Colt Data Centre Services (Colt DCS), a global provider of hyperscale and large enterprise data centre solutions, published its latest Sustainability Highlight report covering the period of January 1st to December 31st, 2022. Launched as Colt DCS' highlights report, the report focuses on the three strategic areas of decarbonising the business, connecting people, and safeguarding the company's operations. Colt DCS has achieved a remarkable 52% reduction in Scope 1 and Scope 2 (market-based) emissions and a 28% reduction in Scope 3 emissions (compared to 2019). These significant reductions highlight the extend of the company's sustainable practices as an industry-leading data centre provider.

Some of the other key highlights from the Sustainability report include:

• A 30% reduction in emissions across all Scopes compared to 2019
• Achieved an impressive global Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 72
• Procured 100% renewable energy in all European data centre sites

Colt DCS has been working diligently to achieve its ambitious sustainability targets, as part of its ongoing commitment to minimise environmental impact, promoting social responsibility and driving positive change within the global data centre industry. Sustainability is deeply ingrained within the company, with all stakeholders working tirelessly towards the business' shared ESG goals. Colt DCS' commitment to continuous improvement remains unwavering as they strive to advance and evolve their ESG strategy in the coming years.

The 2022 Sustainability Highlights report showcases the company's significant achievements in the areas of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) for 2022. It highlights Colt DCS' commitment to achieving reduced emissions in line with the SBTi's latest Net Zero Standard. EcoVadis partnership and a top 1% sustainability rating, Colt DCS continues to set data centre industry standards in its ESG practices. The 2022 Sustainability Highlights report was prepared in conjunction with the Colt Group, which comprises Colt Data Centre Services and Colt Technology Services.

Decarbonisation has been a primary focus for Colt DCS, and one of the key pillars in our ESG strategy. Its sustainability targets have been approved by the Science-based Targets initiative (SBTi) in alignment with the latest Net Zero Standard. Colt DCS has successfully reduced its carbon footprint by 30% compared to the 2019 baseline, amounting to an estimated 186,487 tonnes of CO2e (Carbon dioxide equivalent). This reduction has been aided by the use of 100% renewable energy across its UK and European data centres, all of which are 100% carrier-neutral sites, engaging suppliers more effectively and implementing innovative cooling technologies. Moreover, Colt DCS ensures that its new data centres, such as their ongoing expansion in Paris Frankfurt, India & Japan or across Europe and the Asia-Pacific, adhere to the environmental requirements set down in the Global Reference Design Document.

Colt DCS' ESG strategy goes beyond environmental sustainability and includes a strong focus on social engagement. The company recognises the importance stakeholder engagement across its value chain, including customers, suppliers, local communities and employees, with the aim of making a lasting positive impact in the regions it operates in. Colt DCS encourages employee engagement and has established partnerships with local charities, forming employee-led CSR teams to identify fundraising initiatives and volunteering opportunities. Local communities serve as contributors of Colt DCS' workforce, such as local contractors and local service providers who aid in the construction of the company's data centres.

The company recognises the importance of effective governance in achieving its goals for inclusion. During the pandemic, Colt DCS introduced designated Wellbeing Days, prioritising the mental and physical health of its workforce. The company's efforts saw 78% engagement with its People Matter survey, with the results highlighting strengths under Diversity & Inclusion, Customer Focus, Empowerment, Sustainable Engagement and Well-being & Stress.

Colt DCS is striving to create an inclusive culture that values diversity of thought and representative of the communities it operates in. In addition to fostering an inclusive working culture made up of diverse representation, the company is committing to implementing equitable business practices that enhance the employee experience. Moving forward, Colt DCS remains dedicated to investing in employee development and strengthening its partnerships with suppliers and customers to foster an inclusive and sustainable future.

In addition to prioritising stakeholder engagement, Colt DCS delivers exceptional client service across its data centre portfolio. In 2022, the company achieved an impressive global Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 72 across all customers in Europe and Asia, which is a testament to its goal of becoming the most trusted and customer-centric operator in the industry.

Since the 2022 report:

Colt DCS have achieved an NPS of 74

Colt DCS are now using 100% renewable energy in their Mumbai and Tokyo Shiohama sites.

Vantage Data Centers is continuously evolving data centre design and operations in innovative ways to deliver dramatic gains in energy efficiency and sustainability while ensuring hyperscalers and enterprise customers can count on resilient and flexible IT environments that can scale as quickly as the market demands.

All the above serve to inform and shape our data centre design and development cycle while also ensuring speed to market - without compromising the safety of staff and construction workers – and maximising sustainable construction and operations. We have evolved a replicable and scalable blueprint for bringing together all the elements needed to meet these demands: An application of building technologies and experts certified to design, build, operate and maintain the infrastructure. Our Cardiff I campus in Wales, CWL1, is a great example of how the elements of our global sustainable vision can be deployed at every stage of deployment.

Once fully developed, the Cardiff CWL1 campus will comprise three data centres (CWL11, CWL12 and CWL13), totalling 148MW across 2 million square feet (186,000 square meters) on the existing 46-acre site. Vantage Cardiff CWL1 campus - an exemplar of sustainable construction best practices and energy optimisation Conveniently located in the UK’s tech corridor near the M4 and just 100 miles from London’s urban density, our world-class CWL1 hyperscale and colocation campus near Cardiff offers vast space, abundant 100% renewable power, and low latency. At the heart of CWL1’s ongoing success is its ability to consistently leverage the space available on the 46-acre campus together with a competitive ‘out-of-town’ cost base location which maximises economies of scale.

The importance of sustainability has underpinned the entire Vantage CWL11 redevelopment project since its commencement in 2008. This began with the immediate necessary refurbishment of the three-floor semi-conductor plant which had stood empty for 10 years. Repurposing the existing building and infrastructure allowed Vantage to reduce the embodied carbon intensity of the development from day one. This approach aligns with our net zero strategy that takes into account the scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions of the development and operations of our data centres.

This construction model involves the shell of the building being built down into technical space on a just-in-time basis along with the associated external works for plant and facilities. It maximises capital efficiency and ensures a bespoke build to exact demands at any point in time. Its success relies on our standardising on principal construction and M&E contractors, rigorous supply chain management, and stocking of commonly used materials and components. This is supported by an on-site constructor’s village which also reduces truck rolls/traffic thereby reducing carbon emissions significantly by avoiding repetitive journeys to and from site. This also saves wear and tear on roads in the surrounding area and benefits the local community with regard to traffic to noise.

Wherever possible our principle construction partners use sustainable building materials. At our CWL13 facility (the third building on the campus), a major effort has been made in the selection of materials, using construction materials and insulation with low embodied impact and sourcing materials responsibly.

Our construction partners also all adhere to the Considerate Constructors’ best practices, including the sustainable recycling of waste. 99.97% of non-hazardous construction waste were diverted from landfill during the construction of CWL13. Balancing power demands with energy efficiency From the outset CWL1 has consistently addressed the considerable challenges involved in reconciling the power and C02e emissions involved in delivering the N 2 resilience with ESG regulatory demands - including scope 1 and 2 direct emissions and upcoming scope 3.

• All CWL1 data centres use 100% renewable sourced power, rego backed. From the time of opening in 2010, CWL11 made a 100% commitment to renewable energy supply - the first data centre in Europe to do so.

• Recognising the huge energy savings potential of free cooling – CWL1’s location was a key driver in the site’s selection, based in an area of the UK where ambient temperature is lower than the national average.

• Energy Management Systems designed for optimising energy usage, including real-time monitoring, measuring and reporting on facilities and IT energy/environmental performance, have been key to delivering a hyperscale campus capable of achieving and maintaining low PUEs with a continuous 100% uptime service availability record - since operations began in 2010.

• The performance of electrical equipment has been carefully examined: Low-voltage distribution equipment and UPS have been selected to achieve >96% efficiency, which is even higher in eco-mode.

• In 2022, Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) was deployed at CWL11 as a renewable alternative to diesel fuel for our back-up generators, yielding further progress toward our carbon goals without the need for new or updated infrastructure. Building on this success, Vantage implemented HVO at CWL13. The use of renewable diesel fuels significantly reduces the embodied carbon of the fuel consumed in our diesel generators which helps us to reduce scope 3 emissions associated with our supply chain. It has less embodied carbon due to its cleaner sourcing and creation. According to fuel suppliers, the use of HVO reduces the lifecycle carbon emissions by 65-90% compared to conventional diesel.

• CWL13 generators are equipped with Selective Catalytic Reduction systems (SCRs). SCRs reduce nitrogen oxide emitted from our diesel generators by up to 90%, which improves regional air quality. Vantage anticipates achieving a 25 to 75 percent reduction in fuel consumption and associated emissions.

• Rigorous environmental compliance including ISO 14001 and ISO 50001 for CWL11. Vantage has chosen to implement ISO 50001 on all our sites in the EMEA region, starting with several campuses including CWL11, in order to show that our technical and managerial arrangements for energy management meet international standards and to show our commitment to continual improvement.

• The deployment of motion detectors, timeclock and photocells and energy efficient lamps throughout the campus ensures lighting is only utilised when necessary. Cooling considerations Cooling efficiency has always been critical to data centre resilience and uptime as well as for energy cost optimisation. We design our facilities to use virtually no water for cooling. In our experience, having utilised various cooling technologies over the years - including air-cooled chillers, water-cooled chillers, indirect heat exchange and liquid to the rack - leveraging an adaptive cooling architecture gives customers more choice. At CWL11 it allows us the flexibility to deploy up to 20kW racks with traditional air-cooled technology and more than 50kW racks using liquid to rack cooling solutions. An integrated economiser capability reduces compressor energy based on the ambient temperature outside, so when the weather is favourable, cooling becomes “free” and less resource intensive.

CWL11 uses a combination of close-coupled CRACs, cold aisle containment, higher data module temperatures and fresh air cooling to maximise cooling efficiencies. At our CWL13 data centre, the cooling system serving the facility is based on a dry air-cooling system. This system uses stand-alone units which are specifically selected to closely match the cooling load requirement. By providing a dry system, the water consumption for cooling has been reduced to zero. enhancing our goal of sustainable data centre operations. A proven, constantly evolving and sustainable campus Looking to the future, we are evaluating new building materials that have lower embodied carbon such as Fibre Reinforced Plastic instead of steel. We’re also exploring ways to export waste heat into the local district heat network. Summary In summary, the CWL1 campus is aligned with Vantage’s global commitment of achieving Net Zero carbon emissions for our operations by 2030. The overarching goal of the Vantage CWL1 data centre campus in Wales is to provide world-class facilities which ensure highly secure, scalable, sustainable and energy efficient colocation and hosting environments for hyperscale and enterprise customers, without compromising uptime and resilience.

For more than a decade since welcoming our first major customers, CWL1 has consistently achieved this overriding objective - with sustainability remaining a top priority throughout:

• Sustainable and continuous repurposing of a previously unused 750,000 sq ft semi-conductor factory, transforming it into Europe’s largest data centre with a PUE rating of 1.3

• Leveraging the region’s lower than average ambient temperature in support of direct air cooling, combined with adaptive water-cooled systems wherever possible

• Committing to 100% renewably sourced energy since 2010 with a total 270 MW direct from National Grid supply now available – offering maximum scalability and resilience for the campus

• Investing in state-of-the-art energy management systems

• Maintaining green space for the protection of natural wildlife and the wellbeing of local residents

• Alignment to the scope 1, 2 and 3 goals of our hyperscale customers

• Ongoing support and stimulation of the local economy, creating regular work for hundreds of local subcontractors since 2008 while also attracting major businesses into the region

Green Mountain is a Norwegian company that designs, builds, and operates highly secure, innovative, and sustainable colocation data centers in Europe. What sets us apart from competitors is our ambition of &ldquoSetting the green standard&rdquo in the data center industry. This entails that we want to establish ourselves as being the most energy-efficient data center in the market, running on 100% renewable energy and with close to zero CO2 footprints. We incorporate environmental sustainability in all aspects of our business - in the construction of data centers, in the operation of the data center and in the future, when decommissioning a data center. We are also involved in several waste heat reuse projects, contributing to the circular economy.

Our green approach to data centers has proved successful. We have a strong growth rate and currently operate four different sites. For this award we would like to nominate our SVG1-Rennesøy facility - the first data center we established. This data center, near Stavanger on the west-coast of Norway, is located deep inside a mountain in a former high security NATO ammunition storage facility. The mountain can withstand both nuclear bombs and natural disasters but also has multiple layers of interdependent systems to deny unauthorized access to facilities, equipment and resources. This includes biometric access systems, man traps, intelligent video analysis and more.

One of the data center's key features is its fjord-cooling solution, using the adjacent fjord as the cooling source. To secure consistent temperature for cooling, water enters a cold-water basin through use of gravity from pipes reaching 100-meter depth. Here, water is stable at 8C (46F) all year round. This cooling solution is extremely efficient and can use less than 3kW of power to gain 1000 kW of cooling. The cooling solution (including the cooling station, chilled water pipework and pumps) is fully duplicated providing a N N solution. With limited moving parts (circulating pumps), the solution is extremely robust and reliable. Server rooms have available N N chilled water under the raised floor. In-row-cooling are installed to client specification using hot isle technology.

The solution is highly flexible and can support standard power densities from 2-6 kW/m2, as well as clients who have requirements for high-density solutions up to 40kW/m2. The facility is Tier III certified by the Uptime Institute and has multiple ISO certifications. It has delivered 100% uptime since the start and has three independent grid supplies to the site, in addition to stand-by generators. Operational excellence is at the core at everything we do, and we have built an operational framework through our DCIM system. This system monitors, reports and analyzes the infrastructure performance and is fully integrated with thousands of sensors in our data centers. The data enables us to optimize our operations, but we also share this insight with our clients through Green Peak.

This is our award-winning real-time dashboard solution - securing 100% transparency of the delivery. This might also be one of the reasons we have achieved an average client satisfaction score of 5. 7 on a 6-point scale the past 5 years. The SVG1-Rennesoy is a prime example of quality, innovation and sustainability. Facts about the data center:

• Build Year: 2013.
• 6 x two-story mountains halls
• l 22 600 m2 (230000 ft2) space available.
• Data rooms from 50m2 - 1550m2 & rack solutions available.
• Flexible design which can be scaled up or down based on our clients' requirements.
• Tier III certified but can tailor-make your data center requirement to any lower Tier standard.
• 3 independent grid supplies each fed from multiple hydropower plants.
• 100% renewable hydropower.
• Fjord cooling solution.
• Average PUE: 1.18
• Automatic standby generators
• 4/7 onsite security personnel
• Remote monitoring 24/7.
• Biometric access systems, man traps and intelligent video surveillance.
• Fire suppression using hypoxic air ventilation system.
• EMP Secure.
• Carrier neutral data center - 19 independent fiber providers available.
• Two fully redundant meet-me-rooms in different parts of the facility for carriers with diverse fiber paths to them.
• Office space for clients.
• Smart hands services.

Shearwater Geoservices is a global provider of powerful geophysical marine seismic acquisition and processing services. Operating a modern fleet of marine vessels with expert imaging technology and innovative processing software, which captures almost 1TB of data per day.

This data is treated with approximately 50 processes to remove noise and prepare it for data analytics - an intensive process that requires serious computing power. Traditionally, Shearwater has located its imaging and processing equipment at a data center site in the UK. However, the business experienced sustained growth which meant acquiring and operating high performance workloads at a much greater scale than was possible with their UK data center provider. Rising energy costs also presented a challenge to the business and so they set about finding a reliable, collaborative partner that could meet its high-capacity compute demands with an environmentally responsible, and low cost approach. Shearwater approached atNorth to explore migrating its equipment to its high-performance computing site in Iceland called ICE02.

Data center facilities in Iceland, and the other Nordic countries benefit from a cool and more consistent climate that ensures that temperature and humidity levels within the data centers are maintained more efficiently, reducing energy outputs and ultimately decreasing carbon emissions. Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) which is a standard efficiency metric for power consumption in data centers is just 1.2 at atNorth's ICE02 site compared with 1.8 at Shearwater's UK data center provider. With Shearwater's facilities agreement in the UK due to increase three-fold due to energy price hikes the reduction in PUE alone provided a 33% reduction in carbon usage and energy consumption. Shearwater operates a client-server model, through which customers interface with Shearwater data centers via an interactive software platform on their desktops. For this to run effectively, there needs to be as little latency as possible and this was an initial concern for Shearwater.

The latency between Shearwater's offices and their UK data center was 3-4 milliseconds compared with 20-30 milliseconds to atNorth's ICE02 site. The Shearwater and atNorth teams liaised extensively to assess any potential risks or challenges prior to the migration. This included providing Shearwater access to atNorth's HPC Cloud resources at the ICE02 site, making it possible for them to conduct comprehensive latency tests before migrating to their own servers. In addition to their technological requirements, Shearwater was also looking for unparalleled customer service and support which can often be restrained by a lack of in-house resource and HPC expertise. The Shearwater team found atNorth's staff engaging, highly skilled and knowledgeable. This coupled with the extensive environmental and financial benefits of the move, not to mention atNorth's attractive commercial agreement and second-to-none service management compelled Shearwater to choose atNorth as their new data center partner. Shearwater successfully moved 100% of its UK HPC infrastructure equipment (approximately 60% of the global total) to the ICE02 site resulting in a 92% reduction in CO2 output and an 85% reduction in cost. atNorth's facilities, service, and support alongside its straightforward approach to business are synonymous with Shearwater's procedures and partnerships.

The two companies operate in harmony, as atNorth's ability to provide Shearwater with the utmost level of service is helping to build a strong, loyal working relationship. Furthermore, Shearwater has secured additional space in order to double their footprint in the future at the same site and whilst also exploring additional services such as GPU as a service (GPUaaS) through atNorth's Gompute HPCaaS platform, taking advantage of atNorth's cloud for HPC workloads and their high density colocation. Our considerations for a data center provider were 3 fold - state of the art infrastructure to support our data intensive workloads, next level customer service and a low carbon, sustainable offering. Moving a portion of our compute to one of atNorth's sites in Iceland has resulted in a 92% reduction in CO2 output and an 85% reduction in cost.

Nick Riddalls, Hemispheric Head of Processing, Shearwater Geoservices We make a concerted effort to get under the skin of our customers, to understand their challenges and how we can then tailor a perfect fit solution. Working together helped us understand the pain points Shearwater faced with the current infrastructure, but also their perceived risks in migrating the workload to Iceland. This helped us shape a customized solution to yield maximum benefits with real peace of mind for Shearwater. Ægir Rafn Magnússon Director of Business Development, atNorth

Portus Data Centers (“Portus”) have announced plans for the further expansion of the IPHH Internet Port Hamburg data centre business acquired by Arcus European Infrastructure Fund 3 SCSp (“AEIF3”) on behalf of Portus late last year.

With two existing facilities in the east of Hamburg currently offering 2.4MW of sellable IT power capacity, Portus now plans to construct a new data centre of approximately 14MW of IT power which will be built in phases, the first of which is planned for delivery in late Q4/2025. This follows the acquisition of a substantial plot of land and associated power adjacent to the existing data centre on the Wendenstrasse in Hamburg.

The new IPHH facility will benefit from the already very dense connectivity profile of the current IPHH facilities, allowing straight forward access to existing networks and providers via a simple cross connect.

Sascha Pollok, CEO of IPHH, said “We are very excited to be able to announce this new and significant expansion phase of our IPHH campus which will ensure we continue to provide our existing and new customers with a market leading service. We are already seeing substantial interest in the planned new facility which is testament to the buoyant Hamburg market for colocation in general and more specifically, highly connected data centres with excellent value added services.”

“We are delighted to be investing in the future growth of IPHH following today’s land and power acquisition announcement,” added Adriaan Oosthoek, Chairman of Portus Data Centers. “This is a further step in our buy-and-build regional data centre aggregation strategy where in all our current and future locations we plan to add further capacity to meet growing customer demand.”

IPHH’s growing customer base includes telecom carriers, global technology and social media companies and content distribution networks that rely on IPHH’s strong interconnection services. Aligning with Arcus’ commitment to ensuring that its investments have a positive ESG impact, energy consumed by IPHH’s data centres is certified as being 100% renewably sourced. IPHH’s highly efficient facilities currently provide a power usage effectiveness ratio of c. 1.3x which is subject to continuous improvement as part of Portus’ ongoing commitment to optimising its ESG policies and practices.

We recognise the demolition or abandonment of existing legacy data centres instead of refurbishment should not be the norm. There are growing opportunities for repurposing existing enterprise data centres, either sitting empty or no longer used at anywhere near full capacity. With this approach much of the embodied carbon expended in the construction phase of vacated legacy premises can be offset to reduce their future environmental impact.

As a forward thinking well-funded edge colocation provider we recognise the opportunity for leveraging legacy data centres with locational proximity to regional towns and cities to achieve low latency for enterprise business, industry, CDNs and regional cloud providers. At the same time we are enabling a more sustainable delivery of fit-for-purpose facilities to address accelerating capacity demands.

Compared to a new build, these allow significantly less construction expenditure and much faster time to market by a straighter forward planning process. Furthermore, there are considerably smaller construction engineering workforce requirements and potentially existing IT talent that can be retained. Crucially, there will be existing fit for purpose power and connectivity to site which can be upgraded and expanded as needs arise.

Milestone achievements:

- 2023: commenced rapid expansion of initial regional network of 10 edge data centres in Germany with the acquisition of Eucylde in June 2023 to add six further facilities in France. The expansion continued in September with the acquisition of Proximity Data Centres, bringing another 10 UK-based sites under nLighten's umbrella. The growth trajectory continued in November with the addition of GYROCenter in the Netherlands.

- January 2023: launched Edge IX regional internet exchange service in the UK. This ‘industry first’ initiative will see internet exchanges located within our colocation data centres across the UK. Existing Internet exchanges in the UK have been successful in supporting the development of the digital economy but nLighten has recognised that the increasing demands of low latency bandwidth-hungry applications requires a new approach, complementing the existing infrastructure model. The proliferation of edge data centres with on-site Internet Exchanges will play a vital role in future regional economic development by, for example, attracting more businesses into an area and aiding the setting up of technology hubs. These will in turn bring new opportunities to the benefit of local communities.

- March 2023: launched an innovative program to repurpose waste heat from our data centres for the benefit of local communities. The first example was rolled out in Eschborn, Germany, where the recovered heat will warm several city buildings, contributing positively to the local energy infrastructure. Powered entirely by renewable energy, nLighten's data centres not only meet but exceed the highest environmental standards, emphasising our commitment to sustainable and community-focused operations.

What was the driving force behind the project - what business or technology challenge needed to be addressed?

Sardina Systems' Integrated Solution is a comprehensive cloud solution that provides customers with hardware and software in a single bundle, greatly simplifying procurement and maintenance. It offers a single point of contact for both software and hardware, which allows the customers to focus on other business priorities. More importantly, Integrated Solution comes with remarkable budget savings and resource usage reduction when compared to popular public cloud alternatives.

GRASS-MERKUR, a major German data centre services player, faced issues with their OpenStack-based cloud solution, including:

- Discontinued OpenStack drivers from their previous enterprise cloud provider,
- Absence of OpenStack support,
- Lack of client separation in their previous solution,
- High costs associated with individual software components.

Before engaging with Sardina Systems, GRASS-MERKUR utilized a system of 8 nodes. Their business goals included system expansion, urging them to find a suitable solution that would addres their past challenges and facilitate the system growth.

GRASS-MERKUR sought a scalable and cost-effective solution with multi-tenancy for client isolation.

Additionally, they were looking for a solution that included both hardware and software to optimize the process and facilitate the construction of a production-ready cloud platform.

How did the solution address the challenges and were there any particularly innovative aspects that made it stand out?

The software part of Integrated Solution was covered by FishOS, Sardina Systems' flagship product. Built on OpenStack, Kubernetes, and Ceph, it includes unique components like the ML-enabled Workload Manager and Health Manager.

Sardina Systems customized certain features of the platform to meet the specific requirements of GRASS-MERKUR. These included adapting the monitoring system by incorporating specific checks tailored exclusively to meet the client's needs.

Another major benefit that Integrated Solution provided was the single point of contact for both software and hardware. Addressing the client's request, Sardina Systems collaborated with their hardware partner, Vespertec, and recommended the optimal hardware and configuration. The delivery of pre-configured hardware fully met the client's expectations.

What major challenges were faced during the project and how were they overcome?

Deploying Integrated Solution at GRASS-MERKUR posed several challenges that required joint efforts to overcome. It is also important to note that a comprehensive approach to the project helped to pre-empt some potential problems.

One of the challenges included network configuration issues on the client's side that prolonged the overall process. To ensure a proper network infrastructure preparation, Sardina Systems conducted a workshop on network design for GRASS-MERKUR.

Migrating virtual machines from old infrastructure could have posed major problems. That is why, GRASS-MERKUR and Sardina Systems collaborated to prepare automated relocation scripts in advance. As a result, those scripts greatly streamlined the process.

All other obstacles were successfully overcome with 24/7 communication, swift response time by Sardina Systems’ support team, and collaborative efforts from all parties involved.

What tangible benefits has the organisation seen as a result of the project's implementation?

GRASS-MERKUR's day-to-day operations saw a significant improvement after the Integrated Solution deployment.

Now the company enjoys increased cluster capacity, facilitating accelerated business growth.

In addition, Integrated Solution managed to streamline bureaucratic processes. That was possible due to a unified agreement that covered both software license terms and hardware provider details.

This solution also managed to successfully meet the client’s scalability and multi-tenancy requirements.

Nevertheless, the most crucial impact was a significant cost reduction. GRASS-MERKUR reported to have achieved an impressive 50% decrease in cloud infrastructure expenses compared to the previous solution. As a result, the administrators’ workload has also significantly decreased.

Moreover, the integration of new hardware led to enhanced virtual machine performance for their end-users (client’s customers).

Finally, the utilisation of modern hardware resulted in an approximate 10% reduction in energy consumption.

Customers were able to use cloud services after about a week due to manual procedures. Backup Services and creating a client or user on the Network were both done manually. Customers paid a certain fee every month. The operations team and customers were carrying out transactions through various interfaces. Türk Telekom Cloud Platform, which we developed as a solution to this, allows corporate/individual companies to create Türk Telekom customers via the Türk Telekom Cloud website and quickly purchase virtual servers, virtual data centers, backup, replication, storage services and many add-ons online that suit their business needs. In addition to providing services, it is a project that provides the management of all services/resources from a single source.

Cloud services were made available to customers in about a week through manual processes. Creating customers/users in Network and Backup Services was also manual. Customers paid a fixed monthly fee. The customer and the operations team were operating through different interfaces. Customer orders were entered into the system manually via the order form and by customer service. With Türk Telekom Cloud Self Service Portal, customers can create their own memberships and order their products in accordance with their Virtualization needs in a very short time without the need to communicate with anyone. Likewise, customers can manage the service they purchase through a single management panel (Backup, Replication, Monitoring, etc.) thanks to the integration of more than 20 services. In this way, both the burden on the customer and the burden on the operation are reduced.

​Türk Telekom Cloud platform was positioned at the center, ensuring automation of end-to-end processes. On the infrastructure side, VMware infrastructure was used to automate processes and manage resources. At the same time, by ensuring the integration of 20 systems in Türk Telekom IT systems, a habitat specific to these products offered via TT Bulut was created. In addition to using NSX-T for network virtualization, AVI was preferred as the virtual load balancer solution. While VBR (Veeam Backup and replication) is deployed for customers' backup needs, customers can manage backup management through the Türk Telekom Cloud platform. As a replication solution, service is provided through the Vcloud Availability solution. Here, customers can manage replication via custom cockpit screens instead of Vcloud screens. Customers' resource monitoring and alarm definition operations can also be carried out via VROPS.

The automation and integration studies and custom interface carried out within the scope of the project provided operational workforce benefits. While customers can manage orders, invoices and malfunctions via the self-service portal without being dependent on TT teams, they can also carry out operational work and infrastructure management via the custom portal cockpit.

One of Green Mountain's core values is to put the customer in focus. Above all, customer satisfaction is the most important goal of our business. We have delivered colocation data center services with 100% uptime since day one. Furthermore, we are very transparent about the quality of our services to our customers. In other words, trust is fundamental to our business. But how do we know that we deliver excellent service? We perform an annual customer satisfaction survey. On a 6-point scale, we have received an average score of 5.7 on overall satisfaction with partnership the past 5 years. The client relationships are handled by our service management team lead by Runar Espeland. The team consists of six people and they have very clear opinions on which factors contribute strongly to the high satisfaction score:

• Solid support systems and procedures
• A dedicated contact person for each client
• A flat organizational structure and delegated authority
• Transparency and pro-active communication
• Professional pride
• The Green Mountain company values

Here is a more detailed description of each factor:

Solid support systems and procedure: From day one, Green Mountain has used ITSM systems to manage everything from customer cases to changes and incidents. The ITIL framework (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) has been the cornerstone of the daily work of everyone. We have developed processes, instructions, and systems as we have grown. Often, our own clients have contributed to this development. Moreover, it has been important for Green Mountain to verify our processes through different types of certifications. We are audited regularly, both internally, by clients, and by external auditing firms. Green Mountain's Customer Portal, based on ServiceNow, is an important part of the day-to-day cooperation with our customers. This is the portal where customers log in to place orders, request help/assistance, or find relevant information in our knowledge base. It is a critical tool to obtain first-class customer service and quality management. No matter if you are a rack-by-rack client or a large international cloud provider.

The importance of a dedicated contact person: When we sign a new client, a member of the Service Management team becomes the main contact point for the client. He or she is responsible for the client relationship and communication flow. The customer satisfaction survey shows that 95% of the respondents know who their main contact is. We want to avoid that the client has to contact different people for different types of requests. Regardless of whether the client has a question about HSEQ, risk, maintenance etc. they can pose their questions to the service management team, and they will involve the right people to assist. Of course, they can also request services directly from our operation technicians through our customer portal. Nevertheless, as the client contact point, they always have the overall picture. Having a primary contact also means that we foster a closer and more trusted relationship with the client. We have a regular dialogue with all our clients, and we feel responsible for our delivery to them. It is also our responsibility to document important information in our systems so that if a contact person suddenly becomes unavailable one of the colleagues can take over.

A flat organizational structure and delegated authority: In Green Mountain, we operate with a flat organizational structure where authority is delegated. In other words, we trust our employees to solve challenges at the lowest organizational level possible. Usually, that is where you will find the needed competence and best solutions anyway. We also solve issues faster and better this way. Our field engineers and operation technicians have strong professional pride and are trusted by their supervisors. They know when they can make their own decisions and when to escalate problems to the next level. The customer satisfaction survey demonstrates that this approach is successful. The work of the field engineers received a score of 5.73 in the latest survey.

Transparency and pro-active communication: As mentioned, the service management team is responsible for the communication flow with the customers. In this regard, there is one important principle to follow: Transparency. To build trust we must be open and honest. In practical terms, this means that we share all the data we have with our customers. Through monthly reports and the Green Peak dashboard, clients get a real-time view of the environment in their data room. It measures power usage efficiency (PUE), temperature, humidity, and more. In addition, the customer receives detailed historical data on power consumption, PUE, CO2 footprint, and so forth. Most importantly, we make sure that clients are notified of any circumstances that can affect our delivery. The service management team is present at the Operations meetings to be informed about changes, incidents, and maintenance. Relevant information from these meetings is passed on immediately to the customer. We believe it is better to inform too much too soon, rather than the opposite. The customer satisfaction survey scores received regarding reporting and follow-up support this.

Professional pride: Our clients are important. We have some of the largest domestic companies in Norway as well as large international corporations as our clients. Every single employee knows that we secure mission-critical services for these clients. If we fail, it has huge implications for businesses, for society as well as individuals. We have delivered 100% uptime since the beginning and must continue to do so in the future. Knowing that your job is that important gives you a professional pride and a strong sense of responsibility. Each and everyone in the company has a role to play in delivering on our customer promise.

It is all about the company values: Finally, there is one element that embodies all the above-mentioned reasons - The Green Mountain Company Values. These are: Customer in focus, Knowledge, Reliability and Honesty, and Enthusiasm. We illustrate them in a triangle where the customer is in the middle and the other values represent one line each of the triangle. So why do we think these values are the most important reasons why we have satisfied customers? The straightforward answer is that if you work and behave according to our company values, everything else falls into place. You will understand the importance of all our framework processes, it will guide your priorities and you will become a part of the Green Mountain culture. These values serve as a common foundation for all employees in the way we conduct our work on a daily basis. Also, the customer satisfaction survey shows that our clients recognize them in the way we work. (Please also see client statements in the supporting document.)

Salute Mission Critical, a leading global provider of data center services, announced its acquisition of OBMG Ltd, a European commissioning and QA/QC firm in the mission critical space The strategic acquisition expands Salute's international capabilities for commissioning and QA/QC to support its global clients' continued growth plans. based in Athlone, Ireland, OBMG Ltd has a robust reputation in commissioning services, making it an ideal partner to become part of and enhance Salute's European service offerings.

The news follows Salute's November 2022 acquisition of AMS Helix, a UK-based digital infrastructure solutions provider offering project management and sustainability services throughout EMEA, and it represents another significant step forward in Salute's commitment to delivering top-tier services in EMEA.

In December 2022, Salute also acquired Iconicx, a leading commissioning and QA/QC provider in the U.S. with strong relationships across hyperscale and colocation data center customers. We are thrilled to welcome OBMG Ltd into the Salute family. This acquisition is a testament to our commitment to providing industry-leading support services to facilities worldwide.

OBMG's deep expertise in commissioning and QA/QC complements our existing offerings, enabling us to deliver even more comprehensive solutions to our clients in Europe.Erich Sanchack, CEO of Salute Mission Critical. Joining Salute Mission Critical is an exciting opportunity for OBMG Ltd. Together, we will be able to provide a wider range of services to our clients and further elevate the standard of commissioning and QA/QC services in the industry.Gareth McGowan, Co-Founder and Director of OBMG Ltd.

The datacenter industry is changing fast, with ever-more complex facilities to be built swiftly and efficiently amidst rapidly evolving technological and regulatory standards.

At the same time, the convergence of Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT) is removing the need for fragmented systems, disparate data sources, and limited visibility into critical processes.
Despite this evolution, some legacy BMS suppliers remain entrenched in outdated models.
Often built around proprietary hardware, these are slow to deploy, slow to scale, and slow to adapt, with inherent limitations to operational visibility.

Today’s datacenter operators need high resolution, real-time data delivered in a unified model that enables data-driven planning and decision-making.

Gapit Nordics has taken a fresh approach and built, from the ground up, a modular, all-in-one system tailored specifically to meet the needs of modern datacenters.

Our vendor-agnostic, software-driven approach eliminates the need for custom hardware and leads the way to an efficient, scalable, and future-proof datacenter ecosystem.

The forward-thinking design and architecture of our offering delivers the freedom and flexibility to quickly integrate with a diverse range of suppliers, technologies, and platforms. Quick to deploy, it is reliable and resilient even in the face of the most demanding operational conditions.

We have built a comprehensive library of ready-to-go industrial integrations. From UPS to HVAC, breakers to batteries, and grid analyzers to generators, our systems support your freedom to choose from any supplier and to evolve your operational infrastructure over time.

The Gapit system comes not only with the operational monitoring and control you would expect from a BMS, but also with analytical dashboards, alerting, and reporting. Out-of-the-box and ready-to-go.
Combine these features with unparalleled access to all operational data points and you have single source of truth for the entire datacenter team, both real-time and historical, from signal to screen, without limitations.

Among the many benefits enjoyed by our customers, perhaps the top three are:

Full simulation: the ability to train operators even before the datacenter is completed, ensuring seamless integration and familiarity from day one.

All data, always: Unrestricted access to all data points, across the OT network, without incurring additional costs or restrictions.

Scalability: The Gapit system is specifically designed to accommodate future growth and evolving requirements, for example due to merger or acquisition.

Gapit Nordics serve the entire data centre organization, breaking down silos between departments and fostering collaboration. According to business needs, every team enjoys immediate access to their own essential metrics, enabling data-driven decision-making, reducing costs, and driving growth.
Already supporting more than 420MW across Scandinavia, Gapit Nordics are committed to the long-term success of our customers. With continuous product development and managed services, we ensure the recurring value of our software products.

At Gapit Nordics, we're not just revolutionizing BMS we're redefining what's possible for datacenter operations and management, empowering our customers to navigate the complexities of modern datacenters with confidence.

It is an innovative application that aims to record field operation operations such as maintenance, control, malfunction, and escort in our Data Centers, distribute these recorded field tasks to field personnel, monitor all processes such as photo-file uploading, form filling, and ensure that all these operations can be reported.

TTBOSS application offers a business tracking platform that can be monitored, measured and analyzed In addition to automated work assignments and reminders, it can provide simultaneous reporting and intervention at the time of operation by digitizing it.

The TTBOSS project, which is available to VM personnel via both web and mobile applications, facilitates field operation tasks and ensures that all steps can be recorded.

With this application, all malfunction, maintenance and control operations of our data center operation teams are carried out through the application. Planning and monthly/annual/weekly maintenance management can be provided.

Thanks to the TTBOSS application in our data centers
• Malfunction, Maintenance, Control, Planning, Management and Reporting
• Work Order Field Operation and Personnel Tracking
• Facility Inventory Information System
• Inventory, Stock, Warehouse, Management System
• With the web and mobile application, all field operations can be controlled, monitored and reported instantly.
• Inventories, debits and stocks of personnel, customers and warehouses can be recorded.

Work orders can be assigned to data center personnel and these assigned tasks can be tracked.

Which inventories are available in our data centers and their stock status can be tracked.

Loughborough University is today ranked world number one for sports-related subjects, and is home to the UK’s largest concentration of world-class sporting facilities – with an attending body of 19,500 students across its 523-acre campus. IT is fundamental to its operations, from its high-performance computing (HPC) servers, which support analytical research projects, to a highly virtualised data centre environment that provisions critical applications including finance, administration, and security.

To overcome a series of data centre challenges including requirements for a complete redesign, modernisation of legacy cooling systems and improved cooling efficiencies, and greater visibility of its distributed IT assets, Loughborough worked with on365 and Schneider Electric to undertake a major modernisation project at its Haslegrave and Holywell Park data centres, primarily to ensure greater continuity of its critical systems.

Delivered in two phases, which would minimise the chance of downtime and ensure a robust and resilient system was in place should any failures take place, the project saw on365 innovatively modernise the Haslegrave facility. By replacing an outdated raised floor and deploying Schneider Electric's EcoStruxure™ for Data Centers architecture an IoT-enabled system the integral part of the EcoStruxure Row Data Center was pre-engineered, configurable and includes scalable row solutions encompassing racks, power, cooling and management systems. The deployment of this, integrated row-based data centre solution has significantly improved the overall structure, enabling an efficient data centre design.

During the upgrade, on365 also brought other parts of the infrastructure under the IT department’s control, using new InRow DX (direct expansion) units to deliver improved cooling reliability and provide it with greater ability to cope with unplanned weather events, including heat waves, which had adversely affected its IT and cooling operations in the past.

Use of the EcoStruxure Row Data Center solution also created new space for future IT expansions and extended a ‘no single points of failure’ design throughout the facility. This made the environment more suitable for a new generation of compact and powerful servers, and the solution was replicated at Holywell Park thereafter. Further improvements in resilience and efficiency were also achieved by replacing legacy UPSs with Schneider Electric’s Galaxy VS UPS with lithium-ion batteries, which offers up to 99% energy efficiency, without compromising availability.

Alongside the new EcoStruxure Row Data Centre, the university also upgraded the software used to manage and control its infrastructure. An early adopter of Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure Data Center Expert software, Loughborough has now deployed the company’s EcoStruxureTM IT data centre infastructure solution, providing it with enhanced levels of visibility and data-driven insights that quickly help to identify and mitigate potential faults before they become critical.

The major challenge was having a well-structured preventative maintenance program is vital to ensure that the data centre and IT systems are optimised and operationally efficient was a major challenge as well having site of the systems 100% of the time. To address this, they signed a new three-year Schneider Electric services agreement delivered via on365, to give the university 24x7 access to expert maintenance support, reflecting its ongoing commitment to protecting the investments in its new infrastructure, and ensures the equipment is fully operational, reliable, and quality maintained.

The university also utilised a large distributed, edge network environment, which has in-excess of sixty APCTM Smart-UPSTM single-phase UPS’s protecting it. As part of its services agreement, all critical power systems are monitored and maintained via EcoStruxure IT, providing real-time visibility and helping IT personnel to manage the campus’ network more efficiently.

The project saw Schneider Electric and on365 modernise the universities IT infrastructure with new energy efficient technologies, including an EcoStruxure Row Data Center, InRow Cooling solution, GalaxyTM VS UPS and EcoStruxure IT management and monitoring data centre infrastructure software, enabling the university to harness the power of resilient IT infrastructure, data analytics and digital services to support new breakthroughs in sporting research.

Looking forward, Schneider Electric and on365’s work with Loughborough University has been invaluable and will play a key role in its future IT sustainability strategy. By modernising its infrastructure with the latest in resilient and energy efficient technologies and harnessing the power of both data analytics and predictive maintenance, the university has seen tangible benefits futureproofing its campus to support new breakthroughs in sporting research.

It is for these reasons Schneider Electric and on365’s work at Loughborough University deserves DCS’s Data Centre Consolidation/ Upgrade Project of the Year.

Datum own and operate an existing live and operational data centre facility which supports a large number of major customers. Due to changes over time, the facility was now no longer thought to be operating at peak efficiency and therefore further review by Sudlows was commissioned. In addition to this, the increasing peak temperatures each year since the facility was designed meant that what was once a peak ambient temperature suitable for extreme design conditions, was at risk of being breeched in the coming years.

With the systems supporting a critical IT facility, improvements had been made in previous years to enhance airflow around the heat rejection systems, and adiabatic assistance had been implemented for additional support, however there was a desire to further improve the efficiency and performance over the long term through a full review of the system and space, and the delivery of the necessary upgrades to improve efficiency and high ambient performance.

