The data centre and logistics markets in the UK have grown throughout lockdown, according to reports published this month. As the Covid-19 pandemic accelerates changes in business and consumer behaviour, Paul Brickman from Crestchic Loadbanks explores the need for continuous uptime.
While digitalisation was already well underway across many industries before the pandemic hit, the shift has undoubtedly been accelerated by the change in the way we live and work. With shops and businesses closed, the demand for e-commerce and food deliveries has grown, further fueling the growth of data centres as well as the logistics, warehousing and fulfilment markets.
Paul explains, ‘The pandemic has highlighted how vital data centres are. Not only has a large proportion of the UK population shifted to home working, but we’re also using technology for everything from keeping in touch with loved ones to entertainment and shopping. Businesses have also shifted to meet this change, with many companies rushing to implement tech-enabled solutions, from evolving their e-commerce platforms to creating apps, running digital events and more. This rise in online activity has also fueled increased demand in the logistics sector, with consumers increasingly reliant on having goods delivered to their door quickly.”
These market drivers and the need to ensure continuous uptime in these sectors have been evident in the order books at Crestchic Loadbanks – through both their sales and rental divisions. The company has been supplying load testing equipment – used to test back up power systems to ensure they will work in the event of a power outage – to both industries for
around 40 years.
Paul explains, “In a data centre environment, a loss of power could be catastrophic, leading to costly data losses and downtime. The same applies in the logistics industry, where a power outage could mean lost customer orders, warehouses of food being wasted or route planning systems going down. To mitigate the risk, these industries have back-up power systems in place which they need to test regularly with a load bank.”
The risk of not testing is a stark one. Back up generators need to be run and tested at full load to ensure that their components will work quickly and efficiently in the event of an outage.
“Data centres are a core market for us,” explains Paul. “There’s been an underlying digitisation trend in many of the markets we operate in for a while, but the pandemic has accelerated this exponentially. As the post-pandemic world continues to evolve, the expectation is that both of these markets will continue to grow and that their service levels and uptime will be at 100%. Investing in back up power and load bank testing is absolutely
crucial to fulfilling that demand.”
For more information about Crestchic Loadbanks and the critical role of load bank testing, visit www.crestchicloadbanks.com
Northbridge Industrial Services (LON:NBI) has two core activities, Crestchic Loadbanks and Tasman Oil Tools. Crestchic is a specialist electrical equipment business which manufactures, sells and rents loadbanks and transformers from its base in Burton on Trent and has depots in France, Germany, Belgium, UAE and Singapore. Crestchic also has satellite locations in China and the USA.
