Rampton Hospital is one of the UK’s three high security psychiatric units and part of Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.
The Trust is a major provider of mental health, intellectual disability and community healthcare services employing around 9000 staff.
They provide integrated and coordinated care and support to those using their services and are responsible for a wide range of roles including handling around 190,000 patient appointments every year.
The Hospital’s mission is to work with commissioners, patients, carers and staff to lead the development and provision of high quality, cost effective, secure forensic health care.
In order to lead, Nottinghamshire Healthcare required the necessary infrastructure to be in place and thus required the build of a new data centre on site.
With an existing comms room elsewhere on site, the Trust had made four ground floor office spaces available for refurbishment; three to be transformed for the data centre and an adjacent room to house the switchgear.
The data centre needed to be a highly efficient, scalable solution build within the current confines of the existing listed building, with a low cost OPEX in terms of energy consumption and maintenance.
The facility, once completed, was required to last for a minimum of 15-20 years.
From conception to completion, the project was not without its challenges!
Firstly, the site was restrictive as the building is an old Victorian building. Aside from being long and thin in shape, the room had limited ceiling heights and no space for a raised floor to be implemented – meaning traditional downflow cooling was unsuitable.
Secondly, because the facility is situated in the middle of a high-security area, entry and exit to and from the site were not simple. Every item entering and leaving the site was closely audited; tools were checked, and all deliveries and waste were monitored.
Similarly, with the restrictive nature of free movement, phones, laptops and other technological equipment mandatory for working were prohibited.
The 2bm design was constructed to allow for modularity, low cost OPEX and future expansion with virtually zero disruption.
The finished room provides maximum visibility to both the IT department and the Estates department of the operational components, energy use and fault altering. The highlights of the 2bm design are as follows:
Rear door cooling, utilising the latest technology to provide an efficient cooling solution within the restricted space;
All new modular, highly efficient and highly redundant cooling plant solution which also allows the connection of the new IT enclosures to a central system which maintains an overall low PUE;
All new electrical systems and switch gear significantly reduces future risks and provides a high level of redundancy using one room supply for IT equipment and the second for cooling equipment;
The existing site-wide generator is reused as part of the scheme;
Thanks to 2bm and their highly efficient, low carbon and sustainable design; the Trust will remain at the forefront of data centre technology, with space for future growth and expansion.
The data centre has been designed and built to the highest standard, allowing Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust to showcase the facility as an exemplar in the provision of data centre services and innovation.
In addition the Trust’s facility is built for the future and if we wish to expand the load of the data centre at any time, its modular nature allows for it – without any disruption to the
existing services.
