Safenames Wellingborough Data Centre

Colo-X analysis

Originally opened by the Nationwide Buildings Society in the mid-80’s and acquired by Safenames in 2015. This is a large data centre of 60,000 sq ft gross which has been designed to high standards of availability that a mid-sized financial institution would require, for instance with dual fully independent incoming power feeds and high security.

Since acquiring the site Safenames have been re-furbishing the old data halls on a pod-by-pod basis, with three pods (30-40 racks each) now operational, most of which is supporting their own advanced domain name services but also an increasing list of enterprise clients from Safenames’ extensive customer list taking colocation.  There is ample further capacity that can be provisioned, as well as space for offices/DR services and onsite support staff.

16 or 32Amps per rack options, 800×1200 jumbo cabinets and network from four providers, with 24×7 access and support.

Safenames look well placed to offer an attractive combination of facility, network and superb technical onsite support.  The company has some impressive references as domain name clients such as GSK (GlaxoSmithkline), the NHS or AutoTrader, some of whom we believe already take colocation from Safenames here.

Located on the Park Farm Industrial Estate to the north west of central Wellingborough, mid way between the M1 and A1(M) motorways in the East Midlands.

Safenames Wellingborough facility description

Safenames acquired the freehold of this former Nationwide data centre facility in 2015 and after it was left vacant for some time once the building society consolidated numerous operations into a new £120m data centre in Newbury in 2012.

The data centre was in use since the ‘80s and we understand built to a very high standard of resilience that banking sector clients demand.  But by modern standards this will have been a legacy site needing updating to modern standards, especially efficiency, where Safenames have already adapted the site to a contained hot-aisle model.   We believe there is some 2.2MW of existing capacity and perhaps more, with Safenames themselves using only some 100 racks so far, probably less than 0.5MW.

The building comprises three floors, with the ground offering a mix of plant space and offices, the first is the primary focus for data centre use and offers seven distinct rooms of varying size, some of which could be offered as dedicated suites.  The 2nd floor is used for a mix of ducting and roof access.  Plenty of onsite office accomodation and break-out rooms.

Given the amount of space available Safenames are able to offer “jumbo size” 800mm wide x 1200mm deep cabinets, each of which is supplied with dual 32A power feeds.  Quarter, half and full rack options at varying power densities with full racks starting at 10Amps, all include 100Mbs, 1 x /29 IPv4 and lots of 24×7 onsite support.  Safenames Wellingborough has all the usual security accreditations you’d expect from an established IT business.

Technical stats