DATA CENTRE DESIGN & BUILD
Problem Statement
The customer operates a mission critical data centre environment with very limited opportunities for system outages. As part of an enterprise-wide accommodation strategy, it was necessary to relocate all staff and the data centre environment to a new building. This new building did, however, require major structural upgrades and refurbishment prior to the relocation. . Also, the new building did not have any of the building services required to support a mission critical data centre. Timeframes were very compressed with no opportunity for project slippage.
Customer Brief
- Consult with the customer to determine the appropriate specification of data centre environment to provide suitable physical space, environmental protection, services capacity, services redundancy, security, fire protection, access control and environmental monitoring and alarming.
- Translate the agreed specification into a fully-costed design and project implementation plan that provided full integration with the major structural works and refurbishment work that was to be undertaken concurrently.
- Project and programme manage the implementation of the agreed design to provide a fully operational data centre prior to the completion of other major works within the environment. This would allow data centre equipment to be relocated prior to staff relocation.
Industry
Energy Utility Sector
Outcome
Using a standards-based approach and detailed stakeholder management, Cumulus Technology was able to develop an appropriate specification that accurately reflected the level of capacity and redundancy required by the client without undue expenditure. The extensive, combined experience of Cumulus Technology data centre experts allowed all stakeholders to rapidly gain agreement on the level and type of specification that was appropriate for this environment.
Cumulus was then able to fast-track the design and costing exercise by utilising our proprietary design and quantity surveying tools and skill sets to produce accurate detail designs and costing models. Our in-depth knowledge of the supply base also allowed us to expedite delivery of long lead-time equipment and systems to ensure delivery within the project programme constraints.
Finally, we were able to utilise our own project management experts and PMI based methodologies to integrate the construction of the data centre environment with the overall building refurbishment.
End Result
The customer took possession of its fully completed, commissioned and tested data centre one week ahead of schedule, within budget and to the agreed specification. This allowed the customer to relocate equipment within prior agreed outage timeframe with no customer impact.