It was back to Docklands for me at the end of last week. I was accompanying a client looking for a new home for 30kW – a move made necessary due to the impending closure of the data centre they are currently using.
Our client is currently in the CentreSquare LHR2 data centre at 7 Greenwich View Place (originally Savvis, then Cyxtera before CentreSquare) and has been installed there for over 10 years. However, CentreSquare have announced the closure of this site by the end of Q1 2026.
As our client has offices in Canary Wharf, they really wanted to focus on nearby Docklands data centres for their new location as opposed to moving to CentreSquare’s Reading/Winnersh data centre. Almost all Docklands data centre capacity is now controlled by four operators (Telehouse, Global Switch, Digital Realty and Equinix), with four smaller independent operators providing some additional options.
Cloud House – super-low PUE option – probably lowest in central London
Digital Realty’s Cloud House seemed an obvious choice for our client. It’s literally a few hundred metres from their existing location and offers direct access to the long-established network ecosystem across both Sovereign House and the former Telecity building in Bonnington House. I was pleased to accompany them on their site visit.
Cloud House is now fully provisioned and offers 4.5MW of IT load across four floors. I wasn’t aware of its stunningly low design PUE of sub-1.1 – hugely impressive for a central London data centre. This is largely achieved by using cool water drawn from Millharbour Dock as the primary chilled water source.
Our client was also attracted by the long carrier list, including LINX, AWS and Oracle direct connect nodes.
Highly attractive terms
I was very impressed with the quote we obtained for our customer. It offers a saving of nearly 15% against their existing recurring charges – the benefit, I suppose, of moving to a modern, highly efficient data centre. This certainly helps the payback on the unavoidable installation costs.
We’ve seen a generally lower trend for colocation pricing over 2025. However, I certainly wasn’t expecting to see a quote as attractive as the one we got, even allowing for the end-of-year deals that can usually be found from US-based operators.
Despite this, our client has already obtained another similarly attractive quote from an operator with whom they have an existing but currently small-scale relationship. We’ll wait to see what they decide to do. At least from our client’s point of view, despite the hassle involved in having to physically move, it looks like they’ll be moving onto a lower cost base, whichever option they pursue – so perhaps the festive season has indeed arrived a little earlier for them!
CentreSquare LHR2 is closing Q1 2026. Will Telstra's LHC next door be closing too??
Questions over longevity of Telstra’s London Hosting Centre at 6 Greenwich View Place
The much larger data centre in Greenwich View Place is, of course, Telstra’s London Hosting Centre (LHC). This was the first alternative data centre to Telehouse North to open in London at the very height of the dot-com boom way back in 1999. It quickly sold out (including two deals introduced by us at Band-X, for FLAG and Digital Island). LHC was acquired by PSINet before ending up with Telstra in 2004.
Our figures suggest the 100,000 sq ft site offers about 5MW of IT load. However, I suspect, given the age of the facility and its unsuitability for data centre use, it produces a pretty poor PUE. Yet again though, this could be another group of clients needing a new data centre in 2026.
Contact Colo-X to understand the retail colocation market
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Docklands data centre operators
Telehouse: the longest-established UK operator with now five operational buildings at East India.
Digital Realty: acquired both former Telecity Sovereign House on Marsh Wall and Bonnington House on Millharbour when Equinix had to make disposals following the Telecity takeover in 2016.
Global Switch: two largely wholesale-focused facilities at East India, adjacent to Telehouse, and a new 40MW South building now under construction.
Equinix: LD8 site at 6, 7, 8 & 9 Harbour Exchange came about via the Telecity acquisition.
Independents: there are still four smaller Docklands operators, including London Hosting Centre, which is adjacent to the CentreSquare building that is closing down, and now owned by Telstra – but see my comments above. Next door is Docklands Data Centre – although will the same real-estate related issues arise here? The much smaller IP House just north of Telehouse is very much focused on the smaller user, value-orientated part of the market. A mention must also go to Netwise in Canning Town, who seem to be in a permanent state of expansion yet are great at looking after smaller users.
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