Leeds Colocation News

As we approach the end of 2012, we are pleased to announce that due to a recent upsurge in new colocation business, we have now begun work on phase 3 of our Data Centre build.

Our current Data Centre has plenty of space and when we moved in it was basically an empty shell. We decided to build the Data Centre suites in a modular way, so that we didn't end up with large, empty air conditioned rooms using up unnecessary power. Therefore, initially we created suite 1 as the main power room which houses some rather large UPS batteries, intelligent power distribution and routing to the diesel generator which is housed at the rear of the building. Suite 2 is the first room to house our 20 full height racks, which are a variety of 42U units, some of which contain quarter lockable sections.

Since suite 2 is now almost full, and considering that we have people wanting to move their servers into our Data Centre in early 2013, we have no option but to complete works on suite 3 which can cater for another 30 full racks.

In reality this is not a massive undertaking as we're not starting from scratch again. It is merely an extension of what is already there. The racks are already in position, as are the cooling systems, so all we have to do is run network and power into each of the racks, as well as configure a network switch for each.

These days many applications and IT systems are increasingly going into the 'cloud', and as such the need for high quality Data Centers is on the up and up. Our facilities are based in north Leeds, just off the ring road so we're very accessible and we love to show people around our Data Centre as we're very proud of what we have achieved.

If you have any colocation requirements, and even if you're not from Leeds, why not give us a call to arrange a site tour?

For more updates and news, please feel free to follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

More customer feedback

Every now and then we do like to post when we get nice feedback from our clients. We don't do it all of the time as we wouldn't want to appear as being 'smug', but occasionally it backs up our reputation for good customer support.

Anyway, here is what they had to say;


"Many thanks for this info.  I’d just like to re-iterate what I’ve previously said before about CCS - It’s very refreshing to have a provider that keeps on top of the carrier until you get the answer, and let us know what really happened.  I do keep re-iterating to the guys here about if had gone direct to [well known telco] as a provider that we would have been just “another number in the crowd” and would never get the information you get.

So, my thanks to you and the entire CCS staff for this and other recent support."

Oh well, smug every now and then doesn't do any harm.......

Disaster Recovery / Large Backups

In recent months we have received a lot of enquiries from companies who have a requirement to back up large amounts of data and are looking for an off-site solution, as their traditional tape based systems are either too slow, unreliable or simply can’t handle so much data.

As we all know, it is vitally important to have a reliable data backup so that in the event of a disaster, the data is easily retrievable, and the business can then continue operating as soon as possible.

One new concept that we are keen on is the idea of data mirroring. This can be achieved by having a local backup device, such as a network hard drive array, mirroring it’s data to a similar device which is co-located in a purpose built Data Centre.

The advantage of this is that local data can be accessed quickly from the on-site hardware which is then mirrored periodically to the off-site device using the internet. In the event of a disaster, the data from the external hardware would be an exact replica of the local data and therefore can be restored over the internet, or in some cases the mirrored device would be physically shipped out to the client on a next business day delivery.

We have provided this very same service to a number of our clients already, and it does work extremely well on the right type of hardware so long as it is configured properly. In the past we have used hardware which has been manufactured by a company called Synology. They provide a wide variety of network storage solutions and the software includes the mirroring service along with many other useful features.

For more information, please do not hesitate to give us a call on 0113 294 6699.

Grand Open Day

Just some of the attendee's.

On Friday 27^th April 2012, we held an event to mark the official opening of our new Data Centre.

The event was well attended by over 30 guests who consisted of clients, potential clients and local Member of Parliament Mr George Mudie.

Attendees were treated to a guided tour of the Centre’s facilities and refreshments were on hand throughout.

Nick demonstrates a power cut.

Nick Ryder, Technical Manager at CCS (Leeds) Ltd gave a short but entertaining speech, during which he demonstrated, with the help of colleague and MD Peter Knapp, what would happen if the power supply to the Data Centre was disconnected. There was a nervous hush as Peter turned off the main power supply, and then relief as the graphs showed that the generator had sprung into life, thus maintaining continuous power to the Data Centre.

What made this little demonstration more poignant was that there were a number of CCS’s co-location clients at the actual event, and to say that they appeared slightly apprehensive would be an understatement.

All in all it was a great afternoon and we would like to say a big ‘Thank You’ to all of those who attended.

New data centre opens at CCS

CCS’s Peter Knapp, Giles Falkingham and Nick Ryder in the company’s new data centre

After several months of hard work by the CCS team we are delighted to announce the opening of our new data centre in Leeds – this will ensure we continue to deliver the service in business server collocation and cloud computing.

The centre, which went live last week , forms part of a major £150,000 investment by CCS and which can house up to 4,800 servers cooled by an eco-friendly air conditioning system which will significantly reduce the company’s energy costs and carbon emissions.

The reason for the choice of location is multi-threaded. Our new data centre on the Leeds Ring Road at Seacroft gives us the space, power, carrier availability, visitor facilities and most importantly gives our staff instant access to server equipment to ensure it runs uninterrupted 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year.

The data centre also benefits from a so-call ‘N+1 configuration’ which means multiple uninterruptible power supplies (UPSs) are in place to ensure there are no outages or down time. It is also connected to the CCS’s core London network via a direct dual link, with a third carrier link due to come on line in the next couple of months.

We have also upgraded our security on the data centre which means new and existing clients can ensure their data is safe.
At a time when many companies are cutting back on capital investment, at CCS we believe it is vitally important that we continue to invest in the best IT infrastructure to ensure that existing and new clients benefit from the best possible service.

All the funding for the new data centre came from CCS’ own internal resources and we have not looked outside the business for third-party finance.

The site has been planned from the ground up to allow expansion without disruption to any customer, including pre-configured provision within the power systems for additional suites to be brought on line with no service interruption. Moreover, further UPSs can be brought on line at the same time as we expand cooling systems with no impact on customer service.

In due course we hope to have an official opening so keep a look out for your invite.