Aiming to realize much-needed cost and energy efficiencies, Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council in the United Kingdom, has turned to modular data center specialist Secure IT Environments to provide it with a new data center.

The new 390 square meter facility, intended to underpin the council’s IT infrastructure over the next two decades, is due to be handed over to Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council by September 2015. The design and size is similar to the project the supplier provided recently for the University of York (pictured).

Secure IT Environments is a member of The Green Grid and has been shortlisted for a number of green awards recently. Solihull Council did not disclose the cost of the deal. 

Building starts this month

Building work is expected to begin at the end of April, this month.

Talking to Government Computing a spokesperson for Secure IT Environments said the new data center will be run in parallel with Solihull’s existing facility for at least a year.

This will allow a margin of time for the completion of the migration process which is expected to take six months.

Solihull Council said, “The new data center is key to ensuring business continuity for all services within the Council. It will help us to reduce energy consumption and provide a cost effective solution for the future. We received many excellent proposals in the tender process and are pleased to be awarding this project to Secure I.T. Environments.”

Chris Wellfair, projects director at Secure I.T. Environments added, “More and more council services are moving on-line, making the resilience and performance of data centers even more important. Eventually on-line will become the primary way citizens gain access to council services and we’re looking forward to getting started on this challenging project.”