In addition to performance, a major driver for the project was reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions to support the business in their wider sustainability goals.

Sudlows worked closely with Datum to identify solutions and to design, install and commission the upgrades within the live and operational environment. Firstly, a high ambient condenser upgrade was proposed, which also improved head pressure and fan speed control, and secondly, there was a comprehensive review of the integrity and air segregation within the space, distribution of floor grilles, aisle containment and operating set points.

The first part of the project was the most difficult to implement due it being a live operational facility. Cooling and cooling redundancy had to be maintained at all times with no interruption which required careful and meticulous planning and execution of the works. When reducing the number of operating units, we used CFD to ensure that the remaining units were not overloaded, and that the facility was not exposed to any elevated risk of failure. To ensure the absolute minimum impact to the space we heavily restricted the number of circuits which were taken out of service at any given time and, to the credit of the team, were able to sequence the works so no unit was shut down entirely at any point.

There were logistical challenges identified due to the location and physical size of the new and existing systems which were required to exist concurrently alongside one another during the works. To deliver this we identified and constructed a new compound which allowed for the large majority of works to be completed independently of the existing systems with works to deliver the final change over to the new condensers being completed in a relatively short time frame, with reduced risk and impact and temporary cooling as an additional final mitigation.

Although still within a live facility, the second phase of the works were broken down into incremental stages to allow for these works to be completed within the live facility, again without interruption, but with less challenges faced to do so.

There is much focus on the ability to design and build new data centre facilities which operate with a high efficiency however the legacy estate which exists within the industry is often overlooked because of the complexity of working in and around live environments, and the untrue expectation that high efficiencies are not able to be delivered without building new.

This project highlights the potential energy savings which can be delivered within legacy facilities, and that these gains are realistic and achievable.

The detail around the planning and implementation of the project was a significant contributor to the projects success which is a testament to the professionalism and expertise within both the Sudlows and Datum teams responsible for the delivery of the works.

The delivery of the works without downtime, and the fact that no system was taken offline fully during the works is of particular note.

The second stage of the works which focused on the operational efficiency of the space demonstrates how large improvements can be made without a fundamental redesign or change in cooling technology used. This phase identified and addressed small inefficiencies which are expected to cumulate to the equivalent to approximately 100kW of cooling saved in the summer months.

Finally, the use of CFD to model the existing, to stress test the proposed replacement process, and to theorise best optimisations for the final environment shows an attention to detail and a keen use of advanced simulation and technology to deliver the best results.

The project was a major success for both Sudlows and the end user. The works were delivered on time and were delivered without downtime, while disruption and risk to the live and operational facility were minimised.

The works re-aligned the facility with extreme temperatures we now expect to reach in this part of the UK by not selecting a like-for-like replacement of the condensers, but taking the opportunity to increase their performance, selecting for increased ambient temperatures of up to 40°C. This will provide a robust system enhancing an already very resilient facility to meet future anticipated ambient temperatures and improving long term resilience, reliability, and performance.

In addition to these performance improvements, the works have also resulted in a vast improvement in the efficiency of the cooling systems. Without changing the fundamental cooling technology in use within the facility, and without requiring any major reconfigurations to the space, we have reduced energy consumption of the cooling systems. During the months since the works, energy savings between matching periods from the previous year have been recorded up to 16%, and anticipated savings into the upcoming summer expected to exceed 20% due to the improved peak ambient operation. This equates to a reduction of around 55,000 kg CO2 p.a equivalent.

The wider outcome for this project is that an existing space is given a highly efficient second lease of life, avoiding the construction of new data centre space, and with that avoiding the embodied carbon associated with new build construction.

Introduction

In the heady world of Data Centre cooling, our customers said that they wanted Resilience, Energy Efficiency, Scalability and Sustainability. This then formed the basis of a £3M research and development programme for our global engineering teams. They were tasked to deliver, and deliver they have, judging by the already high levels of customer uptake for the new Hydro Denco solution!

Design Principles

Some of the foregoing customer requirements, such as resilience and energy efficiency, can often be antagonistic, as a few Data Centre operators have already found out to their cost. If you have to factor in the cost of any complexity induced downtime to investment calculations, payback periods will quickly become infinite!

With this in mind, the Hydro Denco system differs from previous concepts in that it offers extremely energy efficient cooling, but without any of the complexity associated with other technologies. Hydro Denco meets the requirements of the most demanding designers but will also be safe if left in the hands of the lowest bidder for the maintenance contract!

How was Hydro Denco Achieved?

Firstly, we ruled out any mechanical refrigeration, so no compressors, refrigerants, or complex controls. This gets rid of all associated regulatory issues such as F Gas compliance, whilst also addressing environmental and sustainability concerns.

Then we decided that AC motors would be banished, such that everything would be driven by Electronically Commutated (EC) type motors. This not only maximises efficiency, but also facilitates speed control and hence exceptional energy savings, particularly at reduced loadings. Our cooling coils then went under the spotlight, adopting the latest technologies and manufacturing techniques to produce the ultimate in efficient heat exchangers.

Then we streamlined the air system to allow relatively high air volume flow rates without the penalty of high dynamic pressure losses, to cut theoretical fan power to an absolute minimum. Lastly, we looked at the water system, and threw out the control valves, the balancing valves and the flow measuring valves, in fact anything that caused a resistance to water flow! The result of all this was Hydro Denco.

How Does Hydro Denco Work?

A very high efficiency indoor cooling coil is supplied with glycol solution from a very high efficiency external heat rejection coil. The term High Efficiency can be interpreted in several ways. In this case, we mean that the cooling coil can supply air at a temperature only 2K higher than that of the entering water, without significant air or water side pressure losses. Similarly, the heat rejection coil can lower the water temperature to within 4K of the prevailing external ambient wet bulb temperature, such that there is only a 6K uplift between indoor and outdoor conditions. A small, EC pump runs only at a speed necessary to provide sufficient heat transfer to maintain Data Centre conditions.

Integral touch screen controls adjust the speed of the pump and external fans to maintain the desired supply air temperature, whilst the internal fans modulate to provide a constant temperature difference between supply and return air.

Sounds Somewhat Simple - What are the Limitations?

In order to obviate the requirement for any mechanical refrigeration, the Data Centre needs to be located where the maximum external wet bulb temperature is 6K or more below the maximum desired supply air temperature to the servers. Even for a conservative 28^OC supply temperature, the required external wet bulb of 22^OC would permit deployment anywhere in Northern Europe and many other locations worldwide.

Ease of Installation and Commissioning

Simply run flow and return pipework, together with power and a control pair between indoor and outdoor units, to provide maximum resilience through multiple, autonomous systems.

As an example, a 200kW cooling system would require only DN80 piping and the controls read water temperatures and flow rate for ease of commissioning.

The Proof of the Pudding

Hydro Denco units with sensible cooling capacities of up to 250kW are already installed around the world, achieving cooling partial Power Utilisation Effectiveness (pPUE) figures of up to 1.15 in peak summer, reducing to around 1.05 during winter and some mid-season conditions. With an annualised pPUE of around 1.1, part load performance gets somewhat better, as thanks to the cube law, a system running at only 80% design cooling capacity will require only 50% of the design energy input and running at 50% design cooling capacity this falls to a mere 20% of energy input. You don't have to take our word for all this either, as Hydro Denco units incorporate their own energy monitoring systems within the on-board controls!

Benefits for the UK Grid

Data Centres are notoriously low-key buildings that rarely like to advertise their presence and probably for this reason, estimates of total energy draw from the UK grid vary considerably. It is however generally agreed that the figure lies somewhere between 5% and 10% of overall UK electricity consumption and this will only increase over time. A recent project involved a London Data Centre using 40% of the server power for the cooling system, a pPUE of 1.4 which is quite typical of legacy installations. The deployment of a Hydro Denco system reduced this pPUE to an average of 1.12, which represents a reduction of some 28% in terms of the cooling system energy consumption, and nearly 10% in terms of overall site energy consumption. We therefore think it reasonable to conclude that the potential energy saving for the installed base would be somewhere between 0.5% and 1% of UK energy consumption!

Conclusion

For all the reasons outlined previously, we consider Hydro Denco to be a worthy candidate for DCS Cooling Innovation of the Year, and sincerely hope that you will agree!

A shot in the arm, such as a DCS award would give the project much increased momentum, not just for the delight of FlaktGroup, but also allowing the data centre industry as a whole to benefit from the associated environmental and sustainability benefits.

As more businesses continue to digitize their processes from artificial intelligence, simulation or automation technology and other Big Data projects, the demand on data center resource, capacity and space is rapidly increasing. This increase in this demand results in significant cooling requirements that have been estimated to be responsible for between 30-55% of total energy costs within traditional data centers and comes amidst skyrocketing energy costs. atNorth customer BNP Paribas CIB is an example of a business that needed to increase their data center capacity to be able to meet their customer's increasing need for high performance, data-intensive IT workloads.

The bank initially moved a third of its data center footprint to one of atNorth's sites in Iceland in 2018 that resulted in a reduction of energy consumption by more than 50%, and an 85% decrease in CO2 output. BNP Paribas needed to further increase grid capacity by 20% to keep up with the growth of their market activity. The business understood that to meet the increasing need for high performance computing they would need to engage a data center provider that employed cutting edge digital infrastructure. The challenge was to combine this need for growth whilst meeting business sustainability objectives at a low cost.

After a rigorous selection process - that included a CSR questionnaire that made up 40% of the evaluation criteria - atNorth's SWE01 site was selected because it was specifically designed to cater for high performance computing needs alongside high and low-density workloads with efficiency, and sustainability at the heart of the innovative design. Sustainability is an integral part of atNorth's business ethos and so the environmental and financial impact of efficient computer cooling was top of mind when designing the SWE01 data center. Not only does the site also runs on 100% renewable energy sources and contributes to the region's circular economy principles, it was also built to specifically include world class heat capturing technologies from the offset, that keeps us ahead of the competition. This means that residual heat from the site enters cooling units to heat water, that then travels into heat pumps which raise the temperature of the water before it is sent to the district heating network, Stockholm Exergi. Stockholm Exergi can then draw the excess heat from the data center to potentially heat up to 20,000 apartments. SWE01 also utilizes very efficient, cutting edge infrastructure. At atNorth, we are always searching for more innovative and sustainable ways to maximize efficiencies, and save our customers money. As part of this atNorth alongside BNP carefully evaluated the right partners to ensure the computer hardware was second to none. atNorth collaborated with Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) to utilize the most efficient microprocessors in order to reduce CO2 footprint without compromising on performance. These microprocessors save up to 30% of power consumption for the same number of servers (provided by Dell Technologies) and ensured the minimum amount of infrastructure that needed to be cooled. Additionally, atNorth sought a partner who could help us further enhance our cooling operations with advanced liquid cooling technology.

CoolIT Systems emerged as a trusted leader in direct liquid cooling (DLC) solution providers, allowing atNorth to serve our customers with additional capabilities in leading-edge data center technology. And because CoolIT's technology boosts energy efficiency, they help us pursue one of our core values of promoting sustainability too. CoolIT's direct liquid cooling technology, uses warm water (versus cold air) to dissipate the heat from computer and server components. The technology captures heat in its liquid path, so that the water is heated inside the server and connected directly to atNorth's core cooling system. This effectively eliminates the need for chillers and air conditioning units, which are a massive drain on electricity. To achieve high level of resiliency CoolIT designed the solution using their large CHx750 Coolant Distribution Units, that were configured to operate as one logical system, CoolIT was also responsible for bespoke design of stainless steel manifolds. This collaboration enables the IT equipment to work more efficiently and allows atNorth a greater control over the heat reuse process.

Traditional data center providers charge their customers for the unused empty space necessary in setups with inefficient heat exchange. atNorth's partnership with CoolIT allowed the support of greater computing densities while reducing the data center footprint. The technology can be customized to fit a customer's specific installation leading to better space utilization, increased efficiency and makes it easier to facilitate sustainability-first practices. For customers, this means more productive and stable CPUs. It can also potentially mean significant cost savings as the system allows for IT arrangements that reduce the number of racks a customer needs to purchase. We built our data center in Sweden with this solution in mind from day one, says Lahdet. We planned our facility in cooperation with the heat reuse supply company, Stockholm Exergi, so the excess heat can be funneled into the district heating network. Using liquid cooling allows us to bypass an unnecessary step in the reuse process, that increases the efficiency of the heat capture.

By moving digital infrastructure to atNorth's SWE01 site, BNP Paribas has future-proofed its business against increasing energy demands and the associated costs, not to mention adherence to ESG targets and ever evolving technology requirements. The SWE01 site is not only capable of meeting high density computing needs in a highly efficient way, it also serves as a decarbonization platform due to its ability to reuse excess heat and operates at a lower cost as a result of both the cutting edge design and the abundance of renewable energy in the region. The resulting world class heat capturing and cooling technologies allow for a truly energy sustainable solution and serves as a blueprint for atNorth's future data centers. In fact, BNP Paribas was chosen as the world's best bank for sustainable finance in 2023 as a result of transitioning energy producing finance activities to be powered by low carbon energies. BNP save 1,67tCO2 a year after moving portions of their workloads from France and the UK to our SWE01 site in Stockholm Testimonials:

1. Alexis Carrion, CIB Global Head of Data Centers, BNP Paribas: &ldquoatNorth has been instrumental in helping BNP Paribas ensure our IT operations are as sustainable and carbon neutral as possible, which is an initiative close to the core of our business. We have seen great results from migrating IT workloads to atNorth's data center site in Iceland six years ago. As we look to increase our grid computing capacity, the atNorth site is the obvious solution in meeting both demand as well as our guiding principles for sustainability and efficiency. atNorth meets our criteria and importantly is an operational partner that we know and trust to help us to advance our best practices to reduce the digital footprint of our IT infrastructure and operations.

2. Ricardo Jantarada, Global Head of Telecom &amp Datacentre at BNP Paribas CIB: &ldquoThrough atNorth's innovative data centre design, we have reduced our energy consumption by 50% due to the transition of our in-house data centre to atNorth's sustainable facility in Iceland in 2018. By using only renewable energy sources and decreasing our carbon footprint 85%, BNP Paribas is realising its dual mission to reduce its environmental impact and better serve our customers.

3. Constance Chalchat, Global Markets Chief Sustainability Officer, BNP Paribas By 2030, we will have completed transitioning over 80% of our energy production financing activities to the production of low-carbon energies

4. Luc Wagemakers, Area Manager of EMEA for CoolIT Systems: We see a lot more demand from many different industries using high-performance computing for their simulations - aerospace, banking, biomedical, pharmaceutical - so much more is possible these days. HPC is not only for academics or government anymore. Data centers like atNorth's are purpose-built to meet the increasing demands of HPC. They empower their customers with state-of-the-art systems better equipped to facilitate direct liquid cooling.

5. Stefan Jofors aTribe, Nordic Sales Director for atNorth: As density increases across the solution stack, we have emphasized being ready for next generation cooling solutions such as DLC. We are already pushing the limits of traditional air-cooled systems as seen in the partly-filled racks in data centers around the world. A solution like this can be tailor-made for a particular customer's needs. It's extremely easy to customize and build a resilient solution that adds efficiencies into the process overall.

1、What are your company's key distinguishing features and/or USP?

Established in June 2021, Huawei Digital Power Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Digital Power for short) is a leading global provider of digital power products and solutions, operating as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Huawei. Our unique value lies in our long-term R&D investment in digital and power electronics technologies. Focusing on technology convergence and innovation, we aim to accelerate clean energy generation, build green data centers, and sites, and ultimately contribute to zero-carbon buildings, campuses, and cities. Huawei Digital Power's business domains include smart PV, smart charging network, data center facility, and site power facility. It operates 12 R&D centers in regions including China, Europe, and Asia Pacific and possesses a total of 2122 valid patents (by the end of 2023). With approximately 10,000 employees, 60% of whom focus on R&D, Huawei Digital Power serves over 3 billion people in more than 170 countries and regions.
In terms of data center facility, Huawei proposes the concept of GSSR (Green, Simple, Smart, Reliable) to develop three scenario-specific low-carbon solutions for large data centers, small- and medium-sized data centers, and critical power supply to power the digital era forward. Specific products and solutions include outdoor prefabricated modular data centers, indoor modular data centers, power supply systems, cooling and management systems.

2、What tangible impact has your company had on the market and your customers?

With over 30 years of experience in data center construction and operation, Huawei's products and solutions are widely used in various industries, including colocation/OTT, carriers, finance, government, manufacturing, and transportation, etc. To date, Huawei has successfully delivered more than 1000 large-scale data center projects with our partners together, providing more than 14GW capacity. Going forward, Huawei will continue to follow its customer-centric values and innovate to build reliable, green, simple, and smart data centers. According to Omdia and Frost & Sullivan, Huawei's modular UPS has ranked No. 1 in global market share for seven consecutive years, its modular data center (FusionModule2000) has ranked No. 1 in global by market share for five consecutive years, and its prefabricated modular data center (FusionDC) has ranked No. 1 in global by market share for eight consecutive years.

3、What levels of customer service differentiate you from your competitors?

Huawei Digital Power adheres to customer-centric values and continuously creates value for customers. We put customers first, focus on their needs, and strive to help them succeed. We succeed only when our customers succeed. Second, we innovate based on customer needs, stay open-minded, and continually create value for customers. And last but not least, we promote cooperation across the value chain, grow together with partners, develop a healthy and harmonious business ecosystem, and achieve success for all. By the end of December 2023, Huawei Digital Power has already helped customers save 46.1 billion kWh of electricity, and reduced CO2 emissions by 495 million tons, which is equivalent to planting 680 million trees.

4、What are the major differentiators between your company and your primary competitors?

Huawei has invested 20% of its revenue in R&D in 2023. Over three decades of dedicated R&D efforts, we have accumulated end-to-end technical experience and successful practices in the data center industry. From the perspective of the entire data center, Huawei provides a full-stack data center solution, covering the power system, cooling system, and management system at L1, servers, storage devices, and network devices at L2, and cloud platform at L3. based on extensive exploration and long-term practice, Huawei integrates digital and power electronics technologies to build green, simple, smart, and reliable data center facilities for the future to power the digital era forward.
Green: Huawei data center solutions feature high energy efficiency, high density, and a small footprint. We provide end-to-end (E2E) carbon emission reduction to maximize energy utilization and minimize environmental impact. Huawei's indirect evaporative cooling EHU maximizes the use of natural cooling sources, supports one heat exchange, and saves 60% of water and electricity. The PUE in Ireland is as low as 1.15.
Simple: We adopt simple design from deployment to O&M throughout the lifecycle. Huawei’s FusionDC solution adopts the modular design and is prefabricated in the factory, reducing onsite construction period by 50%. The time-to-market period for a 1000 rack data center is only 6-9 months, a significant improvement over the traditional 18 months period, facilitating rapid service rollout.
Smart: We make use of intelligent O&M and AI-based energy efficiency optimization to maximize O&M efficiency and energy efficiency. With Huawei's iCooling energy efficiency optimization solution, the actual PUE during operation is consistent with the designed PUE. In indirect evaporative cooling scenarios, the PUE is reduced by 3% to 5%.
Reliable: We build an comprehensive and active safeguard to ensure architecture reliability and preventive maintenance. With iPower functions, Huawei PowerPOD 3.0 can provide full-link active maintenance through more than 150 temperature measurement points and life prediction of key components.

5、Please supply any supportive quotes and/or case study materials to demonstrate the position of your company in the market.

Regarding market share, please refer to the attachment “modular data center market share and modular UPS market share”, which have been submitted separately.

CBRE Data Centre Solutions is a specialist business group within CBRE that helps customers reduce risk and efficiently manage their data centre facilities. Through technology, expert people, best in class processes, training, and global scale, we lead the market in our ability to deliver optimal performance for our customers data centres. Our customers benefit from the experience and best practice we have developed through managing over 900 data centre facilities in 45 countries.

We provide a full range of data centre lifecycle services, from extensive maintenance and project capabilities to energy optimization and analytic insights. CBRE DCS helps clients protect their brand and unlock maximum value from their data centre assets. The way that we best manage a large data centre portfolio with minimal downtime is through implementing DCS Shield. This program has proven to reduce downtime and human error for our clients and is the reason our downtime rate is so low.

In 2023 DCS Shield significantly reduced downtime caused by human error, which is outstanding when considering almost 6 million hours of operation across 900 data centre sites in 45 countries. In this awards submission we outline the elements of DCS Shield - People, Process & Technology, and demonstrate how these come together to make CBRE the Best Data Centre Facilities Vendor. DCS Shield CBRE has a specialist data centre approach to people, process, and technology - reinforced by a culture dedicated to critical engineering and risk management - DCS Shield. The purpose of DCS Shield is to provide our customers with proactive monitoring and management of their critical facility infrastructure. By using DCS Shield, our customers can improve uptime, optimize energy efficiency, and enhance overall operational performance. It helps ensure that the data centre facilities we manage are operating at peak performance and are protected against any potential risks or disruptions.

1) People: Training, Retention & Culture At CBRE, our people are the most important element of our business. We pride ourselves on the development of our talent, starting with recruiting the best people, and offering them industry-leading training programs. We ensure professional development through coaching and succession planning and presenting significant career progression opportunities and rewards. Our team counts 4000 Data Center Experts and provides them with twice the industry average for training and development resulting in a high retention rate (96%). The supporting document lists all programs and solutions for Recruitment, Training, Professional Development and DE&I that CBRE has implemented to attract, train and retain talents.

2) Process: World-Class Operational Procedures & Risk Management A) Critical Environment Risk Management CERM&trade The foundation upon which all our operating procedures and methodologies rest is our internally developed, industry unique program for Critical Environment Risk Management (CERM&trade) - approach to Critical Engineering and Risk Management, which is based around the five pillars of CERM&trade, namely: - Administration & Site Management - Training & Qualifications - Planning, Analysis & Engineering - Continuous Improvement - Operations & Maintenance B) Using CERM&trade to Manage Risk CERM&trade CBRE proprietary Data Centre risk management program that is aimed at reducing human factor related risk. CERM&trade offers a standardized suite of tools, procedures and technology applications based on steps identified as having the highest impact on reducing risk and increasing uptime, resulting in a decrease of human factor related risk by up to 80%. C) CERM&trade Quantum At CBRE we use technology to manage risk. In our client partnerships we utilise our CERM&trade Quantum platform. This platform is the backbone of our operations, helping us weave specific processes, procedures, and targets into our teams daily tasks. Whats unique about CERM&trade Quantum is that it gives everyone from our team to our customers complete visibility over how were managing and operating the crucial IT and M&E systems that support your data centre. How Clients benefits when using CERM&trade Quantum - Significantly reduce risk related to human factors. - Total transparency across risk, compliance, and operations. - Identify opportunities to further reduce risk and improve compliance. - Our technical site teams skills and competency levels also get a boost. - Better corporate governance and visibility across your data centre portfolios.

3) Technology: Data-Driven Insights & Visibility CBREs advanced technologies are designed specifically for data centre operations and provides a complete overview of how our portfolio operates. Technology is the enabler, allowing our teams to actively manage service delivery in the simplest way, giving our clients the transparency and business intelligence needed to make data-driven decisions. Whether it is to support strategic decision making about their assets, portfolio and sustainability performance, or tactical daily management of service delivery, the CBRE Digital Platform delivers everything our clients need. The CBRE DC tech stack is designed to store, trend and analyse data for business performance, with all critical information visible on a single dashboard. This bespoke risk management platform is what sets us apart, as it brings together people, process and technology, all in one place. Quantum Glass gives total visibility for our people and clients, on the management and operations of the critical IT and M&E systems supporting data centres. BENEFITS: - Increased data visibility - Streamlined operations - Enhanced reporting and risk management - 24x7 access via cloud technology - 100% transparency across key compliance documentation - Improved security and data retention

4) Innovation & Continuous Improvement DCS Shield covers how we manage data centre facilities, but to be the best data centre facilities vendor also requires continuous improvement and staying ahead of the game with innovation. Here we outline our initiatives in this area, to ensure we constantly deliver the best for our customers. A) The Journey to Digital Operations Digital technologies, machine learning and artificial intelligence currently receive a lot of airtime, and are emerging as the leading trends transforming data centre operations. CBRE have experience of deploying and operating several technologies in this domain across varied asset classes and based on this experience, we have developed a phased approach to this on a timeline-based risk and reward. About Smart FM Smart FM Solutions is the wider CBRE initiative and a significant piece on our roadmap. Smart FM solution leverages people, processes, and integrated technology to provide: •; Data-driven decisions and responses, lowering costs and helping to mitigate the tech talent shortage •; Connected technology deployment that aggregates all FM services into one cohesive solution and actionable dataset •; More efficient FM delivery through monitoring and analysis of equipment status and space usage •; Reduction in energy consumption and carbon emissions to meet our clients goals B) Continuous improvement Above and beyond our drive towards our drive to digital operations, CBRE drives continuous improvement through our down-streamed business, empowering our site teams with full operational autonomy, to make quick decisions and take day to day actions. These initiatives include: - Weekly meetings - Internal Contract Reviews - Monthly/Quarterly Business Reviews - Annual Performance Reviews - Annual Customer Satisfaction Survey - Monthly Net Promoter Score - Other quality performance reports (ongoing project reports, risk register, KPI scorecard, net promoter score, best practice SharePoint, statutory compliance C) Continued Innovation We drive innovation with our clients in a number of different ways, these include: - Digital Innovation Platform - Innovation Charter - Innovation Exchange - Thought Leadership - Partnerships - Innovation Workshops and Strategy Days - Supply Chain Relationships - Encouraging Diversity - Employee Suggestions D) Innovation Charter CBRE has created a structured approach and framework to delivering tangible innovation. Known as The Innovation Charter, this is a powerful tool for driving continuous improvement. The Innovation Charter framework has 7 Steps which each have a comprehensive set of documents, tools and templates that enable and support CBRE teams on client sites, to work in collaboration with key client stakeholders at each of the seven stages of the charter. This process encourages the development of potential areas of innovation, such as: - Digital and technology - Process - Client partnership and collaboration - Energy and sustainability - People and communication - Workplace experience - Value adding enhanced services E) Supply Partner Innovation Each year we issue a challenge to our supplier partners - bring us your greatest ideas on innovations, new ways of working and best-in- class service delivery to our customers. This aims to facilitate innovation through engagement with supplier partners, products, people and technologies.

Custodian Data Centres emerges as a beacon of excellence in the UK data center landscape, embodying a service-first ethos, unmatched technical expertise, and unwavering commitment to customer support. Since its establishment in 2008, Custodian Data Centres has been at the forefront of designing, building, and operating data centers that prioritize resilience, redundancy, and customer satisfaction.

At the heart of Custodian's philosophy lies a steadfast dedication to putting the customer first. From the outset, Custodian's data centers have been meticulously designed and engineered to exceed the expectations of its diverse clientele, offering bespoke solutions tailored to meet their unique needs and requirements.

What sets Custodian apart is its genuine commitment to building lasting partnerships with its customers. Far more than just a colocation provider, Custodian positions itself as a trusted ally, offering unwavering support and guidance to businesses as they navigate the complexities of data infrastructure. With a team of in-house experts spanning from the Network Operations Center (NOC) to Mechanical and Electrical (M&E) engineering, Custodian ensures that customers receive comprehensive support every step of the way.

Custodian's dedication to service excellence is further underscored by its agile and resilient approach to data center operations. Whether working with startups or multinational corporations, Custodian's team of experts stands ready to assist businesses of all sizes and industries, providing critical solutions with agility and reliability.

Moreover, Custodian's commitment to continuous improvement and innovation ensures that its data centers remain at the forefront of industry standards and best practices. With a focus on adaptability and scalability, Custodian's facilities are equipped to support businesses as they grow and evolve in an ever-changing digital landscape.

VIRTUS Data Centres (VIRTUS) is a trusted leader in the data centre industry and the UK's leading data centre company, committed to delivering reliable, resilient and responsible digital infrastructure for its customers. As part of ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC), VIRTUS is the home of the cloud in London, and at the heart of Europe.

VIRTUS has a proven track record of over a decade designing and operating the UK's most efficient facilities. Committed to the highest standards of Operational Excellence - safety, security and availability - VIRTUS hires the best people to work in an industry which is increasingly essential to everyone and everything. We are laser focused on responsibly delivering solutions for the benefit of our customers, colleagues, suppliers, the environment and the world, every minute of every day.

Digital Realty, the largest global provider of cloud- and carrier-neutral data center, colocation and interconnection solutions, announced the continued momentum of ServiceFabric&trade, its service orchestration platform that seamlessly interconnects workflow participants, applications, clouds and ecosystems on PlatformDIGITAL®, its global data center platform. Following the recent introduction of Service Directory, a central marketplace that allows Digital Realty partners to highlight their offerings, over 70 members have joined the directory and listed more than 100 services, including secure and direct connections to over 200 global cloud on-ramps, creating a vibrant ecosystem for seamless interconnection and collaboration. Service Directory is a core component of the ServiceFabric&trade product family that underpins Digital Realtys vision for interconnecting global data communities on PlatformDIGITAL® and enabling customers to tackle the challenges of Data Gravity head-on. Chris Sharp, Chief Technology Officer, Digital Realty, said: ServiceFabric&trade is redefining the way customers and partners interact with our global data center platform. By fostering an open and collaborative environment, we're empowering businesses to build and orchestrate their ideal solutions with unparalleled ease and efficiency.

The need for an open interconnection and orchestration platform is critical as an enabler for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance compute (HPC), especially as enterprises increasingly deploy private AI applications, which rely on the low latency, private exchange of data between many members of an ecosystem. PlatformDIGITAL® was chosen to be the home of many groundbreaking AI and HPC workloads and ServiceFabric&trade was designed with the needs of cutting-edge applications in mind. A key differentiator is Service Directorys Click-to-Connect capability, which allows customers to orchestrate and automate on-demand connections to the services they need, significantly streamlining workflows and removing manual configuration steps. With Click-to-Connect, ServiceFabric&trade users can:

• Generate secure service keys, granting controlled access to resources and partners with customisable security parameters
• Automate approval workflows and facilitate connections to Service Directory, paving the way for seamless interconnectivity
• Initiate service connections, significantly streamlining workflows between partners and customers
• Integrate seamlessly with Service Directory, creating a unified experience for discovery, connection, and orchestration Leading companies are embracing the power of ServiceFabric&trade Service Directory including: We are excited to extend our collaboration with Digital Realty by bringing together the automation capabilities of PlatformDigital® and Console Connect. The availability of Console Connect on the ServiceFabric&trade

Service Directory provides Digital Realty customers with on-demand access to our full global ecosystem, while enabling Console Connect users to seamlessly interconnect to more Digital Realty locations worldwide. We share Digital Realtys vision of building a more open and interconnected digital ecosystem. - Michael Glynn, SVP of Digital Automated Innovation, Console Connect ServiceFabric&trade Service Directory is a great fit for our global digital infrastructure platform. It can enable our customers and partners to connect faster and more easily via Colt, regardless of their location. - Mark Hollman, Vice President for Partner Development and Success, Colt Technology Services We firmly believe ServiceFabric&trade Service Directory has the potential to transform the way businesses connect and consume cloud services. As Fortinet continues to work closely with DigitalRealty to expand its global cloud network of SASE locations, the opportunity to grow our strategic partnership by offering additional Fortinet cloud-delivered security and connectivity solutions as part of an on-demand service will help an even broader number of customers seamlessly secure their business-critical data, devices, and applications. - Michael Xie, Founder, President, and Chief Technology Officer, Fortinet ServiceFabric&trade Service Directory provides us with a unique platform to showcase our high-performance compute and automated network solutions to a global audience of Digital Realty customers. We're confident it will help us expand our reach and accelerate our growth. - Richard Nicholas, SVP Strategy and Corporate Development, Hivelocity Digital Realty's ServiceFabric&trade has emerged as an essential feature of its portfolio. As one of the leading global providers of data center, colocation and interconnection services, Digital Realty enables agile digital infrastructure capability for enterprises and the IT ecosystem. Enabling real time interconnection orchestration among IT partners and vendors is one the most important requirements for customers leveraging colocation facilities. The continued growth and expansion of ServiceFabric is a testament to the relevance of this platform and the vision of Digital Realty. - Courtney Munroe, RVP, IDC With ServiceFabric&trade Service Directory, businesses can access and use cloud services in a new and dynamic way. Lumen's Network-as-a Service solution leverages this platform to deliver on-demand experiences that address the most urgent business needs. We are excited to be part of this innovative platform that transforms the cloud landscape and helps us build on our vision to deliver a frictionless digital experience for our customers. - Satish Lakshmanan, Lumen Chief Product Officer ServiceFabric&trade Service Directory aligns perfectly with our commitment to providing hybrid and multi-cloud products that are easy to deploy and use. It's a valuable tool for our customers and partners - Lance Weaver, Chief Product and Technology Officer, Private Cloud, Rackspace As the cloud leader in emerging markets, the entire Zenlayer team is looking forward to helping Digital Realty customers extend their reach into LATAM, EMEA, and Asia Pacific via ServiceFabric&trade and extended customer self-serve enablement through Service Directory. - Craig Kaplan, SVP of Sales, Zenlayer Concluded Sharp, Offering access to a dense and highly connected data community, ServiceFabric&trade is poised to become the go-to platform for businesses seeking to build and manage their solutions in an open, secure, and efficient way. We are continuously evolving and expanding our platform to meet the next data exchange and evolving traffic patterns driven by hybrid, multi-cloud, and AI-workload solutions.

Host-IT opened it's 5th Data Centre, located in Chester, it is ideally situated to serve the North West of the UK.

Host-IT’s Chester facility follows four other site openings during 2023 in Birmingham, Bristol, Nottingham and Leeds, expanding the total portfolio to six with its pre-existing Milton Keynes data centre.

Built to tier 3 standards the 3MW site has full UPS with generator back up and all power is sourced from renewable energy suppliers. Set in 3.4 acres the facility includes meeting rooms, office space and kitchen facilities.

The full range of Host-IT services are available including shared colocation, quarter, half and full racks. More advanced services such as dedicated servers, bare metal and back up are also accessible. The secure facility has 24/7 access and provides onsite engineering support.

Andrew Willis, Managing Director of Host-IT commented: “Adding yet another new data centre to our portfolio is a great end to 2023 which has seen Host-IT go from strength to strength. Just 12 months ago we were still operating from a single site and now we have six covering most of the UK. I am looking forward to 2024 as we continue to ramp up our services offerings to meet growing demand.”

Established in 2012, Data Dynamics stands as a premier provider of enterprise data management solutions, guiding businesses in orchestrating Data Democratization within an AI-driven, Climate-Focused World. At the heart of our offerings lies the award-winning Unified Data Management (UDM) Software, meticulously crafted to help organizations structure unstructured data and extract unparalleled insights securely, governed, and optimized. Proven in 300 organizations, including 28 Fortune 100 entities, it seamlessly adapts to evolving macroeconomic conditions and the dynamic data landscape through its four modules: Data Analytics, Mobility, Security, and Compliance. Powered by a strategic blend of automation, AI, ML, and blockchain, our software is a versatile solution for modern data challenges.
Functioning as a central hub, the UDM Software seamlessly integrates Data Security, Governance, and Intelligence within the guardrails of IT infrastructure. It provides a comprehensive strategy, safeguarding sensitive information and fostering compliance in the ever-changing regulatory environment. Moreover, Data Dynamics is deeply committed to enhancing the Sustainability Posture of our clients. We embrace a forward-thinking approach to environmental responsibility through eco-conscious data management practices, simplifying the journey for enterprises to achieve their net zero goals.
The paramount advantage of our software lies in liberating enterprises from fragmented, point solutions, and disjointed data perspectives. With our UDM software, businesses benefit from a holistic approach that structures unstructured data, unlocks transformative insights, fortifies data security, ensures compliance and governance, and propels efficient cloud data management.
Ultimately, our vision is to empower enterprises toward data democratization, enabling users and consumers to effortlessly access, comprehend, and extract maximum insights from sprawling unstructured data landscapes. At Data Dynamics, we are not just revolutionizing data management we are shaping the future of data control, accessibility, and utilization for enterprises worldwide.
Data Dynamics has revolutionized data center management with its Unified Data Management Software, marking a significant leap forward in operational efficiency and cost reduction. This groundbreaking solution offers a comprehensive suite of features tailored to meet the evolving needs of modern data environments:
1. Data Analytics: Elevate data lifecycle management with advanced metadata discovery, classification, and tagging capabilities. Our AI/ML-powered Content Analytics empowers organizations to discover and classify sensitive data, while Context Analytics provides deeper insights into data context, including content, structure, and relationships.
2. Data Security: Gain a comprehensive understanding of risk exposure through our Risk Exposure Management, which offers descriptive and diagnostic analytics. With Data Containment, swiftly contain and isolate sensitive data, enforcing file permissions through Access Control and rectifying permissions using Open Share Reporting. Our Advanced Data Modeling, driven by Regex and AI, ensures precise and adaptive pattern recognition, bolstering data security measures.
3. Data Compliance & Governance: Ensure compliance with regulatory standards by identifying personal data files through our Data Classification and Tagging features. The Blockchain-backed Immutable Audit Logging captures data access activities, providing trustworthy internal governance reports and reinforcing data compliance efforts.
4. Data Mobility: Seamlessly execute policy-driven automated migrations across platforms, whether on-premises or in the cloud (Azure, OneDrive, GCP, AWS). Our solution is equipped with Integrated Risk Controls, including Microsoft Information Protection and Azure Information Protection, ensuring secure data sharing. With support for Petabyte-scale Data Management and Dedicated Migration Support, organizations can streamline data mobility initiatives with confidence.
Data Dynamics' Unified Data Management Software represents a paradigm shift in data center ICT automation and orchestration innovation. By offering a comprehensive suite of features designed to optimize data lifecycle management, enhance security, ensure compliance, and streamline data mobility, our solution empowers organizations to navigate the complexities of modern data environments with ease and efficiency.
In the past 12 years, Data Dynamics has continuously pushed the boundaries of innovation while fostering strong partnerships with our clients. Our commitment to excellence has enabled numerous success stories across various industries, showcasing the transformative power of proactive data management and strategic collaboration.
• Proactive Risk Management: For a Fortune 50 Bank, we identified and remediated 21k files containing sensitive data, ensuring efficient risk management, and safeguarding against potential breaches.
• Fortifying Privacy: Partnering with a Fortune 50 U.S. Bank, we optimized 80B files of data sprawl, protecting customer privacy and mitigating data exposure risks, reinforcing trust and compliance.
• Strategic Compliance: A Big 4 Accounting Firm relied on us to scan, categorize, and quarantine 700 TB of data, safeguarding their reputation and avoiding sanctions, showcasing our strategic approach to compliance.
• Cloud Transformation: For a Fortune 20 Energy Titan, we migrated 600 TBs of data in just 20 days, unlocking million-dollar cost savings and accelerating their journey towards cloud transformation.
• Sustainable Innovation: Collaborating with a Fortune 20 Energy Giant, we achieved a 35% reduction in operational carbon emissions through intelligent cloud adoption, demonstrating our commitment to sustainable innovation.
• Elevating Cost Efficiency: A Fortune 400 Investment Banking Leader witnessed a remarkable 78.7% reduction in TCO through our smart data storage lifecycle management, optimizing costs and driving efficiency.
• Optimizing Data Footprint: For a Leading Integrated Healthcare Services Provider, we unlocked $7.5 Mn in annual savings through intelligent dark data lifecycle management, optimizing their data footprint and maximizing value.
• Unified Data Excellence: Managing and migrating 40 PB of data for a Fortune 20 Financial Services Institution, we showcased the power of our unified unstructured data management software, delivering excellence at scale.
• Data Mastery at Scale: For a Fortune 50 Multinational Automotive Powerhouse, we analyzed, cleansed, tiered, and archived over 3 Petabytes of unstructured data, demonstrating our mastery in managing data complexity.
These success stories illustrate how Data Dynamics software transforms data center management. From proactive risk management to fortifying privacy, enabling cloud transformation, and optimizing data footprints, our software reflects our commitment to excellence and strategic collaboration with our partners and customers.
At every turn, Data Dynamics software exemplifies its expertise in managing vast data complexities, reaffirming its leadership in the realm of data center management through its analytics capabilitis. This is evidenced by the subsequent business outcomes, which highlight its pivotal role in driving growth and fostering innovation:
1. 80% Risk Mitigation & 50% Data Sprawl Reduction: Our intelligent data lifecycle management for dark data has resulted in a remarkable 80% risk mitigation and a 50% reduction in data sprawl. This substantial optimization not only fortifies governance against cyber threats and unauthorized access but also enhances organizational resilience, positioning enterprises at the forefront of data-driven security.
2. 10X Higher Productivity: Through unstructured data analysis, including data classification, visualization, risk identification, and downstream automation, our solutions have delivered a 10X increase in productivity. This elevation in operational efficiency places enterprises at the pinnacle of innovation, fostering sustained success and competitive advantage in a dynamic business landscape.
3. 200% Faster Cloud Migrations: Leveraging data-driven cloud adoption strategies, our software solutions have facilitated cloud migrations that are 200% faster. By blending data analytics, optimization, policy-based automation, and data lifecycle management, enterprises can enhance overall efficiency and accelerate their net-zero goals, establishing themselves as transformation leaders.
4. 60% Lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO): By consolidating multiple data lakes through advanced data analytics, our solutions have led to a significant 60% reduction in TCO. This cost optimization empowers data owners and positions enterprises at the forefront of cost-effective, secure, and agile data management practices.
5. In-year ROI on Software Investment: Aligning storage optimization and risk mitigation initiatives has resulted in achieving an in-year ROI on software investment, typically within 12 months. This maximizes resource efficiency and financial prudence, enabling enterprises to accelerate tangible returns and foster a culture of control, innovation, and trust.
6. Data Democratization: Our strategic approach to data democratization empowers enterprises to swiftly access, comprehend, and extract optimal insights from expansive unstructured data landscapes in a governed, secure, and optimized manner. This fosters collaboration and innovation across all levels of the organization, driving business growth and success.
As evidenced by the success stories and business outcomes, Data Dynamics stays at the forefront of innovation to meet the evolving needs of customers in the dynamic AI age. Continuously updating and enhancing its data management software, Data Dynamics remains committed to delivering cutting-edge solutions.
In its recent groundbreaking enhancements to our data migration and metadata analytics software - StorageX, Data Dynamics reaffirms its commitment to driving efficiency, compliance, and versatility in data migration and analytics. The transformative features introduced, including seamless OneDrive migration and integration with Microsoft Information Protection, epitomize Data Dynamics' commitment to empowering organizations to manage their data effectively across hybrid clouds at an enterprise-class scale. By streamlining cloud-bound data migration through Microsoft OneDrive integration, these enhancements unlock streamlined workflows, reduce operational costs, and enhance data accessibility for remote teams. Additionally, the integration with Microsoft Information Protection ensures data compliance and security by seamlessly identifying and managing sensitive data during migrations, further reinforcing Data Dynamics' dedication to delivering comprehensive and secure data management solutions.
These enhancements signify Data Dynamics' unwavering commitment to empowering organizations with the capabilities they need to navigate the complexities of modern data center management.
Our unified data management software has analyzed and migrated a staggering 400PB of data for over 300 clients, with retention rates exceeding 160%. These success stories and numbers are fueled by our dedication to excellence, as shown by our exceptional 4.9 out of 5 customer support rating and industry recognition as a Top 20 Coolest Data Management Company in CRN’s 2023 Storage 100 list. This accolade highlights our commitment to delivering innovative solutions that optimize data management for organizations. These accolades, along with our Unified Unstructured Data Management software's success stories, exemplify our unwavering commitment to innovation, excellence, and client success.
In the rapidly evolving landscape of data management solutions, Data Dynamics Unified Data Management Software emerges as a transformative force, offering distinguished capabilities to address the complex challenges of modern data centers setting it apart from its competitors:
1. Structuring Unstructured Data: Data Dynamics excels in structuring unstructured data across heterogeneous sources through classification tagging based on ownership, access, metadata, and content. This enables smart and cost-effective storage optimization by detecting redundant, obsolete, trivial, cold, and hot data.
2. Purpose-built for the Modern Enterprise: Unlike many competitors, Data Dynamics' software is purpose-built for the modern enterprise, offering scalability to meet performance needs and adaptability to complex hybrid, multi-cloud, and legacy environments.
3. Petabyte Scalability: With petabyte scalability, Data Dynamics' software caters to environments of all sizes, whereas most solutions in the market are limited to smaller environments.
4. Comprehensive Suite of Features: Data Dynamics offers a comprehensive suite of features in a single software package, architected to specifically address various data management and governance challenges.
5. Zero-cost Migration into Azure: Data Dynamics' software boasts zero-cost migration into Azure, sponsored by Azure, making it an attractive option for organizations migrating to the cloud.
6. Automated, Policy-based Data Migration: Data Dynamics' software facilitates automated, policy-based data migration with minimal risk and ensures access control and file security management.
7. Data Analysis Pre and Post-migration: It enables data analysis pre and post-migration, providing insights into content and context, securing and remediating sensitive data to meet compliance requirements.
8. Data Enrichment and Identification: Data Dynamics' software offers data enrichment capabilities and aids in identifying PII and business-sensitive data accurately.
9. Automated Access Control and File Security Management: Unlike competitors, Data Dynamics provides automated access control, file security management, and remediation of sensitive data, reducing the risk of data misuse.
10. Classification of Data with Regulatory Requirements: It allows classification of data with regulatory requirements and offers data replication with baseline and incremental copies to ensure migration completeness.
11. Automated and Incremental Cutover: Data Dynamics' software facilitates automated and incremental cutover during migration phases and integrates seamlessly with APIs for automation and orchestration.
12. Stubless, Always Direct Native Access to Data: Notably, it offers stubless, always direct native access to data, ensuring streamlined data access without any intermediary layers.
These differentiators position Data Dynamics Unified Data Management Software as a comprehensive and advanced solution for modern data management needs.
In the ever-evolving landscape of data center ICT automation and orchestration, Data Dynamics has emerged as a beacon of innovation and excellence. Our Unified Data Management Software represents a transformative leap forward, offering a holistic solution to the complex challenges of modern data environments. With a steadfast commitment to excellence and strategic collaboration, we have revolutionized data center management, empowering organizations to unlock the full potential of their data assets securely, governed, and optimized. From proactive risk management to fortifying privacy, enabling cloud transformation, and optimizing data footprints, our software reflects our dedication to shaping the future of data control, accessibility, and utilization. With a proven track record of success and a relentless pursuit of innovation, Data Dynamics continues to lead the way in redefining the possibilities of data management, driving growth, fostering innovation, and delivering unparalleled value to our partners and customers alike.

