With the launch of Telehouse North Two scheduled for this summer, the industry has drawn its interest to the most anticipated data centre opening in 2016. The aptly named North Two is soon to become a refreshing new addition to Telehouse’s iconic Dockland’s data centre campus, symbolising over 25 years of heritage, unrivalled connectivity and ground-breaking innovation. This Q and A article with Telehouse Technical Director, Andy Dewing, was recently featured in HotLINX magazine.

Can you share with us the journey Telehouse has embarked upon since the announcement that North Two was going to be built? What key considerations were at the focus of this build?

The fundamental requirement was to build on the success of the existing Docklands campus, which is currently utilised by 70% of LINX’s members, and the huge connectivity services that it provides. The need to provide a high specification, high efficiency and flexible design solution was a no-brainer. The key driver efficiency wise is to minimise energy usage for the cooling solution and the selection of indirect air cooling most obviously reflects our intent to be best in class in that context. All of the services have been designed with efficient operation in mind, hence the excellent BREEAM rating that’s been achieved.

As a world leading site in connectivity, how will North Two leverage the Dockland’s campus when competing with alternative sites?

All of the services and service providers we offer in the campus will now be available to customers in the new facility. LINX remains a stalwart partner across all of our facilities and over 800 service providers can’t all be wrong. By utilising North Two, as one of the best connected connectivity ecosystems globally, customers can also benefit from Telehouse Carrier-Interconnect, our carrier community which brings together more than 750 connectivity partners worldwide.

For data centre customers, a truly redundant site is imperative. How is North Two truly redundant?

In every way that a datacentre should be. Electrically every system has redundant components and every distribution path is segregated and electrically separate. Mechanically the main Indirect Air Cooling (IAC) plant is N+2 per floor.

North Two boasts a world first cooling system, how is this design a world first, and what does this mean for customers?

North Two has a world first application in the form of the adiabatic indirect air cooling system being installed over a multi-storey design. The cooling system addresses the restrictions driven by load fluctuations and it delivers an industry leading PUE of 1.16 in an N+2 configuration into hot aisle containment. We’re doing 6 floors here with the IACs located on a gantry that runs the height of the building. The key to the efficiency benefit, is the use of higher air temperatures in the white space following the Ashrae TC9.9 guidelines. Our solution has been assessed using CFD’s (Computational Fluid Dynamics) countless times and the results have proved the concept.

With multi cloud/hybrid cloud environments representing 82% of Enterprise growth (Rightscale.com), how is North Two prepared for such demand?

A key concept of the North Two design is that of flexibility and that applies to all areas of our service. We have guaranteed power capacity via our 132kV substation, giving North Two the ability to provide enhanced power and cooling for standard and high density applications and with expandable interconnect facility throughout the building. Also, thanks to Telehouse Cloud Interconnect from North Two, you can instantly connect to all the major cloud service providers. This wide selection of communications and cloud service providers enables growth opportunities for all who join.

Find out more about the Telehouse North Two data centre.