NEXT GENERATION DATA

EME N E X T G E N E R AT I O N DATA

Providing the platform for technological progression

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The Data Centre Superpower Behind the Digital Economy Next Generation Data is not just Europe’s largest data centre. It’s a flagship facility that’s providing the platform for technological progression Writer: Jonathan Dyble | Project Manager: Ashley Parfitt

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he past four decades have seen the world become transformed by technology, evident in the advent of the internet in 1983. Since then, global connectivity has exploded to say the least.

Recent statistics have shown that there were 4.1 billion recorded internet users spanning the globe as of January 1, 2019, while Google currently processes over seven billion search queries a day.

In line with the global digital

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revolution, many companies’ IT operations continue to become more and more sophisticated, requiring ever more advanced technologies in order to store and manage increasingly complex data.

Contrary to popular belief, such data is stored in physical servers situated in expansive buildings that are the lifeblood of both the internet and huge numbers of progressive businesses.

These buildings, in many cases, are known as data centres.

“The data centre industry is often comparable to the construction industry,” explains Simon Bearne, Commercial Director of Next Generation Data (NGD). “Without good foundations, the development of adequate IT infrastructure is not possible as it will inevitably fall down.

“This is where facilities like our own come in, acting as the hidden face behind the success of global corporations, providing the platform that allows them to embrace digital technologies.”

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SPIE UK is a smart engineering and technology-driven solutions provider for the built environment.

We engineer, manage and optimise smart spaces and places leveraging emerging technologies for our customers that improve where people work, learn and live.

Delivering data centre excellence

Smart Expert design installations for for optimum better efficiencies space utilisation

SPIE, sharing a vision for the future @SPIEUK SPIE-UK

www.spieuk.com

Dedicated on-site expert team

Outstanding value for whole-life results

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CAPACITY SPIE UK

supporting

Helping keep people connected and their data safe.

Experts in the ever-expansive data centre sector, we provide smart, forward-thinking, energy-efficient and innovative engineering solutions that meet the needs of today’s and tomorrow’s customers.

Principal designer and contractor on all development phases of Europe’s largest data centre, NGD, we deliver full bespoke turnkey solutions, including:

SPIE’s unique collaborative 10-year relationship with NGD is testament to our ongoing support of their critical environments and continuous high-performance engineering delivery:

Mechanical & Electrical

Design and construction of 30+ data halls

HV/MV/LV

Provision of resilient power supply

Fire systems

Innovative design for industry-leading PUE

Building fabric and civil engineering works

Installed private network feeds from a National Grid substation

Commissioning Critical power Full integrated system testing

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Seizing the opportunity

Situated between Cardiff and Newport in South Wales, UK, the NGD facility currently stands at a monumental 750,000 square feet, large enough to freely rotate nine jumbo jets simultaneously across its three floors.

Renowned as Europe’s largest data centre, NGD has invested millions of pounds and expanded rapidly in the 12 years since its inception, when founders and serial entrepreneurs Nick Razey and Simon Taylor identified a major gap in the market.

Realising the struggles of many enterprise organisations, government departments and research establishments when it came to justifying the cost of operating their own servers, combined with the rapidly falling price of fibre networks, the duo decided to redevelop an unused site and create a revolutionary data centre.

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WHAT IS A DATA CENTRE? Data centres are centralised facilities where networking and computing equipment is concentrated in order to collect, store, process and/or distribute large amounts of data.

They are made up of data servers that make data centres, in essence, the saving locations for files accessible from the internet.

As such, data centres are often used by enterprises to house their key business-critical applications and information.

They are composed of a number of technical elements such as routers, switches, security devices, servers, storage systems, delivery controllers and more.

Many large internet companies opt to operate their own dedicated data centres, while other such buildings, including NGD, provide storage services to multiple clients.

About SPIE UK SPIE UK is a smart engineering and technologydriven solutions provider for the built environment. We engineer, manage and optimise smart spaces and places leveraging emerging technologies for our customers that improve where people work, learn and live.

With specialist expertise across all technical aspects of the built environment from concept and design through to operation, we deliver best value for our customers. SPIE provides smart city and smart workspace solutions that consider economics, wellbeing, asset life span, energy efficiency and maintainability.

Data Centre Excellence The digital age is making our world smarter, with growth in data centre demand increasing to meet our needs. At SPIE UK, we provide innovative and energy-efficient solutions to our customers, supporting their needs for criticality and business continuity in the ever-evolving data centre sector.