Kyndryl has introduced Kyndryl Workflow Orchestration services, a generative AI-powered digital workplace solution designed to help organisations automate, speed, and streamline essential business processes.

Kyndryl Workflow Orchestration services provide a one-stop solution for companies to enhance, improve and modernise the digital workplace experience for their employees and customers. It was designed to support customers seeking to capitalise on no-/low-code solutions that help improve business outcomes.

The new solution employs workflow capabilities and AI automation to orchestrate business processes, eliminate complexity, minimise cycle time, and maximise return on investment through reduced training and development costs. With the ability to leverage modern platforms, such as Microsoft Power Platform, and other no-/low-code technologies, customers can unleash their citizen developers with the confidence that Kyndryl Workflow Orchestration services provides the expertise to scale with security to digitise their business.

“The biggest impediment to improving the workplace experience for employees are legacy business processes that are complex and constrained due to components that don’t integrate or work well together,” said Ivan Dopplé, Kyndryl Senior Vice President, Global Digital Workplace Services Practice. “We are helping customers overcome their workflow challenges by bringing automation and generative AI powered digital workplaces to life with our new Kyndryl Workflow Orchestration services.”

Customer benefits of Kyndryl Workflow Orchestration services include:

User-friendly interface to enhance the overall user experience, making it easier for employees to navigate and complete tasks efficiently.

Streamlined complex processes across various departments & enabling seamless integrations.
Real-time visibility and tracking of fully automated requests.

Access controls, encryption and audit trails to enable information security and integrity.

Automation requires zero manual interventions and minimises risk of human error.

Scalable to accommodate increased workload demands.

Customise applications to meet specific business needs, offering flexibility and adaptability to changing requirements.

“People often regard service level agreements as a silver bullet for their business without realising that efficient business workflow is about more than monitoring and reporting on data from SLAs,” said Udit Singh, Practice Director, Everest Group. “Kyndryl’s workflow orchestration capability provides an automated resource that can enable companies to gain insights, improve performance, and respond to emerging challenges or opportunities.”

To help customers get started with their workflow transformation, Kyndryl Vital and Kyndryl Consult experts are available and ready to provide range of advisory, implementation and managed services – from co-creation and design to strategic consulting and ongoing business process improvement.

WAN Acceleration technologies accelerate data transfers that eliminate data management challenges are known as ‘WAN acceleration.’ Bridgeworks patented artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies accelerate organisations existing technologies and dramatically accelerate their Wide Area Networks (WANs). AI underpins the patented technology to provide process intelligence, mitigating latency and mitigate packet loss. Our solutions, such as PORTrockIT, dramatically improve data throughput up to 98% of bandwidth – regardless of distance.

Accelerating BlackPearl, Securing Data

Spectra Logic: “In our tests, PORTrockIT accelerated BlackPearl’s replication performance significantly – in one case, completing the job more than 5 times faster.”

BlackPearl is a Spectra Logic platform that aims to make it easy for organisations to preserve data simply, affordably, and safely. It provides a RESTful interface that allows users to store files as objects and uses an onboard cache to accelerate the movement of data on and off long-term storage media, such as disk arrays and tape libraries.

One of the key use cases for BlackPearl is to enable geographically dispersed archiving, where data is preserved at multiple sites to reduce the risk of data loss in the event of a disaster. BlackPearl makes this easy to achieve by simply connecting two BlackPearl devices across a wide area network (WAN) connection.

However, whenever data is transferred across a WAN, it is subject to the effects of latency and packet loss, which can have a dramatic impact on data throughput. Using BlackPearl together with PORTrockIT can transform the performance of data replication across the WAN by counteracting the impact of both latency and packet loss. In every scenario we evaluated, PORTrockIT was able to increase transfer rates significantly. In one case, it reduced the total transfer time from 247 minutes to just 47 minutes, completing the job more than five times faster.

A complete complement

BlackPearl can help businesses to create and maintain geographically dispersed archives, while PORTrockIT adds value by mitigating the risk of losing valuable data and making it easier to demonstrate compliance with data retention regulations.

To demonstrate the results that PORTrockIT can deliver for BlackPearl customers, Bridgeworks conducted a set of performance tests at a testing facility in the UK. The test infrastructures mimicked a real-world BlackPearl architecture, using an “Injector” server to inject or extract files from BlackPearl, and a WANulator to simulate different levels of latency across a wide area network. Performance figures were taken from the BlackPearl console and recorded.

The tests assessed WAN data transfer performance at various simulated levels of latency. The WANulator also simulated a nominal packet loss rate of 0.1%, representing a typical service-level agreement from most WAN providers.

Test 1 and Test 2

Test 1 and Test 2 were run first with PORTrockIT set to bypass mode, to simulate an unaccelerated network architecture. The tests were then rerun with PORTrockIT in active mode, to simulate an accelerated network architecture. The figures from the two test runs were then compared to assess the difference in performance between the unaccelerated and accelerated architectures.

Test 3 - a slightly different setup

Test 3 used a slightly different setup, with a pair of Bridgeworks WANrockIT appliances in place of the PORTrockIT appliances. This is because WANrockIT is specifically designed to enable the transfer of SAN block-level protocols across a WAN, which is necessary for testing the specific use case of transferring data between a local BlackPearl and a remote tape library that are linked by a fibre channel connection.

Across all three tests, the most important metrics to consider are:

• Average transfer rate, measured in megabytes per second. This allows us to assess the speed at which files can be transferred across the WAN.
• Total time to completion, measured in minutes. This allows us to judge how long the entire file transfer job takes.

Test 1 assessed the performance of transferring a 1 TB payload of files from the local BlackPearl cache to the remote BlackPearl cache and back again at 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 ms of latency with 0.1% packet loss.
Test 2 extended Test 1 by adding a tape library connected to the BlackPearl appliance at the remote end of the WAN. This simulated a scenario where BlackPearl is used as a distributed archive for long-term data retention.
In Test 3, one BlackPearl appliance was placed on the local side of the WANulator and connected via a fibre channel connection to a remote tape library, using WANrockIT as the accelerator. This would evaluate the speed of reading directly from tape across the WAN.

Accelerated Results

Without PORTrockIT - For the unaccelerated network architecture, the results of Test 1 and Test 2 show a negative correlation between latency and performance. As latency increases, average transfer rates (ATR) decline and we see a longer total time to completion (TTC). For example, in Test 1, the TTC was 119 minutes when there was 20 ms of latency but rose to 246 minutes at 100 ms of latency – more than twice as long.

The results of Test 2 were similar: the TTC was 78 minutes at 20 ms of latency, but 157 minutes at 100 ms of latency – again, more than double the time to complete the transfer. In a real-world scenario, this variability in TTC would be a major concern, as any unexpected increase in latency could cause transfers to time-out or overrun their scheduled window – putting valuable business data at risk.

With PORTrockIT - When we look at the architecture accelerated by PORTrockIT, the results are very different. At all levels of latency, the ATR improves dramatically when PORTrockIT is activated. For example, in Test 1, the worst-case ATR of the accelerated architecture (365 MB/s at 100 ms of latency) is still more than 2.5 times as fast as the best-case ATR of the unaccelerated architecture (145 MB/s at 20 ms of latency). We can also see that PORTrockIT keeps TTC stable, regardless of latency.

In Test 1, the shortest TTC was 39 minutes at 20 ms of latency, and the longest was 46 minutes at 100 ms of latency. In Test 2, the fastest TTC was 36 minutes and the slowest 43 minutes. In both cases, that’s a difference of just 7 minutes between the slowest and fastest transfers – which suggests that real-world users can expect their transfers to complete on time, even if latency increases.

Test 3 demonstrates that Bridgeworks WANrockIT, a WAN acceleration product for SAN protocols, Spectra Logic customers cannot only geographically separate their BlackPearl instances, but also use a third geographical site for air-gapped tape storage facilities without suffering the performance penalties associated with latency and packet loss.

Accelerating IT security

The project with the major IT security firm is also a game-changer. Between November and December 2021, a storage subject matter expert within this company came to Bridgeworks with details about a file transfer problem on a 2Gbps WAN circuit between Colorado, USA, and Bangalore in India.

Problem:

With data equating to 700TB storage estate, backups are only as good as the ability to restore the data. In order to allow an acceptable transfer time of this data requires a robust solution.

There were 2 NetApp units involved in the data migration: one in Bangalore and another in Denver. The transfer was performed using the inbuilt NetApp Snap Mirror feature. It involved migrating data in a follow the sun requirement, and critical data and security was paramount. The allocated WAN bandwidth for transfer was a 1Gb/s controlled by a SD-WAN. But the raw WAN bandwidth was 2 Gb/s. Before PORTrockIT, throughput was typically equating to 2MB/s using Incumbent technology WAN-Optimisation with only 2% unitisation of WAN, and the time to transfer the data was 8.4 days.

After installing and configuring the Bridgeworks PORTrockIT virtual instances, the transfer speed increased to 80MB/s – a 40-fold increase and the time taken was reduced to under 6 hours. In this case the benchmark figure we were given was that the customer was only able to move data at around 2 Mega Bytes per second.”

Results

A spokesperson from the IT security company remarks: “The rate of throughput was incredible. PORTrockIT from Bridgeworks is a game changer. I am a storage engineer with limited networking knowledge. I was able to configure and deploy PORTrockIT in less than 2 hours”. The IT security firm believes that with ‘unthrottled’ conditions and utilising their full 2 Gig WAN, they would be able to transfer data at 200 MBs per second.

PORTrockIT is working over a SD-WAN, and they required no other changes to the LAN or WAN configurations.
Speaking about the project, Kevin St. Cyr, Tributary Systems inc. of Dallas, Texas says: “We have always impressed with the capabilities of PORTrockIT product, but what they have achieved with the IT security company’s installation takes it to another level. It is a showcase for the capabilities of PORTrockIT. The beauty is, it’s easy to install and it shows the performance that can be achieved over a WAN that was once thought impossible.”

WAN Acceleration: Accelerating cloud metro cluster deployment

WAN Acceleration technologies accelerate data transfers that eliminate data management challenges are known as ‘WAN acceleration’. Bridgeworks patented artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies accelerate organisations existing technologies and dramatically accelerate their Wide Area Networks (WANs). AI underpins the patented technology to provide process intelligence, mitigating latency and mitigate packet loss. Our solutions, such as PORTrockIT, dramatically improve data throughput up to 98% of bandwidth – regardless of distance.

Hybrid cloud, object storage and metro clusters

Steven Umbehocker (SU), CEO and CTO of OSNEXUS Corporation explains why this is important to organisations that are accelerating their adoption of hybrid cloud strategies: “This can be in the form of object storage for backup, disaster recovery sites, and all this puts a greater importance on efficient use of the WAN. This is important across all sectors. However, it is especially important in sectors such as healthcare to protect data like PACS images.”

Before implementing Bridgeworks PORTrockIT OSNexus was facing performance challenges in deploying metro clusters and disaster recovery (DR) sites over WANs – suffering with particularly high latency over large distances. There was a 200-700% boost in performance by implementing PORTrockIT which is a game changer. The highest performance improvement was 7 times higher than without any WAN acceleration.”

Critical: Recovery Time objectives

Recovery time objectives (RTOs) are critical to IT organisations, so it is imperative to have adequate WAN bandwidth and throughput to keep the remote replication to DR sites within the required RTO. OSNexus is also seeing increase demand for metro clusters where the storage is distributed across multiple sites to achieve zero downtime in the event of a site outage.

Umbehocker therefore adds: “That’s only possible when the latency is low enough to provide sufficient and adequate performance for the workloads. PORTrockIT solves these latency issues so that metro clusters and DR sites can be deployed across a much larger geographic area. If you have an earthquake in one zone, that larger metro cluster offers benefits. You can avoid downtime, enabling organisations to link their disparate sites together. There is much latency between New York and Tokyo, and so you need something like PORTrockIT to mitigate latency.”

With high latency and packet loss, he explains that data transfers are delayed and may need to be resent which reduces performance – the transfer rate. WANs are typically spanning portions of the public internet and/or shared dark fibre infrastructure that IT organisations don’t have much control over, and simply upping bandwidth doesn’t address the latency issues. What is required is a different approach to boosting WAN performance that is designed to specifically address the inherent latency issues and packet loss.

Before approaching Bridgeworks, OSNexus experimented with various network tuning options, including adjusting the frame sizes and queueing techniques, but these adjustments do not come anywhere close to the range of benefits offered by PORTrockIT. The three biggest benefits were the reliability of the link, the visibility of the performance, and increased performance with PORTrockIT.

Joshua Blake (JB), Regional Support Lead – EMEA at OSNexus Corporation therefore says: “It definitely increased performance, but I couldn’t tell you if there was more smoothness. It was easy to set up once you understand it. There were some things I needed to read up on, but it was otherwise easy to set up.”

The company has a disaster recovery site between Seattle and Las Vegas, and so it found it helpful to include PORTrockIT into their automated test systems. To that extent, PORTrockIT is now certified for use with QuantaStor, and this enables OSNexus customers to leverage it for disaster recovery sites and metro cluster use cases.

Performance improvements

The QuantaStor VM endpoints shown in Figure 1 use the PORTrockIT virtual appliances as gateways for replicating data from a ZFS file system. For the data payload, OSNEXUS used a randomly generated 5,124 MB test file. The ZFS data was sent and received via SSH on TCP port 22.

By using WANulator to simulate the scenarios presented in Table 1, the OSNEXUS team was able to test transfer speeds both with and without PORTrockIT data acceleration and make direct comparisons between the two data transfer strategies. The test was conducted five times for each different latency, and the average transfer time in seconds can be seen below. Packet loss equated to 0.1%, and latency ranged from 0 milliseconds to 160 milliseconds.

At 0ms the unaccelerated the unaccelerated transfer time equated to 107.0 seconds. When accelerated this amounted to 105.6 seconds, with an improvement factor of -0.01. At 20ms the unaccelerated transfer time was 333.6 seconds, while the accelerated time was 117.6 seconds – leading to an improvement factor of 2.83. At 40ms the unaccelerated transfer rate was 1,724.6 seconds, and the accelerated transfer time was 245.0 – an improvement factor of 7.03. At 80ms the unaccelerated transfer time sat at 2,945.4 seconds, while accelerated it stood at 454.6 seconds – an improvement factor of 6.47. Lastly, at 160ms the unaccelerated transfer time was 3,789.0 seconds. Yet when accelerated it stood at 871.6 – an improvement factor of 4.34.

Blake therefore comments: “Aside from the performance benefits, being able to identify as a complementary product – architecting it with storage – adds another string to our bow effectively. We have mentioned PORTrockIT as a goal. We go in to speak about it, and then they see the benefits themselves – it’s like planting a seed.”

OSNexus has clients that are implementing hybrid cloud strategies who want or need the benefits that, according to Umbehocker, need to the benefits that PORTrockIT solves. This is because PORTrockIT allow data to be moved over WANs quickly and efficiently is a core challenge in implementing hybrid cloud strategies.

He concludes: “We have already started adding more features like automatic tiering from file to object storage and these new features around replication and tiering of data are putting an increased importance efficient use of customers available WAN bandwidth. PORTrockIT enables organisations to get increased value and performance out of their monthly WAN bandwidth investment, with an increase in throughput up to a 700%.”

National Institutes of Health

The NIH was originally a PORTrockIT 400 customer. However, it found an additional need to add two of Bridgeworks’ new high end PORTrockIT 800’s last year. They are moving four protocols over the WAN at ‘breakneck speed’.

A spokesperson from BKJ Works - New York comments: “This is a non-engineering group, but they have had no problem in installing the devices (each in under 1 hour!). Don't be surprised if they come up with future needs on an even grander scale in the future. I cannot thank Bridgeworks enough for their continued support, fast turn around and meeting all and any of our requests with a willingness to say, ‘Yes we can’. This relationship will only deepen going forward.”

WAN Data Acceleration powers the National Institutes of Health’s global data transfer requirements at the U.S Department of Health and Human Services. It is also the world’s largest biomedical research agency. One Bridgeworks' healthcare customer, US-based CVS Caremark, connected two virtual tape libraries over 2,860 miles at full WAN bandwidth. This achieved a performance gain of 95 times the unaccelerated performance.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has gone from never being able to achieve fast datacentre replication over a distance between sites of 2,000 miles, to be able to attain it. The difference between doing it between two machines in the same datacentre and in two machines across two datacentres was 6 MB/s on NetApp Snap Mirror replication. So, they now lose only this amount of time.

The NIH wasn’t able to address this issue for a couple of years. NetApp and Aspera couldn’t achieve this. Bridgeworks was brought in to conduct a quick POC that took a couple of days to set it up, and then that was it. The savings come from not having anything previously to protect their data. Bridgeworks has also helped NIH to resolve network infrastructure issues. Although successful, the results aren’t yet in the public domain. Yet it is a substantial multi-million U.S. dollar contract.

Accelerating IT security

The project with the major IT security firm is also a game-changer. Between November and December 2021, a storage subject matter expert within this company came to Bridgeworks with details about a file transfer problem on a 2Gbps WAN circuit between Colorado, USA, and Bangalore in India.

Problem:

With data equating to 700TB storage estate, backups are only as good as the ability to restore the data. In order to allow an acceptable transfer time of this data requires a robust solution,

There were 2 NetApp units involved in the data migration: one in Bangalore and another in Denver. The transfer was performed using the inbuilt NetApp Snap Mirror feature. It involved migrating data in a follow the sun requirement, and critical data and security was paramount. The allocated WAN bandwidth for transfer was a 1Gb/s controlled by a SD-WAN. But the raw WAN bandwidth was 2 Gb/s. Before PORTrockIT, throughput was typically equating to 2MB/s using Incumbent technology WAN-Optimisation with only 2% unitisation of WAN, and the time to transfer the data was 8.4 days.

Phil Hill, Customer Solution Architect at Bridgeworks explains: “Our PORTrockIT solution for this company mitigated the effects of Latency and Packet loss. He says the latency between Denver and Bangalore at 350ms is a lot of latency! The biggest single factor causing latency is distance - even though the speed of light is around 186,282 miles per second – this figure is actually around one third lower when going through fibre optic cables.

Although the units can be hardware, sometimes virtual images or cloud machine images are more useful. As time was of the essence and the customer had real looming deadlines, the IT security firm opted for a Virtual Machine (VM) running in VMWare ESX. This made the turnaround for the evaluation-solution really quick. The following table shows the technical specification of the virtual products which would server the customer best.

After installing and configuring the PORTrockIT virtual instances the transfer speed increased to 80MB/s – a 40-fold increase and the time taken was reduced to under 6 hours. In this case the benchmark figure we were given was that the customer was only able to move data at around 2 Mega Bytes per second.”

Results

A spokesperson from the IT security company remarks: “The rate of throughput was incredible. PORTrockIT from Bridgeworks is a game changer. I am a storage engineer with limited networking knowledge. I was able to configure and deploy PORTrockIT in less than 2 hours”. The IT security firm believes that with ‘unthrottled’ conditions and utilising their full 2 Gig WAN, they would be able to transfer data at 200 MBs per second. PORTrockIT is working over a SD-WAN, and they required no other changes to the LAN or WAN configurations.

Speaking about the project, Kevin St. Cyr, Tributary Systems inc. of Dallas, Texas says: “We have always impressed with the capabilities of PORTrockIT product, but what they have achieved with the IT security company’s installation takes it to another level. It is a showcase for the capabilities of PORTrockIT. The beauty is, it’s easy to install and it shows the performance that can be achieved over a WAN that was once thought impossible.”

WAN Accelerating F1

A Formula 1 (F1) team undertook an evaluation, a proof of concept (POC), which showed the ability of PORTrockIT to make their WAN data transfers 60 times faster than before. The trial was so successful that the team ended it early. Bridgeworks’ brief was to help them speed up data the transfer of data from the Cotswolds in the UK to New England, in the USA.

A new Partnership with Prodec Networks was formed in the process, and a spokesperson from Prodec comments: “Regarding the F1 team, from wind tunnel analysis to engineering documents, Formula 1 teams accumulate significant volumes of data. The cars’ sensors (over a hundred of them) tell their own story about the race for the duration of the race and for referral later.”

“Needless to say, up to date revisions of the cars’ specific designs need to be easily accessible. How the teams deal with the pressures of reacting quickly to the vast amount of information is often the difference between winning and losing each race. With race data exceeding 150Gb per race weekend, it’s easy to see how our F1 team needed a fast data-transfer solution.”

Bridgeworks continues to keep its customers on track by enabling them to mitigate latency and packet loss. Even organisations that are implementing SD-WANs can benefit from a WAN Acceleration, which is data agnostic, and which permits the transmission of encrypted data at speed over large distances. This is something that tools such as WAN Optimisation will never be able to achieve.

As a data centre developer and operator with a large presence in south Wales, Vantage Data Centers has a longstanding relationship with Virgin Media Business Wholesale, a leading provider of fibre network solutions.

Together, we recognised the increasing demand for high bandwidth services in the region driven by edge and emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI). This led to upgrading network infrastructure to accommodate the immediate and future needs of customers wanting to leverage these technologies. Virgin Media O2 has committed to invest at least £10 billion in the UK over the next few years. This investment brings together next-generation fibre infrastructure and 5G services while expanding network coverage across new parts of the country.

Central to this ambition, Virgin Media Business Wholesale was quick to make south Wales an early priority. South Wales offers businesses easy access to the UK market, as well as further afield, and the Welsh Government is digitally progressive, providing one of Europe's most comprehensive support systems for industrial research and experimental development. South Wales is viewed as the UK's second major data centre region by major hyperscalers and global digital organisations.

An early beneficiary of Virgin Media Business Wholesale's M4 Severn Bridge cable upgrade is Vantage Data Centers' Cardiff, Wales campus (CWL1) and its growing base of customers. This latest development supports the secure high-speed data transmission of Vantage CWL1 customer's servers running day-to-day applications, critical HPC systems and the hosting of private and hybrid clouds.

Vantage Data Centers' CWL1 is one of Europe's largest data centre campus. The 148MW, 186,000 square metre site is located near Cardiff and provides world-class facilities for hyperscale and colocation customers. In addition to serving hyperscale cloud provider organisations, Vantage's CWL1 campus offers data centre services of 2kW to 125kW densities per rack to wholesale customers and enterprise clients requiring IT hosting, private data halls and colocation solutions in the UK. CWL1 has been a strategic point-of-presence (PoP) on the Virgin Media Business Wholesale network for more than a decade, and the Severn Bridge cable upgrade marks a new era in the longstanding partnership between the two companies.

To perform a major fibre upgrade to meet the increasing capacity and shorter project delivery time requirements of Virgin Media Business Wholesale's IT solutions partners located on either side of the River Severn estuary, commencing with Vantage Data Centers' CWL1 campus near Cardiff.

To reinforce Vantage CWL1's continuous commitment to future-proofing its customers' overall network capacity needs by ensuring the widest possible choice of diverse, secure, and resilient high quality connectivity.

To enable further high-speed diverse and resilient fibre network routes for Wales-based private and public sector businesses looking to boost productivity and efficiency The Innovation In 2021, faced with growing demand from business and government organisations based in South Wales for increased bandwidth and resilience, Virgin Media Business Wholesale recognised the strategic importance of boosting its existing fibre capacity for businesses and public organisations depending on reliable and secure data transmission between south Wales and the rest of the UK.

The project started in January 2022 and involved increasing Virgin Media Business Wholesale's existing cable capacity over the Prince of Wales M4 Severn Bridge by deploying new specification fibre with a high fibre count. Overcoming often challenging and hazardous conditions, including engineers working at height in very space-constrained environments on the bridge itself. The additional fibre cabling was successfully connected to Vantage's CWL1 campus in January 2024.

What are your product's/solution's key distinguishing features and/or USP?

Adds vital additional capacity to the region to ensure shorter delivery times for customer projects

Additional diverse and resilient network routes for businesses that depend on reliable and secure data transmission between south Wales and the rest of the UK

What tangible impact has your product/solution had on the market and your customers?

Historically, capacity bottlenecks have hindered business operations due to inadequate infrastructure. Our solution addresses this long-standing issue head-on. The new fibre provides a boost for wholesale partners on both sides of the River Severn estuary by connecting subsea landing stations to the M4 corridor and London. The ability to ensure highly diverse, resilient, secure and low latency network connectivity is key to the overall service offering of any modern data centre. In the case of Vantage's CWL1 campus, as a regional Internet hub and major communications node for Wales and the west of England, it is an absolute prerequisite. With the growing numbers of organisations in Wales, England and globally choosing to migrate their IT workloads to Vantage's world-class CWL1 campus, this development holds significant strategic value for its customers.

This upgrade allows Vantage CWL1 customers to benefit from both dark fibre and managed 'lit' services and access to the 190,000 km Virgin Media Business Wholesale's fibre network. The capacity of the pre-existing fibre link to Vantage CWL1 has more than doubled, with a total of 96 fibres now available. This expansion ensures robust and scalable connectivity for years to come supporting global hyperscalers, major multinationals and also south Wales's growing community of businesses in various sectors such as fintech, engineering and life sciences.

What are the major differentiators between your product/solution and those of your primary competitors?

As one of the UK's leading backhaul infrastructure providers, this project innovation demonstrates Virgin Media Business Wholesale's capability to build high-bandwidth, low-latency, resilient network infrastructure at scale.  With the largest available dark fibre coverage and the second-largest fixed network spanning over 190,000km, Virgin Media Business Wholesale stands out from competitors by offering dark fibre across its national network without regional restrictions. By unlocking the capacity across the bridge, Virgin Media Business Wholesale allows customers to fully experience the benefits of this investment.  Please supply any supportive quotes and/or case study materials to demonstrate the value of this product/solution to your customers/partners Virgin Media's major fibre capacity boost at CWL1 contributes significantly to Vantage's ongoing commitment to providing totally future-proofed, highly-scalable data centre solutions to customers. Not only will hyperscalers and multinational systems integrators benefit, but so will the many small and medium enterprises, fintech, pharmaceuticals, government, retail and engineering organisations that underpin Wales's thriving digital economy. Justin Jenkins, Chief Operating Officer, EMEA, Vantage Data Centers 'Building out our fibre from Vantage's CWL1 campus is one of the significant investments Virgin Media O2 has made as we continue our mission to upgrade infrastructure across the country. We're confident this additional capacity will support a range of customers connecting into south Wales. It's projects like this that underscore our ability to build high bandwidth, low latency network infrastructure at the scale needed to drive digital transformation in the UK' John Chester, Director of Wholesale Fixed, Virgin Media O2 Business

With over 30 years of experience designing and manufacturing data destruction technologies, VS Security Products has built a trusted reputation worldwide as the market leader for data erasure and destruction solutions.

The MediaGone 500, which shreds materials to less than 4mm in width, guarantees complete media destruction for users across a variety of industries.

The MediaGone 500 by Verity Systems is a precision-engineered Shredder that safely eliminates a variety of media with the push of a button, including SSDs, Flash Drives, Cell Phones, CDs/DVDs/Blue-Ray, Credit Cards, Hard Drive - platter only.

Users may safely see the shredding of SSDs, flash drives, discs, or phones live as they go through the destruction process thanks to its clear polycarbonate dome cover designed with reinforced glass.

The MediaGone 500 is the most effective and user-friendly shredder Verity Systems has created to date, illuminated by the newest LED lighting technology. Users can access all of its capabilities, including the option to select fine or coarse cuts for particular shredded particle sizes, using its straightforward touch screen to begin the process.

The MediaGone 500 is available as a tabletop model or mounted to a cabinet on casters for mobility. The tabletop model has a 1-gallon drawer that can be easily removed when it’s full. The cabinet-mounted version has an infrared sensing technology that will alert the user via the display screen.

Built with hardened, carbon steel cutters along with its high torque slip-free drive, the unit delivers maximum power while still being able to run on an electrical outlet (110-125VAC/60Hz). Thermal sensors protect the unit's drive train from malfunction or damage. There are multiple safety interlocks and an emergency stop button to ensure operator safety at all times.

Unlike the degaussers, which erase data through powerful magnetic fields, the MediaGone 500 shreds media into tiny pieces, ensuring the highest security destruction and rendering data completely unusable. If required, shredded particles can also be sent to specialized material companies for recycling.

Features of the MediaGone 500 Shredder:
Meets DIN 66399 – To security levels E-4, T-4, O-4, H-5.

Automatic Operation – Using auto-reverse and media detection technology, the whole shredding cycle is fully automatic.

Touch Screen Display – Allows super easy operation of the machine and displays machine status information.

Infrared Container Level Detection – Enables the operator to check the container level in the trolley at any time via the LCD display.

Security Key Lock – Stops unauthorized users from running the machine.

Continuous Duty Cycle – Machine does not need to stop and cool down, maximizing its throughput.

Runs on standard office outlet – Plugs straight into the wall, no dedicated or complex power supplies/outlets needed.

Precision Hardened Steel Cutters – High carbon steel cutters, manufactured with extreme precision ensure immense cutting power and longevity.

Fine Cut and Coarse Cut Options – The choice of two cut types allows you to meet security levels whilst also maintaining quick cut times.

Safety – Multiple safety interlocks and emergency stop button to ensure the operator's safety at all times.

Data Destruction Auditor Software – Unique DDA Software which enables the user to document and verify media Shredded.

While most security tools focus on detecting malicious content such as ransomware to prevent attacks, CyberSense offers a unique solution that complements these tools. Instead of overlapping, CyberSense serves as a last line of defense that helps organizations detect signs of corruption when an attack occurs and helps them recover quickly.

CyberSense inspects data’s integrity and determines if corruption has occurred along with reporting on the point in time of the malicious activity. Additionally, CyberSense provides valuable information to forensically analyze the attack and ensure an intelligent and rapid recovery with the aim of minimizing downtime and data loss. To achieve this goal, CyberSense integrates with existing data protection and recovery solutions, enabling it to inspect data over time as it is protected and secured.

CyberSense® is currently the last line of defense for over 1,500 organizations worldwide, across over 50 industries including financial services, healthcare, telecom, insurance and government. These organizations are validating the integrity of their data assets, including core infrastructure, production databases, and critical documents to provide confidence that it is clean from malicious activity.

CyberSense uses a combination of over 200 full-content-based analytics and ai-powered machine learning to detect corruption with 99.5% accuracy (based on internal testing with over 7,000 ransomware variants and 120 million data sets).

CyberSense® supports scanning of data in popular backup formats without having to rehydrate the files, as well as other deployments including data snapshots. This software is sold through several leading partners including Dell Technologies.

Unlike most other solutions on the market that focus on detecting anomalies, CyberSense's primary focus is ensuring data integrity, detecting data corruption, providing detailed forensic reports on the impacted files and databases, and identifying and validating the most recent clean backups for rapid and intelligent recovery.

The goal of CyberSense is to minimize the business impact of a cyberattack and to recover clean data.

This also eliminates the need to pay a ransom, which also does not guarantee the return of data.

Our AI-Powered Machine Learning Engine (if needed)

CyberSense uses artificial intelligence trained to detect data corruption by supplying them both corrupted and non-corrupted data. The corrupted data is generated using the latest variants and are executed in CyberSense’s lab, which as of January 2024 contains 120M dataset, 7,000 variants and 200M file operations.

The first step is to gather a dataset of files prior to corruption and that same dataset post corruption.

These datasets can be used to train and validate a machine learning model. This is an ongoing process, however the patterns of change, i.e., deletion, corruption, encryption, that have been utilized in general by cyber criminals do not vary greatly from one variant to another.

The next step is to extract relevant signals from the datasets that are specific to the variant. For example, the model can look for patterns in the file’s content, such as changes in file size, file extension, or the presence of encrypted data, data deleted, newly created data, files that can’t be typed, file entropy, etc. The impact of ransomware commonly results in many signals, not simply a single modification to the file. Once the signals have been extracted, an AI-powered machine learning algorithm is trained on the extracted signals from both good and corrupted data sets to learn how to distinguish patterns of change consistent with ransomware from one observation to another.

Once training is completed it is tested on a separate set of data to evaluate its accuracy. The CyberSense Machine Learning is tuned to achieve a 99.5% or better recall/accuracy rate in detecting data changes as a result of ransomware. Once that level is achieved with the latest testing, the model is updated in CyberSense. Since most of the variants are iterations of previous versions, the CyberSense machine learning model does not need frequent updates in order to maintain effectiveness, the typical patterns of malicious behavior will be accurately detected.

Open-E JovianDSS Up30, the latest version of Open-E’s flagship software product, has been released with a host of groundbreaking features and enhancements. This version is a pure reflection of the Open-E's commitment to providing cutting-edge data storage solutions that elevate the user experience in terms of performance, reliability, safety, and cost efficiency.

A standout feature in the Open-E JovianDSS Up30 is the introduction of ZFS Special Devices, enriching the range of data storage strategies. This innovative addition allows users to allocate dedicated high-performance storage devices, such as SSDs or NVMe drives, for storing specific types of data like metadata or small file blocks. By implementing data-type tiering, the system prioritizes metadata and small records, resulting in a significant boost in the overall storage system performance.

NVMe Partitioning is another noteworthy enhancement, offering users the ability to partition NVMe disk space. This feature optimizes NVMe capacity utilization, providing flexibility to use a single device for both read cache and write log, and even create an additional partition for Special Devices. The result is a streamlined storage architecture, cost savings, and simplified system management.

The Open-E JovianDSS Up30 version introduces several improvements to enhance data transmission efficiency. The Send Compressed Data option in On & Off-Site Data Protection enables the transfer of already compressed data, leading to faster transfers and reduced bandwidth usage, particularly advantageous for large dataset transfers.

MacOS Time Machine support is now available over the SMB protocol, facilitating the creation, identification, and restoration of copies. Active Directory enhancements include support for multiple trusted domains without RID conflicts and the configuration of Unix UID and GID through Microsoft Windows Domain Administrator using the rfc2307 AD backend for Samba.

The implementation of Adaptec HPE Smart Storage Administrator support, Self-Encrypting Drives (SED) support for non-shared clusters, Samba Recycle Bin Support for Windows, and Zero-configuration Networking (Zeroconf) Feature Support broadens the capabilities of Open-E JovianDSS Up30, making it a versatile and comprehensive storage solution.

The SSD TRIM functionality for selected drives enhances SSD performance and lifespan, demonstrating Open-E's commitment to optimizing storage technologies. The addition of LSI SNMP Agent Support and a driver for Broadcom HBA 9600-16e 12Gb Tri-Mode Storage Adapter (mpi3mr, v8.6.1.0.0) ensures compatibility with a wider range of hardware.

The new graphical user interface (GUI) features in Open-E JovianDSS Up30 include Active SMB and iSCSI user connection statistics, S.M.A.R.T. monitoring, and ZFS ARC, L2ARC, and ZIL statistics. The Terminal User Interface (TUI) enhancements provide new testing profiles and the ability to manage the Check_mk Agent.

In conclusion, the Open-E JovianDSS Up30 version stands as a powerful and comprehensive storage solution, equipped with innovative features and improvements that cater to the evolving needs of users. Whether enhancing performance, optimizing storage utilization, or expanding compatibility, this release reinforces Open-E's commitment to delivering top-notch storage solutions.

Established in 2012, Data Dynamics stands as a premier provider of enterprise data management solutions, guiding businesses in orchestrating Data Democratization within an AI-driven, Climate-Focused World. At the heart of our offerings lies the award-winning Unified Data Management (UDM) Software, meticulously crafted to help organizations structure unstructured data and extract unparalleled insights securely, governed, and optimized. Proven in 300 organizations, including 28 Fortune 100 entities, it seamlessly adapts to evolving macroeconomic conditions and the dynamic data landscape through its four modules: Data Analytics, Mobility, Security, and Compliance. Powered by a strategic blend of automation, AI, ML, and blockchain, our software is a versatile solution for modern data challenges.

Functioning as a central hub, the UDM Software seamlessly integrates Data Security, Governance, and Intelligence within the guardrails of IT infrastructure. It provides a comprehensive strategy, safeguarding sensitive information and fostering compliance in the ever-changing regulatory environment. Moreover, Data Dynamics is deeply committed to enhancing the Sustainability Posture of our clients. We embrace a forward-thinking approach to environmental responsibility through eco-conscious data management practices, simplifying the journey for enterprises to achieve their net zero goals.

The paramount advantage of our software lies in liberating enterprises from fragmented, point solutions, and disjointed data perspectives. With our UDM software, businesses benefit from a holistic approach that structures unstructured data, unlocks transformative insights, fortifies data security, ensures compliance and governance, and propels efficient cloud data management.

Ultimately, our vision is to empower enterprises toward data democratization, enabling users and consumers to effortlessly access, comprehend, and extract maximum insights from sprawling unstructured data landscapes. At Data Dynamics, we are not just revolutionizing data management we are shaping the future of data control, accessibility, and utilization for enterprises worldwide.

At the heart of our award-winning software lies a comprehensive suite of features, meticulously designed to help enterprises gain critical and accurate insights into unstructured file data, enabling accurate storage visibility and infrastructure optimization. Utilizing our proprietary 5S approach, we provide a structured and refined view of data, transforming it from mere storage to valuable business assets.

