Research Facility Data Centre Design And Build, With Improved Energy Efficiency

In 2013 the organisation’s IT team put the server room upgrade out to tender to 12 companies, eight of which responded. Three of those companies were shortlisted and INFINITI won the tender. INFINITI was happy to sign any Liquidated & Ascertained Damages (LAD) clauses which formed part of the JCT Works Contract and work soon began. According to the organisation’s IT Manager: “While other organisations were trying to impose what they thought we wanted, INFINITI listened to our requirements and their offering was far superior. They also had glowing references from their clients.”

The work carried out by the INFINITI team included: Planning a complete redesign of the available space INFINITI was able to identify three new areas that were suitable for expansion. The organisation’s project team chose the original server room area, expanded into an adjacent meeting room and storage area. Noisy and disruptive work in this space had to be kept to a minimum and out of hours where possible due to the close proximity of staff offices.

Demolition and rebuild

According to INFINITI’s Managing Director Peter Sands: “We took the areas right back to a bare shell. This involved removing legacy sound proofing materials originally used to reduce the noise of the old mainframes. In total four 16 yard skips were required to separate all the materials for recycling, as per the waste management plan and our own environmental policy. All noisy works were carried out in the early mornings, evenings and at weekends so we didn’t disturb staff .” INFINITI’s project team also managed all on-site resources during this ti me including electricians, pipe fitters, flooring specialists, and other specialist contractors.

Installing the new Research Facility Data Centre

The new data centre has been situated in a much larger space. The walls and doors have been constructed from fire rated soundproof composite panels and there are four new large efficient data centre air conditioning units: three are always on and one is available as backup (N+1). INFINITI also installed new server and network racks, UPS and electrical systems, fully managed intelligent power distribution units (PDU), Environmental Monitoring Systems (EMS) and a Data Centre Infrastructure Manager (DCiM) that monitors the research facility data centre and power usage in real time. A new environmentally friendly fi re suppression facility has also been installed, making the research facility data centre far safer. 

Installation of new data and fibre cabling solution 

INFINITI worked very closely with the IT and networks team on a suitable design, and a complete upgrade of the organisation’s LAN was successfully completed within a live office environment. The new research facility data centre data connectivity and Local Area Network (LAN) used over 30km of fibre optic and CAT6 copper data cable throughout the entire six storey building which has 650 live ports. 

Results.

INFINITI completed this extensive research facility data centre upgrade within the contracted allocated ti me and within budget so no LAD penalty charges applied. Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) a measure of how efficiently a data centre uses energy, is now rated at 1.5 compared with 2.2 previously, so the organisation is already seeing the associated cost savings. 

With double the original capacity, the organisation is now able to take on additional projects and generate increased revenue as a result. The build didn’t affect staff and work was able to carry on as usual. The area is bright, cool and efficient, creating a much improved working space for the IT team. They now also receive data centre alerts by email so they know about any temperature, humidity, power or cooling system issues before they can cause any damage.