Colocation

SINES DC becomes Europe's largest data centre campus

Start Campus, a company focused on designing, building and operating a new generation of sustainable data centres, has announced the award of additional power by REN, the Portuguese transmission system operator. This expanded power allocation brings the total IT capacity secured for SINES DC to 1.2 GW, an increase on the initial 495 MW, making it the largest colocation site in Europe with fully secured grid power. SINES DC, which has land secured for the full campus, uses seawater cooling to minimise its environmental impact and improve efficiency. This unique offering enables Start Campus to deliver large scale, AI-ready and sustainable data centre solutions. The campus, located south of Lisbon and comprising six buildings (SIN01-06), will be developed incrementally until 2030: • SIN01: the first building with an initial 14 MW of IT capacity is set to be operational by Q4 2024. In direct response to the requirements of its customers and, through the use of liquid cooling technologies, its capacity is being expanded to 26 MW. • SIN02-06: each subsequent building will support up to 240 MW of IT capacity and will be constructed sequentially, with SIN02 ready for service from 2026. All buildings are expected to be operational by 2030. Rob Dunn, Chief Executive Officer of Start Campus, says, “Securing this additional grid capacity marks a significant milestone for Start Campus. The scale of SINES DC, coupled with our unique seawater cooling solution, creates an unprecedented offering that sets new standards for the industry. I am proud to deliver a solution that sustainably meets the evolving needs of our customers.” This power allocation follows the commitment by REN to make significant investments to extend and develop the transmission network in the high-demand area of Sines. Throughout its phased development, Start Campus continues to support the development of the Sines region and will contribute to renewable energy developments in Portugal. For more from Start Campus, click here.

Telehouse turns recycled metal into charity donations

Global colocation provider, Telehouse International Corporation of Europe, has turned recycled metal into a donation of £15,000 each to two London Borough of Tower Hamlets charities - First Love Foundation and Leaders in Community. The donations reinforce Telehouse’s commitment to supporting local communities in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, home to Telehouse’s London Docklands campus and Telehouse South. The recycled metal itself came from the redevelopment of the Telehouse South facility. For First Love Foundation, the funds will make a significant impact by enabling it to continue its vital work addressing the root causes of poverty and crisis, rather than just providing temporary relief. With Telehouse’s donation, First Love Foundation will be able to offer rapid support to more individuals in need, including stopping wrongful evictions, supporting domestic abuse victims and reclaiming benefits for vulnerable individuals and families. Leaders in Community will use the donation to inspire and empower more local young people in Tower Hamlets, which is known as one of London’s most deprived boroughs. The donation will support its Youth Leadership and Youth Social Action initiatives, helping young people develop personal resilience, overcome barriers to progression and speak out about community issues. These programmes are closely aligned with Telehouse’s environmental, social, and governance (ESG) strategy, which emphasises community support and social inclusion. Telehouse regularly funds local employment schemes, offers work experience, hosts tours and educational sessions for schools, colleges, and universities to increase knowledge of data centres and attract young, local talent to the industry. In addition to the financial donations, Telehouse employees are working closely with the charities on other initiatives that will help to make a difference to the lives of people living within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. This July, Telehouse employees took part in the Saucony London 10K run, raising a total of £6,000 for their two chosen charities. Denise Bentley, Co-Founder & CEO of the First Love Foundation, says, “We are delighted to be partnering with Telehouse in support of First Love Foundation's work transforming lives in Tower Hamlets, and beyond. Our partnership is testament to Telehouse’s commitment to the Tower Hamlets community which sits at the heart of our shared environmental, social and governance goals. We look forward to building on this in the year to come.” Mark Pestridge, Executive Vice President & General Manager at Telehouse Europe, adds, “At Telehouse, we believe in the power of community and the importance of giving back to the areas where we operate. Our recent donations to First Love Foundation and Leaders in Community, along with our ongoing volunteer efforts, are a testament to our commitment to making a positive difference in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. By supporting these incredible organisations, we aim to help address the immediate needs of the community and create a brighter future for everyone in the borough.” Earlier this year, Telehouse contributed to the digital inclusion in the local community by donating 40 laptops to several Voluntary and Community Sector organisations. For more from Telehouse, click here.