1. Structured Data Visibility and Optimization: By identifying critical data assets through informed retention, archiving, and elimination decisions, organizations can streamline their data management processes. The software efficiently structures unstructured data using advanced classification, tagging, and indexing techniques, enabling better organization and accessibility. Through comprehensive data analysis, including distinguishing between hot and cold data and eliminating redundant or obsolete files, organizations can optimize storage resources and reduce costs. Moreover, by consolidating data lakes and optimizing storage, the software ensures enhanced efficiency and streamlined management of data assets.

2. Steadfast Data Security and Protection: Leveraging advanced analytics powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning, the software effectively protects sensitive data from unauthorized access and breaches. By assessing risk exposure and providing actionable insights, organizations can proactively manage risks and enhance their security posture. The software allows for the secure storage of high-risk data with restricted access and intelligent file permissions, ensuring that critical information remains protected at all times. Additionally, by identifying and securing sensitive data in open shares, the software strengthens overall security measures and ensures compliance with regulatory requirements.

3. Stringent Adherence to Compliance: Ensuring stringent adherence to compliance standards is a key aspect of Data Dynamics Unified Data Management Software. The software helps organizations discover fields for regulatory compliance and classify data according to industry-standard templates, facilitating compliance with data protection regulations. Through the tracking of data access using immutable audit logs powered by blockchain technology, organizations can maintain comprehensive records for regulatory reporting purposes. By establishing data tagging and security protocols, the software protects personal and sensitive data, ensuring compliance with privacy laws. Furthermore, the software streamlines data movement and archival processes, helping organizations meet compliance requirements efficiently and effectively.

4. Structured Data Archival: Data archival is seamlessly managed within Data Dynamics Unified Data Management Software. The software enables organizations to identify suitable files for cost-effective object storage migration and ensures data quality through custom metadata tags. By facilitating the seamless movement of unstructured data with flexible archive policies, the software simplifies the archival process. Additionally, the software preserves original content by converting archived files into object format, ensuring data integrity and accessibility. With features such as easy data retrieval via software or RESTful API and simplified data search and file-sharing reporting, the software streamlines archival processes, enhancing efficiency and compliance.

5. Smart Data-Driven Migration and Remediation: Data migration and remediation are intelligently managed within Data Dynamics Unified Data Management Software. The software enables effortless migration, consolidation, and management of data at petabyte scale, whether locally or in the cloud. Through automation of migrations with policy-based data movement, organizations can increase efficiency and reliability in data management processes. Seamless integration with all file and object platforms supports diverse data environments, enhancing flexibility and scalability. Furthermore, the software optimizes data tiering and location selection intelligently to improve performance and resource utilization. By mitigating risks with sensitive data identification and remediation, along with immutable data audit logging, the software ensures data integrity and compliance, empowering organizations to manage their data effectively and securely.

Additionally, the strategic partnership between Data Dynamics and Hitachi is a game-changer in the realm of data center ICT storage innovation. By combining Hitachi Vantara's robust storage solutions with Data Dynamics' AI/ML-driven platform, this dynamic collaboration empowers organizations to address the challenges of managing unstructured data while unlocking its untapped potential. Through comprehensive data discovery, classification, and remediation, the solution not only optimizes storage and ensures compliance but also fortifies data security and enables organizations to make informed, data-driven decisions. What sets this collaboration apart is its consultative and strategic approach, tailored to each company's unique needs, and seamlessly integrating with Hitachi Vantara's existing suite of storage solutions. Together, Data Dynamics and Hitachi champion a collaborative approach to meet customer needs, offering a transformative solution that turns data challenges into strategic advantages in an era dominated by data-driven decisions.

In the past 12 years, Data Dynamics has continuously pushed the boundaries of innovation while fostering strong partnerships with our clients. Our commitment to excellence has enabled numerous success stories across various industries, showcasing the transformative power of proactive data management and strategic collaboration.

• Proactive Risk Management: For a Fortune 50 Bank, we identified and remediated 21k files containing sensitive data, ensuring efficient risk management, and safeguarding against potential breaches.
• Fortifying Privacy: Partnering with a Fortune 50 U.S. Bank, we optimized 80B files of data sprawl, protecting customer privacy and mitigating data exposure risks, reinforcing trust and compliance.
• Strategic Compliance: A Big 4 Accounting Firm relied on us to scan, categorize, and quarantine 700 TB of data, safeguarding their reputation and avoiding sanctions, showcasing our strategic approach to compliance.
• Cloud Transformation: For a Fortune 20 Energy Titan, we migrated 600 TBs of data in just 20 days, unlocking million-dollar cost savings and accelerating their journey towards cloud transformation.
• Sustainable Innovation: Collaborating with a Fortune 20 Energy Giant, we achieved a 35% reduction in operational carbon emissions through intelligent cloud adoption, demonstrating our commitment to sustainable innovation.
• Elevating Cost Efficiency: A Fortune 400 Investment Banking Leader witnessed a remarkable 78.7% reduction in TCO through our smart data storage lifecycle management, optimizing costs and driving efficiency.
• Optimizing Data Footprint: For a Leading Integrated Healthcare Services Provider, we unlocked $7.5 Mn in annual savings through intelligent dark data lifecycle management, optimizing their data footprint and maximizing value.
• Unified Data Excellence: Managing and migrating 40 PB of data for a Fortune 20 Financial Services Institution, we showcased the power of our unified unstructured data management software, delivering excellence at scale.
• Data Mastery at Scale: For a Fortune 50 Multinational Automotive Powerhouse, we analyzed, cleansed, tiered, and archived over 3 Petabytes of unstructured data, demonstrating our mastery in managing data complexity.
These success stories illustrate how Data Dynamics software transforms data center management. From proactive risk management to fortifying privacy, enabling cloud transformation, and optimizing data footprints, our software reflects our commitment to excellence and strategic collaboration with our partners and customers.

At every turn, Data Dynamics software exemplifies its expertise in managing vast data complexities, reaffirming its leadership in the realm of data center management through its analytics capabilitis. This is evidenced by the subsequent business outcomes, which highlight its pivotal role in driving growth and fostering innovation:

1. 80% Risk Mitigation & 50% Data Sprawl Reduction: Our intelligent data lifecycle management for dark data has resulted in a remarkable 80% risk mitigation and a 50% reduction in data sprawl. This substantial optimization not only fortifies governance against cyber threats and unauthorized access but also enhances organizational resilience, positioning enterprises at the forefront of data-driven security.

2. 10X Higher Productivity: Through unstructured data analysis, including data classification, visualization, risk identification, and downstream automation, our solutions have delivered a 10X increase in productivity. This elevation in operational efficiency places enterprises at the pinnacle of innovation, fostering sustained success and competitive advantage in a dynamic business landscape.

3. 200% Faster Cloud Migrations: Leveraging data-driven cloud adoption strategies, our software solutions have facilitated cloud migrations that are 200% faster. By blending data analytics, optimization, policy-based automation, and data lifecycle management, enterprises can enhance overall efficiency and accelerate their net-zero goals, establishing themselves as transformation leaders.

4. 60% Lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO): By consolidating multiple data lakes through advanced data analytics, our solutions have led to a significant 60% reduction in TCO. This cost optimization empowers data owners and positions enterprises at the forefront of cost-effective, secure, and agile data management practices.

5. In-year ROI on Software Investment: Aligning storage optimization and risk mitigation initiatives has resulted in achieving an in-year ROI on software investment, typically within 12 months. This maximizes resource efficiency and financial prudence, enabling enterprises to accelerate tangible returns and foster a culture of control, innovation, and trust.

6. Data Democratization: Our strategic approach to data democratization empowers enterprises to swiftly access, comprehend, and extract optimal insights from expansive unstructured data landscapes in a governed, secure, and optimized manner. This fosters collaboration and innovation across all levels of the organization, driving business growth and success.

As evidenced by the success stories and business outcomes, Data Dynamics stays at the forefront of innovation to meet the evolving needs of customers in the dynamic AI age. Continuously updating and enhancing its data management software, Data Dynamics remains committed to delivering cutting-edge solutions.

In its recent groundbreaking enhancements to our data migration and metadata analytics software - StorageX, Data Dynamics reaffirms its commitment to driving efficiency, compliance, and versatility in data migration and analytics. The transformative features introduced, including seamless OneDrive migration and integration with Microsoft Information Protection, epitomize Data Dynamics' commitment to empowering organizations to manage their data effectively across hybrid clouds at an enterprise-class scale. By streamlining cloud-bound data migration through Microsoft OneDrive integration, these enhancements unlock streamlined workflows, reduce operational costs, and enhance data accessibility for remote teams.

Additionally, the integration with Microsoft Information Protection ensures data compliance and security by seamlessly identifying and managing sensitive data during migrations, further reinforcing Data Dynamics' dedication to delivering comprehensive and secure data management solutions.

These enhancements signify Data Dynamics' unwavering commitment to empowering organizations with the capabilities they need to navigate the complexities of modern data center management.

Our unified data management software has analyzed and migrated a staggering 400PB of data for over 300 clients, with retention rates exceeding 160%. These success stories and numbers are fueled by our dedication to excellence, as shown by our exceptional 4.9 out of 5 customer support rating and industry recognition as a Top 20 Coolest Data Management Company in CRN’s 2023 Storage 100 list. This accolade highlights our commitment to delivering innovative solutions that optimize data management for organizations. These accolades, along with our Unified Unstructured Data Management software's success stories, exemplify our unwavering commitment to innovation, excellence, and client success.

In the rapidly evolving landscape of data management solutions, Data Dynamics Unified Data Management Software emerges as a transformative force, offering distinguished capabilities to address the complex security challenges of modern data centers setting it apart from its competitors:

1. Structuring Unstructured Data: Data Dynamics excels in structuring unstructured data across heterogeneous sources through classification tagging based on ownership, access, metadata, and content. This enables smart and cost-effective storage optimization by detecting redundant, obsolete, trivial, cold, and hot data.

2. Purpose-built for the Modern Enterprise: Unlike many competitors, Data Dynamics' software is purpose-built for the modern enterprise, offering scalability to meet performance needs and adaptability to complex hybrid, multi-cloud, and legacy environments.

3. Petabyte Scalability: With petabyte scalability, Data Dynamics' software caters to environments of all sizes, whereas most solutions in the market are limited to smaller environments.

4. Comprehensive Suite of Features: Data Dynamics offers a comprehensive suite of features in a single software package, architected to specifically address various data management and governance challenges.

5. Zero-cost Migration into Azure: Data Dynamics' software boasts zero-cost migration into Azure, sponsored by Azure, making it an attractive option for organizations migrating to the cloud.

6. Automated, Policy-based Data Migration: Data Dynamics' software facilitates automated, policy-based data migration with minimal risk and ensures access control and file security management.

7. Data Analysis Pre and Post-migration: It enables data analysis pre and post-migration, providing insights into content and context, securing and remediating sensitive data to meet compliance requirements.

8. Data Enrichment and Identification: Data Dynamics' software offers data enrichment capabilities and aids in identifying PII and business-sensitive data accurately.

9. Automated Access Control and File Security Management: Unlike competitors, Data Dynamics provides automated access control, file security management, and remediation of sensitive data, reducing the risk of data misuse.

10. Classification of Data with Regulatory Requirements: It allows classification of data with regulatory requirements and offers data replication with baseline and incremental copies to ensure migration completeness.

11. Automated and Incremental Cutover: Data Dynamics' software facilitates automated and incremental cutover during migration phases and integrates seamlessly with APIs for automation and orchestration.

12. Stubless, Always Direct Native Access to Data: Notably, it offers stubless, always direct native access to data, ensuring streamlined data access without any intermediary layers.

These differentiators position Data Dynamics Unified Data Management Software as a comprehensive and advanced solution for modern data management needs.

In conclusion, Data Dynamics Unified Data Management Software represents a pinnacle of innovation in the realm of Data Centre ICT Storage Innovation. Through its comprehensive suite of features and proprietary 5S approach, it empowers organizations to unlock the full potential of their data assets while navigating the complexities of modern data environments with confidence. With a relentless commitment to excellence, strategic collaboration, and continuous innovation, Data Dynamics remains at the forefront of driving efficiency, compliance, and sustainability in data management.

METCLOUD is a multi-award-winning cloud platform that harnesses sophisticated cyber defence, surveillance, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) technologies.

In today's modern economy, data drives competitive advantage and in a rapidly changing environment, businesses need to move with speed and agility to build new capabilities and get new products and services to market faster.
To do this successfully businesses need advanced cloud computing technology, AI/ML and data analytics to derive the insights that power innovation and revenue growth.

Furthermore, digital operational resilience is imperative to ensure uninterrupted services and therefore METCLOUD has been architected to provide not only performance but business continuity, disaster recovery and cybersecurity.

Corning Optical Communications stands as an industry leader, driving innovation and excellence in the realm of data center connectivity. With a rich heritage dating back over 165 years, Corning has established itself as a trusted partner to data center operators worldwide, delivering cutting-edge solutions that enable seamless, high-speed data transmission and unparalleled reliability.

At the heart of Corning's offerings lies a comprehensive suite of optical communication solutions designed specifically for the demands of modern data centers. From high-density fiber optic cabling systems to advanced connectivity solutions, Corning's portfolio empowers data center operators to build agile, scalable infrastructures that can meet the evolving needs of today's digital landscape.

One of Corning's flagship products is its range of fiber optic cables, renowned for their durability, performance, and reliability. Leveraging decades of expertise in glass science and manufacturing, Corning produces fiber optic cables that deliver industry-leading performance, enabling data center operators to achieve maximum throughput and minimal latency in their operations.

Moreover, Corning's commitment to innovation extends beyond its products to encompass its research and development efforts. With a dedicated team of scientists and engineers, Corning continuously pushes the boundaries of optical communication technology, introducing breakthrough solutions that address the most pressing challenges facing data center operators today.

One such innovation is Corning's EDGE8™ solution, a high-density fiber optic cabling system that enables data center operators to maximize space utilization while minimizing installation time and cost. By offering eight times the density of traditional solutions, EDGE8™ empowers data center operators to future-proof their infrastructures and accommodate the growing demands of cloud computing, big data, and the Internet of Things.

Furthermore, Corning's commitment to sustainability underscores its role as a responsible corporate citizen. By promoting energy-efficient solutions and eco-friendly manufacturing practices, Corning helps data center operators reduce their environmental footprint and contribute to a greener, more sustainable future.

In summary, Corning Optical Communications' nomination for the Data Centre Awards is a testament to its unwavering dedication to excellence, innovation, and sustainability. With a proven track record of delivering cutting-edge solutions to data center operators worldwide, Corning continues to set the standard for connectivity and reliability in the digital infrastructure landscape, empowering businesses to thrive in an ever-evolving digital economy.

Andy has worked tirelessly to publicize this amazing industry, sending out a weekly newsletter which now has over 18,000 subscribers, hosting the Inside Data Centre podcast with weekly episodes interviewing a range of industry people from apprentices to veterans of the DC world. All of this he has done with no intention of reward or monetary gain, rather to publicize the industry and the people/pathways into it.

The Data Centre Club was brought into being to be a knowledge base and exchange for all things in data centres, as there was nothing comparable in existence. Others have some along later in imitation of what he has been doing, none approach this with the same selfless attitude and dedication. The link on his linkedIn profile ‘visit my website’ take you to not his recruitment company but to the Data Centre Club page.

His weekly newsletter contains a roundup of data centre activity globally and is publicized within a variety of organisations as the go-to place for industry information. All of this is hyperlinked to the related news pages.
Andy also carries out STEM activities with local schools and works with the Rising Stars programme. He understands only too well the need for new talent to be brought into the industry. Looking at the wider implications of mental health he regularly advocates on this issue and has done podcasts on this subject, which is never easy. To that end he brought in a 4-day working week for his own company to demonstrate he practices what he preaches.

Truly one of the most modest and unsung heroes of our industry and he will be incredibly embarrassed by this nomination as this has never been his aim, however, such great work needs to be called out and recognised.
He is probably one of the most approachable and knowledgeable people I have come across in the industry. He has dispelled the myths that recruiters are a necessary evil, but will truly partner with you. A most helpful partner who works on the recruitment side of the industry. However, in all of his activities around the Newsletter, Podcast and Data Centre Club he never showcases his recruitment company or uses his activities to gain business. This is truly laudable and a credit to a hard working and very nice human being. A most worthy candidate for a massive contribution to industry.

I can think of no one more deserving, for his selfless acts in promoting the industry, to be the recipient of this award. He does all of this while combining his most important work of being a dad to 3 amazing young girls, full-time weekend dad’s taxi driver and with the support of a long-suffering wife.

Andy Hirst began his Sudlows career as an Electrical Manager and has since progressed through the business. In 2018 Andy was promoted to his current role of Managing Director of Critical Infrastructures, a role that involves overseeing the division in its entirety. Having over 35 years’ worth of experience in the electrical industry, Andy has been instrumental in transforming Sudlows from a £2m data cabling company to a multi-award winning £30m Data Centre infrastructure design and build company and continues to work closely with his fellow Directors to define the growth strategy and commercial direction of the business.

Andy has achieved several industry and business accolades including being named among the top most influential people in the technology, media & telecoms sector by ‘Insider’ magazine, and has also been awarded the ‘Inspiration Award’ at the Networking Computing Awards in 2019 and 2022, was awarded ‘Business Person of the Year’ at the Oldham Business Awards in 2019 and 2023, awarded the DCS Award for ‘Data Centre Industry Contribution of the Year’ in 2020, 2021, and again in 2022. Andy was also privileged to win the ‘Outstanding Contributor to the Industry’ award at the Electrical Review and Data Centre Review Excellence Awards in 2023.

Andy has played a critical role in the championing of energy efficiency and sustainability in the Data Centre industry, which attracted attention from a number of key trade event organisers across Singapore and Dubai, resulting in Sudlows being awarded, and successfully delivering Data Centre projects in multiple regions such as Dubai, Turkey, Saudi, Mumbai to name just a few, leading Andy to open Sudlows’ first international office in Dubai in 2014, followed by an Indian office which was opened in 2020.

Playing a crucial role as a mentor for Sudlows’ Design and Engineering Teams, Andy has helped Sudlows’ employees achieve some of the industry’s highest accolades including an IET Technician of the Year and a Young Mission Critical Engineer of the Year and most recently a Data Centre Solutions award for ‘Data Centre Engineer of the Year’. He has also trained, registered and takes an active part in mentoring young Engineers across the industry for the IET to work with them to receive incorporated status.

Andy is a committed and active participant in the Data Centre community, for example, Andy was Chairman for the ECA (Electrical Contractors Association) for a number of years and has sat on multiple steering committees in the UK focusing on energy efficiency and ‘green’ data centres. Andy has also worked with the ECA to look at and promote gender diversity, upskilling and certifications along with quality standards within the mission critical sector.

Andy is also committed to continuous professional development within the industry and is an ambassador for raising technical standards within the industry and as a result has achieved numerous professional qualifications and accreditations including his Uptime Institute Accredited Tier Designer status, CDCDP (Certified Data Centre Design Professional), HNC Building Services Engineering, HNC Electrical Engineering and has been an Incorporated Engineer (IEng) for a number of years. He is also a fellow of the IET (FIET). Andy has recently become one of the first people to achieve a Masters Degree in Data Centre Leadership and Management.

Andy’s critical contribution has ensured that strategic growth is planned and controlled with significant investment in sourcing a high standard of Engineers and Designers in all disciplines around the Data Centre environment.
This long term investment and managed growth has produced a Data Centre Team that consisted of just one person ten years ago, into an award winning division of 40 dedicated Designers, Planners and Specialists who manage over 150 Site Engineers.

Andy has also been key in developing opportunities not only for Sudlows, but also on behalf of the UK Data Centre industry, as a whole, in international markets. Although the UK data centre market has seen significant growth over recent years, the global market opportunities have potential to grow exponentially.

Andy has been profiled in several industry publications over the last year including being named by the “Insider” magazine as one of the top 33 most influential people in the technology, media & telecoms sector alongside well-known industry figures such as Richard Tang, owner of Zen Internet and Stephen Wild, Managing Director of Media City. Andy also makes regular contributions to industry publications and is regularly invited to share his thoughts and opinions on the latest data centre industry trends, most notably in the publication Inside_Networks.

On an academic level, Andy researches into new green technologies especially focused around the field of carbon reduction. His ambition is to constantly improve efficiencies and resilience around these critical products and as such this takes him around the country, Europe and even globally.

Due to the concerns regarding the need to improve global carbon omissions, Andy has introduced a Sustainability Department at Sudlows to investigate and incorporate sustainable technologies. Along with this, Andy decided he wished to better understand how he can support this global issue. This led to Andy enrolling in a Masters degree in Sustainable Development at the University of Sussex, which he is currently part way through.

Andy has also recently been working with universities and colleges to promote Data Centre engineering in the curriculum to help support the future of the Data Centre industry.

It would be a great honour for Andy to win this award and to have his achievements and commitments to the Data Centre industry recognised at an awards dedicated to what he is so passionate about.

The datacenter industry is changing fast, with ever-more complex facilities to be built swiftly and efficiently amidst rapidly evolving technological and regulatory standards.

At the same time, the convergence of Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT) is removing the need for fragmented systems, disparate data sources, and limited visibility into critical processes.
Despite this evolution, some legacy BMS suppliers remain entrenched in outdated models.

Often built around proprietary hardware, these are slow to deploy, slow to scale, and slow to adapt, with inherent limitations to operational visibility.

Today’s datacenter operators need high resolution, real-time data delivered in a unified model that enables data-driven planning and decision-making.

Gapit Nordics has taken a fresh approach and built, from the ground up, a modular, all-in-one system tailored specifically to meet the needs of modern datacenters.

Our vendor-agnostic, software-driven approach eliminates the need for custom hardware and leads the way to an efficient, scalable, and future-proof datacenter ecosystem.

The forward-thinking design and architecture of our offering delivers the freedom and flexibility to quickly integrate with a diverse range of suppliers, technologies, and platforms. Quick to deploy, it is reliable and resilient even in the face of the most demanding operational conditions.

We have built a comprehensive library of ready-to-go industrial integrations. From UPS to HVAC, breakers to batteries, and grid analyzers to generators, our systems support your freedom to choose from any supplier and to evolve your operational infrastructure over time.

The Gapit system comes not only with the operational monitoring and control you would expect from a BMS, but also with analytical dashboards, alerting, and reporting. Out-of-the-box and ready-to-go.
Combine these features with unparalleled access to all operational data points and you have single source of truth for the entire datacenter team, both real-time and historical, from signal to screen, without limitations.

Among the many benefits enjoyed by our customers, perhaps the top three are:

Full simulation: the ability to train operators even before the datacenter is completed, ensuring seamless integration and familiarity from day one.

All data, always: Unrestricted access to all data points, across the OT network, without incurring additional costs or restrictions.

Scalability: The Gapit system is specifically designed to accommodate future growth and evolving requirements, for example due to merger or acquisition.

Gapit Nordics serve the entire data centre organization, breaking down silos between departments and fostering collaboration. According to business needs, every team enjoys immediate access to their own essential metrics, enabling data-driven decision-making, reducing costs, and driving growth.
Already supporting more than 420MW across Scandinavia, Gapit Nordics are committed to the long-term success of our customers. With continuous product development and managed services, we ensure the recurring value of our software products.

At Gapit Nordics, we're not just revolutionizing BMS we're redefining what's possible for datacenter operations and management, empowering our customers to navigate the complexities of modern datacenters with confidence.

WAN Acceleration technologies accelerate data transfers that eliminate data management challenges are known as ‘WAN acceleration.’ Bridgeworks patented artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies accelerate organisations existing technologies and dramatically accelerate their Wide Area Networks (WANs). AI underpins the patented technology to provide process intelligence, mitigating latency and mitigate packet loss. Our solutions, such as PORTrockIT, dramatically improve data throughput up to 98% of bandwidth – regardless of distance.

Accelerating BlackPearl, Securing Data

Spectra Logic: “In our tests, PORTrockIT accelerated BlackPearl’s replication performance significantly – in one case, completing the job more than 5 times faster.”

BlackPearl is a Spectra Logic platform that aims to make it easy for organisations to preserve data simply, affordably, and safely. It provides a RESTful interface that allows users to store files as objects and uses an onboard cache to accelerate the movement of data on and off long-term storage media, such as disk arrays and tape libraries.

One of the key use cases for BlackPearl is to enable geographically dispersed archiving, where data is preserved at multiple sites to reduce the risk of data loss in the event of a disaster. BlackPearl makes this easy to achieve by simply connecting two BlackPearl devices across a wide area network (WAN) connection.

However, whenever data is transferred across a WAN, it is subject to the effects of latency and packet loss, which can have a dramatic impact on data throughput. Using BlackPearl together with PORTrockIT can transform the performance of data replication across the WAN by counteracting the impact of both latency and packet loss. In every scenario we evaluated, PORTrockIT was able to increase transfer rates significantly. In one case, it reduced the total transfer time from 247 minutes to just 47 minutes, completing the job more than five times faster.

A complete complement

BlackPearl can help businesses to create and maintain geographically dispersed archives, while PORTrockIT adds value by mitigating the risk of losing valuable data and making it easier to demonstrate compliance with data retention regulations.

To demonstrate the results that PORTrockIT can deliver for BlackPearl customers, Bridgeworks conducted a set of performance tests at a testing facility in the UK. The test infrastructures mimicked a real-world BlackPearl architecture, using an “Injector” server to inject or extract files from BlackPearl, and a WANulator to simulate different levels of latency across a wide area network. Performance figures were taken from the BlackPearl console and recorded.

The tests assessed WAN data transfer performance at various simulated levels of latency. The WANulator also simulated a nominal packet loss rate of 0.1%, representing a typical service-level agreement from most WAN providers.

Test 1 and Test 2

Test 1 and Test 2 were run first with PORTrockIT set to bypass mode, to simulate an unaccelerated network architecture. The tests were then rerun with PORTrockIT in active mode, to simulate an accelerated network architecture. The figures from the two test runs were then compared to assess the difference in performance between the unaccelerated and accelerated architectures.

Test 3 - a slightly different setup

Test 3 used a slightly different setup, with a pair of Bridgeworks WANrockIT appliances in place of the PORTrockIT appliances. This is because WANrockIT is specifically designed to enable the transfer of SAN block-level protocols across a WAN, which is necessary for testing the specific use case of transferring data between a local BlackPearl and a remote tape library that are linked by a fibre channel connection.

Across all three tests, the most important metrics to consider are:

• Average transfer rate, measured in megabytes per second. This allows us to assess the speed at which files can be transferred across the WAN.
• Total time to completion, measured in minutes. This allows us to judge how long the entire file transfer job takes.

Test 1 assessed the performance of transferring a 1 TB payload of files from the local BlackPearl cache to the remote BlackPearl cache and back again at 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 ms of latency with 0.1% packet loss.

Test 2 extended Test 1 by adding a tape library connected to the BlackPearl appliance at the remote end of the WAN. This simulated a scenario where BlackPearl is used as a distributed archive for long-term data retention.

In Test 3, one BlackPearl appliance was placed on the local side of the WANulator and connected via a fibre channel connection to a remote tape library, using WANrockIT as the accelerator. This would evaluate the speed of reading directly from tape across the WAN.

Accelerated Results

Without PORTrockIT - For the unaccelerated network architecture, the results of Test 1 and Test 2 show a negative correlation between latency and performance. As latency increases, average transfer rates (ATR) decline and we see a longer total time to completion (TTC). For example, in Test 1, the TTC was 119 minutes when there was 20 ms of latency but rose to 246 minutes at 100 ms of latency – more than twice as long.

The results of Test 2 were similar: the TTC was 78 minutes at 20 ms of latency, but 157 minutes at 100 ms of latency – again, more than double the time to complete the transfer. In a real-world scenario, this variability in TTC would be a major concern, as any unexpected increase in latency could cause transfers to time-out or overrun their scheduled window – putting valuable business data at risk.

With PORTrockIT - When we look at the architecture accelerated by PORTrockIT, the results are very different. At all levels of latency, the ATR improves dramatically when PORTrockIT is activated. For example, in Test 1, the worst-case ATR of the accelerated architecture (365 MB/s at 100 ms of latency) is still more than 2.5 times as fast as the best-case ATR of the unaccelerated architecture (145 MB/s at 20 ms of latency). We can also see that PORTrockIT keeps TTC stable, regardless of latency.

In Test 1, the shortest TTC was 39 minutes at 20 ms of latency, and the longest was 46 minutes at 100 ms of latency. In Test 2, the fastest TTC was 36 minutes and the slowest 43 minutes. In both cases, that’s a difference of just 7 minutes between the slowest and fastest transfers – which suggests that real-world users can expect their transfers to complete on time, even if latency increases.

Test 3 demonstrates that Bridgeworks WANrockIT, a WAN acceleration product for SAN protocols, Spectra Logic customers cannot only geographically separate their BlackPearl instances, but also use a third geographical site for air-gapped tape storage facilities without suffering the performance penalties associated with latency and packet loss.

Accelerating IT security

The project with the major IT security firm is also a game-changer. Between November and December 2021, a storage subject matter expert within this company came to Bridgeworks with details about a file transfer problem on a 2Gbps WAN circuit between Colorado, USA, and Bangalore in India.

Problem:

With data equating to 700TB storage estate, backups are only as good as the ability to restore the data. In order to allow an acceptable transfer time of this data requires a robust solution.

There were 2 NetApp units involved in the data migration: one in Bangalore and another in Denver. The transfer was performed using the inbuilt NetApp Snap Mirror feature. It involved migrating data in a follow the sun requirement, and critical data and security was paramount. The allocated WAN bandwidth for transfer was a 1Gb/s controlled by a SD-WAN. But the raw WAN bandwidth was 2 Gb/s. Before PORTrockIT, throughput was typically equating to 2MB/s using Incumbent technology WAN-Optimisation with only 2% unitisation of WAN, and the time to transfer the data was 8.4 days.

After installing and configuring the Bridgeworks PORTrockIT virtual instances, the transfer speed increased to 80MB/s – a 40-fold increase and the time taken was reduced to under 6 hours. In this case the benchmark figure we were given was that the customer was only able to move data at around 2 Mega Bytes per second.”

Results

A spokesperson from the IT security company remarks: “The rate of throughput was incredible. PORTrockIT from Bridgeworks is a game changer. I am a storage engineer with limited networking knowledge. I was able to configure and deploy PORTrockIT in less than 2 hours”. The IT security firm believes that with ‘unthrottled’ conditions and utilising their full 2 Gig WAN, they would be able to transfer data at 200 MBs per second.
PORTrockIT is working over a SD-WAN, and they required no other changes to the LAN or WAN configurations.
Speaking about the project, Kevin St. Cyr, Tributary Systems inc. of Dallas, Texas says: “We have always impressed with the capabilities of PORTrockIT product, but what they have achieved with the IT security company’s installation takes it to another level. It is a showcase for the capabilities of PORTrockIT. The beauty is, it’s easy to install and it shows the performance that can be achieved over a WAN that was once thought impossible.”

WAN Acceleration: Accelerating cloud metro cluster deployment

WAN Acceleration technologies accelerate data transfers that eliminate data management challenges are known as ‘WAN acceleration’. Bridgeworks patented artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies accelerate organisations existing technologies and dramatically accelerate their Wide Area Networks (WANs). AI underpins the patented technology to provide process intelligence, mitigating latency and mitigate packet loss. Our solutions, such as PORTrockIT, dramatically improve data throughput up to 98% of bandwidth – regardless of distance.

Hybrid cloud, object storage and metro clusters

Steven Umbehocker (SU), CEO and CTO of OSNEXUS Corporation explains why this is important to organisations that are accelerating their adoption of hybrid cloud strategies: “This can be in the form of object storage for backup, disaster recovery sites, and all this puts a greater importance on efficient use of the WAN. This is important across all sectors. However, it is especially important in sectors such as healthcare to protect data like PACS images.”

Before implementing Bridgeworks PORTrockIT OSNexus was facing performance challenges in deploying metro clusters and disaster recovery (DR) sites over WANs – suffering with particularly high latency over large distances. There was a 200-700% boost in performance by implementing PORTrockIT which is a game changer. The highest performance improvement was 7 times higher than without any WAN acceleration.”

Critical: Recovery Time objectives

Recovery time objectives (RTOs) are critical to IT organisations, so it is imperative to have adequate WAN bandwidth and throughput to keep the remote replication to DR sites within the required RTO. OSNexus is also seeing increase demand for metro clusters where the storage is distributed across multiple sites to achieve zero downtime in the event of a site outage.

Umbehocker therefore adds: “That’s only possible when the latency is low enough to provide sufficient and adequate performance for the workloads. PORTrockIT solves these latency issues so that metro clusters and DR sites can be deployed across a much larger geographic area. If you have an earthquake in one zone, that larger metro cluster offers benefits. You can avoid downtime, enabling organisations to link their disparate sites together. There is much latency between New York and Tokyo, and so you need something like PORTrockIT to mitigate latency.”

With high latency and packet loss, he explains that data transfers are delayed and may need to be resent which reduces performance – the transfer rate. WANs are typically spanning portions of the public internet and/or shared dark fibre infrastructure that IT organisations don’t have much control over, and simply upping bandwidth doesn’t address the latency issues. What is required is a different approach to boosting WAN performance that is designed to specifically address the inherent latency issues and packet loss.

Before approaching Bridgeworks, OSNexus experimented with various network tuning options, including adjusting the frame sizes and queueing techniques, but these adjustments do not come anywhere close to the range of benefits offered by PORTrockIT. The three biggest benefits were the reliability of the link, the visibility of the performance, and increased performance with PORTrockIT.

Joshua Blake (JB), Regional Support Lead – EMEA at OSNexus Corporation therefore says: “It definitely increased performance, but I couldn’t tell you if there was more smoothness. It was easy to set up once you understand it. There were some things I needed to read up on, but it was otherwise easy to set up.”

The company has a disaster recovery site between Seattle and Las Vegas, and so it found it helpful to include PORTrockIT into their automated test systems. To that extent, PORTrockIT is now certified for use with QuantaStor, and this enables OSNexus customers to leverage it for disaster recovery sites and metro cluster use cases.

Performance improvements

The QuantaStor VM endpoints shown in Figure 1 use the PORTrockIT virtual appliances as gateways for replicating data from a ZFS file system. For the data payload, OSNEXUS used a randomly generated 5,124 MB test file. The ZFS data was sent and received via SSH on TCP port 22.

By using WANulator to simulate the scenarios presented in Table 1, the OSNEXUS team was able to test transfer speeds both with and without PORTrockIT data acceleration and make direct comparisons between the two data transfer strategies. The test was conducted five times for each different latency, and the average transfer time in seconds can be seen below. Packet loss equated to 0.1%, and latency ranged from 0 milliseconds to 160 milliseconds.

At 0ms the unaccelerated the unaccelerated transfer time equated to 107.0 seconds. When accelerated this amounted to 105.6 seconds, with an improvement factor of -0.01. At 20ms the unaccelerated transfer time was 333.6 seconds, while the accelerated time was 117.6 seconds – leading to an improvement factor of 2.83. At 40ms the unaccelerated transfer rate was 1,724.6 seconds, and the accelerated transfer time was 245.0 – an improvement factor of 7.03. At 80ms the unaccelerated transfer time sat at 2,945.4 seconds, while accelerated it stood at 454.6 seconds – an improvement factor of 6.47. Lastly, at 160ms the unaccelerated transfer time was 3,789.0 seconds. Yet when accelerated it stood at 871.6 – an improvement factor of 4.34.

Blake therefore comments: “Aside from the performance benefits, being able to identify as a complementary product – architecting it with storage – adds another string to our bow effectively. We have mentioned PORTrockIT as a goal. We go in to speak about it, and then they see the benefits themselves – it’s like planting a seed.”

OSNexus has clients that are implementing hybrid cloud strategies who want or need the benefits that, according to Umbehocker, need to the benefits that PORTrockIT solves. This is because PORTrockIT allow data to be moved over WANs quickly and efficiently is a core challenge in implementing hybrid cloud strategies.

He concludes: “We have already started adding more features like automatic tiering from file to object storage and these new features around replication and tiering of data are putting an increased importance efficient use of customers available WAN bandwidth. PORTrockIT enables organisations to get increased value and performance out of their monthly WAN bandwidth investment, with an increase in throughput up to a 700%.”

National Institutes of Health

The NIH was originally a PORTrockIT 400 customer. However, it found an additional need to add two of Bridgeworks’ new high end PORTrockIT 800’s last year. They are moving four protocols over the WAN at ‘breakneck speed’.

A spokesperson from BKJ Works - New York comments: “This is a non-engineering group, but they have had no problem in installing the devices (each in under 1 hour!). Don't be surprised if they come up with future needs on an even grander scale in the future. I cannot thank Bridgeworks enough for their continued support, fast turn around and meeting all and any of our requests with a willingness to say, ‘Yes we can’. This relationship will only deepen going forward.”

WAN Data Acceleration powers the National Institutes of Health’s global data transfer requirements at the U.S Department of Health and Human Services. It is also the world’s largest biomedical research agency. One Bridgeworks' healthcare customer, US-based CVS Caremark, connected two virtual tape libraries over 2,860 miles at full WAN bandwidth. This achieved a performance gain of 95 times the unaccelerated performance.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has gone from never being able to achieve fast datacentre replication over a distance between sites of 2,000 miles, to be able to attain it. The difference between doing it between two machines in the same datacentre and in two machines across two datacentres was 6 MB/s on NetApp Snap Mirror replication. So, they now lose only this amount of time.

The NIH wasn’t able to address this issue for a couple of years. NetApp and Aspera couldn’t achieve this. Bridgeworks was brought in to conduct a quick POC that took a couple of days to set it up, and then that was it. The savings come from not having anything previously to protect their data. Bridgeworks has also helped NIH to resolve network infrastructure issues. Although successful, the results aren’t yet in the public domain. Yet it is a substantial multi-million U.S. dollar contract.

Accelerating IT security

The project with the major IT security firm is also a game-changer. Between November and December 2021, a storage subject matter expert within this company came to Bridgeworks with details about a file transfer problem on a 2Gbps WAN circuit between Colorado, USA, and Bangalore in India.

Problem:

With data equating to 700TB storage estate, backups are only as good as the ability to restore the data. In order to allow an acceptable transfer time of this data requires a robust solution.

There were 2 NetApp units involved in the data migration: one in Bangalore and another in Denver. The transfer was performed using the inbuilt NetApp Snap Mirror feature. It involved migrating data in a follow the sun requirement, and critical data and security was paramount. The allocated WAN bandwidth for transfer was a 1Gb/s controlled by a SD-WAN. But the raw WAN bandwidth was 2 Gb/s. Before PORTrockIT, throughput was typically equating to 2MB/s using Incumbent technology WAN-Optimisation with only 2% unitisation of WAN, and the time to transfer the data was 8.4 days.

Phil Hill, Customer Solution Architect at Bridgeworks explains: “Our PORTrockIT solution for this company mitigated the effects of Latency and Packet loss. He says the latency between Denver and Bangalore at 350ms is a lot of latency! The biggest single factor causing latency is distance - even though the speed of light is around 186,282 miles per second – this figure is actually around one third lower when going through fibre optic cables.
Although the units can be hardware, sometimes virtual images or cloud machine images are more useful. As time was of the essence and the customer had real looming deadlines, the IT security firm opted for a Virtual Machine (VM) running in VMWare ESX. This made the turnaround for the evaluation-solution really quick. The following table shows the technical specification of the virtual products which would server the customer best.

After installing and configuring the PORTrockIT virtual instances the transfer speed increased to 80MB/s – a 40-fold increase and the time taken was reduced to under 6 hours. In this case the benchmark figure we were given was that the customer was only able to move data at around 2 Mega Bytes per second.”

Results

A spokesperson from the IT security company remarks: “The rate of throughput was incredible. PORTrockIT from Bridgeworks is a game changer. I am a storage engineer with limited networking knowledge. I was able to configure and deploy PORTrockIT in less than 2 hours”. The IT security firm believes that with ‘unthrottled’ conditions and utilising their full 2 Gig WAN, they would be able to transfer data at 200 MBs per second. PORTrockIT is working over a SD-WAN, and they required no other changes to the LAN or WAN configurations.

Speaking about the project, Kevin St. Cyr, Tributary Systems inc. of Dallas, Texas says: “We have always impressed with the capabilities of PORTrockIT product, but what they have achieved with the IT security company’s installation takes it to another level. It is a showcase for the capabilities of PORTrockIT. The beauty is, it’s easy to install and it shows the performance that can be achieved over a WAN that was once thought impossible.”

WAN Accelerating F1

A Formula 1 (F1) team undertook an evaluation, a proof of concept (POC), which showed the ability of PORTrockIT to make their WAN data transfers 60 times faster than before. The trial was so successful that the team ended it early. Bridgeworks’ brief was to help them speed up data the transfer of data from the Cotswolds in the UK to New England, in the USA.

A new Partnership with Prodec Networks was formed in the process, and a spokesperson from Prodec comments: “Regarding the F1 team, from wind tunnel analysis to engineering documents, Formula 1 teams accumulate significant volumes of data. The cars’ sensors (over a hundred of them) tell their own story about the race for the duration of the race and for referral later.”

“Needless to say, up to date revisions of the cars’ specific designs need to be easily accessible. How the teams deal with the pressures of reacting quickly to the vast amount of information is often the difference between winning and losing each race. With race data exceeding 150Gb per race weekend, it’s easy to see how our F1 team needed a fast data-transfer solution.”

Bridgeworks continues to keep its customers on track by enabling them to mitigate latency and packet loss. Even organisations that are implementing SD-WANs can benefit from a WAN Acceleration, which is data agnostic, and which permits the transmission of encrypted data at speed over large distances. This is something that tools such as WAN Optimisation will never be able to achieve.

