Data Centre Newsletter July 2022

We’ve got News Ardmac Data Centres Solutions Quarterly Newsletter July 2022

Hello from Ardmac,

Welcome to our quarterly newsletter, where we will keep you up to date with current developments and thinking within our Data Centre Business Unit. With this issue, we are celebrating 45 years in business. Ardmac’s Managing Director of operations Jason Casey was featured in Irish Building Magazine alongside industry leaders to discuss working together to mitigate recent and established challenges of the industry. We look at our turnkey modular data centres solutions, ground supported hot aisle containment solutions, we have interviews for International Women in Engineering Day and please save the date for the 2022 Cycle for Hope in aid of Pieta House. Finally, congratulations to our own Peter Lonergan who is newly promoted to Associate Director Pre-Con. We wish you continued success in your new role.

Roy Millar Chief Business Officer

Chat to Roy Millar Chief Business Officer

Chat to Jason Casey Managing Director Operations

Chat to Peter Lonergan Associate Director Pre-Con

roy.millar@ardmac.com +353 (0) 868077887

jason.casey@ardmac.com +353 (0) 868553342

peter.lonergan@ardmac.com +353 (0) 860423176

04 IRISH BUILDING MAGAZINE FEATURE

08 TURNEY MODULAR DATA CENTRES

10 CELEBRATING 45 YEARS OF ARDMAC

11 DATACLOUD GLOBAL CONGRESS 2022

12 ORCHARDS IN THE COMMUNITY 2.0

14 GROUND SUPPORTED HOT AISLE CONTAINMENT

16 INTERNATIONAL WOMEN IN ENGINEERING DAY

18 ARDMAC CYCLE FOR HOPE 2022

Ardmac’s Managing Director of operations, Jason Casey was featured in Irish Building Magazine alongside industry leaders to discuss working together to mitigate recent and established challanges of the industry.

“A focus on vertical integration including having our own direct labour with developed specialist skills certainly helps mitigate resource challenges in the field.”

Sky’s the Limit Ardmac Group’s reach is extending year on year in every sense, as clients take it further across Europe and the size and scope of its projects expand.

In the 45 years since its inception, Ardmac has earned itself a reputation not just for delivering results but for exceeding client expectations. This has not gone unnoticed; what was once a small Irish operation is now the leading provider of high-tech cleanrooms, data centre solutions, fit-outs, specialised refurbishments, and turn-key manufacturing facilities across Europe. Group turnover within Ireland alone last year was €75m, while overall turnover was closer to €135m. The past 12-18 months have seen Ardmac complete a whole range of significant projects across Ireland, the UK and Europe; these included a 15,000 sq.m. cleanroom facility for Wuxi Biologics in Dundalk, a large microelectronic project in Kildare, several Data Centre projects in Europe and several high-end commercial fit-outs in Ireland and the UK. Key recent wins have included large Pharma facilities in Limerick, Cork and Finland, Data Centre projects in Denmark, Germany and Austria, and Battery facilities in the UK. Modular construction is fast becoming a key part of the Group’s activity; having already delivered several such projects across Europe, its first modular project in Africa is on track to be delivered by the end of 2022. So far this year the company has been working on several large campus sites, securing further phases.

“Overall our strategy has been to follow and support our clients, and we tend to access one or two new locations every year,” explains Ardmac Managing Director, Jason Casey. “Apart from our more established locations, we are also pursuing work in new areas such as the Nordics, Spain and Portugal.” As part of its strategy for the future, Ardmac has now welcomed Cental – a leading and fast-growth provider of advanced modular infrastructure to the data centre, pharma, utilities and telecoms industries – to the Group. Cental’s manufacturing capability will support Ardmac’s ongoing agreement with US-based Germfree Laboratories, to provide prefabricated turnkey modular cleanrooms and biosafety laboratories to the biopharma and healthcare sectors throughout Europe. It will provide a manufacturing base for all other Ardmac modular solutions under one roof. In tandem with the evolution of its business and the development of its senior leadership team, the firm has also recently made some strategic assignments. Jason is now Managing Director for operations covering Ardmac’s Pharma, Data Centre and Battery business units across Ireland, the UK and Europe, while Enda Murphy is Managing Director of its Modular, Med Tech and Micro-electronic business units, while also taking a lead pre-con role in Pharma and Battery. Ian Madden is now strategic lead for off-site construction, Karen O’Hara is Head of Sales and Marketing and Hugh Ward also joined the business recently as Director of Interiors.

