Data Centre & Network News

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INSIDE

ISSUE 2 | NOVEMBER 2018

AWARD WINNING DATA CENTRE TRANSFORMATION SPECIALISTS POWER PROTECTION REDUCE RISK WITH CENTIEL

MEET ME ROOM IAN HAMEROFF OF EXTRAHOP OFFERS A NEW HOPE

CENTRE OF ATTENTION VERNE GLOBAL TALKS WEATHER DATA


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NOVEMBER 2018

CONTENTS

IN THIS ISSUE… 12 REGULARS

FEATURES

4 EDITORIAL

28 OPINION

The era of intelligent computing is here

6 INDUSTRY NEWS

From 5G compliant handsets to using AI for social good

12 CENTRE OF ATTENTION Spencer Lamb of Verne Global talks about the weather and how companies reliant on meteorological data are looking towards cloud-based solutions

16 MEET ME ROOM

DCNN talks to Ian Hameroff of Extrahop discussing everything from industry challenges and motivators to Star Wars

24 CENTIEL UK

Reducing risk and delivering peace of mind

Simon Yeoman of Fasthosts demystifies containerisation and whether it is a more viable option for data centres

32 OPINION

16

Zandra Moore of Panintelligence talks to DCNN about data being the biggest change-maker in the 21st century

36 PROJECTS & AGREEMENTS

Honeywell and ENGINE Axima reduce Eurocontrol’s energy consumption with new cooling system

44 COMPANY SHOWCASE

28

Spurring on AI adoption and transparency with IBM

32

SPECIAL FEATURE MOBILITY

20

20 NEXT-GENERATION CONNECTIVITY

Jon Fell, partner and head of the telecommunications practice at global legal firm Osborne Clarke, looks to the future.

November 2018 | 3


EDITOR’S NOTE

EDITOR Jessica Foreman JESSICA@ALLTHINGSMEDIALTD.COM

SALES DIRECTOR Ian Kitchener – 01634 673163 IAN@ALLTHINGSMEDIALTD.COM

STUDIO MANAGER Ben Bristow – 01634 673163 BEN@ALLTHINGSMEDIALTD.COM

EDITORIAL COORDINATOR Jordan O’Brien – 01634 673163 JORDAN@ALLTHINGSMEDIALTD.COM

DESIGNER Jon Appleton JON@ALLTHINGSMEDIALTD.COM

BUSINESS SUPPORT ADMINISTRATOR Carol Gylby – 01634 673163 CAROL@ALLTHINGSMEDIALTD.COM

MANAGING DIRECTOR David Kitchener – 01634 673163 DAVID@ALLTHINGSMEDIALTD.COM

ACCOUNTS 01634 673163 SUSAN@ALLTHINGSMEDIALTD.COM

Suite 14, 6-8 Revenge Road, Lordswood, Kent ME5 8UD T: +44 (0)1634 673163 F: +44 (0)1634 673173 The editor and publishers do not necessarily agree with the views expressed by contributors, nor do they accept responsibility for any errors in the transmission of the subject matter in this publication. In all matters the editor’s decision is final. Editorial contributions to Data Centre & Network News are welcomed, and the editor reserves the right to alter or abridge text prior to publication. 4 | October 2018

October 2018 | 4

© Copyright 2018. All rights reserved.

A BRIEF INQUIRY INTO AI

T

here is no escaping the fact that the era of intelligent computing is here. If you are anything like me, you may be in two minds about this; on one hand apprehensive but on the other intrigued – some may even go as far as to say they are excited. However, there are still many questions that remain unanswered, such as ethics – yet, after attending the recent Microsoft Future Decoded, I am positive that AI can and will be used effectively and ethically if given the correct guidance. So, what does the future hold for AI-led technology and how, with the government’s recent commitment to invest nearly £1 billion as part of its AI Sector Deal, are vertical markets like healthcare and transportation set to benefit? As I walked around the expo hall, it really hit me; I’d forgotten or rather been blissfully unaware of how much our lives are integrated with AI already. From online shopping experiences of which most of my purchases are from the recommendations sections and mapping the best routes around London, to things that don’t even cross my mind like the decluttering of my inbox with spam filters. The scariest part, we haven’t even begun to scratch the surface.


EDITOR’S NOTE

And, of course, AI doesn’t begin and end with our everyday experiences. It is reshaping industries and organisations too… Surprisingly however, Microsoft revealed in a study it conducted that 51% of leading UK organisations do not have an AI strategy in place. But why, if organisations know the power of AI and its ability to excel business productivity and assist with decision making, is it not being embraced? One of the main answers is data. Before any organisation can really incorporate a serious process of AI-based transformation, it must first get their data house in order. As Norm Judah, Microsoft chief technology officer aptly said, “Great AI needs great data. But if you start by asking ‘what data have we got?’, you are predisposed to the solution. Much better to start at the business problem, then see if you have the right data to tackle it.” Thus, the journey to AI for organisations may not be an easy one, it requires data that is clean, unbiased and accurate. Ultimately, as AI becomes ever more instrumental in our everyday and professional lives, it is essential that we understand its capabilities and, amidst all opportunity, how we employ it responsibly. If you have any editorial questions or would like to write on key topics, please write to jessica@allthingsmedialtd.com

november 2018 | 5


INDUSTRY NEWS

AMBIENT COMMERCE: DRIVING EXPENDITURE ON IOT TECHNOLOGY Ambient commerce is an important use case for the Internet of Things (IoT) and promises to be a game-changing retail technology, according to GlobalData, a data and analytics company. The company’s latest report from its thematic research team says that ambient commerce, which combines technology with the physical space associated with retail stores, will offer a whole new way to shop. Ed Thomas, principal analyst for technology thematic research at GlobalData, said, “The worlds of online and offline retail are merging, and ambient commerce sits in the middle. This is why Amazon and Alibaba, the world’s dominant online retailers, have both invested billions in acquiring stakes in physical retailers. Having gained a physical foothold on the high street, these retailers are now

6 | November 2018

heightening the retail experience by experimenting with ambient commerce in stores.” Ambient commerce describes a new form of shopping which makes use of sensors, coupled with artificial intelligence (AI), to help customers select and pay for their goods, without the need for keyboards or cash registers. Two main models are emerging in the ambient commerce value chain: the Amazon Go version of ambient commerce, where computer vision, sensors and machine learning technologies enable customers to ‘grab and go’; and the Chinese version of ambient commerce – popularised by Alibaba, Tencent and JD.com – which uses less in-store IoT infrastructure, but is likely to take off faster because it is based on existing smartphone technology, coupled with QR codes.

GlobalData says its research has found that ambient commerce will drive expenditure on IoT connected devices and on IoT software and services in the retail sector. With the company estimating that the retail sector will spend $5.3 billion on IoT software and services, up from $2.7 billion in 2018 by 2020. Over the next two years, the retail sector will emerge as the fifth largest spender on IoT software and services after the government, transportation, utilities and manufacturing sectors. Thomas added, “We can expect many more strategic alliances and M&A deals as old-world companies seek to join the new ambient world, and the insurgents broaden their bases and round out their tech infrastructures.” GLOBALDATA, GLOBALDATA.COM


INDUSTRY NEWS

BEHAVIOURS BEHIND CLOUD ADOPTION A new study conducted by Video Surveillance-as-aService (VSaaS) provider, Morphean, delved into the attitudes towards, and behaviours behind, cloud adoption. The survey of 1,500 IT decision makers across Europe has provided some insight that serves the physical security industry. The study highlights not only a favourable shift towards cloud, but also a need to adopt technology to extract the intelligent insights needed to accelerate business growth. Respondents from organisations with 25 employees and above from the UK, France and

Germany were asked to share their views on cloud technologies, cloud security, future cloud investment and new areas of cloud growth. The results showed that while nearly nine out of 10 businesses surveyed are already using cloudbased software solutions, 89% of respondents would possibly or definitely move physical security technology, such as video surveillance and access control, to the cloud. Furthermore, 92% felt it important/very important that their physical security solutions meet their overall business objectives.

MORE KEY FINDINGS OF MORPHEAN’S STUDY: 89% of businesses surveyed are using cloudbased software solutions, with 81% having set a cloud strategy for the year ahead Over a quarter (27%) of cloud users report the principal reason for moving services to the cloud was that it is safer/offers better security options (ahead of cost-effectiveness and ability to collaborate) On average, 33% of IT budgets have been spent on cloud services in the past 24 months; 78% expect their cloud spend to increase within the next two years Respondents estimate that, on average, 47% of their internal data will be cloud processed in the next two to five years 89% of respondents would possibly or definitely move physical security technology such as video surveillance and access control to the cloud 92% feel it’s important or very important that their physical security solutions meet their overall business objectives 25% have had a data breach in the past 24 months Of the 11% of respondents that would not consider using the cloud for physical security, 64% advised this was due to cybersecurity concerns. MORPHEAN, MORPHEAN.COM

November 2018 | 7


INDUSTRY NEWS

GOOGLE: AI FOR SOCIAL GOOD Google has unveiled a new $25 million initiative aimed at supporting the development of artificial intelligence (AI) to address societal issues. The competition, Google AI Impact Challenge, forms part

of the company’s broader ‘AI for Social Good’ program, which aims to support projects that make use of AI to solve some of the world’s greatest social, humanitarian and environmental issues.