Data Journey acquires North Carolina data centre

Texas-based Data Journey has acquired the former Bed Bath & Beyond data centre in western North Carolina’s tech-centric Catawba County, where its onsite team has converted the facility from a purpose-built enterprise data centre into a colocation facility. Located amongst major deployments for Google, Apple, Meta and Microsoft, the re-branded Catawba County Data Centre will service local and regional clients as a fully-fledge colocation centre. Matt Wells, Co-Founder of Data Journey, notes, “We’ve created a first-class colocation centre with significant space and power capacity for future deployments, as well as expansion within the current structure and acreage for additional builds.” Built in 2013 at a cost of $36.8 million, the 47,500 square-foot Tier III data centre, now wholly-owned by Data Journey, offers 9,500 square feet of immediately-available raised floor space, and the ability to expand capacity to provide over 3 MW of critical load. Additional shell space in the centre is already prepared for further expansion, and with the available acreage, a longer-range plan for up to 100 MW of power generation to the site is being explored. With the facility’s conversion to a colocation facility complete, tenants at Catawba County Data Centre include the likes of Sourceability, a global distributor of electronic components in support of digitalising the supply chain, and two Charlotte-based IT firms, 10X Consulting Group and XOR Group. The western North Carolina facility is Data Journey’s second acquisition since the company was founded in 2024. The company’s first centre, a former nuclear bomb shelter known as the Westland Bunker, is located north of Houston where it provided 100% uptime and access during Hurricanes Ike, Harvey and Beryl in addition to 100% uptime during Winter Storm Uri in February 2021. Dr. Ishnella Kaur Azad, Co-Founder of Data Journey, states that the transformation of Catawba County Data Centre aligns with the company’s strategic plan to invest in mid-scale data centre infrastructure while positioning those assets for future growth. Ultimately, the company aims to acquire up to the 30 data centres across the country. “With more than 500 investors, we’re on sound financial footing to expand our footprint in strategic locations across the country,” Ishnella says. “We’re certainly open to welcoming new investors who share our vision and want to be part of this exciting growth journey.”

365 Data Centers expands partnership with Megaport

365 Data Centers, a provider of network-centric colocation, network, cloud, and other managed services, has announced the continued expansion of its partnership with Megaport, a leading Network-as-a-Service provider (NaaS). Megaport has broadened its 365 footprint by adding a Point-of-Presence at 365’s Boca Raton, Florida data centre, further enhancing public cloud and other connectivity solutions available to 365’s Southeast customers. 365 customers now have additional, on-demand, connectivity options to all the major public cloud hyperscalers, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Oracle Cloud, and IBM Cloud. “Integrating Megaport’s advanced connectivity solutions into our Boca Raton data centre is a natural progression of our partnership and network-centric strategy," says Bob DeSantis, CEO at 365 Data Centers. "When added to Megaport’s presence in our Atlanta market data centre, this deployment fortifies our joint Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) offerings in the Southeast and complements our partnership in several of our Northeast and Southwest market data centres. Megaport’s growing presence with 365 significantly enhances the public cloud connectivity options available to our customers.” Michael Reid, CEO at Megaport, adds, “Our expanded partnership with 365 Data Centers reinforces both companies' commitment to innovation and customer satisfaction, ensuring that businesses of all sizes in all locations can leverage the latest network technology to stay competitive in today’s fast-paced digital landscape.” For more from 365 Data Centers, click here.

atNorth achieves ISO45001 certification

atNorth, a Nordic colocation, high-performance computing, and artificial intelligence service provider, has announced that it has achieved ISO45001 accreditation and extended additional ISO certifications as it strives for continual business improvement. The business has received full ISO45001 certification for its occupational health and safety management system, and has extended its ISO14001 certification for its environmental management system to its newer data centres. In addition to this, atNorth has also extended the ISO27001 certification for its information security management system as part of the procurement of Gompute in 2023, aligning these sites with atNorth’s existing ISO certifications. ISO45001 is an international standard that specifies requirements for an occupational health and safety (OH&S) management system. It provides a framework for organisations to manage risks and improve OH&S performance, and it demonstrates atNorth’s commitment to promoting employee mental and physical wellbeing and ensuring a solid foundation of safety in the workplace. Key criteria of the accreditation include ensuring safe ways of working by instructing, training, and monitoring knowledge and competences, the obligation to report incidents, accidents, and observations on shortcomings, frameworks for comprehensive and consistent consideration of risks and hazards and empowering open and honest stakeholder communication to ensure employee safety and business continuity. Erling Freyr Guðmundsson, COO at atNorth, comments, “The success of atNorth’s operations is testament to our commitment to our people. The ISO45001 certification validates our already resilient health and safety standards to ensure the wellbeing of our staff and formalises the veracity of our processes. Our ongoing commitment to improvement across our business enables us to continue to deliver the best possible service to our clients”. ISO 27001 provides companies with guidance for establishing, implementing and maintaining an information security management system. Conformity to this standard means that an organisation has a robust system to manage risks related to the security of data owned or handled by the company. It covers all aspects of information security including physical or virtual access to sites and systems, software development, supplier and customer interactions and incident response processes. “Data security continues to be a high priority for our clients,” notes Daniel Persson, Chief HPC Officer at atNorth. “We are delighted to extend the scope of our of ISO27001 accreditation to reassure our customers that our business conforms to industry leading security standards.” For more from atNorth, click here.

