A professional firm providing technical solutions, Arup has a distinct culture and an enduring set of values that bind the firm together.

Currently operating out of 72 offices in 32 countries, with 7000 members of staff, Arup aims to bring together the best professionals in the world to meet its clients’ needs.

Puissance was extremely pleased to be asked to carry out the 'mission critical' move of Arup's London Server Room.

Such a move, with worldwide, 24-hour implications, needed detailed planning from the start.

A considerable period of pre-planning was led by John Nash, Arup’s Server Room Operations Manager. His attention to detail and overall planning input, together with behind the scenes help from the firm’s London Campus IT team, led to the success of the operation.

The move itself, took place over a three-day period, with individual racks being partially disassembled for the safe and secure move to the new server room. Up to six racks were being worked on at times. This was necessary as each new rack was being re-built in a different order, all time-critical.

Items of equipment had to be brought back into service without disrupting the items remaining in the donor racks. As the new racks were being assembled, particular attention was paid to cable routing and management, together with correct power loading and distribution of the dual APC UPS system.

Every copper, fibre and power cable was uniquely identified and labelled during the process, as was the equipment itself. Anyone used to troubleshooting large and complex installations such as this, understands the confidence that complete labelling can bring.

The work progressed at a steady rate and every team member performed brilliantly. Team work was the essence of the move and the operation was completed, on time and to budget.

John Nash looks back on the project happily: "It was a seamless operation involving a considerable number of people, all of whom could be proud of the result."