The extensive focus on humanitarian applications for AI comes amid concerns about the technology’s potential downside, with issues ranging from data privacy to employment. “We want people from as many backgrounds as possible to surface problems that AI can help solve, and to be empowered to create solutions themselves,” said Google executives Jeff Dean and Jacquelline Fuller. The competition calls to all non-profit organisations and public charities, as well as forprofit businesses – as long as they demonstrate their projects have charitable purpose – to submit applications by January 22, 2019. With an international judging panel reviewing proposals and announcing grant recipients next spring. What’s more is applicants don’t have to be experts in AI either. Google

QUALCOMM: 2019, THE YEAR FOR 5G Qualcomm has announced that it expects the first 5G-compliant phones to be released in two waves next year, the first being made available early 2019. The second wave, as Qulcomm’s CEO recently announced at the 5G summit in Hong Kong, will be made available in the lead up to Christmas 2019. But that’s not all, the chip maker who has spent years working to miniaturise 5G components, also announced that it has achieved a 25% reduction in the size of its 5G millimetre wave antenna – said to be a fundamental part of an early 5G handset.

8 | November 2018

Back in July, Qualcomm unveiled the world’s first fully-integrated 5G NR millimetre wave (mmWave) and sub-6 GHz RF modules for smartphones and other mobile devices. Though it professed to be very compact, Qualcomm has since said device makers could include up to four antennas to prevent signal loss in handheld devices. News of Qualcomm’s ability to reduce the size of its 5G millimetre wave antennas by 25% will be welcomed; with the need for shrinking bezels and the standard size of a modern smartphone, it’s no surprise.

Huawei has announced that it will launch its first 5G smartphone – complete with a foldable, high definition screen – in the middle of 2019. In a talk at the World Economic Forum event in Tianjin, Ken Hu, the Chinese vendor’s rotating CEO, addressed the longer-term benefits of 5G technology; automated cars, smart manufacturing, sensors connecting a multitude of objects. But Hu insisted that the next generation of mobile technology will come much sooner. Saying, “The industry roadmap is for 5G smartphone launches next year.


INDUSTRY NEWS

has included a set of educational resources that range from a self-study course, detailed guides to examples of AI projects that fall within the scope of what Google are hoping to uncover. Google also include a ‘get inspired’ section on their website; detailing past projects including a mobile app for detecting plant disease for farmers in Africa, and mapping fishing worldwide to create more sustainable policy. In addition to a proportion of the $25 million pot, accepted proposals will also benefit from Google Cloud credits for computing costs, as well as guidance from Google Cloud and DataKind, a data science non-profit. Application criteria, eligibility requirements and educational resources are detailed on Google’s Impact Challenge website. GOOGLE, AI.GOOGLE

We’re going to launch our first [5G] smartphone in the middle of 2019.” So with 5G handsets expected to be making an appearance early 2019, now is the time to start considering how 5G ready you are. QUALCOMM, QUALCOMM.COM

SERVING THE WORLD’S UNCONNECTED POPULATION Sky and Space Global Ltd (SAS), a new space UK company listed in the Australian Stock Exchange, has completed a Critical Design Review (CDR) of its Pearls satellites. The company has announced that it can now proceed with its assembly and integration of the nano-satellite network. The CDR process was undertaken by global aerospace construction partner GomSpace a European-based, Nasdaqlisted contractor, specialising in the construction and testing of bespoke nano-satellites. SAS says it will deploy a constellation of 200 highly sophisticated nano-satellites over the Equatorial Belt. The network of nano-satellites are said to provide around the clock affordable voice, data, instant messaging, M2M and IoT communications; enabling SAS to implement its vision to provide communication services to anyone, anywhere, anytime. The company says that its services will also bring to the equatorial region a huge range of life savings and other services, including search and rescue, disaster management, emergency response, security alarms and recreational tracking. This is in addition to many other services including mobile applications, offshore communications, smart farming, interactive TV, airplane, vessel and animal tracking, water and electric metering, grid monitoring and ATM.

“We have successfully completed the CDR with GomSpace, reaching another milestone and remaining on track for next year’s planned launch,” said Meir Moalem, cofounder, managing director and chief executive officer at SAS. He articulates that the positive results from the CDR validate the company’s technology, which supports its strategy aimed at achieving the goal of providing connectivity to remote geographical locations. The CDR process assessed all technical components including; schedule, overall design, altitude control performance and system budgets (mass, power and link), to ensure each part is of the highest quality and meets the required standard to progress to the construction phase. The review concluded that the design presented by GomSpace to SAS complies with the requirements, and the Pearls can now progress to assembly and integration, which will also be undertaken by GomSpace. Assembly and integration are scheduled to commence immediately and construction of the first batch of Pearls is expected to be completed on time for the planned launch. Once construction and integration are complete, the nanosatellites will then pass through additional technical assessments and testing including a final acceptance test before launch. SKY AND SPACE GLOBAL LTD, SKYANDSPACE.GLOBAL

November 2018 | 9


INDUSTRY NEWS

ALIBABA CLOUD EXPANDS EUROPEAN PRESENCE WITH UK DATA CENTRES Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing arm of Alibaba Group, has announced the opening of two availability zones in the UK, in addition to its Frankfurt and Dubai data centres launched in 2016. The company says its expansion not only extends its cloud capabilities within Europe, but also highlights its ongoing commitment to the region. Alibaba Cloud’s local footprint is steadily increasing, with data centres across three EMEA locations: Frankfurt, Dubai, and now London. Answering an increase in demand for Alibaba Cloud services across the EMEA region, the pair of high performance availability zones are said to assist organisations in the region to accelerate the upgrade of their

10 | November 2018

digital infrastructure; enabling more efficient digital transformation initiatives. Business continuity is also a clear focus, with dual availability zones offering stronger disaster recovery capabilities. The London location boasts 24/7 on-site support – including both security and engineering – as well real-time monitoring and a ticketing system with SLA guarantees. The new data centres are said to offer a wide range of Alibaba Cloud product lines, including: elastic computing, storage, database, network, application services and big data analytics. With its latest facility, Alibaba Cloud now operates 52 availability zones in 19 regions around the world with more global regions set to follow.

“At Alibaba Cloud, we are – and always have been – committed to our customers. Our expansion into the United Kingdom, and by extension into Europe, is in direct response to the rapidly increasing demands we have seen for local facilities within the region,” said Yeming Wang, general manager of Alibaba Cloud EMEA. “Using AI-powered and datadriven technology, our latest data centres will offer customers complete access to our wide range of cloud services from machine learning capabilities to predictive data analytics – ensuring that we continue to offer an unparalleled level of service. We are incredibly proud to take this latest step in our continued investment in EMEA.” ALIBABA, ALIBABA.COM


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KNOW WHICH WA THE WIND BLOWS CENTRE OF ATTENTION: XXX

12 | November 2018


AY

CENTRE OF ATTENTION: WEATHER

SPENCER LAMB, DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH AT VERNE GLOBAL, TALKS ABOUT ONE OF THE UK’S FAVOURITE TOPICS – WEATHER – AND HOW COMPANIES RELIANT ON METEOROLOGICAL DATA ARE

G

INCREASINGLY LOOKING TOWARDS CLOUD-BASED SOLUTIONS.

etting weather forecasts right is vitally important. In rural parts of the world, the livelihood of farmers is completely shaped by significant weather events. Entire industries, such as travel, transport and even hedge funds built on environmental stocks and shares, can also have their fortunes altered by inaccurate forecasts; often in ways that have a noticeable effect on the bottom line. More warning of significant weather changes also enables people to make better plans. There are the public health and safety benefits of being able to predict extreme weather events. Even a few extra hours of warning of a hurricane can be a matter of life and death. Indeed, as climate change continues to alter long-standing weather patterns, our ability to predict medium to long-term changes will become more significant.

TIP OF THE ICEBERG In our busy day-to-day lives, the weather forecast is something we can often take for granted – thanks to apps on our phones, the information is literally at our fingertips. The reality behind weather monitoring, forecasting and how that data is communicated, however, is a much more complex and specialised affair.

November 2018 | 13


CENTRE OF ATTENTION: WEATHER

METEOROLOGISTS ARE TURNING TO ADVANCED HIGH-PERFORMANCE COMPUTING (HPC) TECHNOLOGIES TO BETTER PREDICT THE WEATHER

“CARRYING OUT SHORT-TERM WEATHER ANALYSIS AND LONG-TERM CLIMATE CHANGE RESEARCH IS BOTH DATA-INTENSIVE AND VERY DEMANDING COMPUTATIONALLY.”

Carrying out short-term weather analysis and long-term climate change research is both data-intensive and very demanding computationally. There are more than 11,000 weather stations worldwide that measure a range of factors every hour, every day – from temperature to air pressure. This information is then typically relayed to both state-run and private forecasters where it is combined with even more data collected from ships, weather balloons, satellites and aircraft. This deluge of data is then run through computer models and forecasts are created based on the outcomes.

