Virgin Media Business to power Met Office Super Computer

• Virgin Media Business will build a bespoke service to carry large volumes of data traffic between Met Office sites

• Super computer makes 23,000 trillion calculations per second

Virgin Media Business has won a contract to provide the connectivity that will power the Met Office’s next generation supercomputer - one of the world’s fastest, high performance computers.

The computer is capable of more than 23,000 trillion calculations per second and will allow scientists to provide accurate weather forecasting and help countries become more resilient to high impact weather. As such, it is reliant on fast, secure and reliable connectivity that can manage huge amounts of data traffic.

Virgin Media Business has created a bespoke service to meet the unique connectivity needs of the Met Office. It will supply two diverse, high capacity, optical circuits to move large volumes of data between the Met Office HQ and a building which will house the new super computer at the Exeter Science Park, 2km away.

The reliability and capability of the Virgin Media Business next generation, fibre optic network was identified as a key element in securing the contract.

The new Met Office HPC Complex at the Science Park will house both the IT Hall and a Collaboration Space where a wide range of industry organisations, research establishments and start-ups can come to collaborate.

Rob Orr, Executive Director of Sales, Virgin Media Business said: “We are honoured to be the force fuelling one of the world’s highest performing supercomputers. The Met Office provides such a crucial service to this country and it is essential they have the right technology and infrastructure in place to fulfil their needs now and into the future.”

Dave Underwood, Deputy Director of High Performance Computing Programme, the Met Office said: “To power some of the world’s most intelligent technology we need a robust network that can weather all kinds of storms. Virgin Media Business created a bespoke solution for us which meets the complex needs of this supercomputer and will ensure we can sustain quality weather and climate services.”

The contract was procured through the Government’s Network Service Framework (NSF) of which Virgin Media Business is a preferred supplier.

ENDS

Virgin Media Business will supply 2 diverse, high capacity optical circuits. Each circuit will carry 6 x 1Gbps, 1 x 10Gbps and 1 x 100Gbps Ethernet services