NextiraOne and North Bristol NHS Trust complete new £5M data centre for new hospital building programme

Communications specialists NextiraOne help design, build and fit out new bespoke data centre consolidating Trust’s voice and data services

[lichfield] – 09 June, 2009. Europe’s leading expert in communications services, NextiraOne, and North Bristol NHS Trust have completed the construction phase of the Trust’s new £5M data centre on its Southmead site.

Due to be commissioned over the next few weeks, the purpose-built Data Centre will consolidate the Trust’s IT and communications services into one state-of-the-art facility and pave the way for the major £400M hospital building programme due to open in 2013.

NextiraOne’s Intelligent Building Services (IBS) division has been involved in the North Bristol NHS Trust’s Data Centre project from the outset and helped the Trust to formulate its ICT strategy and choose the dedicated data centre approach. Working with the Trust’s architects and other building and specialist suppliers, NextiraOne’s IBS team provided a continuous range of consulting and expert services: from the initial definition and scoping to the construction and fit-out of the new Data Centre based at Southmead, housing the data and voice requirements of the two acute hospital sites and other local healthcare services.

NextiraOne experts also helped with the full design and installation of the physical infrastructure – from power supply, cooling and light, to security and access control. Of particular importance to the Trust was the need to reduce its carbon footprint and this will be achieved by consolidating servers and using blade technology where possible. The data centre will also have the latest technology in environmentally sensitive lighting and energy-efficient cooling systems, which in themselves will cut power consumption by an estimated 40-70%.

“NextiraOne has been with us from the very start of this critical building project and has played a major role in helping us to design, plan and build our new dedicated data centre,” says Martin Bell, Director IM&T for North Bristol NHS Trust. “Their knowledge and understanding of the whole building process from feasibility studies, room specifications and planning considerations to IT installation and the detailed planning of the migration of services has been instrumental in making this complex building project smooth, efficient and relatively pain-free."

The relocation of systems, services and staff to the new data centre is due to take place over the summer. The implementation plan, which will be supported by NextiraOne’s team, envisages the migration of services and equipment over a number of weekends in order to ensure a seamless transition and minimal downtime.

NextiraOne is Europe’s leading expert in communications services and has a direct sales and service presence in 17 countries, serving more than 60,000 customers.  The company  designs, installs, maintains and supports solutions to meet the communications needs of its customers - from voice, data and video to mobility, security and applications. Working with the world’s leading technology companies, NextiraOne provides end-to-end communications solutions to deliver measurable business benefits to its customers.

Steven Skakel, Managing Director UK & Ireland at NextiraOne, said: “The building of a dedicated data centre will take the Trust to the forefront of ICT provision within the healthcare sector in the UK. Our team has been able to bring its considerable expertise to bear in the supporting this prestigious and visionary project.”