plush
bar

CENTERPRISE: SUPPORTING NUCLEAR SCIENCE AT CERN

bar

Executive Summary

In 2017, Centerprise International won a £1.8m contract with CERN to supply CPU servers for physics data processing and control systems. The contract won required Centerprise to assemble, test and deliver over 125 Intel® energy efficient rack-mountable systems to Switzerland to be utilised in CERN’s Meyrin data centre. Centerprise successfully fulfilled the contract in January 2018.

Centerprise evaluated several different options and found a solution that would meet CERN’s requirements. In order to meet the strict deadline imposed by CERN, Centerprise worked tirelessly to ensure components were delivered to their Welsh facility with sufficient time for configuration and testing before onward shipping. Within the first few weeks of being awarded the contract, Centerprise provided remote access to one of the configured systems, enabling CERN’s technical team to create delivery instructions and allow Centerprise to create labels and scripts for testing. On receipt of the equipment, non Intel® components were integrated and each system was tested for over 48 hours with the results being presented to CERN.

Centerprise believe that their extensive experience in finding the right solution helped them to produce the optimal blend of components and price in order to deliver against CERN’s requirements. As an Intel® HPC Specialist they were able to select the combination of the best, Intel Data Centre blocks.

"Centerprise met the criteria of our selection process and won our last call for tender for computing equipment," says Eric Bonfillou, hardware engineer and technical responsible for procurements to CERN data centre, in the Computing Facilities group of the CERN IT department. "We have been fully satisfied with Centerprise products and support throughout this period."

Centerprise Business Development Manager, Ramsey Razzak, said: “This is the third contract Centerprise has successfully delivered to CERN in two years and I’d like to commend our bid and configuration teams for their continued delivery, as it makes my job simple. CERN is a prestigious contract for Centerprise to hold as we are not just competing against the UK; but the whole of Europe.”

Prior to this contract Centerprise won two contracts at CERN in 2016 which totalled approximately £3.7 million. For both of these contracts Centerprise worked in partnership with E4 Computing Engineering and tested different solutions to find the best option to meet CERN’s requirements. Looking forward, Centerprise aims to continue tendering with CERN and is planning to double their manufacturing capability by building another facility in Caerphilly.

 

bar

Company Information

Centerprise International Ltd is a UK based organisation with headquarters in Basingstoke and a manufacturing and configuration centre in Caerphilly, Wales. Founded in 1983, Centerprise delivers client driven IT solutions to UK MoD, ISVs, data centres and wider public sector customers. With strategic partner relationships and strong engineering capabilities, Centerprise overcomes IT challenges by adapting and designing technologies to meet objectives. A significant factor in Centerprise’s success can be attributed to their relationship with Intel ® Corporation and their status as a platinum partner. Being an Intel® platinum partner is a mandatory requirement stipulated in CERN’s market survey.

Centerprise Business Development Manager, Ramsey Razzak, said: “This is the third contract Centerprise has successfully delivered to CERN in two years and I’d like to commend our bid and configuration teams for their continued delivery, as it makes my job simple. CERN is a prestigious contract for Centerprise to hold as we are not just competing against the UK; but the whole of Europe.

Further Information

STFC manages the UK subscription to CERN. UK membership of CERN gives our physicists and engineers access to the experiments and allows UK industry to bid for contracts and UK nationals to compete for jobs and research positions at CERN.

CSTFC funds a number of large international science facilities besides CERN. The STFC Business Opportunities team works to increase the return that the UK gets from tenders and contracts at these facilities by providing free assistance to UK companies and helping them to access tenders at these facilities.

The international laboratories include: CERN in Geneva, Switzerland; ESO in Garching, Germany; ESS in Lund, Sweden; SKA in the UK, South Africa and Australia; European X-FEL in Hamburg, Germany; the ESRF and the ILL in Grenoble, France; and FAIR in Darmstadt, Germany. If you would like to be alerted to upcoming tender opportunities or to hear about events to connect with the facilities please register with us. Please note we are not involved in the contract opportunities for our national facilities.

Find out how we could help you


bar