Data Centre Essentials

Preface

The origins of this book commenced from an icy place in the subarctic. In the winter of 2015 and the spring of 2016, Sophia and I had to work on the same Facebook data centre project in Luleå, Sweden. Our contribution to the project was entirely different. I was working on commercial matters whilst Sophia was engaged in providing mechanical engineering support for design, commissioning, and operational cooling challenges on the previous and current phases of the project.

In this challenging environment where temperatures reached minus 34 °C, the project teams started early and finished late into the night and then, on many occasions, off to the restaurant and sometimes the only pub in Luleå. Most of those who worked on the project have never forgotten the harsh condition of living there; some meet up regularly. The nuances of living in Swedish houses with frozen locks, plug‐in motor cars that prevent overnight freezing, and other constraints are not easily forgotten by those who were there.

As and when people experience all extreme challenges, people bonding and comradery follow. Sophia was more of the fly‐in and ‐out expert, usually returning home at the weekend; however, she was very much part of the engineering team and a deeply respected solutions proposer. You do not need to spend much time with Sophia to recognise her unique talent for making complex engineering principles easy to digest by non‐experts.

Following on from Luleå, we occasionally crossed paths at ...