Data Centre & Network News – February 2019

INSIDE

ISSUE 5 | FEBRUARY 2019

DCW PREVIEW WHO’S LAUNCHING WHAT AT DCW?

COOLING IS THE FUTURE LIQUID?

CENTRE OF ATTENTION HOW WILL AI TRANSFORM THE WAY BUSINESSES OPERATE?

Energy and power monitoring solutions for data centres

ET272 Self-addressing energy transducer

WM50 + TCD12 Modular main and sub metering for PDUs

DEA71 / DEB71 Earth leakage monitoring relays

Carlo Gavazzi UK Ltd. - 4.4 Frimley Business Park, Frimley, Camberley, Surrey GU16 7SG Tel: 01276 854 110 - www.carlogavazzi.co.uk

FEBRUARY 2019

CONTENTS

IN THIS ISSUE… 6 REGULARS

4 EDITORIAL

MWC is fast approaching, but what should you expect to see?

6 INDUSTRY NEWS

50 PROJECTS & AGREEMENTS

Could Scotland’s £6 million network be the most advanced in the UK?

From Virgin Media trialling blisteringly fast broadband to optical networking opportunities in the 5G infrastructure market

56 COMPANY SHOWCASE

16 CENTRE OF ATTENTION

FEATURES

Amyn Jaffer of Ultima gives advice on maximising investment into AI, warning that if companies fail to address their intelligent automation journey they risk being swept away

20 MEET ME ROOM

DCNN talks to Tate Cantrell of Verne Global about everything from the biochemical mysteries of sourdough to the huge changes in data centres over the past 10 years

Extreme Networks protects smart cities with its defender for IoT

30 OPINION

Mark Gaydos of Nltye Software likens every organisation’s data centre to a puzzle, offering a solution to modern data dilemmas

30

34 OPINION

Allan Paton of Silver Peak explains the ongoing effects of cloud and cloud applications on today’s routercentric WAN; detailing how SD-WAN is becoming more autonomous than ever

SPECIAL FEATURES

46

16

38 DCW PREVIEW

From predictions of what will be dominating the cloud computing and data centre market by Rittal, to who is launching what at Data Centre World 2019

34

46 COOLING

A New research report by Global Market Insights explains why the data centre liquid cooling market is growing exponentially; delving into the influence of AI and machine learning february 2019 | 3

F

EDITOR’S NOTE

EDITOR Jessica Foreman JESSICA@ALLTHINGSMEDIALTD.COM

SALES DIRECTOR Ian Kitchener – 01634 673163 IAN@ALLTHINGSMEDIALTD.COM

STUDIO MANAGER Ben Bristow – 01634 673163 BEN@ALLTHINGSMEDIALTD.COM

EDITORIAL COORDINATOR Jordan O’Brien – 01634 673163 JORDAN@ALLTHINGSMEDIALTD.COM

DESIGNER Jon Appleton JON@ALLTHINGSMEDIALTD.COM

BUSINESS SUPPORT ADMINISTRATOR Carol Gylby – 01634 673163 CAROL@ALLTHINGSMEDIALTD.COM

MANAGING DIRECTOR David Kitchener – 01634 673163 DAVID@ALLTHINGSMEDIALTD.COM

ACCOUNTS 01634 673163 SUSAN@ALLTHINGSMEDIALTD.COM

Suite 14, 6-8 Revenge Road, Lordswood, Kent ME5 8UD T: +44 (0)1634 673163 F: +44 (0)1634 673173 The editor and publishers do not necessarily agree with the views expressed by contributors, nor do they accept responsibility for any errors in the transmission of the subject matter in this publication. In all matters the editor’s decision is final. Editorial contributions to Data Centre & Network News are welcomed, and the editor reserves the right to alter or abridge text prior to publication.

4 | October 2018

October 2018 | 4

© Copyright 2019. All rights reserved.

or Christmas I was given the gift of travelling to Flaine in the French Alps to try my hand at skiing, a sport that has always struck me as extreme – it’s the only ‘holiday’ that you spend and arm and a leg to potentially break an arm and a leg. Throughout January I paid for private lessons on a dry slope to gain confidence and learn the basics; parallel turning, mastering the pizza shaped snow plough and getting used to putting on ski boots – one of the most painful experiences, where you essentially crush your foot in a boot.

On the first day I ascented the mountain on a ski lift, feeling luscious in my silver ski jacket and my goggles placed strategically on my head. I was prepared, I thought, to decend the mountain with the same grace as the able-bodied skiers I saw below; meandering down, swerving left to right in a tiny cloud of white dust as the sun glinted from their poles which danced with them like silky ribbons in the winter sunshine.

In reality, as I disembarked the ski lift which clunked and jolted me forward, I soon realised that my stance was less graceful and more hippopotamus like… I was crouched forward with my derrière positioned behind my thighs in nervous tension, my skis in a wide snow plough so that I would not move forward at any great speed. I was quick to learn that it is not possible to complete a radical blue run in this way, and as I gathered too much speed to regain any form of control in my aching thighs, I promptly face planted the mound of snow gathered at the side of the run beneath the snow laden evergreens.

This just about summed up my week of skiing: I would tumble often, then have to, less than graciously, attempt to get myself back up and dust myself down. For those that haven’t been skiing, getting up is about as easy as herding pygmy boar from the muddy water. The only consolation being the warm vin chaud awaiting me at the bottom in the après ski bar. With this all being said, I have agreed to do it again next year, so if you are an avid skier I welcome any tips to prepare me for my next endeavour…

On another note, MWC is fast approaching – February 25-28 – but what should you expect to see? From eSIM, to the IoT, 5G and smart cities, MWC promises to uncover innovations that are set to impact and further develop the telecoms industry in 2019. If you are exhibiting or visiting, we would love to hear your comments and thoughts about what’s in store for the future.

If you would like to write on key topics, or provide a thought-provoking opinion piece for the March issue please email: jessica@allthingsmedialtd.com

EDITOR’S NOTE

THE MOUNTAINS ARE CALLING ME

February 2019 | 5

INDUSTRY NEWS

VIRGIN MEDIA IS TRIALLING BLISTERINGLY FAST 8GPBS BROADBAND IN THE UK Just as 5G is promising a drastic upgrade in terms of speed and latency, Virgin Media is promising those in the village of Papworth, Cambridgeshire, a huge upgrade to their home broadband. That’s because the firm is trialling new Ethernet Passive Optical Network (Epon) equipment in the area, which will see 50 homeowners in the village receive internet speeds of up to 8Gbps.

Broadband speeds in the UK currently sit at 46.2Mbps according to the latest data from Ofcom, which is 173 times slower than what Virgin Media is offering these villagers in Papworth. As an example as to how fast the new speeds are, users will be able to download a 10GB Blu-ray file in just 10 seconds, compared to the lenghtly 28 minutes that it would take on the average broadband connection.

The trial has only been made possible through the Ethernet Passive Optical Network (Epon) equipment and new software that has been developed by networking technology supplier Arris.

That’s because the rest of the network is still Virgin Media’s existing fibre-to-the-premises product, meaning it could easily be rolled out to more users if the trial is a success.

Unfortunately, it may be a while before most of us see these speeds as Virgin Media doesn’t exactly have the best history of quickly rolling out its trials to more users. Virgin Media previously trialled 1Gbps FTTP services in Papworth some five years ago, yet it’s still not a product that the vast majority of Virgin Media customers can take advantage of – even if they’re connected to the FTTP network.

Despite this, Virgin Media insists that it is not going to stand still, with this trial looking ahead to the next decade and beyond.

VIRGIN MEDIA, VIRGINMEDIA.COM

6 | February 2019

GIGACLEAR BACKS OFCO Rural full fibre broadband provider, Gigaclear is backing Ofcom’s latest proposal that would require all UK broadband providers to proactively inform their customers when they are approaching the end of their contract, as well as set out the best available deals for them when their contract ends.

Commenting on the proposal Gareth Williams, Gigaclear CEO, said, “Gigaclear is fully supportive of Ofcom’s proposals that would require UK broadband providers to notify their customers ahead of their contract expiring.

We believe that, with this action, Ofcom is empowering customers to be better able to assess the best available options on a regular basis. We welcome the competition and the rest of the industry should be doing the same.”

INDUSTRY NEWS

US CONTINUES CRUSADE AGAINST HUAWEI, URGES EU TO ACT

Williams continued, “At Gigaclear I plan to ensure that we do things differently and Ofcom’s proposal echoes a move we have already taken. We’re confident that our service delivers for our customers. Following our most recent price change, we are now writing to all existing customers to let them know how they could benefit from these new plans and inviting them to switch regardless of their current contract status. Going forward we will be proactive in delivering contract transparency by providing contract status notifications in line with Ofcom’s proposed change for all UK broadband providers and we urge others to follow suit.”

Huawei can’t seem to catch a break recently, with the US continuing to add pressure on the company that has been blocked from 5G networks in various nations around the world.

The latest state of affairs comes from the US State Department, which has noted that it sees the European Union as its ‘top priority’ in a global effort to convince allies not to buy Huawei equipment.

Despite the American campaign, many countries in the EU are not yet ready to trigger a strict ban on Huawei. One such nation is Germany; where, according to Reuters, ministers have met to discuss steps to safeguard the security of its 5G network. German Chancellor, Angela Merkel has stressed that it’s important to receive reassurance from Huawei that it would not hand data to the Chinese state, with the firm likely to be barred from taking part in the construction of the country’s 5G network before giving that reassurance. Many in Germany are resistant to an outright ban on the firm, however, with issues ranging from the company’s exclusion resulting in higher costs involved with the roll-out of 5G, as well as the fact that China could retaliate.

The United States is not content to let the issue lie; the country’s officials have just held meetings with the European Commission and the Belgian government in Brussels about the risks posed with using Huawei equipment, and is now set to take that message to other European capitals. The US believes that if its allies use equipment provided by a Chinese firm, whether it’s ZTE or Huawei, then it directly endangers the national security of the United States. That’s despite only minimal evidence so far that Huawei’s equipment has vulnerabilities.

While Germany may have signalled concerns with Huawei, the country may end up having its hand forced. According to Reuters, the EU executive is currently considering proposals that would ban Huawei from 5G networks, although that could be some way off.

GIGACLEAR, GIGACLEAR.COM

HUAWEI, HUAWEI.COM

OM

February 2019 | 7

INDUSTRY NEWS

CYBER BAROMETER: 46% OF CONSUMERS ARE WORRIED ABOUT CYBERCRIME Europ Assistance’s Cyber Barometer, conducted by Lexis, which explores consumer sentiment on cyber security across nine countries, has found that 46% of consumers are worried about cybercrime. The number, according to report findings, increased to 49% for respondents with elderly parents and 54% for those with children.

Delving deeper into consumer thoughts about cybercrime, Europ Assistance announced that nearly one third of respondents (31%) feel exposed to cyber security issues and even more so (38%) when it comes to their children’s identity. Concern is the highest in Southern Europe with Spain (47%) and Italy (39%) feeling exposed. Just over a quarter (26%) of respondents indicated that they knew someone who has been the victim of an attack against their personal data, while 82% of respondents consider an attack against their personal data to be ‘very stressful’, ranking above incidents such as a car accident.

A LACK OF DIGITAL PROTECTION The survey also highlighted that protection is often neglected. Less than one-third of those questioned said that they frequently change their passwords and digital credentials and even more alarmingly only half of

Rittal solutions for the technology of the future.