14 | November 2018

A PLACE IN THE SUN To deal with this vast amount of data, many meteorologists are turning to advanced high-performance computing (HPC) technologies to improve the accuracy of their work – helping them to better predict the weather, while also streamlining their workloads. HPC-driven simulations and modelling, in particular, have radically improved the speed by which models are created and the speed by which the data involved is synthesised and analysed. Today, generating a weather forecast based on nine square kilometres requires around 48 terabytes of data. For an area of 1.25 square kilometres, around 1.8 petabytes is needed. These vast volumes of data require considerable amounts of power and equipment. To help put this into perspective, in 1959, the Met Office’s computer Meteor was capable of undertaking 30,000 calculations a second. The Cray Supercomputer the Met Office operates today is capable of over 14,000 trillion arithmetic operations per second – that’s more than two million calculations per second for every man, woman and child on the planet. To a large extent, the accuracy of a weather forecast also depends on the


CENTRE OF ATTENTION: WEATHER

CLEARING THE FOG WITH HPC

size of the area to which the forecast applies. In the early 1980s the ‘spatial resolution’ of weather forecasts covered around 200 square kilometres. Given the size of an area, a range of different weather events could be happening. If the forecast predicted rain there might still be large parts of that region that stayed dry. At higher resolutions, however, more computing power is needed to process the data involved – and doing it in a useful, workable timeframe. Here, the challenge of powering superior HPC machines today cannot go unaddressed, nor how the associated cost can be shaped by location too. For example, the Cray Supercomputer costs around £3 million per annum to power in the UK today, while if it was located somewhere like Iceland, that cost would be closer to £756k per annum. This is because the country’s energy mix is reliant on abundant and renewable hydro-electric and geothermal sources which allows for 15+ year price control in a way the UK or its European counterparts cannot provide. Also, with a small population, Iceland has a vast amount of renewable energy that could be exported in other ways, at low cost.

For a weather centre, embracing HPC can improve this enormously and play a huge role in streamlining management of IT infrastructure; providing increased flexibility around operational workloads and ease storage requirements. However, HPC is at a strategic inflection point and companies and organisations reliant on bespoke weather forecasting reports and data simulations – whether in agriculture, aviation, maritime, media, insurance and energy – should consider moving towards a cloud-native and application-first approach. The static and costly on-premise HPC infrastructures of the past 20 years are now being complemented with cloud-based HPC solutions which take advantage of more abundant and predictively priced power sources, such as those available across the Nordics. Furthermore, HPC is not only a power-intensive form of compute, it also requires specialist skills and optimised infrastructure. Provider-led, cloud-based solutions address these concerns while also enabling companies to create greater efficiencies, more sophisticated business intelligence and, in some cases, achieve significant cost savings. Ultimately, advances in technology means that forecasting accuracy is increasing by around one day every decade. In other words, today’s fiveday forecasts are almost as precise as two-day forecasts were three decades ago. While many of us can remember when the weather forecast was unreliable beyond the next 24 hours, it is still perplexing that others continue to rely on an extraordinary number of superstitious methods for predicting the weather – from cows lying down meaning that it’s going to rain phrases like, ‘red sky at night…’ The use of advanced technologies such as HPC will take our ability to forecast the weather further. Equally, the sophistication of the technology is key to addressing perhaps the grand challenge of our age – predicting the impact of climate change. » VERNE GLOBAL, VERNEGLOBAL.COM

November 2018 | 15


A NEW HOPE MEET ME ROOM: IAN HAMEROFF

FROM NINTEX TO MICROSOFT, IAN HAMEROFF OF EXTRAHOP DISCUSSES EVERYTHING FROM INDUSTRY CHALLENGES AND MOTIVATORS TO HIS PERSONAL INTEREST IN STAR WARS AND ASTROPHYSICS

What were you doing before you joined ExtraHop and how did you first get involved in the industry? Prior to joining ExtraHop, I had the pleasure of being the global head of product marketing at Nintex, an industry leader in intelligent business process automation software and cloud services. Before that I spent more than decade at Microsoft, where I held a variety of roles across product marketing, product management, business development, and marketing communications. Out of school, I led both

16 | November 2018

engineering and product marketing efforts around network management and infosec for several years at CA Technologies. Regardless of the company or role, there’s always been one common thread to all of my professional endeavors: networking and information security. From pulling CAT5 cables through conduit and hanging switches as a network engineer during my university days, to leading product marketing for the TCP/IP stack in Microsoft Windows Server, through my most current role at ExtraHop, there’s no doubt my DNA likely has an IPv6 address.


MEET ME ROOM: IAN HAMEROFF

What are the biggest changes you have seen in the data/comms industry? It’s almost too easy to say ‘the pace and rate of change’ in itself is the biggest change in our industry. But, there is some truth in this. Perhaps more importantly, it’s the data explosion that has come as a side effect (or, even a benefit) of this accelerating rate of change. Not too long ago, someone could get a good handle on what was happening in a network by eyeballing some logs or configs. That’s no longer the case. Just knowing where to start has become the most material challenge in recent history. This is true for not just troubleshooting an issue, but also true for even knowing where to start as you seek to transform your own business into a digital business. Now, the benefit of all this data, combined with advances in analytics and machine learning, affords new insight into where to get started. It’s unlike any other time I can recall, when you can say the effects — these volumes of data — of all this change can actually help you decide how and when to make business decisions. Can you tell us about any projects you are currently working on? As the director of product marketing for our performance product line, my team and I come to work each day with the mission of empowering our sales teams and partners to be trusted advisors for our customers. This translates into crafting product storytelling and value propositions that demonstrate how our ExtraHop platform can help these customers continually address some of the most pressing business challenges in front of them. Whether it’s ensuring the most critical, revenue generating applications are running smoothly or helping transform their own IT investments to leverage the cloud, microsegmentation, etc., our customers turn to ExtraHop to make sure they don’t discover any hiccups after it’s too late to prevent their own customers from leaving for the competition that’s just a click or tap away.

MANY EXPECTED TRAVEL INTO SPACE BY NOW WOULD’VE BEEN AS EASY AS GETTING AN UBER IS TODAY

What is the main motivation in the work that you do? The main motivator in my work is impact. This impact comes in many forms; seeing a customer achieve something they hadn’t thought possible. Having our business gain share and growth thanks to the work by my team. Even just watching a prospective buyer’s eyes widen when they see one of our killer features — like performance anomaly detection powered by our machine learning service — demoed to them on the expo floor of a tradeshow. The list can go on, but these all come down to making a difference. To having an impact. How would you encourage a school leaver to get involved in your industry? What are their options? I’d encourage a school leaver to be curious and passionate about whatever aspect of this industry they endeavor to pursue, and to learn a bit about data analytics; even knowing how to write a little bit of code is useful. These skills will make you valuable in just about any role you choose. Most importantly, learn how to be a storyteller. You don’t need to be Martin Scorsese or Shakespeare. You do need to be able to articulate your ideas and vision in a way that allows others to both understand the notion and be as passionate about it as you.

November 2018 | 17


MEET ME ROOM: IAN HAMEROFF

What part of your job do you find the most challenging? The thing that makes my job most challenging is that no customer, competitor, or technology ever stands still. Now, I see this challenging aspect of my role to be also one of the most invigorating. Yes, it is challenging to keep pace with everything you need to stay on top of, but it also means you need master how to focus in on what really matters. At times, it can be even more challenging to know what that is at the given moment. I love that challenge and then attacking the problem in a creative way to drive for the desired outcome and impact.

“MY DNA LIKELY HAS AN IPV6 ADDRESS.”

What gives you the greatest sense of achievement? Similar to what motivates me, it’s the impact of whatever my team and I have driven that gives me the greatest sense of achievement. I actually experience this in both my personal and professional life. Making this impact, even if I’m not given credit for it nor the one who ultimately affects the impact, is what I judge as achievement.

Where is your favourite holiday destination and why? The Big Island of Hawaii. It’s a place that has so much to offer; each corner of the island is like four different worlds. There’s the tropical paradise you’d expect from the Hawaiian Islands. Then there’s the otherworldly experience going to the top of Mauna Kea summit where at nearly 14,000 ft elevation, you get a front row seat to gazing into the universe (and, even see snow!) Travel a bit farther, and you’re in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park to witness one of the world’s most active volcanoes. And, if that’s not enough variety, you can step into amazing rain forests. It’s why Hawaii is one of my favourite places in the world. You really can’t get bored!

What are your hobbies/interests outside work? My natural – and at times insatiable – curiosity means I have a wide range of interests outside of work. This includes being an avid photographer, a long-time musician, a huge football fan supporting our major league soccer team Seattle Sounders FC and Manchester City in the Premier League, as well as a massive gadget geek. With my family, it’s all about seeing and exploring the world around us. With the recent birth of our daughter, this exploration has a whole new meaning and perspective, as we do so through the experience of raising our little girl.

Can you remember what job you wanted when you were a child? I’m sure like any kid growing up in the 80s – when you had the likes of space shuttle launches and Star Wars films’ special effects feeding your imagination — I wanted to do something that would take me into space. I can’t recall exactly if I wished to be an astronaut, but I believe many expected travel into space by now would’ve been as easy as getting an Uber is today. However, I did want to be something akin to an astrophysicist. It’s pretty amazing the way things have evolved, even my imaginative child self couldn’t have predicted the incredible ways that technology influences our life every day.

