The Bunker, Newbury

Colo-X analysis

As with their Kent data centre, The Bunker is very much focused on regulated businesses such as financial services (fintech), healthcare or public sector customers needing the highest levels of security for their data centre operations.  Certifications are obviously crucial and The Bunker can support Government ratings of IL Offical, PCI DSS v3.2, ISO27001 and will work with customers on all audits.

Colocation solutions range from rack space through to individual private suites, though this is not a large scale site, we estimate only offering 300 cabinets of colocation capacity or 1.5-2MW overall.  A full suite of managed services is also available, including hardware or platform as a service and cloud on a private or multi-tenant basis.

The Bunker facility description

The Bunker’s Newbury data centre is based in a former nuclear “command and control centre” built on the Greenham Common airbase which was home to a fleet of mobile cruise missile launchers during the height of the ’80s cold war. The building was designed to protect the systems that would provide launch codes for the missiles and as such was designed to withstand a direct hit from a 500lb bomb as well as EMP protection from a nuclear blast, thus 1.5m thick concrete walls, huge blast doors etc. The missiles were eventually removed in June 1991 and the base closed in 1993 with the 750-acre site passing into private ownership in 1997. The Bunker acquired a lease on the building in 2004 which has recently been renewed and is of long length.

The Bunker’s Newbury data centre now comprises 7 separate rooms offering colocation space for some 300 cabinets or a total IT load of 1.5-2MW and all services are designed to offer ultra-secure solutions. Two sub-stations provide power grid connections, each of which can support full load with 2 LV power rooms and 4 UPS systems designed to ensure maximum uptime, all supported by generators and a significant onsite fuel store.

The Bunker’s 10Gb/s fully meshed, self-healing network is carrier neutral, made up of diverse upstream carriers. BT are on net and The Bunker Secure Hosting offer network connections directly to Telehouse North and Level3’s Goswell Road facility in London.

Accreditations and audit-ability are second nature given the stringent regulatory environment of the majority of clients, PCI v3.2, ISO27001 and IL Official clearance. Has the highest MOD security clearance.

Colocation pricing is surprisingly reasonable for such a specialist offering, though most customers are taking much more than colocation services only and take advantage of the broad suite of high end security services available.

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