COLT, a leading European provider of business communications, has announced further development of its European data center footprint with the opening of new centers in London and Amsterdam. COLT now operates 18 facilities in major business and financial centers in Europe, totalling 100,000 square metres in capacity and forming a highly robust platform for COLT's managed services portfolio.
COLT has opened four new data centers in 2007 alone in response to increased market demand. Last month, COLT released independent pan-European research which found that two-thirds of European businesses plan to increase their use of third party data center services to counter the growing cost and complexity of managing highly secure data centers in-house.
"We have seen a leap in demand for data center services in the last 12 months, particularly as businesses tackle business continuity and regulatory compliance needs, said Detlef Spang, managing director, UK at COLT. "With 18 data centers all built to the highest industry standards, ISO 27001 compliant and integrated into our network, we are uniquely positioned to provide the space, security and managed services that European businesses are looking for, from storage and security services to application hosting and managed IT solutions. We are committed to establishing a best-in-class industry benchmark for European data centers.
London 3, COLT's third data center in the UK, will be its largest facility in Europe when completed, offering 8,600 square metres of useable space divided into self-contained halls. COLT started building the center in May 2007 after securing its largest ever contract to provide data center and managed services to a major global business customer. The initial section of the center is now open.
Located just outside the M25, London 3 is strategically located to offer businesses low latency connectivity to the City of London as well as geographic diversity. The center has access to a 25MVA power supply from the National Grid and is being built out in phases so that the latest technology can easily be deployed at every stage and individual halls can be customised to specific requirements. One of the most progressive aspects of the design includes a full outside air ventilation system which has been designed to enable the individual parts of the center to be cooled entirely using outside air as an energy saving mechanism.
COLT's second data center in Amsterdam has a capacity of 1,200 square metres and has been opened to meet growing demand from Dutch businesses for data center capacity and managed services. During 2007, COLT also opened centers in Copenhagen and Lisbon.