Computacenter Launches Tier IV Data Centre In Romford UK

Computacenter has announced a data centre close to London, which is the first outsourcing site in Europe to be certified to the top level (Tier IV) of security and reliability.

The Computacenter facility, constructed within a Romford site built by data centre designer Inifinity, was formally certified as Tier IV by the Uptime Institute – the body for datacentre certification – in August, and will be available for customers in January 2010.

Computacenter is using 7500 square feet of the Infinity Two building, which has a total of 100,000 square feet. The commercial data centre joins private data centres on the site run by Infinity customers such as Verizon.

Although some private data centres elsewhere may be operating at the equivalent of Tier IV, there is no necessity to go through the process of Uptime certification when a data centre is owned and run in-house. For Computacenter’s public site, the certification is useful as it could be a major draw for new business.

Very reliable data centres can be less energy efficient than other facilities, as they must have servers on “hot standby”, using energy without doing work. In an apparent trade-off between reliability and environmental issues, Computacenter is not claiming to meet the EU Data Centre Code of Conduct for data centre efficiency, despite its Uptime certification for reliability.

Inifinity says it is “committed to reducing energy waste”, and has adopted “recommendations within the EU Code of Conduct,” and offers carbon-neutral data centre services from its Infinity One site near BT’s Martlesham Heath in Suffolk, which has planning permission to use biomass from local farms to generate “dark green energy” on site.

An Infinity spokesman suggested that end user companies should be running loads on services that are appropriate: for some applications, Tier I reliability is sufficient and may have a lower carbon footprint, while other applications may need Tier IV to meet regulations and requirements.

For many users, security and reliability may be a more pressing topic than environmental factors, and Computacenter’s announcement comes a day after a report from industry association AFCOM revealed a high prevalence of security risks in data centres.

“Our datacentre is a unique facility that will provide customers with a Tier IV service at a highly competitive price point,” said Simon Walsh, managing director of Computacenter. “By running their systems in our Tier IV datacentre, organisations can free up valuable space, realise significant cost savings and ensure high levels of resilience and security whilst providing a platform for growth.”

The data centre uses a contained “cold aisle” to maximise efficiency in the removal of waste heat, and power is monitored at a rack level, so for many users, the centre should be able to reduce carbon footprint – or at the very least let customers derive figures for carbon accounting which will be required in the UK from next year.

The centre has been built by Infinity within its Infinity Two centre. “We are delighted to be delivering this new facility for Computacenter,” said Martin Lynch, CEO of Infinity. “Customers will become increasingly discerning not only about the capabilities of their providers but also about the facilities where their mission critical applications are hosted and operated. The datacentre will provide organisations with a robust facility for hosting, monitoring and managing their most critical business applications and data.

Now almost a year old, comparatively few sites comply with the full specifications of the EU Dat Centre Code of Conduct, and the COO of hosting company Telecity has warned that this may eventually result in legislation enforcing greener data centres.

Owing to planning restrictions, this is likely to be the last major data centre built within the London orbital motorway, the M25, the companies commented.