Flooding and dust damage force £1mn data centre relocation
Mon 20 Apr 2015
Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council has this month announced plans to migrate its data centre facilities, currently at risk from flooding and dust damage.
Following a tendering process a deal, believed to be worth in the region of £1mn, was agreed with local design and build provider Secure IT Environments which will see the data centre relocated to the council’s Civic Suite.
In a statement a council official said: “The new data centre is key to ensuring business continuity for all services within the council. It will help us to reduce energy consumption and provide a cost effective solution for the future.”
According to a report conducted last year at the existing site, the current location is problematic due to a high incidence of flooding in the vicinity. It also noted that a water pipe which runs alongside the data centre was an additional risk.
The report added that with expected refurbishment in the council headquarters damage to equipment would be highly likely.
“A dust-free environment is essential to the operation of data centre equipment. If this is compromised as a result of building work an incident could occur that could cause the data centre to become non-operational and thus have a universal impact on business continuity affecting all Council services,” read the report.
Neither Solihull Borough Council nor Secure IT Environments have released any details on the value of the contract. However, last year the council estimated that the migration would cost around £1mn, and had set aside approximately £200,000 from its own funds, with the remainder expected to be paid through prudential borrowing.
Projects director at Secure IT Environments Chris Wellfair commented: “The new data centre allows for growth in the foreseeable future of around 10 to 20 years with greatly improved energy efficiency in terms of power usage and carbon footprint.”
