The Olympic Games will place a greatly increased demand on London’s resources, so it’s paramount that Yorkshire reduces its reliance on London’s Internet infrastructure.

In order for Internet services to become faster and more competitive, there is a need for all ISPs to exchange traffic with social networks and streaming media (such as on-demand and Internet TV). On top of this, as mobile download speeds get faster, the need to handle this data regionally becomes even more important. Regional internet exchanges such as IXLeeds are key to making this happen.

IXLeeds will be the first exchange of its kind in Yorkshire. The official launch event is a key turning point in its development, which grew out of a working group set up back in 2008 to promote collaboration between operators in Yorkshire. The exchange is not just a place for ISPs to exchange traffic, but is also dedicated to bringing global Internet expertise to the region, benefiting existing initiatives, such as the rollout of ‘superfast broadband’ and metropolitan Internet services.

The bottom line: According to a leading industry report : “80 new jobs are created for every 1000 new broadband connections”.
Communications Minister, Ed Vaizey said “We must ensure the UK has the digital infrastructure necessary to drive sustainable growth. Projects like IXLeeds will provide cities and regions with better Internet services, which they can use to develop new products, reach new markets and create new jobs.”

Andy Davidson, Board Chair, says; ‘Welcome to Booming Yorkshire – the second largest region in the UK by GDP. IXLeeds allows all ISPs in Yorkshire to develop their connectivity strategy and to reduce reliance on London, enabling internet traffic to take a more direct route between ISPs in the north. This will improve the efficiency of the Internet, resulting in a better service for the end user.’

The launch event will be held at The Carriage Works in Leeds. It’s open to both members and non-members and is free to register. Attendees will be able to find out more about IXLeeds as well as hear from industry speakers Robert Ling (Broadband Delivery UK – the Government vehicle for delivery of policy on broadband), John Souter (LINX, the London Internet Exchange) and Dr Adam Beaumont (aql – a Leeds based telecommunications operator).

David Green, from the University’s Department of Engineering, visited the company’s Manchester datacentre and head office recently to have a look at the innovations used to build M247’s renowned climate control system which helps keeps its burgeoning datafloor operating efficiently while at the same time significantly lowering M247’s carbon footprint and reducing the bottom line of its annual power spend. Since David is involved in the update of the Engineering Department’s computer room cooling as part of the University’s Carbon and Energy Reduction Project, its anticipated that the exchange of ideas will cement a relationship from which M247 and Cambridge University will both benefit.

With its original datacentre already close to full capacity in Manchester and another one in Kidderminster in the West Midlands also full, M247 is in the process of opening its third UK datacentre right next door to its head office and is targeting a PuE of just 1.15 (Power Use Effectiveness, the standard by which datacentre energy efficiency is measured all over the world). Quite an aim considering that the firm already has an enviably green track record on energy efficiency with their main datacentre measuring just 1.18 PuE as ratified by the Green Grid. It’s this remarkably low level of energy usage that’s motivated the Cambridge University engineers to come and have a look at what can be achieved with EcoCooling technology.

By now, it’s well known that the datacentre industry consumes huge amounts of power to keep their servers and related hardware operational and a large proportion of this power is used to maintain optimal climatic conditions within the data floors. This is required so that the I.T. hardware runs as efficiently as possible. Various solutions are available but M247 is utilising a “cold aisle” system taking advantage of adiabatic air exchange cooling technology. The cold aisle contains and directs a minimum volume of cold air, which is expensive to produce, and allows M247 to micro manage the enclosed server aisle both in relation to its optimal temperature and its relative humidity. A by-product of the sophisticated system set up by M247 is that the circulating cold air is also highly filtered, stripping it of any damaging particulates that could shorten the operational life of the valuable hardware. Even better, the exhaust air has a further use in that it heats up M247’s office space, removing their need for a secondary heating system during the winter months. Extraction fans fitted in the ceiling of the office space helps keep it cool throughout the summer.

