EXA Infrastructure St James House Data Centre, Bracknell

Colo-X analysis

In 2007, under the operation of Viatel, this was one of the few colocation facilities available outside of central London and the M25. In particular, being on the Viatel network meant it was also wholly diverse of central London for connectivity, a rare attribute at this time. Despite its age (originally built in the ’90s), limited overall capacity (300 racks in total) and low power per rack, it rapidly filled up.

Following a string of corporate transactions, the data centre has ended up as part of EXA Infrastructure. After becoming part of MDNX the site was  then operated under the Easynet name after MDNX acquired Easynet in 2013. In 2015 Easynet were in turn acquired by Interoute and then in 2018 GTT bought Interoute.

Finally, in September 2021 GTT sold all their infrastructure (network, sub-sea systems and data centres) to an infrastructure fund, I Squared Capital for USD$1.8bn, who have renamed the compay EXA Infrastructure.

A thorough retrofit of this aging data centre is needed. We therefore suspect EXA are focusing UK colocation sales at their Global Switch 2 suite (formerly Interoute’s) or the former Vtesse facility in Hoddesdon, north of London. However, colocation rack space in this Tier 2 standard facility and 10Amps per rack should still be available and of course ideal for the M4 and M3 corridors west of London, with a decent onsite carrier list a genuine asset for a small, regional data centre.

EXA Infrastructure, St James House facility description

This site was originally built a long time ago to house a Cray supercomputer for the UK’s Met Office, the UK Government-run weather forecasting service. When the Met Office relocated to Exeter in 2000, an ISP called Netcom acquired the site. Netcom were then acquired by pan-European network operator Viatel in 2003, who have run the site since and paired it with their own NOC and small colocation in nearby Egham. Finally, in 2011 Viatel sold their UK business to MDNX, who became the site operator and in 2018, as explained above, its now owned by GTT.

The facility is on the brutally named Southern Industrial Estate, located just outside central Bracknell (Berkshire) which offers convenient road access. The expansion of near neighbour Waitrose, who are headquartered up the road, would suggest it may well be renamed the Waitrose Industrial Estate before long!

Viatel did little to the site other than care and maintenance after they acquired it, so power at best is 8Amps per cabinet. As ever, contact us for latest availability and pricing. The site comprises two separate data halls and more than 300 cabinets in 800 sq m of space. A single incoming power string and only diverse PDUs means the facility is classed as Tier 2 standard.

As of 2019 occupancy is surprisingly high, but perhaps with limited capacity per rack this may reflect the low power density.  Carrier list, reflecting its age, is good though, for a regional “edge data centre”.

Technical stats