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THERE’S NO HIDING FROM IT, TECHNOLOGY INFLUENCES OUR EVERYDAY LIVES AND WILL CONTINUE TO DO SO


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UNLOCKING THE TRUE CAPABILITIES OF

NEXT GEN OPPORTUNITIES

NEXTGENERAT CONNECT JON FELL, PARTNER AND HEAD OF THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS PRACTICE

I

AT GLOBAL LEGAL FIRM OSBORNE CLARKE, LOOKS TO THE FUTURE.

t’s hard to believe that it’s only been 11 years since the iPhone launched. In that decade, we’ve seen the advent of 3G and 4G services, and changes to the way in which we communicate and access information. We have also seen how the internet has transformed how people connect to each other, and how it has quickly become vital to the way businesses organise themselves and sell their products and services. Looking ahead to the next 10 years, further transformation is on the horizon. However, it’s clear that the tech-led future

20 | November 2018

we have all been promised is completely dependent on a new level of connectivity. Next-generation connectivity – characterised by a patchwork of connectivity including 5G mobile networks, full-fibre broadband and satellite internet technology – is widely touted by industry and observers for its potential to deliver a step change in connectivity and its capabilities. 5G, in particular, promises to enable faster speeds, reduced latency and a greater number of simultaneous connections, thus enabling transformative applications such as remote surgery.


NEXT GEN OPPORTUNITIES

TION CTIVITY November 2018 | 21


NEXT GEN OPPORTUNITIES

OPPORTUNITY FOR THE TAKING

Business leaders across the globe are certainly seeing the opportunities and benefits in a hyper-connected world. This was apparent in our recent Next Generation Connectivity research and report we commissioned with the Economist Intelligence Unit, in which we surveyed C-Suite, senior executives from 11 countries about their thoughts on the true potential of next-generation connectivity and the applications it enables. The majority of global businesses (87%) said that they feel greater connectivity will be strategically important to the running of their business by 2023. Nearly seven in 10 businesses (69%) believe next-generation connectivity will have the greatest positive impact on the level of customer service and support it delivers. Furthermore, 67% of businesses said that greater connectivity will positively impact supply chain management while two thirds said it will improve employee productivity. With regard to the applications that offer the greatest opportunity, more than four out of five UK respondents said that IoT will have a significant impact on their business in the next five years. ‘Always-on’ devices connected via IoT will require high levels of connectivity and resilience in communications infrastructure, which is capable of supporting real-time interrogation, uploading and downloading of data. ‘Smart streaming’, as this is sometimes called, is already being considered by the EU in the context of the standardisation of future communications infrastructure. This will enable smart vehicles to communicate with smart highways, allowing for traffic management and analytics data to be exchanged

22 | November 2018

between intelligent, centralised traffic management systems and other vehicles. IoT-fuelled connectivity opens the doors to further opportunity, namely the huge amount of insight generated from the data collected by a connected web of devices. It’s also interesting to note that, come 2023, businesses will see some of the greatest opportunities to be gained from augmented, virtual and mixed reality. The ability to use mobile devices and connected headsets to overlay views of the physical world with data can be a game changer for business processes and efficiency. For example, energy businesses see the use of AR in smart spectacles enabling engineers to have the information that they need in real time whilst working on installations. Equally property developers see the advantage in using AR to show prospective new tenants around an office building that is under construction or inspect a site and see their view of it overlaid with images of how its architect envisages the final result.


NEXT GEN OPPORTUNITIES

BUMPS IN THE ROAD However, despite seeing the benefits, there are a number of potential roadblocks that businesses face in the pursuit for greater connectivity. One of the main barriers is a lack of skills, with more than two in five senior executives citing talent and skills as a significant barrier being faced by their organisation when it comes to adopting new levels of connectivity. This obstacle appeared to be most apparent in the UK, where business executives here were the most likely to say that they do not have the talent or skills that they need to capitalise on next-generation technology. Concerns over costs and security were also regarded as potential roadblocks. Nearly half of the respondents said that high costs of investment were a significant barrier while over two-thirds said that fears over security would likely lead their business to avoid or withdraw from greater connectivity. This was a sentiment held most strongly by those in the energy and utilities sector. It’s understandable; a move away from large, centralised energy production to lots of small, flexible energy networks, and the prevalence of webconnected devices such as smart metres, brings remarkable complexity and more points of vulnerability. It’s clear that opportunity in the golden era of super-fast, always-on, ubiquitous connectivity is not without its risk. However, failure to overcome these barriers could see businesses fall behind the competition in the next five years. So, here are our top tips to ensure your organisation doesn’t get left behind:

67% OF BUSINESSES SAID THAT GREATER CONNECTIVITY WILL POSITIVELY IMPACT SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT WHILE TWO THIRDS SAID IT WILL IMPROVE EMPLOYEE PRODUCTIVITY.

on’t be afraid to ‘fail fast’: By D adopting a trial and error approach, you can identify early wins where connectivity can quickly be shown to increase productivity, boost revenue or eliminate inefficiencies. You will reap dividends in the longer term. Find the right talent: By hiring new talent, investing in skills and setting up digital divisions to experiment, companies can breathe new life into their business models and introduce fresh thinking that can take them beyond tried-and-tested approaches. Partner up: Since next-generation connectivity is expected to cause businesses to rely on third party data, conversations need to be had between business leaders on how they can open up key data systems to each other, while preserving the integrity of commercially sensitive data and the confidentiality of customer information. Invest in robust security: Connected machines and devices are prime targets for hackers. Yet measures can be taken to better protect these connected things such as changing default passwords and keeping on top of software upgrades. Every company that runs on connected machines, or creates them for customers, must have a disciplined approach to cyber security or risk facing disaster. The opportunities of next-generation connectivity are countless, but reaping the rewards requires investment, strategic initiatives, new partnerships and redesigned businesses processes – maybe even new business models. The lesson is clear; the companies that truly understand the potential of next-generation have everything to gain. » OSBORNE CLARKE OSBORNECLARKE.COM

November 2018 | 23


POWER PROTECTION

A TALE OF

TWO DATA CENTRES T MIKE ELMS, SALES & MARKETING DIRECTOR AT CENTIEL UK LTD, EXPLAINS HOW THE COMPANY’S SYSTEMS MINIMISE RISK. he data centre manager is responsible for maintaining their, or their clients’ essential systems and processes 24/7. Power delivery is therefore critical and power protection systems must be available every second of every day and so

24 | November 2018

maximising system availability must be the overriding objective of any installation. Availability can be defined as the probability that an item will operate satisfactorily at a given point in time, crucially it includes both preventive and corrective maintenance downtime. It is most often represented as the percentage of system uptime achieved in a year and by


POWER PROTECTION

THE HUMAN ELEMENT

TA S HUMAN ERROR IS THE CAUSE OF MOST DATA CENTRE POWER ISSUES

So why in the age of wisdom, do we still see headlines relating to large data centre power failures? Even if the most advanced technology is employed to create a resilient and highly available UPS system, there is still room for human error and there are many published statistics indicating the percentage of failures caused by such. Of course, problems caused by lack of training is a completely separate issue and no-one can mitigate against wanton malice. However, it still appears that most of the high-profile incidents of data centre power outages have been linked to human intervention – accidental or otherwise. Secure access of control rooms limits the chance of outside interference and thorough training and procedures – including the two-person rule – reduce the risk of mistakes being made. Data centre managers put procedures and training in place to mitigate these risks as far as humanly possible, but how can technology help? the equation of mean time between failure (MTBF) divided by mean time between failure, plus the mean time to repair MTTR. MTBF can be mitigated by overall system design, i.e. removing single points of failure and MTTR by product design. Over the years, many improvements have been made in relation to UPS technology and configurations to increase availability. Data centre managers are naturally risk averse people as the consequences of going ‘off-line’ even for a few seconds can incur significant financial penalties relating to service level agreements. Downtime can result in loss of clients, loss of reputation plus the incalculable cost of missed revenue of potential clients shopping for a more reliable alternative. A pretty stressful occupation!

TECHNOLOGY From a technological point of view, building redundancy into the UPS system reduces the risk of the system going off-line and increases availability. As data centres have evolved from using a single UPS to parallel systems, availability has increased. The higher the availability, the lower the downtime. The introduction of redundancy and low MTTR by rapid hot swap modular designs now means with some of the UPS systems on the market, six-nines (99.999999%) availability is possible. This equates to some 32 seconds downtime over a year, a relatively small value in time, but to a data centre it is an eternity. So how can we increase this availability percentage even higher?

November 2018 | 25


POWER PROTECTION

DISTRIBUTED ACTIVE REDUNDANT ARCHITECTURE Following extensive failure analysis research and insights gathered from 25 years’ of field experience working with a large number of data centres and other critical environments, CENTIEL’s power protection solutions are reaching 9 Nines levels of availability, reducing downtime risk and avoiding costly errors. Distributed Active Redundant Architecture (DARA) is a concept introduced by CENTIEL into its fourth generation UPS. This active-redundant technology alongside the elimination of potential single points of failure and the true modular hot swap capability, allows CENTIEL’s CumulusPower to deliver availability of 9 Nines (99.999999999) to fulfil the needs of the most critical power applications. CumulusPower takes downtime from seconds, to the milliseconds level.

A TALE OF TWO DATA CENTRES Imagine Dave managing a large data centre in a remote location selected specifically because of the low cost of real-estate and the prevailing cooler ambient temperatures helping to reduce the cost of cooling. A modern modular UPS has been installed to provide critical power protection and ensure the availability of the data for numerous highprofile, household name clients. Dave well understood choosing a standalone type UPS where the main component parts of rectifier, inverter and static switch are modular: i.e. can be easily removed/inserted. It means if there is a problem with say the rectifier, it can be swapped easily. However, if any one of these components did fail, then the whole UPS functionality goes down with it.

