SCC Adds To Data Centre Portfolio With T3 Facility

IT services provider SCC has purchased a Tier 3+ data centre with the news it has acquired a facility in Hampshire from the telecoms unit of a Scottish energy company.

SCC brought the facility from SSE Enterprise Telecoms, a unit of Perth-based SSE Plc, for approximately £12m. SCC said that it has so far invested more than £50m in expanding its data centre infrastructure.

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The addition of the new data centre allows SCC to increase its services business capability, and gives it a second Tier 3+ data centre, alongside its T3 facility in the Midlands. It will also act the company’s key data centre in the South.

“This is a significant acquisition, from a major FTSE 100 company, which represents another major step towards our goal to become Europe’s principal IT services business,” said SCC Chief Executive James Rigby.

“We set out this ambition in our 3-5 year plan,” said Rigby. “The purchase of SSE Enterprise Telecoms’ data centre more than doubles our capacity to support existing and new customers, and underpins the £50m spent on developing our data centre & cloud capabilities last year.”

The reason for the acquisition is clear as according to SCC it has witnessed growth of 69 percent from data centre and Cloud services alone last year. The company is also planning additional investments for its Birmingham data centres, with a capacity increase to 900 racks.

The Hampshire data centre it is acquiring is a high-density, high availability facility designed to provide a secure and well-connected service. The T3 facility is 100,000 sq. ft. with potential for expansion. The site apparently contains pre-configured communal co-location space and private suites, together with unconfigured space that can be precisely customised to individual requirements.

It is reported that SSE opted to sell the facility as part of a business simplification programme, as well as aid with debt reduction. SSE Enterprise Telecoms apparently operates a 13,700km private telecoms network in the UK and owns 15 other co-location facilities.

The data centre market is healthy, with more and more facilities coming online, especially in the South. Last month it was revealed that a fully featured data centre has been built on the 28th floor of The Shard tower in London, to serve the demands of South Hook Gas.

VIRTUS recently opened a new data centre in Hayes, West London, and said that its LONDON2 facility is one of the most efficient data centres in the the world.

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