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.
"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 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 (pictured above), 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 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.
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 ever-richer 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."•