Data Centres
Tech UK confirmed that:
“Data centres are at the heart of the UK’s digital infrastructure and represent the focal point where the (UK Government’s) Industrial Strategy and the digital strategy should meet.”
In 2017 there were 252 co-location DCs in the UK with demand rising from further migration to the cloud, the introduction of 5G in 2020 and the consequent exponential growth in data transmission, analysis and hosting via the interest in the Internet of Things. By the start of 2018, the co-location market alone was predicted to have a global value of £27.1bn and almost 180 million sq ft in operational floor space.
Slough Trading Estate
The Thames Valley is home to the largest data centre conurbation in Europe, centred on the Slough Industrial Estate, which is home to approximately 23, totalling over 2,000,000 sqft (over 185,800 sqm) of operational space.
Current occupiers include Century Link, Easynet, Equinix, Global Crossing, GoDaddy, Level3, Logicalis, NTT, Rackspace, Virgin Media, Virtus and Zenium.
The Estate benefits from having many of the key requirements data centres are looking for:
• Centre of Excellence – experienced, talented and dedicated employee skills base.
• Connectivity – a dense fibre network with high latency to the City of London, Europe and the USA; in close proximity to Central London, Heathrow Airport and the Motorway network.
• Compelling Price Point – property costs are often up to a third cheaper than London.
• High Security – SEGRO provides the highest security standards on the Estate (24/7 on-site monitored CCTV system with 92+ cameras; out-of-hours security patrols, ANPR, airwave radio and video link and Business Watch Manager).
• Planning Certainty – a Simplified Planning Zone covers the whole Estate and is operational until November 2024, providing an ability to redevelop with minimal planning requirements.