Anyone observing the technology sector can’t fail to notice the huge buzz surrounding datacentre developments. Why is this and why is it important for North Wales?
Evolving Market
Whether at home or in the office, IT now reaches deeply into our daily lives. The amount of information we all generate seems to be growing exponentially as we continue to find more and more uses for the Internet. This explosion in data generation is directly responsible for the rise of the “cloud” and all of that information that we now store in the ”cloud” is, in fact, located in large, secure data warehouses or datacentres. The sheer volume of data being produced shows no sign of abating and so, the datacentre market is very buoyant right now.
Traditionally datacentres have been located close to major Internet hubs in places such as Manchester and London. However, lack of space and lack of available power (the power demands of large datacentres are generally very high) means that many operators are seeking to build facilities outside of the normal centres in locations that can provide the necessary space and power.
How Does This Benefit North Wales?
For several reasons. Firstly, North Wales is blessed with space and has many commercial/industrial sites that would be ideal locations for a major datacentre. Secondly, there is a relative abundance of power, much of it being green energy – a major plus point for datacentre operators. Thirdly, the region has FibreSpeed, a fibre network that can provide direct, high speed links back to the UK’s Internet backbone and, through a number of sub-sea fibres now connecting to FibreSpeed, access to Dublin and the Irish market.
Why Is FibreSpeed Important?
It’s important because FibreSpeed is an open access network. This means that any datacentre connected to it can be assured that their customers are able choose whatever Service Provider they want to connect them to their data. What’s more, FibreSpeed operates the highest performing, most modern communications infrastructure across the region and datacentre operators and customers alike can be certain of outstanding levels of reliability and availability.