To ensure that power is always available, even in the event of a regional outage, M247 has installed a number of large backup generators that automatically start up if the normal power supply is interrupted. Here again M247 has found a way of lowering its carbon footprint by supplying power from these generators to the National Grid whenever demand is high and it becomes cost-effective to do so. This arrangement also ensures that the generators don’t remain idle for long periods and are tested regularly. Other datacentres have experienced power problems when their generators failed to kick in when needed.

While some companies are content to plant trees to offset their carbon footprint, green credentials haven’t come that easily to M247 as they are constantly striving to maintain their low ratings in a real sense. They’ve even developed their own web-based control and monitoring software which can regulated from anywhere with a web connection, even a smart phone.

Managing Director of M247 David Buckle says “when we decided to make our datacentre as efficient as possible we had no model to follow. We felt like pioneers and had to design our own climate control system from scratch and have learnt such a lot from this process. Our plan with the new datacentre next door is to try to improve even more on what we’ve achieved so far.”

Cambridge University’s David Green said “It’s been an interesting and worthwhile visit to M247 and good so see the roll out of technology that is also being used in the Engineering Department. M247 are so far advanced with their designs and thinking I feel I have seen many things that will benefit our own efforts to minimise energy usage and we’ve all agreed today to maintain contact and share our advances in this technology.”

Their existing datacentre, located right next door to their new building which was purchased last month, is almost completely at capacity so new customers signing up to the Connectivity, Co-location, Cloud, Dedicated Server, Internet Security and Web Hosting products offered by M247 will soon be able to enjoy the spacious surrounds of the new building which boasts a location with free and secure parking just a very short distance from Junction 9 on the M60 motorway and a stone’s throw away from the Trafford Centre.

M247 Operations Director Jonathan Buckle is part of a team managing the build of the new datacentre and he says “ the experience we gained a few years back when we opened our first datacentre will be invaluable to the success of this new building. We’re determined to have our new datafloors operational in the very near future and a number of our development team will be moving across within days to enjoy their new spacious office accommodation. Our team has grown significantly recently and this new space will help us all benefit in so many ways.”

Asked what other changes this new building will bring, Jonathan said “IceColo, the server co-location arm of M247 will now be offering a “carrier neutral” co-location product set from our new datacentre. In our industry ”carrier neutral” means that customers will have a lot more choice and flexibility when it comes to which telecoms providers they can use. We have also recently invested heavily in ensuring our growing international network operates as efficiently as possible and we can now provide a massive capacity that positions us with practically unlimited growth potential for many years into the future.”

Jonathan also points out that “with a PuE of under 1.2, the existing M247 datacentre is widely regarded as one of the most energy efficient datacentres in the whole of Europe and its planned to build on what’s been carefully developed there to take our new datacentre one step further towards lowering our carbon footprint. “

The company claims to have a comprehensive range of datacentres in their database, with full specifications, connectivity, and upstream carrier data for each one.

While Inificom state their main aim is to provide a direct comparison of each datacentre across the UK, at present they are simply providing advice and information via contact form.

The hope is that in future datacentres.co.uk will provide more detailed information on each datacentre and then perhaps act as a agent between client and datacentre, where required.

In the meantime, the website is currently up and running for covering the UK.

For more information, visit http://www.datacentres.co.uk/

The survey, conducted by Telehouse, also showed that most organisations questioned were looking to expand their data centre requirements adding to the current capacity crunch and putting more pressure on UK data centre providers.

Security (28%) and price (26%) were the two factors most organisations most look for when choosing a data centre, followed by power (16%).

Although the demand for data centre space is at a premium the survey showed that if a data centre provider can not offer a service with a suitable level of security and power, and at a competitive price point, organisations will look elsewhere.

83 per cent of respondents stated that access to additional data centre capacity before 2012 is either critical or important to their business.

For years sectors like finance have required huge amounts of data centre space to meet legislative guidelines but, according to the BroadGroup this demand is increasing as new sectors introduce new services.

62 per cent of media companies surveyed by the analyst agency stated that new online media services such as on-demand TV meant that their data centre is ‘a lot more’ important to their business than it had been two years previously.

