SECURE DATA FOR THE DIGITAL AGE
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A QUESTION OF TRUST WRIT TEN BY
ANDRE W WOODS PRODUCED BY
LE WIS VAUGHAN
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Aman Khan, Managing Director, Frankfurt of leading data centre provider Global Switch, discusses a major new project in Frankfurt…
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rust lies at the heart of every business – and every business deal. Without it, you have uncertainty, fear and possible catastrophe.
Nowhere is trust more fundamental than when choosing a data centre, the potential custodian of your most valuable and sensitive assets. 04
Aman Khan, Managing Director of Global Switch Frankfurt, is committed to the company’s ambitions to place trust front and centre of its operations. “When enterprises, telecom companies or cloud providers come to us to host their IT or backbone infrastructure, it is as though they are giving us the keys to their homes,” Khan explains. “It is extremely critical to them, and they need total confidence and trust in us.” Global Switch’s customers not only need to trust its infrastructure and the security, performance and reliability it provides, but also the company’s financial stability and stature within the marketplace. After all, who wants to place all of their most prized assets into the hands of a precarious operation? “We are the highest credit rated data centre company in the world,” he says. “In addition, we own and operate all our data centres under freehold or under the longest leasehold
05 available in the markets where freeholds are not offered due to local regulation. We do not rent – whenever we develop a data centre we own it, which gives us the added flexibility to scale it easily and meet customer demand. It is one of our key differentiators and gives customers peace of mind.”
CONSTRUCTION TIME 2018 marks Global Switch’s 20-year anniversary – the past two decades have seen the company establish itself as one of the world’s leading operators with a portfolio of 11 largescale data centres in eight locations across Europe and Asia-Pacific operated to a Tier III w w w.gl o ba l swi tch . com
1972 established in 1972
750
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completed â‚Ź3 billion worth of data centre projects
3000
REVENUES OF OVER â‚Ź750M
over 3000 emloyees
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31
countries worked in
Premier data centre contractor in europe
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completed projects on 4 continents
MERCURY ENGINEERING - AN OVERVIEW
Mercury is an International Construction Company and the European Market Leader in turnkey Datacentre construction. With Projects completed in 31 Countries on 4 Continents, we have vast experience & a hugely successful track record of completing large complex projects overseas. We have a mobile workforce who enjoy a challenge and who are fully supported by senior management & dedicated function departments. Many of our experienced operatives are long term direct employees who manage projects on behalf of our clients to the strictest codes of integrity & professionalism. Today, we are building on this legacy applying our expertise and credibility on projects for some of the world’s largest corporations. The strong partnerships we form with our clients enable us to assist them at a strategic level and to deliver business critical projects seamlessly and effectively. Every project we undertake is unique & has its own set of risks and challenges however our approach is the same; to optimise the engineering design, supply chain, installation techniques and management practices. This approach coupled with our strategy of engaging the local supply chain wherever we operate ensures excellent project support and long-term sustainability. Safety and Quality are key to our businesses success & our management processes are audited and certified to OSHAS 18001 and ISO 14001. Evolving IT has given us new tools to manage our business more efficiently and increase the level of service we offer to clients. We believe that our company’s future success is dependent on keeping our workforce educated and equipped with the best tools and business processes. To this end, we quickly adapt the latest building systems & services both through experience & the use of educational seminars. The future belongs to companies who take responsibility for updating their skills and knowledge and who continuously improve their ability to transform data into value added, actionable information to serve customers.
MERCURY ENGINEERING MERCURY HOUSE, Ravensrock Road, Sandyford Dublin, Ireland. www.mercuryeng.com info@mercuryeng.com +353 1 216 3000 Follow us on:
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standard or higher. The total size of the
organisations Global Switch is part way
company’s data centres – all 100%
through a significant global expansion
carrier and cloud neutral – comes in at
plan with developments and upgrades
340,000 sq m with a massive 357MVA
currently underway in London, Hong
(mega volt amps) of total connected
Kong and Singapore. Germany’s
utility power capacity.
financial capital Frankfurt is home to
The company’s focus is on highly
Global Switch’s next major development
resilient, central, low latency, network
in Europe. Built by Mercury Engineering,
dense locations in prime city centre
the €115mn Frankfurt North data centre
areas and internet hubs close to its
– due to be operational in 2019 – will
customers on the edge of financial
provide an additional 11,000 sq m of
and business districts. Due to customer
space with 14MVA power supply
demand from financial institutions,
capacity to the company’s operations
enterprises, global systems integrators,
there and will be adjacent to Global
cloud providers, telecoms, managed
Switch’s existing data centre, Frankfurt
service providers and other hosting
South. Customers will have access to
businesses as well as government
a wide range of cloud and network
E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E
Aman Khan Aman Khan is a passionate, forward-thinking and resultsdriven executive with several years’ experience in strategical and operational leadership functions at multinational technology services enterprises. Khan has proven experience in business development, sales management and go-to-market strategies of technology companies that focus on mid-to-large enterprises including public, service provider as well as startup segments.
