Netherlands next on Colt’s data center list

Modular build, made in UK, strategically placed to service European customers

27 April 2012 by Penny Jones - DatacenterDynamics

Colt is making good on its promise to expand data center operations in Europe, allowing local access to its Colt services including Colt’s private cloud, with a new data center facility in the Netherlands.

Its first Modular Data Center facility in the country will sit on a 39,000 sq m site and will be ready for operation in 2013. Colt has already secured 32MVA power for the site.

Colt said it will build out its data center in 2,000 sq m allotments, with 20 halls planned so far, bringing capacity to 10,000 sq m. It will start with just one hall, and has already secured an anchor tenant for the carrier-neutral site.

The modules themselves, which come complete with power and cooling, will be constructed and tested in the UK before being transported to the Netherlands site.

Colt claims its Modular Data Centres can be delivered within four months. “We’re not talking about ‘container’ based data centers either: we mean large-scale, traditional data centers built in a radical new way, using standardized manufacturing techniques and components on a production line,” Colt said on its website.

It can provide these modules in 125 sq m, 250 sq m and 375 sq m customized for client requirements.

Colt Data Centre Services Executive VPO Bernard Geoghegan said the Netherlands offers Colt a strategic placing, between four major European cities.

“The site offers an ideal location for our first modular data center deployment in the Netherlands,” Geoghegan said.

“The expansion capability of the site together with our unique modular approach means our customers will be able to scale and add additional capacity as demand requires.”

At VMworld in Copenhagen in 2011, Colt Principal Cloud Specialist Steve Hughes said Colt would be expanding its footprint in Europe by the end of the 2012 to help companies overcome local regulations in regards to data storage and privacy.

"If it matters where your data resides, if you have latency issues for applications running between your data center and the cloud data center, if you do not necessarily want to use the internet for your data – Colt’s enterprise cloud services give you those options," Hughes said.

"Federated cloud computing in some form will be the future of cloud computing  – whether it is service providers sharing workload between strategically located data centers or co-operating to provide interoperable services."

Colt’s newsest data center will be its 20^th in Europe, where it operates in 39 major cities with an overall footprint of 28,000 sq m.