Edge computing enables enormous amounts of data to be processed directly at the place where they arise. Securely and in real time. Rittal prepares you and your IT infrastructure for new challenges - flexibly, economically, and globally.

INDUSTRY NEWS

and 48% feel that companies and institutions are not doing enough to protect their individual information.

AWARENESS AND WILLINGNESS TO PURCHASE SOLUTIONS IS ON THE RISE

consumers have anti-virus and anti-malware protection on their smartphone or tablet – an alarming statistic, considering this accounts for half of global web traffic.

Americans are more aware of identity protection solutions (65%) than Europeans (40%) but consumers are ready to take steps to protect themselves online when aware of the options. More than half of respondents (55%) indicated that they have a positive opinion of cyber and digital protection services and this number rose to 61% for those with children and 57% for those with elderly parents. Consumers are interested in alerting services (57%), 24/7 assistance services (54%), prevention services (47%), and monitoring services (48%).

Antoine Parisi, CEO of Europ Assistance, added, “Consumers are now more aware of threats to their personal information and while the mounting concerns they have are valid, it is our mission to protect people from any stressful situation. With digital services playing such a key role in our daily lives, we have developed a unique service to protect the identities and personal data of our customers from any type of cybercrime.”

45% of respondents said they wouldn’t know how to EUROP ASSISTANCE, EUROP-ASSISTANCE.COM

Stand: D610

fix the situation if their personal data was compromised

Discover the Edge.

Smart Solutions. Real Business.

www.rittal.co.uk

INDUSTRY NEWS

OPTICAL NETWORKING OPPORTUNITIES IN THE 5G INFRASTRUCTURE MARKET: 2019 – 2028 Industry analyst firm, CIR has issued a new report on the 5G fibre optics infrastructure market. In the report, the firm projects a robust market for optical networking and cabling in the coming years as carriers deploy the infrastructure necessary to meet the needs of the growing 5G wireless business.

CIR’s report expects to see global expenditures on 5G fronthaul and backhaul equipment peak at $4.1 billion dollars (£3.19 billion) in 2021. The report also predicts that optical cabling expenditures will exceed $5 billion (£3.9 billion) annually with some years having spending amounts substantially higher during the 5G infrastructure build out.

The report, available for sale on the company’s website, titled, ‘Optical Networking Opportunities

10 | February 2019

in the 5G Infrastructure Market: 2019 To 2028’, analyses and quantifies the opportunities in the optical networking market for 5G fronthaul and backhaul equipment as well as optical cable.

The company says that in both the forecasts and the analysis, the market is broken down by protocols – WDM, PON, Carrier Ethernet, and SDM – and by data rate and type of technology used.

In addition, the report includes the prospects for alternatives to fibre optics in 5G infrastructure – such as millimetre and microwave radio and free-space optic. The company’s 10-year forecasting model is said to consider the rapid build out of 5G infrastructure that is expected in the next few years, while also forecasting for

the inevitable decline, as the 5G infrastructure deployments become sufficient to support a large number of 5G users.

Forecasts of all the technologies in the report are expressed in both volume and value terms. CIR says the companies addressed in the report include: Ericsson, Nokia, Huawei ZTE, Ciena, Infinera, Corning, Prysmian Group, CommScope Sterlite Technologies, Nexans, OFS/Furukawa, Sumitomo Electric Lightwave, Yangtze Optical Fiber (YOFC), and Fujikura. Among the topics discussed in the report is the impact on the 5G infrastructure market of the growing exclusion of Chinese firms (Huawei and ZTE) from building the 5G infrastructure in the US and Europe.

CIR, CIR-INC.COM

INDUSTRY NEWS

APPLE, CISCO & IBM BACK CALLS FOR US GDPR LAW Despite the risk of huge penalties, Apple, Cisco and IBM are all calling for GDPR-style laws to be implemented in the United States. That’s because those three companies all have little to lose from GDPR, but a lot to gain.

Apple, for instance, has been shouting about its privacy credentials as of late, while both Cisco and IBM stand to benefit from increased investment in data security.

While all three firms are excited about the prospects of a GDPR-style law in the US, all three are largely in agreement that the law needs some tweaks before being brought stateside.

Mark Chandler, Cisco’s Chief Legal Officer, told the Financial Times, “We believe that the GDPR has worked well, and that with a few differences, that is what should be brought in in the US as well.”

So what changes could we see? Well, American firms are fine with stricter penalties for those who are careless with data, but they’re not as keen on

the ‘Right To Be Forgotten’ clause of GDPR. That has allowed EU citizens to be removed from search engines, but executives argue it wouldn’t work as well in the United States.

The United States already has a template as to what a tweaked GDPR could look like, as California’s data privacy bill has already been passed by the state’s legislature. This grants users more control over their data, with companies forced to tell consumers what information they’re collecting and who they’re sharing data with. Californians can also request that their data is deleted or that it is simply not sold or shared, while not risking a lower quality of service. The law won’t go into effect until January 2020, however, and if congress comes up with a bill in the meantime, it will supersede the state’s law.

CISCO, CISCO.COM

INTELLIGENT

R&MinteliPhy – Automated Infrastructure Management by R&M

Manually managed infrastructure data has a 10% error rate*, 20-40% of ports in a network are forgotten over time**.

The automated R&MinteliPhy solution continuously monitors each connection in one or more data centres or local networks, a (remote) central server records cabling status. The AIM-based solution has functions for management, analysis as well as planning cabling and network cabinets.

R&MinteliPhy is easy to retrofit and can halve network monitoring and management costs. When new devices are integrated or changes made updates are automatically generated. Unused patch panels and ports in active equipment are instantly detected. Data can be traced in real time with a PC or smartphone, faulty connections are located in seconds.

More info: gbr@rdm.com * Source: Watson & Fulton ** Source: Frost & Sullivan

Convincing cabling solutions

COVER STORY

(SPONSORED)

THE FUTURE IS LI-ION MIKE ELMS, MANAGING DIRECTOR OF CENTIEL UK LTD, EXPLAINS WHY LI-ION WILL BE THE FUTURE OF DATA CENTRE BACK-UP POWER.

A

dvances in lithiumion batteries in recent years now see the technology being used in many applications, including our everyday electronic devices, in our cars, on planes, submarines and even on the International Space Station. However, the take up for li-ion in the UPS industry has been much slower.

The valve-regulated lead-acid (VRLA) batteries we have used to back-up UPS systems for around 30 years, still do their job and they do it well, so why change? One area which may encourage the widespread adoption of li-ion into data centres is the need for energy management. Unlike leadacid, li-ion batteries are happy running at a

12 | February 2019

temperature of high 20/low 30째C. Similarly, most IT systems work at >25째C and the UPS technology itself can work well up to 40째C. By contrast, an industry standard estimate is that for every 10 degrees above 20째C, the operating life of a VRLA battery is halved.

In many European locations this means cooling could, in the future, be provided by the natural air temperature, if cooling is needed at all. This would result in significant savings on data centre running costs and reduced carbon footprints.

Space saving is also a potential advantage. Many data centres have enough room to house lead-acid batteries without issue. However, where space is at a premium, li-ion batteries typically require less than half the physical space of the equivalent lead-acid blocks, and are less than 25% of the weight.

(SPONSORED)

COVER STORY

One drawback of switching to liion up until now has been the cost.

However, prices are being increasingly driven down by the automotive industry and have reduced significantly over the past 10 years. Increasingly, we are being asked to provide comparative quotes for lead-acid versus li-ion batteries for UPS installations. Depending on the project, we are generally finding the initial CAPEX cost of buying li-ion compared with leadacid batteries works out at around twice as expensive. However, li-ion lasts twice as long, and so considerations relating to total cost of ownership (TCO) have now started outweighing concerns about the initial investment. Ten-year design life leadacid batteries are normally replaced every seven or eight years, but with li-ion this is 13-15 years.

SAFETY MISCONCEPTIONS WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF LI-ION BATTERIES?

LEAD-ACID VERSUS LI-ION BATTERIES With the rapid increase in data being generated, soon to be fuelled further by the Internet of Things (IoT), only essential data will need to be moved to the cloud and stored at the big data centres. In the future, it is likely that many more, much smaller regionally-based, edge data centres will process and accumulate the less essential information. These might be situated every half mile or so in a big city, for example. Or, we may even have mini data centres attached to our offices and homes. Here space will certainly be at a premium and li-ion batteries will offer a practical alternative, providing significant space savings over VRLA cells.

In the past, there have been safety concerns relating to li-ion batteries and there have been some publicised stories about the fire risk of li-ion technology over the years.

However, any technology which is not managed correctly is potentially hazardous.

If the proper procedures are not followed it is dangerous to drive a vehicle, fly a plane or even just cross the road.

The management and testing of li-ion batteries is covered by the IEC62619 standard, which was introduced internationally last year and relates specifically to the control systems in industrial batteries. li-ion batteries are more sensitive to how they are charged and discharged and therefore are all required by IEC62619 to have an internal battery management system (BMS). This prevents the organic liquid electrolyte becoming too hot through over or undercharging. The BMS provides a warning if the safe envelope voltage range is exceeded and then

February 2019 | 13

COVER STORY

(SPONSORED)

the compatible UPS can respond. If this is ignored, a level two alarm is linked to a circuit breaker to prevent further charging or discharging of the cell. This double protection level needs to be implemented and tested to comply with IEC62619 regulation.

Every battery, including Lead-acid batteries, are a potential hazard but managed correctly, li-ion technology has now been developed to be safe to use in data centres and other facilities requiring critical power protection.

“LI-ION BATTERIES TYPICALLY

DIFFERENT TYPES OF LI-ION There are different types of li-ion batteries available. The type most suited to the application depends on the project and this is usually related to the required voltage. For a 12V li-ion battery to replace a 12V lead-acid cell, li-phosphate would be suitable as the voltage is compatible.

Note, for safety and as required by the IEC62619 standard, a 12V li-ion battery will still require a BMS just like any other li-ion battery.

A high voltage UPS of say 500V needs to keep batteries in balance. The voltage in every cell needs to be measured to indicate the state of charge. Here mixed metal oxide li-ion batteries are most appropriate as, unlike li-phosphate, the remaining autonomy can most easily be assessed and monitored across the range of cells.

GETTING LI-ION-READY The future will undoubtedly see the take up of li-ion in the UPS industry. However, the roll-out across the data centre industry will not happen overnight. Not all systems are li-ion-ready, manufacturers of UPS equipment need to ensure their technology is compatible and can ‘talk’ to the li-ion battery monitoring system.

14 | February 2019

REQUIRE LESS THAN HALF THE PHYSICAL SPACE OF THE EQUIVALENT LEAD ACID BLOCKS AND ARE LESS THAN 25% OF THE WEIGHT.”

Interestingly, the adoption of li-ion within UPS systems so far, has been greater in developing countries in Africa and the Middle East, where the main power grid is less reliable than in the UK and frequent power problems are more commonplace. In these instances, the UPS and battery systems are required to be cycled several times per day. This greater take-up is primarily due to the higher cycling life of li-ion: typically, 2,500 power-up and down cycles compared with around 300 for VRLA technology.

This may point to another potential application of li-ion in the future. With increasing pressure being put on our cities’ energy supplies, demand side management of power could see data centres being paid for their excess energy.

