feature
We’re extremely pleased with developments so far, despite being early into Phase 2. It is a phase of work which is expected to take us into next year for full realisation, however it will complete in stages. For example, the deployment of Pod 2 in Data Hall 1 will come first, and will be a relatively fast process, as this simply requires the physical construction of the containment pod and the integration of some monitoring and operating systems. The supporting infrastructure is already in place, with no required additions at this stage.
The deployment of Data Hall 2 is a larger operation, as this still requires lots of work under the raised floor to make the space ready for power and connectivity.
We’ll be posting updates to this process as and when suitable progress is made.
We’ve taken a much longer break than usual between build blog updates this time around, as we turned focus to the final stages of systems integration and commissioning.
However visual changes have been happening, and in what became the concluding run up to welcoming in our first client deployments to London East, we can relay some of those to you here, and give you a final overview of the facility following Phase One completion.
Weekly overview
With Phase One of the build project now concluded, we’ll be keeping things short and sweet this time, and direct attention to the most recent round of visual evolutions. These now span a period of several months, and in that time we have in fact welcomed our first clients into the new facility, with a very healthy provisioning queue ahead of us.
This is of course a major milestone for us, as we soft-launch the site to clients that have been on the waiting list for entry for quite some time now. Our official public launch is expected in the near future – details to be confirmed.
Our transformer enclosure is now all back together, including all blockwork and the border, which really completes this side of the front compoundHaving this area completed has enabled clients to migrate into the facilityAs always, the devil is in the detail, and our matching metering enclosure carries the same installation hallmarks as the larger transformer enclosure seen to the sideOur main vehicle access gate in our front compound is receiving the full automation treatment at the moment, for integration into our access control system and full hands-free operation and lockingThis new automatic gate system connects into our multi-facility access system, and uses a toothed track and motor to open and close gates of up to 1.6 tonsOur reception area has really taken shape now, with the full glazing system now in placeThe client entrance to NLE now maintains segregation between client routes and our security / check-in team at all timesThe glass security door which forms part of the new reception glazing system required some interesting technology to implement, both for the glass-mounted maglock, and this wireless RFID reader which now interfaces directly with our Paxton Net2 system via a custom board integrationWith live client systems now online inside of NLE, both LV A and LV B have their UPS systems delivering conditioned power to critical client deploymentsOur LV rooms now have additional floor detail in place, in the form of ribbed rubber safety matting, seen here in LV Room BAs part of our modular data centre design and deployment strategy – which we’ve implemented at all of our bespoke facilities to date – spaces for future capacity deployment can be seen throughout Netwise London EastOur core network is of course fully online and working for clients now deployed at London East, for both transit and backhaul – the B-side of the NLE core and passive infrastructure is seen here, including 144 of the 432 fibre pairs delivered to site by ZayoHere we see the A-side of the same core and passive communications, which you can see quite clearly is a direct reflection of the B-side – the building is designed as a double-mirror, both left-to-right and top-to-bottomA wider view of the A-side LV room, which shows the rubber matting route now in placeThese custom generator system status screens found in both LV rooms are a fantastic tool for monitoring our various generator testsOur LV rooms form the beating heart of London East, and we’re extremely proud of how they’ve turned out – these rooms and the equipment within them will support the four data halls in this building for many years to comeHere we have a view of the Build and Break Room, which has since had progress made on the kitchen and lounge segments (not shown here)With our LV rooms acting as the heart of the building, the data halls are very much the brain, where client deployments reside – this is the view across Data Hall 1, to the occupied Pod 1 containment system, from where Pod 2 will sit very soonDespite being open to clients for just a few months, Pod 1 now sits at around 56% capacity at the time of publishing this post, which is why the next phase of work in this hall is already underwayThis is a view of the A-side ODF in Data Hall 1, with the overhead cable ladder for copper and fibre cross-connects (on the A-side) now beginning to show visible population, as more client systems come online hereThe cold aisle containment system at NLE is certainly a step up from NLC, with electric sliding door entry, which can also be deployed with access control for private pod entry (as is the case here)The new generation of adiabatic coolers have been performing exceptionally well, running at a much lower pressure than the previous generation – despite hitting nearly 40C locally at NLE this month, the CREC system alone dealt with this amazingly well, with the supplementary AC system not called upon onceThis view of the rear of our evaporative cooling system in Data Hall 1 shows the scale of the full setup, with the entire rear face of the building acting as a large intake and exit point for the facility – this hall alone has 28 external air intake and filter bays, which helps make this such a low pressure systemAll supplementary air conditioning systems, including the secondary system in Data Hall 1 and all building-wide comfort cooling, are now fully online and operational across the board – we only have a small AC plant area in our front compound, as we again lean entirely into super-efficient adiabatic cooling technology here at London East
The main purpose of this post is to present the current state of play at London East following Phase One of construction, which sees Pod 1 online in Data Hall 1, servicing live clients. We will periodically dip back into the Build Blog, to update on individual projects, and of course the move into Phase Two.
