Why Birmingham server + storage work has its own profile
Birmingham's DC cluster supports a uniquely mixed workload portfolio — Colmore finance, JLR-supply IT/OT, NHS BSol clinical, university HPC, broadcast media, multi-site WMCA. One reference architecture doesn't cover them all.
Low-latency storage for Colmore finance
Pure FlashArray //X and //XL with NVMe-oF over 25/100G fabric for the low-latency profiles B2 / B3 finance customers need — designed against actual workload.
25 / 100 / 400 GbE fabric for West Midlands DCs
Arista 7060X / 7050X, Cisco Nexus 9300 / 9500, NVIDIA Spectrum for AI — fabric design that handles east-west traffic at Birmingham customer scale.
HCI for NHS BSol + WMCA
Nutanix Cloud Platform and VMware vSAN ESA for BSol-affiliated trusts and WMCA + the 6 West Midlands authorities — pre-validated, supported, with per-node hardware refresh paths.
AI / GPU clusters for West Midlands universities
NVIDIA DGX B200 / GB200 NVL72, Supermicro HGX H100 / H200, Dell PowerEdge XE9680 / XE9640 for Birmingham, Aston, Warwick, Coventry research IT.
What Servnet builds in Birmingham
Server design + supply
PowerEdge R260-R960; ProLiant DL360-DL580 Gen11; ThinkSystem SR250-SR950 — sized against workload, costed in like-for-like comparison.
Storage — Pure, NetApp, HPE Alletra, Dell PowerStore
All-flash block, scale-out NAS, hybrid file/object, NVMe-oF, ransomware-immutable snapshots — designed for the workload mix the Birmingham customer actually runs.
HCI — Nutanix, vSAN ESA, Azure Stack HCI
Nutanix AOS on AHV or ESXi for regulated estates, vSAN ESA for VMware-loyal customers, Azure Stack HCI for Microsoft-centric WMCA + BCC.
AI / GPU infrastructure
NVIDIA DGX B200 / B300 / GB200, Supermicro HGX H100 / H200 SXM5, Dell PowerEdge XE9680 / XE9640, plus PCIe builds for smaller footprints.
DC racking + cabling
Engineer attendance for racking, cabling, PDU work and connectivity at Equinix BX1, Telehouse Brm, Pulsant BHX, Stellium WM.
Lifecycle support + warranty consolidation
Multi-vendor warranty consolidated into one Servnet contract, EOSL / post-warranty cover when vendor TPS ends, scheduled firmware windows.
Birmingham infrastructure customers
- ▸Colmore finance + legalB2 / B3 asset managers, brokers, accountants — Pure //X or Alletra MP X for trade store, Arista 7060X for fabric.
- ▸JLR Tier 1/2 supplySolihull / Coventry / Wolverhampton suppliers — IT-side Nutanix or vSAN for ERP / MES, ruggedised industrial infrastructure, IT/OT-segmented design.
- ▸NHS BSol ICB + trustsBSol-affiliated trusts — Nutanix or HPE SimpliVity HCI, DSP-Toolkit-aligned controls, clinical workstation hardware, HSCN integration.
- ▸West Midlands universitiesBirmingham, Aston, Warwick, Coventry — research compute clusters, GPU nodes, lab storage for genomics / imaging / engineering data.
- ▸Multi-site retail + hospitalityBirmingham-HQ retail / hospitality with Midlands branches — centralised infrastructure, branch WAN, POS integration.
- ▸BCC + WMCA + 6 authoritiesBCC, WMCA + 6 authorities — HCI for the council estate, CCS-framework supply, public-sector aware change processes.
How a Birmingham server / storage project actually runs
Design workshop + sizing week 1
Workload review with application owners — IOPS, throughput, latency, capacity, growth — turned into sized design with like-for-like comparison across 2–3 vendors.
Procurement → delivery → DC racking
PO raised, factory build lead time tracked, delivery direct into the Birmingham DC of choice. Engineer attends for rack-in, cabling, power-up, baseline firmware, initial config.
Configuration + handover
Cluster config, storage provisioning, fabric configuration, integration with customer DNS / NTP / monitoring / backup. Acceptance test signed off jointly; documentation handed over.
Support contract activates day one
Servnet support live from production go-live — 4-hour engineer + parts on Birmingham SLA, smart-hands available, named technical account contact.
Birmingham servers + storage — common questions
Can you rack into Equinix BX1 or Telehouse Brm?
Yes — standing access at Equinix BX1, Telehouse Birmingham, Pulsant BHX, Stellium WM. Our engineers know the DC-specific protocols. Customer signs the lease; we coordinate everything else.
What do you spec for a Colmore trading floor storage refresh?
For most B2 / B3 trading customers we land on Pure FlashArray //X — NVMe end-to-end, sub-100µs latency, NVMe-oF over 100G or 25G, ransomware-immutable snapshots, replication to a second Midlands DC for active/active.
Do you do AI / GPU clusters for West Midlands universities?
Yes — NVIDIA DGX B200 / B300 / GB200 NVL72 and Supermicro HGX H100 / H200 builds, plus PCIe builds for smaller footprints. Including 400G InfiniBand fabric, GPUDirect storage path and power / cooling sanity check.
Can you do a Nutanix design for a BSol trust?
Yes — Nutanix on AHV is a frequent design choice for BSol-affiliated trusts, particularly post-Broadcom. Size cluster against workload, design replication / DR, document against DSP Toolkit assertions, produce audit-pack at handover.
Who supports the kit after install?
Servnet — under a Servnet support contract that runs alongside vendor warranty for in-warranty cover and replaces vendor TPS at end-of-life. 4-hour engineer + parts on Birmingham SLA, smart-hands available.
How do you price against West Midlands integrators (Bytes, Phoenix, XMA, Computacenter Brm)?
On hardware and licence typically 4–9% under list. On services we're faster (smaller bid teams, fewer hand-offs), more technically specific. Trade-off is brand recognition on £1m+ multi-year managed deals.
Other services we deliver in Birmingham
Sizing a Birmingham server, storage or HCI project?
Tell us the workload, the DC and the timeline. We'll come back with a sized design and a like-for-like comparison across 2–3 vendor options.
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