£60m datacentre to be built in Birmingham

A 10MW (megawatt) modular datacentre worth £60m will be built in Birmingham by March 2013 to provide storage services for high street banks, financial services firms, media companies, technology companies and small businesses.

The IT facility is built by Data city exchange (dce), the datacentre service provider and will be called dce Central Exchange.

It promises to use 70% less energy than traditional datacentres, according to dce, as it is purpose-built and uses efficient cooling techniques such as free air cooling and renewable energy sources to reduce the carbon footprint.

Mark Barrow, strategic director of development at Birmingham City Council, said: “Birmingham is increasingly being seen as one of the digital hubs of the UK and this type of investment will help further raise Birmingham’s profile across the rest of Europe.

“The datacentre will create significant employment opportunities across the city and help support some of the local businesses in the area,” Barrow said.

Purpose-built datacentres are in increasingly high demand due to strong growth in IT and data storage needs. This is being driven by growing business requirements for 'on-demand' cloud-based services as well as high-availability storage and high-speed networks.

Raj Mack, head of Digital Birmingham, said: “Access to world-class connectivity lies at the heart of a smart, connected city. Birmingham is increasingly being seen as a city with world-class digital aspirations, establishing itself as the innovation test bed of Europe.

“This addition to the city digital infrastructure could attract new businesses and secure an internet exchange for our small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and corporates, demonstrating that Birmingham is fast becoming the place to do digital business.”

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£60m datacentre to be built in Birmingham

A 10MW (megawatt) modular datacentre worth £60m will be built in Birmingham by March 2013 to provide storage services for high street banks, financial services firms, media companies, technology companies and small businesses.

The IT facility is built by Data city exchange (dce), the datacentre service provider and will be called dce Central Exchange.

It promises to use 70% less energy than traditional datacentres, according to dce, as it is purpose-built and uses efficient cooling techniques such as free air cooling and renewable energy sources to reduce the carbon footprint.

Mark Barrow, strategic director of development at Birmingham City Council, said: “Birmingham is increasingly being seen as one of the digital hubs of the UK and this type of investment will help further raise Birmingham’s profile across the rest of Europe.

“The datacentre will create significant employment opportunities across the city and help support some of the local businesses in the area,” Barrow said.

Purpose-built datacentres are in increasingly high demand due to strong growth in IT and data storage needs. This is being driven by growing business requirements for 'on-demand' cloud-based services as well as high-availability storage and high-speed networks.

Raj Mack, head of Digital Birmingham, said: “Access to world-class connectivity lies at the heart of a smart, connected city. Birmingham is increasingly being seen as a city with world-class digital aspirations, establishing itself as the innovation test bed of Europe.

“This addition to the city digital infrastructure could attract new businesses and secure an internet exchange for our small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and corporates, demonstrating that Birmingham is fast becoming the place to do digital business.”

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Leeds to become home to a new £43m independent datacentre in 2013

Leeds City Council authorities have approved the construction of a network-neutral datacentre worth £43m to improve the internet connectivity and network infrastructure in the region.

The datacentre called DC4, will have a floor-space of around 120,000ft2 over two six-storey buildings, and will become the UK’s largest independent datacentre outside London.

It will be a carrier-neutral datacentre, which means it is independent of a network, software or hardware supplier and that multiple Internet Service Providers (ISPs) will be able to take part in the datacentre, providing best value for businesses using the datacentre.

The IT facility will be built early next year by telecommunications company aql at a 3.14-hectare brownfield site in Hunslet, formerly the location of Leeds’ Yorkshire Chemicals plant.

“The new DC4 site will allow expansion room to support the data growth from the IT, media and mobile sectors – including the huge demands which 4G will place on the region’s infrastructure,” said aql’s founder and chief executive Adam Beaumont.

DC4 will be a large datacentre capable of housing 2,440 server racks serving the entire region.

The server racks will provide enough space for many of the larger ISPs to establish a firm and competitive presence in Leeds, according to aql.

Because it is carrier-neutral, DC4 will bring improved internet connectivity and network infrastructure to Leeds, benefiting both businesses and people in the city and the surrounding areas.

 “This project will put Leeds, and Yorkshire as a whole, in a very strong position to fulfill their superfast broadband promise,” said Adam Beaumont.

The new facility will be a sustainable and energy-efficient datacentre.

Excess heat produced by the datacentre will be recycled and used to heat nearby buildings, and the land surrounding the site will be redeveloped and landscaped to create green spaces and civic amenities for local residents.

DC4 has the potential to make a huge impact on Leeds’ infrastructure and economy, and could help define the city as a major hub for digital business, according to Lurene Joseph, chief executive of Leeds and Partners, the agency responsible for attracting investment to the city.

“The new datacentre is another key milestone for Leeds as we work to make the city a centre of excellence across all aspects of digital technology,” said Lurene Joseph.

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