Rather like consumer solar panels, stored energy could be fed back into the grid during downtime and the UPS could move from becoming a data-backup hub to a bank account, generating income through taking advantage of power demand and use. li-ion’s ability to be powered up and down could potentially offer interesting applications in this area for the future.

Centiel’s li-ion solution is already being installed by our most forwardthinking UPS clients, who are looking to capitalise on the advantages that li-ion has over lead-acid batteries, namely: they are smaller, lighter, have a high-power density, a longer life and operate at higher temperatures. Over the next five years we anticipate that a significant industry changeover to li-ion will occur. The good news is that Centiel’s technology is already li-ion-ready, so existing lead-acid battery installations will have the option to upgrade to li-ion in the future without needing to replace the UPS. You can visit Centiel at Data Centre World (DCW) London on stand: D1035. » CENTIEL, CENTIEL.CO.UK

SWISS Based Manufacturer

True Modular Uninterruptible Power Supplies

99.9999999% Availability Distributed Active Redundant Architecture 97.1% Efficiency Lithium-ion Battery Option Available CumulusPowerTM

SWISS MADE

www.

.co.uk

CENTRE OF ATTENTION: DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

DON’T BITE OFF MORE AI THAN YOU CAN CHEW 16 | February 2019

CENTRE OF ATTENTION: DUGITAL TRANSFORMATION

AMYN JAFFER, HEAD OF INTELLIGENT AUTOMATION AT ULTIMA GIVES ADVICE ON MAXIMISING INVESTMENT INTO AI, WARNING THAT IF COMPANIES FAIL TO ADDRESS THEIR INTELLIGENT AUTOMATION JOURNEY THEY RISK BEING SWEPT AWAY BY THE

M

AGE OF DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION.

ost businesses are now fully aware of the need to start embracing intelligent automation for competitive advantage and are looking long-term at how different forms of artificial intelligence (AI) will impact their market. From improving business processes and customer

experience to visions of having a ‘cobot’ working alongside everyone, the only certainty is that we are entering a period of exponential change.

But many companies don’t know where to start or which technologies to embrace.

Organisations that try to bite off too much at the start of their ‘intelligent automation’ journey typically fail to realise returns on their investments for two to three years, by which time funding has dried up.

February 2019 | 17

CENTRE OF ATTENTION: DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

A better approach is to build your intelligent automation capability in incremental steps and propagate a culture of intelligent automation over time. As robotic process automation (RPA) continues to gain pace in UK businesses recent industry successes make this a good place to start your journey to fully embrace AI. RPA is the process of using software robots to automate mundane, repetitive tasks.

Once these are automated, companies can look at moving to more complex AI-based automation – using visual and cognitive intelligence to deliver more advanced automation that draws information from multiple sources and interprets it to deliver improved business intelligence.

Right now, enterprises can start to automate business processes using software robots as there are now RPA offerings that use software robots as part of a SaaS offering. This makes them affordable as well as effective.

Combined with artificial intelligence-based technologies, the use cases for process automation are even wider, and provide even greater returns.

In HR, for example, RPA can be used to ensure each department has the same information about each employee without the typical challenges of multiple system records and repetitive re-entry of information. It can also be used for absence management and for processing applications saving time for your employees to focus on more strategic work. As a second phase, organisations can then make HR information more accessible by implementing chatbots.

RPA can be used to simplify the process of reporting on credit for thousands of customers. The information required to produce credit reports for one retailer involved accessing data on an inefficient, legacy mainframe system. Using an RPA ‘virtual worker’ that was able to precisely imitate a human producing one of these

18 | February 2019

reports, the retailer reduced reporting time by 91% creating savings of over £100,000.

For a manufacturing company, it was taking an unacceptable one and a half days to deliver key customer service reports.

It wanted to find a technological solution to expand and improve its services, without increasing costs. By using a ‘virtual workforce’, reports that previously took this company one and a half days, are now produced in a mere six minutes – a 300% increase in productivity.

At Ultima, we have been using RPA technology to automate our own back-end operations and we’ve seen productivity rise by a factor of two since implementing the technology across five processes. For example, we automated our forecasting and planning tasks. Software robots collate real-time sales and marketing information, and process all the information they collect during the day to produce detailed forecasts and business intelligence for the next morning. Usually this took eight to ten hours per day of staff time. As a result, the business has improved business intelligence to plan with, and staff have more time to spend on customer service and strategic thinking.

ADDING ANOTHER LAYER OF INTELLIGENCE Once a company has automated its basic tasks it can move on to using more intelligent cognitive services to enable a greater degree of automation and further maximise return on investment.

For example, by using cognitive services such as text and sentiment analysis and optical or image character recognition, enterprises can look at processing and effectively responding to natural language text within various formats including emails, documents, PDFs and live webchats.

Data can be extracted from these without needing to hand over to a human.

HOW WILL AI TRANSFORM THE WAY BUSINESSES OPERATE ON A DAYTO-DAY BASIS?

“ORGANISATION BITE OFF TOO

START OF THEIR

AUTOMATION JOU

FAIL TO REALISE RE

INVESTMENTS FO

YEARS, BY WHICH

HAS DRI

CENTRE OF ATTENTION: DUGITAL TRANSFORMATION

NS THAT TRY TO MUCH AT THE

R INTELLIGENT

URNEY TYPICALLY

ETURNS ON THEIR

OR TWO TO THREE

H TIME FUNDING

IED UP.”

Contact centres, for example, are simplifying the service agent process with the automation of tasks, and the introduction of Natural Language Processing (NLP) for extracting key information from emails and messaging chats, so their agents are now able to focus on providing the best experience for customers. One client is using speech recognition software to answer the phone and respond automatically to customers once the software robot has analysed the call and sourced the correct information to help the caller.

Vision is another good example where cognitive services can be used to improve business efficiency. One company is using vision recognition services to tag information in photographs then store it in a database under relevant categories. Normally this would take hundreds of man-hours to do, but with cognitive services it takes seconds.

THE HOLY GRAIL OF AI Once these processes are in place and data is being collected and stored in intelligent ways, companies can start to use more sophisticated AI to mine their data and start to ask questions of their structured and unstructured data that will deliver unique business insights.

Eventually, it’s likely we will all have a ‘virtual worker’ by our sides helping us do our jobs, freeing us up to be creative and driving business innovation. What AI is capable of will continue to develop and our journeys to digital transformation will advance over many months and years. But in order for it to move forward, all the right foundations need to be in place; only then will you be able to use AI to transform and maintain your competitive edge.

February 2019 | 19

MEET ME ROOM: TATE CANTRELL

THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN’ FROM THE BIOCHEMICAL MYSTERIES OF SOURDOUGH TO THE HUGE CHANGES IN DATA CENTRES OVER THE PAST 10 YEARS, TATE CANTRELL, CTO OF VERNE GLOBAL, IS NEXT TO TAKE ON DCNN’S INSIGHTFUL MEET ME ROOM.

What were you doing before you joined Verne Global? How did you first get involved in the industry?

After taking a masters degree in Biomedical Engineering, I decided to wander off to Alaska for a bit of adventure.

After a nearly four-year stint designing rural power systems and mushing dogs, I was lured to Washington, DC to marry Sylvia. As our relationship had been of the long-distance variety, we decided to take a long honeymoon dodging hurricanes and hiking in Patagonia. Before taking

18 | February 2019

the trip, I had left my CV with the local rugby team and one of my mentors, Mike Mosman, managed to receive a copy of a copy of it. He called my mother-in-law several times asking her to encourage me not to take anything without talking to him first. When I got back, he described these huge buildings he was imagining into reality for AOL. I was smitten. The next thing I knew I was on a train for my first assignment: 111 Eighth Avenue in New York City. And, the rest is history.

N’

MEET ME ROOM: TATE CANTRELL

Looking back on your career so far, is there anything you might have done differently?

Like many people, I am often guilty of thinking of myself as ‘too busy’ and don’t make the time to properly nurture the industry relationships that I have gained through the years. There is one former colleague, Sonnie Myers, that will always phone me up if we haven’t connected recently. His effort to stay connected always brings me joy. Those connections are so important in shaping your work future. It’s number one on my new year’s resolution list to be more like Sonnie.

Good networking is good for the soul.

February 2019 | 19

MEET ME ROOM: TATE CANTRELL

What are the biggest changes you have seen in the data/comms industry?

One of the main reasons I joined Verne Global in 2008 was that I had seen firsthand over the previous 10 years of my career that the trends were pointing towards exponential growth in the energy requirements of the data/comms industry.

I have seen huge changes in the scale of the data centres required to power the applications that we use on a daily basis.

Early in my career, a 10-megawatt facility was almost unheard of. But now, when I drive out to Ashburn, Virginia on cold and dry mornings, I can see plumes of steam rising up from over more than a gigawatt of data centres in the same postcode. As a society, our demand for better digital services will continue to require both new sources of energy and creative solutions for the challenges of scale. It’s an exciting time to work in the industry.

20 | February 2019

What is the main motivation in the work that you do?

I go to work every day with an eagerness to learn something new. I believe that the prerequisites to learning are a willingness to experience the downsides of trial and error and the curiosity to ask better questions of yourself and of those around you. I have my own internal blog titled ‘No Daft Questions’ where I log my journey as I tackle the topics that I don’t fully understand and need to tease out further.

“ON COLD AND DRY M

PLUMES OF STEAM RI

MORE THAN A GIGAWA IN THE SAME

MEET ME ROOM: TATE CANTRELL

How would you encourage a school leaver to get involved in your industry?

What are their options?

Even if you know that you will manage people or finances one day, having an understanding of the programming process is vital to business success in the future.

Get a basic grasp on how software is made and, more importantly, how applications communicate with APIs. If that sparks your curiosity, then take this knowledge and volunteer some time in an open source project that is of interest to you.

By working in open source, you expose yourself to a way of thinking and ways of collaborating that will only continue to grow and influence society with new products in future. Above all, do not fall asleep during your coding classes.

What are your hobbies/interests outside work?

Today, outside of work, I am enjoying tackling the challenges of sourdough baking. You can see first hand via Instagram that my journey has been one of trial and error, but every step of the way has been delicious. The story of sourdough is nearly as old as society itself, and yet even today, we do not fully understand all of the biochemical mysteries that lie within the natural yeasts that bring so much flavour. But the beauty of sourdough baking is that a successful exercise is a true marriage of both art and science. You cannot take a mechanical approach to the final shaping of artisan bread. You need the discipline of a scientist, but the creativity of an artist to pull it off.

What gives you the greatest sense of achievement?

It can be difficult to measure your own successes, objectively and humbly. But, one easy way I measure true achievement is to look at the colleagues that I work with and celebrate their successes. We have built up a vibrant data centre industry in Iceland, and my colleagues have demonstrated to our global customers that they are experts in their field. We apply this expertise in a coordinated and collective effort to support our customers and their ambitions each day.

Favourite: Book? Film? TV show?

Singer/band?

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas is a literary tour de force. Not only does Edmond Dantès, the protagonist, inspire us as the gold standard for grit, but Dumas also shows genius beyond comprehension with the incredibly intricate plot that is woven throughout this classic.

And, while it takes a certain amount of grit just to tackle a book that exceeds 1,100 pages, the happy reader is never entirely sure of the final outcome of this masterpiece until the final page is turned.