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So Dave chose a modular system which includes the rectifier and inverter within individual power modules. However, one day the UPS display panel indicated an alarm associated with the single centralised static switch and Dave immediately put out a call to the service provider to attend. It should only have taken a few moments to swap out but, due to the data centre’s location, getting to the site to replace took the maintenance engineer several hours. During that time the system lost its ability to transfer to static bypass. Dave felt very exposed sitting there looking at the alarm panels and red alarm LED waiting for the engineer to arrive. Jim too manages a big data centre in another remote location. Jim understands the concept of decentralised architecture and how it increases system availability. He worked with his trusted advisors at CENTIEL to select a power protection system with the highest level of availability and installed the true modular UPS with DARA. With Jim’s UPS all the elements of rectifier, inverter and static switch are contained within each individual module. He knows if a static switch fails in one module, then he has not lost the ability to transfer to static bypass via the rest of the modules in the UPS frame. One thing that was always at the back of his mind was the communication between modules. Surely duplication and redundancy of UPS components must also apply to this aspect of the system design? The simplest communications bus is a single cable. If this breaks or becomes disconnected, the entire system could potentially be compromised. For this reason, the ring circuit was introduced. If the circuit breaks the signals can simply communicate the other way around the ring. But Jim being the natural risk averse person that he is, wanted even more assurance and wanted to see how this was being addressed by the designer. CENTIEL’s Triple Mode communications bus

THE PURPOSE OF A UPS SYSTEM MUST BE TO PROTECT CRITICAL LOADS WITH THE HIGHEST LEVEL OF AVAILABILITY.


POWER PROTECTION

was the answer. Like its name suggests, there are three paths of communication between UPS modules, and parallel frames, with three separate ring circuits, and three brains in each module communicating with the three brains in all the other modules – it’s the belt, braces and buttons approach. Jim likes the image of comparing Triple Mode to a tightrope walker. If a tightrope breaks, the consequences will be dramatic and far-reaching. In the same way, a single communications bus is far more precarious than a Triple Mode ring connection which is more like a bridge with multiple supports. Here, potential single points of failure are removed. While we all understand what the D and R mean in DARA, distributed and redundant through decentralised parallel independent UPS modules with triple communications, what does the A stand for? A is the automated democratic decisionmaking process which is another real differentiator in CENTIEL’s fourth generation true modular UPS. The sum of the decision determines the total system action or reaction to any issues. In Dave’s UPS system, if five modules share a load, if one has a problem it may signal all the modules go to static bypass. With Jim’s system, democratic decision making recognises a fault in one module and the other four will remain online while the problematic module is switched off automatically, allowing for replacement or repair while the load is still protected. No single component takes decisions for the whole system. The automated process removes some of the human element which has led to the majority of data centre power failures in recent years. A static switch in a module goes down, Jim is alerted to the single module fault as his critical facilities continue to be maintained by the other UPS modules. Jim phones the engineer so it can be replaced while he grabs a quick coffee.

CENTIEL HAS INTRODUCED ITS FOURTH GENERATION MODULAR UPS SYSTEM CUMULUSPOWER

CONCLUSION

Naturally, often cost comes into the decision-making process when purchasing a UPS. However, the purpose of a UPS system must be to protect critical loads with the highest level of availability. There must be no potential single points of failure. Therefore, it is important to check the configuration and the definition of a modular system carefully and seek expert advice before purchasing. At CENTIEL our design team has been working with data centres for many years at the forefront of technological development. We are the trusted advisors to some of the world’s leading institutions in the field. For this reason, we have developed our pioneering fourth generation true modular UPS system CumulusPower which offers offer industry-leading availability of 99.9999999% (9 Nines), with low total cost of ownership (TCO) through its Maximum Efficiency Management (MEM) and low losses of energy. » CENTIEL CENTIEL.COM

November 2018 | 27


OPINION: CONTAINERISATION

SHOULD YOU BE LOOKING AT

CONTAINER IN YOUR DATA CENT SIMON YEOMAN, CEO OF FASTHOSTS, DEMYSTIFIES

CONTAINERISATION, ONE OF THE LATEST CAUSES OF HEADACHES IN THE DATA CENTRE WORLD…

D

edicated or shared hosting? There was a time when that was the only decision you needed to make when it came to your hosting needs. While that decision still needs to be made, it no longer ends there. There are now many more choices that need to be made about what’s under the hood, based on your requirements, budget and roadmap. Containerisation is one of the latest cause

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of headaches in data centres across the land. Would containers suit our needs? What kind of server hosting is required to run containers? And what is ‘serverless’?

THE GOOD OLD DAYS In the ‘old days’, you would simply run an application via a web hosting package, or if you were a little more sophisticated, you would acquire a dedicated server with an operating system and a complete software stack. But now, there are far more options.


OPINION: CONTAINERISATION

RISATION

TRE? Containerisation, or operating-systemlevel virtualisation, uses a platform such as Docker to run isolated instances known as containers. A container is a package of software that includes everything needed for a specific application, functioning like a separate server environment. Sharing a single OS kernel, multiple containers can run on one server or virtual machine (VM) without affecting each other in any way. To the user, a container feels like its own unique environment, irrespective of the host infrastructure.

“THERE’S A REASON WHY GOOGLE PIONEERED CONTAINERS AND USES THEM ACROSS ITS GLOBAL INFRASTRUCTURE TOO.”

WHY CHOSE CONTAINERS? Containers are a very efficient way to structure your data centre because they can perform tasks that would otherwise require a whole server or VM, while consuming fewer resources. In fact, while most of our customers won’t realise it, our CloudNX Apps & Stacks services are already built on container technology, and we continue to take what we’ve learned and apply it to all our products going forward. We use these technologies internally – we’ve been the guinea pigs ourselves – and our underlying platforms have become more resilient as a result, with the additional benefits of self-healing. In the years to come, the development and adoption of containers will likely continue to accelerate. We intentionally chose containers as the platform for these new services because they’re lightweight and agile, which allows them to be deployed, shut down and restarted at a moment’s notice, and they can be easily transferred across hardware and environments (i.e. from one datacentre

November 2018 | 29


OPINION: CONTAINERISATION

to another). Because containers are standalone packages, they behave reliably and consistently for everyone, all the time, regardless of the local configuration. There’s a reason why Google pioneered containers and uses them across its global infrastructure too. Containers, just like VMs or servers, need to be managed, or orchestrated. Kubernetes is perhaps the most popular orchestrator for containers (incidentally it was Google that built Kubernetes in the first place). There are several out there, but Kubernetes is the leading container orchestration tool, filling a vital role for anyone who needs to run a large number of containers in a production environment – on one or more dedicated servers, for example. Kubernetes automates the deployment, scheduling and management of containerised applications. It automatically scales containers

30 | November 2018

CONTAINERISATION VS VIRTUALISATION: WHAT’S RIGHT FOR YOU?

across multiple nodes (servers or VMs) to meet current demand and perform rollouts seamlessly, while also enabling containerised applications to self-heal: if a node fails, Kubernetes restarts, replaces or reschedules containers as required.

AN ENVIRONMENT THAT’S RIGHT As with traditional web hosting solutions, you can choose whether to run your containers in a shared environment, where you will likely get the best value for money if you have relatively small workloads that will not fully utilise resources of a whole cluster of nodes (VMs or servers). But if you have larger workloads or regulatory obligations to meet, a dedicated environment, or even your own cluster, may be required. In serverless computing, the orchestrator will automatically stop, start and scale


OPINION: CONTAINERISATION

the container on the infrastructure best placed to handle the demand at that time. This means that the developer has even less to be concerned about; code runs automatically, with no need to manually configure the infrastructure. Costs are also minimised, with all instances of a container automatically shut down when demand for it disappears.

DECIPHERING JARGON ‘Microservices’ is another term often used when discussing containers. Simply put, a traditional application is built as one big block, with a single file system, shared databases and a common language across its various functions. A microservices application reveals itself behind the scenes, where functions are broken down

into individual components; for example, a product service, a payment service, and a customer review service. Containerisation technologies like Kubernetes provide platforms and management tools for implementation, enabling microservices to be lightweight and run anywhere. Microservices can technically be built on traditional server hosting, but the practical reality of creating and maintaining a full microservices architecture demands a container platform like Docker, and an orchestration tool like Kubernetes. As a business, we are building all our new services on these systems, with container technology firmly placed as the platform of the future. The question is, is it the platform for yours? » FASTHOSTS, FASTHOSTS.CO.UK

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19 INCH RACKING SOLUTIONS

T: 01424 429 641

| E: onlineuk@penn-elcom.com | W: pennelcomonline.com November 2018 | 31


DATA IS KING OPINION: DATA

ZANDRA MOORE, CEO OF

PANINTELLIGENCE, TALKS

TO DCNN ABOUT DATA BEING THE BIGGEST CHANGEMAKER IN SOCIETY AT THE MOMENT.

I

n the past three months alone, we’ve seen countless mainstream news stories on data and, let’s be honest, very few of them positive. But let’s think about this for a moment, the data economy: Facebook (for example) doesn’t physically make anything, there are no logistics involved, it’s free for ‘consumers’, it’s available worldwide, and the information it holds is arguably the most valuable commodity to any business – it’s all data. It recently lost 20% of its value but that barely made a dent in Mark Zuckerberg’s Forbes billionaire listing (he went from fourth to sixth in one day), and why not? Because data is king.