Jason. “However, we have had challenges like these before; our experience and approach during these times has been our strength, and we have built our resilience further through developing our processes and practices. A focus on vertical integration including having our own direct labour with developed specialist skills certainly helps mitigate resource challenges in the field.” Funding construction projects, meanwhile, “hasn’t changed in generations,” he says, with a significant proportion of project funding risk sitting with the contractors. “Project retention is a mechanism that has operated in the sector for many years, and is a significant financial cost for contractors. There are solutions out there, such as retention bonds, but the industry needs to embrace these and remove some of the funding pressures for contractors in what is already a relatively low-margin industry.” Ardmac implements the latest proven technology to improve processes and add value for customers, improve efficiencies and solve industry-specific problems. Its Digital Construction Team is at the forefront of innovation, constantly exploring how the latest tools, software applications and hardware can be deployed to support and enhance the work of its project and field teams. “We have been using Lean since 2015, BIM for over 10 years, and we have been using our field management platform Procore since 2018,” says Jason. “There are tangible benefits to adopting any of these, but when we combine features of all three, we call it Building Smart. By using all three in tandem, we are observing even greater benefits than we would if we used any of these alone. All our information is cloud based and accessible on any web-enabled device.”

CHALLENGES

Ardmac is facing the same challenges as the rest of the industry in the form of Covid fallout, Brexit and the war in the Ukraine. “Fluctuation in material costs and availability, as well as market pressure on resources, are significant,” says

“Our people are our greatest asset, and ensuring we have meaningful interaction with them is key to our success.” Its Building Smart programme is resulting in greater efficiencies across the business and providing it with crucial real-time data for decision making. “Using BIM and other technology greatly improves our abilities to design and quantify our components to maximise the benefits of offsite construction,” says Jason. “This moves work from the building site to a controlled manufacturing environment, which has benefits for both safety and quality while also improving programme certainty.”

Among other achievements, some 99.5% of the firm’s waste is diverted from landfill, its offices are fully powered by renewable energy, and it monitors and reports its Scope 1 and 2 emissions. It is also implementing further initiatives to measure and minimise Scope 3 emissions, i.e. those arising from the materials it purchases and uses.

CORPORATE CULTURE

With almost 500 direct staff, it employs many more through its supply chain. “Empowering all those employed across our business has been key to our success,” says Jason. Safety is our number one value at Ardmac – “for everyone around us, in everything we do and wherever we impact.” Its Safety First management programme is based on the demonstration of respect through the establishment of safe workplaces and practices. “Ardmac Safety programmes take a holistic approach to ensuring the physical safety of all and include mental health and wellbeing programmes at all our workplaces,” says Jason. In recent months it has held a moot court in various locations as well as doing theatre at work and management safety workshops, not to mention launching its annual Cycle for Hope event.

SUSTAINABILITY

Fully committed to ethically and responsibly managing all aspects of its operations, Ardmac firmly subscribes to the idea that when it succeeds, so does its staff, community and society in general. “By encouraging wellbeing, giving back to our community and working in sustainable ways, we not only improve people’s lives but also our business,” says Jason. Its Sky Blue program is the CSR framework that guides its responsible business approach, and outlines its sustainability commitments. For example, Ardmac has adopted the UN Sustainable Development Goals model for the development of its sustainability policy, which is ably spearheaded by its sustainability team.

SKILLS

According to Jason, alongside global supply chain issues, the shortage of personnel is the greatest challenge facing the construction industry in Ireland and overseas.

Diversity and inclusion is part of the solution, he says. “We need to understand that representation and communication plays a key part in young people choosing a career. For too long construction has limited its pool of recruits through poor understanding of the opportunities in the industry. Construction workers of the future must be engaged with early so they can see what career paths are available.” For its part, Ardmac has improved the language it uses to describe roles, reviewed the placement of opportunities and ensured its communications and careers information is as diverse and inclusive as possible. It has also developed a campaign to target key sectors of the community that are underrepresented in construction. As to his key takeaways from 2021 (apart from “coming off mute!” that is), Jason says the main one has been an appreciation of the value of physical interaction with clients and teams. “While we have seen efficiency in the use of technology to aid communication, being in the room with people is the key to building relationships and developing teams. Our people are our greatest asset, and ensuring we have meaningful interaction with them is key to our success.”

Ready to Deploy Repeatable Flexible Sustainable

Operating as the single source for the deployment of your modular datacentre requirements, Ardmac will integrate all aspects of the delivery, including site preparation. Our experienced datacentre team will develop a standardized client specific design and comply with local codes and regulatory requirements. Ardmac design, manufacture, FAT and install Modular Datacentre solutions, utilising whitespace, power and cooling modules. With a single source from inception to operation, our modular / standardised approach maximises the benefit of cost and speed of delivery, with a necessary level of flexibility, being vendor agnostic, to satisfy client specific requirements and ease of future expansion.

Flexible Solutions & Future Expansion Our standardised modular data centre solution maximises the benefit to the Client in terms of cost and speed of delivery. However, our range of solutions also provide the necessary level of flexibility to satisfy Client specific requirements.

Flexibility of layouts & configurations: – Alternative layouts – Multi-storey configuration

Easy options for future expansion.

Bespoke architectural finishes available.

Click HERE for more

Vendor Agnostic – flexibility to integrate with preferred client vendors.

