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March 1st 2013
Key fibre and bandwidth partners.
We can now formally announce the names of our first key fibre/connectivity partners at the Milton Keynes Data Centre.
Although there was a wide choice of fibre providers near to the new Milton Keynes data centre there were three which had an advantage over most of the other providers as these three were each also able to provide multiple diverse routes into the site. Two of these providers were selected several months ago and both of these companies have been performing extensive work within the site and also the surrounding area and now have live circuits into the data centre.
The result is we now have two providers who between them have four diverse routes into the building (more or less from four different sides).
We are taking one circuit from each provider (Initially 10Gbs from each one) for our own Managed internet Access and MPLS network but this also means that if customers prefer to purchase their own dedicated or point to point circuits they can choose from two separate providers who can each give them a guaranteed diverse route or instead they could take one route from each provider if they prefer to split the circuit vendors.
Although there are other providers available in the area these providers will have a big commercial advantage as they already have a physical POP within the facility. One of the providers (see below) can also offer managed Internet access (multi-homed bandwidth) direct from the data centre as an alternative or in addition to our own offerings.
NB: We have also taken the opportunity to lay our own secure ducts out to the site perimeter in several directions so if additional fibre is brought into the site form alternative providers the civil work within the site is already complete.
# Provider 1 – Vtesse
Vtesse have a full physical POP within each of our Meet Me rooms which are linked to two diverse routes into/out of our data centre. They can offer diverse MPLS circuits and also dedicated fibre circuits from 10Mbs to 10Gbs and beyond. Vtesse can also offer managed Internet access (multi-homed bandwidth) which they can offer direct form within the data centre either as an alternative
to our own managed internet access giving our customers a provider independent alternative if they wish.
Vtesse also operates a UK WAN, which connects more than 50 key data centre sites in London and across the South East of England. They can provide circuits and dedicated waves to either primary London/Docklands-based facilities for disaster recovery or back-up operations or various other uses or as part of a national Ethernet hosting solution.
The management and organisation of the diverse dig and every other aspect so far has been highly impressive so we are delighted with this choice and also the added options they can offer our customers.
# Provider 2 – BT OpenReach
Pretty much a ‘no brainer’ as connecting our facility direct to Openreach via two separate main exchanges gives us substantial connectivity options both locally and also nationally.
‘Locally’ because as a full CP (Communications Provider) ourselves we can deal direct with Openreach for local circuits at very competitive prices and ‘Nationally’ via BT Openworld however this fibre can also be used as tails with more or less any other provider if the provider in question prefers to use existing fibre or they do not have their own fibre nearby.
BT already had two separate fibre routes into the building from two separate main exchanges however they have performed extensive additional work in the immediate vicinity introducing an additional new large capacity fibre cable into the site. This cable is capable of supporting 146 separate fibres each one capable of supporting up to four separate waves of up to 10Gbs. The second route is also being upgraded shortly and this too will have provision for 146 separate fibre connections as well.
NB: According to the Openreach installation engineers this was the first non BT facility they had installed this volume of fibre cables into!
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February 18th 2013
Completion of technical build.
The technical build is now complete!
Both of the additional fibre circuits are also installed and working however they will not be deemed to be fully operational until we have monitored them for a few weeks and also one provider has completed an additional monitoring circuit and the other some scheduled maintenance on their network.
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February 8th 2013
Milton Keynes Data Centre - Build Progress
We are pretty much ready to host data now. The first main large data hall (DH-1) is now ready with the racks all in place and both sets of cooling, power and network all ready and working.
The only things needed to host data are the second fibre feed (due to be completed next week) and also some additional work on the UPS systems synchronisation panel so we are very nearly ready to go now.
The following (slightly shaky) video shows how close we are by showing everything in place and working. For example in this you can see both sets of air handling units operational and also the power from both feeds (Blue and Orange) and also a test server in one of the racks which is connected to both power feeds and also the outside world via the first fibre connection which is in place and working.
Once the last few bits are completed next week we will turn our attention to some of the other cosmetic finishes and work on rooms which are not core to the service (for example the kitchen and dining rooms and reception) .