Our complete range of services means we design, install and maintain data centre engineering installations to the highest standard through our project teams and UK-wide network of highly-skilled mobile engineers. Combined with our whole-life capability, we create solutions for improving building performance and sustainability.

and civil engineering works, SPIE is proud to be NGD’s engineering partner.

To date, SPIE has been responsible for the design and construction of 30 plus data halls and associated facilities. From the first build in 2009, SPIE continues to demonstrate high quality performance through the delivery of end-user focused solutions for critical power and cooling, white space fit-out including partitions, raised access floors and suspended ceilings, all incoming building services and containment, corridors, security space and storage areas.

SPIE’s collaborative approach has created a unique customer relationship, enabling us to work closely, to plan, design and construct data halls and resilient infrastructure to suit NGD’s evolving facility and increasing blue chip customer base. Our on-site team provides feasibility models, cost planning and technical consultancy; a fundamental part of developing and delivering bespoke solutions for NGD and their end clients. An established and fully integrated supply chain ensures that we deliver projects within industry-leading timescales – vital in this fast-moving sector.

NGD Partnership

To ensure site security, our team worked with NGD to design and install a complete security solution; from the gatehouse and perimeter camera systems to the high security fencing and turnstiles, with biometric entry systems on the data halls and a bespoke control room to ensure surveillance around the clock.

SPIE has been NGD’s Principal Designer and Contractor for the 10 years that they have been operating at the Newport site, providing design, installation and commissioning services on all phases of the data centre development. Delivering everything from HVAC, HV/MV/LV power, life safety and security systems, building fabric

Currently delivering the design and installation of three new data-halls with associated power trains, SPIE is committed to supporting NGD to grow and develop secure, flexible data centre solutions for their end user customers, taking their leading facility to the next level.

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“The building, equivalent in size to London Heathrow’s Terminal 5, had been standing empty for several years,” reveals Justin Jenkins, the company’s CEO. “Nick and Simon saw the opportunity to repurpose the site as a data centre like no other, and with the Welsh Assembly Government as landlord it was ideal.”

JUSTIN JENKINS, CEO

Appointed CEO of NGD in 2018, Jenkins brings a wealth of IT and data centre industry experience to his role. He has been part of the senior management team at the company for the past 10 years, previously serving as Data Centre Director, Chief Technology Officer and latterly Chief Operating Officer. Prior to joining NGD, Jenkins held posts with a number of entrepreneurial technology businesses, and previous to this was with Sony Computer Entertainment for several years in a variety of IT and infrastructure roles.

SIMON BEARNE, COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR Bearne joined NGD as Commercial Director in 2016. He has considerable industry business experience gained from senior sales and marketing positions at companies such as Mars, Cable & Wireless Communications, Colt and most recently Claranet, Europe’s largest independent managed services provider.

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To this day, NGD’s location and size remain among its crucial differentiators, not limited by the confines of space and the power limitations that many of its competitors are increasingly struggling with.

“10 years ago, all the major data centres were clustered in and around London, partly to get the metro business affinity, but also because telecommunications bandwidth was expensive and located around the English capital,” explains Bearne.

“However, as bandwidth costs have since plummeted and the digital economy has taken off, our core outof-town business model has proved to be a good bet as global digital players continue to raise their demands for facilities on the scale of NGD. “Unlike many others, we are able to provide our customers with the option of seamless forward expansion whenever it may be required.”

Fast forward to the present day and NGD is home to an impressive and growing list of blue-chip corporations, global cloud service providers and major systems integrators including BT, IBM and Nokia, as well as UK government departments and one of the world’s largest software companies.

Effective and efficient

Despite being a defining factor in NGD’s market-leading scale, the size of the data centre is just one element of its unrivalled stature, with a second such differentiator being its power offerings.

Not only is all power 100 percent renewably sourced, the giant facility is connected directly to the national 400 kV Super Grid. NGD is able to draw as much as 180 MW from the grid, enough to deliver smooth, reliable power to 22,000 high-density racks. Further, discussions are underway to expand this to 270 MW in the future.

STULZ

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TULZ is a long-term supplier to NGD and has been championing the development of air conditioning systems in data centres for over 50 years. This proficiency, together with experience from thousands of successful projects around the world, is reflected in innovative cooling solutions. The company’s air conditioning systems are available in numerous options and stand for quality and reliability. All Stulz cooling solutions are specifically designed for the individual project and business critical environment, where reliability and energy efficiency is paramount.

