Live environment, communications room re-build for global shipping company
"Comms Room Services' entire performance has been quite superb. The team has been extremely professional throughout, has communicated clearly with us at each stage, and I was delighted that the project required minimal input from myself as the MOL Project Manager. We have received an exceptional service, and the result is that we have a server room which will meet our requirements for the next 10 years. I wouldn't hesitate recommending Comms Room Services to anyone."

Scott Paget, Senior Manager IT Projects, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines

Challenge
Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL), one of the world's largest and most versatile shipping companies, has offices all over the world which are linked by a state-of-the-art network. This network gives customers instant access to information such as vessel and cargo tracking, scheduling, bills of lading and booking. IT systems are under continuous improvement to support and develop these services, and it is vitally important that the infrastructure is robust and reliable, and that data centre performance and uptime is maximised.

Solution
In the London offices of MOL, the server room, in a multi-tenanted building, was completely refurbished in a live environment, necessitating only two four-hour periods of pre-arranged outages. Otherwise, services were maintained throughout the duration of the room re-build and directly outside the server room the offices remained staffed.

The existing floor was raised and walls and doors were re-built to upgrade fire resistance to one hour. The entire electrical system was upgraded and Comms Room Services introduced two 15kw air conditioning units and three Medusa II patching cabinets to store the cabling and maximise the use of space.

Fire suppression and gas extraction systems were installed in place of water sprinklers. And environmental systems included automatic shutdown which, in the event of fire, shuts down the UPS and electrical infrastructure in a controlled sequence; and a call out system which sends text message warnings to alert staff to issues such as fire, malfunctioning air conditioning and power failure.

Benefits
MOL's server room now provides the robust and reliable infrastructure for the IT systems required to run its global shipping services through container ships, bulk, specialised and liquefied gas carriers, and oil tankers. And, it generates business confidence in service delivery as the company expands its online scheduling, cargo tracking and booking facilities.