‘The data centre will benefit from an independently verified annualised design Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of less than 1.2, and will be targeting a BREEAM ‘Very Good’ certification’ — Name of Person, Position and company w w w.gl o ba l swi tch . com
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1998 Year founded
500
Approximate number of employees
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providers as well as the DE-CIX peering platform allowing direct access to the global IP backbone, already available from Frankfurt South. Once Frankfurt North launches, the campus will provide around 28,000 sq m of space with 28MVA utility power supply capacity. So how does a company like Global Switch gain a competitive advantage over its rivals when so many are providing similar services? “One of our key differentiators is that we provide truly bespoke solutions according to our customers’ needs. In addition to our state-of-theart security and green-energy data centre environment, our best-in-class Critical Environments Programme (CEP) and our highly skilled data centre engineers and management team are what set us apart.” Highly experienced Khan, who has spent over 20 years in senior management in the IT and telco markets, is justly proud of Global Switch’s operational excellence. “We have very rigorous procedures and processes in place,” he explains. “Our CEP is regarded as one of the most robust in the industry and ensures a consistent approach to operational delivery. Its primary objective is to ensure risks are effectively controlled to provide unrivalled uptime. These best-in-class operating procedures and practices are supported by w w w.gl o ba l swi tch . com
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continuous improvement programmes and comprehensive training. For that reason, Frankfurt South, since its launch, has enjoyed 100% uptime. This shows that the architects and technical design team, the processes and the people have all done an excellent job in providing that kind of availability. If you are a customer, that is what you are looking for.” It is certainly something Daily-Tech – a strategic partner of China Telecom Global – is looking for, having taken up a substantial pre-commitment in Frankfurt North. 12
Khan puts much of Global Switch’s success in the data centre space down to its focus. “The difference between us and many other companies over the past 20 years has been our focus on our core business. We have not tried to sell the services that our partners, system integrators, or cloud providers or telecom companies are offering. We do not want to compete with our partners. Our model has been across those 20 years, now, and in the future, built around our core business, which comprises of highly secure and resilient data centre services, and the provision of ‘home’ to primary and secondary data centres.”
“We have not tried to sell the services that our partners, system integrators, or cloud companies or telephone companies are offering. We do not want to compete with our partners” — Aman Khan, Managing Director Frankfurt, Global Switch
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SUSTAINABLE CONSTRUCTION Energy efficiency is at the heart of all Global Switch’s data centres. Frankfurt North, which Khan is overseeing, will feature high-efficiency static UPS and an advanced Chiller Assist system that uses both hybrid dry and watercooled chillers, which operate for less than 10% of the year. The facility will benefit from an independently verified annualised design Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of less than 1.2 and will be targeting a BREEAM ‘Very Good’ certification. “Energy costs across the globe have 14
increased dramatically in the last couple of years, and Germany is no exception,” says Khan. “There are several kinds of energies which you can use for data centres including grey energy, which is not renewable, mixed energy, which is renewable and green energy, which is completely renewable. At Global Switch Frankfurt, we only use green energy.” The downside to green energy is cost, due to country taxes and surcharges in Germany. “Germany produces green energy itself but also buys a lot of green energy from Norway and Finland,” Khan explains. “Germany has one of the highest taxes and surcharges on green energy in Europe – however these costs can be offset by Germany’s reliable infrastructure and economic stability.
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“Nevertheless, at Global Switch we acquire energy at the most competitive pricing possible and use all other options available to us such as auction and hedging, etc… At the same time, we work with our customers to design their infrastructure intelligently to optimise the energy usage – after all this is a win-win game if we work together with our customers to achieve this common goal.”
w w w.gl o ba l swi tch . com
4th floor Millbank Tower 21-24 Millbank London T +44 20 7802 5150 www.globalswitch.com