STULZ UK delivered energy efficient cooling technology as part of NGD’s data centre expansion in Newport – meeting some of the toughest deadlines in the industry. Renowned for its industry-leading, 16-week build-out programmes, NGD specified 114 GE Hybrid Cooling Systems, from Stulz, comprising direct expansion (DX) cooling and free cooling technology.

The hybrid system allows NGD to maximise its energy savings by switching to free-cooling mode, or mixed mode, during cooler months.

“To keep things moving at the right pace, suppliers are required to adjust the design and build of their products in accordance to the build schedule and deliver them just in time for installation to prevent costly delays,” explained Phil Smith, NGD’s Construction Director. He observed that the solution was a “great example of how data centres can work Xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx with trusted, reliable and dedicated supply chain partners”.

STULZ UK Ltd First Quarter, Blenheim Road Epsom, Surrey, KT19 9QN T 01372 749666 E sales@stulz.co.uk

www.stulz.co.uk Follow us: Xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx

STULZ stands for precision air-conditioning of the highest level.

Whether customized or standardized, data center or industrial application, chiller or software; rely on STULZ for your mission critical cooling.

STULZ – your One Stop Shop. www.stulz.co.uk

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“To put this in perspective, 250 MW is the power consumed by a small city, while typical UK data centres are generally found to be in the five to 30 MW range,” reveals Jenkins This connection is unique to NGD, and is a key reason as to why the facility has witnessed zero unplanned downtime since it commenced business in 2009.

The CEO continues: “97 percent of power delivery problems occur as a result of electricity distribution, something that we are able to completely bypass with our direct connection.”

Further, alongside this, NGD has also sought improvement by housing a construction village on-site, encouraging the establishment of a permanent manned core presence for its network of leading contractors such as SPIE, Schneider Electric, Stulz and Vertiv.

Similarly, the company also accommodates staff from many of its OEM vendors, with their on-site presence providing a depth of expertise.

Working closely with its suppliers, NGD is able to both breed close relationships and maintain optimal structural efficiency throughout the business.

“This approach is part and parcel of how we maintain industry leading build times,” states Bearne. “We’ve never been confronted with a customer that needs a bespoke or custom build that we haven’t been able to deliver within a reasonable timeframe.”

All things combined, NGD secures a multitude of cost benefits, with its real estate financials being significantly lower than London and its manpower costs being 40 percent cheaper, while its power costs are 10 percent less than industry standard and build costs almost a third lower than those typically seen in data centres.

WB POWER SERVICES

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B Power Services (WBPS) are a leading critical power specialist that provides critical power solutions, maintenance and hire to customers across the UK. With over 35 years in the industry, operating from our Midlands based head office with regional depots throughout the UK. WBPS has experience in all aspects of power generation working in line with ISO 9001, 14001 & OSHAS 18001 accredited standards.

Our services range from basic supply of generators through to a complete consulting and design service., with project management including initial site surveys, design of systems, installation, testing and commissioning, standard product sales, maintenance packages & hire.

WB Power Services Critical Power Solutions Business Unit Sectors are:

Critical Power Solutions

Bespoke Turnkey power solutions for projects, our in-house design department considers all possible elements of your power requirements including civil work, transformers, control and switch gear, AMF and synchronous controls, generator and UPS, acoustic and complete fuel solutions. Working across a diverse range of industries sectors.

Hire

Extensive fleet of hire generators, fuel tanks, load banks, cable distribution, traffic management, UPS, tower lights and fuel management solutions to hire for planned and emergency power requirements, fully supported by our in-house transport and logistics team.

Maintenance

WBPS provide maintenance packages tailored to your site and contract requirements. WBPS deliver maintenance packages ranging from single site, single set contracts to multi site National Providing prexxxxxxxxx planned Xxxxxxxxcontracts. xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx services , load bank testing & guaranteed emergency response times.

Generator sales A Kohler SDMO Gold Dealer, our standard product sales range’s from 5 kVA to 830 kVA, with larger bespoke solutions available up to 3.3mVA via our special project division. WBPS also supply, and will purchase your used generator sets.

Credit: by Joanna Ward WBPS For further Information contact WBPS: T +44 (0) 1159 444 422 E sales@wbpsltd.co.uk

www.wbpsltd.co.uk Xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx

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WBPS is a Leading Critical Power Specialist WB Power Services have been providing bespoke solutions for over 35 years

Here at WB Power Services, we are proud to be the preferred critical power solutions provider for Next Generation Data. We provide LV and HV packages in excess of 4mW. Our base generator range includes standard units from 10kVA to 3.3mVA, with options for complete synchronising packages too.