Digital Realty acquires colocation data centre in Slough

Digital Realty, a global provider of cloud- and carrier-neutral data centre, colocation, and interconnection solutions, today announced the acquisition of a highly connected colocation data centre in the Slough Trading Estate for $200 million (£156.1m). The acquisition marks the company’s entry into the west London submarket and complements existing colocation capabilities in the City and Docklands. The newly acquired campus features two individual data centres with a combined capacity of 15-megawatts (MW), excellent connectivity, and room for future expansion. The Slough data centre campus is an established hub for a community of over 150 customers, including a broad array of connectivity providers, technology companies, and financial services firms, utilising over 2,000 cross connects. In addition to being integrated into Digital Realty’s existing Metro Connect solution, enabling seamless connectivity between its six campuses located throughout Greater London, customers will also benefit from access to ServiceFabric, Digital Realty’s open interconnection and orchestration platform. These enhancements will provide customers with unparalleled access to a global, secure, and dynamic data exchange network, further empowering them to effectively manage and scale their digital operations. Séamus Dunne, Managing Director, Digital Realty in the UK and Ireland, comments, "This expansion into Slough is a significant step for Digital Realty, reinforcing our commitment to supporting digital transformation in the UK and across Europe. As the UK solidifies its position as Europe’s premier technology hub, this acquisition enhances our ability to support customers as they grow and scale, further establishing our presence in this vital market." This acquisition not only strengthens Digital Realty's presence in a key market but also supports the company's sustainability goals. Consistent with Digital Realty's commitment to sustainability, the Slough data centre campus will be powered entirely by renewable energy, aligning with the company's practice of matching 100% of the energy used in its European portfolio with renewable sources and its goal of achieving carbon neutrality for its European portfolio by 2030. This strategic acquisition is part of Digital Realty's ongoing commitment to enhancing its global data centre platform, PlatformDIGITAL. For more from Digital Realty, click here.

