Unisys expansion plans for Kapiti data centre

News Release

Unisys announces expansion plans for Kapiti data centre

• Investment reflects expected capacity demand and interest in “Green” IT services
• Modular design enables more efficient cooling; Hot air re-used for heating
• Aims to achieve over 25% percent saving in power consumption over a year

Unisys New Zealand today unveiled plans to expand its data centre in Kapiti, near Wellington, making a further significant investment in New Zealand and doubling the capacity of the facility. Work has commenced on the project, and Unisys expects the expanded parts of the facility to be commissioned during October 2008.

A key feature of the expansion is the incorporation of a movable floating wall, which allows the interior wall of the data centre to be extended outwards as client demand increases. This modular approach is designed to restrict the space to be cooled to the area that is physically being used, limit overall energy consumption and improve resource utilisation.

As part of the expansion, new technologies will be implemented that incorporate free cooling techniques and infrastructure. These combine traditional under-floor process cooler technology with supplementary overhead cooling capable of supporting up to 2000 watts per square metre. By using a combination of different cooling techniques, the company expects to achieve over 25%percent savings in power consumption over a year.

In addition Unisys plans to install rain water tanks onsite to provide cooling infrastructure in the form of humidity water feeds into the computer room, thereby providing resilience from water supply failures.

Putting bad air to good use, the new infrastructure also features heat exchange options so that Unisys on site offices can be heated with the heat by-product from data centre.

The facility will be supported by a two megawatt power plant. The modular approach Unisys has adopted to providing power and cooling will see the site grow only as customer demand and need dictates for many years in the future.

“Rather than build a large, resource-hungry environment to meet as-yet-undefined customer needs, we have designed this facility to expand so that we can scale building size, power supply and cooling as demand grows,” says Unisys New Zealand managing director, Brett Hodgson.

The expansion of Kapiti comes less than a year after Unisys completed the installation of dual (redundant) mains power feeds from a separate sub station into the Kapiti Data Centre, which included the purchase of a second larger diesel generator. It reflects the growth in demand for high availability data centre services.

“Data centre managers are fast running out of space as they grapple with increasing energy, cooling and regulatory requirements,” says Hodgson. “These challenges are driving organisations to ‘green’ data centres for efficiency purposes and costs reduction as well as seeking to reduce their environmental footprint.

“If your data is valuable you want high availability. And that, increasingly, means a data centre. The rapid growth Unisys is experiencing in the number of rack-mounted servers we manage is a clear reflection of the growing local demand for efficient managed data centre services. By expanding our data centre now we are meeting our clients’ current needs for capacity and ‘green’ services, and also future-proofing our business as capacity demand continues to increase.”

The Kapiti data centre site is capable of expanding a further 1000 square metres beyond the existing facility and planned expansion.

The Unisys data centre at Kapiti hosts rack-mounted servers which allow IT managers to achieve high availability performance by mitigating the energy consumption problems associated with concentrating them in inappropriate environments. Once servers are in the Unisys data centre, Unisys can offer server consolidation and server virtualisation to create further energy efficiencies.

The Kapiti data centre is connected to Unisys Auckland data centre via an MPLS core backbone, providing a carrier-class, private, flexible and redundant networking infrastructure running on independent fibre loops. Together the two data centres form a data ecosystem that allows the deployment of services and interconnectivity between peered systems. This means Unisys can not only offer customers a geographic choice; it also enables more comprehensive disaster recovery solutions by replicating customer systems and services at two sites. The architecture of the ecosystem allows both services and management to be provided independent of the customer’s physical location, thereby maximising resource efficiencies and minimising risk.

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About Unisys Asia Pacific
Unisys offers clients solutions for secure business operations by aligning technology with business strategy. Drawing on a history of industry innovation and expertise, Unisys provides specialised services, delivered by trusted consultants. In Asia Pacific, Unisys delivers services and solutions through subsidiaries in New Zealand, Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Korea, Malaysia, The Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand and through distributors or resellers in other countries in the region. For more information, visit www.unisys.com.

About Unisys
Unisys is a worldwide information technology services and solutions company. We provide consulting, systems integration, outsourcing and infrastructure services, combined with powerful enterprise server technology. We specialise in helping clients use information to create efficient, secure business operations that allow them to achieve their business goals. Our consultants and industry experts work with clients to understand their business challenges and create greater visibility into critical linkages throughout their operations. For more information, visit www.unisys.com.

Unisys is a registered trademark of Unisys Corporation. All other brands and products referenced herein are acknowledged to be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

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