DCN November 2016 | Page 37

projects & agreements EARLHAM INSTITUTE EMBRACES GREEN-HPC FOR COLLABORATIVE GENOME ANALYSIS AT ICELANDIC DATA CENTRE VERNE GLOBAL The Earlham Institute (EI) has announced its new partnership with Verne Global, a global developer at the forefront of data centre infrastructure design.  EI has selected Verne Global’s data centre campus in Iceland to investigate the efficiencies of distributing large scale genomics and computational biology data analysis. The research institute is renowned for its contribution to the analysis and data sharing of the highly complex wheat genome that is critical to securing future global food supplies. In this project, a first for a UK academic institution, EI will examine the benefits of migrating a strategic collaborative bioinformatics analysis platform to Iceland via existing academic network providers Janet and Nordunet. EI, through Verne Global, will have access to one of the world’s most reliable power grids producing 100 per cent geothermal and hydroelectric renewable energy. As EI’s HPC analysis requirements continue to grow, Verne Global will enable the institute to save up to 70 per cent in energy costs (based on 14p to 4p kWH rate) and with no additional power for cooling, significantly benefiting the organisation in their advanced genomics and bioinformatics research of living systems. STC signs agreement with Commvault to deliver new cloud services to Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Commvault has announced an agreement with Saudi Telecom Company (STC), to deliver a Backup-as-a-Service solution, utilising the STC cloud environment. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) agreement was signed at GITEX to collaborate on the new cloud solutions targeting public sector and enterprises in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. GITEX is one of the largest technology events in the world, with more than 140,000 attendees from across the globe. Taking place in Dubai in United Arab Emirates, the event is the biggest gathering of technology organisations, influencers and professionals in the region.  STC is a leading service provider within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, with more than 32 million customers in that market. STC has a long history of industry leadership in embracing the latest technology for innovative services. This solution continues this tradition, helping customers to realise the true value of their data, while minimising complexity and cost. NGD wins new financial sector contract    KAO DATA CAMPUS RECEIVES PLANNING APPROVAL FOR UK’S LARGEST COMMITTED DATA CENTRE CAMPUS Next Generation Data (NGD) today announced Cardiff based vehicle finance firm MotoNovo Finance as its latest customer. A subsidiary of South Africa’s FirstRand Bank, MotoNovo has selected NGD’s colocation data centre located in the Cardiff Capital Region as part of its ongoing growth strategy which will include a move to new larger headquarters in Cardiff later this year and the recruitment of around 600 additional staff. NGD’s 3+ data centre facility will provide the power, resilience and low latency connectivity MotoNovo demands for delivering reliable, fast hosting e-commerce services to thousands of UK garage dealer partners and consumers looking to finance cars, vans and motorcycles. Kao Park, the new science and technology campus located on the London-StanstedCambridge Corridor, has received planning approval to develop the UK’s largest stateof-the-art campus data centre, Kao Data Campus. Site demolition is complete and, now planning approval has been received, mobilisation is underway. The construction phase of the development will follow imminently with the data centre scheduled to come on stream in 2017. Kao Data Campus will comprise four data centres each split into four halls and designed over three floors, totalling around 150,000ft2. The campus will have a dedicated 33kV/11kV 43.5MVA substation and each data centre hall will be capable of supporting a 2,175kW IT load totalling an 8.7MW IT load across each building. The technical capability, hyper-connectivity strategy and secure data resilience of Kao Data Campus makes it ideally placed to support the research and development clusters running between London and Cambridge. The development masterplan will deliver outstanding sustainability and energy efficiency credentials including; BREEAM ‘Excellent’. Kao Park was named in honour of Charles Kao who, along with George Hockham, discovered the technology behind fibre optic cable whilst working for Standard Telephone Laboratories (which later became Nortel in the 1990s). 37