Further signs that new colocation providers are making significant progress are found in two recent news items (summarised below) which reinforce a couple of key market themes that we have been mentioning for some time now (for example, see my presentation at the Information Age Conference, The Future of the Data Centre).

These themes are:

  1. New entrants are growing, in their number, in the locations they are offering and their overall size (60,000 sq ft gross in one of these mentioned below).
  2. The amount of colocation space outside central London is going to overtake that inside the London area, so marking a turning point from the Docklands centric nature of the industry to date.

Overall, the amount of data centre capacity available from new entrants in the UK market is still quite low, but as a proportion of AVAILABLE capacity it is much higher, perhaps 30-40% and we continue to believe it will increase.   Of course we monitor new entrants and their facilities closely and visit as many as we can to ensure our buy-side clients are kept fully abreast of their quality, readiness and suitability, thus ensuring our market knowledge is as up to date as possible.  Indeed we have already closed several transactions with many of them. Summary of recent announcements:

Norwich – Migration Solutions have announced they are retrofitting an existing 60,000 sq ft data centre which we understand will become a carrier neutral colocation facility operated by an as yet unnamed new entrant into the UK market. We believe the “major insurance player” referenced in the Migration Solutions press release to be Avivia, who were formerly Norwich Union prior to their merger with Commercial Union in 2000.  The facility will offer 30 to 35,000 sq ft of net tech at up to 32Amps per cabinet.

Virtus Enfield– The first hall has been sold to Coreix, so this site is now definitely happening, expected go live in Q1 2011.  5 further halls remaining.

The Virtus model is a hybrid version of a typical real estate solution with each client having dedicated plant and the standard colocation model where all clients share the same common infrastructure.  With Virtus, the HV switchgear and generator plant is shared but thereafter each client does have their own dedicated UPS and PDUs.  The Virtus Enfield facility can offer 27,000 sq ft of net tech across 5 remaining halls.