DE-CIX partners with Kansas City data centre operator

DE-CIX, a leading internet exchange (IX) operator, and NOCIX, a Kansas City data centre operator and dedicated server and colocation provider, have announced a new strategic partnership to interconnect the NOCIX data centre in Kansas City with the DE-CIX internet exchanges in New York City and Dallas. This agreement enables NOCIX customers to gain direct access to more than 280 networks in New York and 150 in Dallas, as well as allowing them to directly connect to multiple clouds and gain remote access to other DE-CIX exchanges – from Phoenix, Arizona, all the way to Frankfurt, Germany – both affordably and on a low latency path. As a colocation data centre based in Kansas City, Missouri, NOCIX specialises in offering budget-friendly, highly reliable solutions for mission-critical hosting needs. Alongside DE-CIX New York and Dallas, which provide NOCIX customers access to the Northeast and Texan ecosystems, NOCIX also interconnects with other regional players, such as SIX (Seattle) and MICE (Minneapolis), bringing the total to 14 internet exchanges across the US. In this way, NOCIX can serve up the whole US to customers in Kansas City and the surrounding area. Ed d’Agostino, Vice President DE-CIX North America, comments, “We are thrilled to be working with NOCIX to bring their facility online at DE-CIX New York and DE-CIX Dallas. Together, we are pioneering a new type of partnership that will allow data centres from throughout the US, from outside of the major metros, to partner with us and benefit from our vast interconnection ecosystem. “The combination of NOCIX’s local strength and network density and DE-CIX’s carrier grade interconnection platforms brings the world to Kansas City, and we are delighted to be part of NOCIX’s connectivity solution.” Aaron Wendel from NOCIX adds, “Working with DE-CIX brings new capabilities to our customers in Kansas City. DE-CIX is a partner of choice in further extending our reach because of its unique position as the dominant commercial IX operator in the world. This partnership brings immense value and diversity to our overall peering ecosystem, adding to the already many switches for various IXs in our facility. We feel we offer a unique value through the combination of a world class facility and diverse network partners, combined with our position in the geographical centre of the country, making us 35 milliseconds or less from either coast.” DE-CIX’s turnkey connectivity enables data centres outside of the major metropolitan hubs to provide access to relevant regional, national, and international networks and helps to close gaps in the national connectivity map. The innovation enables regional data centres to extend to the DE-CIX cores, providing instant access to the entire DE-CIX carrier and data centre neutral interconnection ecosystem in North America and beyond: The DE-CIX IXs in New York and Dallas are interconnected with DE-CIX’s other IXs in the US, offering remote peering at IXs in Chicago, Phoenix, and Richmond. The agreement also allows data centre customers to gain direct access to cloud connectivity solutions at all locations, including the dedicated cloud exchange in Seattle. On top of this, DE-CIX’s global backbone connects the North American IXs with DE-CIX’s global interconnection ecosystem. “This agreement demonstrates how data centre operators can leverage DE-CIX’s neutrality to gain access to key networks, especially content, that is not present in their local markets and wouldn’t be readily available otherwise,” Ed d’Agostino continues. “This strategic capability positions DE-CIX uniquely in many markets to support regional connectivity and help grow regional data centres’ revenue streams, and it offers a way forward to close the digital divide across the nation. DE-CIX’s solution brings regional enterprises online instantly to connect with relevant networks easily and hassle-free.” End customers are direct DE-CIX customers, reducing the burden for data centre operators and allowing them to enhance their colocation offering and focus on their core business. Not only is the solution turnkey, and therefore easy to implement, it is also possible at a much lower cost than if data centre operators implement such connectivity on their own. The set-up uses the data centre’s own local switch and connects virtually to the DE-CIX platforms, moving the access from the physical layer to the VLAN layer. By avoiding additional cross-connect costs on the far side, the solution makes interconnection affordable for the data centre operator, presenting the opportunity to develop new revenue streams. Data centres can use the solution for their own traffic, can offer connectivity services to their customers, and can bring additional cloud connectivity options to their current and future enterprise customers. Also available as a white-label solution, the service can be used to enrich the data centre’s service portfolio with turnkey connectivity made easy. For more from DE-CIX, click here.

STT GDC achieves TIA-942-C Design Certification

ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC), one of the world’s fastest-growing data centre colocation services providers, has announced that its first data centre facility in Japan – STT Tokyo 1 – has achieved the TIA-942-C Design Certification, the latest update to the globally accepted data centre infrastructure standard. “We see great opportunity in the AI boom for data centre operators like STT GDC to supplement the already thriving market for public cloud data centres,” says Daniel Pointon, Group Chief Technology Officer, ST Telemedia Global Data Centres. “Being able to address the infrastructure prerequisites demanded by both traditional cloud and high-performance accelerated computing workloads, while continually advancing reliability and sustainable energy practices, presents us with a generational opportunity to redefine the infrastructure that is foundational to our digital future. “We put enormous effort into deploying and operating consistently high quality infrastructure globally and are pleased to bring important international standards, such as TIA-942-C, to the Japan market. Such certifications are a validation of our own in-house design and operation standards which we have refined over a decade in business to uphold the highest levels of data centre reliability.” STT Tokyo 1 has achieved Rated-3 certification of design documents under the updated TIA-942-C standard. The standard was updated to revision C in early May 2024, meaning the data centre is amongst the first globally to be certified to the latest standard. Major enhancements of the TIA-942-C design certification centred around modernising the standard, including a greater focus on sustainability and climate change; updated cabling infrastructure requirements, new requirements for higher rack power densities associated with technologies like AI, updated guidelines to reduce the probability of data centre outage due to human error, and increased focus on safety requirements. The data centre has also been designed with the guidelines of the Japan Data Centre Council (JDCC) in mind, which are important to many local customers in Japan. Data centres are the physical foundation of our digital world, ensuring the safety, functionality, and reliability of the digital services we rely on. The growing interest and adoption of AI has resulted in significantly higher computational requirements; and combined with the substantial data volumes required for applications like model training, are pushing data centre operators to rethink data centre design, and to reconsider their approach to delivering the immense compute, storage, and networking capabilities essential for AI applications. Slated to open in first half of 2024, STT Tokyo 1 is the first building in our data centre campus located within Goodman Business Park in Inzai City, in the Greater Tokyo area. The campus will support up to 70 megawatts of IT capacity in total, with STT Tokyo 1 supporting up to 32 megawatts when fully operational. To learn more about the TIA-942-C certification, visit tiaonline.org. For more from STT GDC, click here.

