C4L Blog

Reception Sign Installed

Blog Administrator — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 12:08:19 +0000

It’s taken a year of us being here, but the marketing team have finally managed to get our sign sorted out. We went with a reflective silver sign with a red backlight, as you can see below. We’d like to thank John Sharp and his team at Signs Express who have done such a great job! Why not let us know what you think of it by leaving a comment?

Video of Bournemouth DC build & Competition!

Blog Administrator — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 11:16:32 +0000

A video of our DC build in Bournemouth, last year. Some of you may remember the cameras we had installed that were streaming live 24/7 footage. This video is a result of time lapsing all of that footage. The build took just under three months to complete.

We are running a competition to choose music to go over the top of this video, to submit your entry call us on 08000 470 481, email marketing@c4l.co.uk or via twitter (start your post with @C4L_UK) and the winner will receive a bottle of champagne, competition closes on 10th September!

C4L’s Corporate Sailing Day at Cowes

Blog Administrator — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 15:03:04 +0000

On Friday 6th August C4L held a Corporate Sailing Day and chartered two 52ft yachts for the day, which were sailed in to the Solent with the other Cowes Week racers, putting our customers sailing techniques to the test. The weather remained dry throughout the day, although there was strong winds gusting a force five, making the sailing interesting for everyone. C4L’s customers were wined and dined onshore and offshore throughout the day, allowing them to enjoy Cowes itself and the water. The day was designed for C4L to get to know their customers on a more personal level, whilst showing their appreciation for their customers continued business over the last year. The day came to a close after watching the famous annual Cowes Week Fireworks Display, which was the perfect close to a brilliant day.

Anti Tailgating Portal Installed

Blog Administrator — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 20:01:25 +0000

As mentioned yesterday the Anti tailgating portal (Man Trap) at Bournemouth Datacentre was being installed. This is now complete and has now added addtional security to the room. The pod itself has numerous systems in place to detect if more than one person is standing in it, if it detects more than one person they will be ejected back towards the entrance and not allowed onto the data floor. Below are some pictures for your enjoyment. The first picture shows the unit being delivered

Work in progress

Below is a picture of the Biometric reader used to gain access into the portal, clients fingerprints will be recorded on their first visit, this helps to ensure that only authorised personnel can gain access.

Lastly a picture of the finished article, as you can see it was a perfect fit into the space provided

Few more posts to come I’m sure, but if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

January Update

Blog Administrator — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 16:50:00 +0000

It’s been a while since the last update which I must apologise for, it’s been a hectic few weeks of getting everything up and running so that customers could move in. I’m happy to report that the site is now mostly complete, just a few finishing touches to put together including the man trap and some lighting.

The racks as you can see from the last post have been delivered, we have now bayed them correctly and installed the cold aisle containment systems. The picture below shows the end of the aisle on which we have placed doors to keep cold air in and warm air out.

Anti static curtains where installed above the racks to further help this

We have had all our racks professionally cabled with Cat6 cables which were needed for the first phase. We have two network racks on site both with the same hardware in, these then have seperate fibres via separate providers back to London that come into our building at adjacent ends. The network racks each have two Cat6 cables to each and every cabinet, meaning we can instantly wire up new services for customers should they be needed.

Picture below shows the cables going into the network rack.

A picture of our patch panels with cables in place for the power bar system, in C4L colours

Each full rack comes with an APC AP7953 power bar, which we give customers a login to in order to remotely reboot servers/switches if they need to. We monitor these bars for power usage and all statistics are available to you via the customer portal. The picture below shows a typical rack. Our quarter racks come with APC AP7921 bars.

At the top of each rack a patch panel is provided with the four connections in, allowing you to simply install a cross or straight patch lead, depending on your kit requirements in order to bring your service live.

Our security system is mostly installed, we have linked this into our existing system and developed some applications which allow customers to request access very easily, 24/7 to the site. We use a combination of readers, pin pads and biometric devices in order to verify a clients access to the DC meaning no unauthorised personnel can get in.

CCTV cameras have been installed, such as the PTZ dome below in order to keep track of all visitors on site.

Lastly we installed some LED lights into our cold aisle, these hopefully help people identify which aisle is the cold aisle and adds a bit of character to the room. As you can see below, these look quite impressive at night.

The monitoring system is in place and we performed a full systems fail over test yesterday in order to ensure everything alerted us as it should. This went 100% to plan and all systems performed as intended.

Lastly our anti tailgating portal is being installed today, expect pictures of that tomorrow!

If you are interested in booking a tour then please give us a call and we would be more than happy to show you around.

http://www.bournemouthdatacentre.co.uk

Phil

Racks In Position, cabling begins

Blog Administrator — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 10:30:41 +0000

Last week saw the delivery of the racks into the datacentre, this has transformed the site allowing customers to fully appreciate the work that has gone into this project.

Picture showing the Full racks in place on the left of the room

Picture shows full racks on the right hand side of the room.

Quarter racks have been delivered and pictures will follow. Today cabling begins on the data floor to ensure that C4L services can be provided to each rack when customers begin to collocate. We will be installing Cat6 cabling, with 2 cables from each network rack going to each and every rack. In the customer racks there will be a patch panel terminating each of these 4 connections, allowing customers to swap a cable to straight or cross crimp easily depending on what their kit requires.

Racks have arrived

Blog Administrator — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:12:52 +0000

Currently the full racks are being unloaded onto the DC floor. Head over to http://www.bournemouthdatacentre.co.uk/cams.html now to see them being put into place. Quarter racks will be delivered by the end of the week.

Pressure Testing

Blog Administrator — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:53:19 +0000

In order to ensure that in the event of a fire that the FM200 gas will not leak out of the room we had to pass a pressure test. This involves installing a fan into the room and sealing the doors so that the room pressure can be monitored and verified. This test took aorund 15 minutes to complete and after completion the room was given a pass.

Picture shows the kit used in order to pressure test the room. The red unit in the middle is the fan.

The build is still progressing well, more pictures will follow of under floor installations of cables etc in the coming days.

Windows have privacy film & solar guard material installed

Blog Administrator — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 17:25:27 +0000

The build continues well with the windows having a layer of privacy film and solar guard material installed. This stops people seeing in and out and also ensures that we do not heat the room on hot days with intense sunlight. The lighting has almost been finished as well giving the room plenty of light during evening hours.

A picture of the windows, with the bars installed

A picture of the DC now the lights have been wired in

CRAC and supporting units installed

Blog Administrator — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:47:46 +0000

On Saturday 14th November C4L took delivery of its CRAC units along with the supporting units outside.

The weather made things slightly challenging, but everything eventually fell into place.

The crane used to move everything into place.

The PDU unit being delivered through the hole made in the wall.

A perfect fit for the CRAC unit.

The CRAC unit in its final resting space.

A DX unit being moved into place around the back of County Gates