Cooper B-Line

Case Studies: Data Centre Refurbishment Imperial College London

Imperial College London & Cooper B-Line. Imperial college is working closely with Cooper B Line in the massive refurbishment and expansion of the data centre in the ICT department covering some 5000 sq m.

The Data Centre is responsible for the day to day running of many of the central services provided by ICT, eg the SAN, file backup and restore. It also is responsible for the installation of new hardware, eg servers, and monitoring of systems.

As well as providing IT for some 30,000 end users, the college also provides ICT Services for The Natural History Museum, The Science Museum and various medical research centres.

In addition, it provides server hosting services in a secure, resilient and controlled Data Centre environment. The Data Centre has a number of data rooms, connected to each other with resilient dark fibre. These rooms are designed and maintained as environmentally controlled areas with climate and access control, and are based around a typical Raised floor environment and are regulated by a Data Rooms Policy.

Some Key aspects of the centre are:

  • Provide specialist cooling to racks consuming up to 20KW of power
  • Provide hosting in multiple data rooms when high availability is required
  • Monitor all servers hosted to identify and proactively resolve any potential disruptions to the service
  • Carry out regular and/or one-off operational
  • Provide backup and archiving services for data

High Performance Computing

IImperial College have announced an exciting new development in computing at the College. Following the massive refurbishment and expansion of the data centre in the ICT department, 2 large High Performance Computing (HPC) systems are currently being installed. These systems are college-wide facilities for use by researchers in all disciplines.

Cooper B Line are working closely with Imperial College London providing up to date some 80+ Racks from the Access Range, supplied as a standard configuration, the Access 42U High Racks are a key part in the running of the datacenter supplied at 1000mm deep. B-Line can also supply Racks up to 1400mm in depth.

The College have always been impressed with the all round accessibility of the Access rack along with its modular, symmetrical construction and cornerless design. Whilst they are keen to point out the excellent cabling attributes of the Rack they are also used to house many of the Servers that are in the data centre.

Imperial College have been using B Line racks because of the unique service of being able to provide the racks to a pre-agreed specification, typically offset 19” rails are required to maximise the amount of cable management, also supplied to the college are a wide range of accessories including Fan Trays, Brush Strips, Cable Hoops and Twist and lock Cable management. Our range of quick fit shelves, along with some sliding shelves are also provided on a regular basis.

Imperial College London

Imperial College was established in 1907 from the merger of the Royal College of Science, the City and Guilds College and the Royal School of Mines.

Mergers St Mary’s Hospital Medical School and the National Heart and Lung Institute merged with the College in 1988 and 1995 respectively. In 1997 they were joined by Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School and the Royal Postgraduate Medical School to form the Faculty of Medicine. In 2000 Wye College in Kent and the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology also merged with Imperial.

The College now has nine campuses in London, Kent and Berkshire, including its main campus in South Kensington. It is made up of three academic Faculties —Engineering, Natural Sciences and Medicine —plus Tanaka Business School. Current Rector Sir Richard Sykes is the thirteenth to have led the institution since its foundation in 1907.

Imperial College London is one of the top HE institutions in the UK and is consistently ranked in the top 3 in various UK media league tables. It has also been ranked as the 9th best university in the World and the best in Europe for technology.

Imperial College's mission is to embody and deliver world class scholarship, education and research in science, engineering and medicine with particular regard to their application in industry, commerce and healthcare.

Imperial College London fosters interdisciplinary working internally and collaborate widely externally. The College has about 12,300 students, of whom 70 per cent are undergraduates. Women comprise 37 per cent of the student body and 28 per cent come from outside the European Union.

The College has an annual turnover in excess of £500M and receives over £200M per annum in research funding.