DF Supplement

SPECIAL MARKET REPORT in association with CityFibre
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www.comms-dealer.com
in association with CityFibre MARKET SPECIAL REPORT
Project shows the industry at its best
Having completed a number of
Gigabit City projects the message
to the industry from CityFibre is that
whatever the connectivity challenge
where viable, ‘we aim to build’,
and Aberdeen was no exception.
CityFibre’s Gigabit
City project is
well advanced,
bringing pure fibre
infrastructures to entire
communities. Its intention
is to show that anything is
possible, again and again, by
leveraging its ‘well-planned
city approach’ to building
modern networks and
overcoming all challenges
that cross its path. The sheer
agility of what CityFibre
has done in Aberdeen is
one example of how it has
shifted the planning process
to a new level. Moreover,
CityFibre’s work with cloud
and application hosting firm
Brightsolid is emblematic of
its slick city-by-city approach
to becoming a credible
national infrastructure
network alternative.
Brightsolid is the technology
arm of DC Thomson &
Company and has served the
energy sector for 20 years.
The firm is based in Dundee
Technology Park and operates
purpose built tier III data
centre facilities in Dundee,
Edinburgh and Aberdeen.
The Aberdeen site, located
west of the city, was primarily
designed to serve the oil
and gas industry, one of the
most data intensive industries
and a sector that is under
financial pressure given falling
oil prices. The facility helps to
reduce the cost and risk of
end user IT requirements by
bringing offshore operations
onshore wherever possible.
“After our first data centre
was built in Dundee we saw
significant adoption across
energy, financial services and
public sector organisations
with the main concern
being security,” said Richard
Higgs, CEO at Brightsolid.
“With a capacity of 200
racks Dundee soon started
to hit capacity. Many of our
Aberdeen-based oil and gas
customers at that time were
served by the Dundee site,
and after listening to more
than 70 energy organisations
we identified a requirement
for a carrier neutral facility
in Aberdeen. With the help
of our parent company we
decided to make a £5 million
investment to transform the
connectivity experience for
the area. We also wanted
to offer a rich choice of
connectivity provider,
including satellite provision.”
The Aberdeen facility
holds over 400 racks and
is designed with the latest
cooling technology called
Ecofris, a system that enables
Brightsolid to pass power
savings on to customers.
Furthermore, the company
was the first Microsoft cloud
OS partner in Scotland
certified for Azure Hybrid
Cloud, and one of a handful
in Europe. Not surprisingly,
CityFibre’s Aberdeen project
did not go unnoticed.
“When we saw that
CityFibre was bringing
a modern fibre network
to Aberdeen to create a
Gigabit City it made sense
to bring that connectivity
into the Brightsolid data
centre,” added Higgs.
Vital connections
“The CityFibre links in and
around Aberdeen are a vital
contribution to our core
network which gets our
customers anywhere in the
UK in under 20 milliseconds.
The 100 per cent resilient
path from CityFibre is also
a selling point. Connectivity
is the backbone of what
we provide and it’s vital
Rob Hamlin
that our core network
surpasses the expectations
of our customers.”
The Brightsolid data centre
would have been at some
point within close reach of
the CityFibre network, but
the network itself was not
built when conversations
with Brightsolid began. As
with any network build
there comes a time when
the talking stops and
something must happen,
the quicker the better.
After CityFibre planners
visited the site to assess the
connectivity requirements
the decision to invest in
a two month programme
of work to connect the
site was made within one
hour. Three months later
just over three kilometres
of network had been built
and connected, including a
tricky crossing of the A96
and close collaboration with
Scottish Gas Networks.
It goes without saying that
Brightsolid’s reputation for
being flexible sometimes
depends on its partners
acting quickly, and CityFibre’s
no-nonsense approach
dovetailed with Brightsolid’s
modus operandi. “As
a technology company
we must be agile, and
CityFibre shares the same
‘if it makes sense, let’s
just get it done’ attitude,”
added Higgs. “We value
this approach immensely.
CityFibre’s decision to invest
in a programme of work
to connect the site was
made quickly. From start
to finish it took 12 weeks
to get us connected to a
brand new network.”
The obstacle confronting
many technological projects
is an inability on the part
of stakeholders to work
together effectively, often
made worse by a stubborn
dismissal of new ways of
doing things that can release
whole regions from a past
blighted by poor connectivity.
According to CityFibre, it’s
all about great planning and
forming partnerships such
as its link-up with Scottish
ISP IFB, CityFibre’s anchor
partner in Aberdeen.
“Our ‘well-planned city
approach’ is the building
block of every Gigabit City
build,” commented Rob
Hamlin, Commercial Director
at CityFibre. “We start the
process by looking at the
location of business and
retail areas, local authority
sites, data centres, exchange
buildings and mobile sites
etc to ensure the built
network passes as close
as possible to areas of
anticipated future demand.
We also run early demand
aggregation campaigns to
establish exactly where other
demand clusters are.”
This approach often exposes
clusters of businesses that
are not adequately served,
or in some cases frustrated,
by the quality of existing
connectivity options or
service delivery. “A planned
build is sometimes split into
a number of phases in order
to achieve the optimum
reach or to prioritise an
anchor tenant,” added
Hamlin. “Even if an area
is not included as part
of the early phases there
is always an opportunity
Connectivity
is the
backbone
of what we
provide and
it’s vital that
our core
network
surpasses the
expectations
of our
customers
for future expansion.”
Once a city-wide deployment
begins, the physical
installation of the cables
and connection of a city’s
key sites proceeds rapidly. If
network is already in place
due to an acquisition for
example, CityFibre will carry
out full checks and undertake
any improvement work to
ensure it is robust enough
to pin its reputation on and
offer guaranteed SLAs.
Forward planning
As with all of its cities,
CityFibre also considers
ongoing expansion
opportunities and plans
ahead accordingly.
“Ultimately, a well planned
network can function as a
backbone for deployment
of fibre to individual homes
as well as businesses,
providing residential access
to true choice and everricher
forms of digital
services and entertainment,”
commented Hamlin.
CityFibre has evolved what
amounts to a technical edge
on the ground during the
assessment process, where
obstacles are looked at and
weighed up from a different
perspective – not as found.
“Although Brightsolid’s
particular network build was
relatively simple with just a
few hurdles to overcome,
including the need to cross
the A96 and time spent
working in the trenches with
the Scottish Gas Networks
team, it’s not always so
easy,” stated Hamlin. “When
we hit challenges during
a network build we look
for solutions and make the
most of our agility. That’s
what we did for Brightsolid,
using an entirely different
route into the building from
all other providers, and
getting it installed before it
was open for business.”
South of the Scottish border,
CityFibre also opened a
new digital front in the
connected future of Leeds
and Bradford last month,
both now Gigabit Cities with
ultra-fast Internet services
available through CityFibre’s
launch partners Exa Networks
and Diva Telecom. Other
initiatives aren’t far behind.
After all, why should past
forces in the market be
allowed to determine what
we may experience of the
future? This question is best
answered through agile
partnerships, believes Hamlin.
“The way in which a provider
works is vital in our industry,
whether that’s at the
infrastructure, data centre or
pure connectivity provisioning
level,” he said. “As well as
ticking all of the boxes in
terms of technical, product
and solutions prowess, it
is crucial to be innovative,
easy to do business with and
be flexible enough to meet
the customers’ modern day
connectivity requirements.” •
Get in touch:
www.cityfibre.com/contact-us
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6 COMMS DEALER SEPTEMBER 2016
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providing high levels of inbuilt resilience
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99.9 per cent network availability
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