Virtus Data Centres starts construction of its new flagship

Located in Hayes, just 17 minutes by train from Paddington and less than a mile from Junction 3 of the M4, the site will deliver 11.4MW of IT power, and 65,000 square feet of net customer data centre space. In addition, the site has extensive premium client office space, board rooms and meeting facilities particularly aimed at the growing community of Virtus’ clients such as IT Managed Service Providers (MSPs), systems integrators, digital media, financial institutions and enterprises. With 20MVA of power infrastructure already delivered to the site, construction is scheduled to be ready for client occupation in the summer of 2014.

By using the most advanced, fresh-air, evaporative cooling technology, solar panels, ground water from its own well, chimney racks for heat extraction, highly efficient UPS systems, and other innovative technologies, Virtus LONDON2 will be the most energy efficient data centre in London. The LONDON2 data centre further reduces environmental impact by using 100% green power, from renewable sources and heat pumps to recirculate heat generated by the IT equipment into communal areas.

Neil Cresswell, Virtus’ CEO, commented: “I am delighted that after a thorough design and planning process we have started construction of one of the most advanced data centres in the UK. Virtus already leads the way in bringing to market the most flexible data centre solutions available, thanks to the quality of our sites and services. With the range of energy-saving technologies we are putting in place we will now lead in being able to deliver the most cost-efficient and environmentally friendly data centre solutions, offering significant TCO reductions to our clients in power, cooling, connectivity and services charges.”

The facility, designed to deliver high quality customer solutions, will have six data halls, all capable of being subdivided allowing clients to have anything from a cabinet in a shared space to their own suite or data hall with dedicated power and cooling.

“Another advantage of our new data centre is its flexibility and the cost efficiencies gained by deploying ultra-high power density cabinets of up to 40kW, which can be clustered or installed next to standard power density cabinets without clients having to invest in costly in-row cooling. Clients requiring such ultra-high power density installations will achieve significant savings at LONDON2,” said Cresswell.

The site will naturally be highly secure, away from main roads and behind 5 meter security fences, with 24/7 on site security, technical support and monitoring centres to maintain Virtus’ 100% uptime record. It will also incorporate new innovative on-line real-time monitoring dashboards and self-service tools, for clients to use either remotely, or in one of the customer-friendly dedicated rooms or café areas that are being designed into the facility.

The LONDON2 data centre is located in a fibre rich area and when opened, will immediately offer a wide choice of carriers (more than 10, of which 4 are Tier 1) offering diverse connectivity services enabling low-cost, low-latency, high-speed and high-quality access to different networks, internet exchanges, and customer locations globally. In addition, the high-speed low-latency connections between Virtus’ LONDON1 data centre in Enfield and its LONDON2 data centre in Hayes, will allow them to operate as one common market place, making it easy and cost efficient for end user customers, MSPs and network services providers to serve each other’s needs while expanding their own businesses.