1. What are your company's key distinguishing features and/or USP?

OryxAlign is a data centre focused MSP with a unique approach to customer engagement and service delivery. We offer a holistic set of in-demand services, ensuring our customers' data centre facilities are technologically advanced, cyber resilient and operationally efficient:

a) 24x7x365 critical infrastructure support
b) Monitoring and management
c) Secure network infrastructure design
d) Build and implementation
e) Managed IT procurement
f) New build consultancy
g) Programme management

The highly resilient IT infrastructure we design, implement, support and manage is a fundamental component of any facility - and essential for maintaining critical services such as BMS, PMS, CCTV, security and access control. Service resilience and continuity are vital for successful data centre operations, so we place an emphasis on ensuring our technology meets the highest standards and demands of these mission-critical facilities. Our managed IT services ensure these operations run smoothly and continuously.

We assume the responsibility for maintaining and managing the data centre networks, but also delivering proactive and user-centric IT support services. This ensures staff, facilities management and critical service partners on-site have uninterrupted access to the technology they require. Valued components of our user focused managed IT support services:

a) Desk-side support
b) Cyber awareness training
c) Tech workshops
d) E-learning platform to enhance productivity
e) Application development
f) Procurement services

We've spent decades actively listening to our clients, understanding their challenges and delivering transformative outcomes successfully. We've found that our unique approach of enterprise project delivery combined with client intimacy is why our customers continue to work with us. We believe ambitious organisations should be empowered by great technology that can transform operations, mitigate risks and propel business forward.

2. What tangible impact has your company had on the market and your customers?

Our experience in the data centre industry spans a period of 13 years. During that time, we have been engaged on 16 new data centre build projects, and we currently support the critical IT infrastructure for data centres with a combined total of just under 250 MW of capacity. We presently work with seven data centre operators across the UK, Ireland, and mainland Europe.

This includes VIRTUS Data Centres (VIRTUS), the UK's largest data centre operator. We've held a strategic partnership with VIRTUS over the last 10 years and have been instrumental in their rapid expansion from 1 to 11 data centres, thereby securing their market-leading position of today. We have delivered extensive project work and successful organisational change for VIRTUS over the course of the partnership.

From the IT design, build and implementation of several of its data centres, a programme of managed infrastructure lifecycle replacement through to the implementation of a MDR security platform and SOC services, which has transformed the way the business operates and communicates. All of these advancements and projects, have been managed, supported and maintained by OryxAlign's Managed Services division once they have been implemented.

VIRTUS Data Centres (VIRTUS) Testimonial:
&ldquoOryxAlign's holistic approach has proven to be a successful formula to help enable us to scale our data centre presence and operations. Whether it's critical infrastructure upgrades, everyday support, or providing solution design and implementation services, working with the OryxAlign team is a pleasure. Having worked closely with them over the past 10 years, we were happy to recently extend the strategic partnership for a further 3 years,&rdquo Richard Owen, IT Manager at VIRTUS Data Centres.

3. What levels of customer service differentiate you from your competitors?

Proof of our customer service levels can be seen in our key performance indicators for January 2024 across our data centre clients:

Critical Response SLA (100%),
Critical Resolution SLA (100%),
Infrastructure availability SLA (100%),
Overall Response SLA (Critical, High, Medium, Low) (95%),
Overall Resolution SLA (Critical, High, Medium, Low) (93%),
Overall Client Sentiment (95%)

Our managed IT services satisfy customers and differentiate us from competitors. These include automated infrastructure monitoring for swift issue resolution, proactive Digital Employee Experience (DEX) management, and seamless system integration allowing ticket raising from internal systems.

We also offer solution design guidance covering critical infrastructure, cybersecurity, and telecommunications, and our dedicated specialists facilitate procurement. Additionally, clients benefit from extensive e-learning resources (150 courses), monthly educational sessions, managed cyber awareness training, and support for achieving and maintaining compliance certifications like Cyber Essentials Plus and ISO.

4. What are the major differentiators between your company and your primary competitors?

OryxAlign's success hinges not only on our technical solutions and services but also on our people and organisational structure. Our people-centric approach is rooted in core values: caring, striving, supporting, trusting, and enjoying. These define our ethos and cultivate enduring bonds with our employees and valued clients. Key features of our people-focused structure:

i. Empowered IT service and client-facing teams: Enables swift problem resolution, reducing delays and improving client satisfaction.
ii. Continuous training and development: Investing in regular upskilling and training ensures our teams stay updated on the latest technologies, methodologies and best practices.
iii. Clear communication channels: Our flat organisational structure fosters open communication across levels, from Service Desk to CEO. This facilitates agile service support and decision-making, with control measures in place.
iv. Collaborative environments: Cross-functional teams collaborate to deliver holistic IT solutions, addressing client infrastructure needs.

We recognise our actions as a business affect the world around us, so we dedicate time, effort and talent to ensure we're doing all we can to positively impact the environment, our workers, our community and beyond:

a) Our Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) strategy prioritises sustainability, inclusivity, and decision-making accountability.
b) Recognition for ESG commitment: Won supply-chain award in December 2022. Finalist in CRN Tech Sustainability Awards in January 2024.
c) Company culture: Rewards dedication, trust, and loyalty which fosters an engaging, transparent, fun and supportive work environment.
d) Award-winning corporate culture: Won Corporate Culture of the Year 2023 at IT Europa Channel Awards in June 2023. Recognised for mental health awareness training, supporting staff during the pandemic and cost-of-living crisis, and benefits including private healthcare, pension contribution and support with energy bills.
e) Governance excellence: Regularly reviewed governance arrangements, ISO9001, ISO27001, and Cyber Essentials Plus certified for five years.
f) Diversity and promotion: 50% female senior leaders, 25% internal promotions, and all line managers trained in performance management and mental health support.
g) Investment in people: Continuous training and development of highly-skilled professionals focused on client needs.

CBRE Testimonial:
&ldquoOryxAlign has been a preferred service delivery partner to CBRE since 2019 - engaging in technology projects and maintenance services in our Data Centre Solutions (DCS) and wider Global Workspace (GWS) divisions.
&ldquoI'm always impressed with OryxAlign's responsiveness, willingness to help, and industry-specific technical and operational knowledge. No challenge seems too complex - a refreshing attitude in our world of critical property infrastructure and data centre technology and services.
&ldquoOryxAlign's internal teams (projects, hardware maintenance, IT support, ITAD, network support, technology compliance consultancy and onsite engineering teams) are personable and highly skilled, regularly exceeding industry standards. The team always addresses technical and non-technical personnel, demonstrating the issues, explaining how they can be resolved and prevented from occurring again, which is a rare skill.
&ldquoOryxAlign, currently supports and manages technology networks at several of our critical data centres in the UK and mainland Europe, as well as various multi-tenanted properties throughout the UK. The team at OryxAlign is an asset to CBRE and I would consider them to be a true, trusted technology partner which we look forward to growing with,&rdquo Karl Marko CDMP, Global Associate Director, Technology CBRE (GWS and Data Centre Solutions).

Over the past two years, Datalec Precision Installations (“DPI”) has demonstrated skillful strategic execution to meet the evolving demand of the data centre market by expanding its comprehensive range of design, supply, and installation solutions, including a robust managed services division. During this timeframe, the company acquired and retained several key clients.

One notable enhancement to its service capabilities was the acquisition of specialised technical cleaning company Technivo, which resulted in a world-class technical and critical cleaning solution for DPI clients. The company also partnered with Emrill, a leading facilities management company in the UAE, to broaden its managed services capabilities, particularly from an environmental standpoint.

DPI has successfully executed and managed projects, such as consolidating operations for a prominent bank. This involved network deployments, hardware migrations, and sustainable decommissioning practices in alignment with their zero-to-landfill policy under the N2S partnership. DPI’s commitment to meeting project deadlines ahead of schedule, within budget, and without client disruptions illustrates its dedication to delivering exceptional customer service.

What are your company’s key distinguishing features and/or USP?

DPI offers a comprehensive array of solutions that support the design, construction, and operations of data centres, which encompasses project delivery and the facilitation of daily operational requirements for its clients and their end user(s). DPI is committed to delivering consistent quality and service. The company seeks to establish close, collaborative relationships with its clients, enabling them to provide tailored solutions while always keeping apprised of their evolving needs.

What sets DPI apart from its peer group is that DPI clients have easy access to multiple in-house services including installation, build, connectivity, design, consultancy services, electronic security, and the various solutions offered through DPI’s Managed Services. This differentiates them from comparable company offerings that heavily rely on partnership arrangements.

DPI operates a flexible managed services model, leveraging its extensive capabilities across the project team to remain agile and cost-effective.

Within the ‘banner’ of Managed Services, they offer the following solutions:
- Intelligent Hands (typically known as remote hands within the industry)
- Migration and Technical Services, including network and server expertise
- Data Destruction
- Technical and Critical Cleaning


What tangible impact has your company had on the market and your customers?

DPI is committed to providing cost-effective solutions for their clients that generate high levels of efficiency and adhere to high service quality standards.

For example, DPI has effectively minimised on-site costs for its UK clients by providing 24/7 call-out services, leading to decreased operational expenditure (OPEX) costs.

Clients also benefit from using DPI’s technical support team, who are familiar with their buildings, layouts, and infrastructure. This familiarity significantly reduces issue resolution times.

DPI’s approach optimises client workloads, simplifying tasks such as procurement by consolidating all needs under one vendor for comprehensive solutions and services.


What levels of customer service differentiate you from your competitors?

DPI provides comprehensive client support and managed services underpinned by the expertise of their team of highly qualified technicians. DPI’s troubleshooting capabilities adhere to exact standards, guaranteeing business continuity for its clients.

DPI’s Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are designed in accordance with the requirements of their clients at an individual level. This approach to more customised SLAs is consistent with their view that service levels should be client-driven instead of vendor-driven. SLAs are customised to varying response times, ranging from 30 minutes for residential engineers to 48 hours for situations with limited business impact. In all instances, DPI coordinates with and supports our clients to ensure case resolution.

Additionally, DPI provides more comprehensive client support and managed services than other companies in their peer group. In addition to Remote Hands support, clients can access migration services, network and server expertise, technical cleaning services, and data destruction solutions.

Another driver of DPI’s differentiated client support capability is its ability to provide a customised intelligent customer portal. This portal capability provides several key benefits to clients, including:

- A customised product view set by the client that helps them standardise installations
- Reducing the client design time
- Providing quick and consistent pricing
- Visibility into technical specifications that are pre-product accessible
- Ability to monitor service tickets for DPI’s Intelligent Hands service

The advanced functionality of DPI’s customer portal also allows clients to complete the following tasks:
● Submit a new opportunity to raise​ a pricing request​
● View and track an existing opportunity ​
● Attach documentation to an opportunity​
● Track progress, view, and comment ​on existing opportunities ​
● Access the suite of DPI’s resources​ and user guides​
● Access to individual reporting dashboard​
● Standardise individual product sets and delivery/installation times​

The customer portal enables clients and their end users an instant ROM cost based on a predetermined standardised product set, as defined by DPI clients as part of their standardised colo environments.

What are the major differentiators between your company and your primary competitors?

As described in the responses above, DPI has several vital differentiators when comparing its capabilities to its primary competitors. These include the following:
1) A comprehensive solution set that includes a robust technical cleaning and managed
service offering
2) The ability to deliver cost-effective solutions that also adhere to the highest quality
standards
3) The technical expertise of the project teams deployed to manage project executions in a
timely and precision-based manner
4) Customised SLAs that meet specific client requirements
5) The flexibility and intelligent functionality of its customer portal
6) Its partnership-driven approach to designing solutions for clients and providing ongoing
support


Please supply any supportive quotes and/or case study materials to demonstrate the position of your company in the market.

Customer Testimonial - “The Intelligent Hands Managed Service from Datalec Precision Installations has proven to be a real asset to our business. Knowing that we can have certified engineers available on a 24 x 7 x 365 basis provides us with complete and invaluable peace of mind. Their responsive service and willingness to go the extra mile is a testament to their dedication to customers and we are looking forward to continuing our relationship with Datalec in the future.” [Digital Reality]

Emrill Announcement - DPI Managed Services Partners with Emrill in UAE - Datalec UK (datalecltd.com)

In an effort to revolutionize the way businesses connect and operate their data centers, AFL is excited to introduce its two new cutting-edge Data Center Interconnect (DCI) solutions – Connectorized and Splice. Both solutions are crafted using state-of-the-art technology, including AFL’s innovative Wrapping Tube Cable (WTC) with SpiderWeb Ribbon® (SWR®) technology.

DCI is the direct link between two or more data centers, modeled to facilitate high-speed, secure and reliable communication and data transfer between these facilities. AFL's DCI solutions allow operators to form an integrated network that shares resources, balances workloads and boosts overall productivity.

“We understand the need of cost-effectiveness and efficiency in business,” said Daniel Rose, Commercial Director of AFL Connectivity for Europe, Middle East and Asia. “That’s why our DCI solutions are specifically designed to facilitate rapid and effective data center networking, improve operational efficiency, optimize data center operations and maintain prompt project execution due to our comprehensive suite of products available worldwide, offering robust, high-quality infrastructure that consistently delivers superior performance and stability.”

DCI Connectorized solutions allow operators to quickly and easily cross connect data centers, simplifying data center design, build and deployment. AFL's cable and connectivity solutions, including Ultra-High Fiber Count MPO Trunk Assembly, Ultra-High Fiber Count Patch frame, MPO Trunk Assemblies, ASCEND® Housings and ASCEND MPO Patch Cassettes, ensure rapid and reliable communication throughout the data center. This results in lower costs, reduced deployment time, the maximization of pathway space and enhanced operational efficiency.

Designed to enhance network performance, future-proof and accelerate a network’s growth, AFL's DCI Splice solutions offer a fast and effective way to provide connections across a campus or metro environment utilizing WTC with SWR technology. This combination can be installed 60-75% faster when using mass-fusion splicing compared to single fiber. Data center operators can achieve a DCI Splice link with Flame-Retardant RI Indoor, Flame-Retardant RIO Indoor/Outdoor and Outside Plant cable – all of which use WTC with SWR technology. Mass-Fusion Splice Cabinet and U-Series Front-Access V-Panel (FVP) 6RU are two other DCI splice solutions.

“These innovative offerings allow customers to link multiple data centers, forming an integrated network that enhances productivity, balances workloads, and meets the demands of growing bandwidth and cloud migration requirements,” continued Rose.

Data Centre Physical Connectivity Innovation of the Year

Panduit ODF (Optical Distribution frames) Reduced Floorspace and Increased Fibre Densification a Key Development in Data Centre Infrastructure Utilisation

ODF Key Points:
• A reduction of around 45% in floorspace over equivalent conventional ODF increases the floorspace rental options, providing a significant positive impact on the data centres’ overall income and profitability.
• Panduit’s ODF provides operators with the capacity for 23,040 fibres at a 300mm depth which requires floorspace of only 6.5 floor tiles. Traditional racks with 19” High-Density enclosures offer a capacity of 23,040 fibres and occupy the floor space of 12 floor tiles.
• Smaller diameter fibre cabling enables higher densities in the pathways and racks relieving congestion at the panels to make it less likely for adjacent fibres to be disturbed during Moves, Adds, or Changes (MAC).
• Multiple-level lockable security on the ODF at both door and enclosure is important to MTDCs to reduce human error within the cabinet.

Introduction
Panduit is a leading supplier of data centre infrastructure products and has wide experience in the drive to infrastructure densification. Infrastructure, such as Panduit’s optical distribution frames (ODFs) has been designed to grow and evolve with the businesses’ requirements, and to accommodate increasingly prolific cabling options.

Digital transformation, at the data centre must deliver reliable, scalable networks to meet these demands. Robust fibre network management has become crucial for today’s organisations, and their customers, to ensure continuous high-speed data transport and end-to-end delivery of services. This, in turn, drives the need for a higher-density physical infrastructure, improved resource utilisation and workload mobility.


Diagram 1 Optimising ODF in the data centre – in the attached Word document

Another trend for higher densities comes from increasingly dynamic hyperscalers provisioning space within locally situated multi-tenant data centres (MTDCs) as part of their edge strategy to provide a more local (lower latency) presence for their customers. To improve ROI, these MTDCs are focused on optimising their space utilisation in both the white space and grey space.

To meet demand, the uptake of higher data rates has accelerated from 40G to 400G, with 800G devices available, and a planned roadmap to 1.6 terabytes. With each increase in data rate, the density of compute power per square meter increases but also puts even more focus on having a reliable high-density physical infrastructure.

ODF increases data centre capacity in a given floor space
Panduit is currently supporting a top-five hyperscaler globally with the FlexCore ODF as it deploys high-performance cabling infrastructure within multiple MTDCs. Crucial to these installations, is the Panduit ODF providing the highest density fibre connections, within a passive environment to house, distribute and manage all of the fibre cabling coming into a data centre.

Incoming 576 and 864 rollable ribbon fibre cables enable the maximum FlexCore fibre density of 3168 fibres per rack. Moreover, this density is made usable through the use of 2mm diameter Uniboot duplex LC fibre patch cords and the smallest diameter rollable ribbon trunk cabling available (12.5mm for 288 fibres and 17mm for 576 fibres). The smaller diameter fibre cabling enables higher densities in the pathways and racks while also relieving congestion at the panels to make it less likely for adjacent fibres to be disturbed during Moves, Adds, or Changes (MAC).

Versatility is key
Panduit’s FlexCore ODF solution provides modular building blocks that can be assembled to create the exact frame and cable manager configuration to optimise density and system availability as well as offering pay-as-you-grow scalability. Typical frame arrangements are wall-mounted single or double racks and middle-of-the-room back-to-back configurations.

Modular systems offer flexibility and reduce floor space by as much as 45% compared to standard four-post racks. For a MTDC, this reduction in the floorspace effectively increases the operational rental floorspace which has a significant positive impact on the site’s overall income and profitability.

In attached word document
Image 1 - Modular Optical Distribution frame
with doors removed with lockable doors in place

In attached word document

Diagram 2, illustrates four traditional racks with 19” High Density enclosures offer a capacity of 23,040 fibres and occupy the space of 12 Floor tiles. By comparison, diagram 3 shows the Panduit ODF front access solution featuring a compact frame system that can be placed back-to-back to achieve the same 23,040 fibre capacity, within a floor space requirement of only 6.5 tiles.

Diagram 2 & 3 – Space Saving, Total Front Access – See attached document for diagrams


ODFs also work well in smaller areas, as the front access frames are also designed for wall mounting. Therefore, previously non-revenue earning areas can now be utilised, ensuring customers receive the most efficient and effective cabling infrastructure layout. A high-density ODF also enables data centre operators to meet their growing demands for new services, simplify day-to-day MACs and futureproof their investment.



MACs & Security
Managed network connectivity is essential and ensuring MACs are processed correctly and recorded is vital to the operational efficiency of the IT space, whether white space or grey space. Intuitive cable management and easy access to the fibre connectivity in a high-density ODF can increase the ease of use and speed of MACs by up to 40%. In addition, utilising the latest fibre connectivity with boots that can be used as pull tabs and small-diameter cables greatly reduces the risk to adjacent circuits during the MACs. In a recent (2022), ITIC Hourly Cost of Downtime survey, human error (64%) is second to security breaches (73%) as the key issue that most negatively impacts reliability and causes downtime. Systems, such as a properly designed and maintained ODF, can reduce or eliminate human error which improves customer satisfaction and overall profitability.

Utilising a Network Mapping System in conjunction with ODFs automates the labour-intensive and often error-prone cable documentation process to again reduce the risk of network outage.

Panduit’s ODF offers clearly defined and traceable cable routing pathways that reduce guesswork and help limit the need for expensive rip-and-replace cabling. Multiple-level lockable security on the ODF at both door and enclosure is important to MTDCs to reduce human error, whilst adding compartmental security between multiple tenants.


www.panduit.com/ODF

WHAT ARE YOUR PRODUCT’S/SOLUTION’S KEY DISTINGUISHING FEATURES AND/OR USP?

The need for reliable power, monitoring, and intelligence has never been more critical, as unplanned interruptions due to power quality issues can result in downtime and lost revenue for data centers. With the ongoing focus on improving both efficiency and sustainability, data centers require more frequent and continuous power quality monitoring at the rack (and device) level, which takes into consideration voltage sags, surges/swells, transients, interruptions, and total harmonic distortion to avoid negative impacts on the equipment being powered.

Key data center pain points identified:
• Limited or no visibility into the quality/efficiency of power in the cabinet.
• No visibility to tripped circuit breakers, potentially leading to downtime.
• No means to capture granular, cabinet, or outlet-level data for optimization purposes.
• Not enough outlets, not the right type of outlet, not in the right configuration.
• Need to monitor and secure the environment in and around the data center cabinet.

Raritan, a brand of Legrand, has taken a giant leap forward in the functionality of their intelligent power distribution units with the Raritan PX4 Rack PDU, introducing new continuous power quality monitoring capabilities that provide a granular level of real-time power quality measurement data needed for rack power optimization to ensure uptime.

• ADVANCED POWER QUALITY MONITORING & METRICS: Integrate ±0.5% energy metering accuracy with existing and ground-breaking rack-based metrics such as Neutral Voltage, Total Harmonic Distortion, Voltage Dips and Swells, Crest Factor, and more. When coupled with Waveform Capture, users can confidently reveal trends regarding the health and quality of power sources and power to devices at the rack PDU power inlet, circuit breakers, and outlets.

• TOTAL HARMONIC DISTORTION: Enables real-time harmonics monitoring and alerting at the cabinet level to the scale of an entire data center’s rack power infrastructure. This game-changing rack capability allows users to identify power conditions that could shorten their IT system's lifespan or lead to inefficiency in the power chain.

• CIRCUIT BREAKER TRIP FORENSICS WITH WAVEFORM CAPTURE: Ensures that when a circuit breaker trip occurs, users have intuitive Waveform visualizations and data insights to quickly understand which outlet caused an event. Coupled with Outlet On Prevention, users can repower non-offending equipment, thus resolving issues before they become more significant problems.

• XERUS™ TECHNOLOGY PLATFORM: Combines hardware, software, and communication technologies to form the backbone of the PX4 Rack PDU. It is a flexible and mature platform. It helps maximize data center efficiency and your rack PDU investment by delivering security, white space instrumentation, high compute power, advanced alerting, and complete visibility into the power chain. It also offers unmatched interoperability by supporting popular protocols such as SNMP, MODBUS, and open REST-based APIs, including a new Redfish® API.

In addition, the PX4 Rack PDU provides best-in-class outlet and power density, providing the highest level of flexibility, reliability, and security.

• HDOT OUTLETS: The High Density Outlet Technology (HDOT®) design removes unnecessary outlet molding to provide the most outlets per PDU form factor to support high-density rack requirements.

• HDOT Cx OUTLETS: A hybrid of IEC C13 and C19 outlets, the HDOT Cx® outlet accommodates both C20 and C14 power cables in a single outlet. It reduces complexity, increases flexibility, and simplifies the PDU selection process.

• RAMLOCK LOCKING TECHNOLOGY: A rugged and intuitive outlet and power cord locking system secures power cords to the PX4 PDU. Its auto-lock and manual release lever allows unplugging with a one-handed “squeeze and pull” action.

• ALTERNATING BRANCH OUTLETS: Groups outlets into branches on a repeating and distinguishable pattern over the length of the PDU. This simplifies load balancing and device installation while keeping patch cables shorter and away from the airflow path. It also lessens out-of-balance loads that can cause heating in the neutral current line.

• 45-DEGREE ANGLED INFEED: A flexible infeed cord design that reduces the number of PDU configurations needed. Bottom or front entries are now supported in this one-size-fits-all feature that saves money and time. The bend radius is suitable for cords rated up to 60A 3-Phase without degrading performance.

Key benefits/improvement areas:
• Real-time visibility, reporting, and alerting of power metrics and events at the rack.
• Best-in-class flexibility to meet and anticipate future requirements.
• Engineered for mission-critical uptime.
• Easy data collection and export to examine energy utilization.
• Unsurpassed outlet and power density.
• Secure communication, by default, for all rack PDU data.

WHAT TANGIBLE IMPACT HAS YOUR PRODUCT/SOLUTION HAD ON THE MARKET AND YOUR CUSTOMERS?

There are many innovative features in the next-generation PX4 Rack PDU, though one stands out: advanced rack power quality monitoring and metrics.

Our engineering teams brought our existing ±1% metering accuracy to an IEC 62053-22 Class 0.5S (±0.5%) revenue-grade energy meter and an IEC 61557-12 PMD-II advanced power monitor into our rack PDU design to set this PDU apart from the rest. Our customers have told us that despite their redundant power infrastructure, power quality issues still plague their data centers. Many power quality issues stem from switch mode power supplies powering every server, network switch, and storage device. These problems manifest themselves into power supply failures (which can create their own power-related issues) to lost data, device resets, device humming, and other associated problems that ultimately result in downtime. Our customers told us that, in the past, power quality problems required them to install disparate, large, and expensive power quality meters within their data centers to diagnose and attempt to resolve power quality issues.

With the PX4’s new rack-based power quality measurement and metrics, users can now access non-stop power quality monitoring at the PDU’s inlet and outlet to identify and resolve these problems before serious problems arise. Power metrics become more powerful when captured, trended over time, and visualized in the same location. With our new waveform capture feature, users can closely monitor quality metrics at the rack, like harmonics or voltage dips and swells, define a threshold to monitor events and visualize disturbances that may be distorting the PDU’s power quality. These visualizations and advanced data collection capabilities ensure the data center’s rack power runs efficiently.

Key design innovations and milestones include an updated PSIM (power supply inlet meter) that combines three key circuit boards into one enhanced PDU metering technology that provides a complete set of rack-based power quality measurements and metrics for real-time monitoring and power management an updated SOMM (switched outlet metering module) that includes bistable latching relays, zero cross-switching, alternating phase (or branch) outlet technology, and HDOT® and PDU Controller advancements that allowed for a new Redfish® API and more memory for features like waveform captures of power events.

WHAT ARE THE MAJOR DIFFERENTIATORS BETWEEN YOUR PRODUCT/SOLUTION AND THOSE OF YOUR PRIMARY COMPETITORS?

The Raritan PX4 Rack PDU is the first to include built-in advanced power quality metrics and diagnostic tools, both at the PDU inlet and at the PDU outlet.

• ADVANCED POWER QUALITY MONITORING & METRICS: Integrate ±0.5% energy metering accuracy with existing and ground-breaking rack-based metrics such as Neutral Voltage, Total Harmonic Distortion, Voltage Dips and Swells, Crest Factor, and more. When coupled with Waveform Capture, users can confidently reveal trends regarding the health and quality of power sources and power to devices at the rack PDU power inlet, circuit breakers, and outlets.

• TOTAL HARMONIC DISTORTION: Enables real-time harmonics monitoring and alerting at the cabinet level to the scale of an entire data center’s rack power infrastructure. This game-changing rack capability allows users to identify power conditions that could shorten their IT system's lifespan or lead to inefficiency in the power chain.

• CIRCUIT BREAKER TRIP FORENSICS WITH WAVEFORM CAPTURE: Ensures that when a circuit breaker trip occurs, users have intuitive Waveform visualizations and data insights to quickly understand which outlet caused an event. Coupled with Outlet On Prevention, users can repower non-offending equipment, thus resolving issues before they become more significant problems.

• XERUS™ TECHNOLOGY PLATFORM: Combines hardware, software, and communication technologies to form the backbone of the PX4 Rack PDU. It is a flexible and mature platform. It helps maximize data center efficiency and your rack PDU investment by delivering security, white space instrumentation, high compute power, advanced alerting, and complete visibility into the power chain. It also offers unmatched interoperability by supporting popular protocols such as SNMP, MODBUS, and open REST-based APIs, including a new Redfish® API.

Additional best-in-class, industry-first hardware features include our patented HDOT® and HDOT Cx® Outlets, RamLock mechanical locking technology, alternating phase/branch outlets, and a 45-degree angled infeed.

VALUE OF THIS PRODUCT/SOLUTION TO YOUR CUSTOMERS/PARTNERS

Our customers have told us we have “read their minds” on the rack power features they hoped to have in world-class intelligent PDUs.

The combination of existing plus new features in the Raritan PX4 Rack PDU provides the most flexible and intelligent rack PDU solution in the market while maintaining best-in-class features that solve the most common and future-focused data center challenges. This next-generation rack PDU model builds on the intelligence of the Xerus™ Technology Platform by adding industry-proven, flexible outlet technology and a set of new features like advanced power quality monitoring and metrics. This combination of new hardware and software technologies delivers unsurpassed outlet and power density, best-in-class flexibility, rock-solid reliability, and the most accurate real-time visibility relating to the health and quality of your IT power chain.

Whether it is a remote location, storefront, warehouse, building basement, Colo, or any other facility, edge and similar deployments no longer guarantee a purpose-built environment with quality power or smart hands available to address an event should it occur. These locations require advanced metering, diagnostics, and sensors to ensure proper operation within these environments. The PX4 Rack PDU has already saved countless hours of time and work by identifying which outlet/ device tripped the over-current protection device on the PDUs branch circuit, making an event like this simple to remedy and get the devices back online and in operation versus the time and effort it would take to diagnose a problem like this in the field and resolve it.

The global DCIM market is expected to reach over $6 billion by 2032. Yet DCIM's complexities, high cost, and costly upgrade risks continue to keep operators up at night. Radix IoT's award winning cloud native IoT platform has become the market's must-have tool for owners and operators of globally distributed critical infrastructure sites at scale by empowering diverse facilities and infrastructure with a cloud-native platform that organizes and unlocks critical data, providing actionable insights to enhance operational efficiency while reducing costs.

Expediting data unification from across one or tens of thousands of disjointed buildings and automation equipment, it empowers enterprises of any size, in any industry or vertical, to collect data from existing or new building data sources. A little-known secret is that Radix IoT offers a flexibly scalable DCIM Platform that not only meets but goes above and beyond the data center operators' critical needs-from Edge to hyperscale.

The platform allows data center operators to gain real-time, actionable insights into their critical infrastructure and expedite operations, management, maintenance, and improvements with just a few clicks. Operators gain full control over their equipment data and improve operational efficiency seamlessly-at nearly half the cost of current DCIM platforms in the market.

Operators can unlock and organize raw data across all their connected devices-reducing costs while expediting operational efficiency with:

•; A DCIM Application package that meets the needs of distributed global deployments at scale-proven and tested at 26,000 locations.

•; Real-time alerts on emerging problems, provide operators with full access and control of their equipment data for constant, uninterrupted operational efficiency.

•; Easy consolidation of operational view with the existing systems requires no vendor locks or costly rip-and-replace.

•; Ability to work with what already is in-place eliminating costing upgrade costs.

•; Flexible pricing models eliminate the common cost traps of other DCIM Solutions in the market.

Reason for this Entry (Min 450 characters)*
Entry Criteria: Please answer these questions in the general description of your nomination:

• What are your product's/solution's key distinguishing features and/or USP?

Huawei PowerPOD solution integrates the full-power link devices as UPS, load feeder, battery cabinet, and air conditioner, monitoring devices into a prefabricated module in the factory, providing a MW-level integrated power supply, distribution, and backup solution for large-scale data centers. It can be deployed outdoors without buildings.
The PowerPOD solution features smaller footprint, higher efficiency, faster delivery and higher flexibility. Because it's not included in the data center campus's floor area, the footprint of datahall is reduced by 15%. With prefabrication and commissioning in the factory, the delivery period of the power system is shortened from 30 weeks to 18 weeks, accelerating service rollout for customers. The iPower intelligent feature, which provides end-to-end visualized management as well as predictive maintenance, ensuring system security. Building-free deployment leads to flexible capacity expansion.

• What tangible impact has your product/solution had on the market and your customers?

Firstly, compared with the traditional power supply and distribution system, Huawei PowerPOD shortens the TTM by about 40%, helping customers quickly roll out services. Secondly,
compared with the traditional power supply and distribution system (maximum system efficiency: 94.5%), the link efficiency of Huawei PowerPOD solution can be improved to 98.4% under different rated linear load working conditions. For example, using PowerPOD in a 12 MW data center will save nearly 300,000 U.S. dollars each year.

• What are the major differentiators between your product/solution and those of your primary competitors?

Footprint saving: By using a converged architecture, ultra-high-density UPS, and powerful integration capability, the maximum power capacity in one module can reach 3MW compared with 2MW of competitors.

Power saving: All links are converged. Huawei PowerPOD increases the efficiency from 94.5% to 97.8% while shortening the link length.

Time saving: Huawei PowerPOD is prefabricated and pre-commissioned in the factory and can be put into operation upon onsite connection, shortening the delivery period by over 40% and meeting the requirements for fast delivery.

Worry free: The iPower intelligent feature, which provides E2E visibility as well as AI temperature prediction, life prediction of key components to achieve predictive O&M.

• Please supply any supportive quotes and/or case study materials to demonstrate the value of this product/solution to your customers/partners.

In Malaysia, COLO customer uses Huawei PowerPOD solution. Compared with those in a conventional solution, the power supply and distribution systems used in the new solution with 54 pcs PowerPOD modules take up 15% less datahall space in the 60MW data center campus. In addition, products are prefabricated in the factory, ensuring faster TTM in 18 weeks. AI technology is used to implement predictive maintenance, making the power supply system safer and more reliable.

Multi Power2 by Riello UPS sets new benchmarks for what is achievable in terms of efficiency for modern modular uninterruptible power supplies.

By putting innovation at the heart of the entire product development cycle, from initial design and component selection, through to post-installation aftercare and monitoring, data centre operators can reduce their annual energy costs by tens or even hundreds of thousands of pounds a year, as well as significantly cutting their carbon emissions and environmental impact, all without compromising on resilience and availability.

While thanks to a combination of robust design, painstaking choice of lifelong components, and use of intuitive monitoring, Multi Power2 requires significantly less maintenance than traditional UPS systems too, saving both day-to-day operational costs and valuable engineering resource.

All in all, Multi Power2 takes UPS innovation to the next level and offers data centre operators smart, scalable, sustainable power protection.

Over the 15-year lifespan of the product, the total cost of ownership (TCO) savings compared to both legacy UPS and the latest modular solutions from other manufacturers add up to millions of pounds whilst cutting hundreds of tonnes of carbon emissions.

INTRODUCING THE MULTI POWER2
Multi Power2 is Riello UPS’s evolution of our modular uninterruptible power supplies. Building on the near decade of success of the original Multi Power range, Multi Power2 is designed to deliver smart, scalable, sustainable power to data centres and similarly mission-critical settings.

It offers exceptionally high-power density alongside ultra-high operating efficiency and flexibility that significantly reduces both upfront investment and day-to-day operational costs.

The versatile Multi Power2 series comprises the 500 kW MP2 and the scalable M2S, which is available in 1000-1250-1600 kW versions. Up to 4 UPS can be installed in parallel, enabling the M2S to protect up to 6,400 kW in a single system.

We’ve developed the new 67 kW power modules based on state-of-the-art silicon carbide (SiC) technology, which delivers higher power density (double that of the original Multi Power) and reduced cooling requirements.

This means Multi Power2 is capable of best in class ultra-high efficiency of up to 98.1% in online mode, ensuring maximum protection to the critical load whilst minimising customers’ operating costs and energy losses.

Its intuitive Efficiency Control Mode guarantees high efficiency even at low load levels by automatically activating only the required number of power modules to meet real-time load conditions, which ensures optimum performance and efficiency.

The modular nature of the Multi Power2 offers risk-free scalability, eliminating the possibility of wasteful oversizing and helping optimise initial investment costs.

Multi Power2 is designed to eliminate any single point of failure, a principle applied to all parts of the solution, even the internal communication structure, which is completely redesigned and made with two separate and fully redundant high-speed buses.

It is manufactured using the highest quality long-life components and can work in temperatures of up to 40oC without any derating, minimising the need for energy-intensive cooling systems. While all modules and major components are hot-swappable, allowing for downtime-free maintenance.

Finally, Multi Power2 is smart grid-ready and can easily be integrated into the rapidly evolving electricity network of the future, capable of participating in the demand response schemes that will help to balance supply with demand and ensure a stable frequency in real-time


NEXT LEVEL OF UPS INNOVATION
In years gone by, most UPS systems were designed and manufactured using a two level architecture inverter. Such systems could typically deliver maximum efficiency of around 96%.

Designs then moved from two level to three level architectures, a step that obviously required more components and processing power to control, but helped improve efficiency levels to 96.5%. While adapting the materials used in filter design enabled manufacturers to push efficiency levels upwards of 97%.

Now Multi Power2 takes UPS design and development to the next level by embracing silicon carbide (SiC) semiconductors rather than the IGBTs traditionally used in UPS manufacturing.

SiC components offer several inherent advantages over standard IGBTs, including:

• Higher Efficiency: SiC components exhibit lower electrical resistance, resulting in reduced energy losses, which helps to maximise the overall efficiency of the UPS system. For the Multi Power2, this means an unparalleled 98.1% in online mode.
• Increased Power Density: The technology allows for increased power density, making it possible to design more compact and lightweight UPS systems without compromising on power capacity.
• Increased Thermal Stability: SiC can operate at higher temperatures, translating to a broader operational range and reduced cooling demands.
• Enhanced Frequency Response: SiC’s faster switching capabilities result in a more responsive UPS system, crucial for handling the rapidly changing load conditions typically found in modern data centres.
• Durability: The robustness of SiC reduces wear and tear, leading to extended component and UPS lifecycles along with reducing maintenance needs.

In addition to incorporating SiC components into the manufacturing of the UPS, Multi Power2 embraces innovation throughout its entire design and development.

We use carefully selected lifelong components i.e. capacitors that will significantly reduce maintenance needs over the course of the UPS’s lifespan.

We’ve also introduced a much cleaner, simplified design layout for the individual power modules, including special humidity and temperature sensors that aid with real-time monitoring and analytics to inform preventive maintenance.

While the improved and simplified design, combined with the extremely high power density of the modules, ensures Multi Power2 has a very compact footprint i.e. the 500 kW MP2 only requires 0.5m2, while the 1,250 kW M2S and 1,600 kW M2S only require 2.5m2 and 4m2 respectively, including all the necessary switchgear.

The UPS is also designed to simplify installation, positioning, and maintenance, with all the electrical connection terminals accessible from the front of the UPS to allow for safe and easy deployment.

All systems also incorporate door filters and air pressure monitoring to provide an early indication of any filter material contamination.

INNOVATION IN ACTION - PROOF OF COST, ENERGY & EMISSIONS SAVINGS

The innovation behind Multi Power2 delivers significant cost, efficiency, and carbon emissions savings not only when replacing legacy monolithic UPS systems but in comparison to other manufacturers’ latest modular solutions too

In our supporting document there are two actual TCO calculations we recently provided to customers who were in the process of looking to upgrade their UPS systems. As you can see from the figures, opting for Multi Power2 results in significant savings across the board.

As well as these substantial cost and carbon emissions savings, Multi Power2’s innovation also delivers several other significant benefits.

Capacitors typically need replacing at around year 5-7 of a UPS’s service life. So over the course of a 15 year overall lifespan, the capacitors will require swapping out at least twice, potentially three times.

However, the long-life components used in Multi Power2 mean it is realistic to go through the entire 15 year lifespan of the product without having to replace the capacitors at all. This results in fewer end of life components and materials that require recycling and disposal.

Because of its robust design that avoids any single point of failure and the hot-swappable nature of all modules and major components, Multi Power2 combines a high MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures) with a low Mean Time To Repair (MTTR) of less than 30 minutes.

While sophisticated humidity and temperature sensors incorporated into every power module help to build up a full thermal map and assist customers with monitoring and predictive maintenance.
Taking all these factors into account, a typical site could save more than £80,000-£120,000 in maintenance costs over the 15 year lifespan of the UPS.

This figure doesn’t even consider some of the additional knock-on environmental benefits such as reducing the amount of miles service engineers will need to travel, as a result of fewer maintenance visits

• Panduit has developed a ANSYS award-winning software program that simulates the material composition of its cable cleats, and the electromechanical forces present in a short circuit fault
• The cable cleats are then tested to IEC 61914:2015, utilising a live short circuit fault test to validate compliance with this standard
• The simulation tool allow Panduit to select the most appropriate materials for the cleats, so they perform to their tested kA rating during a short circuit fault
• During a short circuit event maximum electromechanical stress between conductors occurs at or before 0.005 seconds, typical circuit breakers trip at between 0.06 to 1.0 seconds.

Whether the electrical power infrastructure application is data centre, industrial development or enterprise, an electrical short circuit is a major cause of concern when power outages can cause disruption and possible financial loss to the capabilities of the site.

Data centres require large scale provision of electrical distribution systems which are designed to power equipment safely and reliably. Electrical flow problems, such as short-circuits, can cause major damage both thermally and electro-dynamically to buildings, equipment, supply cables and human life. The disruption to the facility from an outage could shut down operations for a costly length of time.

Short circuits can happen anywhere along the electrical distribution system. The fault occurs when an abnormal connection between two nodes of an electric circuit is made. Panduit research illustrates that during a short circuit event, maximum electromechanical stress between conductors occurs at or before 0.005 seconds. Current levels in these events can reach 200kA. In the worst case scenario in a 3-phase short, magnetic field induced repulsive forces between cables can range upwards of 10,000-pounds. Typical circuit-breakers trip and interrupt a fault between 0.06 to 1.0 second, allowing time for substantial damage to occur.

Image 1 – Short-circuit current graph - See attached pdf

Panduit Cable cleats reduce damage and expensive rework by performing their function within those first 0.005 second, at peak kA, before the circuit breaker trips. Cleats restrain cables during their most violent contortions, reducing damage and avoiding personal injury. Panduit cable cleat systems include cable trays for additional flexibility in the design and installation of engineered solutions to short circuit events.

What is a Cable Cleat
As defined by IEC 61914:2021 Cable Cleats for Electrical Installations, it is a device designed to provide securing of cables when installed at intervals along the length of cables. However, how reliable are cable cleats in damage prevention. To gain certification, due diligence is required, and external testing of cleats is performed, which is a necessary and expensive process to validate a cleats capability.

