DCN June 2016 | Page 41

projects & agreements Volta data centres expand due to increased demand for central London location BRIGHTSTAR ILLUMINATES LONDON WITH NEW CONNECTIVITY SOLUTION FROM SSE ENTERPRISE TELECOMS Volta Data Centres has announced that due to high demand for its services it will be expanding with the opening of its third floor; scheduled to be available from September 2016. Central London is continuing to grow in requirements, and proving to be a hotspot for organisations looking to colocate. Over the past 12 months Volta has seen increased interest from businesses in the media, finance, cloud and managed service sectors, many of which have enquired about space on the new floor. Gratte Brothers has been appointed to deliver the third floor, comprising of 1.5MW IT load and approximately 400 racks. They were chosen as they displayed knowledge and expertise of Volta and the data centre industry. Established in 1947, Gratte Brothers has over 20 years’ experience in the provision of M&E services within data centres for some of the world’s leading corporates and specialises in the complex engineering required in live data centre environments. SSE Enterprise Telecoms has announced its selection by Internet service provider, Brightstar, to deliver 100Mb/s Ethernet connectivity in and around London, where the majority of its customers are located, as well as further afield. With strong demand for Brightstar’s Internet services, from a wide range of businesses, the company needed a reliable Ethernet network across the entire London metropolitan area. SSE Enterprise Telecoms’ recent Project Edge network expansion meant that it was in an ideal position to meet Brightstar’s needs. With a network reach of 13,700km and 265 points of presence serving 250,000 metropolitan business postcodes, SSE Enterprise Telecoms’ network coverage meant it could instantly service a number of Brightstar’s customers. While the initial agreement was for four circuits, this was swiftly extended to more than 20 in a three year contract; a testament to the great relationship to SSE Enterprise Telecoms team has forged with Brightstar. The Internet service provider benefitted from the personal approach taken by SSE Enterprise Telecoms and the open and honest relationship meant that the project was issue-free from procurement to delivery. ATLANTIS COMPUTING IMPROVES VDI PERFORMANCE AND DESKTOP MANAGEMENT White & Case advises Digital Realty on acquisition of eight premium FOR STUDENTS AND STAFF AT ANKABUT Atlantis Computing has announced that Ankabut, an Advanced National Research and Education Network in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is using the Atlantis VDI solution to deliver VDI-as-a-service to relieve the burden of desktop management. Ankabut plays a vital role in supporting higher education and research throughout the UAE. As part of the Advanced National Res earch and Education Network, the university provides and maintains a 10Gb/s connectivity backbone and one Gb/s link to 27 different universities. A university specialising in vocational studies contacted Ankabut when looking to replace 1,600 desktops and laptops. Ankabut suggested a centrally hosted and managed VDI platform and a local IT partner suggested the SDS solution from Atlantis. Ankabut deployed the VDI infrastructure to deliver desktop services over a public WAN to 2,500 users at the university, including students, members of the teaching faculty and support staff. By implementing Atlantis software, the university reduced the storage hardware required to maintain the infrastructure by 80 per cent. european data centres Global law firm White & Case LLP has advised Digital Realty on its acquisition of eight high quality, carrier-neutral data centres across Europe. The deal, worth in excess of US$874m, involves the acquisition by Digital Reality of five data centres in London, two in Amsterdam and one in Frankfurt from Equinix. It was a competitive auction process with numerous bidders and was triggered as a condition of the European Commission’s approval of the acquisition of Telecity by Equinix, which closed in January 2016. On completion, the deal is expected to be the largest real estate investment deal by value in Europe in 2016. It is the latest in a series of deals on which White & Case has advised Digital Realty in the data centre space, including the US$1.1bn acquisition of three data centres in the London area. 41