MORNINGS, I CAN SEE

ISING UP FROM OVER

ATT OF DATA CENTRES

If you could travel back to any time period in history, which would it be and why?

It might sound like science fiction, but I would like to go back to the early years of our universe and to solve all the riddles that our mathematics just cannot solve for us today. Maybe with enough computing power, we will all be able to go back to the future one day to explore the mysteries of our origin...

POSTCODE.�

February 2019 | 21

MEET ME ROOM: TATE CANTRELL

“ALL HUMAN WISDOM IS CONTAINED IN THESE TWO WORDS – WAIT AND HOPE” – ALEXANDRE DUMAS, THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO

Can you remember what job you wanted when you were a child?

I wanted to be a haematologist. My brother had a serious battle with hepatitis when I was younger, and at first, the doctors were sure that it was leukemia. We spent a lot of late nights at the Los Angeles Children’s Hospital waiting and wondering. I knew at that point that I wanted to help people and that was clearly the most helpful thing I could think of at the time. Luckily for all of us, youth was on his side and he pushed that disease into remission many years ago. The medical interest stayed with me and towards the end of my university studies, I turned my engineering towards Biomedical Engineering.

22 | February 2019

What is the best piece of advice you have ever been given?

“Always take the high road,” is a bit of advice that I have heard many, many times over the two decades in which I have worked with my business partner and Verne Global CEO, Jeff Monroe. To be honest, the first few times I heard it, I thought, of course, I will always take the high road. But, when you transition this advice into a mantra, you realise that each of us makes thousands of little decisions every day and that taking the high road is no longer a mindset that you enter now and again, it is a life goal that continuously challenges you to exceed even your own expectations of yourself.

We really hate interruptions.

But we quickly wanted to inform you of our new name.

Uninterruptible Power Supplies is becoming Kohler Uninterruptible Power.

WHY THE CHANGE? It is a decade since we joined Kohler Co., one of the largest privately held companies in the US, and nearly 100 years since they first stepped into power products. And with our solutions now spanning UPS, generators and emergency lighting inverters, plus class-leading 24/7 service, it is simply time our name reflected who we are and all we do today.

kohler-ups.co.uk

UPS: STANDARDS

MAKING THE GRADE ALEX EMMS, OPERATIONS DIRECTOR FOR UNINTERRUPTIBLE POWER SUPPLIES LTD, EXPLAINS WHY UPS STANDARDS ARE IMPORTANT, LOOKING CLOSELY AT EN 62040.

A

s electrical systems of significant size, UPSs must always be installed with adequate regard for the safety of anyone who may come into contact with the equipment. Their levels of electromagnetic compatibility must be sufficient to ensure their non-susceptibility to electrical interference, and noninterference with any nearby or connected electrical equipment. Additionally,

24 | February 2019

EN 62040 The UPS Standard EN 62040 comprises three parts: BS-EN 62040 - Part 1 (General and Safety Requirements) BS-EN 62040 - Part 2 (EMC-Electromagnetic Compatibility) BS-EN 62040 - Part 3 (Performance & Test Requirements)

UPS: STANDARDS

because of their role within a facility, their performance quality must be enough to protect their critical load from mains-borne damaging effects.

For the UK, the most important legislation covering these aspects of a UPS installation is contained within the UPS Standard EN 62040 and the Energy Network Association’s Engineering Recommendation ER G5/4-1. Below, we look at these standards, then briefly review others that are also relevant to UPSs and their batteries.

GENERAL AND SAFETY REQUIREMENTS This standard applies to electronic indirect AC converter systems with an electrical energy storage device in the DC link. The primary function of the UPSs covered by this standard is to ensure continuity of an alternating current power source. The UPS systems may also improve the power quality of the power source by keeping it within specified characteristics.

This standard is applicable to movable, stationary, fixed and built-in UPSs for distribution systems up to 1000V AC. It applies to UPSs intended for installation in any operator-accessible area and specifies requirements to ensure safety for operators and non-specialists who may come into contact with the equipment and, where specially stated, for service personnel.

The standard is intended to ensure the safety of installed equipment, either standalone or as a system of interconnected units, subject to installing, operating and maintaining the equipment as prescribed by the manufacturer.

It does not cover UPSs based on rotating machines.

EN 62040-Part 1 is to be used in conjunction with EN 60950:2006; Information technology equipment – Safety.

STANDARD

DETAIL

CE

Marking in compliance with the following European directives: Low Voltage Directive 2006/95/EC EMC Directive 2004/108/EC

ISO 27001 2013

Information Security Standards

ISO 22301

Business continuity management.

Part 1: Code of Practice

BS 7698-1:1993 ISO 8528-1:1993

Reciprocating internal combustion engine driven alternating current generating sets. Specification for application, ratings and performance

ER G59/1

Recommendations for the connection of Engineering generating plant to the distribution systems of Licensed Network Operators.

Energy Networks Association

BS EN 60529:1992

Specification for degrees of protection provided by enclosures (IP code) BS EN 61439-4:2013 Low-voltage switchgear and control gear assemblies

BS 7671:2018

Requirements for electrical installations. IEEE Wiring Regulations.

Eighteenth edition

BS EN 50310:2016

Application of equipotential bonding and earthing in buildings with information technology equipment

BS EN 61439-2

Low-voltage switchgear and control gear assemblies

TABLE 1: STANDARDS RELEVANT TO UPS INSTALLATIONS

February 2019 | 25

UPS: STANDARDS

ELECTROMAGNETIC COMPATIBILITY

This EMC standard applies to single UPSs installed in any operator accessible area or in separated electrical locations, connected to either industrial or public low voltage supply networks.

This EMC standard takes precedence over all aspects of the generic standards and no additional testing is necessary.

The requirements have been selected to ensure adequate levels of electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) for UPSs in public and industrial locations.

These levels cannot cover extreme cases which may occur in any location, but with extremely low probability of occurrence.

It considers the differing test conditions necessary for UPSs of all physical sizes and power ratings.

A UPS unit or system must meet this standard’s relevant requirements as a standalone product. EMC phenomena produced by any customer’s load connected to the UPS equipment’s output will not be considered.

Special installation environments are not covered, nor are UPS fault conditions considered.

This standard does not cover UPSs based on rotating machines.

“UPSs MUST ALWAYS BE INSTALLED WITH ADEQUATE REGARD FOR THE SAFETY OF ANYONE WHO MAY COME INTO CONTACT WITH THE EQUIPMENT.”

26 | February 2019

PERFORMANCE The standard applies to electronic indirect AC converter systems with an electrical energy storage device in the DC link. The primary function of the UPS covered by this standard is to ensure continuity of an alternating current power source. The UPS systems may also improve the incoming supply power quality by keeping it within specified characteristics.

The performance requirements of this standard are for UPSs within the scope of EN 62040-1.

The standard applies to UPSs with: Single or three phase, fixed frequency, 50/60Hz AC output voltage Single or three phase input voltage Electrical energy storage device in the DC link, if not otherwise specified With rated voltage not exceeding 1000V AC Movable, stationary or fixed equipment This standard’s specifics: Characteristics of the equipment Test methods Minimum performance levels

ENERGY NETWORKS ASSOCIATION ER G5/4-1 The Energy Networks Association states that satisfactory operation of the electricity supply system and user’s equipment is only obtained where electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) between them exists. By limiting the harmonic emissions of customers’ nonlinear loads and generating plant, the Engineering Recommendation G5/4-1 helps to fulfil the technical objective of the UK EMC Regulations.

These Regulations seek to limit the voltage distortion present in distribution networks to below levels at which equipment function and performance are

UPS: STANDARDS

STANDARD

DETAIL

BS EN 60896-22:2004

Lead-acid stationary cells and batteries. Specification for classifying valve regulated types

BS EN 60896-11:2003

Stationary lead-acid batteries. General requirements and methods of test.

Vented type

BS EN 60896-21:2004

Stationary lead-acid batteries. General requirements and methods of test.

Valve regulated type

BS EN 50272-2:2010

Safety requirements for secondary batteries and battery installations.

Stationary batteries

ANSI-IEEE 450-2010

IEEE recommended practice of vented lead-acid batteries for stationary applications

ANSI-IEEE 1184-2006

IEEE guide for batteries of Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS)

ANSI-IEEE 1188-2005

IEEE recommended practice for maintenance, testing and replacement of valve-regulated lead-acid (VRLA) batteries for stationary applications

OTHER STANDARDS RELEVANT TO UPS INSTALLATIONS likely to be impaired. Equipment immunity levels are based on a total voltage harmonic distortion (THDv) of 5% in 400V systems. Engineering Recommendation G5/4-1 sets the planning levels for harmonic voltage distortion to be used while connecting non-linear equipment to the supply system.

While harmonic distortion limits are not governed by statute, it is incumbent upon the electrical design consultants and manufacturers to ensure emissions of equipment connected to the supply system do not exceed the planning levels set by G5/4-1, and that such harmonic distortions are agreeable to the Network Operating Company (NOC).

While the above standards cover the core issues of UPS safety, performance and EMC compliance, there are many other standards that UPS installers and owners must consider; most of these are summarised in Table 1 above.

Additionally, there are the RoHS (2011/65/EU Restriction of the use of certain Hazardous Substances in Electronic Equipment) and WEEE (2012/19EC Waste of Electrical and Electronic Equipment) 2018 Directives; however, the RoHS Directive does not mention UPSs or energy conversion equipment, so does not directly apply to UPS systems.

TABLE 2: STANDARDS RELEVANT TO LEADACID BATTERIES

Âť UNINTERRUPTIBLE POWER SUPPLIES LTD, UPSPOWER.CO.UK

February 2019 | 27

OPINION: DATA CENTRE DILEMAS

THE MISSING PIECE MARK GAYDOS, CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER, NLYTE SOFTWARE LIKENS EVERY ORGANISATION’S DATA CENTRE TO A PUZZLE, OFFERING A SOLUTION TO MODERN DATA DILEMMAS.

28 | February 2019

E

OPINION: DATA CENTRE DILEMMAS

very organisation’s data centre is like a puzzle. They are made up of intricate pieces, big and small, which, when put together, create a whole working picture. As the demand for data has risen, so too have the number of puzzle pieces, of which some are missing – making it impossible to complete.

Though these instances do not occur often, when they do, they can be incredibly severe; causing delays, adding extra complexity, cost, and in the very worst scenario – if a business’s functions are majorly disrupted – it could even result in going under.

Fear not… though this may sound like an organisation’s worst nightmare, it doesn’t need to be. The puzzle can be completed, and the sun can shine on the business once again, but only if the puzzle pieces can be identified and correctly put into place at the right time.

THE EVER-CHANGING HARDWARE ESTATE

DATA HAS FAST BECOME THE CURRENCY FOR ENTERPRISES ALL OVER THE WORLD, BUT WHAT SHOULD HAPPEN IF A DATA CENTRE WERE TO SHUT DOWN?

Data has fast become the currency of the enterprise. From simple keystrokes to HR records and critical company IP, the data behind all of these is vitally important. So much so that organisations are storing it in safe, secure and reliable data centres which give them 24-hour access, ‘five nines’ uptime (data to be available 99.999% of the time), and a basis on which to innovate future technology-driven services.