Panduit has developed an industry award winning computer simulation programme which predicts the outcomes of the material composition of cleats and the forces present in short circuit fault. This allows Panduit to test up to intentional failure at higher voltages to validate the simulation and helps define the strength capabilities of the cable cleats. These are then officially tested by KEMA to demonstrate the efficacy of the simulation and the actual cleats.

Image 2 – Panduit Cleat kAlculator result. See image in attached pdf

To simplify the cleat selection process Panduit provides a cleat calculator on its website. For example, when specifying cleats for trefoil cable layout, two variables need to be known: Peak short circuit fault level (kA), and cable outer diameter (OD in mm). Using this data, force between conductors during short circuit event can be calculated and the correct cleats at appropriate spacing can be determined, see image 2. The results provide cleats that pass regulations providing clear and simple guidance and saving time in cleat selection.

--ends--

https://www.panduit.com/en/support/tools1/cable-cleat-kalculator-web-application.html
Whitepaper: https://pages.panduit.com/cable-cleat-wp2

With over 30 years of experience designing and manufacturing data destruction technologies, VS Security Products has built a trusted reputation worldwide as the market leader for data erasure and destruction solutions.

The MediaGone 500, which shreds materials to less than 4mm in width, guarantees complete media destruction for users across a variety of industries.

The MediaGone 500 by Verity Systems is a precision-engineered Shredder that safely eliminates a variety of media with the push of a button, including SSDs, Flash Drives, Cell Phones, CDs/DVDs/Blue-Ray, Credit Cards, Hard Drive - platter only.

Users may safely see the shredding of SSDs, flash drives, discs, or phones live as they go through the destruction process thanks to its clear polycarbonate dome cover designed with reinforced glass.

The MediaGone 500 is the most effective and user-friendly shredder Verity Systems has created to date, illuminated by the newest LED lighting technology. Users can access all of its capabilities, including the option to select fine or coarse cuts for particular shredded particle sizes, using its straightforward touch screen to begin the process.

The MediaGone 500 is available as a tabletop model or mounted to a cabinet on casters for mobility. The tabletop model has a 1-gallon drawer that can be easily removed when it’s full. The cabinet-mounted version has an infrared sensing technology that will alert the user via the display screen.

Built with hardened, carbon steel cutters along with its high torque slip-free drive, the unit delivers maximum power while still being able to run on an electrical outlet (110-125VAC/60Hz). Thermal sensors protect the unit's drive train from malfunction or damage. There are multiple safety interlocks and an emergency stop button to ensure operator safety at all times.

Unlike the degaussers, which erase data through powerful magnetic fields, the MediaGone 500 shreds media into tiny pieces, ensuring the highest security destruction and rendering data completely unusable. If required, shredded particles can also be sent to specialized material companies for recycling.

Features of the MediaGone 500 Shredder:
Meets DIN 66399 – To security levels E-4, T-4, O-4, H-5.

Automatic Operation – Using auto-reverse and media detection technology, the whole shredding cycle is fully automatic.

Touch Screen Display – Allows super easy operation of the machine and displays machine status information.

Infrared Container Level Detection – Enables the operator to check the container level in the trolley at any time via the LCD display.

Security Key Lock – Stops unauthorized users from running the machine.

Continuous Duty Cycle – Machine does not need to stop and cool down, maximizing its throughput.

Runs on standard office outlet – Plugs straight into the wall, no dedicated or complex power supplies/outlets needed.

Precision Hardened Steel Cutters – High carbon steel cutters, manufactured with extreme precision ensure immense cutting power and longevity.

Fine Cut and Coarse Cut Options – The choice of two cut types allows you to meet security levels whilst also maintaining quick cut times.

Safety – Multiple safety interlocks and emergency stop button to ensure the operator's safety at all times.

Data Destruction Auditor Software – Unique DDA Software which enables the user to document and verify media Shredded.

- The Vertiv™ DynaFlex Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) stands as a game-changing innovation, positioning Vertiv as a leading candidate for the Data Centre Sustainability Innovation of the Year category. This solution, available in North America and EMEA, embodies versatility and represents a crucial step toward a dynamic and robust power architecture. By enabling seamless integration of various alternative energy sources like solar, wind, and hydrogen fuel cells, the Vertiv DynaFlex BESS redefines energy management possibilities for organizations, providing an always-on hybrid energy solution. At its core, the lithium-ion batteries within the Vertiv DynaFlex BESS provide utility-scale energy support for extended durations, facilitating effortless transitions between different energy sources. When coupled with the optional Vertiv DynaFlex EMS (Energy Management System), this system unlocks advanced energy management strategies. These strategies encompass demand management, energy sharing or selling back to the grid, potentially reducing utility energy consumption, cutting costs, and generating revenue—a testament to its multifaceted value proposition.

- Vertiv™ DynaFlex BESS promotes the adoption of sustainable energy practices by effectively managing the balance between energy supply and demand. It achieves this by seamlessly integrating renewable energy resources, postponing the need for grid infrastructure investments, and generating additional sources of revenue. The surplus electricity generated from renewable sources can be efficiently stored in battery energy storage systems (BESS) that utilize lithium-ion batteries. As a result, the storage of excess electricity from renewable sources in lithium-ion battery energy storage systems guarantees the availability of clean energy during periods of high demand, thereby making a significant contribution towards a greener and more sustainable future. This system can be pivotal in reshaping the energy landscape and transitioning to more sustainable energy sources. The system’s power conversion system (PCS) virtually eliminates any delays while shifting the load between hybrid power sources.

Vertiv DynaFlex BESS broadens the energy management toolkit, empowering organizations to harness the strengths of alternative energy generation assets while transforming the traditional utility-provider relationship into a complementary aspect of a more dynamic, efficient, and reliable energy mix.

Additionally, Vertiv DynaFlex uses UL9540A lithium-ion batteries to provide utility-scale energy storage that can be used as an always-on power supply. As a result, facilities and power management teams can use this battery energy storage system to smooth out power usage and seamlessly transition to an always-on battery-enabled power supply whenever needed. By doing so, organizations can reduce operating expenses costs, such as peak demand charges, on an ongoing basis. They can also participate in energy arbitrage and other services, enhancing profitability. This design not only minimizes fire risks but also ensures adaptability and scalability, catering to diverse operational needs.

- Tailored for mission-critical environments such as data centers and high-value manufacturing plants, data centers, and other facilities where power plays a critical role, the Vertiv™ DynaFlex BESS's power conversion system provides virtually instantaneous output, minimizing delays during transitions between hybrid power sources. Its integration with an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) system bolsters reliability and efficiency, significantly mitigating the risk of data center outages and reducing reliance on diesel generators. Vertiv DynaFlex BESS is built at one of our state-of-the-art facilities and later integrated with our Vertiv EMS (Energy Management System) to enhance the applications associated with Vertiv DynaFlex BESS. We are the partner of choice for mission-critical businesses seeking to architect their power continuity by developing energy storage for the grid capabilities. In conclusion, Vertiv DynaFlex BESS is more than just a power solution, as it helps organizations increase power reliability, strengthen operational resilience, and reduce Opex spending and carbon emissions. In conclusion, its ability to harmonize multiple energy sources, its contributions to energy efficiency and decarbonization, and its tailored design for critical environments position it as a worthy recipient of the Data Centre Sustainability Innovation of the Year award.

WHAT ARE YOUR PRODUCT’S/SOLUTION’S KEY DISTINGUISHING FEATURES AND/OR USP?

The Minkels new cabinet airflow management platform components prevent the mixture of hot and cold airflows at cabinet level, mitigating well-known issues like by-pass and re-circulation airflows. They are key to optimizing data center energy efficiency.

Platform features:
• CABINET AIRFLOW PACKAGE: Creates a perfect seal between equipment rails and the exterior of the cabinet.
• BLANKING PLATES: Help to minimize the waste heat from one device contaminating the intake air of another device (re-circulation), which reduces cooling efficiency.
• CABLE ENTRY SEAL FOR ROOF LAYOUTS: Acts as a complete seal, allowing cable entry, without accompanying hot air. Using this patented Minkels accessory instead of the traditional method of running cables through a brush result in an 80% reduction in airflow leakage. This benefit increases with each installation of the accessory on cabinets within a data center.
• AIR SEALING PLINTH (for raised/levelled cabinets): Seals any gaps between the cabinet and the data center floor, preventing air recirculation.
• AIRFLOW PACKAGE CABLE ENTRY SEAL: Guarantees the highest degree of air tightness while providing cable throughput (using cable entry accessory in foam version).
• SEALING STRIPS FOR BAYED CABINETS: Perfectly seals any gap between cabinets, significantly decreasing airflow loss.

WHAT TANGIBLE IMPACT HAS YOUR PRODUCT/SOLUTION HAD ON THE MARKET AND YOUR CUSTOMERS?

Data center energy efficiency is facing heightened scrutiny, driven by a growing array of local, regional, and international standards and regulations. These standards, both existing and forthcoming, compel data center owners and operators to showcase best practices in environmental responsibility. The industry's commitment to achieving net-zero targets, coupled with recent substantial increases in global energy costs, adds pressure on data center operators to ensure that their data center infrastructure is optimized for efficiency, with cabinet airflow management emerging as a critical component in enhancing data center energy efficiency.

Data centers face two main issues when it comes to the efficient use of conditioned air being delivered to the cabinet-housed IT equipment:

• By-pass airflows: Energy is wasted in producing ‘unused’ cold air, and the hot aisle energy efficiency is compromised.
• Re-circulation airflows: Hot air from the rear of the cabinet can return to the front and pass through the IT equipment again. Two amounts of hot air entering the IT equipment can create hotspots.

Minkels has developed a new cabinet airflow optimization platform, which includes blanking plates, sealing between two or more adjacent cabinets, floor sealing solutions, energy-efficient gap-eliminating cabinet designs, and game-changing airtight cable entry seals. The result is a truly sealed cabinet package that, when housed in any hot or cold aisle containment design, provides data center owners and operators with the most complete, cost-effective, and energy-efficient infrastructure solution available on the market.

Apart from the benefit of cost optimization and energy reduction, when these measures have been included in the cabinet design and configuration, there are numerous additional benefits contributing to the sustainability and reliability of the data center.

Key benefits:
• Maintain constant cold aisle temperatures.
• More control on the cold aisle temperature opens up the potential to raise cold aisle temperatures, further decreasing energy consumption.
• Higher return air temperatures, as we eliminate the occurrence of by-pass airflows, leading to higher cooling capacity.
• Prevents hot spots from occurring by putting an end to re-circulation airflows.

Additional Benefits:
• Increased data center reliability as we eliminate by-pass and re-circulation airflows. Increased performance of the data center as we open up the potential to raise both cold & hot aisle temperatures.
• Lower data center PUE by reducing cooling infrastructure power consumption.
• The potential to shift cooling power to IT power, especially in cases where the data center is reaching its limits regarding total available power capacity.
• Implementing these measures helps ensure compliance with standards, directives, and legislation.

WHAT ARE THE MAJOR DIFFERENTIATORS BETWEEN YOUR PRODUCT/SOLUTION AND THOSE OF YOUR PRIMARY COMPETITORS?

With the support of an independent testing company specialized in airflow measurements, the Nexpand cabinet platform was compared with the two best performing competitor products, each equipped with their respective airflow management solutions. based on a data center with 4x row-based coolers and 18 cabinets producing 5kW of heat load each, the results showed that Minkels’ solutions can prevent leakage of more than 3,400 cubes per hour. That equates to a minimum saving of EUR 2,000 per year. With the additional cabinet airflow package cost, payback should comfortably be achieved within two years.

In terms of performance enhancement, two standout airflow management accessories that are patented and registered by Minkels on their airflow management platform are as follows:

1. CABINET AIRFLOW PACKAGE: This component stands as the cornerstone of airflow efficiency within cabinets, exerting the most significant impact. It creates a perfect seal between the equipment rails and the cabinet's exterior. The independent testing underscores its efficiency, revealing an impressive 85-91% performance increase compared to competitors' offerings.
2. CABLE ENTRY SEAL FOR ROOF LAYOUTS: Traditional brush-based cable entry systems still allow hot air to leak into the cold room (hot aisle containment). In contrast, Minkels' innovative cable entry system serves as a genuine airtight seal, facilitating cable entry with no accompanying hot air. The comparative performance testing against competitors' brush-based alternatives reveals an outstanding 80% reduction in airflow leakage. This remarkable benefit can be multiplied by the number of times the accessory is installed on each cabinet within a data center, further amplifying its impact on overall airflow management efficiency.

Users of Legrand’s airflow package will make significant progress in improving their data center’s overall energy efficiency, which will also help data center owners and operators to comply with the increasingly stringent requirements of the various data center standards (including the EN50600), and legislation.

SUPPORTIVE QUOTES

What Customers Say:

Arjan Westerhoff, Operational Sustainability Principal at Equinix

“Ensuring effective separation of cold and warm air at the rack level is fundamental to achieving energy efficiency. This lays the groundwork for optimal temperature control, preventing the recirculation of warm air and maximizing energy efficiency.”

“Our criteria for airtightness in cabinets go beyond formal requirements. The key is to channel cold air exclusively through the ICT equipment. Front-end sealing with fire-resistant materials and user-friendly cabling solutions are essential components for meeting our standards.”

Alain Janssens, Data Center Manager at Infrabel

“With the Nexpand server and network cabinets, complemented by Nexpand Corridors, we offer Infrabel an ideal solution for modular and energy-efficient data centers. This flexible environment gives the customer plenty of room for future modifications. At the same time, we provided customization for retrofit corridors that were built into existing cabinets. And also to the specification requirement of the most economical application, we were able to provide an answer for the optimization of the PUE value.”

“In our old data centers, cold air was blown into entire rooms to cool them. Today, thanks to the use of the latest containment solutions from Minkels, the volume to be cooled is a lot smaller. This quickly results in considerable energy cost savings. Energy efficiency is a very important strategic policy point for Infrabel. Data centers consume an enormous amount of energy, and so together with Legrand and Kannegieter we continue to make the necessary efforts to reduce our ecological footprint.”

Selma Kamel, Head of Design, Engineering & Customer Experience at Telehouse

At both the customer and manufacturer ends, environmental aspects and the energy efficiency of solutions are major concerns. Energy efficiency has become a criterion in its own right in the design of new data centers. The current energy crisis and electricity shortages – combined with soaring costs – require data center designers, manufacturers and operators to keep a close eye on electricity supply contracts and on controlling usage. Telehouse is committed to maximizing the efficiency of its facilities. At its end, Legrand is focusing on R&D and is now one of the manufacturers offering the most efficient solutions. In this way, the latest generation of Nexpand racks has been designed so that the cool air produced by the air conditioning units reaches racks and servers head on, and does not escape above or below them, or at the sides. A separation at the 19″ uprights inside the rack helps separate the hot and cold air flows. In addition to the racks, there are various types of air containment systems aimed at guaranteeing an optimal IT room temperature.

Unlocking a £1.45 million annual cooling energy saving for Virgin Media O2

Virgin Media O2 is raising the ESG bar, aiming for net zero by 2040 - not just in its own operations but also across its products and supply chain too. That’s 10 years ahead of the Paris agreement and the UK’s target of reaching net zero by 2050. The company is committed to investing in carbon-removal projects and setting science-based targets for energy reduction and carbon removal.

Innovation sits at the heart of everything that Virgin Media O2 does, and the company is investing billions into its infrastructure expansion and upgrades as it rolls out its next generation 5G mobile and superfast fibre networks. This invariably involves a greater workload demand on the company’s network of data centres, and places an increased focus on ensuring that Virgin Media O2 data centres are operating as efficiently as possible. However, delivering increased IT workload throughput, while also ensuring risk reduction and improved sustainability, is often challenging.

To help address this, Virgin Media 02’s Technical Site Engineering and Delivery team works consistently to optimise their data centres’ energy performance and help unlock additional energy and efficiency improvements. And with electricity prices rising dramatically over the last year, it was important to focus on securing data centre energy efficiencies that could potentially help to mitigate rising data centre energy costs.

Helping Virgin Media O2 to make the invisible visible with EkkoSense
It ca be difficult to unlock the kind of performance improvements that Virgin Media O2 was looking to achieve unless they know exactly what was happening in their data centers in real-time. The good news is that all the data is out there, ready to be collected – operations teams just need to capture it.

That’s why Virgin Media O2 engaged EkkoSense to help its operations teams gain a real-time view of their thermal, power and capacity performance across 20 of its key UK data centre sites. Unlike traditional, approaches, EkkoSense offers a distinctive, light-touch AI-enabled software-driven thermal, power and capacity optimisation solution that enables operations teams to optimise data center performance while simultaneously delivering quantifiable sustainability results.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning at this level changes the optimisation game for Virgin Media O2, taking all those complex cooling, power and capacity datasets and crunching the numbers, doing in seconds what people would have taken weeks before to attempt. Additionally, by introducing powerful algorithms that correlate the relationship between the critical infrastructure and IT load, Virgin Media O2 can now also materially reduce potential downtime events through continual optimisation. Once a data centre is optimised, the software observes any changes in the environment in real-time, and will often inform you that a failure is going to occur long before it materialises – and invariably way ahead of when you might have received any alerts previously.

Translating data into energy savings and ESG sustainability benefits for Virgin Media O2
Virgin Media O2 tasked EkkoSense with optimising the cooling performance of 20 of its UK data centres. The company was particularly keen to secure reductions in its cooling energy usage, so set a demanding timeframe for the project.

Installing sensors, deploying the EkkoSoft Critical software and optimising thermal performance took an average two weeks per Virgin Media O2 site. The EkkoSense team was able to optimise the cooling performance of the 20 Virgin Media O2 sites in just six months during 2023, helping accelerate the time to savings. Key benefits for the project to date included:

* Initial cooling energy savings across 20 sites, equivalent to an annual saving of £1.45m per year that represents an average 15% saving in data centre cooling energy across the target sites

* This energy saving is equivalent to a 800 tonnes average annual carbon emissions offset - delivering a quantifiable carbon saving in support of Virgin Media O2’s corporate sustainability goals

* Improved performance for Virgin Media O2’ significant investment in free air cooling devices by maximising free air capacity

* Where possible reducing maximum rack temperatures to resolve potential thermal risks associated with hot spots

* Identification of potential thermal risks that have all been resolved - thermal optimisation across the 20 sites has increased thermal resilience and improved cooling capacity

EkkoSense’s EkkoSoft Critical optimisation is also unique in that it supports ongoing optimisation - providing organisations such as Virgin Media O2 with an embedded AI-powered Cooling Advisory tool that not only provides real-time insight and optimisation advice, but also helps operations teams to ensure that their data centre estate remains fully optimised.

Following the success of this initial data centre cooling performance optimisation project for Virgin Media O2, the company is now considering adopting the same process across its other UK data centre sites.

Green Mountain is a Norwegian company that designs, builds, and operates highly secure, innovative, and sustainable colocation data centers in Europe. What sets us apart from competitors is our ambition of &ldquoSetting the green standard&rdquo in the data center industry. This entails that we want to establish ourselves as being the most energy-efficient data center in the market, running on 100% renewable energy and with close to zero CO2 footprints.

We incorporate environmental sustainability in all aspects of our business - in the construction of data centers, in the operation of the data center and in the future, when decommissioning a data center. We are also involved in several waste heat reuse projects, contributing to the circular economy. Our green approach to data centers has proved successful. We have a strong growth rate and currently operate four different sites. For this award we would like to nominate our SVG1-Rennesøy facility - the first data center we established. This data center, near Stavanger on the west-coast of Norway, is located deep inside a mountain in a former high security NATO ammunition storage facility. The mountain can withstand both nuclear bombs and natural disasters but also has multiple layers of interdependent systems to deny unauthorized access to facilities, equipment and resources.

This includes biometric access systems, man traps, intelligent video analysis and more. One of the data center's key features is its fjord-cooling solution, using the adjacent fjord as the cooling source. To secure consistent temperature for cooling, water enters a cold-water basin through use of gravity from pipes reaching 100-meter depth. Here, water is stable at 8C (46F) all year round. This cooling solution is extremely efficient and can use less than 3kW of power to gain 1000 kW of cooling. The cooling solution (including the cooling station, chilled water pipework and pumps) is fully duplicated providing a N N solution. With limited moving parts (circulating pumps), the solution is extremely robust and reliable. Server rooms have available N N chilled water under the raised floor. In-row-cooling are installed to client specification using hot isle technology.

The solution is highly flexible and can support standard power densities from 2-6 kW/m2, as well as clients who have requirements for high-density solutions up to 40kW/m2. The facility is Tier III certified by the Uptime Institute and has multiple ISO certifications. It has delivered 100% uptime since the start and has three independent grid supplies to the site, in addition to stand-by generators. Operational excellence is at the core at everything we do, and we have built an operational framework through our DCIM system. This system monitors, reports and analyzes the infrastructure performance and is fully integrated with thousands of sensors in our data centers. The data enables us to optimize our operations, but we also share this insight with our clients through Green Peak.

This is our award-winning real-time dashboard solution - securing 100% transparency of the delivery. This might also be one of the reasons we have achieved an average client satisfaction score of 5. 7 on a 6-point scale the past 5 years. The SVG1-Rennesoy is a prime example of quality, innovation and sustainability.

Facts about the data center:

•; Build Year: 2013

•; 6 x two-story mountains halls

•; 22 600 m2 (230000 ft2) space available

•; Data rooms from 50m2 - 1550m2 and rack solutions available

•; Flexible design which can be scaled up or down based on our clients' requirements.

•; Tier III certified but can tailor-make your data center requirement to any lower Tier standard.

•; 3 independent grid supplies each fed from multiple hydropower plants.

•; 100% renewable hydropower

•; Fjord cooling solution

•; Average PUE: 1.18

•; Automatic standby generators

•; 4/7 onsite security personnel

•; Remote monitoring 24/7

•; Biometric access systems, man traps and intelligent video surveillance.

•; Fire suppression using hypoxic air ventilation system.

•; EMP Secure

•; Carrier neutral data center - 19 independent fiber providers available.

•; Two fully redundant meet-me-rooms in different parts of the facility for carriers with diverse fiber paths to them.

•; Office space for clients.

•; Smart hands services.

1. What are your product's/solution's key distinguishing features and/or USP?

Inventory, temperature, humidity and energy information about the cabins from which our customers received service in our colocation data centers were periodically transmitted in different time periods. Since these requests were repeated instantly and periodically and the work order was opened and progress was made, the process was taking longer. The solution we have made works as DCIM customer interface. The customer can access the DCIM interface with his own private password and specially defined SSL VPN and see only his own cabins. Here, they can instantly view the temperature, humidity, energy and inventory information in their cabins and print out reports in PDF and Excel formats. It can also create automatic reports periodically in the desired format. In this way, the customer can quickly access the data he wants. The most important feature that distinguishes it from other projects can be explained as design, reporting and providing instant data to customers quickly. There is no other example of an interface offered to the customer. This interface has been serviced and extra revenue has been generated.

2. What tangible impact has your product/solution had on the market and your customers?

Without a DCIM interface solution, customer satisfaction and operational continuity were negatively affected. They wanted to instantly see the cabin temperature, humidity and energy values ​​received from the customers. These negativities were eliminated after the DCIM Interface solution was implemented. With this solution, our customers can instantly access temperature, humidity, energy and inventory information in their cabins 24/7 and also generate monthly, daily and annual reports. It can also view inventory layouts and cabinets in 3D and 2D. Our operations teams respond to customer demands with the opened records, but there is a lot of workload and loss of time in delivering them to the customer. We increased customer satisfaction with this solution. It also increased customer satisfaction by eliminating tickets and negativities from customers. When the customer needs an urgent report or wants to make cabin planning, he can see in detail the location of the inventories in his cabins on a U basis. Thus, it provides benefits by creating planning quickly and effectively. The cabin can set the desired limit on the amount of energy and control its capacity by receiving warnings. We receive positive feedback from customers with these features. It was possible to receive constructive feedback from customers through the use of the DCIM interface.

3. What are the major differentiators between your product/solution and those of your primary competitors?

The most important feature that distinguishes it from other projects can be explained as design, reporting and providing instant data to customers quickly. Additionally, there is no other example of an interface presented to the customer. The most innovative aspect of our DCIM customer interface project is to provide the customer with real-time data from the cabinets in the data center, to provide the opportunity to receive reporting, and to make it available for direct customer use other than data center operators. This innovation is the most important step in the transition to virtual environments. It can be considered as the first stage of presenting to customers with a data center in a virtual environment such as metaverse. As a design, all information used in the white area is presented to the customer in accordance with reality.

DC Smarter's solution/DC Vision/ for documenting IT systems sets itself apart from existing solutions by leveraging digital twin technology. Traditional documentation processes often involve time-consuming manual inventory updates, requiring significant manpower. DC Smarter's approach involves creating a digital twin of the physical rack structure, enriched with detailed technical and organizational information about installed components. This digital representation can be accessed through mixed reality using a mobile device, allowing on-site IT and Engineering teams to quickly and easily check and update documentation without service interruptions. Importantly, the digital twin software integrates with common Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) and IT Service Management (ITSM) tools, enabling real-time documentation updates and minimizing information gaps.

This innovative approach not only ensures up-to-date documentation at all times but also significantly reduces the time required for documentation maintenance. Companies, especially those considered part of critical infrastructure, can benefit from enhanced cybersecurity and compliance with upcoming regulations such as NIS2. By adopting digital twin technology, they can protect themselves against escalating cyber threats while avoiding penalties and saving time and money in the long run. While some companies have already recognized these challenges, many may only address them as deadlines approach. DC Smarter emphasises that early adoption of digital twin technology positions companies favourably for the future, offering not only regulatory compliance but also opportunities for optimizing data center operations and sustainability through AI- driven analysis of sensor data, including environmental parameters.

Innovation

The integration of technologies such as Augmented Reality (AR), Digital Twins, and DC vision software has substantially reduced many of challanges wrote in the problem stastment section:

1. Augmented Reality (AR): AR has brought about a revolutionary shift in data center operations. Instead of relying solely on conventional monitoring systems, data center operators can now use AR glasses or devices to visualize the performance metrics, temperature, and health status of equipment superimposed onto the actual devices. This not only reduces response times to potential issues but also aids in training staff. For instance, an operator could be guided step-by-step in real-time through a hardware replacement or repair procedure, ensuring a decrease in human errors.

2. Digital Twins: A Digital Twin is a virtual representation of a physical system, in this case, a data center. It allows for real-time monitoring and simulation of data center processes, infrastructure, and operations. By creating a mirror image of the data center, operators can simulate changes, predict potential problems, and develop preemptive solutions without affecting the actual infrastructure. This digital counterpart facilitates better decision-making, optimizes resource allocation, and forecasts potential challenges, thereby enhancing efficiency and reliability.

3. DC Vision Software: DC vision software provides a unified and comprehensive view of the entire data center. By integrating with sensors, monitoring tools, and databases, it offers real-time insights into the performance, health, and security of the data center. This holistic view ensures that anomalies are quickly detected and addressed leveraging the 2 technologies explained in points 1 and 2.

Voice of our customers and partners:

Our data center has multiple levels, and we’re currently running 128 racks per level. Documentation management takes a lot of time, but it’s crucial to ensure the security of the infrastructure.
We’re pleased to be able to utilize the concept of the digital twin with DC Vision, which reduces this effort and provides considerable added value. Our goal is to enable visual inspections with AR glasses that provide all the relevant information at a glance. Having all this data in view, we could directly identify errors and even anticipate potential interruptions.

~Dr. Helmut Kreiser, Head of the Green IT Cube,
~GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung

DC Smarter impressed us with their innovative approach for Data Center environment. This fits perfectly with our strategy to achieve the most automated and digitized provisioning and maintenance of our systems. The strength of DC Smarter was finding the individual solution and implementation of the use case in a very short time.

As one of the largest German network operators, Telefónica Germany provides attractive and innovative products and solutions for fixed-line and mobile customers.

~Karsten Erlebach, Technical Strategy Manager,
~Telefónica Germany GmbH & Co. OHG

SmartHub Data Center Eco System

In e&, we’re committed towards extending the reach to our customers by offering highly reliable connectivity to support the universal communications essentials and access the incomparable Tier I network reach. We designed our Tier III SmartHub Dubai Datacenter, located in a strategic place in the vicinity of our largest satellite station offering seamless future technologies, designed to maximize energy efficiency through various green initiative and create a state-of -the-art facility.

SmartHub Dubai is our 4th facility, which is launched after our success in Fujairah and Kalba which are on the North-east side of UAE. All our data centers are Interconnected with gateways through robust terrestrial ring fiber & Sub-sea networks. Building SmartHub Dubai on coastal areas with direct access to sub-sea cable systems contributes to ultra- low latency and lower cost which comes from lower or zero backhauling fees. Two advantages that customers are always seeking when choosing datacenters to host their mission critical digital infra-structure.

Our idea for SmartHub Dubai’s project was to convert Jebel Ali’s old teleport exchange to have submarine cables and transit satellite, build hyperscalers and edge datacenter around it, connecting it to multiple submarine beach manholes that land regional and international cables to support the connectivity in the region and globally. This design provides excellent quality, redundancy, and reliability in serving the local community, regional and international customers.

Today, SmartHub connects 2 billion people in the region within a latency of 30 milliseconds or less. Which’s a key requirement for customers hosting edge node to serve middle east region.

SmartHub D.C, recognized as established gateway in the region hosts multiple sub-sea cable systems and terrestrial cables, connects the UAE to the world and empowers businesses to quickly adapt and leverage the digital eco-system to create new value and growth.

Being Directly connected to cables from our Submarine landing Station or terrestrial boarders, our Data Centers connecting the Middle East, Asia, and Europe, with diverse connectivity, low latency, and reliability to ensure enhanced availability and excellent customers experience. With the introduction of SmartHub Dubai, business complexity has been minimized and major support to hyper-scalers, CDNs, carriers, video streaming, gaming platforms, financial services providers, and others are key customers of SmartHub eco-system, for whom we provide access around the world for edge nodes, caching servers in SmartHub being a reliable and a highly connected eco-system.

Innovation in serving the community.

Our main objective is to provide the best quality to better serve the local community and the whole region. Jebel Ali’s teleport exchange was originally a satellite remote hub which was converted based on the region’s needs. Which inspired us to convert it to a hyperscalers datacenter and launching SmartHub Dubai, hosting and offering various services includes major hyperscalers, Carriers, CDNs, video streaming, gaming platforms, ISPs, and others, such attraction not only provided the geo location diversity but also giving greater customer experience lowering the latency and getting closer to customers.

The innovative technology we used, which is proximity to the cable landing stations, gives this new facility a competitive edge due to minimal backhaul requirements, offering a great value to wholesale customers seeking cost-effective edge network connectivity.

It helped us to overcome challenges and enabled us to establish a new EMIX Gateway connected with diverse DWDM network, increase power capacity per rack, have advanced MEP & DRUP systems to provide un-interrupted power supply to cater largely for Hyperscaler’s advanced capacity needs., and focus on sustainability DC environment to achieve for zero-carbon by 2030.

Our Facility:

1. Offers diversity, reliability & business continuity to offer various connectivity services.
2. Geo-redundancy
3. Has a growing community of tenants that customers seek to join. The community includes major hyper scalers, content providers, CDNs, gaming platforms, financial service, telcos and others.
4. Has Easy access to wholesale services offered by various tenants such as Cloud Connect, IPX, IP transit, Internet exchange, cross connect, voice, SMS.
5. Has access to satellite operators hosted in e& earth stations.
6. Is Supported by strong service delivery teams and processes, SmartHub services enjoy a high standard of service delivery and provisioning in terms of quality and speed.
a. Uptime Institute certified TIER III DC
b. ISO/IEC 22301
c. ISO/IEC 27001

SmartHub Impact

SmartHub has played a major role in providing excellent connectivity to the users and in serving the local community. Being recognized as one of the best innovations, and acting as an ICT bridge between continents, SmartHub Datacenters have delivered an outstanding end-user performance over the years, which was the main reason to continue in expanding our footprint in the UAE. Creation of Multiple SmartHub DataCenters concretizes our network enhancement via new Internet traffic gateways, DWDM networks, hosting new Sub- Sea cable systems, Addressing Hyperscaler’s & OTT needs. A single data center window for all next generation needs. SmartHub DataCenter gives our customers the privilege of interconnecting with industry peers, partners, and suppliers.

Testimonials:

In terms of security and diversity, colocation in SmartHub is your secure access point into the world’s most diverse and dynamic ecosystem of leading services, networks, providers and partners. We have never faced any technical issues or power issues once since we have co-located. Moreover, the process for installation is strict but smooth. This ensures that there can be no security/technical issues arising from having partners working on their own racks. This is all simplified from e& SmartHub portal, which encompasses everything a partner needs to raise any request regarding their equipment in the DC. When things seem to not progress well, the escalation process is very smooth and everyone is responsive and helpful, from the technical to the sales team! ~ Wissam Khoury, Director, EMEA Growth Programmes, Lumen Technologies

“China Mobile International has recently deployed our POP at e& SmartHub DC, which plays an important part in our regional expansion and partners' relationship. E& professionalism is in all areas of services, namely commercials, networks and settlements, which we appreciate and admire. We are confident that our partnership with e& will grow and elevate to the next level. We look forward to and expect e&'s support continuing to be a contributing factor to growing our own business in the region and further improving our customer satisfaction and experiences. ” Bastien Li – Carrier Business Department (MEA), China Telecoms
- - -

We have been one of the early movers to invest and setup our POP at e& SmartHub DC. With over more than 10 years this POP is very instrumental for our ME regional strategy. I appreciate E& team’s professionalism for their quick support @ pre-sales, commercial competitiveness to win the business and operational expertise including delivery and restoration. We are confident that our strong business relationship will strengthen even more and will help us mutually grow together in the coming years. ~ Kaushik Parikh - GM & Head MENA Network Planning & Acquisition, Tata Communications

Hubnetix proudly nominates its ACTLINE Micro Data Center for the Innovative Product of the Year Award, marking a significant breakthrough in the domain of data centre infrastructure. Crafted as a plug-and-play, self-contained, and fully integrated system, the ACTLINE Micro Data Centre presents a comprehensive suite of features designed to safeguard critical IT assets while revolutionizing the approach to data centre deployment and management.

At the core of this revolutionary solution is its built-in cabinet, meticulously engineered to provide a secure and efficient housing for IT equipment. Its compact form factor optimizes space utilization, ensuring effortless deployment across diverse environments. Moreover, the integrated power system ensures a dependable and uninterrupted electricity supply, guaranteeing operational continuity for mission-critical applications.

The ACTLINE Micro Data Centre boasts advanced cooling technology, designed to maintain optimal temperature levels within the enclosure. This not only mitigates the risk of overheating but also preserves equipment performance, contributing to sustained operational efficiency. Furthermore, the incorporation of comprehensive monitoring capabilities allows for real-time oversight of environmental conditions, power usage, and equipment status, empowering administrators with actionable insights for proactive maintenance and optimization. Recognizing the paramount importance of security in modern IT environments, this innovative solution features robust fire suppression and security systems. These measures provide unparalleled protection against physical threats and unauthorized access, ensuring the integrity and confidentiality of sensitive data housed within the micro data centre.

A distinguishing feature of the ACTLINE Micro Data Centre is its suitability for edge computing applications. In an era where proximity to end-users is crucial for reducing latency and enhancing user experience, this capability proves invaluable. By bringing computing resources closer to the point of data generation and consumption, organizations can achieve significant performance gains and cost savings in network bandwidth. In summary, the Hubnetix ACTLINE Micro Data Centre represents a paradigm shift in data centre innovation. Its compact yet comprehensive design addresses the evolving needs of modern IT infrastructure, offering plug-and-play simplicity, robust security features, and edge computing capabilities.

This solution stands poised to revolutionize the way organizations deploy and manage their critical IT assets. Hubnetix is deeply honored to nominate the ACTLINE Micro Data Centre for the Innovative Product Award, recognizing its substantial contribution to advancing the field of data centre technology. With its user-friendly design and seamless integration capabilities, the ACTLINE Micro Data Center eliminates the complexity typically associated with data center deployments. Its plug-and-play functionality enables organizations to rapidly deploy IT infrastructure without the need for extensive configuration or setup, streamlining the deployment process and reducing time to market. Moreover, the compact form factor of the ACTLINE Micro Data Center maximizes space utilization, making it suitable for deployment in a wide range of environments, including office spaces, retail outlets, and manufacturing facilities. This versatility allows organizations to leverage the benefits of a data center infrastructure without requiring dedicated server rooms or specialized facilities. The integrated power system of the ACTLINE Micro Data Center ensures a reliable and uninterrupted electricity supply, safeguarding against power outages and ensuring operational continuity for critical applications.

With redundant power supplies and built-in failover mechanisms, organizations can rest assured knowing that their IT infrastructure is protected against unexpected disruptions. Additionally, the advanced cooling technology incorporated into the ACTLINE Micro Data Center enables efficient heat dissipation, ensuring optimal performance and reliability of IT equipment. By maintaining consistent temperature levels within the enclosure, the cooling system minimizes the risk of overheating and prolongs the lifespan of hardware components, reducing maintenance costs and downtime. Furthermore, the comprehensive monitoring capabilities of the ACTLINE Micro Data Center provide administrators with real-time visibility into the performance and status of their IT infrastructure.

From environmental conditions to power usage and equipment health, administrators can access actionable insights to proactively identify and address potential issues before they escalate into costly problems. The robust security features of the ACTLINE Micro Data Center ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of sensitive data. With features such as fire suppression systems, biometric access controls, and tamper-evident enclosures, organizations can mitigate the risk of physical threats and unauthorized access, protecting their valuable assets from potential security breaches. In conclusion, the Hubnetix ACTLINE Micro Data Center represents a paradigm shift in data center innovation, offering a comprehensive solution that combines ease of deployment, reliability, efficiency, and security.

With its compact design, advanced features, and versatile deployment options, the ACTLINE Micro Data Center is poised to empower organizations to meet the evolving demands of modern IT infrastructure while driving innovation and business growth. Hubnetix is proud to nominate the ACTLINE Micro Data Center for the Innovative Product Award, recognizing its significant contribution to advancing the field of data center technology and empowering organizations to thrive in the digital age.

Transition 5.0 marks a cultural change, shifting attention from productivity to the well-being of people and the environment, not only revolutionizing the way companies manufacture, improve and distribute their products.

In this scenario SMS Engineering has designed and developed an intelligent IOT EDGE for SMART TEXTILE TRANSITION 5.0 to serve Digital Transformation, the Environment and People of TEXTILE INDUSTRY CUSTOMER.

This investment was made with the aim of integrating new technologies, including Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing and analytics, and AI and machine learning, Cybersecurity Platform, Back-UP and Sustainability with Energy Efficiency on the whole IT Network into their production facilities and throughout their operations.

Thanks to this important Edge project, TEXTILE INDUSTRY CUSTOMER is able to manage and optimize all aspects of manufacturing processes from the design to production and supply chain for the new factory 5.0.

The new IOT EDGE for TRANSITION 5.0 enable data to be processed in real-time and insights to make smarter, faster decisions about their business with maximum level of Secure and Sustainability for the energy consumption.

This smart and intelligent EDGE infrastructure boost the efficiency and profitability of their entire operation of TEXTILE INDUSTRY CUSTOMER business.

With the aim of ensuring maximum resilience, local management in total data security, SMS Engineering has created a fault tolerance LAN and WAN Network to ensure data flow from the CLOUD to the Edge with the highest standards of Cybersecurity and Business Continuity protection available today.

Thanks to the implementation of IOT Edge SMART TEXTILE TRANSITION 5.0, the processing activity takes place near the physical location of the user who processes the data or the data source, in order to reduce latency and save bandwidth. All in a perspective of complete resilient architecture with two mirrored Infrastructure which, with the perimeter protection of the network, guarantee a very high level of security for data and for all intelligent devices and sensors connected to the customer's network.

The project was developed starting from a Risk Assessment which highlighted all the vulnerabilities of all local, central and remote systems connected to the company network and it was immediately necessary to implement an end-to-end architecture on all layers, from the physical one to the application, in a pervasive way on the whole network. We are proud to establish a long terms relation as a IT Consultant with this important customer.

As we do always,
we have not limited ourselves to the implementation of the Intelligent Iot Edge and the network only, but also to the redesign all the Cybersecurity approach for the whole company and provide the most Sustainability IT environment with highest energy efficiency today technology can help human’s life.

Established in 2012, Data Dynamics stands as a premier provider of enterprise data management solutions, guiding businesses in orchestrating Data Democratization within an AI-driven, Climate-Focused World. At the heart of our offerings lies the award-winning Unified Data Management (UDM) Software, meticulously crafted to help organizations structure unstructured data and extract unparalleled insights securely, governed, and optimized. Proven in 300 organizations, including 28 Fortune 100 entities, it seamlessly adapts to evolving macroeconomic conditions and the dynamic data landscape through its four modules: Data Analytics, Mobility, Security, and Compliance. Powered by a strategic blend of automation, AI, ML, and blockchain, our software is a versatile solution for modern data challenges.

Functioning as a central hub, the UDM Software seamlessly integrates Data Security, Governance, and Intelligence within the guardrails of IT infrastructure. It provides a comprehensive strategy, safeguarding sensitive information and fostering compliance in the ever-changing regulatory environment. Moreover, Data Dynamics is deeply committed to enhancing the Sustainability Posture of our clients. We embrace a forward-thinking approach to environmental responsibility through eco-conscious data management practices, simplifying the journey for enterprises to achieve their net zero goals.

The paramount advantage of our software lies in liberating enterprises from fragmented, point solutions, and disjointed data perspectives. With our UDM software, businesses benefit from a holistic approach that structures unstructured data, unlocks transformative insights, fortifies data security, ensures compliance and governance, and propels efficient cloud data management.

Ultimately, our vision is to empower enterprises toward data democratization, enabling users and consumers to effortlessly access, comprehend, and extract maximum insights from sprawling unstructured data landscapes. At Data Dynamics, we are not just revolutionizing data management we are shaping the future of data control, accessibility, and utilization for enterprises worldwide.