This new demand is also driving power requirements in the sector as these new services require significantly more power – up to 20kW per rack than traditional services.

“The findings mirror the feedback we have received from our customers. London has for a long time come under scrutiny regarding power and data centre space.

Many rival European cities cite more flexible government legislation over power consumption to be a key reason for attracting data centre vendors and organisations alike.

With the average UK power prices increasing and data centre space at a premium, it is critical that organisations chose to partner with a vendor that can meet their needs now and into the future,” said By Bob Harris, Technical Director, Telehouse.

“Although power was regarded as critical, surprisingly only a small per cent of respondents stated that green credentials were a defining factor when choosing a data centre.

“We expect this to dramatically increase in importance as the UK Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) scheme comes to fruition next year and organisations have to balance their carbon footprint,” concluded Harris.

Data resilience (16%) and accessibility (11%) were also regarded as important to the respondents.

Telehouse recently announced its Telehouse West facility, an £80 million state-of-the-art datacentre in London’s Docklands that will provide 19,000 square metres of secure data centre space for UK businesses.

The facility will meet the power, security and price demands of the market.

Telehouse West is the first major data centre to gain planning permission in London since stringent sustainability requirements were written into the city’s legislation.

One of the reasons for the project’s approval was the range of innovative green power schemes.

The high level content and debate will set the agenda on exploiting Green technologies over the coming year (www.datacentres.com/dce).

A high calibre line up of top speakers and experts includes data centre gurus, Christian Belady, Director of Hardware Architecture – Partner Extreme Computing Group, Microsoft Research, Michael Manos, Vice President, Service Operations, Nokia, Roy Zeighami, UCS Power and Cooling TME, Cisco and Laurent Vernerey, President & CEO IT Business, Schneider Electric; Europe’s data centre leaders, Anthony Foy, Managing Director, Interxion, Michael Tobin, CEO, TelecityGroup, Eric Schwartz, President, Equinix Europe, and Bernard Geoghegan, Senior Vice President of International Operations, Digital Realty Trust and Guy Willner, Chairman, Data Gardens Russia.

Special presentations will be made by Paul-François Cattier, Vice President France, Benelux & French speaking Africa, APC by Schneider Electric, on the results of a new study by the Data Centre Group in France, and Marion Howard Healy, Associate Consultant, BroadGroup on a new study of Private Cloud.

In addition the expert speaker academy includes Dr. Paolo Bertoldi, Principal Administrator, European Commission Directorate General Joint Research Centre, Institute for Environment and Sustainability, Ellen Brigham, Director of Product Marketing – Juniper Networks, Candi Carrera, Director Client Service Operations, eBRC, Pieter Duijves, Managing Director, Parthenon Data Centres BV, Charlie Forte, Vice President, Global Operations and Infrastructure, BP, J. Clifford Gauntlett, Managing Partner, Solent Media Group, Peter Hannaford, Vice President, Datacenters & Alliances EMEA/LAM, APC by Schneider Electric, Andrew Harrington, Partner, AHV Associates LLP, Andrew Jay, Senior Director, CB Richard Ellis, Apostolos Kakkos, CEO, Lamda Hellix Data Centers, Andreas König, Senior Vice President and General Manager EMEA, NetApp Deutschland GmbH, Chad Lamb PhD, Director of Engineering, XKL, Bernard Lecanu, President, BLIC Consultants, Catalina McGregor, United Nations Agency ITU-T Liaison Officer to OECD and EC/EU, Rocco Panetta, Partner Panetta & Associati, Rome and Member of the Italian Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Commission, Alex Rabbetts, Managing Director, Migration Solutions, and Steve Wallage, Managing Director, BroadGroup Consulting.

The 2-day international meeting includes the content-led conference, annual prestigious Awards dinner which this year includes the European Green Initiative Awards which has been endorsed and will be presented by the Green Grid, an industry exhibition, and special workshops.

