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Behind the scenes at Centro – bulk BT Openreach fibre installation

Ben Miller - Gyron — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 09:35:21 +0000

Submarine fibre cable network maps

Robin Balen - Gyron — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 15:38:51 +0000

Yesterday, the BBC had a detailed article on the front page of their news website about a new high speed fibre cable being installed in to East Africa. Along with the article, there were some interesting network maps, provided by Telegeography.

We have a large Telegeography world submarine cable map on the wall in the reception area of our Centro datacentre facility, which always attracts a lot of attention and scrutiny from the slightly geekier of our visitors. The maps are also available to download as desktop wallpaper.

Centro reception area, with large Telegeography network map

On the subject of submarine cable systems, there is a detailed and fascinating (and quite long!) article by the well known author Neal Stephenson available in the Wired magazine archives here. It’s certainly worth checking out if the subject interests you.

Press release: Leading telecommunications provider Fluidata goes online at Centro datacentre

Robin Balen - Gyron — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 09:09:34 +0000

London July 2009. Fluidata, a leading telecom provider, opens a new point of presence at the cutting edge Centro datacentre in Hemel Hempstead in collaboration with datacentre specialists Gyron. The datacentre, which comprises extensive power capabilities as well as strong security measures, successfully meets the increasing demands of businesses and telecoms companies of today.

See also:

- Comms Dealer

Built by Gyron, this data centre offers connectivity right out to the last mile, as a result of Fluidata’s broad range of connectivity products such as ADSL2+, SDSL and Fibre.

Robin Balen, Managing Director at Gyron states:

Our Centro datacentre in Hemel Hempstead has been built from the ground up with high density power and cooling systems, along with diverse dark fibre connectivity. This, coupled with our location just outside of the M25, makes the facility an ideal choice for disaster recovery and cloud computing applications. Connectivity to the end user’s premises is a key part of any such outsourcing strategy, and one which many datacentres overlook. We look forward to working with Fluidata and their wide range of connectivity services to meet this need.

Piers Daniell, Managing Director of Fluidata states:

In today’s climate, it is increasingly important for businesses to consider hosting and virtualisation in the cloud as a viable business initiative.

At Fluidata, our offering includes multiple data centres across the UK operating on a dark fibre network, configured to operate as one: This is a significant development and an important requirement for businesses looking to host key applications within the cloud. Coupled with national last mile coverage it is a compelling business case for virtualisation.

-ENDS-

About Gyron

Gyron was formed in March 2000, and offers colocation and a wide range complimentary managed services from two facilities — the London Hosting Centre in the heart of the London Docklands, and the Centro datacentre in Hemel Hempstead. Both datacentres are supported by 24/7 on-site teams of engineers and offer redundant power, cooling, and connectivity, all covered by 100% uptime service level guarantees. For more information, visit http://blog.gyron.net/.

About Fluidata

Fluidata is a leading, independent telecommunications provider offering flexible, innovative and high speed internet solutions for all sectors across the B2B market. The firm has a strong product and service portfolio, providing companies of all sizes (in particular SME’s) with bespoke, cost effective, highly robust and extremely reliable internet connections and support. For more information, visit http://www.fluidata.co.uk/.

Centro update – Final commissioning works

Robin Balen - Gyron — Wed, 27 May 2009 11:14:53 +0000

HV feed from EDF fully tested and energised

UPS batteries ready for installation and testing

Final UPS connections and testing

Access control system installed and tested

Splicing and testing fibre connections for our DWDM ring

Centro update – Pulling HV power and fibre cables

Robin Balen - Gyron — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 09:40:11 +0000

Finishing the final leg of duct installation

Preparing to pull the first 200m of HV cable ducting

HV cable following pull through initial leg of ducting

Preparing North fibre entry point in to the facility

Pulling multi-core armoured fibre cable through dedicated duct

Progress at Centro datacentre

Robin Balen - Gyron — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 09:19:34 +0000

Our contractors have been hard at work on-site at our new Centro datacentre facility over the past week — working 12 hour days, including the weekends!

Progress has been fantastic, with the structural elements of the secure “pod” for the Switchgear Room and South Comms Room completed and the roof starting to go in, and work starting on the steels for our staff room, store and build rooms, North Comms Room and the first part of Hosting Suite 1:

" src="http://blog.gyron.net/wp-content/uploads/5d-img_7228-480x320.jpg" alt="First stage of roofing being fitted to Switchgear Room" width="480" height="320" />

First stage of roofing being fitted to Switchgear Room and South Comms Room

First stage of structural work on North Comms room and Hosting Suite 1

We’ve also started work on the ducting that will connect us to our HV power supplies and fibre network connection points:

Cutting the first 120m of road surface for duct installation

Laying duct and warning tape within the excavated trench

As we’re installing our own private duct work for the connections, our electricty providers have been on-site to inspect and approve the quality of the works:

Inspection of works by the electricity board

After only 1 day of work, our contractors started backfilling the trenching

We’ve also been installing a comprehensive external digital CCTV and PIR lighting system, with work going on late in to the evening:

Installation of external digital CCTV cameras

Quick update on fibre chambers and duct work at Centro

Robin Balen - Gyron — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 16:29:35 +0000

Work has continued on-site at Centro over the holiday period and in to the new year. More pictures soon, but here are a few to keep you going in the meantime…

World's coldest meeting room...

Reinstatement works complete at North fibre chamber

Fibre duct ready for installation

Installation of new fibre chambers at Centro

Robin Balen - Gyron — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 11:42:35 +0000

Work is under way by our contractors at the new facility to install our diverse dark fibre connections.

We are installing two diverse chambers on to our provider’s national fibre duct route, and running our own private diverse ducts back to separate North and South comms rooms within our Centro facility.

Here’s the South chamber:

Road closure for South fibre chamber installation

Starting work on the South fibre chamber

Here’s the North chamber. The separation distance between the two chambers is over 200m, giving excellent diversity.

Road closure for North fibre chamber installation

North fibre chamber installed and awaiting reinstatement works

First phase of fibre equipment for new datacentre site delivered

Robin Balen - Gyron — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 17:26:59 +0000

The first phase of the fibre equipment for our new “Centro” datacentre site in Hemel Hempstead arrived at our London offices today.

Fibre equipment delivery arrives on-site

Construction is under way on our new fibre network, consisting of nearly 160km of private dark fibre (G.652 and G655) in a redundant ring connection between two London datacentres (both existing core fibre POPs on our network) and our new Centro site. Latency back to London is predicted to be very low, with 0.3ms on the primary leg, and 0.4ms on the longer secondary leg.

16x10G DWDM multiplexer module

We’re using DWDM technology to multiplex up to 16×10G channels over each fibre pair – giving a total network capacity of 320G. Each 10G channel can be dedicated to a single 10GigE connection for a customer, split up in to multiple 1G channels for 1GigE networking requirements, or can handle multiple Fibre Channel connections for SAN use. The modules contain tunable DWDM lasers, allowing us to configure, in software, what wavelength each module will use on the fibre. This means we can keep one part as a spare and configure it for use on any channel for rapid deployment.

In-line amplifiers

Due to the redundant leg of the fibre ring being a longer distance, we regenerate the signal at a POP site using in-line amplifiers. These boost the signal strength across the entire DWDM channel range. This also gives us the opportunity to insert an add/drop module at this site in the future to bring in additional redundant connectivity outside of London.

Partially populated equipment chassis

The first phase of the equipment is now ready for testing. We will receive delivery of appropriate line cards for customer connections as we need them.

Gyron Blog » fibre

Behind the scenes at Centro – bulk BT Openreach fibre installation

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