Servers, storage and HCI
for Manchester data centres and on-prem.
Servnet designs, supplies and deploys server, storage and hyperconverged infrastructure for Manchester businesses — Dell PowerEdge R / XE, HPE ProLiant + Alletra MP, Lenovo ThinkSystem, Pure FlashArray, NetApp ONTAP, Nutanix Cloud Platform and Supermicro / NVIDIA GPU servers. Built for the North-West DC cluster (Equinix MA1, Synergy Trafford, Pulsant MAN, ARK Cobalt), low-latency Spinningfields workloads, and the AI / HPC requirements coming out of University of Manchester research and Northern Quarter fintech.
Why Manchester server + storage work has its own profile
Manchester's DC cluster is the densest in the UK outside London, and the workloads on it span trading, broadcast, manufacturing, healthcare and research. One reference architecture doesn't cover all of them — Manchester infrastructure design starts from a workload-specific brief.
Low-latency storage for Spinningfields finance
Pure FlashArray //X and //XL with NVMe-oF over 25/100G fabric for the low-latency profiles M3 financial-services customers need — designed against actual trade-store workload, not vendor brochure.
25 / 100 / 400 GbE fabric for North-West DC suites
Arista 7060X / 7050X, Cisco Nexus 9300 / 9500, NVIDIA Spectrum, Mellanox / NVIDIA InfiniBand NDR for AI clusters — fabric design that handles east-west traffic at the scale Manchester customers run.
HCI for NHS GM + GM Councils
Nutanix Cloud Platform (AHV or ESXi) and VMware vSAN ESA for NHS GM-affiliated trusts and GM authorities — pre-validated, supported, with per-node hardware refresh paths that align to NHS / public-sector change cycles.
AI / GPU clusters for University of Manchester + scale-ups
NVIDIA DGX B200 / GB200 NVL72, Supermicro HGX H100 / H200, Dell PowerEdge XE9680 / XE9640 builds for University of Manchester research, MMU and Salford research IT, plus Northern Quarter ML scale-ups.
What Servnet builds in Manchester
Server design + supply
PowerEdge R260, R360, R660, R760, R960; ProLiant DL360, DL380, DL560, DL580 Gen11; ThinkSystem SR250, SR630, SR650, SR860, SR950 — sized against application workload, costed in like-for-like comparison across vendors.
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 Manchester customer actually runs and sized against IOPS / GB / throughput / latency targets.
HCI — Nutanix, vSAN ESA, Azure Stack HCI
Nutanix AOS on AHV or ESXi for regulated estates (NHS GM, M3 finance), vSAN ESA for VMware-loyal customers, Azure Stack HCI / Azure Local for Microsoft-centric GM public-sector. Sized per workload, hardened to vendor and customer standards.
AI / GPU infrastructure
NVIDIA DGX B200 / B300 / GB200, Supermicro HGX H100 SXM5 / H200 SXM5, Dell PowerEdge XE9680 / XE9640, plus PCIe builds with H100 / H200 / L40S / A100 — for University of Manchester research and Northern Quarter scale-ups.
DC racking + cabling in Manchester DCs
Engineer attendance for racking, cabling, PDU work and front-end connectivity at Equinix MA1, Synergy Trafford, Pulsant MAN, ARK Cobalt. We handle DC paperwork, structured cabling and labelling.
Lifecycle support + warranty consolidation
Multi-vendor warranty consolidated into one Servnet support contract, EOSL / post-warranty cover when vendor TPS ends, scheduled firmware + microcode windows aligned to customer change board.
Manchester infrastructure customers
- ▸Spinningfields finance + professional servicesM3 asset managers, brokers and accountants — Pure //X or Alletra MP X for trade store, Arista 7060X for fabric, MiFID-aligned capture infrastructure where required.
- ▸MediaCity broadcast + post-productionBBC, ITV, dock10 and Salford Quays — high-throughput SAN/NAS for Avid + DaVinci + Premiere workflows, dedicated colour-managed workstations and shared editorial storage.
- ▸NHS Greater Manchester ICB + trustsGM ICB and constituent trusts — Nutanix or HPE SimpliVity HCI for the trust estate, DSP-Toolkit-aligned controls, clinical workstation hardware, HSCN integration.
- ▸Northern Quarter fintechM4 / Ancoats Series B–D scale-ups — Nutanix Cloud Platform for pre-cloud production, GPU servers for ML teams, fabric design that can graduate to AWS or Azure on schedule.
- ▸Trafford Park + manufacturingM17 industrial customers — IT-side Nutanix or vSAN for ERP / MES + ruggedised industrial PC infrastructure, IT/OT-segmented design.
- ▸Universities + researchUniversity of Manchester, MMU, Salford — research compute clusters, GPU nodes for ML / scientific workloads, lab storage for genomics / imaging / chemistry data, JANET-attached networking.
How a Manchester server / storage project actually runs
Design workshop + sizing week 1
Workload review with application owners — IOPS, throughput, latency, capacity, growth rate — turned into a sized design (server qty, storage controller pair, fabric BoM) with like-for-like comparison across 2–3 vendor options.
Procurement → delivery → DC racking
PO raised, factory build lead time tracked, delivery direct into the Manchester DC of choice. Engineer attends for rack-in, cabling, power-up, baseline firmware and initial config. DC access pre-arranged with Equinix MA1, Synergy Trafford, Pulsant MAN, ARK Cobalt.
Configuration + handover
Cluster config, storage provisioning, fabric configuration, integration with customer DNS / NTP / monitoring / backup. Acceptance test signed off jointly; documentation pack (configs, runbooks, contacts) handed over.
Support contract activates day one
From the moment the platform is in production, the Servnet support contract is live — 4-hour engineer + parts on Manchester SLA, smart-hands available, named technical account contact for the customer's ops team.
Manchester servers + storage — common questions
Can you rack into Equinix MA1 or Synergy Trafford?
Yes — we hold standing access at Equinix MA1, Synergy Trafford, Pulsant MAN, ARK Cobalt and the major North-West DCs. Our engineers know the DC-specific protocols, security routines and smart-hands processes. Customer signs the lease; we coordinate everything else.
What do you spec for a Spinningfields trading floor storage refresh?
For most M3 trading customers we land on Pure FlashArray //X or HPE Alletra MP X — NVMe end-to-end, sub-100µs latency profile, NVMe-oF over 100G or 25G to compute, ransomware-immutable snapshots, replication to a second Manchester DC for active/active. Sized against actual trade-store IOPS profile.
Do you do AI / GPU clusters for University of Manchester research?
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 against the DC suite specification.
Can you do a Nutanix design for an NHS GM trust?
Yes — Nutanix on AHV is a frequent design choice for GM ICB-affiliated trusts, particularly post-Broadcom. We size cluster against workload, design replication / DR, document against DSP Toolkit assertions, produce audit-pack at handover.
Who supports the kit after install?
Servnet does — 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 Manchester SLA, smart-hands available, named technical account contact, scheduled firmware + microcode windows.
How do you price against North-West integrators (Bytes, Phoenix, XMA, Softcat)?
On hardware and licence we're typically 4–9% cheaper on like-for-like. On services we're typically faster (smaller bid teams, fewer hand-offs), more technically specific in proposals, and won't pad the engineer-days line. Trade-off is brand recognition and volume-discount pull on the very largest deals (£1m+ multi-year managed).
Other services we deliver in Manchester
Sizing a Manchester 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.