Canada-based data center services provider Peer 1 has completed construction of a data center in Portsmouth, UK (about 75 miles away from London). This is the second European location for the company, majority of whose data centers are in Canada and US.

The data center's mechanical system uses free cooling to supplement its cooling capacity. Peer 1 CFO Gary Sherlock said in January, when the project was at early stages, that the company was hoping to be able to use 100% free cooling nearly half of the time.

Peer 1 managing director for European, Middle Eastern and African markets Dominic Monkhouse said the company had invested about US$70m into the facility, and that demand for data center services showed no signs of slowing down.

"By investing, we have developed a wholly-owned data center that leads the way in reducing the carbon footprint for our customers, delivers 24/7 service and provides customers with the capacity to grow," he said.

The 57,800 sq ft data center has 11MVA of power available, according to Peer 1, and can support up to 20,000 servers. The facility provides a direct connection to the company's own 10Gb network called FastFiber.

The network connects 18 data centers, 21 points of presence and 10 colocation facilities in North America and Europe, according to the provider.

Peer 1, headquartered in Vancouver, has data center presence in Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto, New York, Chicago, Dallas, Miami, Seattle, San Jose and several other locations.