Worldskills London 2011 puts Logicalis and FlexPod to the test

Logicalis UK has announced the successful deployment and operation of FlexPod virtual data centre architecture to support the computing and storage needs at Worldskills London 2011. Based on Logicalis' private cloud service platform, FlexPod was designed and built in situ at ExCel London just three days prior to the go-live date, and operated smoothly throughout the event. This proven speed of deployment makes FlexPod one of the 'fastest to deploy' virtual data centre architectures available today.

WorldSkills is the largest international skills competition for young people in the world, and took place from 5th to the 12th October. Gerard Nolan, Senior Sponsorship Manager at WorldSkills London 2011 and 'Acting IT Director' at the event, says, "Speed and flexibility were critical to us, and we needed a robust, always-on and secure IT experience for all users throughout the event. Logicalis proved that it had the engineering expertise - and moreover, the innovative technology - to deliver WorldSkills London 2011's ICT needs in what was a very challenging environment."

David Swayne, Director of Services at Logicalis UK, comments, "WorldSkills London 2011 presented a fantastic opportunity for our Project Managers and Engineers: to design and build a data centre architecture to support the exhibition in just three days. We knew that 1000 competitors from 51 countries would arrive at the event, expecting access to ICT resources which were critical to their success, and we had to deliver in very short timescales. Our secure, 'pop-up' Cloud did just that.

"Even with the limited amount of planning time we had available, it was vital that we deployed a virtual data centre platform that provided the highest levels of flexibility and reliability. WorldSkills London 2011 went very smoothly, and the only headlines in the news have rightly focused on the amazing young people taking part in the competition, at an event that delivered on a global stage."

As WorldSkills London 2011's official ICT infrastructure and services partner, Logicalis provided all core communications and data centre infrastructure for the event, including FlexPod, LAN communications, IP telephony, email and other services used by the organising teams, competitors, support staff, and visitors. 

Chris Gabriel, Marketing and Solutions Director at Logicalis UK, comments, "WorldSkills London 2011 enabled us to prove that virtual private data centres and cloud services can be quickly and successfully implemented in challenging locations to meet specific and timely requirements. As the first Cisco UCS Partner in the UK, and the first to build a hosted Cisco UCS and NetApp Cloud, we lead the way in innovating for our customers.

"Logicalis believes that the maturity of the FlexPod virtual architecture makes it a mainstream approach to deploying private data centre platforms. WorldSkills 2011 demonstrated that we can solve real business challenges with a new approach to delivering ICT resources.  WorldSkills didn't want to build a new data centre, they wanted to put on the largest skills exhibition in the world, and do it in incredibly tight timeframes. Logicalis' deployment of FlexPod was a key enabler to ensure that the show did go on."

FlexPod combines the power of Cisco UCS compute platform, NetApp storage, and VMware virtualisation software in a vendor certified architectural design. The FlexPod virtual data centre is based on Logicalis' industry recognised private cloud service platform, already deployed at UK organisations such as Loughborough University, where 2.4million of existing data centre refurbishment costs were mitigated through Logicalis' self-contained private cloud architecture.