Six Degrees Group Receives 'Improved Data Center Energy Efficiency' Award

Six Degrees Group has received the "Improved Data Center Energy Efficiency" award. This award was conferred at the internationally renowned Data center Leaders Awards. Hosted by Datacenter Dynamics, the event saw over 50 entrants across the spectrum of the EMEA. Besides winning this award, the Six Degrees Group also found itself among the finalists in the "Innovation in the Medium Data Center" category. This nomination was for its cutting edge newest data floor.

It was chosen as a winning entry based on the retrofit improvements that they had made to their data floors. These improvements were in the northern and southern data centers in Studley. As a result, Power Usage Efficiency (PUE) was reduced by 32 per cent. There were other innovations and improvements brought in by the Six Degrees Group that led to a reduction in energy consumption. Among these was using Ambicool free-cooling system in place of the regular air conditioning systems that they had. They also introduced the concept of cooling via indirect and direct evaporation. All legacy CRAC fans were replaced.

With all these changes, the PUE came down by one-third bringing the figure from 1.85 to 1.26. It provided for a return on investment in shorter than a year’s time.

In a release, Daniel Lowe, managing director of Six Degrees Group's Managed Data Services Division said, “To win one award and be a finalist in another, making us the only company to be recognized in two categories, is a tremendous achievement. We've been able to achieve N+N resilience with PUE levels normally associated with N+1 data centers. Our customers appreciate our efforts to improve energy efficiency as it bolsters our combined environmental credentials. Equally importantly, the savings we've made has meant we've been able to minimize the impact of supply-side increases in energy charges, saving our customers money."

The Six Degrees Group is owned privately and is a managed data services provider with clientele based in the U.K. mid-market. The Six Degrees Group has a converged-services portfolio. It includes data centre, connectivity, and voice as well as cloud offerings. All of their offerings are created to aid organizations meet the challenges of a connected, online world.