Photos: Inside a $250m+ datacenter complex

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Kao London One datacenter

This is Kao London One, the first of four co-location datacenters to be built at the Kao Data Campus in Harlow, England, 20 miles north of London.
When completed, the £200 million campus will measure about 150,000-square feet in size and support 35MW of IT equipment.
This gallery walks you through the new Kao London One datacenter, inside and out.
SEE: A guide to data center automation (ZDNet special report) | Download the report as a PDF (TechRepublic)

Image: Kao Data
On-site security

The Kao Data Campus has multiple layers of security, including campus perimeter fencing, datacenter security fencing, vehicle barriers, bi-folding speed gates and pedestrian turnstiles.
CCTV cameras inside and outside the campus are monitored 24/7, while uniformed guards help restrict access to authorized personnel.
The campus and datacenter is partitioned into security zones, through which movement is controlled using an electronic access-control system.

Image: Nick Heath / TechRepublic
Outside the data hall

Each datacenter can host more than 2,000 42U to 58U servers per building.
Firms can connect to their servers in the center via fiber or copper lines, with network connections able to be routed from different carriers or telco operators, or between organizations based in the campus.

Image: Nick Heath / TechRepublic
Data hall

A data hall inside the Kao London One datacenter, which can support 2.2MW-worth of IT equipment.
Once completed the four datacenters in the campus will support 8.8MW-worth of equipment.

Image: Nick Heath / TechRepublic
Enclosed space

Server racks can be kept in enclosures, which use hot-aisle containment to allow for higher server densities of up to 20kW per rack.

Image: Nick Heath / TechRepublic
Cooling

The center relies on a climate control system that uses indirect evaporative-cooling (IEC) units to improve the efficiency of the cooling and delivers a PUE below 1.2.
PUE is a measure that reflects how much of the electricity used by a facility ends up powering its servers, rather than driving associated infrastructure such as cooling and power distribution.

Image: Nick Heath / TechRepublic
Pumping station

Like everything else in the datacenter, there are backup IEC units to provide cooling in case the primary unit fails.

Image: Nick Heath / TechRepublic
Dedicated power

Each server has two separate power supplies to ensure they keep running in the event of one supply going down.

Image: Nick Heath / TechRepublic
Powered up

The site is served by a dedicated and redundant 43.5MVA power supply, provided by the nearby national grid substation Harlow West Grid.
Each datacenter has two separate 11kV power supplies, to provide a backup in case one of the connections goes down.

Image: Nick Heath / TechRepublic
Uninterruptible power supply

In the event of a total power outage, the uninterruptible power supply can run the center at full-load for five minutes while it switches to generator power, ensuring the servers keep running.

Image: Nick Heath / TechRepublic
Diesel generators

To guarantee an uninterrupted power supply, each of the four datacenters on the campus has two 11kV generators to provide backup power.
The back-up diesel generators can provide 48 hours of power without refueling.

Image: Nick Heath / TechRepublic
Fire prevention

An automatic fire-detection system is installed throughout the campus, and is made up of a mix of Very Early Smoke Detection Alarm Systems and High Sensitivity Smoke Detectors.
Fire systems are linked to central Building Management System, and a double-knock, water-mist fire suppression system is used throughout.

Image: Nick Heath / TechRepublic
Network Operations Center

The Network Operations Center (NOC) allows for around-the-clock monitoring of the building- and power-management systems.

Image: Nick Heath / TechRepublic
24/7 scrutiny

The site uses real-time gaseous and particulate corrosion monitoring.

Image: Nick Heath / TechRepublic
Outside the campus

There are four buildings on the datacenter campus, each with 36,000-square feet worth of server space.

Image: Kao Data / Dave Cox