Cardiff University awards Keysource Critical FM contract

Following a competitive tender, Cardiff University has awarded Keysource, the global data centre and critical environment specialists, a multi-year critical facilities maintenance contract designed to minimise risk and disruption, whilst extending the life of the existing infrastructure for as long as possible.

The contract was competitively tendered, with Keysource successful due to the top score providing the university with the best value offering. Keysource’s position as top ranked supplier with the North Eastern Universities Purchasing Consortium (NEUPC) Framework, for the provision of Data Centre Management equipment and infrastructure, was also a factor.

The agreement covers the university’s main data centre facility, Redwood, as well as monitoring across other campus data centre and server room facilities supporting critical university IT services. There is also the ability to add further university IT infrastructure across the metropolitan campus as required.

The remit covers the 24/7 monitoring and planned maintenance of all M&E, UPS, close-coupled cooling. All services will be self-delivered by the Keysource engineering team.

The decision to appoint Keysource is designed to support the university’s provision of high-performance computing services for its researchers who need additional computing power to solve complex problems. This is delivered through Advanced Research Computing at Cardiff (ARCCA), established by the university to deploy leading-edge hardware and software to help tackle the global research challenges of our time.

Steff Adams, HPC Senior Manager at Cardiff University, said: “Keysource tendered for the maintenance of our ARCCA HPC data centre, and we were pleased with their approach and selected them based on their understanding of the university’s requirements, quality and approach to delivering the service. Their extensive experience of supporting higher education data centres and HPC was reassuring.”

Richard Clifford, Head of Solutions at Keysource, said: “The contract is at a pivotal time for the university, as it plans its future for High Performance Computing (HPC) and continues its position as a global leader in research with recent projects for COVID-19 Genomics UK Consortium, CLIMB and their collaborative role in theLaser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO). We have supported them with professional services in the past, helping to aid with insight into the direction and strategy of their facilities, and we are now adding Critical Facilities Management to this growing partnership.”