We’re dubbing the next phase of development Phase One-Point-Five, and that’s for some of the ancillary areas which had to be pushed back in favour of technical readiness for client systems. This includes customer facing amenities such as the customer break-out kitchen and lounge area, the personnel lift, and a few remaining internal developments such as our new power monitoring system and some customer portal improvements.
What else has been happening?
Since completing on Phase One, introducing our first set of customer deployments, and the forthcoming Phase Two works, we’ve continued with the fit-out of our customer build and break area.
Works are well underway in terms of laying the section of herringbone floor on which the kitchen and lounge areas of the room will be situated, and our high-specification kitchen installation is also in progress.
Here’s a very small sneak peak at progress so far.
A view of the herringbone floor as it is installed over the raised floor tiles in this spaceThe extra investment in time to install herringbone floor is well worth it, and in keeping with the attention to detail found across all of our facilitiesHere we see the very early stages of the kitchen cabinets being installed – things have progressed significantly since, with the worktop and island now in place, however we’ll have a dedicated post for this in due course (it’ll be worth the wait!)
What’s next?
In the immediate term, we’re welcoming a range of clients into Data Hall 1. In fact, we’ve already deployed systems into 17 enclosures, with plenty more lined up for both London East and London Central.
To keep pace with demand looking ahead, and to allow for the next deployment phases, we’ve just had 89x new APC racks delivered to site, which are currently being held in a 60 square metre block in Data Hall 4.
Phase 1.5 is already underway, and expected to last into early autumn. Phase 2 works will begin shortly thereafter, which will see Pod 2 come online, and Data Hall 2 shortly thereafter.
In early July, we spent an entire week on intensive portal development works, as we roll out our brand new client power monitoring platform, client port and bandwidth monitoring re-integration (something that’s been on the cards for a long time now!), and a range of other UX improvements.
We also have some extremely exciting additional developments to pass on very soon, pertaining to our ongoing expansion in all areas. We’re hoping to be able to break silence on this in the coming few weeks.
With the final utility connections now upon us, and the last elements of our stage one internal fit-out now reaching completion, we’re now tantalisingly close to welcoming our first clients into NLE.
A large portion of the facility has in fact been ready to receive client systems for some time now, however as is always the way with projects of this scale and complexity, a number of tasks did run into delays for various reasons as we headed into the back quarter of last year.
Weekly overview
As much as this is a five week update – one of the longest spanning periods to date on the NLE Build Blog – it is somewhat light in visual change, as we’ve been focusing most of our attention on systems integration. Naturally, this is an incredibly important and complex part of onlining any new data centre, however it does prove a tricky side of the project to relay visually.
Regardless, we do have some photo updates to relay this time around.
We’re now finalising some of the last monitoring and control system integrations, including the monitoring system seen here forming part of our supplementary cooling infrastructure in Data Hall 1Here we see one of the many MUXs we have across all of our POPs, which we now have branded for usOur core network has been building up to the point of full commissioning in layers, as various devices across the facility come online for the first time – here we see the first phase fibre layer landing in place on the B-sideWe have now fully deployed the internal network at London East, from core to edgeThis is the same across both the A and B sides of the core network and distribution network – there will of course be further internal connections made across this platform as the first client systems land on-siteThe A and B ODFs in Data Hall 1 are now also fully online, supporting our own infrastructure requirements, and ready to handle cross-connects and transit for clients as they begin to deploy live systemsODF B in Data Hall 1 is presently more busy than ODF A, as this is where a larger quantity of our own management links come back to, due to the positioning of this ODF within the room and wider buildingThe private pod we have ready for one of our clients is fully commissioned, including custom access control, and the now fully-trimmed security panel which segments this secure space for the clientWe’ve begun the installation of the new security glass system in reception, which will place the on-duty guard in a segmented area, which also secures the route to the on-site NOCThe track system for the glass is being fitted here, which will house the large, custom-cut 10mm thick security glassThe system will be comprised of a large sheet with slim opening over the desk, and a large floor-to-ceiling door and glass infills to the side, with access controlVarious supplementary signage and notices have also been distributed throughout the facility, including the custom fire zone map which sits alongside the main building alarm systemWe’ve pre-emptively started rolling out some more infrastructure in Data Hall 2, which remains in a partially fitted out state – this is the Honeywell PSU and control interface as part of the monitoring / BMS for this spaceThe final piece of the puzzle for our HV connection arrived on-site, and has now been pulled in and jointed – this is the largest diameter cable drum to arrive at NLE to dateThis is specialist HV cable for connecting into our transformer, and comes on the drum as a pre-cut triplex length to be pulled in as a single pieceWe had further civils underway as part of this final connection, which required a small amount of additional excavation in our demise, and another dig in the road nearbyIn addition, we have two other digs happening simultaneously in the nearby area as further services arrive to site ready for openingWe’ve also completed a fully custom installation of Intelimonitor SCADA screens in each LV room, which show live status information on our generator system, which read from the sets and breakers in real-timeHere’s a closer look at the SCADA screen in LV Room B – this is a custom mounted Surface Pro, running the custom software and screen output for our particular setup
Much of the work in this period has been happening in less visual areas, including the onlining of systems and bringing them into our centralised control and monitoring platforms. This has been an ongoing part of the commissioning process for some time now, and is nearing completion.