Whether you have a small pumping station or a large data centre, WBPS can offer bespoke turnkey power solutions to meet your specific requirements. WBPS specialise in all espects of critical power solutions, including diesel generators, turnkey projects, standard product sales, used set sales and purchase, maintainence and hire, CHP, UPS, HV transformers, switch gear, acoustic solutions, fuel installations and infrastructure upgrades.

Contact us to find out more about our solutions:

01159 444 422

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sales@wbpsltd.co.uk

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www.wbpsltd.co.uk

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VERTIV

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ertiv brings together hardware, software, analytics and ongoing services to ensure its customers’ vital applications run continuously, perform optimally and grow with their business needs.

The company solves the most important challenges facing today’s data centres, communication networks and commercial and industrial facilities with a portfolio of power, cooling and IT infrastructure solutions and services that extends from the cloud to the edge of the network.

Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, USA, Vertiv employs around 20,000 people and does business in more than 130 countries.

The company owns three flagship brands: • Chloride is a suite of global industrial power solutions designed to meet the most demanding technical specifications and provide safe, reliable power.

Hoping for the best in the event of real-life loss of mains power simply isn’t an option...

Absolute proof comes with black testing” Advancement through adaptability

An innovative company by nature and a market pioneer by name, NGD is equally defined by its forward-thinking approach.

One such example of this can be found in the company’s attitudes towards critical power checks, regularly undertaking full-scale black testing to ensure that its systems and backup power networks will function correctly in the event of an emergency.

“Hoping for the best in the event of real-life loss of mains power simply isn’t an option,” explains Jenkins.

“Absolute proof comes with black testing. “ “Every six months, with the

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permission of our customers, NGD isolates incoming mains grid power and for up to 16 seconds the uninterruptible power supply takes the full load while the emergency backup generators kick in.

“It’s done under strictly controlled conditions and we are only cutting the power to one side of a duplicated infrastructure, but it ensures we operate in the most reliable way possible.”

Similarly, the firm’s technical knowhow and wider services emphasise this admirable attitude, demonstrated by its flexible customerfirst offerings.

Building in a modular fashion, NGD aligns its profiles to customer orders

• Liebert is a global power and thermal management solutions brand, providing leading power and cooling technologies.

• NetSure is a set of power systems which deliver high availability, energy efficiency and scalability for converged networks.

Vertiv operates from sites the world over, a network comprising 28 manufacturing and assembly facilities, more than 250 service centres and 16 customer experience centres and labs.

“We offer unsurpassed global scale Xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx and broad expertise, built from our heritage as Emerson Network Power,” the company states in its corporate presentation. “And now as Vertiv, we match industry leadership with the focus and spirit of a startup.”

As well as Next Generation Data, Vertiv serves clients all around the world, including Alibaba, Alstom, AT&T, China Mobile, Ericsson and Vodafone.

T +44 023 8061 0311

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on a case-by-case basis, enabling it to incorporate the latest solutions and technologies to flexibly suit any of its customers’ needs.

“From standard co-location to hyperscale, we can work to any requirements,” says Bearne.

“Ultimately, its our mission to offer enterprise corporations and IT service providers with a worldclass out of town colocation and IT services hosting facility that offers unprecedented levels of space, power and physical security at significantly lower costs compared to London and the surrounding area.”

Further, enabled by its ever-growing Rapid Build Programme, NGD is able to maintain a leading 16-week delivery timescale on any project, all the while maximising economies of scale and maintaining high quality throughout.

Exceeding standards

The firm’s staff are another crucial element of its success, renowned as some of the region’s leading industry experts.

“Skills shortages are not a huge issue for the company,” explains Bearne.

“We’re a major tech business in the

region, so it has become increasingly easy for us to both attract and retain the staff we need as the business has grown.”

Able to draw high performers from across Wales and South West England, described by the UK government as the home of the largest density of technology specialists and companies outside of Silicon Valley, NGD’s staff are well versed in dealing with the most complex and evolved data centre issues.

We’re a major tech business in the region, so it has become increasingly easy for us to both attract and retain the staff we need as the business has grown”

SCHNEIDER ECOSTRUXURE POWER EcoStruxure: Innovation at Every Level EcoStruxure Power is Schneider Electric’s IoT Enabled Power distribution (medium voltage & low voltage) and management architecture that helps Next Generation Data take advantage of the new energy paradigm to improve people safety, increase reliability and business efficiency all in a sustainable way.

Comprising of three layers of technology, EcoStruxure Power brings benefits around network performance, asset management and energy monitoring, as well as full electrical system control.

