St. Pancras gets network boost for new Eurostar service

New data network in place for launch of Eurostar services at St. Pancras from November.

St Pancras station, which will run Eurostar services from the middle of November, has rolled out a new data network in a project worth around £500,000.

The new network integrates critical functions including ticketing, timekeeping, information systems and CCTV security onto one network. The implementation of the network was carried out by ICT company Bailey Teswaine.

The network consists of Cisco core switches with multiple gigabit resilient links throughout the station. The network was tested and completed in the second quarter this year alongside the station's £800 million refurbishment in preparation for the new Eurostar services running from 14 November, replacing Waterloo as the new central London terminal for the international train.

David Johnson, head of projects at Bailey Teswaine said that redevelopment of St Pancras International was "one of the most ambitious and significant projects undertaken in modern Britain".

"We have built an extremely robust network that will facilitate an enjoyable and safe travel experience at every point from ticket hall to platform for the station's expected 45 million passengers each year," he said.

A spokesman for London and Continental Railways that runs Eurostar said that the new network forms the core part of its operations. "This network will ensure the seamless day to day running of this magnificent building."

Slow progress towards green IT

New survey finds that companies talk a lot about green issues but mostly fail to act.

Barely a third of companies have any plans to move towards green computing.

Research carried out by storage vendor Onstor found that only 36 per cent of organisations have projects in place at the present time to be more environmentally friendly with their computing needs. Another 29 per cent of companies said they were talking about green initiatives while a further 29 per cent said that there had been no discussions to date about going green.

The study of 440 companies in Europe found the nearly half (48 per cent) of respondents will out grow their existing data centres within the next 12 months, while 84 per cent of organisations questioned saw corporate responsibility mandatees drive the need to reduce overall power consumption in their companies.

The research found that for two-thirds of companies the cost of energy was the key factor in the bid to become greener. When asked what percentage of cost savings would be enough of an incentive to go green 12 per cent cited less than five per cent, 24 per cent stated between 5-10 per cent and 33 per cent stated between 10-20 per cent.

Nearly three-quarters (73 per cent) said that buying less power hungry IT was essential to adhering to a green data centre policy.

Bob Miller, chief executive of Onstor said that green initiatives were flowering within the IT industry but said the problem was with the end users.

"Pressure groups such as the Green Grid now taking centre stage in an industry renown for its power consumption," he said. "While the vendors appear to be taking this issue seriously the overall end user community is some way behind."

Miller added that it would appear from these findings that it will be "market and technology drivers that affect change."

Optical networking component vendors feel squeeze

New research from Ovum RHK points to five per cent decline in market for optical networking componenets.

Corrections in inventory by customers have led to a second quarter on quarter decline in the sales of optical componenets for networking equipment, new figures suggest.

According to figures released by research outfit Ovum RHK, the sector's sales declined by five per cent in the second quarter to $936 million (£468 million). Company revenues were also down one per cent compared to the second quarter of last year.

Ovum said that market leader JDSU posted a 12 per cent sequential sales decline and managed to lose market share on a rolling fourth quarter basis. Its rival Finisar, had strong quarter-on-quarter growth and gained nine per cent of the market with revenues of $96 million (£48 million).

Opnext, the number four company in the sector had the strongest growth in the quarter, up 68 per cent and this said Ovum was down to sales of componenets supporting 10 and 40 Gbit/sec Ethernet products. This accounted for over 80 per cent of the company's revenues.

But according to analysts the contraction is a temporary phenomenon.

"Equipment vendors in all segments are reporting strong revenue gains," said Daryl Inniss, vice president and practice leader, Communication Components at Ovum RHK. "Optical component suppliers' revenues are declining as a consequence of customer-driven inventory initiatives that are largely over, but we are surprised at the length and depth of the impact on component vendors."

Inniss said that although he expect the market to resume steady growth in the second half of this year, "pockets of inventory correction may continue to have a negative impact".

Ovum said that components and modules supporting faster Ethernet technologies were identified by vendors as driving increased sales and new products are being introduced and strong market growth is now expected.

Birmingham picked for BT 21CN trials

Up to ten Birmingham-based exchanges to be connected to BT's next-generation network by January 2008.

BT has announced that it will conduct live trials of its 21st Century Network (21CN) in Birmingham.

Working in conjunction with business ISP Entanet, BT's Wholesale and Retail businesses will begin 21CN tests using a single live exchange in Birmingham from November, moving up to 10 exchanges by January 2008. BT intends to begin the nationwide rollout of 21CN later next year.

Entanet says that first-hand experience of 21CN's implementation and testing will be invaluable. "We'll be making financial, time and resource investments in our network to participate in the trial, which will give us a critical edge in planning ahead for our network as 21CN is rolled out," says Steve Lalonde, chief technical officer of Entanet.