The facility is in a position to accept client systems on a pre-staging basis, with all internal power systems online.
As we head into the final month of Q1, we’re extremely excited to be as close as we are to full readiness. We’re expecting the first client systems to begin rolling into the facility in March, which will of course be the most major milestone of this project to date.
What’s next?
We are continuing with our extensive commissioning works, which span all areas of the facility and its various systems.
All the while this is happening, the final elements relating to our core utilities are being finalised, which will bring phase one of our build to a conclusive state. There will be a certain amount of post-onlining works, which could be dubbed ‘phase one-point-five’, ahead of the later technical space expansion into Data Hall 2, which will be phase two.
We even have some early interest in our ground floor data halls for singular client project use, so it could be that plans for internal expansion are indeed brought forwards, depending on how these things come together in the coming months.
We’ve had a busy start to the year as final stage works continue, taking us towards close-out on phase one at London East.
Our core team got to enjoy some much-deserved time off over the holiday season, ready for action as usual in the new year – one which is set to hold a wide range of milestones for Netwise.
Weekly overview
We’ll get straight to it with the photos this time, as we’ve got lots of changes to show our readers, which have materialised in both the run up to and exit from the holiday season.
We added a nice wide angle lens to our photography arsenal over Christmas, which will help us properly capture the scale of our new facilityHere we see Data Hall 1 in its completed state, ready to receive customer deployments in due course – Phase 1 will see the onlining of Pod 1, with the position for Pod 2 (assuming the standard full-length application) seen in the foreground A look across Data Hall 1 to Pod 1, containing Row A and Row BOur new wide angle lens helps us get in close to areas that would otherwise be difficult to properly show on-screenThis end of the first pod, seen held open while final work is undertaken, will be a private entrance for a client who has elected to take segregated spaceThe stylised vision panel privacy etching has now also been applied to Data Halls 3 and 4, until the rooms go liveA more visible view of these on the doors to Data Hall 3, which will be removed when the room goes liveThe staging of our own resilient core is now well underway, with all hardware in position, and cabling now approaching completion (more visibility on this next time)We’re now also able to begin fully integrating the new site, as systems come online and mix with our live operationThe core racks again follow our colour coding from London Central, with the A-side being yellow, and the B-side being blueThe core racks now also have customised overhead troughs to enable easier and safer cable routing between the rack and ODFOur reception is really taking shape now, with our custom reception / security desk now in place, ahead of the glass enclosure installation coming soon – the site is already manned 24×7 in preparation for launchOur new brushed welcome sign is now in place at the main customer entry way, leading to the data halls and technical spacesThis sign follows the same design as the NOC signage we have at both of our data centresThe NOC screens at London East are now online, and pending final completion in terms of display configurationThe LV rooms now each contain folders documenting the LV designs, for easy engineer access, and are soon to be fitted with additional smart screens for generator status readouts, in addition to the already very detailed ComAp controllers – you can also see one of the first aid kits located here, which have now been fitted throughout the facilityOur new wide angle lens has allowed us to capture the scale of our main switchgear more completely, with the full seven metre span visible here in LV Room BThe same full-view of the board in LV Room AThe view across to the UPS and distribution in LV Room AOur small acoustic rack in the NOC, which handles local NOC communications, has now been cabled in its final configurationOne of the major tasks undertaken on our arrival back after Christmas was the final load bank test of our newly deployed backup generator systemThis load bank test enabled our generator engineers to run the system up to significant levels during the configuration stage, to simulate the building load as it will be once client deployments begin landing on-siteWe were able to simulate a load of 780kW across the whole system, before running generator each up to around 500kW to soak test on a per set levelHaving use of this unit for the week of commissioning ensures that our backup power systems have been tested sufficiently up to suitable load figures, which is not possible using building load at this point in timeWith the unit running, a large amount of heat is produced (top exit), which is how the energy requirement is createdThis is a view of the fire control and extinguishant panel outside of LV Room B, which shows the custom badges we’ve had made for these units throughout the building – details, details, details!Here we see pre-staging for our in-house assembly line for producing the circuit monitors, which will sit under each live client rack, and enable power metering which is PDU-agnostic
It’s an exciting time, as we begin to see many aspects of the new site ‘go live’ for the first time. Aside from some final elements due to close off in the coming few weeks, the site is now essentially service-ready, with some early deployment options for particular clients taking shape.
One system that we’ve been excited to see take shape is our new fully-integrated CCTV and access control platform. While we still have our long-retention continuous recording setup on all cameras, we now also have AI-driven motion tracking and sensing, which means that our system is able to follow visitors around the site automatically, generating points of interest as event triggers. This is also tied into the door entry system, which can actively track activity in the facility and record contextualised snapshots from nearby angles, to create journey data for future reference (if ever required). This level of automation is fantastic for enhancing our security.
What’s next?
Next up, we’ll be continuing with commissioning works across the board, as we liven up all areas of the site.
