Our brand new, second data center in Aalst is complete! It was the first in Belgium to receive double certification from the Uptime Institute. LCL Brussels-West 2 has now not only obtained the Tier III Design Certificate, but also the Tier III Constructed Facility Certificate. Quite an achievement! We, the LCL team, are extremely proud that we have achieved this together. We would like to let a few of our staff members involved in the overall process have their say.

Our brand new, second data center in Aalst is complete! It was the first in Belgium to receive double certification from the Uptime Institute. LCL Brussels-West 2 has now not only obtained the Tier III Design Certificate, but also the Tier III Constructed Facility Certificate. Quite an achievement! We, the LCL team, are extremely proud that we have achieved this together. We would like to let a few of our staff members involved in the overall process have their say. 

Sam Berckmans, IT Systems Manager, has been working at LCL Data Centers for seven years now.

‘Given the pandemic, the Uptime Institute people were unable to get on site to conduct most of the tests. We therefore had to develop, test and build a monitoring system (DCIM) in LCL Brussels-West 2 in a very short space of time. We made this system available to Uptime Institute during Tier III testing. With the help of some 40 cameras spread across the entire site, Uptime Institute was able to remotely monitor the current situation of the data center – both in terms of electricity and cooling. In addition to setting up cameras, about six people from our team were needed on-site at the same time. This setting and the organisation of the whole thing was unique. In total, Uptime Institute's actual tests lasted three and a half days. This required a huge amount of preparation and effort from the entire LCL team.’

Floris Smits, Project Lead at LCL Data Centers, has been with us for almost four years.

‘Having been there when the second data center in Aalst obtained Tier III Design certification in 2019, I knew that this certification process would also be challenging. Uptime Institute is incredibly strict about awarding a Tier III certificate. I will always remember that. The company really goes to great lengths to see that everything works as it should and as on the certified plan.’

‘This entire certification process has made me realise how difficult things can be and that we can't simply assume "it will be ok on the day”. We must continue to strive for perfection. And that's something that aligns completely with LCL's corporate culture.’

Abdellah Mahlous, Operations Manager at LCL Data Centers, is extremely proud of his team:

‘All of our team worked hard. Despite the constraints caused by the pandemic, the LCL team and its partners were able to achieve the coveted Tier III construction certificate from Uptime Institute. This was only possible because we have qualified employees at LCL. Everyone in our organisation can be justifiably proud that we have achieved this together.’

Laurens van Reijen, Managing Director of LCL, is particularly proud.

‘Uptime Institute is the reference in the field of data center certification. Compared to other organisations, this company has more stringent conditions. It is also the developer of the Tier standard. We are proud to have achieved the Tier III Constructed Facility certification, given that roughly 80% of Uptime Institute-certified European data centers are certified for design only. This means that LCL Data Centers customers can rest assured that our data center is built the way it was designed. The fact that we have achieved this double certification makes us extremely proud.’

 LCL Data Centers has invested around €15.5 million in its new data center in Aalst, LCL Brussels-West 2. Annual growth of the data center business is approximately 10%, even reaching as high as 20% in 2020. The data center is now completely finished, including the double certification. This means that the brand new, entirely empty data center in Aalst is fully ready to welcome new customers.

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