This, however, has meant that the need for secure data centres has grown exponentially, with organisations adding more and more ad hoc hardware to bolster their reserves and ‘brute force’ the issue of managing capacity and ensuring the business never lacks IT resource. Yet not all of it is being added, provisioned, and registered properly, which results in data centre managers having little up-to-date

and carefully managed insight over their estate. This is only going to get worse as the effect snowballs.

As our economic reliance on all things data and digital continues to grow, owned data centres of all sizes will keep adding further unchecked pieces of kit with no way to hold back the tide as they play catch-up with demand.

AN UNCHECKED ESTATE IS A TOWER OF BLOCKS WAITING TO COLLAPSE

These growing data centres, while necessary to ensure ‘business as usual’, are quickly also becoming drains on company money, time and resources.

This is because any number of errors or ‘trap doors’ can rest in plain sight and can be triggered at any time as the complex puzzle is added and remixed ‘on the fly’.

Although IT is having its hand forced to ensure that organisations keep offering excellent customer services, organisations also need to ensure they can reduce costs and properly account and plan for additional resources – rather than throw the kitchen sink at the challenge. After all, costs and resources can impact the bottom line, and an inefficient technology stack that’s bloated and under-used isn’t the best use of what the company has.

But, if each and every piece of hardware is accounted and planned for, it’s an entirely different story. The chaos of adding to the ‘tower of blocks’ is removed as the data centre manager can calmly, and carefully, place each new section with care at the right time.

Gaining visibility throughout the entire estate, from rack to rail, gives data centre managers the insight needed to see which pieces are being used to their capacity and which ones are ‘zombies’ – eating away at the bottom line, electricity and floor space, and not earning their keep. Knowing

February 2019 | 29

OPINION: DATA CENTRE DILEMMAS

this means that data centre managers can attribute where data can be stored, account for software licences, and stop any unnecessary purchases adding to the management and purchasing burden.

With a single view of the estate in a clear, accessible and up-to-date format, data centre managers can minimise vulnerabilities from risky kit and evolving resource situations.

A data centre’s roots are intertwined, and one piece of sub-optimal hardware can cause many services to run slowly, impacting how an organisation services its clients. This faulty piece of kit could also cause a complete shutdown, and downtime is a very unwelcome consequence to internal stakeholders and external customers alike. Downtime might come from errors or bad intent (with a focus on the IT supply chain for both hardware and software at present, as bad actors aim to hijack corporate resources to secure illgotten gains).

Slow run time or downtime can have terrible ramifications on partners and customers becoming insufficiently served.

The situation can even escalate should the media catch wind of what’s happening. This is nothing new for BA or Microsoft, who faced an immediate drop in revenue following the publicisation of data centre failures.

“AS OUR ECONOMIC RELIANCE ON ALL THINGS DATA AND DIGITAL CONTINUES TO GROW, OWNED DATA CENTRES OF ALL SIZES WILL KEEP ADDING FURTHER UNCHECKED PIECES OF KIT WITH NO WAY TO HOLD BACK THE TIDE AS THEY PLAY CATCH-UP WITH DEMAND.”

ONE SOLUTION, ONE VIEW All of the above are worst case scenarios, and can stay that way, if data centre managers are given the tools they need.

A technology asset management solution (TAM) is one such solution. With TAM, data centre managers gain a holistic view across their entire estate, giving them the ability to find unmanaged assets, evaluate individual hardware use, and monitor any unplanned changes as assets are added or removed and services are impacted – in real-time.

This is just what data centre managers need. A resource that brings the data centre’s pains and strains from out of the shadows and enables them to be addressed to ensure that business runs smoothly, while also adding value and supplementing the bottom line through efficiencies and a guide to future innovation areas.

Like any puzzle worth finishing, it takes time, planning and effort, but at the end sits a masterpiece.

NLYTE SOFTWARE, NLYTE.COM

30 | February 2019

NLYTE OFFERS A SOLUTION FOR MODERN DATA CENTRE DILEMMAS

More than just a badge: Your industry trade association carries more weight than certification alone.

Offering membership to businesses achieving the highest industry standards and certifications in all aspects of electrical and electrotechnical design, installation, testing, maintenance and monitoring.

www.eca.co.uk/become-a-member info@eca.co.uk

0207 313 4800

@ECAlive *Terms & conditions apply and are subject to change ** Membership eligibility and the stated 25% discount off initial 12 months membership of the ECA is subject to continued registration of qualifying schemes through accepted certification bodies or organisations. All rights reserved.

Registered in England: Company Number 143669. Covering England, Wales & NI.

Shaping our industry. Enabling business growth. Getting you specified.

OPINION: CLOUD

WHY 2019 IS THE YEAR COMPANIES SHIFT TO A BUSINESSDRIVEN NETWORK ALLAN PATON, DIRECTOR OF UK AND IRELAND AT SILVER PEAK, EXPLAINS THE ONGOING EFFECTS OF CLOUD AND CLOUD APPLICATIONS ON TODAY’S ROUTERCENTRIC WAN; DETAILING HOW SD-WAN IS BECOMING

A

MORE AUTONOMOUS AND INTUITIVE THAN EVER.

sea of change is upon us. As more applications and services migrate to the cloud, some businesses have found that the cloud has fallen short of its transformational promise. Many IT decision makers believe that cloud performance suffers because of monthly cloud application disruptions and networks that can’t keep pace with demands.

34 | February 2019

WHY IS IT TIME TO MOVE AWAY FROM A ROUTERCENTRIC WAN?

OPINION: CLOUD

February 2019 | 35

OPINION: CLOUD

The problem is that today’s router-centric WAN approaches cannot keep up, causing enterprises to hit the wall. Why? Because network traffic patterns have shifted, the fundamental nature of applications has changed, and security needs are different when everything is open and connected in the cloud. The problem is only going to get worse, driven by the ever-changing needs of business, the continuous evolution of every cloud and cloud application, and the uniqueness of every cloud and application environment. Plus, all of this must be managed across thousands of locations, which are all different.

MOVING AWAY FROM A ROUTER-CENTRIC WAN The traditional router-centric WAN architecture was designed when the cloud didn’t exist, back when all applications were hosted in enterprise data centres. In a router-centric model, all traffic is routed from branch offices to the data centre. With the emergence of the cloud, applications are no longer centralised. However, traditional routers require enterprises to inefficiently route all applications from branch offices back to the data centre instead of directly to Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) from branch sites, and this impairs application performance. The requirement to backhaul is due either to an inflexible architecture and/or security requirements that dictate advanced inspections that conventional routers lack the functionality to perform.

Enterprises struggle trying to stretch the old router-centric WAN to fit modern network requirements — it’s too cumbersome and complicated. Even basic SD-WAN solutions which emerged as an alternative are a step in the right direction, but they too fall short of the goal of the fully automated business-driven networks that enterprises require in today’s cloud-era.

36 | February 2019

EMBRACING THE SHIFT TO A BUSINESS-FIRST NETWORKING MODEL A business-first networking model is a top down approach. It is one in which the network conforms to the business in contrast to the legacy router-centric approach where applications — and the business — must conform to the constraints imposed by the network. The devicecentric model starts from the bottom up with the deployment of routers (and usually discrete firewalls) at every branch location.

This generally requires on-site IT expertise and always requires manual, device-bydevice configuration and management.

Any changes that arise when adding a new application or changing the quality of service (QoS) or a security policy, once again requires manually touching every router at every branch in the network.

Re-programming is time consuming and requires a complex and cumbersome command line interface (CLI).

With a business-first networking model, IT centrally orchestrates QoS and security policies for groups of applications based on business intent. The configuration is programmed automatically to hundreds or even thousands of locations across the network. From that point onwards, the network automatically and continuously connects users directly and securely to applications delivering optimum performance. Through real-time monitoring of applications and WAN services, a business-driven network automatically ‘learns’ of any changes in network conditions that might impact application performance – packet loss, latency, jitter.

It then automatically ‘adapts’ to give every application the network and security resources it needs to deliver the best quality of experience to users.

OPINION: CLOUD

BASIC OR BUSINESSDRIVEN SD-WAN In the past few years, the industry has seen more than 60 companies market SD-WAN as part of their offerings. Most include basic SD-WAN features, such as the ability to use multiple forms of transport, dynamic path selection, centralised management, zero-touch provisioning and encrypted connections.

However, they do not deliver on the vision of a business-first networking model.

With a business-driven SD-WAN platform, application performance, security and routing are dictated by topdown business policies, not bottom-up technology constraints. Enterprises ensure that the priorities of their business are always reflected in the way the network delivers applications to users. Business intent dictates application QoS and security policies. Business intent also drives the way network resources are applied to match the business criticality of every application.

Best-of-breed SD-WAN architectural models utilise virtual WAN overlays based on business requirements (business intent overlays) for every class of application.

Once overlays and their associated policies have been defined via WAN orchestration, configurations are pushed to all sites across the network. At that point, traffic handling is fully automated to optimally route – or steer – applications based on pre-configured parameters. Businessdriven SD-WAN solutions continuously learn about any network condition changes and can automatically adapt traffic handling to maintain continuous compliance to application QoS and security requirements.

As such, users enjoy always-consistent, always-available application performance across any combination of transport services including cost-effective consumer broadband services.

“BUSINESS-DRIVEN SD-WAN SOLUTIONS CONTINUOUSLY LEARN ABOUT ANY NETWORK CONDITION CHANGES AND CAN AUTOMATICALLY ADAPT TRAFFIC HANDLING TO MAINTAIN CONTINUOUS COMPLIANCE TO APPLICATION QOS AND SECURITY REQUIREMENTS.”

A LOOK TO THE YEAR AHEAD Moving through 2019, advancements in machine-learning technologies mean that SD-WANs are going beyond automation and will enable customers to build a self-driving wide area network that gets smarter every day. Top tier SD-WAN solutions will automate real-time response, eliminating the impact of brownouts and blackouts, as continuous monitoring and analytics detect changing conditions and trigger immediate adjustments.

Enterprises can ensure that organisational priorities are reflected and supported by the way the network behaves when they rely on a business-driven SDWAN. Instead of being responsible for arduous, device-by-device programming to implement network changes on a routercentric WAN model, IT can free up time for other business critical activities. Business intent drives applications, and network resources are priority-driven to match the business criticality of every application.

Looking beyond 2019, the addition of new technologies, such as AI and machine learning, will see SD-WAN become more autonomous and intuitive than ever, helping to further drive business productivity. » SILVER PEAK, SILVER-PEAK.COM

February 2019 | 37

SHOW PREVIEW: DATA CENTRE WORLD

THE HEAR OF TECHN AT DCW FROM PREDICTIONS OF WHAT WILL BE DOMINATING THE CLOUD COMPUTING AND DATA

CENTRE MARKET BY RITTAL, TO WHO IS LAUNCHING WHAT AT DATA CENTRE WORLD 2019.

D

ata Centre World (DCW) is fast approaching, with it set to take place on March 12 -13 at London’s ExCel. Now in its 11th year of delivering the future vision for the industry, DCNN previews some of the top expected trends, opportunities and challenges that you can expect to be on everyone’s lips at the show.

16 | February 2019

RITTAL INDUSTRY PREDICTIONS Rittal, which will be showcasing its expertise in edge computing products and services at DCW, has issued predictions of five key trends for the industry as it moves towards greater AI-based monitoring capabilities and the processing of data in real time with edge computing.

