AIMES Data Centre awarded New DCA Certification

Liverpool based data centre operator, AIMES Grid Services, has been named as the first data centre in the European Union to be awarded the new Data Centre Alliance (DCA) Certification.

Having successfully passed a rigorous data centre audit carried out by the industry body in conjunction with a member of its approved expert firms, Certios, AIMES was awarded the level 3 classification for its award-winning facility at Liverpool Innovation Park.

The certification, developed by DCA members, provides industry with a clear set of criteria designed to embrace existing codes and standards of best practice to assess the quality and resilience of a data centre facility.

AIMES, whose customers include Everton FC, Atlantic Container Line, SPHERE, Liverpool Heart and Chest NHS Foundation Trust and the Federation of Small Businesses, received the ‘class 3’ rating after being monitored for its resilience in power distribution, connectivity and cabling and environmental control (cooling).

Michael Walker, Project Director at AIMES said: “As a leading data centre in the North West, these accreditations reflect the operational integrity, energy efficiency and site security we have here. The addition of the EUCOC and DCA accreditations to our NHS Information Governance and ISO27001 certifications demonstrate our commitment to striving to meet the highest level of industry standards. We continue to invest in our infrastructure, our staff and technology to assure current and prospective customers of our ability to deliver a level of service and uptime to be expected.”

Former Cabinet Minister, Data Centre Alliance President and Virtus Chairman, Steven Norris said: “As our lives and economic futures now depend on safe, reliable and efficient data centres, it is high time we recognise and highlight our industry’s commitment to excellence, energy efficiency and professionalism. On behalf of the DCA, I congratulate AIMES, their team and the City of Liverpool on this achievement.”

Uniquely, the DCA Certification is the only scheme that requires the implementation and participation of the Code to be verified and regularly checked at the data centre thus providing an essential extra layer of confidence to users and customers.

The company which operates two data centres – Baird House and Kilby House – has also become a participant in the ‘European Code of Conduct on Data Centres (EUCOC). The code was created in response to increasing energy consumption in data centres and the need to reduce environmental impacts in relation operating a data centre.