Virgin Media has won a DatacenterDynamics EMEA Award for applying best practice to its top energy consuming sites, saving the business £1.35 million to date.

Deemed a clear winner for the ‘Improved Data Center Energy Efficiency’ award at the ceremony in London last week, Virgin Media impressed with its approach and celebrated alongside a number of organisations and industry figureheads who were also honoured for their efforts over the last 12 months. 

"Being presented with this award from DatacenterDynamics is a great honour and we are very proud of all those who have been involved in the project. How organisations approach management of data center environments has changed and this award is very important to us as a business that prides itself on smart disruption of the status quo," said Paul Carr, director of Design, Build & Deployment at Virgin Media.

The gala event, held at the Lancaster Hotel in London on 11th December was hosted by comedian and former Lord Commissioner of the Treasury Gyles Brandreth, who kept the 600 strong audience of data center industry leaders highly entertained with tales about his time in government and meetings with HRH Queen Elizabeth II.

The following companies also picked up awards:

  • Equinix - ‘Future Thinking and Design Concepts’
  • Infinity SDC Ltd – ‘Data Center Blueprints’
  • SummuS Render – ‘Innovation in the Micro-Data Center’
  • Workspace Technology – ‘Innovation in the Medium-Data Center’
  • Infinity SDC Ltd – ‘Innovation in the Mega-Data Center’
  • Leicester City Council – ‘Leadership in the Public Sector’
  • Equinix – ‘Innovation in Outsourcing’
  • Portugal Telecom – ‘The Green Data Center’
  • National Bank of Abu Dhabi – ‘Innovation in IT Optimisation’
  • Green Mountain – ‘Modular Deployment of the Year’
  • James Rowse, RED Engineering Design – ‘Young Mission Critical Engineer of the Year’
  • Cundall – ‘Data Center Special Assignment Team of the Year’

Two individual awards were also made on the night.

The Data Center Business Leader of the Year Award went to Simon Segars at ARM in recognition of his work in the last 12 months, building a business case for the data center with key stakeholder groups.

The Outstanding Contribution to the Industry Award was made to Paolo Bertoldi who has been working with the European Commission since 1986. Conducting research in the areas of nuclear fusion and energy management, in May 2001, he took the office of the principal administrator at the European Commission Joint Research Centre which is responsible for European Code of Conduct for Data Centers. This voluntary scheme aims to create a European version of initiatives like the American 'Energy Star' and 'Save Energy Now' or the global 'Green Grid' .

Paul Mangles, Global Awards manager, said, “As our recent London Converged conference demonstrated, EMEA has some of the richest data center insight in the world. While the market continues expanding and the opportunities for sales in the market also grow, the buying process for products and services has become increasingly complex and opaque. Succeeding in this industry is no mean feat and it’s important to recognise the businesses that are tackling the issues brought on by technology’s rapid evolution.  These Awards are designed to do just that.

“There are stories of real success and achievement in the industry that need to be made public and this Awards programme is central to that process; it is about the organisations, their teams and the individuals who make this industry what it is today,” Mangles added.