Connected products: The Internet of Things starts with the best things. Our IoT-enabled bestin-class connected products include breakers, drives, UPSs, relays, sensors, and more. Devices with embedded intelligence enable better decisionmaking throughout operations.

Edge control: Mission-critical scenarios can be unpredictable, so control of devices at the edge of the IoT network is a must. This essential capability provides real-time solutions that enable local control at the edge, protecting safety and uptime.

Applications, analytics, and services: Interoperability is imperative to supporting the diverse hardware and Xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx systems in data centres.

EcoStruxure™ enables a breadth of predicative maintenance, remote services, advanced analytics and 24-seven decision making support.

Providing innovation at every level EcoStruxure deliveries enhanced value around safety, reliability, operational efficiency, sustainability, and connectivity to our customers.

www.schneider-electric.co.uk

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Next Generation Data provides highly

data storage & management for its customers with Schneider EcoStruxure Power schneider-electric.co.uk #WhatsYourBigIdea

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However, the company hires a diverse range of individuals, not only basing its decisions and recruitment on expertise but equally alternative skills, as Jenkins reveals.

“Some of our best people are great not because of their technical nous, but because of their attitude and soft skills,” he states. “There’s a strong argument for hiring the right people and then training them up with the relevant skills – something we actively seek to promote throughout the business with multiple initiatives.”

Equally, we’re bringing up cloud gateways so that people in the data centre can connect to the popular public cloud”

Last year alone, NGD invested over £40 million in the continued development of the data centre and its capabilities, and Jenkins is expecting similar figures for 2019.

“Much of this will go into our expansion plans, but we have also Spearheading change been concentrating on enhancing Alongside such initiatives, the company general facilities for client use, from invests heavily on bolstering the meetings suites to additional offices, facility and its capabilities year-on-year, better security, and a new operational investment that has been fundamental centre to better cater to the size and in allowing it to remain well ahead of scale of our facilities,” he states. the curve.

Equally, with the arrival of the hyper-

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connected internet of things (IoT) and the rapid rise in cloud adoption, data centre connectivity will continue to become ever-more crucial – a fact that NGD has identified with its recent investments.

Bearne reveals: “Cloud is fast becoming mainstream, and we’ve invested quite considerably in our carrier relationships. We know that a data centre is only as good as its communications infrastructure, so we have sought to focus on this heavily.”

“It is safe to say that the industry

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is on the up, with more and more projects involving high-performance computing (HPC) and supporting complex technologies such as artificial intelligence that consume more power per unit area.

“All of these things require not only the most advanced IT solutions, but equally first-class connectivity solutions in order to succeed, something that our investments have been helping to ensure.”

Alongside this, the evolution of rack densities remains one of the most promising areas of development in the data centre industry, and is one that the company remains heavily involved in.

“It’s something we absolutely love,” Bearne continues, “and it really plays to the way we’ve always operated.”

“With our custom builds and technical knowhow, combined with our close relationships with vendors, we’re very good at coming up with all manner of bespoke solutions surrounding cooling, stretching right into high performance computing (HPC) – not something that every data centre can do.”

Keeping it simple by concentrating on the basics such as the provision of space, power and cooling, and doing

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so better than any of its competitors by using the best technologies around and best practice, NGD continues to make progress on all fronts.

Pioneering progress

A true entrepreneurial success story, NGD has redefined the way in which outsourced data centre service provision can and should be done in the modern-day digital era.

With its unrivalled space, security, power, resilience and optimal energy management, alongside the provision of multiple high-speed fibre and cloud

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connectivity solutions, the company offers a scalable, future-proof solution, establishing itself as an industry figurehead and world class data centre brand.

Looking ahead, having succeeded in breaking the data centre mould by championing innovation on all fronts, Jenkins asserts NGD will strive, as ever, to achieve new levels of critical facilities and operational excellence in order to go above and beyond.

The CEO concludes: “As the scale, intensity and economics of running data centres continues to heighten, we expect that fewer enterprises will elect to run their own.

“Should this be the case, then I’m proud to say that as one of the most affordable and best independently run facilities, not only in Europe but across the globe, NGD will remain well positioned to capitalise on both new business and expanding market trends as we continue to provide the latest, most effective and most efficient solutions to our customers.”

Next Generation Data Tel: +44 (0) 1633 674 518 info@nextgenerationdata.co.uk www.nextgenerationdata.co.uk

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N E X T G E N E R AT I O N D ATA Tel: +44 (0)1633 674 518 info@nextgenerationdata.co.uk www.nextgenerationdata.co.uk

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