Equinix MA3 (Telecity Joule House) Manchester Data Centre

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Colo-X analysis

Equinix MA3 was originally launched by Telecity as Joule House in the fourth quarter of 2012 after a fairly protracted and delayed build programme.

The delay in delivering Joule House saw Telecity acquire two further local data centre operators to provide capacity in the interim period; IFL, who ran Reynolds House was bought in 2010 and UK Grid, who had built Synergy House (which is located very close to the original Telecity sites of Williams and Kilburn) was purchased in 2011.

Today Joule House has established itself as probably the most impressive of the central Manchester data centres offering a decent volume of high quality and high power density data centre space which has been successful in attracting several large US customers including Apple and Amazon.

Despite not having the long carrier lists of the longer established Williams House (now Equinix MA1) connectivity is improving in Joule House/MA3, underpinned by the presence of LINX, London Internet Exchange and being one of only four AWS Direct Connect data centre locations in the UK. Costs though reflect Equinix’s standard charges which stand at quite a premium to various locally based operators in both Manchester and the regional UK data centre market.

Equinix MA3 facility description

Joule House, Equinix MA3 is located in Trafford Park, adjacent to Media City, a 200-acre development of the former Salford Quays area on the banks of the Manchester Ship Canal and which is home to the BBC, Britain’s national TV broadcaster and regional station ITV Granada. Old Trafford Stadium, home to Manchester United, is only 500 metres to the south of the site which is also some 3 miles to the south west of central Manchester.

Manchester’s original data centre cluster, comprising Williams and Kilburn House, now known as Equinix MA1, Reynolds House (Equinix MA2) and Synergy House (MA4) is located around two miles to the east of Joule House nearer to University of Manchester.

The data centre is built over two floors of a modern light industrial building of some 45,000 sq ft gross capacity which offers just under 30,000 sq ft of net technical space. As one of the newest of the central Manchester data centres power density per square foot/metre or per cabinet is commensurate with modern standards and densities of up to 20kW per cabinet are claimed by Equinix.

Connectivity options are “reasonable” in Joule House and improving, though will never compete with the longer established MA1/Williams and Kilburn House, both of which opened in 1998.

For example at the time of writing this site description (2018) PeeringDB lists 22 networks in MA3 but 86 in MA1/Williams. However with capacity in MA1 now extremely limited the emphasis may gradually shift to MA3, provided it too can avoid being completely sold out. As mentioned above, the presence of both LINX and AWS Direct Connect will attract interest and “pull in” further carriers.

Technical stats