In today’s high-tech world companies are ever more reliant on data to make informed business decisions. Whether you are an individual, finance house, a multi-national or a small company or organisation, the safeguarding of personal and commercial data is of paramount importance. Rob Jacques, Spirotech’s Business Director UK, examines the importance of keeping data centres open for 24 hours a day, week-in-week out. To do this, back-up systems have to be in place, and the right infrastructure and cooling systems need to be in installed.

A key metric used by the data centre industry to understand how efficiently data centres use energy is Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE). Bradley Stone, Data Centre Vertical Manager (UK and Ireland) at Carrier, highlights how efficient HVAC systems can help this energy-hungry sector reduce running costs and carbon footprints.

Karen Fletcher considers the UK data centre market and highlights some key areas for consideration in terms of technology, design and building services in these challenging environments.

Is there a shift in cooling preferences for data centres? Tim Bound looks at the ambient cooling option and its growingpopularity in the face of rising energy costs.

Trevor Dann considers the retrofit option for older cooling systems in ageing data centres that can keep them performing in a robust, reliable and energy efficient way.

Interserve, working with data-centre specialist Sudlows, has completed a contract to support an FTSE 100 utility company in the development and delivery of its data-centre strategy. It is the latest in a number of key consultancy projects between the two companies.

Post-occupancy evaluation (PoE) to assess how effectively the services in a data centre perform is too late. Thorough testing before a data centre is handed over will ensure that a new facility meets up to expectations, as Dave Wolfenden of heatload.co.uk explains.

Weatherite Group has opened a state-of-the-art performance-testing centre, strengthening its position as a provider of data-centre cooling systems. The test centre will enable customers to see their chosen cooling equipment in operation and also monitor, interrogate and review prior to its installation.

Designed for energy efficiency, Wolseley UK’s new data centre continues to improve its performance and has enough solar energy to power it during the summer. Dylan Lupton explains.

Fire protection for several sites of Canberra Data Centres in Australia is provided by a Victaulic Vortex system that uses nitrogen and water as complementary extinguishing agents. The Vortex 1500 fire-suppression system is provided as a base service to all the data centres’ clients.

EcoCooling has developed a range of internal evaporative coolers for data centres that do not want to have plant and equipment on the outside of their building. They achieve a CoP (coefficient of performance) of 60 and a PUE (power usage effectiveness) of less than 1.2.

Airbox from Weatherite Air Conditioning is an air-containment solution that provides an energy-efficient addition to airflow management for data centres. It provides an effective way of helping to control airflow in data centres, server rooms and communications rooms.

One of the largest financial institutions in the UK is using 24 Micronics U3000B clamp-on flow meters in a new banking data centre in Leicestershire to measure the flow of a chilled-water/glycol mixture to control water-pump speed in the cooling system and achieve a controlled constant temperature throughout the data halls.

Traditionally the way to deal with heat generated by server racks in an IT suite or data centre has been to allow the fans in the blade servers to draw room air through the racks to remove the heat and reject it into the space. The task for the building-services engineer is then to remove that heat from the air to maintain the required conditions. Humidification may also be required.

Data centres and data rooms use a lot of energy, but how can the effect of energy-saving measures be assessed? Monitoring the power usage effectiveness (PUE) is one approach. Richard Clifford of Keysource explains what is it and why is it useful.

The Metropolitan Police Service has awarded the management of two of its critical data centres to Keysource as part of the wider strategic implementation of the force’s technology transformation programme. The Met has identified an efficient IT infrastructure as a key enabler in its One Met transformation programme to deliver its 20:20:20 strategic policy — decrease key crimes by 20%, increase public confidence by 20% and decrease costs by 20%.