Projects are the building blocks of your strategy.

They have to be sufficiently defined to be deliverable individually and yet they must also serve and re-enforce the bigger picture.

The experts skills and tools for your projects.

Where to find us and how we work.

Datacentre Services

In the rush to consolidate, power and cooling is often overlooked in the calculation of economies. Power systems limit the density of consolidation you can achieve virtualisation projects saves on power but fails to liberate the space.

Datacentre Design

In the rush to consolidate, power and cooling is often overlooked in the calculation of economies. If your power systems are only capable of delivering a certain level of juice to a rack then you are always going to be limited in the density of consolidation you can achieve in terms of floor space. We have seen time and time again virtualisation projects reduce server numbers but result in rows of racks that are less than half full. It saves on power but fails to liberate the space. Egg on face.

We can work with you to understand how best to use the available space within your new or existing datacentre, streamlining the operation and ensuring that the facility is energy efficient. This can include Assessment Services as well as Electrical and Mechanical Consultancy to determine compliance, sizing, pipe runs, room layout, and structural constraints.

Power Utilisation Efficiency Assessment

One of the determining factors for density achievement is often cooling. Power can be delivered to the racks but cooling them is impossible. This can be due to the horsepower of the cooling system (or rather lack of it) or purely the inefficiency of the system design. Physics dictates that typically as much power is required to cool something as is required to operate it. Datacentres therefore attempt to reach a 2:1 Power Utilisation Efficiency (PUE). Unfortunately efficiencies are lost in how racks are laid out, where vents are located, ceiling heights, floor voids, etc. PUE can vary dramatically between one datacentre another – costing a fortune in wasted energy and space.

A PUE Assessment of your datacentre will make recommendations for change that will help drive efficiencies in your new infrastructure design. The cost of PUE change can be factored into the business case to see what impact it has and whether it is worthwhile.

Computational Fluid Dynamics

The PUE Assessment can then be supported by Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) by means of airflow modelling software to simulate your existing Datacentre layout and potential new designs. Using 3-D software CFD recreates your facility in the virtual world; from the walls and floor to the racks and equipment in them. This provides a graphic analysis of how hot and cool air flows from rack to row and from row to room.

Cabling

Hands up who’s been to the datacentre with tightly channelled, colour coded, well documented cabling systems and gone green with envy? A properly structured cabling system saves energy (through void efficiency), improves operational and change management efficiency thus saving money, and reduces risk. Union can provide a comprehensive datacentre cabling service to you, completing the final assault in our comprehensive datacentre consolidation mission.