Host-IT to offer server colocation services in Swindon

Host-IT, an nLighten company, has announced that its popular server colocation services - including lockable quarter, half, full and multi-tenant racks with fully managed and resilient internet connectivity - are now available to local businesses and organisations in Swindon and the surrounding area. Served from within a state-of-the-art data centre owned and managed by its parent company, nLighten, and strategically positioned in Swindon, Host-IT can install hosting solutions and make this facility available to clients with smaller scale requirements. The data centre showcases nLighten's dedication to innovation, efficiency, and sustainability. Featuring a ‘containerised’ design, the facility covers an area of 1580m2 and provides enhanced security and resilience. With 5.7MW of available power at its final phase of development, it is fully equipped to meet the increasing demands of businesses, providing scalable and high-performance data solutions. “We are excited to integrate our server solutions into the nLighten data centre in Swindon as part of our ongoing UK rollout and look forward to showcasing this facility to both new and existing customers," says Andrew Willis, Managing Director of Host-IT. Key features of the new data centre include: Robust Security Measures: The facility is fortified with advanced security protocols, 24/7 Service Desk / NOC, and redundant security systems, ensuring the utmost protection for sensitive data. High-Performance Infrastructure: Built with cutting-edge hardware and networking equipment, the data centre delivers strong performance and reliability, supporting the most demanding workloads and applications. Clients can utilise Host-IT’s connectivity solutions as well as those from other tier 1 providers. Scalability and Flexibility: Designed for scalability, the facility offers flexible deployment options and customisable solutions to meet the evolving needs of businesses of all sizes. Services include colocation, shared, quarter and half racks, as well as bare metal options. Sustainable Operations: Due to nLighten's commitment to sustainability, the new data centre incorporates energy-efficient technologies and innovative infrastructure to support a carbon-free commitment. Host-IT says that the integration of its server solutions within the Swindon data centre underscores its commitment to providing robust data solutions. The company says that with its strategic location, advanced infrastructure and dedication to customer satisfaction, the facility is set to become a cornerstone of the region's digital ecosystem. For more from Host-IT, click here.

atNorth named Colocation Provider of the Year

atNorth, a leading Nordic colocation, high-performance computing, and artificial intelligence service provider, has scooped two significant industry awards. The business has been awarded the ‘Colocation Provider of the Year’ award at the Electrical Review & Data Centre Review Awards. atNorth has undertaken a significant expansion strategy in recent years, which has ensured that the business can offer high performance infrastructure at speed and scale. This award reflects the business’ growth journey as it continues to innovate and adapt to technological advancements and client requirements. atNorth has also won ‘Digital Infrastructure Project of the Year’ at the Tech Capital Awards for its work with client, Shearwater Geoservices. The global marine imaging and processing leader achieved a 92% reduction in CO2 output and an 85% reduction in cost by moving a portion of its UK HPC infrastructure to one of atNorth’s Icelandic data centre sites. Fuelled by the abundant renewable power sources of the Nordics, atNorth‘s services deliver performance and efficiency for high density workloads in a sustainable way that enables clients to decarbonise their IT footprint and reduce overall costs. Winners are voted for by a panel of industry experts for both awarding bodies in a process that aims to recognise the outstanding achievements within the digital infrastructure industry. “We are thrilled to receive these acknowledgments for our data centre services”, says Eyjólfur Magnús Kristinsson, CEO at atNorth. “atNorth has experienced significant growth over the last couple of years and this industry recognition is a testament to our dedication to delivering excellence across the board. We are determined to continue decarbonising the world's most demanding workloads in an efficient, sustainable, and cost-effective way.” The news follows atNorth’s announcements of colocation clients Crusoe, BNP Paribas and Advania. The business has also received recent recognition from multiple other awarding bodies including; the Datacloud Global Awards, the Energy Awards, TechRound’s Sustainability60 and the UK Green Business Awards. For more from atNorth, click here.