Hilson Moran designs and delivers a major Data Centre project for NYSE Euronext
(10/08/2010)

Hilson Moran has designed and delivered a major Data Centre project for NYSE Euronext in South East Essex - both on time and on budget. This is the sixth major data centre completed by Hilson Moran in the last two years for large financial services clients and adds to their long track record in this sector.

The project forms part of NYSE Euronext’s strategy to upgrade and reinforce its data handling capability across the world. Overall the main building envelope is large enough to accommodate 10 Olympic size swimming pools, making this a true Mega Data Centre – and now one of NYSE Euronext’s major European assets.

The data centre was constructed on the site of an old manufacturing plant in Basildon. Originally the site was redeveloped to be a major distribution warehouse, but NYSE Euronext saw the potential of the buildings on the site and realised that they met a number of key requirements in terms of physical size and geographical location, as well as being readily adaptable to meet NYSE Euronext’s stringent needs.

Hilson Moran, in conjunction with NYSE Euronext, commenced design of the Building Services, Public Health, Fire Protection and Acoustics in January 2008. With the main building shell already constructed, the fast track design and build programme was immensely challenging to achieve 1st Phase operation.

The project brief demanded the use of energy efficient plant that had a proven track record of high resilience and availability. To meet NYSE Euronext’s exacting standards and specifications, Hilson Moran made extensive use of simulation software for noise modelling, thermal analysis and CFD to inform and confirm the design strategy and decisions.

The building services were designed to incorporate many bespoke features within the infrastructure and services, including water cooled UPS’s, ice storage for emergency cooling and the use of heat pumps for heating ancillary areas. Services distribution has been provided to meet the Up Time Institute Tier Rating of Tier IV, providing a true 2N, fully maintainable whilst live installation, achieving 24/7/365 availability: a key criteria for NYSE Euronext.

From day one, the data centre has handled 3.0MW of computer processing load, having been fitted out with services for three 10,000ft2 data halls. Ultimately the building can accommodate seven identical halls with a maximum 15.6MW of computer processing load. The halls have been constructed on a modular build principle, which is key to modern data centre design, enabling expenditure on plant and equipment to be managed to meet varying demands.

Chris Plummer, Managing Director, Hilson Moran commented, “We are delighted to have completed this highly complex and critical facility for such a prestigious client and look forward to supporting NYSE Euronext’s activities in the future”.