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February 7th 2013
UPS Systems
The following video shows one of the UPS rooms (UPSR-2/Blue feed).
Both UPS rooms are now operational and connected. Each room supports one of the two diverse power feeds.
These rooms will supply the UPS service for the first phase with additional rooms (one per feed) added for future phases.
* This video was taken during testing ie before they were put online.
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January 28th 2013
General update
We are now getting to the final stages for the operational aspect of the first phase of data racks.
More or less all the main aspects are now complete (or due to be complete within the next few days) with just the commissioning of both UPS systems (due this week) and also the final stages of the fibre installations and also the fire suppression installation to go.
Once these are complete we will start on some of the cosmetic/ additional finishes such as the reception and carpeting and also the second entry gate.
We are also adding a man trap door at the gate way to the data hall areas (the aperture and additional fire doors for the man trap unit are already prepared at this end so we are just awaiting installation and commissioning of the unit itself which is due the middle of next month).
Not long to go now!
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January 10th 2013
Gate access control and video intercom for new data centre
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| Access control and video Intercom for front gates and long range reader below it. |
The first electric gate is now linked to our access control systems and the video intercom has been added and is operational as well.
In the picture you will see a large box below the intercom which has a built in normal fob reader. This is a long range reader so we can offer the option of having a long range fob to operate the gates without having to lower the vehicles window for added security and convenience.
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January 6th 2013
Scary secret revealed
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| Scary Senior Network Admin |
Turns out it was not a ghostly apparition after all, just a ghostly senior network admin exploring one of the tunnels. :~)
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January 4th 2013
Scary sight!
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| Scary sight at the data centre in Milton Keynes |
Whilst photographing the outside of some of the unexplored underground ducts we didn’t notice at the time the following scary sight. OMG!
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December 22nd 2012
Racks start arriving
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| Rack construction starts |
17 of the first 24 racks have arrived. The remaining racks and also the cold aisle containment and the new design of front doors will arrive soon.
We designed our first racks and cold aisle containment pods for our Bletchley data centre over five years ago (we were quite early to adopt this approach) however we have identified some improvements for the pod and also the racks themselves which are being incorporated into the new racks.
NB: Our racks are customised and developed to our exact specification by the manufacturers we use
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December 20th 2012
Airedale Aircon Commissioned
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| Airedale free cooling pipe work running under the building via one of the access tunnels |
The Airedale units for Data Hall 1 (DH-1) have now also been commissioned so both sets of air con (Stulz and Airedale) are ready for use.
The Stulz air con back up DX units are routed high level to one part of the building and the Airedale units routed low level to a totally different part of the building.
NB: As this is Tier IV specification the air con cost just for this hall (DH-1) will be around £250k
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December 6th 2012
General update
There are lots of minor things happening at the moment but also some of the larger aspects of the project too.
Air con
The Stulz DX units and pipe work is installed and currently being commissioned. The Airedale units and pipe work is more or less finished too with just an expansion tank needed for the commissioning to begin.
Power
The power cabling from both the plant rooms to the local power distribution room has been completed and both UPS rooms are ready for the UPS systems (due to arrive within the next 14 days). Once the UPS systems are in place the only thing remaining for the power aspect is the rack level power.
Racks and Rack level power
The high level rack bus bars and tap off points are already here so we are just awaiting the first rack pod to arrive (due in next 14 days) so the bus bars can be installed on top of the racks.
Meet Me/ Comms Rooms
Almost complete. Core switches are installed with just a few things to complete them.
Fibre
The fibre connections have now all been ordered and work has begun to extend a couple of the site ducts to give us FOUR different diverse routes into the site from each direction. We also have some exciting news about a major fibre provider who is providing a diverse connection from the site onto their network and will also offer circuits and also on site multi homed transit direct to our customers if they wish an alternative to our own managed transit options. The contracts have already been signed but we will jointly announce this in the next couple of weeks.
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October 23rd 2012
Security gate No1 is installed.
