Data Centre Solutions
Case Study: Unilever
The Client
Employing 179,000 people in 100 countries across the world, this food, personal hygiene and home care products manufacturer has a turnover of €40 billion. A global market leader in all the food categories in which it operates and for skin and deodorant products, the company has 337 manufacturing sites spread across six continents.
The Challenge
Following a restructuring of the company’s European business to create centres of expertise, the company decided to base its IT services in the UK. As part of this strategy, the client required a new data centre and a location was found on the Wirral.
As the new data centre was to house the mainframe computer supporting all the company’s European operations, business continuity planning was critical. As a result, the fit out programme for the data centre not only needed to provide ideal conditions for the IT equipment, it also had to be extremely secure and vandal-resistant.
The Solution
Kimpton Building Services worked alongside its partners Trustland Construction and The Rosebery Group as TKR to offer the client a turnkey solution for the design & build, civil engineering, structural and electrical project.
TKR carried out all the required civil and structural modifications to the building, including installation of suspended ceilings and partitions, and integrated raised computer flooring system. The company also installed the specialist electrical cabling required for the data centre’s complex IT equipment, including structured and fibre optic cabling systems.
The heating, ventilation and cooling systems were all critical to the success of the fit out, as the computer hardware must be kept at optimum temperature and humidity to extend equipment life and minimise the nuisance failure rate. The air conditioning system installed keeps the data centre at a constant temperature of 21° and is accurate to +/- 0.5°C, while the atmosphere is controlled at 50% humidity, accurate to within +/- 5%. As the air conditioning system could potentially make the building vulnerable to break ins or sabotage, TKR also disguised the condensers to reduce this risk.
To enhance security at the building, not only did TKR install Alarm systems and CCTV, the company was also responsible for sophisticated access systems including card and fingerprint recognition. In addition to safeguarding against intruders, the fit out also made provision against IT failure from fire and power outages with the installation of fire detection, alarm and extinguisher equipment, along with standby power and UPS systems.
