The Keysource 2020 State of the Industry Report is, unsurprisingly, dominated by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic – in particular the technology changes and challenges that it has brought to business and its effect on people’s ability to work, their priorities and decision-making processes.

Keysource, the datacentre and critical environment specialist, has been appointed by Willis Towers Watson, the leading global advisory, broking and solutions company, in a retained ‘guardian role’ to oversee an update of its facility in Nashville, Tennessee. It builds on the ten-year relationship which has seen Keysource act as European critical environment partner, completing major upgrades on two strategic data centres in the UK.
 
Willis Towers Watson initially instructed Keysource to carry out an independent review of the datacentre which has around 100 active racks with an IT load of circa 320kW. Keysource delivered a report outlining improvement opportunities which included high-level budgets which prioritised the projects based on risk and reward. Keysource then reviewed the supplier proposals to ensure design consistency and budget compliance.
 
Following on from this Keysource has now been appointed by Willis Towers Watson  in a retained guardian role to oversee the UPS replacement project. This involves providing independent advice, guidance and project controls to ensure the successful outcome of the project including reviewing scopes, programmes, health and safety documentation etc. It will also include providing guidance on how the system should be tested prior to being brought into operation and additional site visits out to Nashville to witness test the solution prior to going into service.
 
Paul West, Director of Global Data Centres Infrastructure & Operations at Willis Towers Watson, said: “Our Nashville Datacentre is now at an important stage in its lifecycle and there is an opportunity to set out to re-scale and remodel the environment to provide a more efficient and flexible facility. Keysource is once again taking the role of trusted advisor to ensure the successful delivery of these  changes.”
 
Chris West, Head of Global Accounts at Keysource, said: “Our role in this project was to continue to support the Willis Towers Watson team with our capabilities to ensure rigorous adherence to governance, process and procedures. These are underpinned by our industry best practice and standards to provide certainty of outcome, cost savings and reduced risk.”

Having a detailed pre-construction phase undertaken before starting the design and build or upgrade of a data centre facility has a number of major benefits, however many organisations choose to sidestep this part of the process. In my experience this is a false economy that can often result in, at best, a lack of consistency of supplier responses and a loss of control by the client; and at worst significant additional costs and a major impact to project delivery, especially within live environments.

Atcore, the market leading travel technology business has chosen leading data centre specialist Keysource, to support its search for a datacentre provider in Germany. It is part of the ongoing expansion of its reservation and e-commerce platforms which allow tour operators to operate more efficiently through a modular solutions which brings together huge and complex data sets – delivering market leading speed, accuracy and breadth of search results.

Keysource, the global datacentre and critical environment specialist, has been appointed by Datum Data Centres to undertake the design and build of the first-floor data centre construction at its site on the Cody Technology Park, Farnborough.

Digitalisation World talks to Richard Clifford, Head of Innovation at Keysource, about the launch of a new facilities maintenance service - Keysource Artificial Intelligence (KAI) - which uses machine learning and artificial intelligence technology to help organisations transform their edge operational management strategy.

Keysource, the leading global data centre specialist, is launching a new facilities maintenance service which utilises the latest machine learning/artificial intelligence technology to help organisations to transform their edge operational management strategy. KAI (Keysource Artificial Intelligence) has been designed to enable companies to make data led decisions around key issues such as reducing capital expenditure and unplanned downtime or gaining greater control over their edge infrastructure.

BREEAM, supported by datacentre specialist Keysource, has released a survey report designed to answer some of the most important industry questions around sustainability in the data centre industry. ‘Datacentres – The Sustainability Gap aims to improve understanding of how the BREEAM Data Centres Annex could bring value to the industry. 

Keysource, the data centre specialist, has been appointed to the North Eastern Universities Purchasing Consortium (NEUPC) Framework for the provision of Data Centre Management equipment and Infrastructure for a further four years. With a relationship which dates back to 2010, Keysource is now one of the most experienced companies on the framework and is able to offer its full range of its service from consultancy through to delivery and ongoing management as the top ranked framework supplier.