SHOW PREVIEW: DATA CENTRE WORLD

RT HNOLOGY

February 2019 | 17

SHOW PREVIEW: DATA CENTRE WORLD

18 | February 2019

DATA CENTRES WILL ACQUIRE GREATER AI-BASED MONITORING CAPABILITIES

THE CLOUD MARKET WILL BENEFIT FROM HYPERSCALE DATA CENTRES

IT data centre specialists will require assistance systems featuring artificial intelligence (AI), or they will soon find it impossible to operate large and complex IT systems in a fail-safe way.

According to IDC, half the components within large data centres will include integrated AI functions and therefore be operating autonomously by 2022.

Essentially this means that administrators will be reliant on predictive analytics and machine learning – designed to provide predictive fault forecasts and support optimised load balancing – to ensure maximum reliability of their data centres.

Acceptance of the cloud continues to grow and is particularly prevalent across mechanical and plant engineering.

At the same time, investments in hyperscale data centres are increasing globally, an indication of the further spread of the cloud as an operating model.

Researchers at Synergy Reach expect that there will be more than 600 hyperscale data centres worldwide by 2020 – that number currently stands at around 450.

Rittal recommends that IT managers now consider how to balance their onsite edge (or core) data centre and cloud resources, to optimally support application hosting and high availability in line with their corporate strategy.

SHOW PREVIEW: DATA CENTRE WORLD

PROCESSING THE FLOOD OF DATA IN REAL TIME WITH EDGE COMPUTING

LOCATIONS IN NORDIC COUNTRIES WILL HELP TO CUT COSTS

We’re on the cusp of the roll-out of the 5G mobile communications network. The many transmission masts this requires means that the mobile communications infrastructure will have to be expanded through edge data centres.

It will also increase the amount of data that network operators and other companies have to process. CB Insights forecasts that every user will generate an average of 1.5GB of data per day with an internet-enabled device by 2020.

Decentralising IT infrastructure through edge data centres means data can be processed at source, leading to low latency and enabling real-time applications for the control of industrial robots or autonomous vehicle systems. Edge data centres are connected to the cloud to deliver additional data analysis.

Essentially, businesses now need to examine how to expand their IT capacities flexibly over the next couple of years and how to evaluate edge concepts with this in mind.

The general trend towards standardisation is another key factor in achieving the fast deployment time and scalability that the market is demanding from data centres.

The Nordic region has become an attractive location for cloud and co-location providers.

Countries such as Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden offer renewable energy sources, a climate favourable to data centres, very good internet connections and a high level of political and economic stability. Analysts expect the turnover of data centres in the region to grow by 8% per year until 2023.

One famous example is Norway’s Lefdal Mine Datacenter (LMD), with whom Rittal is a strategic and technological partner.

LMD sources its electrical power entirely from renewables, while the cooling system uses local sea water. As a result, the facility achieves a power usage effectiveness (PUE) of 1.15 and operating costs for customers are low.

“Alongside the trend toward greater standardisation, we will see companies expanding their IT infrastructure in a more decentralised way in 2019. This will support the digital initiatives that now form an integral part of a successful corporate strategy.

“One way of doing this is through edge data centres, which can be put into operation very quickly and on the company’s premises as IT containers for instance, and which thus support the digital transformation in all branches of industry.

To find out more about its predictions and to view an array of solutions for edge infrastructure, ranging from rack solutions to turnkey IT containers with cloud connections, visit Rittal on stand D610.

“BUSINESSES NOW NEED TO EXAMINE HOW TO EXPAND THEIR IT CAPACITIES FLEXIBLY OVER THE NEXT COUPLE OF YEARS AND HOW TO EVALUATE EDGE CONCEPTS WITH THIS IN MIND.”

February 2019 | 19

SHOW PREVIEW: DATA CENTRE WORLD

OPTIMISED TECHNOLOGIES WILL INCREASE ENERGY EFFICIENCY Alongside high availability, energy efficiency is seen as the second most important management issue when it comes to operating a data centre.

The energy efficiency of new data centres has improved by roughly 60% over the last decade according to the Borderstep Institute. However, at the same time energy requirements have continued to rise as IT capacities have grown.

For data centre managers, optimising the energy usage of their entire data centre should be the number one priority in the coming year. Hybrid cooling units that integrate free cooling with refrigerantbased cooling are one example of new approaches to cost optimisation.

SIXTH GENERATION STAND With IoT, 5G, edge computing and the software-defined transformation of networks, fibre connectivity has become the nervous system of every data centre and telco infrastructure. Automation of fibre management is critical for the networks to scale, evolve and become future-proof, especially as operators constantly strive to provide innovative services, faster.

This year at DCW, Wave2Wave says it will close the automation gap with its ROME robotic fibre switches and extend softwaredefined networking and automation to the physical layer fibre network. The maker says that ROME leverages robotic motion and software to automate traditional physical connectivity in telcos and data centres, delivering increased performance, management and flexibility whilst reducing operating costs. To see ROME in action and to find out more about the solution from Wave2Wave, visit DCW’s 6th generation data centre stand.

20 | February 2019

SOLUTIONS TO IMPROVE PUE For data centre or facility managers it is a high priority to ensure the most efficient use of existing power and cooling capacities. To reach this goal it is essential to monitor the power and environmental parameters on a regular basis. By doing this, data centre experts are able to identify, analyse and solve power, thermal or security weaknesses and to improve the power usage effectiveness (PUE) in their data centres.

The comprehensive Packet Power wirefree radio monitoring solutions, offered by Daxten and presented at DCW on stand D701, profess to enable the data centre personnel to centrally control and manage several hundred environmental sensors (e.g. for temperature, humidity and differential pressure).

VERTIV SELF-HEALING EDGE PREDICTIONS Vertiv, who will be exhibiting at DCW on stand D720, has also released predictions from its in-house experts anticipating selfsufficient, self-healing edge in service of IoT, 5G. The edge of the network continues to be the epicentre of innovation in the data centre space as the calendar turns to 2019, with activity focusing on increased intelligence designed to simplify operations, enable remote management and service, and bridge a widening skills gap. This increasing sophistication of the edge is among the data centre trends to watch in 2019 and at DCW. “Today’s edge plays a critical role in data centre and network operation and in the delivery of important consumer services,” said Vertiv CEO Rob Johnson.

“This is a dramatic and fundamental change to the way we think about computing and data management. It should come as no surprise that activity in the data centre space in 2019 will be focused squarely on innovation at the edge.”

SHOW PREVIEW: DATA CENTRE WORLD

A SMART APPROACH FROM SOCOMEC Integrated power specialist, Socomec, will be showcasing what it’s calling a ‘breakthrough’ solution at DCW on stand D1140. The maker says the solution provides a helping hand to those responsible for the management of critical electrical infrastructure.

By integrating smart technology within new or existing electrical architecture, the company says that it is now possible to ensure power continuity, reliability and optimised efficiency – all via your smartphone.

Colin Dean, Managing Director Socomec UK, explains, “The effective

management of every UPS within an electrical infrastructure is fundamental to ensuring optimised performance.

By considering the product from the perspective of our customers as well as end-users – and harnessing the power of the latest digital and mobile technology – we have created a disruptive approach to the way that UPS equipment is managed.”

Supporting the Facilities Manager in the optimisation of electrical infrastructure, Socomec’s most recent development will also be available to view at DCW. The solution is said to enable the surveillance of an entire UPS system from a smartphone.

February 2019 | 21

SHOW PREVIEW: DATA CENTRE WORLD

22 | February 2019

SIMPLIFYING THE EDGE

HIGH-POWER PROCESSORS AND ADVANCED COOLING

A smarter, simpler, more self-sufficient edge of the network is converging with broader industry and consumer trends, including the Internet of Things (IoT) and the looming rollout of 5G networks, to drive powerful, low-latency computing closer to the end-user. For many businesses, the edge has become the most mission critical part of their digital ecosystem. Intelligent infrastructure systems with machine learning capabilities working in tandem with cloud-based analytics are fundamentally changing the way we think about edge computing and edge services. The result will be a more robust, efficient edge of the network with enhanced visibility and self-healing capabilities requiring limited active management.

As processor utilisation rates increase to run advanced applications such as facial recognition or advanced data analytics, high-power processors create a need for innovative approaches to thermal management. Direct liquid cooling at the chip – meaning the processor or other components are partially or fully immersed in a liquid for heat dissipation – is becoming a viable solution. Although most commonly used in high-performance computing configurations, the benefits – including better server performance, improved efficacy in high densities, and reduced cooling costs – justify additional consideration. Another area of innovation in thermal management is extreme water-free cooling, which is an increasingly popular alternative to traditional chilled water.

SHOW PREVIEW: DATA CENTRE WORLD

WORKFORCE REVOLUTION A workforce ageing into retirement and training programs lagging behind the data centre and edge evolution are creating staffing challenges for data centres around the globe. This will trigger parallel actions in 2019. First, organisations will begin to change the way they hire data centre personnel, moving away from traditional training programs toward more agile, job-specific instruction with an eye toward the edge. More training will happen inhouse. And second, businesses will turn to intelligent systems and machine learning to simplify operations, preserve institutional knowledge, and enable more predictive and efficient service and maintenance. “In this fast-paced sector very much predicated on the new, it is evident that a shortage of talent with specific skill sets is one of the imminent challenges we face as an industry,” said Giordano Albertazzi, president for Vertiv in Europe, Middle East and Africa. “Intelligent infrastructure management systems will help meet that shortfall, but there also needs to be an orchestrated effort by the private and public sectors to develop the breadth of skills required to address the disruptive changes ahead.”

SMARTER, MORE EFFICIENT UPS SYSTEMS New battery alternatives will present opportunities for the broad adoption of UPS systems capable of more elegant interactions with the grid. In the short term, this will manifest in load management and peak shaving features. Eventually, we will see organisations using some of the stored energy in their UPS systems to help the utility operate the electric grid.

The static storage of all of that energy has long been seen as a revenue-generator waiting to happen. We are moving closer to mainstream applications.

PURSUING NORMALISATION The data centre, even in the age of modular and prefabricated design, remains far too complex to expect fullfledged standardisation of equipment.

However, there is interest on two fronts: standardisation of equipment components and normalisation across data centre builds. The latter is manifesting in the use of consistent architectures and equipment types, with regional differences, to keep systems simple and costs down. In both cases, the goal is to reduce equipment costs, shorten delivery and deployment timelines, and simplify service and maintenance.

RITTAL, RITTAL.COM VERTIV, VERTIVCO.COM DAXTEN, DAXTEN.COM SOCOMEC, SOCOMEC.CO.UK WAVE2WAVE, WAVE-2-WAVE.COM

February 2019 | 23

COOLING: LIQUID COOLING REPORT

THE FUTURE IS LIQUID A NEW RESEARCH REPORT BY GLOBAL MARKET INSIGHTS EXPLAINS WHY THE DATA CENTRE LIQUID COOLING MARKET IS GROWING EXPONENTIALLY; DELVING INTO THE INFLUENCE OF AI AND MACHINE LEARNING.

46 | February 2019

D

T

COOLING: LIQUID COOLING REPORT

he global data centre liquid cooling market is expected to grow from its current market value of £586 million to £1.95 billion by 2025, according to a newly published research report by Global Market Insights.

But why is the liquid cooling market seeing such a surge, and will this method of cooling – as opposed to air-based coolers – continue to peak as we edge ever closer to smarter cities, 5G and increased machine learning capabilities?