32 | November 2018

Facebook simply exemplifies the influence of big data holders – and in its Cambridge Analytica decision - its lack of ethics. The tech revolution sees companies harnessing the power of data, and with the likes of Facebook, Google, Uber and Amazon dominating the business landscape, we need to democratise data, so companies of all sizes can glean intelligence from it and translate their findings into informed decision-making and business advantage. Preventing business domination by data oligarchs is essential, as more data is created in a single second today than was stored in the entire internet 20 years ago.


OPINION: DATA

“DATA HAS TAKEN OVER FROM CAPITAL AS THE NEW CURRENCY OF BUSINESS AND, IF WE’RE NOT CAREFUL, WILL PUT POWER IN THE HANDS OF THE FEW.”

November 2018 | 33


OPINION: DATA

THE VALUE OF DATA Organisations across all sectors are now dealing with huge volumes of data, and we’re increasingly seeing people realise just how valuable it is, whether it’s in a database, or sensor data, as manufacturing businesses move further towards automation. Businesses looking to gain meaningful insight into their operations by understanding their data often find it to be more difficult than it should be. And it’s too expensive to bring multiple sets of data together while needing a data scientist to interrogate it. Really, the people within organisations are best placed to cross-examine their own data. As the domain experts, their knowledge and understanding are unmatched – so it comes down to accelerating the accessibility of that data. We need to ensure that it can be accessed in real time by the people who can affect real change; the important insights gained from data means business decisions are based on data analysis. In the business world, access to this data can have a massive impact on financial growth; in the public sector, it can help identify people at risk – it has even helped save lives. For example, the software can help radiology departments identify safe levels of exposure to radiation and adapt their practices accordingly. Panintelligence has transformed the way people use data to improve organisational performance and is working to transform what data analytics companies should be – a force for good – by breaking down the barriers and mystery around data tech and unleashing the true value of data. The healthcare sector uses data to predict which patients are likely to miss medical appointments, the educational sector can identify students likely to miss a class and are more likely to drop out, and the finance sector can see which transactions are most likely to be fraudulent. Identifying change in this way is important as it helps decision makers manage risk and understand their customers better to drive engagement. Only by putting data into decision makers’ hands instead of techies’, can it be really understood and acted upon appropriately.

34 | November 2018

IT IS TIME TO UNLEASH THE TRUE VALUE OF DATA

A NEW CURRENCY The truth is, data analytics is the new leading edge, it can be a king maker and used by those with power and control to their advantage. Data has taken over from capital as the new currency of business and, if we’re not careful, will put power in the hands of the few. To combat this power grab requires diversity. Within business, a diverse team sees organisations making better decisions. Decisions that represent the values of the many, not the few. Diversity is not just a gender issue. For Panintelligence, our teams across the whole business are diverse in all aspects and this creates a vibrant and innovative culture. But more than that, it breeds tolerance, empathy and respect for others. We have broader world views and different voices that all contribute to the direction of travel and the decisions we make as a company. It’s all about the double bottom line; data analytics for social change along with fair commercial competition and for organisational benefit; improving outcomes for learners, patients and those without big budgets. Helping SMEs and the public sector compete with the ‘big boys’. With diverse organisations we have diverse decision making, and with diversity of those with control and power new data asset will be used for social change for social good. We’re fighting for data to be change maker, not just a king maker, and as a value- led business with a social conscience, we choose to put the power in the hands of the many. » PANINTELLIGENCE, PANINTELLIGENCE.COM


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PROJECTS & AGREEMENTS

GREEN MOUNTAIN SELECTS SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC PREFABRICATED DATA CENTRE MODULES TO DOUBLE ITS NORWAY COLOCATION CAPACITY Green Mountain AS, a data centre company specialised in delivering high-end data centre services, has awarded Schneider Electric a significant order to deliver data centre infrastructure to support increased capacity at its two Norwegian sites in Telemark and Stavanger. The modular solution being provided by Schneider Electric is said to incorporate the latest innovations in air economised cooling, as well as high efficiency UPS with Li-Ion battery back-up. Green Mountain says it has specialised in delivering high-end data centre services to demanding enterprise and wholesale customers around the world. Existing customers include banks, energy, Cloud & IT service providers, government agencies and large enterprises. “Green Mountain is growing quickly, so we are making two major investments in Rennesøy and Rjukan,” says company CSO, Svein Atle Hagaseth. “To meet the specific

36 | November 2018

needs of our customers, we need to bring new data centre capacity online rapidly. Our experience of working with Schneider Electric makes them a natural partner for us to turn to in order to expedite this project.” The first element of the staged project, and the larger prefabricated data centre investment is scheduled to go live at the Rjukan site by April 1, 2019. In addition to the Schneider Electric Data Centre Power and Cooling modules, Schneider Electric says it will also be providing technical – or ‘white’ – space, plus electrical distribution equipment and MV and LV switchgear. Charlie Timmerman, VP IT division, Northern Europe at Schneider Electric comments, “We’re delighted to extend our partnership with Green Mountain with the expansion of its two high-profile data centre sites. It is the result of a superb team effort, bringing together the competencies of data centre expert teams within our Energy and IT Divisions.”

The infrastructure to provision the upgraded capacity requires up to 15 state-of-the-art Schneider Electric Data Centre Power and Cooling modules. The benefits of the prefabricated, pre-engineered modular approach are said to be well established, and include factory integration and testing to simplify and speed up on-site installation, as well as ensure more predictable and reliable operations. The containerised solutions are being constructed at Schneider Electric’s Barcelona manufacturing plant and will be delivered by road. Charlie Timmermann concludes, “A project of this scale proves what can be achieved when two pioneering organisations work together to ensure quality and environmental standards can be met without compromising uptime.” GREEN MOUNTAIN, GREENMOUNTAINENERGY.COM; SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC, SCHNEIDER-ELECTRIC.CO.UK


PROJECTS & AGREEMENTS

HONEYWELL AND ENGINE AXIMA REDUCE EUROCONTROL’S ENERGY CONSUMPTION WITH NEW COOLING SYSTEM Honeywell and ENGIE Axima have released official data on energy and cost savings achieved from its new cooling system for Eurocontrol, an intergovernmental organisation with 41 member and two comprehensive agreement states that provides air traffic management for as many as 36,000 commercial flights per day within the European airspace. “Cooling is a critical part of our infrastructure and protects the integrity of our systems,” says Luc De Backer, project implementation manager Eurocontrol. “By switching from an older, less efficient cooling system to this new ENGIE Axima-Honeywell solution, we have incorporated technology that is strategically designed to meet our needs over the next two decades and future-proofs us for performance, safety, efficiency and environmental impact.” “We at ENGIE Axima always want to offer our customers sustainable, tailor-made solutions which help them use energy in an intelligent manner. The Eurocontrol project was a perfect proof of this approach,” adds Bernard Arimont, CEO ENGIE Axima. According to the data, the companies say the cooling system’s design will help achieve annual energy savings up to 1,500 MWh and will reduce Eurocontrol’S total annual consumption by more than 12% – the equivalent of as much as €150,000 per year in energy costs. In addition, the new cooling system is said to have been designed to prevent overheating at Eurocontrol’s headquarters and flight management and data centre facilities in Brussels. Eurocontrol’s air traffic flow

management and data centres require constant cooling for optimal performance and stable operations. A recent EkkoSense survey conducted in the United Kingdom found that thermal issues account for more than one-third of unplanned data centre outages. The new cooling system – for which Honeywell supplied the refrigerant, and ENGIE Axima provided the equipment and servicing – is comprised of two Quantum chillers with unique remote condensers and two watercooled Quantum chillers, achieving a total refrigeration capacity of 5MW. The companies say the dual chiller configuration allows for redundancy, with both chillers operating on just 50% of their full load capacity. The Quantum cooling systems produced by ENGIE Axima are said to be designed with oil-free, magneticbearing centrifugal compressors, using Honeywell’s Solstice ze (R-1234ze) refrigerant, which replaces an older refrigerant R-22 that contributes to both ozone depletion and global warming. “With the environmentally preferable technology of Solstice ze, Eurocontrol is realising 1,500MWh in energy savings and can expect payback in less than 10 years,” says Julien Soulet, vice president and general manager, Honeywell Fluorine Products Europe, Middle East and Africa. “As worldwide demand for energy efficient technology continues to grow, Solstice ze is one of many solutions that helps customers reduce their carbon footprint without sacrificing performance.” HONEYWELL, HONEYWELL.COM; ENGIE AXIMA, ENGIE-AXIMA.FR

November 2018 | 37


PROJECTS & AGREEMENTS

VOLTA DATA CENTRES ANNOUNCES NEW STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP WITH MEGAPORT Volta Data Centres, the carrierneutral data centre, has announced a new strategic partnership with global leading Network as a Service provider Megaport. The new partnership is said to see Volta provide space within its Central London facility for Megaport to offer its cloud and software defined networking (SDN) solutions to Volta enterprise and carrier tenants. The companies say that Volta customers will benefit from secure and scalable connectivity to Megaport’s major cloud service providers such as Amazon Web Services, Alibaba Cloud, Microsoft Azure, IBM Cloud, Oracle Cloud, Salesforce, and Google Cloud Platform. The Megaport ecosystem has over 300 service providers. With Megaport adding that customers can provision capacity to key service providers around

