- Case Study
- Pets – Comms Rooms
Pets – Comms Rooms
Case StudyAbout
Pets was founded in 1991 by Anthony Preston and are the UK’s leading Petcare Provider, providing a one stop shop for all of your pet care needs. Pets now have in excess of 450 stores in the UK as well as a vast online retail operation.
Pets were planning on building a new, state-of- the-art distribution centre in Stafford to fulfil their online orders and replenish stock for their stores.
As part of the project, Pets required Primary and Secondary Comms Rooms. With sustainability in mind, Pets were looking to deliver an energy efficient solution, whilst also having resiliency in operations.
In addition to this, they required fire and gas detection and suppression systems. They also needed a solution that allowed for future expansion.
The Project
Pets engaged with Sudlows and began the design stage around 12 months prior to commencement on site, this allowed all aspects of the planning to be considered, discussed, and finally agreed as a signed off design.
This took place over several workshops at Sudlows’ offices as well as via Teams calls throughout the design period.
A client Sharepoint site was set up to allow collaborative working and for various documents to be uploaded by the Sudlows Design Team for review by Pets’ stakeholders.
Once the IT load and dimensions for both the Primary and Secondary rooms had been agreed, Sudlows then completed the full mechanical and electrical design for both rooms.
Space for future expansion was taken into consideration with hot aisle containment being installed to accommodate the request for an additional two racks to be installed in the future.
Sudlows appointed a Senior Project Manager and a Site Manager who were permanently based on site to manage and oversee the works being delivered by Sudlows. Regular reviews were undertaken, and site progress meetings were held to ensure the works were being delivered to programme.
Working with Sudlows’ Connectivity Team, the work within the comms rooms was coordinated and managed by our dedicated Project Manager, who was allocated to the project and who oversaw the complete Sudlows package, providing continuity and an overall ownership of the full works.
At design stage, the customer had already carried out space planning and allocated areas for the Primary and Secondary rooms. Unfortunately, with both rooms being too small for the IT and cooling equipment, mainly driven by the architects’ layouts and constraints around the circulation areas. Working with the customers’ wider Design Team, Sudlows redesigned the plans to ensure that the rooms would provide adequate space for working and accessing IT equipment, as well as being functional as comms rooms.
Sudlows used Riello rack mounted UPS units with 1 hour autonomy to both rooms.
2no Vertiv In-Row coolers were installed to the Primary Room with 2no Mitsubishi Electric wall mounted units being installed to serve the Secondary Room.
Dataracks IT cabinets were installed to both rooms with Raritan intelligent PDU’s complete with environmental monitoring connected to the cooling, UPS systems, and leak detection, together with temperature sensors to the inlet and outlet of the racks. In the event of a fault with any of the monitored equipment, an alert automatically notifies key stakeholders to allow the issue to be escalated and actioned accordingly.
All M&E systems were installed to provide A&B resilient infrastructure.
Conclusion
Whilst this project had its challenges, the project went well and to programme. By managing the works throughout, Sudlows managed to ensure there was continuity and delivered an exceptional, sustainable, and adaptable facility for Pets.
With Sudlows designing, building and delivering the full technical requirements for Pets, it allowed us to fully co-ordinate and capture all aspects of the customers’ requirements to provide a seamless project. Sudlows’ internal team worked together to provide efficiencies in delivering the works and future proofed the Primary Room to allow for future expansion.
Testimonial
Phil Guy, Senior Project Manager at Pets, commented:
“From the initial consultation to the final implementation, Sudlows exhibited professionalism, expertise, and a genuine commitment to our success.
“We now have two robust and resilient infrastructures that serve as the backbone of our business operations.”
Location
Stafford, UK
Size
3m x 8m (primary), 4m x 5m (secondary)
Value
£217,500
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