Indectron Gloucester Data Centre

Colo-X analysis

Indectron’s Gloucester data centre has been well located to benefit from the power, network and security “wrap” the large presence of GCHQ (the UK Government’s intelligence and security organistation) has in the local area.  The facility itself will offer up to 600 racks at 4kW each or 2.5MW of IT load and can offer a range of colocation rack space or also at present dedicated halls of up to 200 racks each.  An initial five carriers onsite including COLT, Western Power, Cityfibre, Centurylink and Openreach.  A high quality Tier 3 and low PUE design was the criteria set to the contractors and thus Indectron Gloucester represents high standard facility for the regional UK market.

Indectron Gloucester is one of 50 data centres in the Regional UK Data Centre market covered in detail by Colo-X’s recent 165 page report on this fast growing sub-sector.  Full details of this report can be found here.

Indectron Gloucester facility description

Location

Indectron’s Shield House data centre is located in the Barnwood district of Gloucester, located about 1m from junction 11A of the M5 motorway or 2 miles to the east of central Gloucester.  Shield House is situated opposite GCHQ’s Barnwood Square location (the high security perimeter fencing being fairly obvious) with several associated defence contractors nearby and a huge Barclay’s data centre also opposite, ensuring this sensitive area is well served from both a network, power and security point of view.

Indectron’s Gloucester data centre is well placed to service both  Bristol (40 miles to the south) or Birmingham (60 miles to the north), with south Wales to the west,  Oxford 46 miles almost due east or Swindon 35 miles to the south-east.

Facility history and construction

There actually was a very old data centre on site built in the ’80s by industrial company BICC which made planning approval for this totally new data centre much easier, but the building was vacant and derelict when Indectron came across and acquired it in 2015.  The project to build a brand new colocation data centre on the site was given a substantial boost when it received a £3m loan from the Gloucestershire Infrastructure and Investment Fund (GIIF).

The original hall still exists as the basis for Data Hall 1, offering 120 cabinets whilst halls 2 and 3, each of 200 racks are in an entirely new construction over two floors and in a “shell and core” basis at present (June 2019).  The data centre design was from Keysource (who retain the facilities management contract) and construction by Sudlows, two well known names in the UK data centre industry.  The new facility will offer just over 600 racks at 4kW each, so 2.5MW of IT load, with potential to offer up to 30kW in a cabinet if required.  The design PUE is an impressive 1.14.

Indectron Gloucester today

The first data hall is now live and four carriers currently on-site as listed in the stats below, with two carrier meet me rooms on either side of the meeting and the first customers going live in data hall 1.  Indectron can offer low density full racks (starting with as little as 1kW) up to higher densities in excess of 7kW, but the standard is 3.6kW/16Amps each and Data Hall 1 is now filling up with some 50 rack spaces now provisioned for a range of clients from 1 rack up to 10 racks.

Data halls 2 and 3, located in the new two-story extension are currently held in a “shell and core” basis and could offer dedicated suites of 200 racks each, or around 1MW of IT load, or will act as expansion space for smaller retail clients as the facility fills.

Technical stats