END USER INSIGHT
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The firm ’ s experts looked at an original master plan for the site and identified the base design was to provide 6MW . i 3 design engineers ’ new design enabled increased capacity of the facility from 6MW to 10.8MW .
The LON1 data centre is a multistorey building with the middle floor occupied by a live customer – a global telecommunications company . Working with live facilities brought new challenges to the already complex , critical facilities infrastructure engineering project .
i 3 assessment indicated that this occupied data centre floor was operating below its original design capacity of 3MW due to ageing and missing equipment . A thorough refresh of the main plant , adding new UPSs and new chillers , enabled i 3 to achieve an increase in capacity to 3.6MW on the middle floor – without affecting the live customer load .
“ Serverfarm ’ s LON1 data centre is one of the most efficient , sustainable and highly connected multi-tenant mission critical colocation sites within the M25 . Living up to its reputation , i 3
Solutions Group brought valuable experience and engineering expertise to Serverfarm ’ s LON1 data centre . Throughout the design and delivery phase of the transformation project , i 3 displayed the highest levels of professionalism and knowledge and played a major part in the successful capacity expansion and upgrade of the facility . With the total site IT capacity now over 10MW and within sight of London ’ s Heathrow airport , Serverfarm LON1 is a prime location for enterprise and service provider customers ,” said Jim Shanahan , Chief Operating Officer , Serverfarm .
Efficient cooling is essential
i 3 identified how to transform the cooling efficiency of the halls by moving from a single fixed volume chilled water circuit to primary and secondary variable circuits in a live environment . The chiller technology was changed from power-hungry , inefficient 15-year-old chillers , to variable speed TurboCor chillers with free cooling . This resulted in both lower energy use and greater environment control . To further increase the cooling capacity without addition of new equipment , i 3 addressed system air management . This enabled a rise in chilled water temperatures which had three positive outcomes :
1 . An increase in the capacity per footprint of chiller 2 . Increased efficiency of the chiller units 3 . A dramatic increase in the free cooling window
Serverfarm ’ s modernisation efforts in design , deployment and operation created a site capable of the efficient delivery of power densities that are aligned to modern workloads . The facility now meets modern customer demands for greater power densities , saving space , power and operational cost .
i 3
Solutions Group focused its expertise to identify and efficiently deliver additional data centre capacity to the Serverfarm LON1 modernisation project . This additional capacity was brought to market within months , enhancing the flexibility and value of the facility as a commercial colocation offering , as well as driving significant OpEx savings .
We caught up with Jim Shanahan , COO , Serverfarm , to find out more
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