Equinix MA4/Synergy House Manchester Data Centre

Colo-X analysis

Equinix MA4/Synergy House opened in 2007 with an initial 130 racks under UKGrid and rapidly expanded across the building with demand driven by some of the most aggressive colocation pricing in the market at that time. Connectivity options were aided by the close proximity of Manchester’s leading network data centre, Equinix MA1/Telecity Williams House.

With no obvious expansion space and the limitations of a converted office building its highly unlikely Equinix can now expand this data centre, therefore it will appeal to local companies wanting a reasonable standard facility in this location, but not needing the longest carrier list which is located nearby in Williams House. Power per cabinet limited by the age of the facility and constraints of the building.

Equinix MA4/Synergy House facility description

Synergy House was launched as a colocation data centre in 2007 by what was then a new Manchester colocation provider UKGrid. The building is located on the Manchester Science Park and only 300 metres away from Equinix MA1, originally known as Telecity Williams House, the leading Manchester network node. The Science Park, founded in 1982 is located next to the University and home to 165 hi-tech companies, many of which are “spin-offs” from the university.

Synergy House was originally built in the 1990’s and is a three-storey building offering just under 40,000 sq ft of gross space of which Equinix/Telecity occupy five of the six units available comprising some 20,000 sq ft and which provides 13,000 sq ft of net technical capacity. UKGrid were able to expand their business by acquiring vacant units in the building and therefore grew in distinct phases with an initial 130 racks on the ground floor in 2007, a further 120 racks on the first in Q4 2009 and a third expansion of 400 racks delivered in two phases in Q4 2010. Initial clients included UK telco TalkTalk.

Technical stats