Almost two years ago, Rabobank International embarked on a search
for a new location for the London Data Centre. With construction now
well underway at the chosen Croydon site, Mark Dodds, Programme
Manager IT Infrastructure, reflects on the long road to get there.
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Safety first
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Keeping data safe is probably one of
the most important tasks facing a bank
today. In its ongoing efforts to protect
its data against all eventualities, about
two years ago Rabobank International
(Rl) embarked on a plan to move its
current UK-based data centre to a more
secure site. Currently, the data centre
is located in the basement of Thames
Court in central London. However, this
is not ideal for a number of reasons.
First, central London is considered to
be a high-risk area for terrorist attacks
and other disasters. Second, the current
data centre is situated below the level
of the river Thames and, as such, is at
risk from flooding. Third, it would be
better to locate the data centre away
from the London office itself, in order
to spread the risk. For all these reasons,
the Croydon site, located 14 kilometres
(about 8.7 miles) directly to the south,
represents a considerably safer location.
Flowever, safety was not the only factor
behind the move. 'Complex risk calcula-
tions and other high-capacity computing
require plenty of parallel processing
which, in turn, requires an awful lot of
power and cooling,' Dodds explains. The
Thames Court data centre was reaching
its limits in terms of being able to keep
up with the increasing need for comput-
The Word Issue 13 February 2007
