Scotland is the planned location for a 250 acre site that will include 3 million square feet of data center facilities alongside 1,000 new homes as part of a sustainable community for living and work.
Cable&Wireless; firm Thus has signed up with Internet Villages International Limited and a number of agencies and partners to develop the world's first green powered Mega Data Farm in the Scottish borders with planned investment of £1.2 billion.
On completion, the 250 acre Data Farm will provide 3 million sq ft of next generation Data Storage and will be the largest of its type in the world.
Steve White, marketing director of IVI, which works closely with the Scottish Enterprise Agency, said: "What we are proposing is the world's first, sustainable live, work and play community based around the development of a large scale Data Storage facility. We believe that with the advent of Cloud Computing and Containerised Data Storage, our next generation Data Farm will transform the rural economy of Dumfries & Galloway and propel Scotland to the forefront of the global Data Storage sector. More importantly, the location offers the potential for us to do this in a way which minimises impact on the environment and creates a connected community that is both carbon-neutral and self sustaining. We trust that THUS can deliver a network infrastructure that meets our stringent criteria for capacity, scalability and robustness using advanced, proven technologies."
THUS's involvement in the development is largely due to its high capacity network and significant infrastructure in the South of Scotland following its roll-out of the Pathfinder South project, which delivered high speed internet access to schools and other public sector locations throughout the area. The availability of super fast internet access for IVI will also help foster home based working by telecommuters, freelancers and local micro-businesses and be a significant boost to the regeneration of this rural economy.
The need to reduce company carbon footprints, while at the same time offering significant cost savings, is attractive to many multinational companies. The increasing availability of high bandwidth networks means that Scotland is establishing itself as a first choice location for Data Center infrastructure and IVI is seeking to position itself to take advantage of increasing global demand for secure next generation Data Storage.
Jesper Lauridsen, Managing Director at THUS, a Cable&Wireless; business, said: "Reliable and resilient telecoms infrastructure is a cornerstone of any data center development and we are delighted to be working with Internet Villages International to help propel Scotland to the forefront of this industry. THUS's significant network presence in the area thanks to the Pathfinder project, together with its unrivalled bandwidth capacity, makes it ideally placed to support this exciting and ambitious development giving businesses with burgeoning carbon footprints and data storage costs the chance to boost their green credentials while saving money. " IVI chose Scotland as the ideal location for hosting the Data Farm primarily because of the availability and proximity of a range of diverse renewable energy resources, its favourable climate, competitive land prices and highly skilled IT workforce. The development will maximise energy efficiency in the design, construction and operation of the facilities but significantly, will supply 100% renewable energy via four diverse power feeds. In addition, waste energy will be recycled to power local homes and adjacent horticultural businesses driving the overall development towards becoming carbon neutral.