Today IO launched its UK operation with a new data centre facility in Slough, Berkshire. They were kind enough to invite Compare the Cloud along for a peek inside the high tech facility.
There are currently more than 20 data centres in Slough, and from the outside, IO has stayed on plan, it is a steel framed building with coated steel walls and a coated steel roof system. Basically, it looks exactly how you expect a data centre to look.
The space we were toured through was massive, the scale of the shell of the building is hard to believe. I have to admit that whilst standing in the middle of the presently almost empty data centre floor, I couldn’t help but think how awesome it would be to race go-karts across the slick concrete floors. There is just that much room.
With more than 10,000 square metres, the Slough-based data centre features highly resilient power, and a dedicated substation. Slough will house the first international deployment of BASELAYER’s advanced ECO modules, designed to deliver ultra-efficient performance by using free, outside air, backed by traditional chilled water technology.
Slough is IO’s second modular data centre outside of North America, following Singapore in 2013. As part of its long-term, strategic technology partnership with IO, Goldman Sachs has signed on as the UK facility’s first customer.
[quote_box_center]Nigel Stevens, IO’s UK Managing Director
“We are delighted to open the data centre with such a prestigious first customer.”
“In preparation for our launch, we have assembled a great team of industry experts from the London area. We’re looking forward to helping existing customers expand their footprint into Europe, as well as attracting customers from the UK market,”
“What’s different about IO’s modular approach to data centres is that you only have to buy what you need. Historically, this industry requires that you overprovision in order to ensure sufficient capacity. At IO, that’s not the case. You simply purchase space and power as your business demands it. When you add to that the ability to scale power density up to 30kW per rack, and the visibility provided by our IO.OS software, it’s clear that we have a very compelling solution.”
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IO operates six facilities across three continents, and two of the largest data centres in the world. It is a global leader in software-defined data centres, pioneering the next generation of deployments in this field.
Security was paramount to the facility’s design, there is iris scanner access to the data centre floor and each module comes with its own security system too. Overall, the news here is, the UK now has another data centre provider. It’s modular, high tech, and my favourite part, there is an aim to be eco friendly.
NB. After the event was done, the shuttle bus driver didn’t quite execute his turning circle correctly and had a bit of trouble with the double security gate system. Unfortunately security gates, no matter how high-tech, do not have a function to account for very irritable mini bus drivers.
