Hosting and colo company Pulsant is to expand its Tier III data center site in Scotland with two new data halls.

The South Gyle facility, in Edinburgh, will have 64 new racks in each hall and a number of rooms for storing, building and configuring.The new facility will feature two-factor authentication security access and can be individually configured for each customer. The expansion project is scheduled for completion in February 2015.

The South Gyle facility hosts IX Scotland, the region’s dedicated Internet exchange, and currently supports 820 racks in two purpose-built redundant data centers, with 24-hour a day security and support.

The new halls will complement the data center’s existing infrastructure but will feature autonomous mechanical services in a bid for a more efficient form of providing redundancy. The data center operator will aim to minimize power consumption by using blended evaporative and fresh air cooling technologies. An on-site high voltage network will give ensure 2N delivery of power to each rack.

South Gyle is supported by 30 telecoms carriers and is G-Cloud accredited. It is compliant with both PCI (peripheral component interconnect) and DSS (decision support systems). The new halls will use these open standards and direct fibre access to give clients' access to a wide range of service providers and carriers, according to Pulsant CTO Matt Lovell.

“This expansion is part of Pulsant’s overall growth strategy which includes upgrading and growing our existing data center sites,” said Lovell. “The decision to expand our existing site means that new customers can effectively move right into the new halls once construction is complete, as the infrastructure to support the racks is already in place. For our existing customers this increase in capacity ensures that they experience no disruption to their service, but will be able to take advantage of the additional racks with ease.”