success story

Insurance

LANmark-6A

Willis Group Holdings plc is one of the world’s leading insurance and reinsurance brokers and risk advisors.

The company currently has over 400 ofﬁces on all continents and employs a staff of 17,000, including globally

preeminent authorities on analytics, modelling and mitigation strategies. Immediate and reliable access to

current data and tools is vital to all of the company’s employees around the world. In order to ensure this access,

Willis owns and operates several primary data centres.

Willis Group Holdings chooses Nexans copper cabling

Global insurance leader relies on LANmark cables and connectors for UK

data centre.

Recent changes in Financial Service Authority (FSA)

regulations created a need for additional UK data centre

space and Willis therefore decided to refurbish an area

of an existing building for this purpose. The site provides

roughly one square kilometre of data centre space.

Redstone, a Nexans Certiﬁed Partner, took on the

responsibility for managing the project. In addition to the

copper and ﬁbre cable installation, terminating and testing,

Redstone also managed the installation of cable containment

and IT cabinets, all ‘day one’ patching requirements, and

the installation of cabinet power distribution units (CPDUs)

and in line power units.

ZERO-RISK RELIABILITY

Willis’ London site relies on Nexans copper LAN cables

and the company was looking for the same quality and

consistency in the new Data Centre, so Nexans was

also chosen to supply the multi-gigabit data speeds with

maximum reliability. Nexans LANmark Category 6A F/FTP

cables were selected to provide 10Gb ‘Panel to Panel’

links, and from the cable distribution frame (CDF), which

connects cables to the ‘Meet Me Room’ and IT cabinets

within the Data Centre.

Nexans LANmark-6A shielded copper cables are less

affected by external interference, and therefore exceed

critical Alien Crosstalk parameters with considerable

headroom, ensuring risk-free, reliable transmission whilst

reducing onsite testing time. The high quality cabling also

requires less noise cancellation and as a consequence has

the potential to reduce energy consumption. The system is

fully compatible with 10GBase-T Ethernet.

The cables were terminated using Nexans LANmark Cat

6A Evo connectors, and connected to patch panels at

either end. Angled patch panels were utilised at the CDF

to provide greater outlet density and ease of patching.

Standard ﬂat panels were utilised within IT cabinets.

Nexans Category 6A harness links were installed between

the CDF and remote cabinets using solid core patch leads

cut in half, installed, labelled and tested.

For Redstone, the project presented a number of challenges.

Cabling required apertures in the Cold Aisle Containment

(CAC) walls, which necessitated offsite design and

prefabrication. Also, the entire onsite installation needed to

be carefully co-ordinated around other building activities,

which were taking place simultaneously.

Redstone’s co-ordination and relationships, together with

reliable, high quality products, from Nexans ensured the

project’s success.

Nexans Cabling Solutions

Alsembergsesteenweg 2, b3 - B-1501 Buizingen

Tel: +32 (0)2 363 38 00 - Fax: +32 (0)2 365 09 99

Nexans Cabling Solutions UK

and Intelligent Enterprise Solutions Competence Centre

2 Faraday Ofﬁce Park - Faraday Road

Basingstoke - Hampshire RG24 8QQ

Tel: +44 (0)1256 486640 - Fax: +44 (0)1256 486650

www.nexans.com/LANsystems

info.ncs@nexans.com