Data Dynamics has redefined data center management with its Unified Data Management Software, ushering in a new era of operational efficiency and cost reduction. This innovative solution offers a comprehensive suite of features:
1. Data Analytics: Enhance data lifecycle management with metadata discovery, classification, and tagging, optimizing usage pattern insights. AI/ML-powered Content Analytics aids in the discovery and classification of sensitive data, while Context Analytics allows deeper insights into data context, considering content, structure, and data relationships. The cornerstone of our Unified Data Management Software is the Analytics Suite, which provides comprehensive metadata analysis. By capturing essential data points such as file ownership, access history, and file characteristics, our solution empowers organizations to make informed decisions regarding data security, compliance, and storage optimization.
2. Data Security: Gain a holistic understanding of risk exposure through Risk Exposure Management's descriptive and diagnostic analytics. Quickly contain and isolate sensitive data with Data Containment, enforce file permissions with Access Control, and rectify permissions using Open Share Reporting. Advanced Data Modeling, driven by Regex and AI, ensures precise and adaptive pattern recognition.
3. Data Compliance & Governance: Identify personal data files through Data Classification and Tagging, ensuring compliance with regulatory standards. Blockchain-backed Immutable Audit Logging captures data access activities for trustworthy internal governance reports.
4. Data Mobility: Execute policy-driven automated migration seamlessly across platforms, both on-premises and in the cloud (Azure, OneDrive, GCP, AWS). Integrated Risk Controls, including Microsoft Information Protection and Azure Information Protection, Secure Data Sharing, Petabyte-scale Data Management and Dedicated Migration Support.
Moreover, our software addresses critical challenges like managing orphaned data, facilitating compliance adherence and reducing storage sprawl. By analyzing file age and access patterns, our solution enables intelligent data tiering, optimizing storage resources and minimizing costs.

Data Dynamics' Unified Data Management Software stands out as a pioneering solution in the realm of data center analytics and observability. Leveraging AI and ML technologies, our software empowers enterprises to transform data into a strategic business asset while driving significant cost savings through reduced total cost of ownership. With support for various environments, including SMB, CIFS, and NFS, our solution is poised to revolutionize data center management for enterprises worldwide.

For a Fortune 20 financial services institution, the task of consolidating and standardizing 13 years' worth of data from 6000 offices worldwide was a monumental challenge. With varying legacy standards due to multiple acquisitions and increasing storage costs, the institution sought a comprehensive solution. Data Dynamics stepped in with their Unified Unstructured Data Management Platform, offering automation, seamless migration, and advanced analytics to address the complexities of unstructured data management and pave the way for a standardized and consolidated data ecosystem.
Business Need: Standardization and Data Consolidation on a Global Scale
Data consolidation was crucial to achieving uniformity and consistency across a sprawling global footprint. With operations spanning numerous worldwide locations, consolidating and uniformly managing data was essential for operational efficiency.
Prioritizing global standardization aimed to implement consistent practices across all offices, irrespective of location, enhancing processes, efficiency, and overall performance.
Migrating legacy hardware posed a significant challenge, requiring meticulous planning to maintain data integrity and minimize disruptions while moving 13 years' worth of data from legacy hardware in 6000 offices to a targeted storage platform.
Automation played a pivotal role in managing migration complexity. By automating tasks such as data transfer and system reconfiguration, the organization aimed to reduce risks, ensuring smooth transitions and minimizing downtime.
Challenges Faced: Taming Unstructured Data and Overcoming Legacy Infrastructure Risks
The organization grappled with handling a massive expanse of unstructured data scattered across its operations. This presented difficulties in organizing and managing the data effectively, leading to potential inefficiencies and increased complexities in data management processes.
Achieving global consistency posed a significant challenge. With operations spanning across various regions, maintaining consistency and standardization across the organization's widespread presence was a daunting task. This challenge extended to ensuring that all offices adhered to the same protocols and standards, contributing to operational coherence and uniformity.
The complexities of legacy infrastructure added to the organization's challenges. Managing various legacy standards resulting from multiple acquisitions posed difficulties in integrating systems and processes seamlessly. This complexity hindered efforts toward modernization and optimization, requiring strategic approaches to navigate through legacy systems effectively.
The organization faced escalating storage costs as data volumes grew over time. Managing and storing large volumes of data across the organization's infrastructure became increasingly costly, impacting overall operational budgets and resource allocation.
Migrating from legacy infrastructure to a new platform presented inherent risks. Navigating through the complexities and potential disruptions associated with such migrations required careful planning and execution to minimize downtime and ensure business continuity. Addressing these migration risks was crucial to the success of the organization's data management initiatives and long-term sustainability.
Solution Offered: A Unified Data Management Platform for Optimization
Data Dynamics offered a comprehensive solution with their Unified Unstructured Data Management Platform:
Data Dynamics introduced a single platform capable of managing both CIFS and NFS migrations from NAS platforms to the targeted storage platform. This ensured data security and facilitated risk-free migration, streamlining the process and reducing complexities associated with data transfer.
Migration automation was implemented to enhance efficiency. Automation features were utilized to automatically update DFS links, thereby simplifying the migration process and minimizing manual intervention. This automation streamlined operations, reducing the likelihood of errors and accelerating migration timelines.
A policy-based approach was adopted to maximize user data access while minimizing disruptions. By implementing policies, the organization could effectively manage cutover windows, downtime, and disruptions related to various activities such as file storage rebalancing, migrations, consolidations, and tech refreshes. This approach optimized operational efficiency and minimized potential disruptions to business operations.
The solution enabled data consolidation and governance in parallel. This encompassed effective data governance, intelligent data insights, and data lifecycle management practices. By consolidating and governing data effectively, the organization could streamline operations, optimize resource utilization, and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements.
Data Dynamics provided a comprehensive solution that addressed the organization's data management challenges through a unified platform, automation, policy-based approaches, and effective data consolidation and governance practices. This solution aimed to optimize operations, enhance data security, and facilitate seamless transitions, ultimately contributing to improved efficiency and performance across the organization.
Business Impact: Standardization and Global Efficiency

Global Standardization: Driving global standardization improved downstream automation, efficiency, and risk management.
Massive Data Migration: Use analytics for migrating more than 40PBs of data distributed across 35,000 volumes on 876 filer nodes, achieving data location optimization and cost savings of over $37M.
Infrastructure Consistency: Ensuring consistent deployment of infrastructure across all data centers globally.
Streamlined Data Management: Empowering customers to manage and consolidate petabytes of data with a single pane of glass using the unified data management platform.

Data Dynamics played a pivotal role in empowering the Fortune 20 financial services institution to achieve global standardization and data consolidation. With a seamless migration of 40 petabytes of data and the introduction of efficient data management practices, the institution unlocked new levels of efficiency, streamlined operations, and fortified its risk management strategies. Armed with a unified data management platform, the institution is now poised for a future of standardized excellence and global scalability.

Critical Facilities Solutions Ltd (CFS), a specialist, multiskilled Data Centre solutions and services provider.

Founded in 2018, CFS is ISO 9001 & 45001 accredited for the delivery of solutions and services including Data Centre fit-out, raised access flooring, passive fire protection and ISO standard level technical cleaning. CFS expanded into Europe in 2021 with a wholly owned subsidiary set up in The Netherlands to facilitate our service delivery into the EU and we also have a sister company, trading under the same name, in the USA for 25 years. CFS’s main objectives are to continue to be the market leader and subject matter experts in our fields of service and a trusted delivery partner for our customers either directly or through our established partnerships with the world’s leading Facilities Management Companies.

CFS is equally comfortable delivering through our end customers preferred outsource partner or engaging directly as a preferred supplier. CFS wishes to have a long-lasting direct impact on the market for both service providers and end customers. We believe education, standardisation and communication are key to achieving that goal and therefore we have dedicated an enormous amount of time and resources to industry bodies such as the Data Centre Alliance (DCA). Our managing director is the Chair of the Data Centre Anti-Contamination specialist interest group of the DCA and has dedicated countless hours rallying our industry competitors and customers together to contribute to a guide he has produced, and edited year on year, under the DCA banner, which is now freely available to all.

In addition, CFS and the DCA SIG worked together with one of the world’s leading insurance companies to create a bespoke insurance package that recognised and rewarded Data Centres that demonstrated best practice with a specific focus on contamination control in the white space. The SIG visited and assessed four data centres in the UK which varied in size, design, and location. In all cases the broker and underwriters provided cost savings varying from tens to hundreds of thousand pounds. In each case the savings were more than adequate to cover the costs of the audits, accreditations, and all other requirements to quality for the reduction in premiums. The proposition had market-leading cleaning standards, provided by specialist companies, built into it. The insurance underwriting had been customised to take this into account, as one of the key differentiators, thus raising the profile and ultimately the importance of cleanliness in data centre environment. In 2019, CFS and the SIG introduced a ‘risk register’ into the Anti-Contamination Guide. This new section of the report listed out in detail all the high-risk contamination elements that could impact operational activities within the data centre, and a weighted percentage score was introduced as a representation of what could happen if contamination is not managed correctly. The risk register is under constant review and updated yearly by the group.

Our most recent piece of work saw the DCA group run a poll across 60 Data Centre owners and operators in 2023 to obtain vital information about what cleaning and maintenance practises are currently adopted in the UK. Some of the highlights captured from the survey are that only 22% of the operators questioned carried out deep cleaning in their facility more than once per annum, and only 2% of the operators questioned monitor their facility for contaminants such as Chloride/Salt. This information will be readily available from March 2024.
Additional and valuable information can be found from visiting the below link.

The DCA - Anti Contamination, Filtration & Cleaning SIG : DCA Global (Data Centre Alliance) (dca-global.org)
CFS offer a host of niche solutions and services including full turnkey projects.

• Fit-Out - We specify, supply, and install IT racks, hot & cold aisle containment, and security caging.

• Flooring - We specify, supply, install, modify, and replace raised access flooring with a specific focus on the Bergvik Iso floor system.

• Passive Fire Protection – We specify, install, and certify passive fire stopping and service penetration seals.
• Cleaning - We deep / clinical clean mission critical environments across their full lifecycle from greenfield to full operational facility.

• Testing - We undertake Zinc Whiskers, air quality, noise, ATP and environmental.

CFS delivers all our UK solutions and services from our depots in Chesterfield, Luton and Witham via directly employed, multiskilled, security cleared technicians who have all undergone extensive task specific training and are qualified in their respective field/s, delivery in Europe is widespread and is driven from our Netherlands BV hub.

The delivery team is underpinned by a senior management team who each have over 25 years of Data Centre specific first-hand, and hands on, experience. All our solutions are bespoke, and we take a consultative approach to backward engineering solutions as an ‘output’ specification with the aim being to give you what you need, not what we want to sell you. In a recent contract award, we re-specified the customer’s cleaning regime and approach and saved them approximately 50% on their annual operating expenditure while guaranteeing the same, if not better, quality and the required ISO levels of cleanliness as per OEM guidance.
Our service offering is further strengthened by our operational delivery, quality of workmanship, communication, stakeholder management and in-depth reporting and recommendations. All our contracted customers also benefit from our complementary services including assessments and reporting on their flooring, firestopping, airflow or cleanliness when delivering one of our other services. CFS delivers 300 separate projects and cleans 900,000 sqm of data centre space each year. Working with CFS you are guaranteed multi-skilled NVQ/Diploma certified, fulltime employed cleared staff from an international data centre/mission critical specialist with decades of first-hand experience. The experience and depth of knowledge within our entire team converts to an unparalleled ‘customer first’ philosophy with a 98% satisfaction rate in 2020 and staggering 100% in 2021 & 2022 with the business scoring 97% in 2023, Our current overall rating on Survey Monkey from business inception is 4.9 out of 5.
CFS Testimonials
1.
“We have had the good fortune to work with ‘Critical Facilities Solutions’ for many years and in many forms, we have been the direct customer Vodafone and the service provider with CBRE to Vodafone. We have been so impressed by the approach of this company that when we had the requirement to offer service to a customer of our own, we didn’t hesitate. CFS always go the extra mile, they always give that little bit more. To be truthful we are not the greatest customer, we ask for the earth, expect a stretch at half the price and then take six months to iron out the finances, but when we get there CFS are always waiting and still smiling (even though I am sure they want to strangle us). Their expertise in their field is unrivalled and importantly they know how to evidence their knowledge, we can always put our customer or auditor at ease with the exceptional level of documentation they provide. From an 8m2 shipping area to tier 3 controlled 1000 cabinet DC room they have the resource and tools for the job, and we never worry about the outcome, the back-office team are a dream with nothing being too much of a request even when that’s a reschedule for the third time. We look forward to a continued relationship going forward with top drawer team.” Martyn Thompson, Kyndryl-Vodafone Account Lead, CBRE
2.
“Building a data centre has its own obvious challenges but handing it over to the end customer in a clinically clean state requires a specialist with all the necessary experience and ability. We don’t do means to an end instead, we believe in the open communication and collaboration that underpins strong relationships and creates enriching customer journeys. We partner with Critical Facilities Solutions on new build projects for their consistent high quality and the overall service they provide. Their proposals are thorough, their weekly reporting is invaluable, and their communication and stakeholder management is second to none. I would highly recommend them for the Excellence in Data Centre Services Award.” Paul Pompili, Divisional Director, Engineering Services, ISG Ltd
3.
“We recently transitioned from a competitor to CFS and cannot give them enough praise. What Gary and the team have setup is nothing short of brilliant, costs are reasonable, and the quality of service is second to none. This goes for the on-site operatives – who are thorough, professional, and diligent to the account managers and back-office functions. I honestly could not recommend anyone better to deal with, booking and organisation is a breeze, and the work is always completed to the highest standard.” Martin Patrick, Head of Colo, Six Degrees Group
4.
“We engaged CFS for the first time in 2022 to clean multiple Data Centres throughout the UK.
CFS proposed a cleaning schedule that also captured vital information around the integrity of the white space which we saw as a huge value add, and so did our client. Since the program started, CFS had open lines of communication and the reporting aspect of their delivery service was great. The teams attending site were meticulous and worked excellently and diligently, co-operating well with our own engineering team and other on-going project works on site, we wouldn’t hesitate to have them back.
The contract has seen CFS bring all the Data Centres in line with ISO 14644-1 Level 8 (or better) for air cleanliness, which was the ultimate goal, this is now the benchmark for our telecommunications client moving forward!” Simon Gerrow – National Technical Services Manager, Virgin Media 02
5.
“As a projects and maintenance business Sudlows need reliable and flexible service deliver partners that understand the environment and time sensitive nature and deliver requirements on mission critical projects. We have used CFS on over 100 projects now ranging from firestopping to specialist technical cleaning to RIT testing all over the UK and abroad. We have established a framework agreement with them and are always impressed at the speed and accuracy of their responses. Their proposals are detailed, and they survey FOC when required to ensure they fully understand the requirements. It’s my job to ensure we get value for money for us and our customers without wavering on service and quality. CFS are a great value-added service provider for Sudlows, and we wish them all the best with their entry for the Excellence in Data Centre Services Award” Andy Smith, Procurement Manager, INS Sudlows
6.
“We have a long-standing service with Critical Facilities Solutions who carry out the technical cleaning on my customers Data Centres. Their performance is always according to specifications, from the booking in stage to the maintenance stage their work is professional and on time. Their health and safety are in line with CBRE’s requirements for this account and they always provide the specific documentation in advance for each maintenance or reactive works they perform. Their after-service reports are well formatted and informative, they give a step-by-step breakdown of the service and test results. They share innovations freely and these are well received. Gary is always available to answer my queries or jump on ad hoc calls if needed. They have worked together with myself and my team on my account to deliver the best service to my customer.” Katherine Killerby-Schoeman, Contract Manager, CBRE
7.
“The IT services provided within Solihull MBC need to be cost effective and have as little downtime as possible to enable the effective delivery of council services to all the residents within the borough. The service provided by the technicians from Critical Facilities Solutions proves they are extremely competent and effective, and I would have no hesitation in recommending their services.” Tony Daly (CDCTP, CDCMP, CDCEP) Data Centre Manager, Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council
8.
“Navarre London have been using Critical Facilities Solutions for a number of years and have always found them to be competitively priced and experienced as a multi-skilled service provider. In our small works business, we have the need for multiple services on projects and CFS tick a lot of those boxes making procurement and sub-contractor management less onerous. We’ve used them for several projects and a few worth mentioning are the HVAC upgrade project for Cisco where they completed all the firestopping and raised access flooring modifications, post upgrade firestopping works at the Royal Mail Worldwide Distribution Centre and numerous projects at 20 Churchill Place. CFS installers and technicians are courteous, well presented, knowledgeable and extremely hard working. The process from quote to sign off is seamless from this well-versed critical environment service provider. I highly recommended CFS.” Richard O'Shea, Head of Department, Navarre Group
9.
“Critical Facilities Solutions have supported our business over several years to date and have provided various services during that time. CFS have always been on hand to respond to client demand and answer any technical questions relating to air quality in our facility. The work delivered has been second to none from the teams in the field through to their back-office management. CFS have always provided a professional and exceptional service and at very competitive prices. CFS are one of our most trusted specialist service providers and I have only praise for them, I would highly recommend CFS to anyone looking for a Data Centre specific cleaning business” Dean Porter, Site Operations Manager, Vantage Data Centers
10.
“We engaged CFS to work with us (Keysource) on a prestigious project in Belgium where CFS would supply a number of service offerings from passive fire protection to raised access floor installations. CFS showed us alternative solutions that enhanced the critical spaces that were being upgraded, plus they were extremely accommodating to critical path timelines. There was never any ‘hard selling’ from the sales team and the standards delivered were of high quality” Richard Thomas, Quantity Surveyor,

What are your company's key distinguishing features and/or USP?

Passionate about innovation, quality and sustainability, Centiel’s team design, manufacture and deliver industry-leading critical power protection solutions. The individual members of the team developed and brought to market the first three-phase transformerless UPS and the first, second, third and fourth generations of true modular, hot-swappable UPS. Centiel’s class leading CumulusPowerTM now protects critical power loads in locations across the world including throughout Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and South America.

In 2017 Centiel went to market with CumulusPowerTM, their three-phase modular uninterruptible power supply offering over 97% true on-line efficiency when no one else was achieving this. At the same time, Centiel introduced a new UPS technology that was able to connect to any kind of DC source, including Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4), again when no one else was. These are just two examples of Centiel’s work, completed five years ago, that is becoming the norm in the market today. Culturally, Centiel’s whole team see themselves as innovators and as a result, Centiel is now the fastest growing three phase modular UPS manufacturer in Europe, if not the world.

Centiel was confirmed as the recipient of the 2023 Frost & Sullivan Technology Innovation Leadership Award in the global UPS industry.

Centiel is all about quality, innovation and efficiency and this year the Centiel team turned its attention to helping data centres achieve net-zero targets. Following 4 years’ development, Centiel launched StratusPowerTM in the summer of 2023 to provide complete peace of mind in relation to power availability while helping data centres to achieve net-zero targets.

StratusPowerTM shares all the benefits of its award-winning three phase, true modular UPS CumulusPowerTM - including “9-nines” (99.9999999%) availability to effectively eliminate system downtime class leading 97.6% on-line efficiency to minimise running costs true “hot swap” modules to eliminate human error in operation – but now also includes long-life components to improve sustainability.

UPS cabinets are designed with scalability and flexibility in mind, and future load changes are easily accommodated by adding or removing UPS modules as required. A data centre will never outgrow a well specified StratusPowerTM UPS, and it can be constantly rightsized to ensure it always operates at the optimal point in its efficiency curve.
Like all Centiel’s leading UPS solutions, its latest innovation: StratusPowerTM is manufactured at its hi-tec factory in Switzerland.

Uniquely, StratusPowerTM has a design life of 30 years and instead of replacing consumable components such as filter capacitors and cooling fans every four years, they now need replacing every 15 years, or just once during their entire 30-year design life. As a data centre has a design life of typically 25 to 30 years, StratusPowerTM will last as long as the data centre. Furthermore, StratusPowerTM is almost 100% recyclable.

Higher quality components cost more but this is just tens of pounds per module. However, to replace an entire UPS system every ten years, costs tens of thousands of pounds. Combined with Centiel’s approach as trusted advisors, the introduction of StratusPower now means they can help organisations take steps to move away from a “throw away” culture with a genuinely sustainable offering and help them reduce Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) at the same time.

All of Centiel’s UPS solutions can also work with Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) batteries which tolerate higher ambient temperatures to reduce the need for cooling further and will only need to be replaced once in a 30 year design life.
Centiel hopes its long-term vision of working towards a sustainable future means it can be considered for this award.

What tangible impact has your company had on the market and your customers?
Centiel now protects critical loads for data centers and communications rooms in over 100 countries across five continents. They work hand in hand with data centres as trusted advisors to increase efficiencies, improve sustainability and reduce Total Cost of Ownership. One example is Sure.

Sure datacentres require the highest level of uptime and is also committed to reducing energy usage throughout its facilities. Legacy monolithic UPS offered Sure only 80% efficiency. Sure saw this as no longer acceptable from an energy waste point of view, especially now that Sure is on a zero-carbon path.

Centiel has worked with Sure since 2018. However, the past year saw the completion of work to replace monolithic UPS systems with Centiel’s leading three phase modular UPS CumulusPowerTM in Datacentres 4,5 & 8 at Sure’s Gurnsey facility.

CumulusPower now takes Sure’s energy efficiency to another level, saving significant cost and reducing carbon footprint. Due to the true modular nature of CumulusPower it is highly efficient, meaning it runs at over 97% efficiency compared with <80% for the previous UPS.

A total cost of ownership study determined that the commercial benefits of the latest technology outweighed the maintenance and operating costs of the existing legacy equipment which justified their replacement. The predicted instant power savings of £30K per annum in DC 5 and £70K in DC 4 at today’s rates have been observed.

With the current IT load, the savings made have been estimated at 20-30% approximately.
For Datacentre 5 the CO2 Reduction over 5 Years has been calculated at 751.3 Tonnes, for DC 4 UPS A at 436.1 tonnes and for UPS B at 630 tonnes or (1157 671 970) = 2,798 trees in total for DC 4 & 5.

Further savings were seen as air conditioning was balanced in the two datacentres following installation.

This example is typical of the project work Centiel does with clients to help them improve efficiencies and become more sustainable, reducing the total cost of ownership (TCO) at the same time.

What levels of customer service differentiate you from your competitors.
Centiel’s expert team act as trusted advisors to ensure clients always have the optimal UPS solution to reduce their TCO and maximise efficiency and their uptime, whatever their requirement.

Centiel’s sales team are all engineers and UPS solutions experts and are not required to “sell” UPS. They are required to establish long term relationships with clients and consultants by offering their wealth of experience and expertise. They must take time to understand the challenges faced by the client and always provide the best advice in relation to solutions. If, for example, the best solution is “don’t change the current UPS” then this is the advice given. Centiel wants its customers to be able to pick up the phone and discuss the best options available for them now and in the future, knowing they will always receive excellent advice and recommendations based on best practice.

What are the major differentiators between your company and your primary competitors?

Innovation: Centiel’s innovative UPS solutions lead the industry and are designed to be highly efficient to help data centres save energy. CENTIEL’s UPS technology offers industry-leading availability of 99.9999999% (9-nines) achieved through its Distributed Active Redundant Architecture (DARA) which adds far more layers of resilience than other UPS architectures.

Centiel’s latest innovation, StratusPower TM which is unique in its 30-year design life means components need to be replaced less often, offering the potential to make a real impact on any data centre’s sustainability goals.

Swiss Quality: All of Centiel’s solutions are made from high quality components and manufactured at their factory in Switzerland.

Trusted Advisors: Centiel’s team of trusted advisors sign up to a set of core values which keeps the best interests of customers at the heart of everything they do, namely:

• We always behave with integrity

• We are honest and open in our business transactions

• We treat our customers, suppliers, and each other with respect

• We constantly strive to improve our customer service

• We never compromise on health, safety, or environmental matters

Lead times: Centiel’s strong partnerships with worldwide suppliers also allow them to source the highest quality components efficiently, cost effectively and ensures an uninterrupted flow of materials and led to them being able to guarantee some of the fastest delivery times in the UPS industry.

Please supply any supportive quotes and/or case study materials to demonstrate the position of your company in the market.

Frost & Sullivan: “Centiel stands out from competitors based on its commitment to innovation and creativity while achieving commercial success. In addition to its market-driven innovation, the company’s collaborative, partner-focused approach drives the acquisition of new channel partners while retaining its existing network. As a result, Centiel expects to continue its strong growth trajectory, aiming to register over 70% growth in the next two years. With its strong overall performance, Centiel earns Frost & Sullivan’s 2023 Global Technology Innovation Leadership Award in the UPS industry.” Frost & Sullivan’s full report about Centiel can be found at https://www.frost.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Centiel_Award-Writeup.pdf

Wayne McKane, Engineer, Sure confirms: “As part of a continuous improvement and replacement programme we were looking for an industry leading UPS manufacturer with a product to match the quality of Sure’s Tier III data centres. We chose the CENTIEL team as our partners and trusted advisors for these important projects as the company is an industry leader at the very forefront of technological developments. We were looking for a truly modular solution to ensure efficient running and maintenance of systems within the data centres, where our staff could be easily trained to provide a first level response and the ability to exchange modules if required. We were also looking for the very latest technology to ensure maximum availability combined with a low total cost of ownership. CENTIEL ticked all the boxes.”

Richard Clifford, head of solutions, Keysource: “We partner with multiple manufacturers but have known and worked with the CENTIEL team for many years. We trust them to deliver high-end, quality true modular UPS solutions which reduce Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and match specific requirements. For this installation [Government Vaccination Centre], we chose CENTIEL, as CumulusPowerTM offered the ideal power rating and availability for the criticality of the load. CENTIEL’s Li-ion solution meant we could solve the challenges associated with space, service life, and safety. The team at CENTIEL are flexible and highly experienced, we trust them to provide optimal solutions to complex installations for our clients. The result is that the vaccine manufacturing centre is now protected by the latest in UPS technology with the highest level of availability.”

Eviden has been awarded a contract by Jülich Supercomputing Centre (Germany) to build the modular data center to host the EuroHPC JUPITER supercomputer, Europe’s first exascale system. This contract follows the recent announcement of Eviden leading the consortium to manufacture the JUPITER system, in October 2023, a renewed mark of confidence from Jülich Supercomputing Centre.

Through a unique conception, Eviden will bring together a set of about 50 pre-built and interchangeable modules – amongst which are 20 IT containers, 15 power feed containers and 10 logistic containers (lobby, workshop, warehouse etc.) – over 2,300m² to form a complete turnkey data center. Key benefits for the client include the fact that this modular solution brings more flexibility and agility in the long term by facilitating smoother updates or replacement of single modules, independently from the rest of the system. Unlike current systems with which the dismantling of an obsolete system and upgrading the datacenter to support new technologies can take weeks or month and incur long unavailability, with this system all it takes is to remove a module and replace it by one featuring an upgraded IT configuration. The same is true for the power sub-system and the logistic area.

Compared to traditional ‘brick and mortar’ datacenters, this innovative and flexible approach shows once again Eviden’s integration capabilities to deliver a full end-to-end HPC solution with costs cut by 3 and a delivery time reduced by 50%. Manufactured in Eviden’s factory in Angers (France), the JUPITER HPC racks will be integrated into the containers along with cooling, power, networking and cabling directly on the factory floor, before client delivery. This key step dramatically speeds up the installation process and reduces the risk of default discovery once on the customer’s site.

As the overall eco-efficiency of any HPC system has become a key concern, this modular data center will also help reduce energy consumption, improve the recycling of the material used and will globally improve the energy efficiency. Through Eviden’s free cooling technology integrated with the supercomputer’s patented direct liquid cooling, the heat generated by the Exascale system will also offer an improved capacity to reuse within the Jülich Research Center.

Prof. Dr. Dr. Thomas Lippert, Director of the Jülich Supercomputing Centre, Forschungszentrum Jülich highlighted: JUPITER will be perhaps the most powerful AI supercomputer in the world! Its modular computer architecture enables a particularly high level of energy efficiency. However, its enormous computing power comes with demands on the energy supply that no scientific data centre in Germany has been able to meet so far. I am pleased that the modular data centre will now allow for such a supply infrastructure to be created very quickly, which will also offer the possibility of using the thermal energy generated during cooling to heat the Jülich campus.

Emmanuel Le Roux, SVP, Global Head of HPC, AI and Quantum at Eviden, Atos Group said “This new contract which is to the benefit of Europe’s scientific and economic sovereignty as well as to its competitiveness brings us great pride. We are extremely honored to be part of Europe’s exascale journey by leading the JUPITER manufacturing consortium and now by delivering the data center to host the system. These two key strategic contracts demonstrate Eviden’s position as a trusted partner as well as its commitment to a unique and innovative technological performance with reduced energy consumption.”

The Global Centre of Rail Excellence and Mavin Powercube are delighted to announce a new collaboration. The alliance will see Mavin’s containerised ‘Powercube’ being used at the 700-hectare GCRE rail innovation site currently being constructed in South Wales.

The Global Centre of Rail Excellence is a major new rail testing facility that is being supported by both the Welsh and UK Governments. GCRE will become Europe’s premier site for rail research, testing and certification of rolling stock, infrastructure and cutting edge new energy technologies.

The partnership with Mavin will see the build of the new GCRE facility include a custom designed and built Powercube – a multi-unit, combined, Containerised Modular Data Centre (CMDC), Signal Equipment Room (SER) and an interconnecting Access and Staging Unit, that will support the extensive testing operations that will be carried out at the GCRE site.

The multi-purpose Powercube will help GCRE support clients with high quality data analysis as they undertake testing and research on the site’s two rail tracks – one, a 7km track for rolling stock testing and a second track for infrastructure innovation.

The Powercube solution will be pre-built, off-site in Neath, near the Global Centre of Rail Excellence location at Onllwyn. Mavin Powercube has been a leader in the design and build of award-winning, custom, scalable and secure, Containerised Modular Data Centres (CMDCs) and Containerised Critical Infrastructure since 2005. The Powercube has multiple applications, including Train Movement Rooms (TMR), Signal Equipment Rooms (SER), Electric Switch Rooms (ESR) and Communications Equipment Rooms (CER). Offering a 100% custom, turnkey solution, and built off-site using Modern Methods of Construction (MMC), resulting in fast, flexible, scalable deployment and increased sustainability, as well as significantly reducing costs, site disruption and carbon emissions.

Chief Executive of GCRE Limited Simon Jones said:
“We are delighted to agree this partnership with Mavin and to utilise their cutting edge Powercube design at the Global Centre of Rail Excellence site.

“The ambition is to establish GCRE as Europe’s premier site for rail innovation, becoming a one-stop shop for the rail sector, serving markets not just in the UK but across Europe and the Middle East. In providing world class research and testing facilities its important that the supporting infrastructure that we have on site is of the highest quality – and is as forward looking as the innovation we will be doing on our tracks.

“That’s what we get with the Mavin Powercube solution – an innovative, reliable and sustainable piece of technology that can help us support our clients with the rich suite of data analysis that we will be undertaking on site.

“The Powercube facility is to be designed and built near to the Global Centre of Rail Excellence site in Neath, so its fantastic to be able to tell a story of how GCRE is utilising local skills and supporting jobs in the area as we develop the facility.

“The Powercube utilises cutting-edge, off-site manufacturing processes, being delivered to site ready to go and mitigating lengthy site disruption. Critically it helps us to reduce the carbon emissions of our build with less on-site traffic.

“The partnership with Mavin Powercube will further enhance the capability and range of services offered on the GCRE site. By utilising the leading-edge data centre solution Mavin brings, GCRE is putting in strong foundations for the future.”

Mavin founder and Powercube Director Russ Bartley said:
“We are extremely proud to be involved with this pivotal project from the start, and are looking forward to strengthening the partnership with GCRE over the next few years, as opportunities for broader engagement with GCRE and other critical industries allow us to evolve our solutions to meet the demands of the future.

“Our build facility is based in Wales, so the positive outcomes for local people in terms of employment and opportunity are a key factor for us. This exciting project follows a successful partnership with TfL and the TIES Living Lab, where we pioneered the construction of a unique, custom, modular Signalling Equipment Room (SER), “

GCRE will help support the path to net zero and develop new rail and transport technologies that can be deployed faster, reducing carbon emissions and encouraging more people onto our railways. The Powercube’s off-site build also means significant reductions in construction vehicles on-site, therefore reducing timelines, costs and carbon emissions.

GCRE has procured the Powercube facility through a mutual partnership between Trustco PLC and Mavin Powercube, TrustMavin, enabling the Powercube solution to be reached by Government & Public Bodies via associated and appropriate frameworks, in this case the SBS Digital Workplace Solutions framework. The framework offers a wide range of IT solutions to aid the wider public sector organisations in their digitisation journey, and satisfy their procurement requirements in an efficient, compliant and cost effective way.

Host-IT's Birmingham colocation data centre has been selected by Tamworth based tmWare for hosting its Disaster Recovery (DR) systems. This follows a review by the warehouse management and transportation logistics solutions specialist of its current and future IT needs. The migration of tmWare's DR backup systems from their in-house location to a more secure and modern data centre environment was seen as a major priority.

Host-IT's Birmingham-based data centre will now support tmWare's main IT stack which has been located at Host-IT's Milton Keynes colocation facility since 2016. Previously we've always hosted our DR in-house but based on our positive experience with Host-IT in Milton Keynes, the relocating of our eight DR server systems and back UPS to their Birmingham facility made a potentially hard decision a lot easier, said Kieron Coughlin, Technical Director, tmWare. Our DR equipment at Host-IT Birmingham will be connected by a high-speed fibre network to our Tamworth office and their Milton Keynes data centre. tmWare has been providing cutting-edge warehouse management software and transport management solutions to the logistics industry for over 30 years.

The firm's tmWare software as a service platform offers customers a comprehensive 360-degree solution for 24/7 warehouse and transport management, ensuring orders are efficiently picked, packed and dynamically scheduled for collection and subsequent on-time delivery by road, rail or air. With thousands of pounds of business at stake with every order fulfilment and delivery, tmWare is mission critical to the performance of their logistics customers. These are reassured by tmWare's strategic investment in the services of professionally run, highly resilient and secure colocation data centres. In the seven years since entrusting tmWare to Host-IT we have enjoyed a highly professional and personalised service as well as an excellent uptime record, said tmWare's Managing Director, Lyndsey Phillips. Their consistently excellent service and ability to support our current and future needs in a timely manner gives us every confidence as we look to expand our customer base. Equally, in ensuring the high levels of trusted IT delivery we provide to our existing valued customers.

Host-IT's secure ISO 27001, Tier 3 Birmingham facility is centrally located close to the major fibre networks traversing the UK and various regional fibre providers. There is currently 6MW of IT power available to site with the potential to increase this to 12MW.

Kao Data has formed a new commercial partnership with Jisc, the UK's digital, data and technology agency focused on tertiary education, research and innovation. As part of a new data centre referral agreement, Jisc has chosen to work with Kao Data - specifically its Harlow campus due to the high-capacity connectivity that already exists between the facility and the Janet network - to provide members of Jisc's 18 million user-base with access to scalable, sustainable, and highly connected data centre capacity. Following a rigorous due diligence process, the unique commercial partnership, which is supported by Jisc's legal and procurement teams, will allow organisations utilising Janet - the UK's national research and education network (NREN) - to utilise Kao Data's Harlow campus as a shared, high performance data centre resource, accelerating opportunities for ground-breaking UK research and further supporting Government efforts to become a world-leader in science, technology, and AI by 2030.

As a member of Jisc's data centre referral service, Kao Data's Harlow campus will provide almost limitless opportunities for scalability, alongside a simple, easy-to-access reference model that includes pre-agreed, preferential pricing. The agreement adds significant strength to Kao Data's world-class connectivity capabilities, including its location as the closest hyperscale on-ramp within the London-Cambridge Innovation Corridor. With both Megaport and Console Connect on campus, public sector, academic and research organisations can enjoy secure, high-speed connections to key cloud providers. Kao Data's sustainability credentials, including its 100% certified green energy provision, operational and SLA-backed PUE of <1.2, and its HVO-powered back-up generators will also play an important role in helping Jisc's users significantly reduce the environmental impact of their compute at a time when AI-related electricity consumption is predicted to increase by up-to 134 TWh annually.

AI-powered computing is advancing academic research at an unprecedented pace, but as both energy demands and datasets increase in size and scale, they compound the requirement for access to scalable, resilient, and highly connected infrastructure, said Alec Wright, Cloud and Data Centre Services Manager, Jisc. The ability of our partners to support complex scientific data models while meeting technological and sustainability targets is, therefore, a key consideration as we grow the range of Jisc data centre services. We're proud to name Kao Data the first of our referral partners as we seek to bolster academic and scientific research efforts across the UK. Today Kao Data's NVIDIA DGX-Ready Harlow campus, the UK's largest data centre development, has become synonymous with all forms of high-density, GPU-accelerated computing, and remains home to some of the UK's leading and large-scale bioinformatics, life sciences, and research workloads. They include NVIDIA's Cambridge-1 Supercomputer, which is now part of NVIDIA's DGX Cloud platform and home to founding partners such as King's College London, AstraZeneca and GSK, the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), and AI Start-Up InstaDeep - recently acquired by BioNTech to help pioneer AI-powered drug discoveries and fast-track the development of next-generation immunotherapies. Through the new commercial partnership with Jisc, organisations from across London, Cambridge and beyond can plan their infrastructure deployments for the Future of Compute, perfectly positioning them to capitalise on the upcoming wave of AI-supported technologies and helping to propel UK research efforts on to the world-stage. As the UK's preeminent provider of data centres engineered for AI, we're delighted to have formed this unique commercial partnership with Jisc, providing its academic and research communities with high performance infrastructure designed to deliver the highest levels of sustainability, said Spencer Lamb, Chief Commercial Officer, Kao Data. We look forward to working with Jisc to support its members' lifesaving research efforts, and to help them establish a new high performance data centre resource in close proximity to major technology hubs, which will benefit its users for years to come.

Schneider Electric’s diversity, equity, inclusion and well-being ambition is to be the most inclusive and caring company in the world. We aim to achieve this by providing equitable opportunities to everyone, everywhere (all generations, genders, disabilities, origins and beliefs) and by ensuring all employees are uniquely valued and provided with a safe environment in which to contribute their best.

In the UK, our action-driven commitment ensures a workplace thriving on inclusivity. Our UKI DEI strategy includes:
• UK Graduate & Apprenticeship Programs: building an internal talent pool, enriched with learning paths and community engagement.
• Leadership Pulse Community: Monthly events for 300 UK&I managers & leaders, focusing on inclusive leadership, coaching, and talent development.
• Women Leadership Cohort: community for the future female leaders with dedicated learning & development activities
• DEI-Focused Education: Essential training modules for all leaders and employees.
• UKI ERGs: an internal employees’ resource group championing both genders, with circles like Women's Health, Men's Health, and Females in Technical roles.
• Inclusive Recruitment Initiatives: Masterclasses guiding managers on diversity in hiring. Implementing golden rules for shortlisting candidates, ensuring there is always at least one diverse candidate on the short list and at least one diverse interviewer on interview panels.

In championing our DEI initiatives, we've strategically engaged key internal stakeholders including:
1. Our Zone President, Kelly Becker who stands as our main DEI sponsor, ensuring top tier endorsement.
2. Every leader within our organization is not only committed to DEI but also holds the essential duty to cultivate diverse teams.

When launching our strategy, we are facing both internal and external challenges.
Internally:
1. We recognized that achieving true diversity is a marathon not a sprint and it takes time.
2. Onboard & educate Managers on onboarding, developing, and consistently engaging with diverse employees.

Externally:
1. Industry analysts estimate that staff requirements will grow to nearly 2.3 million by next year. Transformation is now vital to address the sectors skills shortage, and how the industry has a key opportunity to work collaboratively to reshape the industry narrative, positioning data centres as a fulfilling and sustainable career path for new and existing talent. The competitive labour market heightened attrition risks and potential candidate shortage.
2. Diverse candidates are looking for new ways of working, such as complete remote working or opportunities work from other countries.

Our initiatives have influenced leadership progression. By working with our leaders and managers as well as support of our employees we've seen tangible growth in representation:
1. Female leaders’ representation has grown to 40% in 2023 (vs 25% in 2022).
2. Female representation in front-line manager roles has risen from 23% to 28%.
3. Examples of internal promotions include appointments to roles such as Business Unit VP for Industrial Automation, Strategy VP, and Sales Leaders in Secure Power and Power Systems. These shifts underscore our commitment to fostering inclusive growth.

In the future, we're steadfast in our pursuit to further our global DEI ambitions. While we have successfully achieved one of global goal of 30% female leaders, we are targeting 50% external female hiring and elevating female representation in front-line manager roles to 40%. Furthermore, we recognize the immense potential in early-career talents hence, we're gearing up to double opportunities for them, positioning them as the next wave of organizational leaders.

Our talent development initiatives are integral to our Diversity & Inclusion strategy. We focus on cultivating a diverse leadership pipeline through targeted goals, and also by expanding opportunities for early-career talents, we're ensuring a diverse future leadership. Each initiative reinforces our commitment to a diverse and inclusive environment, making talent development and D&I inextricably linked.

As well as diversity and inclusion the environment and Schneider’s social responsibility is a key consideration. The Schneider Sustainability Impact score for the year exceeded expectations, reaching 6.13 out of 10, and surpassing the year-end target of 6 out of 10. Schneider Electric was also recognized as a top performer by independent environmental, social, and governance (ESG) ratings throughout the year.

Schneider Electric’s strong performance spans what was the hottest year on record – serving to highlight the importance of collective action to decarbonize business operations and value chains to avoid the worst effects of global warming and accelerate the transition to a cleaner, fairer world.

