Founder and executive chairman of the International Data Centre Group (IDC-G) Guy Willner’s accolade recognizes his 14-year commitment to the industry and his worldwide influence on the data center industry.

IDC-G is a data center service provider based in London. But Willner’s influence began before IDC-G as event established. He successfully steered his pan-European business IXEurope through the dotcom crisis before establishing IDC-G and IXcellerate. IXEurope was listed as the UK’s fastest growing company in 2002 by the Sunday Times Tech Track 100 before it joined the AIM market of London Stock Exchange in April 2006. IXEurope was acquired by Equinix in 2007 for US$555m.

With IDC-G, Willner has created the first global alliance of independent data center operators across 18 secondary markets. This year it successfully raised capital for a new data center venture in Russia – considered to be one of Europe’s “riskier’ locations.

Other awards presented include: 

6. Leadership in the public sector – sponsored by Excool

Winner: MITA – MITA-01 Corporate Data Center

This data center, for the government of Malta, was designed with cost-effective, efficient delivery of ICT in mind. The hosting environment designed by the Malta Information Technology Agency is scalable and resilient, and meets the long-term hosting capacity for the Information Systems requirements of the government.

7. Innovations in outsourcing – sponsored by Norland

Winner: Interoute – Interoute Virtual Data Centre

Interoute’s Virtual Data Centre (VDC) removes the need for companies to invest in equipment, power, colocation, network and manpower. Designed as an innovative cloud-based solution, it is the first solution to allow for such simple and convenient deployments of the public cloud, without risking the security and privacy usually associated with the private cloud.

8. The ‘Green’ data center – sponsored by Siemens

Winner: Equinix – Renewable Heating Project

Equinix took an innovative approach with the building of one its state-of-the–art data centers, using an Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage system and teaming this with hybrid-cooling towers. Together, the systems allow for heat to be transferred from the data center into a geo-cooling system and then re-injected into the ground with full use of free cooling. This also provides warmth for a neighbouring university

9. Improved data center energy efficiency – sponsored by The Green Grid

Winner: LAMDA Hellix Data Center – LAMDA Hellix Mission Critical Facility

LAMDA Hellix has been collecting information on its energy consumption since January 2006 using The Green Grid metrics. It has then, through analysis, used these figures to implement new practices to improve its energy efficiency, and to create new models of operation. Even a new infrastructure extension has been designed with these metrics in mind. It is not only about energy efficiency though – LAMDA Hellix’ data center team also use these metrics as indicators for preventative maintenance.

10. Innovation in IT optimization – sponsored by Rittal

Winner: University of St Andrews – ICT Transformation

This two-year project saw the university carry out a comprehensive review of all aspects of its ICT which led to the development of a new data center, a shared storage platform, the adoption of cloud computing services and a new and aggressive server virtualization program and network enhancements.

The project was designed to reduce the variety and complexity of its previous systems and add more value to the university’s technology environment.

End users celebrate the region’s most prestigious awards

DatacenterDynamics Awards: The winners Part 1