The first of the two man trap security gates has now been installed with just some minor aspects to complete it.
Although it is not yet integrated with the access control systems it is working via remote controls for now.
The second gate will be added later and also a video phone and the access control stands, speed ramps and traffic lights.
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September 14th 2012
HV Upgrade work progress
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| New ring main and HV switches installed and energised. |
The brand new ring main and HV switches are now installed within the onsite substation. The GSM aerial can be seen between the far units which allow the power distribution company to control the automation of the two HV power supplies remotely if required.
There are still major off site works needed to complete the power upgrade ( for example they need to dig up quite a bit if the surrounding roads!) however most of the on site HV works are now complete.
This picture shows the new equipment in place. It should also be noted that rather than having the equipment contained within a GRP enclosure at the sites perimeter and situated with direct access from the high way this is within a full on site substation situated in a brick building with concrete roof well within the sites perimeter.
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August 17th 2012
Power Updates - On site sub station/HV switches
The existing HV switches were operational and rated for the new capacity but as they are a critical part of the HV power structure we made the decision to replace them with brand new units (30 year life span).
There are four in total with two for the existing power structure (one for each power feed) and another two ready for the next phase of the data centre build (one for each power feed).
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| New HV switches (on the right) ready to replace the existing HV switches (on the left). |
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July 30th 2012
LED low energy lighting
We are in the process of installing motion activated low energy LED lighting in the new data centre corridor and also in the new data halls.
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| Video of new LED lighting in the new data centre corridor. |
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May 22nd 2012
Exterior of building refurbished.
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| Milton Keynes Data Centre |
The refurbishment of the exterior of the building is now complete.
It looks almost like a different building now that this and further landscaping work has also been done.
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March 8th 2012
Removal of 45,000 litre fuel tank.
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| Plasma cutting the tank |
The older 45,000 litre tank which was previously decommissioned and is not suitable for use was sliced into smaller sections using a plasma cutter and removed from site.
We have an interesting idea for the old concrete bund's use. More on this later. PS It is not going to be used as a swimming pool!
The following are some additional pictures.
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March 5th 2012
Existing Generators tested and load bank tested
The two existing generators have been fully tested and then load bank tested up to 110% recommended capacity for at least two hours each (over 1000 litres of diesel used). Both sets passed all the tests however further testing and refurbishment will also be performed before the decision to keep or replace either one of them or both.
NB: Although we are increasing the overall power to the site from 1.5MW to 4MW the existing N+N infrastructure will be used for the first phase with new equipment for the further phases added in parallel to this. Effectively this will mean that the building will end up being more like two separate data centres in terms of power distribution with the only common element being the main incoming HV supplies as each phase will have its own N+N transformers, N+N generators, N+N power distribution and N+N cooling further enhancing the overall resilience of the facility for the longer term.
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February 1st 2012
Work Begins
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| Keen to start work |
Most of February is spent investigating and testing the existing infrastructure and also getting to know the building and having key elements tested and serviced. Various contractors most of which we have used on previous projects have attended site and are in the process of preparing quotations.
New auto cad scale drawings of the building are commissioned along with detailed drawings for the building work needed for the first phase.
Some work on the building begins such as lighting and some decorating and setting up the site office and also getting some of the buildings services operational again. We also continued sorting out keys for cupboards and distribution panels and labeling them (over 200 keys most of which were not labeled!).
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January 26th 2012
Building Purchased
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| Aerial View |
Building acquired and work commences immediately to replace and upgrade the existing security systems, access control and CCTV systems. The full details are not included here (for security reasons) but part of the work included the following:
- Two new alarm systems capable of 600+ sensors with over 100 sensors installed (within 48 hours).
- Key parts of the access control systems are replaced.
- 75 out of the existing 78 cameras already on site are tested and found to be operational. Existing DVR units are replaced with two new totally separate systems (N+N).
- External perimeter detection and a site-wide speaker system is added with local and also remote 24/7 monitoring. Key elements such as the new power upgrade are finalised (Order was placed just before exchange of contracts).
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