Three years into the Schneider Sustainability Impact (SSI) program, Schneider Electric solutions for electrification, digitalization, and automation continue to lower the carbon emissions of customers, with 112 million of tonnes saved and avoided in 2023 alone. Great strides have also been made in transforming Schneider Electric’s supply chain. Carbon emissions from Schneider Electric’s top 1,000 suppliers have fallen by 27% — significant progress compared to the 10% reduction achieved in 2022 — and 21% of the company’s most strategic supply chain partners have met Schneider Electric’s decent work standards.

Efforts across the company to act responsibly with resources mean 63% of Schneider Electric’s product packaging is now free of single-use plastic and made of recycled cardboard. The company’s long-standing commitment to close the energy access gap has also advanced at pace, with 46.5 million people now accessing clean and reliable electricity thanks to Schneider Electric initiatives around the world, and more than 578,000 people learning new skills to address the future energy needs of their communities.

On the external ESG rating front, Schneider Electric has maintained its status as a sustainability leader in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) and in Corporate Knights’ list of Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World for the 13th year running, and obtained high scores from Moody’s Analytics, CDP, and EcoVadis with a Platinum medal.

All of these achievements feed into the company’s short and long-term pay incentive plans, underlining the company’s commitment to sustainable performance and social responsibility.

It is this commitment to inclusion, diversity, equality, and social responsibility which is the reason we feel Schneider Electric should be considered for DCS’s outstanding contribution to diversity, equality and social responsibility award.

CBRE Data Centre Solutions is a specialist business group within CBRE that helps customers reduce risk and efficiently manage their data centre facilities. Through technology, expert people, best in class processes, training, and global scale, we lead the market in our ability to deliver optimal facilities performance for our customers data centres. Our customers benefit from the experience and best practice we have developed through operating FM in over 900 data centres across 46 countries.

At CBRE, our people are the most important element of our business. We pride ourselves on offering the best skills, training, and development programs to our staff. It starts with recruiting the best people and offering them industry-leading training programs. We ensure professional development through coaching and offer significant career progression opportunities and rewards.

Our team comprises over 4000 Data Centre Experts, and we are proud to provide them with double the industry average for training and development. This commitment results in the most highly qualified team, which directly contributes to our impressive retention rate of 96%. To ensure we have the leading experts in the data centre industry, our bespoke DCS Shield training program not only focuses on training our existing team but also facilitates the transition of engineering staff from other critical industries such as healthcare, pharma, life sciences, and financial services. This is particularly crucial as it helps alleviate the shortage of skilled data centre engineers by nurturing talent from related fields. DCS Shield Training: Our DCS Shield program is an integrated initiative encompassing Recruitment, Training, Development, and rewards.

The core components of CBRE&rsquos tailored training program are outlined below. Recruitment - DCS Select CBRE's proprietary recruiting tool, DCS Select, was developed in 2017 with Gartner CEB to assess the aptitudes and behaviours needed for success in CBRE Data Centre Solutions for Engineers and Technicians. The globally scalable tool was created through workshops, interviews, and assessments in partnership with Gartner CEB and their staff psychologists. It standardizes processes for candidate assessment, skills gap analysis, and development planning and provides branded reports for external hires and transitions.

DCS Select ensures cultural fit, increasing attrition and operational focus. - Expending the Talent Pool Sourcing talent for a rapidly growing business within the data centre industry is a challenge. To confront this at CBRE we seek to attract talent from a more diverse range of sources, including veterans, maternity returners, and by recruiting outside of the industry. Training We have developed an industry leading suite of training and development courses which help to improve not only the performance of our people but also provides them with additional skills and experience to further their career at CBRE and beyond. - CNet Competency and Confidence Assessment Modelling (CCAM&reg) CBRE utilises the CCAM&reg Tool to establish and assess the baseline knowledge for each of our data centre technicians, and to monitor their improvement over time.

This tool provides real-time analysis of both competence and confidence for individuals and teams and exposes root causes of employee behaviour (positive and negative) in data centre facilities. Its complex software works through various criteria to identify people risk. It maps out an individual&rsquos skill sets, knowledge base, and ability gaps.

The results of each assessment allow the right course of development action to be planned and taken to address individuals&rsquo weaknesses. - Human Factors Training Research demonstrates that no matter how resilient the Engineering Infrastructure appears, nearly 70% of preventable failures relate to human error or process failure. CBRE has invested significant resources to combat human factor related errors by engaging renowned psychologist Dr Tim Marsh PhD, MSc, CFIOSH, CPsychol, SFIIRSM MD to further develop the CBRE Data Centre Solutions Human Factors Training program. This program is designed to identify, analyse and improve specific human behaviours, which impact on the successful delivery of engineering related services within a critical environment. CBRE have implemented this training for over five years, and the results speak for themselves, in 2019 only 16% of the unplanned downtime was related to human error versus an industry average of 70%. - Data Centre Technician Professional (CDCTP&reg) &amp Data Centre Management Professional (CDCMP&reg) Certifications CBRE is the first company in the industry globally to commit to certify 100% of its global technical workforce. Through a strategic alliance with industry-leading technical education company, CNet Training, we deliver a comprehensive training and development program that requires each data centre technicians to achieve the highly respected Certified Data Centre Technician Professional (CDCTP&reg) certification. - Training Matrix In 2021 CBRE introduced a Training Matrix for ALL roles. So, whether you are a Technician, a Contract Manager or a Contract Support there is a consistent programme of training assigned to you, providing you technical and soft skills training.

We are also invested more into management development, succession planning and talent management so that we can assist our staff nurture their careers at CBRE. Case studies in supporting document. Professional Development - Talent Coach Talent Coach is CBRE's new talent management platform that supports CBRE's objective to attract, develop and retain top talent and allows us to combine multiple systems and processes into a single, integrated tool with mobile capabilities. It also allows scalability, sustainability, ease of use and greater engagement. Talent Coach has changed the way our people learn, grow and develop their careers, both personally and professionally.

Talent Coach also acts as a means of testing whether employees have completed all mandatory training. - Professional Development Plans Our development programs are for all team members, including contract-based and central support staff, offering opportunities for professional growth, further education, and rewards for initiative. The training ensures administrative roles can advance into senior management or specialist technical roles. The curriculum is customised to individual roles and interests. Advancement &amp Reward - Opportunities for Career Progression &amp Mobility At CBRE we prioritise internal talent to deliver on career development and mobility for our people. CBRE is a large, specialised company that is growing rapidly with significant potential for advancement. - Employee wellbeing &amp Reward We understand that a healthy and happy workforce is the key to success, which is why we have implemented a global initiative called Be Well. This comprehensive program offers a wide range of resources, activities, training, and programs to support employee well-being on a global scale. Our employees have also access to a 24/7 Employee Assistance Program that provides a lifeline for those who may be facing challenges in their personal or professional lives. Recognizing and rewarding outstanding performance is also an integral part of our company culture.

Our Reward and Benefits philosophy includes site-specific rewards and recognition strategies that go beyond the ordinary. From 'on the spot awards' to 'Team of the Quarter' nominations, and even an 'Exceptional Award', we make sure our employees feel valued and appreciated for their hard work. We also offer good pay and benefits. - Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, a Top Priority CBRE strives for a work environment that reflects the diversity of the clients we serve, provides everyone with the opportunity to succeed, values the differences of each individual and recognises their contributions.

Our Diversity, Equity &amp Inclusion (DE&ampI) mission brings our global DE&ampI framework to our clients, ensuring that our joint diversity goals are one of the foundations of our partnership. More info on our CBRE Internal DE&ampI Networks in the supporting document. - Apprentices Our organisation hires over 60 apprentices every year from the local community. We see apprenticeships as a great way to help with succession planning and engaging new talent into the data centre industry. All Apprenticeships at CBRE are also supported by nationally recognised training providers, so they gain maximum exposure to industry knowledge and the skills required to be successful. - College Partnerships CBRE has several partnerships with Heathrow UTC, Kingston College, Uxbridge and Hillingdon College to train young people as data centre engineers with mechanical and electrical engineering skills, knowledge of IoT devices, cabling infrastructure and project management. More info on our college partnerships in the supporting document.

CBRE Data Centre Solutions is a specialist business group within CBRE that helps customers reduce risk and efficiently manage their data centre facilities. Through technology, expert people, best in class processes, training, and global scale, we lead the market in our ability to deliver optimal facilities performance for our customers data centres.

Our customers benefit from the experience and best practice we have developed through operating FM in over 900 data centres across 46 countries. At CBRE, our people are the most important element of our business. We pride ourselves on offering the best skills, training, and development programs to our staff. It starts with recruiting the best people and offering them industry-leading training programs. We ensure professional development through coaching and offer significant career progression opportunities and rewards.

Our team comprises over 4000 Data Centre Experts, and we are proud to provide them with double the industry average for training and development. This commitment results in the most highly qualified team, which directly contributes to our impressive retention rate of 96%. To ensure we have the leading experts in the data centre industry, our bespoke DCS Shield training program not only focuses on training our existing team but also facilitates the transition of engineering staff from other critical industries such as healthcare, pharma, life sciences, and financial services. This is particularly crucial as it helps alleviate the shortage of skilled data centre engineers by nurturing talent from related fields.

DCS Shield Training: Our DCS Shield program is an integrated initiative encompassing Recruitment, Training, Development, and rewards. The core components of CBRE tailored training program are outlined below.

Recruitment

- DCS Select CBRE's proprietary recruiting tool, DCS Select, was developed in 2017 with Gartner CEB to assess the aptitudes and behaviours needed for success in CBRE Data Centre Solutions for Engineers and Technicians. The globally scalable tool was created through workshops, interviews, and assessments in partnership with Gartner CEB and their staff psychologists. It standardizes processes for candidate assessment, skills gap analysis, and development planning and provides branded reports for external hires and transitions. DCS Select ensures cultural fit, increasing attrition and operational focus.

- Expending the Talent Pool Sourcing talent for a rapidly growing business within the data centre industry is a challenge. To confront this at CBRE we seek to attract talent from a more diverse range of sources, including veterans, maternity returners, and by recruiting outside of the industry. Training We have developed an industry leading suite of training and development courses which help to improve not only the performance of our people but also provides them with additional skills and experience to further their career at CBRE and beyond.

- CNet Competency and Confidence Assessment Modelling (CCAM®) CBRE utilises the CCAM® Tool to establish and assess the baseline knowledge for each of our data centre technicians, and to monitor their improvement over time. This tool provides real-time analysis of both competence and confidence for individuals and teams and exposes root causes of employee behaviour (positive and negative) in data centre facilities. Its complex software works through various criteria to identify people risk. It maps out an individual's skill sets, knowledge base, and ability gaps. The results of each assessment allow the right course of development action to be planned and taken to address individuals' weaknesses.

- Human Factors Training Research demonstrates that no matter how resilient the Engineering Infrastructure appears, nearly 70% of preventable failures relate to human error or process failure. CBRE has invested significant resources to combat human factor related errors by engaging renowned psychologist Dr Tim Marsh PhD, MSc, CFIOSH, CPsychol, SFIIRSM MD to further develop the CBRE Data Centre Solutions Human Factors Training program. This program is designed to identify, analyse and improve specific human behaviours, which impact on the successful delivery of engineering related services within a critical environment. CBRE have implemented this training for over five years, and the results speak for themselves, in 2019 only 16% of the unplanned downtime was related to human error versus an industry average of 70%.

- Data Centre Technician Professional (CDCTP®) & Data Centre Management Professional (CDCMP®) Certifications CBRE is the first company in the industry globally to commit to certify 100% of its global technical workforce. Through a strategic alliance with industry-leading technical education company, CNet Training, we deliver a comprehensive training and development program that requires each data centre technicians to achieve the highly respected Certified Data Centre Technician Professional (CDCTP®) certification.

- Training Matrix In 2021 CBRE introduced a Training Matrix for ALL roles. So, whether you are a Technician, a Contract Manager or a Contract Support there is a consistent programme of training assigned to you, providing you technical and soft skills training. We are also invested more into management development, succession planning and talent management so that we can assist our staff nurture their careers at CBRE. Case studies in supporting document.

Professional Development

- Talent Coach Talent Coach is CBRE's new talent management platform that supports CBRE's objective to attract, develop and retain top talent and allows us to combine multiple systems and processes into a single, integrated tool with mobile capabilities. It also allows scalability, sustainability, ease of use and greater engagement. Talent Coach has changed the way our people learn, grow and develop their careers, both personally and professionally. Talent Coach also acts as a means of testing whether employees have completed all mandatory training.

- Professional Development Plans Our development programs are for all team members, including contract-based and central support staff, offering opportunities for professional growth, further education, and rewards for initiative. The training ensures administrative roles can advance into senior management or specialist technical roles. The curriculum is customised to individual roles and interests. Advancement & Reward

- Opportunities for Career Progression & Mobility At CBRE we prioritise internal talent to deliver on career development and mobility for our people. CBRE is a large, specialised company that is growing rapidly with significant potential for advancement.

- Employee wellbeing & Reward We understand that a healthy and happy workforce is the key to success, which is why we have implemented a global initiative called Be Well. This comprehensive program offers a wide range of resources, activities, training, and programs to support employee well-being on a global scale. Our employees have also access to a 24/7 Employee Assistance Program that provides a lifeline for those who may be facing challenges in their personal or professional lives. Recognizing and rewarding outstanding performance is also an integral part of our company culture. Our Reward and Benefits philosophy includes site-specific rewards and recognition strategies that go beyond the ordinary. From 'on the spot awards' to 'Team of the Quarter' nominations, and even an 'Exceptional Award', we make sure our employees feel valued and appreciated for their hard work. We also offer good pay and benefits.

- Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, a Top Priority CBRE strives for a work environment that reflects the diversity of the clients we serve, provides everyone with the opportunity to succeed, values the differences of each individual and recognises their contributions. Our Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I) mission brings our global DE&I framework to our clients, ensuring that our joint diversity goals are one of the foundations of our partnership. More info on our CBRE Internal DE&I Networks in the supporting document.

- Apprentices Our organisation hires over 60 apprentices every year from the local community. We see apprenticeships as a great way to help with succession planning and engaging new talent into the data centre industry. All Apprenticeships at CBRE are also supported by nationally recognised training providers, so they gain maximum exposure to industry knowledge and the skills required to be successful.

- College Partnerships CBRE has several partnerships with Heathrow UTC, Kingston College, Uxbridge and Hillingdon College to train young people as data centre engineers with mechanical and electrical engineering skills, knowledge of IoT devices, cabling infrastructure and project management. More info on our college partnerships in the supporting document.

We are a rapidly growing global MEP engineering design firm, and the data centre industry is one of our fastest growing markets. Over 90% of the global team is entirely focused on data centre design.

With nearly 500 employees globally and offices in 13 cities across Europe, MENA and APAC, B&W operates in 44 countries. We have established ourselves as a significant player in the design and development of data centres with a strong track record in design optimisation, capacity maximisation and sustainability. We have undertaken complex data centre projects ranging from 5 MW facilities to 800 MW campus planning, evidencing our ability to meet the needs of rapid expansion and the diverse requirements of hyper-scale/end-user data centre markets.

Key distinguishing features and USPs
Without a doubt, it’s our global talent development programme that have become the cornerstone of our innovation, excellence, growth and success. We recognise that our strength lies in our people and our commitment to nurturing and enhancing talent is embedded in our DNA.

The programme is called the B&W Global Academy and encompasses:
● The B&W Global Graduate Pathway Programme
● Global apprenticeship initiatives
● One-to-one coaching, mentoring, and technical training
● Management Development Programme

Tangible Impact on the Market and Customers
Our strategic emphasis on global talent development has yielded extraordinary growth and a profound market impact. Since 2014, B&W has seen more than a tenfold increase in its workforce, coupled with 2000% surge in data centre revenue since 2017. This phenomenal growth trajectory has not only positioned us as a leading globally recognised MEP data centre consultancy but also led to a significant 50% increase in our global revenues over the last 12 months. Our contributions to the industry have redefined standards for data centre design, addressing the critical needs for rapid expansion and the diverse demands of hyper-scale and end-user markets.
 
The following section provides more detail on our global talent development programmes and initiatives:

B&W's Global Academy
Our flagship global learning and development framework is designed to empower every team member to reach their full potential through acquiring relevant knowledge, skills, and behaviours to achieve their career goals.
Launched last year, the B&W Global Academy has become the bedrock of our learning and development initiatives, offering a diverse range of training methods, from virtual interactive sessions to in-person workshops and self-paced e-learning modules.

The positive impact a culture of continuous learning can make on our business and our ‘one global team’ is infinite. The Academy offers blended, structured, self-paced training, meeting the specific needs of each employee and where they are at in their professional journey at B&W. We have invested in producing in-house digital content, featuring a library of videocasts with our subject matter experts. This content is not just informational it is authentic, relevant and genuinely supports the continuous professional growth of our team, aligning with both career aspirations and industry demands.

In 2023, learners attended 1,120 internal courses. 62% of our global workforce attended Academy workshops and sessions.

Onboarding
This year, we completely revamped our onboarding process which is a critical part of our talent development success. It is developed at a global level and tailored specifically to a regional and local level for our employees based in different locations across the world. The overarching theme is that, at the beginning of an individual’s career with us, we focus on how to ensure they feel that they belong at B&W and are able to thrive at work within the first three months. It is not about whether the person has the skills for the role.

Our meticulously designed onboarding process, which has been visually captured in the below infographic, stands as a testament to our commitment to talent development excellence. From personalised induction plans that begin even before an employee's first day to a tailored four-week check-in, we ensure every new team member feels welcomed, prepared, and connected.

Our unique Data Centre Pathway programme, which is in continuous development, combined with continuous support and development opportunities, exemplifies our dedication to fostering a skilled and confident workforce. The seamless integration of practical training sessions and real-world application ensures that by the time they reach the probation review meeting, our new engineers are not just familiar with our standards but are actively contributing to the innovation at the heart of our business.

One-to-One Coaching, Mentoring and Technical Training
Our personalised coaching opportunities, coupled with technical training from in-house and external experts, provide our team with the skills necessary to excel. We also offer English language practice sessions, ensuring our diverse and multicultural workforce can communicate effectively in the global business environment.

A core component of our one-to-one coaching opportunities is our ‘human skills’ development sessions. They are delivered online in 90-minute segments across our teams’ time zones. The @90 Sessions have been revolutionary in enhancing the 'power skills' of our employees. Testimonials from employees Robbie Smith, Amy Robinson-Bowden, Nick Remington, and Esther Martinez reflect the value of these sessions highlighting their effectiveness in improving day-to-day operations and interpersonal connections. They have been extremely well received across the entire global team in each of our locations.
Many of the @90 Sessions courses directly relate to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. For example, there are sessions focused on ‘Being Inclusive’. ‘Managing Conflict’, ‘Dealing with Stress’ and ‘Working across Boundaries.’ (generational and cultural differences).

Introduced this year is our Learning Residencies, where employees participate in a series of learning workshops to enhance professional skills across all roles within B&W. Our first one recently took place in Dubai. Tailored for a group size of 12 learners, including a special session for line managers, the programme covered key areas such as presentation skills, personality and communication, team dynamics, and emotional intelligence. Each workshop aimed to equip participants with practical tools and insights for improving workplace collaboration, communication, and leadership skills. Attendees received attendance certificates and digital toolkits, emphasising hands-on learning and experience sharing without recording sessions to encourage open, genuine participation.

Technical Training
As part of our focus on technical training, we have:
● Invested in Pinnacle Series, an on-demand learning and productivity platform for the data centre industry that uses multiple asset types to help organisations overcome everyday challenges they face in using technology. We created personalised learning based on current skill levels for employees across the business.
● Invested in a range of highly specialised and technical training programmes with partners such as Schneider Electric focused on data centre design.

Our Leadership Development Principles
We have established a robust leadership development programme, distinguished by our commitment to nurturing the leadership potential within our team. This programme consists of two initial levels, designed to be progressive and inclusive, catering to both seasoned professionals, and newcomers eager to cultivate new skills and confidence.

The innovative programme starts with Level 01, delivered virtually across four half-day modules, supplemented by peer coaching sessions to encourage the practical application of management theory. These sessions are intended to create a reflective space for employees, equipping them with both foundational and advanced managerial tools. Level 02 is a five-day intensive course that will be developed for online delivery later this year.

The programme principles highlight a commitment to group-based learning, maximising the benefits of collective experience. Cohorts, chosen through a nomination process, are kept to optimal sizes to ensure personalised attention and are expected to fully engage in all modules to maintain continuity and cohesion.

Furthermore, the curriculum is designed to weave in B&W's core values and leadership principles (see infographic that follows), ensuring that learning is not only about professional development but also aligns with the company's ethos. As a progressive aspect of this programme, participants can log their learning hours as Continuous Personal Development (CPD), reinforcing the practical value of their development.

From management essentials to building effective relationships, the programme offers a comprehensive toolkit for emerging leaders. It includes a focus on situational leadership, trust-building, communication clarity, feedback mechanisms, and decision-making, all crucial for a leader's success.

B&W Engineering's leadership programme stands out for its layered approach to professional development, blending structured learning with the flexibility to explore individual learning styles. It prepares employees not just for the leadership roles of today but equips them with the agility and adaptability required for the unforeseeable challenges of the future engineering landscape.

B&W’s Global Graduate Pathway Programme
Our Global Graduate Pathway Programme is a comprehensive programme designed to attract and develop the brightest new talents in engineering design. This two-year programme offers graduates a structured path to not just participate in our present but to shape our future. It symbolises our dedication to the long-term career development of our team members, across all of our geographic locations worldwide.

The programme emphasises hands-on experience from day one, providing graduates with real-world situations and the chance to work on meaningful client projects. This enables them to contribute and make an impact from the beginning of their careers. The programme includes theoretical and on-the-job learning opportunities, tailored to individual development needs. Continuous support and guidance are provided, equipping new starters with the necessary skills and knowledge for a successful career in their chosen engineering design field. The overall mission of the graduate programme is to nurture skills, knowledge, and experience in engineering design, and making decisions with assistance where required.

In their first year, graduates are integrated into a specific team, such as the data centre team, where they focus on developing their knowledge, skills, and expertise in that discipline. The second year marks a pivotal shift with a secondment to a different team, offering graduates a chance to broaden their experience and learn about a new discipline. This unique structure allows graduates, for instance, to transition from electrical to mechanical roles if that’s their preference, fostering a well-rounded understanding of our entire business and the services we offer. A highlight of the programme is the opportunity for graduates to work in different offices, both nationally and internationally, enabling them to gain a global perspective and diverse professional exposure. Additionally, graduates have the chance to engage in short-term assignments, ranging from two to four weeks, in our design hub in Manila, further enhancing their practical experience and understanding of the intricate design processes involved in engineering. This dynamic approach ensures that our graduates not only gain in-depth expertise in their initial roles but also acquire a broad, versatile skill set, preparing them to lead and innovate in various capacities within the industry.

We accept applications all year round and graduates can be based in any of our global locations. We support the transition from education to work with our 70/30 methodology where 70% of the programme is on-the-job learning with practical application and 30% is theoretical insights, knowledge sharing, and discussion as part of a structured learning plan.
Learning and development are tailored to individual needs within the graduate pathway and, in addition to a dedicated line manager, each graduate has a buddy and a mentor for support.

11% of our global workforce are currently graduates.

Apprenticeship Initiatives

In the UK, our apprenticeship programme, funded by the UK government’s levy scheme, demonstrates our commitment to hands-on learning.

For example, in the North East of England, we work with Gateshead College and actively participate in PlanBEE (Plan for Built Environment Education), a pioneering UK training programme designed to create skilled jobs in the construction, engineering, and built environment sectors.

Student placements are a key part of PlanBEE which is an industry-driven higher apprenticeship scheme. Following placements, students are encouraged to apply for permanent positions at B&W. We have several former PlanBEE students now working at our Newcastle office.

Investment into future design engineers is also a key priority for us as not only does it futureproof the industry by helping to tackle skills shortages, it also enables us to ensure young professionals are equipped with the tools and training they need to enjoy successful and rewarding careers. A hands-on approach to learning means that work placement students, interns, and graduate colleagues can learn by doing as they apply their academic learning in a real-world MEP setting, while supported by mentors and project teams.

Looking ahead, we aim to integrate an even greater percentage of graduates and apprentices into our global workforce. Our strategic plans are aligned with our long-term business goals and objectives, ensuring that the capabilities we develop today will meet the demands of tomorrow's data centre design industry.

Levels of Customer Service Differentiation
At B&W Engineering, we believe that excellence in customer service is inextricably linked to the quality and depth of our talent development programmes outlined above. Our comprehensive onboarding process, personalised coaching, mentoring, technical training, graduate and apprenticeship roles and our unique Data Centre Pathway programme ensure that every team member, regardless of their role, is well-equipped to meet and exceed our clients' expectations. This approach has fostered a culture of innovation and excellence, making B&W not just a service provider but a true partner in our clients' success.

Major Differentiators from Competitors
What sets B&W Engineering apart from competitors is our holistic approach to talent development and our commitment to creating a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace. Our initiatives like the B&W Global Academy, Global Graduate Pathway Programme, and global apprenticeship initiatives are testament to our belief that the strength of our company lies in our people. This philosophy extends beyond traditional technical training, encompassing 'human skills' development and management leadership programmes, ensuring our team is not only technically adept but also culturally and socially competent. Our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion at every level of our organisation has not only driven our growth but also positioned us as a leader in fostering a more inclusive and innovative future for the data centre industry.

Conclusion
At B&W Engineering, through our talent development programmes, we strongly believe that we are shaping the future of the data centre design industry. Our comprehensive approach to recruitment, training and retention places means we are driving new, innovative ways of developing talent within the data centre sector, overcoming the skills shortage the industry is facing, that will create a legacy for future workforces. With a special emphasis on diversity, equity, and inclusion, we are ensuring that our environment is one where all talent can flourish and play a vital role in our continued success story.

What are your company's key distinguishing features and/or USP?

Passionate about innovation, quality and sustainability, Centiel’s team design, manufacture and deliver industry-leading critical power protection solutions. The individual members of the team developed and brought to market the first three-phase transformerless UPS and the first, second, third and fourth generations of true modular, hot-swappable UPS. Centiel’s class leading CumulusPowerTM now protects critical power loads in locations across the world including throughout Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and South America.

In 2017 Centiel went to market with CumulusPowerTM, their three-phase modular uninterruptible power supply offering over 97% true on-line efficiency when no one else was achieving this. At the same time, Centiel introduced a new UPS technology that was able to connect to any kind of DC source, including Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4), again when no one else was. These are just two examples of Centiel’s work, completed five years ago, that is becoming the norm in the market today. Culturally, Centiel’s whole team see themselves as innovators and as a result, Centiel is now the fastest growing three phase modular UPS manufacturer in Europe, if not the world.

Centiel was confirmed as the recipient of the 2023 Frost & Sullivan Technology Innovation Leadership Award in the global UPS industry.

Centiel is all about quality, innovation and efficiency and this year the Centiel team turned its attention to helping data centres achieve net-zero targets. Following 4 years’ development, Centiel launched StratusPowerTM in the summer of 2023 to provide complete peace of mind in relation to power availability while helping data centres to achieve net-zero targets.

StratusPowerTM shares all the benefits of its award-winning three phase, true modular UPS CumulusPowerTM - including “9-nines” (99.9999999%) availability to effectively eliminate system downtime class leading 97.6% on-line efficiency to minimise running costs true “hot swap” modules to eliminate human error in operation – but now also includes long-life components to improve sustainability.

UPS cabinets are designed with scalability and flexibility in mind, and future load changes are easily accommodated by adding or removing UPS modules as required. A data centre will never outgrow a well specified StratusPowerTM UPS, and it can be constantly rightsized to ensure it always operates at the optimal point in its efficiency curve.
Like all Centiel’s leading UPS solutions, its latest innovation: StratusPowerTM is manufactured at its hi-tec factory in Switzerland.

Uniquely, StratusPowerTM has a design life of 30 years and instead of replacing consumable components such as filter capacitors and cooling fans every four years, they now need replacing every 15 years, or just once during their entire 30-year design life. As a data centre has a design life of typically 25 to 30 years, StratusPowerTM will last as long as the data centre. Furthermore, StratusPowerTM is almost 100% recyclable.

Higher quality components cost more but this is just tens of pounds per module. However, to replace an entire UPS system every ten years, costs tens of thousands of pounds. Combined with Centiel’s approach as trusted advisors, the introduction of StratusPower now means they can help organisations take steps to move away from a “throw away” culture with a genuinely sustainable offering and help them reduce Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) at the same time.

All of Centiel’s UPS solutions can also work with Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) batteries which tolerate higher ambient temperatures to reduce the need for cooling further and will only need to be replaced once in a 30 year design life.
Centiel hopes its long-term vision of working towards a sustainable future means it can be considered for this award.

What tangible impact has your company had on the market and your customers?
Centiel now protects critical loads for data centers and communications rooms in over 100 countries across five continents. They work hand in hand with data centres as trusted advisors to increase efficiencies, improve sustainability and reduce Total Cost of Ownership. One example is Sure.

Sure datacentres require the highest level of uptime and is also committed to reducing energy usage throughout its facilities. Legacy monolithic UPS offered Sure only 80% efficiency. Sure saw this as no longer acceptable from an energy waste point of view, especially now that Sure is on a zero-carbon path.

Centiel has worked with Sure since 2018. However, the past year saw the completion of work to replace monolithic UPS systems with Centiel’s leading three phase modular UPS CumulusPowerTM in Datacentres 4,5 & 8 at Sure’s Gurnsey facility.

CumulusPower now takes Sure’s energy efficiency to another level, saving significant cost and reducing carbon footprint. Due to the true modular nature of CumulusPower it is highly efficient, meaning it runs at over 97% efficiency compared with <80% for the previous UPS.

A total cost of ownership study determined that the commercial benefits of the latest technology outweighed the maintenance and operating costs of the existing legacy equipment which justified their replacement. The predicted instant power savings of £30K per annum in DC 5 and £70K in DC 4 at today’s rates have been observed.

With the current IT load, the savings made have been estimated at 20-30% approximately.
For Datacentre 5 the CO2 Reduction over 5 Years has been calculated at 751.3 Tonnes, for DC 4 UPS A at 436.1 tonnes and for UPS B at 630 tonnes or (1157 671 970) = 2,798 trees in total for DC 4 & 5.

Further savings were seen as air conditioning was balanced in the two datacentres following installation.

This example is typical of the project work Centiel does with clients to help them improve efficiencies and become more sustainable, reducing the total cost of ownership (TCO) at the same time.

What levels of customer service differentiate you from your competitors.
Centiel’s expert team act as trusted advisors to ensure clients always have the optimal UPS solution to reduce their TCO and maximise efficiency and their uptime, whatever their requirement.

Centiel’s sales team are all engineers and UPS solutions experts and are not required to “sell” UPS. They are required to establish long term relationships with clients and consultants by offering their wealth of experience and expertise. They must take time to understand the challenges faced by the client and always provide the best advice in relation to solutions. If, for example, the best solution is “don’t change the current UPS” then this is the advice given. Centiel wants its customers to be able to pick up the phone and discuss the best options available for them now and in the future, knowing they will always receive excellent advice and recommendations based on best practice.

What are the major differentiators between your company and your primary competitors?
Innovation: Centiel’s innovative UPS solutions lead the industry and are designed to be highly efficient to help data centres save energy. CENTIEL’s UPS technology offers industry-leading availability of 99.9999999% (9-nines) achieved through its Distributed Active Redundant Architecture (DARA) which adds far more layers of resilience than other UPS architectures.

Centiel’s latest innovation, StratusPower TM which is unique in its 30-year design life means components need to be replaced less often, offering the potential to make a real impact on any data centre’s sustainability goals.

Swiss Quality: All of Centiel’s solutions are made from high quality components and manufactured at their factory in Switzerland.

Trusted Advisors: Centiel’s team of trusted advisors sign up to a set of core values which keeps the best interests of customers at the heart of everything they do, namely:

• We always behave with integrity

• We are honest and open in our business transactions

• We treat our customers, suppliers, and each other with respect

• We constantly strive to improve our customer service

• We never compromise on health, safety, or environmental matters

Lead times: Centiel’s strong partnerships with worldwide suppliers also allow them to source the highest quality components efficiently, cost effectively and ensures an uninterrupted flow of materials and led to them being able to guarantee some of the fastest delivery times in the UPS industry.

Please supply any supportive quotes and/or case study materials to demonstrate the position of your company in the market.

Frost & Sullivan: “Centiel stands out from competitors based on its commitment to innovation and creativity while achieving commercial success. In addition to its market-driven innovation, the company’s collaborative, partner-focused approach drives the acquisition of new channel partners while retaining its existing network. As a result, Centiel expects to continue its strong growth trajectory, aiming to register over 70% growth in the next two years. With its strong overall performance, Centiel earns Frost & Sullivan’s 2023 Global Technology Innovation Leadership Award in the UPS industry.” Frost & Sullivan’s full report about Centiel can be found at https://www.frost.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Centiel_Award-Writeup.pdf

Wayne McKane, Engineer, Sure confirms: “As part of a continuous improvement and replacement programme we were looking for an industry leading UPS manufacturer with a product to match the quality of Sure’s Tier III data centres. We chose the CENTIEL team as our partners and trusted advisors for these important projects as the company is an industry leader at the very forefront of technological developments. We were looking for a truly modular solution to ensure efficient running and maintenance of systems within the data centres, where our staff could be easily trained to provide a first level response and the ability to exchange modules if required. We were also looking for the very latest technology to ensure maximum availability combined with a low total cost of ownership. CENTIEL ticked all the boxes.”

Richard Clifford, head of solutions, Keysource: “We partner with multiple manufacturers but have known and worked with the CENTIEL team for many years. We trust them to deliver high-end, quality true modular UPS solutions which reduce Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and match specific requirements. For this installation [Government Vaccination Centre], we chose CENTIEL, as CumulusPowerTM offered the ideal power rating and availability for the criticality of the load. CENTIEL’s Li-ion solution meant we could solve the challenges associated with space, service life, and safety. The team at CENTIEL are flexible and highly experienced, we trust them to provide optimal solutions to complex installations for our clients. The result is that the vaccine manufacturing centre is now protected by the latest in UPS technology with the highest level of availability.”

In the last year partners have come under greater pressure to become more sustainable, helping customers reduce energy, emissions, and waste. New research found 69% of partners state customer environmental considerations are now driving IT investment decisions.

Further, many resellers have begun to shift from hardware sales to become IT Solution providers, offering managed power, edge computing, and cloud migration services, expecting vendors to modernise partner programs to reflect these changing business models. Research from Canalys found 65% of partners wanted to strengthen relationships with vendors, 60% want to improve profitability, and 50% want to build expertise.

Sustainability has become another key opportunity for partners to catalyse growth via data centre modernisation and energy efficiency. According to 451 Research, 97% of customers are asking for contractual sustainability commitments from suppliers. Here Schneider is leading by example, creating sustainable data centre technologies, and working with partners to drive sustainability throughout the sector.

Schneider Electric is the leader in the digital transformation of energy management and automation, and since inception it has worked with its channel partners to solve infrastructure challenges across data centres, electrical, and IT environments. As a channel-first organisation, its longstanding commitment to partners has helped create opportunities to capture market share, providing the tools, support, and training to capitalise on new trends.

Today its IT channel spans 100,000 IT Solution Providers across 160 countries, in the UK, it has 9330 partners. Its Partners have been integral to its success and will play a vital role in building a greener, more sustainable future. In line with these changing dynamics, Schneider Electric announced the launch of its new mySchneider IT Partner Program.

Built on 40 years of collaboration, feedback, and adapting programs to meet changing business requirements, the program supports partners with a simplified structure and specialisations for data centres, IT solutions, software, and services.

It includes new sales tools, training, and enablement resources, and benefits that enable partners to certify at all levels - combining multiple specialisations to identify, resell, and/or install solutions within the SMB or Enterprise market spaces.

Furthermore, it provides a clear sustainability strategy via Green Premium™ solutions, offering sustainable performance and circularity by design. These technologies help partners to meet demands for sustainability by being designed to comply with strict environmental regulations, including RoHS and REACH.

Benefits include:
• New Structure: partners can progress from ‘Enrolled’ to ‘Elite’, using a metrics to increase core competencies.
• New Interface: simplified dashboard offers visibility for sales and progress against specialisations.
• Enhanced Training Paths: including design tools, training, and resources to help partners diversify their business models.
• myRewards: tailored for partners including financial incentives to help identify, develop, and close new business.
• Sustainability: Access to Green Premium™ solutions, providing transparency and reduced environmental impact.

Via the launch of the new program, its ESG and sustainability commitments, and its mission to help partners deliver greater energy efficiency and sustainability for customers, Schneider Electric has also seen its partner base grow by 20% in Europe.

Key examples of its work with partners includes Datacentre UK, who specialises in designing data centres for the public and private sectors including healthcare, and education. Partnering with Schneider Electric for almost 20 years, it first participated in the APC Gold Partner programme, then certified through its Elite Partner Program, and was named 'Best Performing Partner' at Schneider’s Elite Partner Awards in 2022.

Its partner status validates its expertise in delivering design, build and installation services, modernisation projects, energy efficiency programs and lifecycle services such as monitoring, management, and replacement of mission-critical systems.

In 2021, Datacentre UK delivered a new Schneider Electric prefabricated data centre to the Northern Care Alliance, one of the UK’s largest NHS Trusts, encompassing four hospitals with 24,000 staff who deliver critical healthcare to over seven million people.

The system underpins the Alliances’ hybrid cloud mandate, meeting its carbon reduction targets, while providing a low-latency environment for applications including AI, genomics, and personalised medicine. Designed, built, and maintained by Datacentre UK, it incorporates Schneider Electric Galaxy UPS with Lithium-ion, Uniflair™ cooling, with APC™ PDUs and its NetShelter racks.

“Our strategic partnership with Schneider Electric has been integral to our growth, and our Elite Partner status instils confidence in our customers, helping us win tenders and major projects,” said Paul Almond, Managing Director, Datacentre UK. “Schneider’s position as the global leader in data centres ensures we can create turnkey solutions that deliver efficiency and reliability without compromise. To put that into context, last year we turned over £5.4m revenue, and our work with Schneider accounted for just under 50%.”

In addition to its net zero commitments, which include accelerating its 2030 goal of carbon neutrality in its extended ecosystem to 2025, the company’s Schneider Electric Sustainability Impact program has also had a hugely positive effect on businesses’ across the spectrum of digital infrastructure, including its partner ecosystems.

For example, since 2018, Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure solutions and services have helped customers save and avoid 440 million tonnes of CO2, more than 90 million being saved in 2022 alone. Further, it has worked with its top 1000 partners and suppliers within its ‘Zero Carbon Project’ to reduce 50% of their emissions by 2025. To-date the companies participating have reduced their CO2 by 10%.

With a diverse partner program that spans 40 years, and an ethos for helping partners upskill and drive growth, Schneider Electric’s commitments to its channel partners are clear to see. For these reasons we believe it is a strong contender for the DCS’s ‘Outstanding Contribution to Sustainability and Efficiency Award’.

Laura is currently in the fifth year of her Project Management Apprenticeship with Arcadis, this is the final year of her Construction Management degree where she is on track to achieve a First Class Honours. Having been recently promoted to Assistant Project Manager Laura has worked with some major Hyperscale clients where her role included assisting with the project management of the early design phases on behalf of the client and managing the general site welfare facilities. Since this project she has gone on to work on smaller Enterprise Data Centre Construction Projects where she has taken on more responsibility when supporting senior colleagues. Feedback from those she has worked with shows how much her work adds value projects and they appreciate her fresh perspective to the industry bringing in new ideas to help make certain processes smoother.
During her time with Arcadis Laura has been fortunate to have been selected to undertake both Arcadis' digital exploration course (Expedition DNA) and the Empowering Women in Arcadis. Both of these opportunities have given Laura several new skills that have helped develop her confidence as a young project manager and allow her to connect with many people across the country and globally within Arcadis. These opportunities have helped Laura to start her Line Management career giving her essential skills to allow a new apprentice to thrive and benefit from the knowledge of her journey as a young Project Manager working within the Data Centre industry.
All this experience will aid with Laura's next big career aspiration of gaining her professional chartership with the RICS.
Since joining the data centre industry Laura has shown her passion for the industry helping to support the employer brand. During this time she has taken part in 5 podcasts which include Arcadis at MIPIM - Demystifying the DC's, Womanthology - Women in Technology and Inside Data Centre Podcast - It’s time to break the stereotypes, Jambo Datacenter Podcast - Meet Laura Allwood, young emerging talent of the Datacentre Industry and DCD Talks - Women in Data Centres. Through these podcasts she has been able to share her experiences of being a young women working within the construction of data centres, speaking about both the opportunities and challenges she has experienced hoping to raise awareness and make the industry as attractive as possible to new talent.
During 2023 through the support of the Rising Stars Programme and the mentorship of a key figure in the data industry. Laura has had the opportunity to speak on 4 different panels at industry events again sharing her experiences as a young professional to a different audience. The aim of these talks was to reach out to those already in the industry to show ways they can attract, retain and support new talent showing her perspective as someone new in to the industry. Hoping to kickstart the need for a change in mindset and encourage new ideas rather than more traditional approaches that have been used in the past. As the industry continues to develop and grow it is vital that there is sufficient and knowledgeable talent ready to continue the growth of the industry.
Laura is a big supporter of apprenticeships and will often talk passionately about her experience hoping to encourage more people to take up an apprenticeship due to the many benefits available. She hopes to become a role model for young people showing how they can also be successful by pursuing a career in Data Centres. This is especially important to show her passion about women in construction helping to drive the change to break the stereotypes.
To help support young people she has supported some local schools by taking part in a virtual careers fair panel where students were able to ask questions about her role to give them some guidance and advice on a career in project management. She has also very proudly taken part in the Rising Stars in Schools event where she was given the opportunity alongside other Rising Stars to talk about the different routes to entry and careers available within the Cloud, IT and Data Centre Industry.