NTT Global Data Centers Slough 2

Colo-X analysis

Slough 2 (SL2) is NTT’s second location in the UK market after Hemel Hempstead. The facility is comprised of two data halls totalling 2MW/10,000 sq ft (net tech) and opened in 2013 together with the adjacent facility (SL3) which delivered another 2.72MW of net technical capacity.

The site was originally opened by Gyron who was acquired by NTT Communications in June 2012 and became part of the global portfolio of data centre businesses acquired by the Japanese head quartered service provider.  In 2015 NTT also acquired Frankfurt based e-shelter for €750m and is now in the process of unifying the two operators under a strong, single brand of NTT Global Data Centers.

By combining the high quality wholesale focussed Gyron data centres with the enterprise and service approach of NTT Communications, HH3 can either be used for retail colocation services from NTT (starting at a half rack upwards) or large scale dedicated data halls of 1MW+ on a wholesale basis.  Retail colocation pricing is attractively priced compared to other global operators in the London market and especially in light of the high quality of the underlying facilities.

NTT Global Data Centers Slough 2 facility description

NTT Communications HH3 facility is a hugely impressive two story, data centre of 30MW gross or 20MW of net tech, delivered across 12 individual data halls of 1 or 2MW each, which in turn are delivered across two buildings, Phases 1 & 2. As each data hall has its own dedicated plant there is some scope to vary the specifications from the Tier 3 equivalent base standard to meet individual customer needs.  Internally HH3 has an ultra-cool “urban-tech” polished concrete finish which combined with the sheer scale of the site which offers both high density per rack and ultra low PUEs. Reasonable connectivity options, including of course NTT’s own backbone. Great for enterprise colocation customers. Worth remembering Dimension Data also part of the NTT family for hardware provision and support.

As mentioned above, NTT have been on the acquistion trail in the data centre market and other global purchases include US based Ragingwire and Netmagic in India and are now thus a significant but oft overlooked global operator.

NTT now run four operational data centres in the London M25 market, 3 located in Hemel Hempstead and this fourth on Ajax Avenue on the Slough Trading Estate. A monster 5th site is about to open (summer 2020) in Dagenham, East London, offering 60MW across two buildings once fully completed, but with the first building capable of support 30MW and “only” an initial 8MW being provisioned.

Technical stats