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DatacenterDynamics: DatcenterDynamics Award Winners Announced
[December 17, 2012]

DatacenterDynamics: DatcenterDynamics Award Winners Announced


(M2 PressWIRE Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) For the sixth year in succession the DatacenterDynamics Awards celebrated the best projects, technologies, companies and people of the industry from across the EMEA region.

This year saw more than 650 end user, data center and IT industry leaders gather in London to compete for the industry's most recognised awards.

Among the winners were Russian bank Sberbank for its mega data center; NHS Airedale, Bradford and Leeds for its micro data center build. The Government of Malta and Scotland's St. Andrews University were also winners.

Data Center operator Equinix won the Green Data Center Award. Business leader of the year is Guy Willner, chairman of IDC-G and the outstanding contribution to the industry winner was Harkeeret Singh, director of energy & sustainable IT at Thomson Reuters.



Stuart Sumner, CEO of infinity SDC gave the opening address.

The 2012 award categories highlighted innovative approaches to data center design and engineering over the last 12 months as well as leadership in the industry.


The EMEA awards, which were sponsored by infinity, were awarded as follows: 1. Future thinking & design concepts - sponsored by Schneider Electric Winner: Munters - Digiplex/Gardner A2A Indirect Evaporative Cooling Modular Data Center Munters' DigiPlex A2A is a highly efficient, modular data center solution that provides a unique combination of Hypoxic fire prevention and indirect evaporative cooling that reduces the risk of fire and contamination while providing a low Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE).

The pre-fabricated solution is free-standing and stackable and can be scaled out as the user requires. It has been ISO9001 factory tested and can accommodate varying load densities and is concurrently maintainable to an Uptime Institute Tier III rating.

2. Data center blueprints - sponsored by Citadel 100 Winner: Cable&Wireless Worldwide - Urban Blueprint Cable&Wireless Worldwide used its broad experience building and operating data centers and telecommunications services to create its flexible and modular design for new builds and the retrofit of existing facilities.

The design is focussed on achieving a PUE of less than 1.25. It does this by advancing existing techniques while making sure to minimize operational risks to create an environment that can meet the needs of government and commercial clients, all which exist in a single facility.

3. Innovation in the micro data center - sponsored by Future-Tech Winner: NHS Airdale - NHS Bradford, Airedale & Leeds high density data center This division of the National Health Service in the UK, which covers Bradford, Airedale and Leeds, built a high-density data center for the provision of services using Schneider Electric's InRow and over-aisle cooling units together with a hot-aisle containment solution, supplied by Schneider Elite Partner Advanced Power Technology (APT).

By combining both it was able to better use the floor space, making room for more IT equipment racks, while ensuring efficient data center cooling.

4. Innovation in the medium data center - sponsored by MPL Winner: Colt - new generation data centers Colt focussed on higher levels of flexibility for power, size and infrastructure capacity when it designed its modular data center, which has redefined the way facilities are constructed.

Colt's solution means operators can choose how to build out their data center using a modular approach which can be delivered in less than four months, instead of the 18 to 24 months it usually takes for a traditional build. Better still, the Colt modular data center offers high levels of power efficiency.

5. Innovation in the mega data center - sponsored by Digital Realty Trust Winner: Sberbank Mega Datacenter This Russian entrant built a Tier III certified facility with about 5,000 sq m of IT space, making it the largest data center of its kind in the region. Size did not overcome concerns with efficiency, however, and the credit institution ensured it came in with a low PUE - 1.32 - by using Plate Exchange air handling units.

The deployment of the technology marked a first for Russia.

6. Leadership in the public sector - sponsored by Excool Winner: MITA - MITA-01 Corporate Data Center This data center, for the government of Malta, was designed with cost-effective, efficient delivery of ICT in mind. The hosting environment designed by the Malta Information Technology Agency is scalable and resilient, and meets the long-term hosting capacity for the Information Systems requirements of the government.

7. Innovations in outsourcing - sponsored by Norland Winner: Interoute - Interoute Virtual Data Centre Interoute's Virtual Data Centre (VDC) removes the need for companies to invest in equipment, power, colocation, network and manpower. Designed as an innovative cloud-based solution, it is the first solution to allow for such simple and convenient deployments of the public cloud, without risking the security and privacy usually associated with the private cloud.

8. The 'Green' data center - sponsored by Siemens Winner: Equinix - Renewable Heating Project Equinix took an innovative approach with the building of one its state-of-the-art data centers, using an Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage system and teaming this with hybrid-cooling towers. Together, the systems allow for heat to be transferred from the data center into a geo-cooling system and then re-injected into the ground with full use of free cooling. This also provides warmth for a neighbouring university 9. Improved data center energy efficiency - sponsored by The Green Grid Winner: LAMDA Hellix Data Center - LAMDA Helix Mission Critical Facility LAMDA Hellix has been collecting information on its energy consumption since January 2006 using The Green Grid metrics. It has then, through analysis, used these figures to implement new practices to improve its energy efficiency, and to create new models of operation. Even a new infrastructure extension has been designed with these metrics in mind. It is not only about energy efficiency though - LAMDA Hellix' data center team also use these metrics as indicators for preventative maintenance.