THE LIQUID COOLING BOOM As a result of an upsurge in storage densities, workloads and number of servers in the infrastructure, not to mention the need to ensure a data centre operates at 100% uptime, it is no surprise that the cooling market grows at a faster rate (18%) than the data centre market.

In order to avoid excessive heating, solution manufacturers have developed liquid-based offerings to address such high-density requirements. Additionally, to reduce the high network latency in conventional facilities, several edge data centres have emerged. Dense computing features and remote locations of such infrastructures also require efficient cooling due to the high amount of heat generation.

February 2019 | 47

COOLING: LIQUID COOLING REPORT

WHY IS THE LIQUID COOLING MARKET SEEING SUCH A SURGE?

48 | February 2019

KEY REPORT FINDINGS The report by Global Market Insights indicates that the current trends of AI and machine learning implementations in newly developed software and industrial solutions also feature in driving the expected industry growth. With the introduction of TPU 3.0 in its data centres, Google is creating the requirement for efficient cooling solutions, which is resulting in the deployment of liquid coolers across several locations.

The report suggests that the data centre liquid cooling market is hindered by the lack of regulations and standards for manufacturing such solutions. This phenomenon can result in harmful effects on the complex infrastructures. Also, the implementation of these advanced products requires two cooling systems as compared to one in air-based cooling, which limits the deployment cases.

Large data centres were seen to dominate the market with an overall revenue of over 75% generated in 2017 – due to the high adoption of these solutions to address complex and dense storage capabilities of these infrastructures. Data centre liquid cooling market products are developed with the ability to support efficient cooling of the high-density components, and also support the AI integrations. The emergence of edge and colocation facilities across various regions and industry verticals is a major factor driving the growth of the solution segment. With small- and medium-sized infrastructures also having the requirement for these products due to the incompatibility and inefficiency of air-based coolers.

COOLING: LIQUID COOLING REPORT

Findings also suggest that direct immersion cooling solutions are expected to gain high traction in the data centre liquid cooling market. This demand is attributed to the high reliability and compatibility with both CPUs and GPUs. The products have the capacity to cool solid-state drives, which makes the entire process more efficient in comparison to traditional methods. The technology also reduces humidity and heating effects on various network components, further supporting high operational performance.

Additionally, installation and deployment services are also gaining penetration in the industry due to product innovations and the unavailability of skilled deployers with the data centre operators. Solution developers provide efficient maintenance and installation services to customers, further supporting industry expansion.

Colocation application in the data centre liquid cooling market is also expected to witness a high growth rate due to the establishment of several colocation facilities across the globe. The increasing requirement of managing high data storage capabilities in various industry verticals, such as BFSI, IT and telecom etc, is responsible for the establishment of colocation facilities. As a result, liquid coolers are being used across various regional infrastructures. Additionally, the increasing data components in the IT and telecom sectors, owing to enhanced mobile connectivity, utilisation of 5G networks, and usage of the internet, is a major factor accounting for growth in the data centre liquid cooling market.

“THE INCREASING DATA COMPONENTS IN THE IT AND TELECOM SECTORS, OWING TO ENHANCED MOBILE CONNECTIVITY, UTILISATION OF 5G NETWORKS, AND USAGE OF THE INTERNET, IS A MAJOR FACTOR ACCOUNTING THE DATA CENTRE LIQUID COOLING MARKET GROWTH.”

LIQUID COOLING FOR EUROPE Research suggests that the Europe data centre liquid cooling market will also grow over the forecasted timespan, due to establishments of several edge and colocation facilities in various countries.

The increase in data capabilities due to digitised processes in various industries such as BFSI, healthcare in European countries has been coined as a major industry driver. Additionally, the adoption of AI and machine learning technologies in processes across the European manufacturing sector is also developing the data centre liquid cooling market. » GLOBAL MARKET INSIGHTS, GMINSIGHTS.COM

February 2019 | 49

PROJECTS & AGREEMENTS

ATOS DELIVERS ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL QUANTUM SIMULATORS TO HARTREE CENTRE Atos, a European IT services corporation, has announced an agreement with the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s (STFC) Hartree Centre that promises to see one of the UK’s leading high-performance computing research facilities take the first UK delivery of an Atos Quantum Learning Machine.

The company says that its Quantum Learning Machine will be used to develop new quantumbased services designed to help researchers and industry prepare for the coming quantum computing revolution. These include quantum algorithm development and the first UK repository for quantum algorithms, collaborative research projects on quantum computing applications and specialist training.

50 | February 2019

Atos says this new collaboration builds on an established partnership between Atos and the Hartree Centre, which began with the UK’s first Bull Sequana X1000 supercomputer being hosted at the facility in 2017. The Hartree Centre, based at Daresbury Laboratory and part of the Sci-Tech Daresbury Campus in Cheshire, UK, also hosts the JADE national deep learning service.

Commenting on the partnership announcement, Andy Grant, Vice President, HPC & Big Data, Atos UK and Ireland said, “We are delighted to deepen our existing relationship with the Hartree Centre which we believe will help UK industry future-proof itself for the arrival of quantum computing. Our Quantum Learning Machine as a service

will be made available to any organisation wanting to learn about, and experiment with, quantum computing and understand the key opportunities and challenges this technology presents. Quantum is the future of computing and it is crucial that organisations are ready to harness the coming revolution.”

Alison Kennedy, Director of the STFC Hartree Centre, added, “We’re thrilled to be enabling UK companies to explore and prepare for the future of quantum computing. This collaboration will build on our growing expertise in this exciting area of computing and result in more resilient technology solutions being developed for industry.”

ATOS, ATOS.NET

PROJECTS & AGREEMENTS

MAJOR DATA CENTRE PROJECT SET FOR DEVELOPMENT IN IRELAND’S NORTH WEST International data centre developer, Atlantic Hub, has announced that it will develop a flagship IT services and data centre with two mega-hub campus sites in Ireland at Foyle Port Innovation Park (Derry/Londonderry), and Letterkenny (Co. Donegal).

The company says that each campus will offer world-class data centre services, including up to Tier 4 standard, accommodating hyper-scale operator demands for low development and operational costs, and with direct connection to North America. The project is being supported by the GTT transatlantic fibre-optic submarine cable – the fastest connectivity available between North America and Europe (8Tbps capacity).

The growing power demands of hyper-converged data centre infrastructure require significantly higher power density in the data hall, and Atlantic Hub has been deemed best placed to accommodate a wide range of power densities up to 5kW per square meter and accommodating 20kW per rack.

The strategically chosen locations are said to take advantage of the natural geographical advantages of a central time zone for daily business transactions with USA, Europe and Asia, and the beneficial local climate of Ireland’s North West. When this local climate is combined with an innovative data hall cooling design that optimises airflow management for cooling

efficiencies, the company says that the centres will target an industry-leading Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) < 1.2.

Atlantic Hub represents an eco-friendly sustainable data centre development. Energy supply is sourced from 100% certified green power, offering up to 300MW capacity that is integrated into the national transmission system, through new 110kV transmission substations. Each campus is powered by a very reliable and high quality HV power supply system with built in redundancy and N+1 grid transformer arrangement.

Brian Doherty, Managing Director of Atlantic Hub commented, “We are hugely excited to commence the development of the Atlantic Hub project. Atlantic Hub, and its partners, including global telecommunications partner, GTT Communications, represent decades of industry-leading data centre design and management experience, meaning we are ideally placed to address clients’ requirements, especially hyperscale operators, and the need for flexibility of design, low operational costs, fast connectivity and secure hosting capacity.

We are particularly pleased to be bringing this development to the North West Region of Ireland and look forward to progressing the project over the coming months.”

ATLANTIC HUB, ATLANTIC-HUB.COM

February 2019 | 51

PROJECTS & AGREEMENTS

BOSTON NETWORKS LAUNCHES TRANSFORMATIONAL IOT SCOTLAND Boston Networks, the Glasgowheadquartered smart integrated solutions business has launched what it says is the UK’s most advanced Internet of Things (IoT) network – fittingly at Glasgow Science Centre.

IoT Scotland is said to provide a wide area wireless sensor network for applications and services to collect data from devices and send that data without the need for cellular or Wi-Fi, supporting businesses to develop new and innovative applications, changing the way they work.

The six-million-pound network, which will work via 500 LoRa (Long Range) wireless gateways situated throughout Scotland, is part funded by £2.7 million from the Scottish Government, with further support from Scottish Enterprise, Highland and Islands Enterprise (HIE) and private sector investment from Boston Networks itself.

At the launch it was announced that Glasgow will be over 99% covered via 22 gateways that are being installed across the city which, the company says, makes it the most LoRa covered city in the UK, with the potential to become the smartest.

Argyll and Bute Council has also signed up as an early adopter which is said to see early installations in Oban and Helensburgh, and negotiations are also said to be underway with other local councils and other organisations throughout the

52 | February 2019

country with a full roll-out planned

by March 2021. Boston Networks will install and manage all of these devices.

IoT Scotland promises to enable businesses and public sector organisations to monitor and potentially control the status, efficiency and productivity of their assets and equipment, scheduling maintenance and improving production.

Boston Networks Chief Technology Officer, Falk Bleyl commented, “We are excited to be leading this pioneering project to build and operate the IoT network and drive the commercialisation of the Internet of Things across Scotland.

“There will be a forecasted 25 billion IoT devices connected by 2025, and only a small number will be connected to the internet using 3G, 4G or Wi-Fi. LoRa networks like

IoT Scotland are going to become increasingly important – they have the potential to be as disruptive to businesses as the internet has been already to our daily lives.

“IoT Scotland will be the most advanced in the UK, can revolutionise the use of smart technologies and will be rolled out in cities, towns and rural areas across the country. It allows a wide range of users, from public sector organisations to small IoT startups to multinationals to focus on the deployment of sensors and applications, rather than network build.

“There is already interest from other parts of the UK in what we’re doing here in Scotland, and there is potential for us to roll-out similar infrastructure elsewhere.”

BOSTON NETWORKS, BOSTONNETWORKS.CO.UK

PROJECTS & AGREEMENTS

DIGICERT AND UTIMACO WORK ON SECURING THE FUTURE OF IOT DigiCert, a provider of TLS/SSL, IoT and PKI solutions; Utimaco, Hardware Security Module providers; and Microsoft Research, a leader in quantum-safe cryptography, have announced a successful test implementation of the ‘Picnic’ algorithm, with digital certificates used to encrypt, authenticate and provide integrity for connected devices commonly referred to as the Internet of Things (IoT). The proof of concept is said to provide a path towards a full solution, one which aims to protect IoT devices from future threats quantum computing could pose to today’s widely used cryptographic algorithms.

Currently, most IoT devices use RSA and ECC to protect confidentiality, integrity and authenticity for device identities and communication. Dr. Brian LaMacchia from Microsoft Research, however, predicts that large-scale quantum computers capable of breaking RSA and ECC public key cryptography will exist within the next 10 to 15 years. Although this might seem like a long time away, many devices such as connected cars, smart homes, connected cities, connected medical devices and other critical infrastructures will either live longer than this or will take longer to update.

“DigiCert, Microsoft Research and Utimaco are collaborating today to solve tomorrow’s problem of defending connected

devices and their networks against the new security threats that the implementation of quantum computers will unleash,” said Avesta Hojjati, Head of DigiCert Labs, the company’s R&D unit. “Together, we are leading the market with development of hybrid certificates that inject quantum-resistant algorithms alongside RSA and ECC to ensure long-term protection.”

