Innovation has featured high in this year’s European DatacenterDynamics Leaders Awards, sponsored by APC, with finalists proving that business is still looking for new solutions to energy and cost efficiency.

A large number of entrants had also adhered to the EU Code of Conduct, according to judges, who said this year was the first in which a clear indication of adoption had been seen.

Tonight winners will be announced for 11 awards categories at the Gala Dinner &Awards at the Lancaster Hotel in London.

Now in its fourth year, the DCD Leaders Awards entrants and finalists are nominated from countries throughout Europe.

According to awards independent observer, BCS Data Center Specialist Group chairman and Romonet managing director Zahl Limbuwala said that many of these had shown efforts to embed the best practices of the EU Code of Conduct within the core of their data centre operations.

"There's been a lot of criticism recently around the success of the code and I think what I saw was very reflective of success. People taking and using a very practical set of best practices and using that to drive improvements in energy efficiency and cost efficiency within their organisations," Limbuwala said.

This year the awards attracted more than 90 entrants for its 11 categories. These were judged by 25 industry members.

"This year’s entries were absolutely a step beyond last year's as far as innovation is concerned. For an industry that's well known for a very conservative history I was amazed at how many entrants are still pushing hard on the need to be innovative within their organisations," Limbuwala said.  

"It's clear that all the entrants and particularly the finalists had worked hard to differentiate themselves, move their organisations out of their comfort-zones and were very proud of their achievements." 

Three additional awards will also be presented on the evening – the Wildcard Award for the highest scoring finalist that does not win their category, the Data Center Business Leader of the Year and the Outstanding Contribution to the Industry award. 

The awards finalists for each category are below (see FOCUS news on DatacenterDynamics tomorrow for a full list of winners!.

 

Future Thinking &Design Concepts (sponsored by APC by Schneider Electric)

 

• Alquist Consulting: Celsius ? High definition energy monitoring for the data centre

• ENI (Italy) partnered by REORDER and Ariatta Ingengneria dei Sistemi Srl: Green Data Centre Principles developed for the design and construction of a mega-data centre in Northern Italy

• Romonet: Prognose™ software suite : a tool to understand the true cost of delivering IT services and predict the cost and impact of changes 

• N2telligence GmbH : QuattroGeneration, a high efficiency, decentralised and autonomous energy and fire prevention system

 

Innovation in the Micro-Data Centre (sponsored by Computacenter)

 

• Hampshire County Council in partnership with Mace Limited: New Data Centre Build  to deliver increased capacity, availability and efficiency

• Sudlows Limited:  The Data Centre Innovation Pod

• University of Bath in partnership with Future?Tech: The West 5 Data Centre

• University of Hertfordshire: Reduction and Re?Use of Energy in Institutional Data Centres (RARE?IDC)

 

Innovation in the Medium Data Centre (sponsored by Fujitsu)

 

• Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council in partnership with Sudlows Ltd: The Transformational Project

• Ramboll: Callan Data Centre Lab, Dublin

• Colt: Modular Data Centre Manufacture Model

• Tissat: Walhalla "Green" Data Centre (Spain)

 

Innovation in the Mega- Data Centre (sponsored by JCA Group)

 

• Barclays in partnership with sineQN Limited: Project Dart

• Capgemini UK plc in partnership with Red Engineering Design: Project Merlin

• Data Electronics: Green Dublin Data centre Phase 2

• Nationwide Building Society in partnership with Mace Ltd and hurleypalmerflatt:  Newbury Data Centre

 

Leadership in the Public Sector (sponsored by Rittal)

 

• Department of Work &Pensions: Data Centre Transition Project

• Hampshire County Council in partnership with Mace Limited: New Data Centre Build  

• MerseyTravel in partnership with Future?Tech SCI Ltd: The Merseytravel new Data Centre Programme

• University of Lancaster in partnership with Arup: ISS Building

 

Innovation in the Outsourced Environment (sponsored by Norland)

 

• Equinix:  Equinix Carrier Ethernet Exchange

• Interxion: Financial Hubs

• ITER, S.A. partnered by NAPWACI: Canary Islands Data Centre

• Virtus Data Centres Limited: Virtus DC1

 

The ‘Green’ Data Centre (sponsored by Infinity)

 

• Barclays in partnership with sineQN Limited: Project Dart

• Capgemini UK plc in partnership with Red Engineering Design: Project Merlin

• Helsingen Energia in partnership with Academica: the Helsingin Energia Green Data Centre

• Tissat: Walhalla "Green" Data Centre

 

Improved Data Centre Energy Efficiency (sponsored by the Green Grid)

 

• ACS (A Xerox company) in partnership with nlyte Software: ACS green data centre programme

• Logica: the Bridgend Science park data centre

• STRATO AG: Internal competition for greater energy efficiency

• TelecityGroup: TelecityGroup Energy Management Programme

 

Innovation in Data Centre Consolidation (sponsored by SPIE Matthew Hall)

 

• Domicilium (IOM) Ltd: consolidation enabled by the elastic cloud

• Morgan Stanley: Data Centre Intelligent Power and Environmental Dashboard

• Nottinghamshire Health Trust in partnership with Alphacom: Using NetApp to Consolidate Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust’s storage

• RBS: Strategic Data Centre Consolidation Project

 

Young Mission Critical Engineer of the Year (sponsored by Red Engineering Design)

 

• Ehsaan Farsimadan, CFD/Modelling Specialist - Mechanical Engineer, Cundall

• Kevin Miller, Project Manager/ Senior Consultant, Hewlett Packard

• Luke Kubicki, Mechanical Engineer, Arup

• Yan Ke, Electrical Intermediate Engineer, hurleypalmerflatt

• Zac Potts, Mechanical Engineer, Sudlows Ltd

 

Data Centre Operational Team of the Year (sponsored by CBRE)

 

• Britannia : Britannia Powerdown Team 2010  (Leader: Andrew Bradley)

• Capgemini: Merlin Team (Leader: Paul Anderson)

• ControlCircle: ControlCircle Datacentre Team (Leader: Matt Holloway)

• Rackspace: Rackspace Data Centre Team (Leader: Riccardo Degli Effetti)