[ Spotlight: Member profi les ]
One of the latest cooling systems on show in the ‘Innovation Pod’
on the buoyant market for its data centre expertise and its role as a service provider to BT Wholesale. Meanwhile, it is looking to open two overseas sales and technical support offi ces to exploit international demand for its services, which has seen enquiries from Turkey, Poland, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia. Asked to explain the secret of its success, Hirst
says: ‘Our strategy has always been about moving the business on, continuing to innovate, making sure we are on top of the technology and adding value for our customers. We fi rmly believe in upholding traditional values and are totally client-driven. This means that we play fair with people by being open, transparent and trustworthy and off ering solutions that fi t their unique requirements.’
Going live Sudlows recently invested £450,000 in its Innovation Pod, which is located in the basement of its headquarters. It is a live showcase for the latest products on the market, including access doors, server cabinets, fi re detection and cooling systems. ‘The Innovation Pod is one way that we interact
directly with our existing and potential customers,’ claims Wray. ‘Even though data centres are part of the common vernacular these days, we believe there’s still a lot to do in terms of educating people. In order to do this, we have set up a highly successful series of seminars. This type of thought leadership gives our clients greater confi dence in our capabilities.’ Sudlows continues to enjoy a close relationship with the ECA. Since becoming more involved with overseas projects, it has worked with the ECA’s commercial, contracts and legal department to ensure that it is fully aware of its obligations and legal status. ‘The technical advice that is available has also proven invaluable, and I also sit on the ITEC committee to take this side of the ECA forward,’ adds Hirst.
Sudlows is capitalising on the buoyant market for its data centre expertise
We believe there’s still a lot to do in terms of educating people
Bright talk The future is clearly a bright one for Sudlows, which now employs more than 140 staff and has plans under way for a new headquarters to meet the expected levels of growth. Wray says: ‘The aim is to build a bigger Innovation Pod and a training academy for staff , customers and third parties, on the ground fl oor. We are on track to meet the targets set in Project Orbit and it’s mind- blowing to think where we could be in two or three years’ time.’
Centre of excellence
Sudlows has built a new green data centre for the Co-operative Group in Salford, as part of its programme to move to a new purpose-built £100m headquarters. At a cost of £4.4m, the 200m2
facility is designed to be a
highly effi cient and sustainable development. Sudlows specifi ed a KST Flywheel UPS system, comprising two 500kW EDRUPS with N+1 resilience and provision for future expansion for another two 500kVA units. This has created a Tier 2 data centre with provision and availability on the low voltage (LV) and distribution to convert to a Tier 3 system allowing concurrent maintainability. A complete standby generator system was also installed, alongside a state- of-the-art cooling infrastructure and a building energy management system (BEMS). The need to deliver an effi cient, yet resilient, data centre was both time critical and technically advanced. Both of these milestones were achieved by the excellent collaborative partnership philosophy adopted by all the project stakeholders. Michael Burke, data centre manager at the Co-operative Group, says:
‘Sudlows brought a unique set of electrical skills and technologies that impressed both myself and the rest of the project team. Their delivery of critical power to our new facility was fl awless and well integrated with the additional major works on site. Sudlows’ engineers were able to perform a live changeover, with no downtime for this 2MVA facility, which was vital to the success of the scheme. Once again, Sudlows proved its ability to successfully design and deliver major electrical projects.’
June 2013 ECA Today 31
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