38 | November 2018

the globe, on demand and rapidly through its intuitive self-serve portal. Volta’s location in Central London was said to be a major influence in bringing together the two companies. The data centre holds a 100% uptime record for its customers and is used by many of the capital’s major businesses which require high-performance and always-on networks – such as those in the financial services, media and healthcare industries. Vincent English, CEO at Megaport, says, “Enterprises demand a better way of connecting rapidly to the cloud service providers that are increasingly powering next generation IT strategies. Volta, as a leading provider of data centre services to enterprises, is an excellent partner for Megaport. Its central London data centre represents a substantial

opportunity to extend the reach of cloud services directly to where enterprises are housing their missioncritical private and on-premises infrastructure to enable multicloud and hybrid cloud solutions. Jonathan Arnold, managing director, Volta Data Centres, adds: “Megaport is a huge brand and this partnership reflects the global importance of Volta services. With Megaport, our customers can now instantly and securely connect to some of the world’s biggest and best cloud platforms and third-party service providers – opening up new services and functionalities for our customers, such as SDN, multicloud connectivity and pay-as-you-go contracting.” VOLT DATA CENTRES, VOLTADATACENTRES.COM; MEGAPORT, MEGAPORT.COM


PROJECTS & AGREEMENTS

CYRUSONE ENTERS INTO A STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP TO DEVELOP HYPERSCALE DATA CENTRES IN THE NETHERLANDS CyrusOne Inc., a data centre REIT, has announced entry into an agreement with Agriport A7 for the development of hyperscale data centres in Middenmeer, the Netherlands. Under the terms of the agreement, CyrusOne say it will have the option to purchase up to 33 hectares of land, in parcels as demand dictates, for a 270MW master planned multi-data centre campus. The land, located on Agriport A7’s 1,000-hectare campus approximately 40km north of central Amsterdam, boasts access to the significant future power necessary to support the data centre campus and is already home to two major hyperscale developments. “We are very excited to announce this strategic partnership with the Agriport team to develop the largest master planned data centre campus in Europe for our hyperscale customers. The unique option agreement aligns the parties’ interests and allows CyrusOne to aggressively pursue build-to-suit

development projects on ready-to-develop property without deploying significant capital in advance of winning these deals,” says Gary Wojtaszek, president and chief executive officer of CyrusOne. “We will be replicating this development model around the globe and are already speaking to other potential land partners.” “Our campus, with low latency to the AMS-IX, has access to significant dark fibre and more than 600MWs of primarily green power. Already home to two of the world’s largest hyperscale companies, we expect our partnership with CyrusOne to attract a number of additional players, ultimately establishing Agriport A7 as the premier location for large scale data centre deployments in the Netherlands,” adds Anton Hiemstra, CEO of Agriport A7. CYRUSONE, CYRUSONE.COM

November 2018 | 39


PROJECTS & AGREEMENTS

NEW PARTNERSHIP TRANSFORMS DATA: BOULTING TECHNOLOGY JOINS SIEMENS’ MINDSPHERE PARTNER PROGRAM Industrial systems integrator, Boulting Technology, has announced it has joined the Mindsphere Partner Program, as Boulting continues to develop and deliver powerful applications and digital services to its growing client base. Developed by Europe’s largest industrial manufacturing company, Siemens’ MindSphere is a cloudbased, open IoT operating system that connects products, plants, systems and machines, which professes to enable businesses to harness the wealth of data generated by the Internet of Things with advanced analytics. Using MindSphere, Boulting says it will work with its customers to develop powerful industrial applications, which are intended to optimise the entire value chain; from design, production planning and engineering to services. This in turn is said to improve productivity and efficiency for individual machines, systems and globally connected plants. The company says the software allows for immediate asset monitoring that can be configured quickly and efficiently. Once set up, users can locate connected assets at a glance on a geographical map, which is particularly beneficial for those operating multiple sites. “As the industrial sector continues to be transformed by IoT technologies, one of the biggest

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challenges plant managers are faced with is how quickly systems can connect, while remaining secure at all times,” says Nick Boughton, digital lead at Boulting Technology. “MindSphere helps us change this, dismantling the barriers surrounding industrial digital technologies (IDT) by allowing both Siemens and nonSiemens assets to connect, creating a direct and secure connection for data transmission. “With every piece of plant equipment providing a mountain of data, our partnership with Siemens will enable our customers to harness their own big data in a bid to improve operational efficiency in the plant. “Big data is not a new concept, however many manufacturers still fail to make the most of it. From

collection to aggregation and analytics, we will be there every step of the way, advising on the best course of action to stay ahead of the competition.” Paul Kaeley, senior vice president, global partner ecosystem at Siemens PLM Software, adds, “Boulting Technology is capable of delivering tremendous value to its client base through its vertically integrated solution. With Boulting as a partner in the MindSphere ecosystem, we can address operational challenges and support largescale business improvements using MindSphere. “Siemens is committed to creating partnerships that help customers realise the benefits of digital transformation with Industrial IoT. Working with Boulting Technology can help provide MindSphere applications that improve customers’ ability to get value from their currently unused, data.” The partnership with Siemens is said to build upon Boulting’s recent alliance with NETbuilder, a provider of software and IT consulting services, which allows Boulting to provide customers across manufacturing, process and other industries with a full suite of end-toend digitalisation services. BOULTING TECHNOLOGY, BOULTINGTECHNOLOGY.CO.UK; SIEMENS, SIEMENS.MINDSPHERE.IO


PROJECTS & AGREEMENTS

BOSTON NETWORKS TO DELIVER WI-FI FOR ABERDEEN, GLASGOW AND SOUTHAMPTON AIRPORTS Passengers at Aberdeen, Glasgow and Southampton Airports will soon be able to access a superior WiFi service, following the contract award to Boston Networks to deliver and support a high performing WLAN solution for AGS Airports Ltd. Boston Networks has secured a contract to upgrade the Wi-Fi infrastructure at Aberdeen, Glasgow and Southampton airports to the latest industry leading enterprise grade technology, as part of their ongoing investment programme. As the use of smartphones, tablets and laptops continues to increase, AGS says it will enhance the passenger experience at their three UK airports, by enabling travellers to securely and quickly connect to free and reliable, high speed internet. With the current network nearing end of life, an expected increased growth in passenger numbers, and a commitment to offer travellers an exceptional user experience. AGS Airports are said to remain at the forefront of traveller technology by upgrading their WLAN networks to the very latest future proofed Aruba OS8 technology. Boston Networks say it will work with AGS Airports to design and upgrade their current wireless infrastructure to a leading edge, centrally managed solution capable of supporting all corporate, third party and guest services, and the next generation of Wi-Fi technologies and smart devices. The first phase is set to commence with rigorous site surveys to ensure optimum coverage in both location and density throughout the terminal buildings and to standalone buildings throughout the airport complexes.

Once live, the upgraded infrastructure is set to provide high-speed connectivity to over 1,000 AGS staff, 12,000 staff from other organisations working across the three airports, and a combined 15 million passengers each year. Malcolm Surgenor, group head of IT, AGS Airports Limited, comments, “As seamless availability of WiFi becomes increasingly ubiquitous, we at AGS Airports recognise that a fast, secure and easy to use infrastructure is fundamental for our passengers and customers. That is why we are investing significantly in enhancing the delivery of Wi-Fi services and we believe we have the perfect partner in Boston Networks to achieve this.” Falk Bleyl, chief technology officer, Boston Networks, adds, “We are delighted to have been selected by AGS Airports Limited to install and support the latest Wi-Fi technology at its airports. Fast, reliable Wi-Fi services are no longer an optional extra, but a vital service for many organisations, resulting in more effective and efficient staff as well as greater customer satisfaction. We look forward to supporting AGS Airports Limited in its continued drive for excellence by providing outstanding Wi-Fi coverage for on-site staff and passengers alike.” The roll out is scheduled for completion by December 2018 and will be supported by Boston Networks’ Network Operations Centre (NOC) to ensure the seamless delivery of Wi-Fi connectivity across the airports. BOSTON NETWORKS, BOSTONNETWORKS.CO.UK

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PROJECTS & AGREEMENTS

CGTRADER OFFERS INTEGRATION OF ITS TECHNOLOGY WITH E-COMMERCE GIANT SHOPIFY CGTrader, a 3D model marketplace, has offered integration of its technology with the Canadian e-commerce giant Shopify. As part of the integration, CGTrader says it will help Shopify to create an all new shopping experience using 3D modelling and Augmented Reality (AR). The merchants on Shopify are said to then be able to access CGTrader’s services through the Shopify experts’ site. “This integration can help businesses turn their products into a 3D visual format using the latest 3D modelling and AR technologies,” says Dalia Lasaite, CEO and cofounder of CGTrader. She notes that 3D is the future for e-commerce and within a few years will replace a significant part of today’s 2D online shopping experience.

