04 September 2018

Kao Data has been working with the OCP (Open Compute Project) Foundation in a pilot programme to make its Kao Data London One facility OCP-Ready.

The firm’s recently completed London One facility (see News, May issue) has completed the first two steps of the programme, joining the Data Centre Facility (DCF) project within the OCP and becoming the first data centre to self-audit against Open Compute’s checklist for compliance with its engineering principles. The process will be complete when Kao Data presents its results during the OCP Regional Summit that takes place in Amsterdam in early October.

The DCF project was developed to maximize the mechanical performance and thermal and electrical efficiency of OCP servers. It comprises electrical and mechanical components, and focuses its efforts on five functional areas: power; cooling; IT space layout and design; facility management and control; and facility operations.

Kao Data CEO Jan Daan Luycks said: “As an OCP member, we strongly believe that the values of openness and collaboration espoused by the [foundation] provide an independent spur to innovation in the data centre sector.”

As well as Kao in Europe, the OCP is also working with an unnamed data centre operator in the US. 

In a separate announcement made earlier, Openreach has now installed two fully diverse fibre spines at London One. According to Kao, Openreach EAD (Ethernet Access Direct) allows customers to link their external sites directly via point to point connections to the data centre, enabling them to build and extend their networks.

Kao adds that these services are provided to wholesale and colocation providers, offering dedicated fibre links and high bandwidth services up to 10Gbps, and with the capability to access 200 Ethernet communication providers.