ARK Data Centres today announce that its latest data centre facility at Cody Park, A101, has successfully completed IST ahead of schedule.

Site enabling works began in December 2012 and eight weeks later, on the 28th February, the deployment of the Data Rooms commenced. Despite the challenging weather conditions throughout the cold, wet winter and spring, Ark delivered module one of Data Centre A101 in just 18 weeks from release of the concrete slab, on programme and to budget. Customer handover is set for 1st August 2013.

This first module, a two-storey facility consisting of two separate and secure Data Rooms each supporting 750kW of IT load, is set in its own compound within a secure campus adjacent to Cody Technology Park, which is home to Data Centre A9, another Ark facility which has been operational since December 2011.

Cody Park is ideally located for occupiers seeking secure, low carbon data centre facilities within replication distance to London.

As part of the planning consent for A101 Ark has met stringent noise conditions, noise attenuation steps have been taken, and tested, to ensure there is no operational noise impact on the nearest receptors.

A101, once complete, will comprise a state of the art Data Centre with six Data Rooms providing space for up to 1176 cabinets, at an average 4.2kW per cabinet, over 42 discrete Aisles. Each module construction occurs in phases and will not affect the existing modules in any way. Built aligned to Ark’s Sustainable principles the facilities at Cody Park are on course to receive a BREEAM certification of Very Good.

The final day of Integrated Systems Testing took place on the 12th July, three days ahead of schedule and in the presence of BCS CEEDA accreditors. In what is an rare occasion in the industry, a customer was also present for this event.

Ark’s Design & Build Director Pip Squire said: “The BCS official expressed amazement that we would carry out such an important test in front of a customer – as this is something that seldom happens in this industry. But, this is what we do at Ark. We are open and transparent in our approach to delivery. We have confidence in our products, our systems and our delivery team, which we will continue to demonstrate at every stage of our partnerships. This is just business as usual.”

Following the successfully completed IST, a two-week period of training and familiarisation takes place for the operations live service team prior to customer handover.

Huw Owen, CEO of Ark, said: “This is another step forward for Ark’s plan to take the company to the next level and achieve our aggressive expansion plans. The team has put in a sterling effort and should be very happy with the result.”

Ark is not standing still at Cody Park and orders have been placed to complete module two of A101 by the end of the year.