Ardmac are celebrating 45 years in business, what was once a small Irish operation is now the leading provider of high- tech cleanrooms, data centre solutions, fit-outs, specialised refurbishments, EV battery and turn-key manufacturing facilities across Europe. Thank you to all who have trusted in our ethos of Safety First and excellence as standard, together we are building better.

The Ardmac Data Centre team were in Monaco for the Datacloud Global Congress from the 25th to the 27th of April. Jason Casey, Ronan Quinn, Peter Lonergan, Brain Maguire of Cental and Roy Millar exhibited at Host in Irelands Stand #45 and were enlightening attendees about Ardmac’s data centre and modular data centre offerings.

Three days of industry-leading networking opportunities and thought-leadership. See you there next year!

Ardmac are proud to partner with Host in Ireland and their DC’s for Bee’s inititaive. The DCs for Bees Pollinator Plan is a shared plan of action by Host In Ireland, its 30 partners from the data centre industry and the wider industry, who have pledged to deliver on pollinator-friendly actions to make Ireland more pollinator friendly and ensure the survival of our pollinators for future generations. Thank you to all the Ardmac staff who got involved with thir families and communities. Thank you for making a difference for butterflies, bees and other pollinators! Orchards in the Community 2.0 2,000+ Orchards Planted all around Ireland

Ardmac pledged to take part in the Orchards in the Community action plan, here is a brief update:

May

May/June

June

October

November

Feb 2022

Stage 1: Pledges from partners

Stage 2: Confirm orchard allocation

Stage 3: Call to action community groups

Stage 4: Orchard pre registration

Stage 5: Dispatch of round 1 planting

Stage 6: Dispatch of round 2 planting

1,262 Planted Orchards

6,310 Tree’s in total 703 Registered Orchards (56%)

32 counties Across all Ireland for the first time

‘We want to better coexist with biodiversity and help return food and shelter for pollinators to our island.’

All Ireland Pollinator Plan 2021-2025

Ground Supported Hot-Aisle Containment Increased demand for speed of construction and a willingness to invest in MMC (Modern Methods of Construction) is resulting in innovative modularised data centre fit-out solutions. Ardmac’s GS-HAC (Ground Supported Hot-Aisle Containment) is a data centre air-flow management solution that can function independently to the building-frame or primary structure. Installation of the product can commence as soon as the floor is ready. The GS-HAC solution enables early schedule activity for critical data hall services which can be fully supported by the GS-HAC frame. Pre-assembly of the GS-HAC frame using DfMA software and fabrication methodologies results in delivery of several large pre-assembled frames that are fixed together on site in quick succession. Using this solution results in early commencement and completion for following trades, meaning that the overall construction and commissioning program for a data hall can be shortened. See a case study HERE

International women in engineering day 23rd June 2022

International Women in Engineering Day, celebrates its 9th year in 2022 and figures as of June 2021 show that 16.5% of engineers are women. INWED gives women engineers around the world a profile when they are still hugely under- represented in their professions. As the only platform of its kind, it plays a vital role in encouraging more young women and girls to take up engineering careers. We spoke to Lola Ojewumi, our Building Services Design Engineer and Monica McCabe, our Site Support Trainee about their experience in the Industry.

Read Lola’s full interview HERE “Days like this are necessary, as we don’t see a lot of women working in engineering. Many women see engineering as a male dominated industry. People don’t realise how many different roles are available to women within the engineering industry, even on site. My first job was on site, it was very hands on, and I really enjoyed it. Everyone I worked with on that job was very encouraging. It is very important for women to know; engineering is open to everyone. “

Lola Ojewumi Building Services Design Engineer

Read Monica’s full interview HERE “My interest in Engineering came from the subjects I enjoyed at school: math’s and science. The problem-solving aspect in math class and the teamwork involved in solving new equations just made it very fun. It was during my gap year, when I was visiting countries with important features like the Hoover Dam in Nevada and seeing the mechanisms involved with its construction, through to its use, that I knew I wanted to do something within engineering. Understanding the way things work and their capabilities was something I enjoyed, and it encouraged me to pursue mechanical engineering. “

Monica McCabe Site Support Trainee

The first Ardmac Cycle for Hope saw over 222 cyclists participate, and raised in excess of €25,000. This was matched by Ardmac, bringing our total raised for Pieta House on World Mental Health Day 2021 to €50,000. Not only did we do something practical and memorable to highlight Mental Health, we raised awareness and brought people together across our industry to do it. Massive thank you to all who participated, donated and volunteered. This year, we need you again! We hope to raise more funds, more awareness and more good cheer on our family fun day. Save the date: October 9th 2022 and watch your inboxes for more information. cycle for hope 2022 SAVE THE DATE : OCTOBER 9TH

oct 9th 2022

Ardmac Dublin Swords Business Campus, Swords, Co. Dublin, K67 D8H0, Ireland. E: info@ardmac.com T: +353 (0) 1 894 8800

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