HOSTING UK, ORIGINALLY FORMED FROM A SUCCESSFUL IT CONSULTANCY, HAS BEEN PROVIDING INTERNET SERVICES FOR MORE THAN 10 YEARS. IT HAS NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL CLIENTS, FROM BLUE CHIP COMPANIES TO HOME USERS.
The Challenge
With data centre costs in Manchester and London rising steadily, Hosting UK had concerns about the impact this was having on its bottom line. Consequently, a decision was taken to investigate the creation of its own data centre to house customers’ servers and for the delivery of it’s suite of hosted services. The head office in St Asaph, North Wales, seemed to be an obvious choice for such an operation. But the lack of an affordable, fast network connection meant Hosting UK started to look over the border to England for a new home. Was there any way the business could remain and invest in Wales?
The Solution
The arrival of FIBRESPEED gave Hosting UK the fast, affordable network its data centre operation needed. To ensure reliability and 24/7 operation, Hosting UK has two independent connections from two different Points of Presence on the FIBRESPEED network. Both lines enter the Hosting UK site by different routes, so if ever one was accidentally broken, the second ensures service continuity. FIBRESPEED’s core network is also inherently resilient, so data security is ensured all the way from the Manchester hub to Hosting UK’s data centre. Even so, Hosting UK is adding a third line direct from its London operation – now affordable thanks to FIBRESPEED creating a competitive market in Wales for fast communications.
The Benefits
The new Hosting UK data centre operation is now equipped with two diversely routed and dedicated high speed connections breaking out at the FIBRESPEED Gateway to connect to Hosting UK’s existing UK-wide network. It is as well-specified as traditional centres in Manchester and London, but running costs are little more than a third of these urban operations. Thanks to FIBRESPEED, Hosting UK now benefits by staying in, and investing in, the North Wales area. The new operation has cost over £100,000 to create, but with lower costs, Hosting UK estimates its investment will be repaid within a single year. Now Hosting UK has more capacity and better control over its prime asset, enabling it to expand it’s business more rapidly and effectively. Already the company is looking at building a second data centre in North Wales.
“I’d been looking at relocating because we simply couldn’t get the network bandwidth we needed here. FIBRESPEED gave us the bandwidth we needed at an affordable price, so it made the data centre possible.”
Phil Parry, Managing Director, Hosting UK