UK Grid Launch New London Colocation Facility - 'London One @ Staples Corner'

Online, May 5, 2011 (Newswire.com) - UK Grid, leading providers of carrier neutral colocation solutions, today announced the launch of a new 22,000sq ft North London data centre, named 'London One @ Staples Corner'. The facility shall accommodate in excess of 500 server racks from Q3 2011.

The new site, conveniently located at the Staples Corner junction of the M1 (NW2), will see the company's carbon neutral data centre footprint grow to 75,000sq ft and will ensure that UK Grid have one of the largest portfolios of colocation capacity in multiple cities of the UK. As a result of the expansion up to 30 new jobs will be created locally to manage the London One site and help meet client needs.

UK Grid state that the data centre will carry the ISO27001, ISO14001 and ISO14001 certifications, abide by the EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres and comply with relevant aspects of stringent security standards such as PCI-DSS. UK Grid are members of the Green Grid and claim to offset all CO2 emissions generated by client equipment.

Critical infrastructure from UPS systems, to cooling units and diesel generators will all be provided to a minimum configuration of n+1 and the data centre will provide high levels of security and 24 by 7 on-site technical support services.

The company are beginning discussions with potential anchor tenants and are offering pre-opening discounts and bespoke solutions for contracts signed in advance of the go-live date in Q3 2011.

Rob Garbutt, CEO at UK Grid, commented: "The launch of this site is an milestone moment for UK Grid as opening a major London data centre is something we've always aspired to do. When you consider it's a multi-million pound commitment to open a data centre of this scale, it's rightly taken us some time to find the right location and facility. Now, after discounting many, we're confident that London One is the data centre to provide the quality standards required from the I.T. outsourcing sector in the coming years."

The new London One site, which is also carrier neutral, will continue with UK Grid's philosophy of low energy consumption and highly efficient technology that has made UK Grid's other UK sites a benchmark of quality in the data centre sector. Reducing energy consumption is the biggest challenge facing large scale data centre providers, and UK Grid have consistently matched leaders in the sector by achieving low PUE ratios and minimising energy losses. London One is being designed with a target PUE of 1.2.

UK Grid state that the extension of high capacity fibre networks into London One will deliver a wide choice of high performance, low latency connectivity and network solutions with existing communications partners, such as Geo Networks, who are already present in their other three UK sites.

The London One site launch is the latest in a string of developments for the company in London and the city of its origin, Manchester. Recently, the business was named in the top 10 fastest growing technology businesses in the UK, in the Deloitte Fast50 list.

Garbutt continues: "We feel that much of our rapid growth is attributable to our client-centric approach. We work with our clients as partners not just their suppliers and so naturally develop long term relationships based on trust and understanding of business need. Our value proposition is not only the nuts and bolts of a data centre, but also the manner in which we design and deliver our solutions according to individual and varying requirements. Our customer retention performance is testament to this. Refreshingly, we don't increase contract prices year on year, in fact we haven't at all for four years now."

About UK Grid

UK Grid provides carbon neutral, carrier neutral colocation solutions across four data centre facilities in London and Manchester. With over 300 clients and 75,000sq ft total data centre space, this makes UK Grid one of the largest independent colocation suppliers in the United Kingdom. UK Grid offset all CO2 emissions through environmental projects, are members of the Green Grid and are certified to ISO27001, IS09001 and ISO14001. UK Grid were named in the UK's top 10 fastest growing technology companies by Deloitte (Fast 50).

Press Contact
Vicki Edgley
Marketing and Communications Executive
UK Grid
[email protected]
+44 (0)161 850 1528