Ministry of Defence Enhances Energy Efficiency with Ark Data Centres
- Written by Zoe Davies
14000 tonnes of carbon reduced over 10 years and multiple MOD data centres consolidated to a single site
Spring Park, Wiltshire – 2 December 2014 – Ark Data Centres, which designs, constructs and operates the UK's most efficient data centres, today announced that it is implementing a new state-of-the-art data centre solution for the Ministry of Defence (MOD) at Corsham in Wiltshire. This major consolidation and centralisation project may generate significant savings to the public purse in energy costs over the next 10 years. The new data centre will support the delivery of MOD IT services.
The MOD is closing the existing host site in Bath as part of the Department’s on-going programme of cost saving and efficiency. This prime real estate has already been sold and has generated savings for the MOD which can now be focussed on delivering support to the Armed Forces.
The relocation of the data centre will allow the Bath site to be released to developers. Ark’s ability to deliver the solution, rapidly taking into account all the MOD requirements has helped to de-risk the full release of the site by the MOD to developers and to realise its savings.
Within two months, Ark was able to demonstrate a clear business case for the move including significant energy savings and tailored to the MOD’s security requirements. This means that the total cost of ownership (TCO) of the new data centre in Corsham will be significantly lower when compared to the old site.
“We surveyed the existing MOD data centre and designed an Ark environment that is far smaller, more flexible and accommodates all of the department’s needs, future-proofed with room to grow,” said Steve Webb, CIO at Ark Data Centres. “This includes a link to the MOD’s Information Systems and Services (ISS) headquarters building at Corsham - which happens to be next door to our site - so that ISS can conveniently work with the new data centre. This is a great example of how the MOD can benefit from secure sharing in a very high efficiency environment. The location of Ark’s Spring Park so close to the MOD’s existing location at Corsham was really important.”
Due to the sensitive nature of MOD’s operations, Ark is delivering data centre services that meet HM Government’s data classification parameters and is in line with the Cabinet Office strategy of increasing sharing across the public sector.
Given its experience with other MOD clients and the existing communications links already on site, Ark’s winning G-Cloud formula includes a fixed PUE (power efficiency rating) that will save 14,000 tonnes of carbon over 10 years.
Uniquely designed from the ground up, Ark’s data centres feature concurrently maintained mechanical and electrical plants alongside sensitive control of cooling and power. Ark’s operational procedures have been developed and tested to take account of any exceptional circumstances and, designed and accredited to ISO 22301 standards. Ark’s business continuity management system is designed to reduce the likelihood of, and fast recovery from, any disruptive incident leveraging the low latency diverse dark fibre connectivity between sites. Sitting in its own secure compound, each MOD data centre location is shielded by physical protection in line with the MOD’s departmental regulations. These are complemented by Ark’s advanced technology and a risk management system, designed to the ISO 27001 information security management standard. Ark also delivers security per building rather than per site.
Ark will have prepared the facility within just two months of formal contract award, and saved the MOD from having to build a new facility that could have cost millions of pounds and taken at least a year to complete.
Having this MOD data centre on site with Ark adds valuable credibility to the Company’s central government credentials.
About Ark Data Centres
Ark Data Centres designs, constructs and operates the UK's most efficient data centres. It has pioneered the use of free air-cooling, a unique monitoring system, real time dynamic cooling and load matching technology that gives its clients the lowest TCO along with the greatest operational flexibility. Dedicated to innovation, Ark’s modular, state-of-the-art sites in Hampshire and Wiltshire will be the largest in Europe and were the first to contractually guarantee power usage efficiency (PUE) for clients.
An independent company that prides itself on being easy to do business with, Ark Data Centres boasts the lowest total cost of ownership in the world and has saved both millions of pounds and millions of tonnes of carbon for organisations in the defence, telecommunications, government and financial services sectors. Capable of operating at the highest levels of security, Ark’s incremental approach to building out its data centre campuses means it is constantly innovating, building to the latest operational requirements of its clients and minimising the operational legacy. Through an optimised logistics support chain it has and will continue to deliver operational data centres in just 12 weeks.
- arkdatacentres.co.uk, Tel: 0845 389 3355, Twitter.com/arkdatacentres