The data centre
As part of a continuous improvement programme aimed at offering better products and better services to our customers, our servers are now housed in a data centre where lot of research and development went into building the a state-of-the-art facility, situated in Reading (UK), that can ensure great guarantees for our customers.
Our new data centre site is a 50,000 square foot facility located in the heart of the Thames Valley, near to the Green Park technology area. Our phase 1 build has 10,400 square foot split over 2 data halls.
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Main electrical panel 'A' and 'B' side
This is part of the main electrical panel feeding the 'A' and 'B' side of our power infrastructure. Everything is duplicated so that every server has two completely independent power feeds for redundancy. We colour-code the panels for easy identification; 'A' is black and 'B' is orange. In the photo you see the automatic controller which starts the generators and transfers to generator power in the event of a mains failure
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HV Transformers & Generators
Here you can see the 'B' side transformer, with the 'A' side transformer and generator in the background. The overhead gantry carries our busduct - this conducts the power from the transformers/generators back into the building and is a more efficient solution than using copper cables.
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Diesel Generators
We have multiple SDMO 1.1MVA generators for emergency power provision. They are tested monthly, and are configured in an N+1 set up. This means that in the unlikely event the mains power fails, we can tolerate the failure of a generator and still support the entire data centre load.
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UPS Batteries
This is the 'A' side room of UPS batteries, and is duplicated on the 'B' side. There are further strings of batteries out of frame, and the batteries support the power to the servers if there is a transient or disturbance on the mains load, or alternatively in the time it takes for the generators to start up and support the load.
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400kVA UPS
This is one of our 400kVA UPS units. The UPS filter and clean the power through an inverter/rectifier and isolation transformer, so the power supplied to the servers is stable and reliable.
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Fire control panel
In this photo you can see the manual release control for the gas extinguishant system. This is part of our fire detection and control system for the data centre, and allows us to manually release the gas extinguishant to put out any fire if one should develop
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Fire beacons and sounders
When you visit our data centre you will notice the data floors are quite a noisy environment with all the servers operating. For health & safety, we therefore have a large number of fire beacons and sounders to alert any personnel to evacuate the area.
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Air conditioning inlet
These louvers allow the cold air into the data floor. On the other side of them are the air conditioning units that take the hot air from the servers, cool it, and then recirculate it into the room. The hot air is ducted from the top of the server racks and into the ceiling.
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Fire extinguishant bottles
We have a total of 85 bottles, each 80 litres at 300 bar pressure of fire extinguishant. We use the environmentally-friendly mix of 50% argon and 50% nitrogen. When these are released, they reduce the oxygen levels in the room so that any fire cannot be sustained.
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Air conditioning unit
One of our air conditioning units. Each unit can cool over 250kW of heat at peak usage, although we normally run the units at much lower load because we have an N+2 configuration. This means that two units can fail or be taken out of service for maintenance, without impacting on the overall performance of the cooling system.
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Heat rejection equipment
The chilled water pipework takes the warm water from inside the data centre, and returns it into the data centre as cold water. To remove the heat from the water we use a free cooling chiller combination with high surface area for extra efficiency.
Summary
- 450 Racks
- Standard 48U rack, 1000mm deep
- 4kW to 35kW per rack
- 2N Configuration
Electrical
- Dedicated HV Network with diverse feeds from the utility operator
- 2N Transformers
- N+1 Generators
- 2N available
- 2N Electrical switchgear in separate fire compartments
- 2N UPS in separate fire compartments
- 2N+1 available
- Dual 32 amp feed to every rack footprint
- Up to 35kW 2N distribution per footprint available
Security
- Perimeter palisade fence
- High definition digital CCTV with 90 day retention
- Access control system with man trap access restriction
- Staff on site 24/7
Mechanical
- N+1 chillers with dual power supplies from separate switchgear
- 2N available
- N+1 separated and fully diverse pipework
- 2N available
- N+1 air handlers with dual power supplies from separate switchgear
- 2N available
- Underfloor, room and ceiling void fire detection system
- Inert fire suppressing gas system
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Why? Technologies advance...
...and so do we!
The data centre has been built with quality and uptime as a focus, investing in cutting-edge high efficiency cooling systems, industry leading cabling technology and excellent power infrastructure.
All this enables us to provide hosting products at a level that we are proud to put our name behind. -
Reliability
Your servers now benefit from increased redundancy and resilience, a brand new core network and 2N critical power infrastructure. All of which helps us ensuring that your services are as reliable as possible.
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Safety
Entrust your business in our servers for higher levels of security for your data, transactions, development. A facility built around security means restricted and controlled access at all times, fire detection and control system for the data centre.
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Power
Power supplied to the servers is stable and reliable; everything is duplicated so that every server has two completely independent power feeds for redundancy.
