This year’s Data Center Construction Team of the Year Award was sponsored by Legrand, whose representative Jeanne-Pierre Burger, their Regional Sales Manager, was paramount in really drilling into why construction is so important (and deserves the recognition).

“Construction is a tough industry, and it's the future of where data centers are going. If you don't have a construction team that can deliver a good project, you are not going to have a reliable and sustainable data center. So, for us, as a company that is always forward-thinking, we want to be associated with evolving organizations, and construction is the way to go. It's the future.”

Given the challenges presented to the construction industry by COVID-19, the accomplishments of the award’s finalists are rendered even more impressive, recognized in winners Bouygues E&S for their technically challenging project at the VIRTUS London 7 facility.

This build required the delivery of a 9MW liquid-cooled HPC center, and a 28MW IT build. This in itself made the facility a complex development, but doing so in the context of COVID-19 made it infinitely more challenging. With strict safety guidelines such as social distancing, mandated isolation periods, and delays across every step of the process, the construction industry has faced unprecedented obstacles.

Throughout 2021, the VIRTUS London 7 facility also had to bend flexibly to the design changes needed alongside new specification requirements and delayed decision-making.

What set this project apart, and won it the DCD>Award, was the way the team innovated as these obstacles got in their way. For example, testing M&E using an electric boiler to replicate the HPC load.

As said by Daniel Mose, EVP, and Chris Mosley, Operations Director.

“It means so much to the team that we've put out in the UK and how much we've delivered in the UK this year. Even with the pandemic, these guys have delivered every day, for the second time in three years.”

“It's a testament to the team that we've got, the suppliers, the chain that we've got, the clients, the consultants that all work with us. It’s absolutely fantastic and we are really proud of the whole team.”