Kao Data Park Harlow

Colo-X analysis

Kao Data Park is a 36MW data centre campus located in Harlow, 20 miles north of London and on the M11 corridor, which opened in 2018 and comprises four independent buildings of which the first was built and in use as of Q4 2021 and the second now also up and being fitted out in Q4 2023.

Wholesale buyers will like the ability to scale from individual data halls of 2.2MW each up to whole buildings of 8.8MW or more, underpinned by a modern sub 1.2PUE and the added benefit of low business rates due to the Enterprise Zone status of the site.  Being the closest modern data centre to Cambridge, Kao Data is attracting various biotech and AI related clients, including Nvidia’s Cambridge-1 supercomputer, the UK’s most powerful apparently. Members of this project include AstraZenca, GSK and various other medical institutions.

Retail colocation buyers, looking for racks or sub-racks (¼ or ½) will be well served via resellers (ask Colo-X for pricing and providers but see pictures on this listing).

Kao Data Park facility description

Telecom History – discovery of fibre optic cable

Kao Data Park is a 35 acre campus based on the former Nortel research site.  Sir Charles Kao was one of the original scientests to discover the technology behind fibre optic cable whilst working on this site when he was at Standard Telephone Labarotories (STL), the UK research arm of STC (Standard Telephones and Cables) in the 1960’s. In 1991 STC was aqcuired by Northern Telecom which later became known at Nortel. Nortel filed for Chapter 11 protection in January 2009.

The site is part of the Harlow Enterprise Zone which provides 215,000 sq ft of new office accomodation, much of which has already been leased to anchor tenants from the life sciences and defence sectors, tenants including Raytheon, Arrow Electronics and Public Health England. Adjacent to Kao Data Park a 15 hectare Science Park is available for design and build opportunities for companies from the Med Tech, Life Science and ICT sectors.

Kao Data Park

The data centre campus plan is to offer four individual buildings of 8.8MW IT load each, with each building offering four data halls of 2.2MW. The first building was opened in the first quarter of 2018, but it has taken some time for this new operator and new location to gain some traction in the London data centre market. However, two large signings in 2019 have shown some much needed momentum finally building. The original first data hall (2.2MW) is now fully operational (Q4 2019) and the second hall is now undergoing fit out.

The initial clients are retail colocation provider ServerChoice and life sciences company EMBL, the European Bioinformatics Institute.  Fibre networks include Centurylink (former Level3), EuNetworks and Openreach.

In March 2021 Kao Data announced that Nvidia have now launched their Cambridge-1 super computer with partnerships in place with numerous healthcare companies to have access to it such as AstraZeneca, GSK and two London based teaching hospitals, futher underpinning Kao Data’s growing reputation in the life sciences sector.

For large wholesale buyers the facility will offer low PUE and scalable solutions, with the Enterprise Zone offering some relief from business rates.  For smaller, retail colocation buyers, 1/4, 1/2 and full rack options are available via Colo-X partner ServerChoice.  Power densities per rack are a moderately high 5kW but can flex to suit individual needs.

Kao Data achieved certification for all key standards including ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 27001 and ISO 45001.

Location is 30km, 20 miles aproximately from central London or 30 minutes by train from London’s Liverpool Street station.  The M11 London to Cambridge motorway is nearby as is London’s Stanstead airport

In January 2019 Kao Data announced  a major new investment from Legal and General who have underwritten half the GBP£230m development costs for the data centre campus.  Legal and General together with exising Kao Data investor Goldacre have announced plans to develop further wholesale focussed data centres across the UK.

Colo-X first visited the site in 2017 and our report can be found by this link.  The second building on campus was in place on our site visit in August 2023 and pictured.  Kao Data also announced a new 40MW data centre in Stockport, south-east Manchester earlier in 2023, set to become their fourth UK data centre campus.

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