Keysource supports data centre migration for forecasting body

Critical environment specialist Keysource has won a new contract with the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) to provide on-site engineering consultancy as the organisation migrates its data centre.

Tuesday, 12th February 2019 Posted 5 years ago in by Phil Alsop

The seven-month contract includes a secondment of a Keysource engineer to advise on critical facilities, data centre infrastructure management and the ongoing operation of the estate at ECMWF’s supercomputer data centre in Reading. Keysource, which is one of the 11 specialist companies that forms Extentia Group, will also provide technical advice on mechanical and electrical maintenance activity.

ECMWF holds the world's largest archive of numerical weather prediction data, supporting 34 Member and Co-operating States. The intergovernmental organisation provides global numerical weather prediction, monitoring and metrological analysis of the Earth system and it operates one of the largest supercomputer facilities in Europe.

Keysource’s engineer will work as part of a wider data centre operations team, acting as an expert resource while the ECMWF in-house team embarks on a major migration of its data centre from Reading to Bologna. The new site is due to be operational from 2020 while the centre’s headquarters will remain in the UK.

Luke Brimelow, FM account manager at Keysource, said: “ECMWF operates a huge supercomputer facility and this is a really exciting project taking in a mixture of specialist technical engineering and critical facilities consultancy. The organisation needs an on-hand resource that it can trust to deliver industry best practice data centre operation and ensure that everything will run smoothly while the in-house team focus on the migration. The end-to-end expertise we provide is increasingly leading to opportunities to act as trusted partners for clients like ECMWF during major transformation projects.”

Andy Gundry, head of data centre operations at ECMWF, said: "It’s a period of huge change for the ECMWF data centre and we needed a partner we can rely on to hit the ground running. Trust was another major factor in our decision-making process and the Keysource team was able to demonstrate an approach that will see it immediately integrate with our own in-house team and understand our own control measures while providing honest, expert advice.”

The news follows Keysource securing a two-year contract extension with The Met Police for specialist data, technology and IT estate management services. In November Keysource revealed that it is targeting additional growth opportunities within its new parent company Extentia Group, which has been formed through the merger of Keysource-owner Styles&Wood Group and Southerns earlier in 2018.