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CGTrader says it offers the kinds of services that are critical for e-commerce of the future. “Shopify has chosen us to provide the services needed to make this revolution happen as demand for 3D models in e-commerce sector is expanding rapidly,” says CGTrader’s Lasaite. “Companies like Shopify are 11 times more likely to sell an item or a product that has an Augmented Reality experience. This fact is very significant for the mobile e-commerce market, which, according to Statista.com, is expected to generate some $3.56 billion in 2021, a year when it is expected to make up almost three quarters of e-commerce sales.” The company says with its 3D models, Shopify’s store owners

do not require any technical knowledge of 3D design to get a high-quality 3D model that is guaranteed to work in AR apps. As a result, CGTrader says it will be much easier for them to achieve guaranteed quality, a smooth service and technical compatibility. CGTrader can help Shopify leverage high-quality 3D modelling, according to Lasaite, who explains, “We have a strong and highly specialised 3D design community, and therefore our team can find the perfect designer for any product. All in all, AR greatly increases user engagement, brings your products to life, and lets customers really make sure they want a product before they purchase.” CGTRADER, CGTRADER.COM


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COMPANY SHOWCASE

SPONSORED STORIES FROM THE INDUSTRY

IBM INTRODUCES AI OPENSCALE TO SPUR AI ADOPTION AND TRANSPARENCY IBM, provider of AI software, services and technology, has introduced AI OpenScale, a new technology platform that addresses key challenges of artificial intelligence (AI) adoption, such as concerns over how AI applications make decisions, the global shortage of AI skills and the complexities of working with disparate AI tools from multiple vendors. IBM says its new technology platform is the first of its kind; enabling companies to run AI transparently, irrespective of where their AI applications were built or in which environment they currently run. The company says AI OpenScale can detect and correct bias across the spectrum of AI applications, as those applications are being run. As part of AI OpenScale, IBM says it will also debut NeuNetS, a major scientific breakthrough in which AI builds AI – making it possible to create complex, deep-neural networks from scratch. This is said to help address the AI skills gap and accelerate scaling AI. “To accelerate AI adoption, businesses need one place to run all their AI,” says David Kenny, SVP of IBM Cognitive Solutions. “We are committed to enabling our clients to use the AI of their choice, regardless of vendor – and use IBM AI OpenScale to make it transparent and easy to manage. Only through enabling businesses to trust and scale their AI will we enable the AI economy.” The company’s recent study of 5,000 C-level executives shows that 82% of businesses are considering using artificial intelligence, but 63% lack the in-house talent to confidently manage the technology. Also, 60% are hindered by concerns over trust and compliance. “AI is a significant enabler of business transformation and leaders need to demonstrate they trust and responsibly use AI. This includes an explanation of how AI capabilities are free of bias, protected from misuse, and consistently and predictably perform. For KPMG, it’s critical we have AI technology that helps facilitate trust among organisations, and strategically supports enterprise-wide transformation. IBM’s new AI OpenScale capabilities are designed to enable and enhance trust amongst organisations,” according to Vinodh Swaminathan, principal in KPMG’s innovation & enterprise solutions group. AI OpenScale will be available via the IBM Cloud and IBM Cloud Private later this year. FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT IBM, IBM.COM

TALEND FALL ’18 ENABLES ENTERPRISES TO DELIVER INSIGHT-READY DATA AT SCALE Talend, a provider of cloud data integration solutions, has announced a major update to its Talend Data Fabric, the company’s unified data platform for data integration across complex, multi-cloud and on-premises environments. Announced at Talend Connect UK, Talend’s Fall 2018 release is said to deliver insight-ready data at scale with new features including Data Catalog, which creates a single source of trusted data; and Cloud Application Programming Interface (API) Services, which speeds access to standardised data for building data-as-a-service applications and increasing productivity. Talend say its new release also accelerates running machine learning algorithms at scale with extended serverless big data support. “Data is at the heart of digital transformation, yet the promise of data remains elusive for many companies,” says Ciaran Dynes, SVP of products, Talend. “For businesses to survive and succeed in this ever-evolving, expanding and complex data landscape, there is a need to optimally automate every step of the data value chain and enable selfservice for more data consumers. With this release, Talend helps enterprises dramatically improve how they can organise, process, and share data, which in turn enables organisations to collaborate and innovate on insight-ready data at scale.” As part of the new Talend Data Fabric, Talend says it has added an API delivery platform enabling data-driven businesses to simplify data access. The company proclaim its API Services provide full API development lifecycle support from API design to test and deployment, enabling significant time savings in building and maintaining APIs. Stating that this API foundation serves as a standard and scalable way for companies to make data available to more users inside and outside an organisation and to create new products and services that can drive new business models, revenue and profitability. “In this new era of digital transformation, nearly every organisational role is using data daily to inform decisions and actions,” says Stewart Bond, research director, Data Integration and Data Integrity Software, IDC. “Data cataloging software is experiencing a higher than market growth rate because it is filling a gap in the intelligence required to help organisations discover data and derive better insights to inform decisions and drive actions.” FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT TALEND, TALEND.COM

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SPONSORED STORIES FROM THE INDUSTRY

COMPANY SHOWCASE

HARTING IX INDUSTRIAL: THE NEW MINIATURISED ETHERNET INTERFACE HARTING, provider of industrial connection technology, has announced its new ix Industrial a miniaturised Ethernet interface that is said to set a new standard for IP20 Ethernet connections. Ethernet is the dominant communication standard for industrial applications, and the popular RJ45 connector has become the standard interface for Ethernet connections. However, with advances in miniaturisation, the company says the RJ45 has now become too large for many applications. In addition, its plastic locking tabs are easily broken in busy manufacturing environments, which can lead to contact problems as the connection works loose. Consequently, a smaller and more rugged connector, especially one which can also offer Cat. 6A performance for 1/10 Gbit/s Ethernet at the control level,

has been on the wish list of many users and developers. The company says its ix Industrial is an integrated system which meets all these requirements. Compared to the RJ45, the company says the ix Industrial socket sizes are 30% of the size; enabling manufacturers to use the ix in much smaller devices. Moreover, the ix is said to combine data transmission and power supply into a single interface, further reducing the area required for connectors. For device integration, a small yet robust socket with five THR shielding contacts is available for maximum stability on the PCB. With respect to device wiring, HARTING says users can avail themselves of flexible, thin system cables with a tight bending radius. These can be assembled with the ix mating face on both ends or mixed, for example, with the ix and the RJ45 connector on opposite

ends. This enables a gradual adaptation of individual elements in the control level without the need to directly use totally new components. The HARTING ix Industrial interface is standardised in accordance with IEC/PAS 61076-3-124 and conforms to the shock and vibration resistance levels set out in EN 50155 railway specifications, making it the perfect solution for a range of markets and sectors. FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT HARTING, HARTING.COM

EMERSON ENHANCES PROPORTIONAL VALVES WITH DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS INTERFACE FOR INDUSTRY 4.0 AND IIOT INTEGRATION Emerson, a technology and engineering company, has introduced its ASCO Numatics Sentronic Plus (Series 614) and Sentronic LP (Series 617) proportional pressure control valves, with the integration of IO-Link communications to provide cost-effective and reliable control and diagnostics in support of predictive maintenance practices. Emerson says it uses IO-Link communications to gain insight into these devices on the factory floor which supports future implementation of Industry 4.0 and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) applications that will contribute toward greater plant reliability, availability and profitability. The company says its versatile Sentronic Plus and Sentronic LP valves enable process optimisation, regardless of application requirements. Saying its Sentronic Plus digitally operated pressure regulator valves accurately adjust pressure, flow, force, speed and linear or angular positions. They regulate pressure up to 12 bar (174 psi) and are electromagnetic-compatible according to Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) Directive 2014/30/EU. Sentronic Low Power (LP) valves are said to be a highly efficient option for pressure regulation requirements, offering a small footprint, an easy-to-use and modular design, and advanced software capabilities. Their low-power consumption of less than four watts supports applications where power is limited. IO-Link is said to be increasingly applied to a range of automation applications, providing a low-cost digital communication interface for sensors, actuators and controllers via unshielded, industry-standard M12 I/O cables.

To reduce maintenance time and complexity, the IO-Link module is also said to allow the Sentronic valves to identify and configure themselves automatically during component replacement, thereby eliminating the need for reconfiguration via a laptop. Supporting greater ease-of-use, the addition of IO-Link technology to the Sentronic valves uniquely enables device parameters to be changed directly with the PLC during a process without the need of data acquisition software. “Emerson is a leading innovator in driving IIoT technologies and strategies to facilitate the digital transformation of our customers’ operations across a broad range of industries,” says Harald Steinle, engineering manager for proportional products at Emerson Automation Solutions. “Adding IO-Link capability to the Sentronic Plus and Sentronic LP valves creates significant benefits for users. It not only makes the devices easier to control and operate, but also prepares them for future integration with IIoT applications, enabling improvements in plant reliability and availability.” Increasing flexibility of choice, the new IO-Link interface is compatible with the full range of Sentronic LP Series 617 valves, as well as the Sentronic Plus Series 614 valves in sizes DN3 and DN6. These valves profess to enable process optimisation in applications such as filling machines in food or cosmetics factories, assembly machines, conveyors and robotic hands. FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT EMERSON, EMERSON.COM

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NEXT ISSUE: IIOT/UPS

NEXT TIME… AS WELL AS ITS REGULAR RANGE OF FEATURES AND NEWS ITEMS, THE NEXT ISSUE OF DATA CENTRE & NETWORK NEWS WILL CONTAIN MAJOR FEATURES ON IIOT AND UPS. To make sure you don’t miss the opportunity to advertise your products to this exclusive readership, call Ian on 01634 673163 or email Ian@allthingsmedialtd.com.

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