Eaton-Williams working in close collaboration with data centre specialist Red Vista in providing energy efficient cooling for London’s City Airport (LCY) data centre. The project was fast tracked and supplied in less than 12 weeks to meet LCY’s critical timescales.

With demand for air passengers set to increase thanks to the regeneration of the Thames Gateway and the airport’s proximity to the City, LCY needed to expand its existing infrastructure to support future growth whilst maintaining its environmental record.

Jason Bamforth (LCY ICT Director) comments "The decision to implement a modular data centre solution was driven by the necessity to ensure that the operational result met with the business's evolving requirements & expectations."

Additional capacity would also enable LCY to spread computing resources across three sites with the objective of introducing a high level of IT resilience in the event of a requirement for disaster recovery. Improving energy efficiency and cost savings were key considerations to help LCY maintain its environmental objectives too.

Various locations identified within LCY presented a number of restrictions. A site was selected close to the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) but presented a number of difficulties.

“The proximity of the railway infrastructure, surrounding buildings and access limitation presented a logistical challenge that could only be overcome with the assistance of DLR,” comments Liz Perman, Project Manager for Red Vista.

The solution centred on a purpose built mobile data centre (MDC) designed and built by Red Vista using energy efficient cooling from Eaton Williams; four Eaton-Williams’ CTX20e externally mounted close control units. The construction of a modular facility incorporating the necessary infrastructure and connectivity services was the preferred solution as the data room could be lifted onto site as a complete package.

“The build schedule for the MDC was run in parallel with the connectivity requirements and the manufacture of the CTXe units which were fully compliant with LCY’s requirements and ‘green credentials,” adds Liz Perman.

The MDC incorporates a 3+1 Colman Moducel redundant cooling solution servicing a standard hot aisle/cold aisle format using four externally sited Eaton-Williams CTXe units, each with a sensible cooling duty of 20kW and installed along the data centre wall, ensuring the equipment doesn’t take up valuable internal floor space.

The benefits of free cooling provided by Eaton-Williams CTXe units enabled LCY to meet its environmental objectives. The AHUs can run in fan only, fresh air free cooling when the external ambient allows delivering substantial costs savings and reduced electricity consumption (approximately up to 65% of the year)

Thanks to the cooperation of DLR, the date centre which weighed in excess of eight tonnes was craned over the railway lines and in to position as a complete package.

The scalable nature of the MDC enables the addition of further modules, providing LCY with the ability to support any further demand on its critical resources.

With the proliferation in data capture and management, the demand for data centres is steadily increasing. Mobile modular data centres and the CTXe units are ideal for businesses requiring a rapid solution in environments where a traditional fixed data centre is unsuitable.

Email: colman.moducel@eaton-williams.com