The certificates are issued by DigiCert using the Picnic quantumsafe digital signature algorithm developed by Microsoft Research.

To implement this algorithm and issue certificates, DigiCert has used an Utimaco Hardware Security Module. Once completed

the companies hope the solution will provide quantum-safe digital certificate issuance and secure key management, helping companies future-proof their IoT deployments.

“DigiCert, Utimaco and Microsoft’s successful test implementation provides a fundamental building block for the implementation of quantumsafe solutions,” said Dr. Thorsten Grötker, CTO at Utimaco. “Using these solutions, IoT manufacturers and other large organisations can innovate and develop products that are well prepared against coming quantum threats.”

DIGICERT, DIGICERT.COM; UTIMACO, UTIMACO.COM

February 2019 | 53

PROJECTS & AGREEMENTS

CLOUD TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS ANNOUNC EDUCATION COLLABORATION WITH GOOGLE Cloud Technology Solutions (CTS) has been selected by Google Cloud as its partner of choice for all higher education Google Cloud Platform (GCP) opportunities in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Headquartered in Manchester, CTS says it became the largest dedicated Google Cloud practice in Europe following its recent merger with data science specialist Qlouder. The company also professes to have migrated more than eight million users to the cloud since 2008 under its CloudM brand, and says it offers an end-to-end solution for its clients, encompassing modernising infrastructure and transforming working through to innovative data solutions.

54 | February 2019

GCP’s suite of cloud solutions for storage, compute, big data and machine learning can support higher education by allowing for the latest technological infrastructure and research.

Implementing the latest IT infrastructure is said to enable educators to spend less time managing resources and more time supporting students. Additionally, powerful tools such as Compute Engine virtual machines, BigQuery and TensorFlow can enable students and researchers to perform fast analysis and scale with ease.

Commenting on why CTS was chosen as the higher education partner, Brian Gibson, Google Cloud

Higher Education & Research Sales Lead for Europe, said, “Making technology more widely available to the research and education community is something we believe in deeply as a company. We are proud to be a part of this unique cloud offer for the European Research and Education community through GÉANT and our choice of CTS as a partner to make this a reality was the ideal fit.

Our collaboration with CTS will deliver a complete range of Google Cloud services across the research and education community.”

James Doggart, CEO and founder of Cloud Technology Solutions, added, “We’re thrilled to have been

PROJECTS & AGREEMENTS

CES HIGHER CLOUD chosen as Google Cloud’s partner for GCP higher education, allowing us to further expand on our existing portfolio of services.

“As the education system continues to evolve, institutions across the globe need to respond to these changes to ensure they get the most out of the latest infrastructures. GCP allows for the adaptations needed in higher education to facilitate the next generation of researchers and, as always, our customers can expect the same quality service as with our existing projects.”

CLOUD TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS, CLOUDSOLUTIONS.CO.UK

February 2019 | 55

COMPANY SHOWCASE

SPONSORED STORIES FROM THE INDUSTRY

DIGICERT ANNOUNCES CERTCENTRAL ENTERPRISE FOR ENTERPRISE CLOUD AND HOSTED TLS/SSL ENVIRONMENTS DigiCert, a provider of TLS/SSL, IoT and PKI solutions, has announced DigiCert CertCentral Enterprise, a certificate management platform for cloud and hosted environments.

CertCentral Enterprise is said to comprise the most modern tools and technologies, providing enterprise customers better control over certificate security and compliance. Organisations enjoy 24/7 visibility, at-scale rapid remediation, and trusted expertise and guidance to protect their businesses, customers and reputations. The company says that CertCentral Enterprise pulls together the combined strengths of DigiCert and the acquired Symantec Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) businesses.

“DigiCert CertCentral Enterprise is the culmination of efforts to bring together the best features and scalability that the world’s leading enterprises expect from their certificate provider,” said Dan Timpson, Chief Technology Officer at DigiCert. “CertCentral Enterprise makes it easy for enterprise customers using a TLS management console from a formerly Symantec-owned brand to upgrade and enjoy all the features they are used to, plus several new additions. This platform is the result of customer testing and feedback and addresses their common pain points in an intuitive way.”

DigiCert’s solution promises to give enterprises a more sophisticated set of account management

56 | February 2019

tools so they can better govern TLS/SSL certificate deployment within their business units. The additional features in CertCentral Enterprise are said to enable enterprise customers to: iscover and manage all publicly and privately trusted D certificates across the enterprise with automated continuous search and monitoring capabilities.

Automate certificate management workflows via REST and GraphQL APIs and industry standard protocols such as ACME. Gain insights into enterprise usage with audits and customised reporting.

Define custom certificate validity periods.

Gain value through automated proration of certificate usage.

Enjoy flexible payment methods and business unit segmentation.

Increase security with SAML single sign-on, multifactor authentication and IP address restrictions for certificate requests.

Enable role-based access and customise enterprise workflows such as guest URLs for quick certificate requests.

DIGICERT, DIGICERT.COM

SPONSORED STORIES FROM THE INDUSTRY

COMPANY SHOWCASE

EXTREME NETWORKS PROTECTS SMART CITIES WITH DEFENDER FOR IOT The use of IoT devices is proliferating in every industry, and with this growth comes risk – reports of IoT attacks increased 600% from 2016 to 2017. To protect enterprise networks, Extreme Networks, has announced the general availability of Extreme Networks’ Defender for IoT, a simple security solution to help organisations secure unsecured IoT devices. The company says its Defender for IoT can be deployed on any network and claims to be easy to use – even non-technical staff at schools, hospitals, retailers and hospitality venues are said to be able to use it to isolate and protect both wired and wireless IoT devices from cyberattacks.

IoT devices present two major security flaws for businesses today.

Most lack embedded security – they were built to run on private networks where the assumption was it was tightly controlled, and devicelevel security wasn’t required.

Manufacturers never considered that the private enterprise network could be connected to the public internet, and therefore the devices may run out-of-date operating systems, have hardcoded passwords and/ or lack antivirus and firewall capabilities. And they are typically deployed in a flat or unsegmented network so that if breached, the attacker can gain access to sensitive areas of the network.

Extreme Networks’ Defender for IoT, part of its Smart OmniEdge solution, promises to solve these challenges by delivering the following:

IoT security without the complexity: Defender for IoT is said to be simple to deploy and easy to maintain. Users simply plug the defender adapter into an Ethernet port, and run the associated application. The Defender application is then said to learn the typical traffic patterns of network devices, and dynamically generate a security policy that locks down what a device communicates with and how it can communicate; automating edge network security for the enterprise.

Once initial device profiles have been dynamically generated, non-technical staff can easily place the adapter between the device and the network and apply the appropriate security profile using a simple dropdown menu.

egmentation and isolation of IoT S devices: With layer 2-7 visibility, the company says its Defender for IoT allows users to easily segment groups of IoT devices into multiple, isolated secure zones, reducing the network attack surface. Users can also centrally monitor and track device usage, location and roaming. This helps customers mitigate the risk of an attacker gaining access to more sensitive areas of the network.

D eployable on any network infrastructure: Defender for IoT claims to work with any vendor’s IP network, providing in-line protection of IoT devices and segmentation through IPSec tunnels – without network changes.

EXTREME NETWORKS, EXTREMENETWORKS.COM

February 2019 | 57

COMPANY SHOWCASE

SPONSORED STORIES FROM THE INDUSTRY

CUSTOMER PORTAL PUTS COLO DATA CENTRES & CUSTOMERS BACK IN CONTROL Data centre software specialist Powerapp has launched a new customer portal solution which promises to help colocation providers save time, share information and empower their customers.

The team behind Powerapp, which is said to accurately track and bill colocation customers’ power usage, have developed a webbased customer portal which helps data centres automate processes while providing customers with easy access to the information and services they need.

“Our new customer portal puts colocation data centres and their customers back in control” said

58 | February 2019

Jesper Boyd Rudbeck, Managing Director. “The app helps providers automate many manual processes and accurately document every action or event, which is important for achieving and maintaining standards like ISO27001.”

The company says its customer portal allows colocation data centre clients to monitor their energy use whilst performing tasks such as authorising visitor access, requesting support and announcing equipment deliveries.

The portal has already been successfully adopted in a number of commercial data centres, including Datacenter.com in Amsterdam where it is reported to

have eliminated a number of timeconsuming tasks and increased transparency with customers.

“Having explored developing our own system, Powerapp’s Customer Portal proved much quicker and more cost-effective to deploy” added Jochem Steman, CEO of Datacenter.com. “With minimal set up, it’s provided all the functionality we needed to become more efficient. It’s been very popular amongst our customers as they can easily manage access, request support and announce deliveries directly through the portal.”

POWERAPP, POWERAPP.DK

SPONSORED STORIES FROM THE INDUSTRY

COMPANY SHOWCASE

RIELLO UPS EXTENDS POWER RANGE OF ITS ‘SUPER-EFFICIENT’ NEXTENERGY RANGE Riello UPS, a manufacturer of uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) and standby power systems, has expanded its NextEnergy (NXE) range with a new 400 kVA model.

The company says its much-anticipated NXE 400 incorporates the latest transformerless technologies to deliver TÜV-certified operational efficiency up to 97%, while its original Efficiency Control System minimises wasted energy even at partial loads.

Already available in 250kVA and 300kVA versions, the more powerful NXE 400 is a similarlyproven solution for protecting mission-critical applications in a compact footprint.

The company says its three-phase UPS delivers a unity power factor and incorporates a whole host of energy-saving features including eco and smart active operating modes that profess to enable 99% efficiency, plus speed-controlled fans that adjust depending on the load level.

Leo Craig, Riello UPS General Manager, commented, “Delivering category-leading efficiency in a compact footprint, we’re sure this increased power version of the NextEnergy UPS will quickly become a firm favourite with our customers.

“Its large touchscreen display makes it easy to check all vital measurements and modify operating modes or settings, putting maximum power at your fingertips.”

Offering flexibility with bottom and top cable entry, the NXE range is said to be able to operate without a neutral connection so is suitable for three-wire installations. According to Riello, front to top ventilation eliminates rear clearance, allowing for space-saving back-to-back installation, while complete front panel access enables easy servicing and UPS maintenance too.

Up to eight NXE UPS can be paralleled together to increase capacity or add redundancy. For

installations in more challenging environments, redundant fans and individual fan failure alarms are fitted as standard and can be coupled with an optional IP 31 protection package.

In a further boost for the NextEnergy range, the existing 250 and 300kVA versions have earned a place on the Energy Technology List (ETL), a government-backed directory of recommended energy efficient products.

RIELLO UPS, RIELLO-UPS.CO.UK

February 2019 | 59

NEXT ISSUE: BOYD/VPN/AI/BIG DATA EXPO

NEXT TIME… AS WELL AS ITS REGULAR RANGE OF FEATURES AND NEWS ITEMS, THE NEXT ISSUE OF DATA CENTRE & NETWORK NEWS WILL CONTAIN MAJOR FEATURES ON BOYD, VPN, AI AND BIG DATA EXPO PREVIEW. To make sure you don’t miss the opportunity to advertise your products to this exclusive readership, call Ian on 01634 673163 or email Ian@allthingsmedialtd.com.

REGISTER TODAY dcnnmagazine.com

Have your free edition delivered straight to your inbox each month.