Welcome to the High Availability Hosting Blog

It’s with great pleasure I announce that the hosting room of the Sheffield Data Centre is complete.

The first 4 racks are fully installed and (nearly) cabled.  We’ve this week placed an order for an additional 12 racks to meet customer demand, and we’ve started to show the first prospective clients round the building.

The “snag list” is nearly complete too, with only a few jobs remaining – most notibly the gassing of the air-conditioners which is scheduled to happen this Thursday. 

Today was also the day our 100Mbit fibre went live, with a connection straight through to the Internet.  We’ve now got a few days of testing and firewall building ahead, which is where the “fun” starts  :-)

So the question everybody’s been asking us… “when are you going to open??”.  Providing the air-con gassing goes ok, and the network build is complete and tested over the weekend, we’ll begin to offer colocation from next week.  So if you’re interested in colocation with us, now’s the time to email us and arrange a visit.

We’re booking people in to see us from next Monday (22nd), so either give us a call on 0114 228 0022 or email sales@sheffielddatacentre.com.  If you’ve already got your details registered with us you’ll be getting a more personalised invitation later this week, or you could queue jump and contact us!

And finally the usual update pics…

Computer room build complete

100Mbit fibre live

Pics of the fibre B-Side install by Openreach…

Openreach on site again...

Fibre jointing in the street

B-End fibre termination

BT Openreach were on site yesterday to install the B-Side of our 100Mbit fibre connection to Virgin Media.

The fibre installation at our end went smoothly, and Openreach have left a loop connector in place so they can begin loopback testing from the A-Side (at Virgin Media / Telewest / NTL).

Elsewhere on site more raised access floor has been layed, and more wiring for emergency lights, CCTV and security has been installed.

Pics to follow soon!!

Less than a month after construction started, the final plastering has been completed and the decoration has started throughout.  Elsewhere Openreach have been in to terminate the 10-pair copper which will be used for phone lines, DSL, and the redundant access services.  The access-control controller boxes are being configured, and finally the 2nd fix electrics in the office are now going in.

This week promises to be a milestone in the project – not only will Friday be the one-month-marker, but the raised floor is due on site.  Before the end of the Bank Holiday we hope to have the raised floor in place where racks 1 and 2 will go, so Openreach and Telewest can come in and terminate the fibre from next week.

Final plastering complete

Decoration well under way

Office second fix electrics

Openreach on site