UK-based data center infrastructure management (DCIM) software company AIT Partnership Group has built a data center for UK liquefied natural gas importer South Hook Gas in Western Europe’s tallest building, The Shard.

The new facility is housed at South Hook’s head office on the 28th floor of the 308m (95 storey) building by London Bridge Station – the highest floor of designated office space.

The project was completed in May and allowed the company to move into its head office as planned.

Efficient, redundant, and high-altitude
AIT recommended 47U racks to maximize available space within the room. The servers are dual fed with each A and B feed supported a by uninterruptable power supply (UPS) providing more than 96% efficiency.

The facility was designed to use bypass switches for UPS maintenance and intelligent Power Distribution Units (PDUs) with environmental sensors in each rack to measure power usage and monitor the temperature and humidity throughout the room.

AIT’s Managing Director Steve Bailey said fitting out the data center on the upper floors of The Shard was particularly complex due to limited space, and difficult access.

“[The] design had to make the most of the tight space available and provide the level of redundancy required. We had to be very careful selecting components that we could install on the 28th floor,” Bailey said.