10. Innovation in IT optimization - sponsored by Rittal Winner: University of St Andrews - ICT Transformation This two-year project saw the university carry out a comprehensive review of all aspects of its ICT which led to the development of a new data center, a shared storage platform, the adoption of cloud computing services and a new and aggressive server virtualization program and network enhancements.

The project was designed to reduce the variety and complexity of its previous systems and add more value to the university's technology environment.

11. Most extreme data center deployment - sponsored by Virtus Winner: Cannon Technologies - Cannon T4 Modular Data Centre Cannon designed its T4 Modular Data Centre for Johannesburg, South Africa, where it was required for a Tier III-resilient facility (upgradable to Tier IV). It also had to be seismic resistant.

Following project sign-off, the modular data center was shipped in four weeks, and then erected in two weeks. This included the building itself, the raised floor, uninterruptible power supplies, in-row cooling, power distribution, lighting, fire suppression, aisle cocooning and Cannon DCM software - its data center management platform.

12. Young mission-critical engineer of the year - sponsored by Global Insulation Winner: Ehsaan Farsimadan, Romonet Ehsaan Farsimadan worked as an M&E consultant with critical systems at Cundall where he developed data center designs from concept to completion before joining Romonet as principal mission critical engineer. During his time at Cundall he also founded the data center modelling team, specializing in computational fluid dynamics and chilled water systems modelling.

He obtained his doctorate (PhD) in mechanical engineering in 2008.

Farsimadan now provides consulting and modelling engagements around the world for Romonet and has led a number of projects working some of the world's biggest data center designers. He has also made a significant number of contributions to the field of turbulence research and the data center industry by publishing a number of journal papers. He has also been recognized as a Chartered Engineer by the IMechE.

13. Data center special assignment team of the year - sponsored by CBRE Winner: UKFast - Migration Team The team behind this dedicated hosting and cloud provider worked on a custom-built data center that followed the company CEO's directive to eliminate third-party elements with all infrastructure that was developed in-house. This was quite a shift for the team - it had previously outsourced its data center operations.

The MaNOC 4 required a range of technical expertise - more than 10,000 servers belonging to more than 4,000 clients were being transferred to the new data center, which currently has 220 racks, 30 miles of cable.

Strong team management ensured the success of this project - engineers had to be placed in areas that made the most of their ability. A contingency plan was also vital, as the team had only eight months to carry out its migration, all without losing service or downtime. Furthermore, the clients had to be happy the migration was being done in a timely and safe manner.

14. Data center business leader of the year Winner: Guy Willner, Chairman at IDC-G Founder and Executive Chairman of the International Data Centre Group (IDC-G) Guy Willner's accolade recognizes his 14-year commitment to the industry and his worldwide influence on the data center industry.

IDC-G is a data center service provider based in London. But Willner's influence began before IDC-G as event established. He successfully steered his pan-European business IXEurope through the dotcom crisis before establishing IDC-G and IXcellerate. IXEurope was listed as the UK's fastest growing company in 2002 by the Sunday Times Tech Track 100 before it joined the AIM market of London Stock Exchange in April 2006. IXCellerate was then acquired by Equinix in 2007 for US$555m.

With IDC-G, Willner has created the first global alliance of independent data center operators across 18 secondary markets. This year it successfully raised capital for a new data center venture in Russia - considered to be one of Europe's "riskier' locations.

15. Outstanding contribution to the industry Winner: Harkeeret Singh, Director of energy & Sustainable IT at Thomson Reuters Harkeeret Singh has established himself as a lead evangelist of all things energy efficient. In his role, he has introduced a number of new technology models now used in mainstream adoption.

More recently, Singh has started a new initiative called Talent for Technology which looks to nurture new technology in the industry in an effort to overcome the skills gap using programs specific to data centers.

About DatacenterDynamics With offices in locations around the globe, 49 conferences in 35 countries and business intelligence and professional development offered on a worldwide scale, DatacenterDynamics is a truly global specialist provider of content to the Data Centre industry.

CONTACT: Paul Mangles, Awards Manager [email protected] Tel+44 20 7426 7838 Or Phil Turtle, Turtle Consulting PR [email protected] Tel: +44 7867 780 676 ((M2 Communications disclaims all liability for information provided within M2 PressWIRE. Data supplied by named party/parties. Further information on M2 PressWIRE can be obtained at http://www.presswire.net on the world wide web. Inquiries to [email protected])).

(c) 2012 M2 COMMUNICATIONS

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