Professor Simon McIntosh-Smith

And fortunately we had a bit of a headstart because we were already building a smaller general purpose super computer with HPE called Isambard 3.

And for that, we were using a modular data center for the first time.

And we actually built a whole site from scratch in just four months.

So from a car park to a site with a data center on it and a computer and passing all its tests in just four months.

And for us that was transformational.

So we'd done that sort of thing in the past and it had taken three or four years.

to get that down to three or four months is absolutely transformational.

So we pitched the idea of building using modular data centers so that we could do it very quickly.

We already had the site, we already had the power here and we knew the modular data center would let us do it fast.

So in fact, the whole thing start to finish from digging the first hole in the ground for the site

to putting the data center in, having the supercomputer inside it switched on and in production, which means running real user problems was just 14 months.

That's one, four months, just over one year to do that.

Yeah, yeah.

So the piece we're in was one big piece and it came over on six giant trucks as she sailed across the channel on the ferry and then drove around the motorway to get here.

So it was fully tested in the factory before it shipped, and then it could be reassembled incredibly quickly, just two days, 48 hours, to put the whole data centre together on site.

All right, can we go and have a look inside?

Should we have a look?

Yeah, is that all right?

Would you be able to open up one of these big cabinets?

They look like big wardrobes, but inside, when I open up the doors, you'll see...