Sponsors and Partners include APC by Schneider Electric, Interxion, TelecityGroup, XKL, H2O Networks, Euclyde, Digital Realty Trust, eBRC, Migration Solutions, BL International Consultants, Equinix, Cadwin FM, Lamda Hellix Data Centers, ARUP, Scottish Development International, APL, Surf Telecoms, Stulz, Conteg, Microsoft, CBRE, Noodlesoft Technologies, The Colocation Exchange, Gimélec, Data Centres News Search, IX Consulting, IT One, Econference and Global Security Magazine.

The addition of FibreSpan’s dedicated dark fibre network to Interxion’s London City data centre brings its total portfolio of carriers to 32, offering Interxion’s customers an even wider range of connectivity options.

In addition, FibreSpan’s customers are now able to locate their mission-critical systems in one of the most desirable colocation facilities in the UK.

FibreSpan specialises in the design, construction, and maintenance of bespoke dark fibre and ultra-high-bandwidth managed networks.

It was one of the first to pioneer the delivery of dedicated dark fibre to multiple customers – consisting of digital media post production houses, financial organisations, local authorities, hospitals and universities – connected to its bespoke point-to-point networks.

Interxion’s data centre, located in the heart of the City, offers some of the lowest latency on the market and provides a highly secure physical location with advanced infrastructure for mission-critical applications.

High-density power configurations from 5 kW up to 30 kW are available as standard, with industry-leading service levels and availability and 24×7 secure access to equipment.

“Interxion’s central City location was a critical factor in our decision-making process because everything we do is focused on low latency”, said Robert Bicket, Chief Executive Officer at FibreSpan.

“All of our financial and digital media customers look to us to provide them with the lowest latency possible, so we always ensure our networks are designed to deliver just that.”

“FibreSpan is another excellent example of the successful execution of our segment strategy which focuses on bringing together communities of interest that can benefit from close proximity to one another,” said Kevin Dean, Chief Marketing Officer Interxion.

“With the addition of FibreSpan to our roster of connectivity partners, we are particularly excited about being able to enhance the low-latency connectivity options available to financial services and digital media customers,” concludes Dean.

The five-year colocation agreement will provide ample space, power and connectivity to grow and develop Sage Germany’s comprehensive portfolio of software solutions for small and medium-sized enterprises as well as allowing them to launch flexible and reliable next-generation business management solutions in the future.

Sage Germany offers an extensive range of highly integrated solutions to small and medium-sized enterprises that are well-suited for almost all business applications.

The Sage portfolio includes software to manage enterprise resource planning, production, financial accounting, business intelligence, human resource management, customer relationship management, and solutions for specific industries.

To guarantee maximum availability, security and resilience, Interxion’s Frankfurt facility provides 2N UPS power and N+1 cooling, in addition to advanced local and pan-European monitoring systems.

It offers significant economies of scale compared to in-house infrastructure as well as ample capacity, enabling customers to scale to match fluctuating demand.

With direct access to over 150 networks, Interxion’s Frankfurt data centre campus is also Germany’s largest data hub.

“Making Interxion’s Frankfurt facility our primary data centre gives us the security, uptime and connectivity we need to operate our IT and business processes professionally and efficiently,” said Juergen Thon, Director of Customer Service and IT, Sage Software GmbH.

“In addition, hosting our IT equipment at Germany’s largest data hub enables optimum performance and availability online, a crucial service element for our clients.”

“Our connectivity-rich infrastructure is a good match to the needs of advanced solutions providers like Sage,” said Peter Knapp, Interxion Germany Managing Director.

“Interxion provides high-power configurations, state-of-the-art infrastructure and security and uniform, internationally accredited professional processes, creating the ideal environment for hosting, operating and developing Sage’s advanced IT solutions in Germany.”

The Secure Network Fabric integrates 3Com’s industry-leading H3C® enterprise network and security solutions and TippingPoint® intrusion prevention system (IPS) technology to reduce network security risks, management complexity and infrastructure costs in modern data centers.

With centralized policy management across security and networking operations, 3Com’s Secure Network Fabric now reaches into virtualized data centers to ensure comprehensive security and help drive down the cost of application deployment for both physical and virtual environments while delivering a low total cost of ownership.

