I always find data centre visits useful – especially when I am with clients. So, I was pleased to conduct two visits in Central London this week. I was showing clients around Volta, now part of Verne Global, and DRT’s Oliver’s Yard site on the City Road, which now connects into the Hanbury Street ecosystem.
Verne London (formerly Volta)
Volta is 10 years old this year and still has about 1MW of capacity available out of its 6.4MW theoretical limit. It was fun to see a couple of racks up on the fourth floor that I used to own and operate when running Crosspoint.
Volta (and Verne) have just changed hands again. But I’m always impressed at what was crammed into the building on Great Sutton Street during its fit out 10 years ago. For example, there are two 33kV and five 11kV dedicated transformers housed in the basement!
The site continues to appeal to colocation users in and around the West End who want a conveniently located data centre option, as was the case for my clients this week. It also appeals to the media post-production sector still around Soho. Being part of Verne also has an attraction.
(As a noteworthy aside, Verne offer some incredibly low-cost power options in Iceland and Finland.)
Digital Realty (DRT) Oliver’s Yard
Meanwhile, Oliver’s Yard has been around longer than Volta by quite a few years. It was incredible to see a few of the bright red Globix racks still in situ – they feel like bit of data centre archaeology now!
DRT seem to be spending yet more on the site, though at 2.4MW it remains one of their smallest sites in the UK. However, it still has decent capacity and this offered my clients some helpful options.
Through a combination of Colo-X partners we’ve been able to provide quite a compelling solution here. And Oliver’s Yard represents great value when you consider the long-established Hanbury Street ecosystem is now just a cross-connect away.
I put quite a large financial institution into Oliver’s Yard when it was still part of Telecity and I found it very encouraging to note the client is still here. (I also put the same client into Powergate as part of a two-site deal.)
Tim Anker of Colo-X with long-standing partners from DRT and EX Networks
Colocation pricing
I presented at LINX119 Manchester back in May. (If you’re interested in figuring out what’s going on the UK’s data centre market, this presentation is a good a starting point.)
Colocation pricing has surged over the past two years, driven by rising power costs. But there have been some surprising consequences that have somewhat turned the market on its head – at least as far as value is concerned.
It helps to have been colocation broker for so long, as it’s much easier to put all this change into perspective. And the 250 enquires I’ll expect to have dealt with by the end of the year have kept me constantly in touch with what’s going on!
I’ll write at greater length about pricing in the new year – and about more data centre visits. In the meantime, as 2023 draws to a close, I wish you festive cheer and a very happy Colo-Xmas!
We usually supply costs and information within 60 minutes during office hours.
