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New Data Centre Build Cost and Delivery Certainty Through Galileo Connect Scaleability and flexibility are normally terms associated with service provisioning and being adaptive to customers needs. However these terms can now be applied to Data Centre build itself with the launch of Galileo Connect which took place at the London Stock Exchange last week (09 March 2006). Galileo Connect is a consortium of companies including the likes of Ian Wright Associates, Hurley Palmer Flatt and Arcadium Associates backed by a well known funding partner. After a decade of study into the architectural, engineering and operational issues involved in the provisioning and ongoing management of data centres, Galileo Connect has come up with an innovative modular concept with regards to data centre build which has been thoroughly tested. So what does this mean? Well Galileo Connect from the earliest stage looked at the factors surrounding data centres in general, such as size, space, redundancy, IT requirements, power and cooling, building regulations, and many other additional factors. Add to the mix the requirements of scaleability and flexibility and Galileo Connect have come up with a standard data centre construction which they term a data pod, which can be dovetailed together with other data pods in cassette form with the benefit of cost and delivery certainty. To explain further, after a series of complex calculations taking in to account all the factors previously mentioned, Galileo Connect managed to work out that the ideal net technical space of the data hall should be 1000m2. At 1500W/m2, with Tier IV power and cooling, this equates to 400 cabinets. It should be noted though that the maximum power can be as much as 4500W/m2. It should also be noted that loads on the cabinets can be in excess of 30KW based on new cooling techniques employed. So that gave them the ideal footprint for the data hall. Then they looked at where all the heavy equipment should go which is obviously underneath the data hall on the ground floor. Cooling equipment is located on the upper floor as the central portion of the roof will be open to allow natural air extraction from high-level plant. At the front of the facility is a 3 story front office area. Again this has been logically designed with the loading bay and security on the ground floor, the IT area and building shops linking through to the data hall, the network operations centre above the IT area and then meeting rooms on the top floor. The facility can also include remote active monitoring where the client can access, from virtually anywhere, live information about the building and the systems contained within. Even the outside has been thought out with a 10m area kept clear around the building for easy access, car parking facilities, CCTV (also inside the data hall as well) and alarmed fencing. In terms of the actual materials used for the construction, the exterior of the building uses a composite modular metal panel cladding system incorporating horizontal linear air-handling diffusers to the rear and side elevations. There will be a high-level glazed curtain walling to the office area at Mezzanine level and the roof will be of a standard seam profiled, barrel-vaulted aluminium construction with side supporting struts incorporated into the cladding system. Galileo Connect as part of the construction side has developed a standard parts list through leading supply partners covering the entire data centre build, including but not limited to, batteries, structural steel, cladding, raised floors and lighting. The preferred suppliers are essential for the overall product because this allows the construction to be replicated to the same requirements each time. Since the construction has been tried and tested, it should eliminate any problems which otherwise may occur if a data centre is being built from scratch for the first time. As the construction is replicated to the same specifications each time with the same parts, this is how Galileo Connect can guarantee cost certainty. As the Data Centre has been tried and tested, they know that to construct the Data Centre takes 38 weeks from start to finish and again is how they can guarantee delivery certainty. As a note, 38 weeks is up to a 6 month saving on the Data Centre build programme compared to a data centre built using the more traditional approach of the same size. In terms of plot size, you will need just under an acre of land for 1 data centre pod. If you decide in the future that you require more land to expand the data centre, you can actually disassemble the data pod that you have and reconstruct it on the new site. You can then dovetail in another data pod to increase the overall size rather than having to build a whole new data centre from scratch to the size you want. In terms of cost, the question was asked at the launch which was well avoided by Ian Wright, Managing Director of Ian Wright Associates, so we do not imagine that this will be on the cheaper end of the scale. However if you are looking for a new data centre which can grow with you, as opposed to starting off large and having empty space, which is quick to market with cost and delivery certainty thrown into the bargain, this is definitely an innovative approach and solution which is worth further investigation. If you would like further information about Galileo Connect, please
email them at info@galileoconnect.com
Have you also seen our other consultant articles? Too Much
Greenwash?
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