Entanet is planning a multi-million pound investment in its own network infrastructure to exploit the new voice and data services that 21CN will make possible. The network is basically an implementation of ADSL2+ technology on BT's existing copper wire infrastructure. It will enable faster broadband connectivity as well as new internet-based services such as HD television. The village of Wick, near Cardiff, was the first to be connected to the new network, last November.

Trials in central London, Woolwich and Cambridge were successfully concluded in June.

EU court to rule on Microsoft abuse case

Court will decide whether original European Commission fine was justified.

A European Union court will rule on whether software giant Microsoft has abused its near-monopoly on operating systems to push out competitors. The case has major implications on the EU's authority to put into effect antitrust policy.

The executive European Commission decided in 2004 that Microsoft used its Windows operating system, running on 95 per cent of the world's computers and servers, to choke off competing makers of server and streaming media software.

The Commission fined the software giant a record 497 million euros (£343 million) and ordered it to change its business practices. Microsoft appealed, so a special 13-judge panel at the Court of First Instance will decide who was right.

The bloc's second-highest court, based in Luxembourg, will hand down its ruling on live television.

It will rule whether the Commission was right to say Microsoft could not bundle its Windows Media Player with its Windows operating system because it was aimed at hurting rivals such as RealNetworks, once dominant in the field.

It will also decide whether the Commission was wrong to order Microsoft to produce a version of Windows without the player software. Few bought that version of Windows.

Today, media software is used to watch Google's YouTube, download Apple iTunes or listen to podcasts.

The court will also rule whether Microsoft has to make available information to rival server software makers so that their software runs as smoothly on Windows.

The Commission ordered Microsoft to do that and has fined it an additional 280.5 million euros because it says the company is not yet in compliance with that decision.

Finally, the court will rule whether to cut the Commission's original fine on Microsoft.

If the Commission's power is preserved, no matter whether the sanctions are thrown out, it will be able to press ahead against Microsoft on a series of other pending complaints.

Companies around the world are waiting to see whether the court will cut into the Commission's power.

If the court's ruling criticises the Commission's work in this complex, high-tech case, the Commission will have to rethink its strategy in cases and complaints involving Intel, Qualcomm, Rambus and others.

Galileo Connect to build green data in Essex

Green light for eco-friendly data centre in Loughton, Essex.

Modular data centre developer Galileo Connect is to build a new, "sustainable" data centre near the Bank of England printing works, just outside London, as part of its £540 million expansion plan.

The company recently acquired the three acre site in Loughton, Essex and will complete construction of the £40 million development in October 2008. The company is also building a £200 million data centre in Paris, which it hopes to finish by September next year. Another data centre in Canberra, Australia has also been confirmed.

The company said the UK data centre will be greener than other data centres as it claimed that the ideal size of the data hall to be 1000 square metres with a power density of 1500 Watts per square metre. With Tier IV power and cooling, the data centre can accommodate 400 "cabinets".

"Sustainability is the issue of the day, and it's a topic that our industry has to take seriously," said Julian King, chief executive of Galileo Connect. "Our approach is born of over a decade of study in to the architectural, engineering and operational issues involved in the provision and ongoing management of highly resilient data centres. We are confident our new "modular" concept will address this issue and serve the global demand for secure data centres that are environmentally sound."

Norfolk police inks data warehouse deal with Fujitsu Services

Fujitsu Services to deploy operational data warehouse for Norfolk constabulary.

Norfolk police are to deploy an operational data warehouse that will combine and link data in one repository.

The force signed a deal with IT services company Fujitsu Services that it hopes will give it more flexibility and be more cost effective that sending data returns back to the Home Office though its National Management Information System (NMIS).

The warehouse is expected to be helpful to police on the beat as it will allow them to carry out many more activities than they currently carry out at present.

Christine Thompson, information management business manager at Norfolk Constabulary, said the force had chosen Fujitsu as it "has access to more resources than the competition and put together the most persuasive tender document". She added that its track record gave the force confidence in the company to deliver the project.

Under the terms of the deal Fujitsu will partner with SAS Software and Amadeus Software to fix common problems caused by multiple information systems with different collection and storage techniques.

The first stage of the project has already seen the constabulary bring together information from its crime and HR systems in order to improve its ability to provide annual Home Office Data Returns. It is hoped in the future that the force will be able to make links between external events such as economic trends and population movements to help to predict patterns of crime.

Fujitsu said that its work in data warehousing with police forces in the UK was to extract important data from the many different information systems used by individual police forces in order to merge and advance its quality. This would, it said, improve forces' capacity to respond to the national policing requirements that emerged from the Bichard inquiry - the 2003 independent inquiry, which examined how the police handled the intelligence surrounding the Soham murders.

Andy Sowden, head of police business at Fujitsu Services, said the contract was an important project for the company "and one which will provide Norfolk Constabulary with a framework that will be able to cope with continued change - both at a local and a national level - and the many information requirements that will come their way in the future".