Virtual environments must meet the same stringent network and security requirements as their physical counterparts, and 3Com’s range of networking and security solutions support and secure the migration to a virtualized data center.

As key components of the 3Com Secure Network Fabric, the H3C and TippingPoint solutions help organizations mitigate risks to business continuity by protecting network-connected devices and by defending critical points against ever-evolving global security threats.

To support and broaden the Secure Network Fabric in the virtualized data center, 3Com introduces four new solutions for large enterprises, including:

H3C S9500E – A new data center and enterprise core switching platform, the H3C S9500E rounds out the industry’s broadest and most scalable network infrastructure portfolio.

The S9500E has the high performance, flexibility and capacity to meet the most rigorous core and data center applications in an energy-efficient platform, and enables virtualized services on the network while helping to reduce operational expense. [H3C S9500E Product Announcement]

TippingPoint Secure Virtualization Framework Solution – This new virtualization solution will enable organizations to pass virtual machine (VM) traffic – including host-to-host traffic – through a TippingPoint Intrusion Prevention System Platform.

The TippingPoint Secure Virtualization Framework extends TippingPoint’s industry-leading threat research capabilities, breadth of protection, ease-of-use and security automation capabilities into the virtual infrastructure. [TippingPoint Virtualization Product Announcement]

TippingPoint 1500S – A new purpose-built Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) appliance, the TippingPoint® 1500S effectively and safely decrypts and inspects secure Web traffic without impacting network or application performance. It prevents encrypted attacks from compromising virtual and physical Web servers and Web applications. [TippingPoint 1500S Product Announcement]

TippingPoint ThreatLinQ 2.0 – Enhancements to the ThreatLinQ global security intelligence portal deliver new functionality to enable customers to create filter profiles customized for their network environment, correlate emerging threats with the latest Digital Vaccine® filters, and implement policy changes based on real-time threat information quickly to their TippingPoint IPS Platforms. [ThreatLinQ 2.0 Announcement]

“Although the deployment of virtual networks provides organizations with the ability to design an efficient data center that is easier to manage and more cost effective, the business benefits could be negated by increased security exposure and the new complexities of today’s evolving threat landscape,” said Ron Sege, president and COO of 3Com.

“Our new virtual networking and security solutions address this exposure and help customers drive towards uncompromised security, operational efficiency and regulatory compliance.”

With over 20,000 users a day worldwide signing up to use their application, Nimbuzz had an urgent requirement for a best-in-class, highly connected facility which also offered them flexibility, support, and room to grow.

The Nimbuzz servers have already been installed in the recently constructed Interxion AMS5 data centre in Amsterdam.

This 7,000 m2 highly secure facility provides 2N UPS redundancy and N+1 backup generators, and gives direct access to 30 carriers and ISPs as well as the AMS-IX and NL-IX Internet Exchanges.

While providing high-density power configurations to customers as standard, it also features numerous energy-efficient design and operation measures and runs on a mixture of wind, biomass and hydroelectric-generated energy.

The Nimbuzz application supports social networks including Facebook, Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, ICQ, Skype, and local social networks such as Hyves in the Netherlands.

As well as providing one-stop access to social networks, since November 2009 Nimbuzz has also offered its own VoIP service.

“Nimbuzz is growing at a rate way beyond expectation both in terms of users and product features. We therefore needed a state of the art datacenter to handle such demands.

We are confident that Interxion will provide the capacity and service to cope with our rapid development, enabling us do more and grow faster,” said Evert Jaap Lugt, founder and CEO of Nimbuzz.

“Although we only moved to Interxion recently, we have already noticed significant improvements in service and performance levels. Interxion is a thoroughly professional partner with a high level of in-house expertise, and they have provided us with a secure, high-performance environment in which to grow.”

“We are delighted to be supporting a Dutch success story like Nimbuzz, and are well placed to expand with them, whatever their future needs,” said Michel van den Assem, Interxion Netherlands Managing Director.

“Nimbuzz is an extremely innovative company, and we specialize in providing secure, connected state-of-the-art infrastructure that supports and facilitates the latest and best applications.”