ServerHouse Fareham 1 (F1) Data Centre

Colo-X analysis

Despite being a relatively small operator in the UK data centre market, ServerHouse are long established and now have an impressive and scalable south-coast facility. From here, their team are  able to offer retail colocation clients a level of flexibility and support that larger providers will struggle to match – and an attractive commercial price point. The original three on-site networks have now been joined by both NEOS and Lumen to offer choice for carrier-neutral options. ServerHouse’s own managed network is also available.

An ideal facility and operator to support local businesses wanting a south coast data centre provider, offering quarter, half and full racks.

ServerHouse Fareham 1 (F1) facility description

The ServerHouse Fareham data centre was originally built by mobile operator Orange in the 1990s. Orange then became part of EE post the merger with T-Mobile. EE were then acquired by British Telecom in 2016, who began disposing of surplus regional mobile switch sites such as this one. 

The building is around 22,000 sq ft gross and includes 3,000 sq ft of offices to be offered as disaster recovery suites. A warehouse of a further 6,000 square feet provides scope for additional data hall expansion. This leaves the data centre and associated plant occupying the balance of this light-industrial building. The secure external plant yard houses dual 750kVA generators (with room for more), cooling plant, and a 20m-high six-legged telecoms tower. A two-level office area is directly connected to the single 400-rack-capable data floor, offering space for the on-site support team and meeting rooms.

The initial data hall is built around a single floor, and is able to support 400 rack spaces using contained cold-aisle pods, with underfloor cooling and cabling with a high ceiling void above. Although the facility underwent a significant refurbishment in 2010, ServerHouse have made further investment since acquiring the site. They removed much of the old DC power plant that supported the original telecom switch gear and installed new UPS to support the dual A+B power feeds to each rack, with these each supported by an n+1 UPS (with different manufacturers on each power string).

Network’s available have grown from the original three of Vodafone, Virgin and British Telecom, present at time of opening, to now also include NEOS (SSE) and Lumen. The ServerHouse managed network network links London Docklands and their smaller Cams Hall data centre campus 4 miles to the east, where a direct connection to Level3 (now CenturyLink) provides diversity to Docklands.

Technical stats