Case study: UNISYS

• Options appraisal for improved performance and upgrade of critical data centre infrastructure

• Full site audit covering construction, power, cooling, humidity and airflow, environmental implications, security and protection, and rack deployment

• Presentation of findings, investment and ROI for improved energy efficiency, increased capacity and deployment of high density IT

Overview Global IT service, software and technology company Unisys operates a number of critical, highly secure data centre facilities that deliver a range of colocation and managed services. Keysource was engaged to undertake an audit of the St Just House Data Centre in Milton Keynes to evaluate the opportunities to modernise the facility’s M&E infrastructure and design. The aim was to improve overall efficiency and performance and allow for greater IT capacity, including high density. Operational insights were combined with a technically aligned approach to ensure that all aspects were evaluated against the need to reduce risk; not impact live systems; and the likely investment required to upgrade.

The challenge Unisys identified the need to address key capacity limitations at its facility in Milton Keynes. In particular the company wanted to improve the data centre’s power infrastructure to support one of its major customers, whose IT occupies a quarter of the facility, in the deployment of higher density racks.

In addition there was a requirement to assess the strategic needs of the whole facility in order to enable Unisys to bring new product offerings to market. These included Cloud (Hybrid, Private and Public), as well as additional value-added Managed Services and Transformational IT Projects, all of which would require greater levels of resilience and the ability to support higher power densities. Unisys needed to understand the viable options for improvements and the methods for deploying them, as well as assessing and comparing the tactical risks and potential improvements for the location against their defined set of criteria.

Keysource provides Unisys legacy data centre with options for modernising M&E for the future

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The solutionWorking with Unisys and its partner, Keysource was able to help develop the brief for improvements based on its wealth of design and operational expertise.

The comprehensive site survey covered all aspects of the facility including: construction; power (including all plant, and related redundancy, scalability and modularity); cooling (including rack power density, redundancy, humidity control, airflow patterns, and environmental implications); security and protection; and rack deployment (including cabling). It also took into account historical power consumption / metering data for key plant items.

After carrying out a capacity and energy efficiency assessment Keysource identified a series of simple but effective tactical improvements that would provide a moderate increase in efficiency of around 10%-15%.

Keysource also highlighted the potential options for a significant reduction in energy consumption, including UPS system upgrade, cooling infrastructure upgrade and optimisation of the airflow and controls in the data hall. After outlining the initial options a more detailed report, aligned to the overall brief, was provided which included the approach to delivery and the investment and associated ROI.

Overall the Keysource consultancy provided simple and clear recommendations for improved performance which met both the short and long term needs of Unisys.

The benefits• Clear technical and operational options for upgrading the data centre’s M&E to meet future requirements.

• Infrastructure and design upgrade to support the deployment of customers’ high density IT.

• A commercially aligned set of possible improvements, both tactical and strategic, to support future investment planning.

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Ensuring that the M&E infrastructure of this data centre meets all our requirements going forward of critical importance and so our choice of partner was vital. We decided to seek advice from a leading data centre design and build company, Keysource, who has provided a comprehensive and clear set of options which takes the necessary constraints into account and assesses the risks. This was a highly professional and comprehensive report which will enable us to take this project to upgrade our M&E forward to the next stage.

Phillip Overton EMEA Data Centre Manager