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A busy year for the Data Centre Alliance
With the DCA calendar expanding, Executive Director, Simon Campbell-Whyte looks ahead to a busy year and the relationship between buyers and sellers.
AFTER a successful two days at Data Centre World in March, the rest of year is shaping up for a packed calendar ahead of us. The DCA will be present at events in Singapore, France, UK and Germany this year to further widen the membership and participation. May 23rd sees the inaugural Outsourcing, Hosting and Colocation Conference at the Grange Tower Bridge Hotel,
London. This is the first “pure play” colocation event and as this area of the data centre industry expands, I expect this event to reflect this growth in future years.
It will be interesting to see the development within the DCA of collaboration between those who provide colocation and hosting space and those that buy it. The DCA has members from both camps. It does seem that mutual benefits can be achieved, for example can colocation providers do more to provide the data centre space and service that customers want and on the flip
A Very Green Enterprise
SERVERHOUSE LTD has recently become a member of Data Centre Alliance and in comment Gary Coates, the Data Centre Manager, said “we view the Data Centre Alliance as the leading independent forum for the industry and fully support its promotion of best practice and its support for the development and application of emerging standards. We look forward to being an active member of this dynamic organisation”.
ServerHouse has been operational for 15 years and remains at the forefront of data centre technology. Located on the prestigious 400 acre private Cams Estate in Fareham there are currently 2 data centres on the site to provide resilience and back-up. The data centres are manned 24x7 by staff which Gary notes “are not just security staff but engineers who can provide the highest level of service for our valued customers day or night”.
Unusually for a data centre Serverhouse has a lot of character with one facility being located within the very attractive wood beamed West Barn which dates back to 1865. The equipment within the barn is very much 21st century, however with the emphasis on maximum energy efficiency, low running cost and high resilience, all within a highly secure environment. ServerHouse is proud of its green credentials, not only being mindful of the need to conserve power but also with the new state-of-the-art Data Centre to be constructed within the walled garden of the estate.
Planning such an enterprise brings with it unique challenges. The walled garden had fallen into disrepair when it was acquired by Merlin Communications in 1999 in order to build a teleport as part of a centre for global communications excellence on the south coast of England. The planned teleport included the installation of nine major satellite antennas interconnected with the fibre networks for international connectivity, connected by two POPs in London. Merlin cleared the site of brambles, repaired the walls, landscaped the area in order
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to ensure that the antennas and equipment were out of the sight- line, and obtained outline planning permission for a new building within the walls.
ServerHouse subsequently acquired the site in 2003 and submitted plans for a building in accordance with the outline planning permission but these plans were rejected in favour of a curved outline building to follow the
contours of the landscaping carried out be Merlin. So began a close working relationship with the local authority in order to ensure that the plans met the strict requirements of the Cams Hall Conservation Plan which itself continued to evolve throughout this period.
The protracted planning process gave rise to additional challenges as Data Centre technology moved on and, in particular, energy conservation became more important with new regulations coming into force during this time. The ServerHouse planning process for the new building has therefore been a steadily evolving mix of submissions to the local authority together with updates to the design and specification of the building and the facilities within it. This process is now converging to a successful conclusion, enabling a new state-of-the-art Data Centre to be constructed whilst ensuring the conservation of the architectural and historic character of the Cams Estate. Gary comments “Data Centres don’t come much greener than this, not only in the context of a high specification highly efficient facility but also in the green environment of the walled garden which is being preserved through careful and sympathetic development. The added unique benefits of diverse fibre from multiple carriers and dual independent power rings at this location enable us to create something very special”.
side can users do more to specify what they need? Also, maybe a collective forum between the two can assist; I’m often surprised when I walk around a data centre and you can see some customer installations that apply the correct practice, for example; good airflow management, cabling, security and housekeeping next to a neighbouring cage that appears to be doing an impression of a teenage LAN party gone wrong!
Clearly demarcation lines exist, but with education and the exploration of acceptable compromise can surely play a part in minimising these issues to benefit both parties. This is of course just a reflection of the situation in many organisations where perhaps IT, FM and buildings departments have had to work closer together in recent years, but this shouldn’t just stop when outsourcing. The DCA certification programme will help kick start this process, no doubt “LAN party” cages can be discouraged during the process to the benefit of all, but I’m sure other issues both commercial and technical can be addressed via the DCA platform.
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