Rackspace and Digital Realty announce energy efficient, 130,000 sq ft UK data centre

Rackspace, along with Digital Realty Trust, Inc., has today 'broken ground' on a new 130,000 square foot data centre facility. Based in Crawley, West Sussex, the site sits across a 15 acre campus and will eventually comprise of four data suites with a total 10MW capacity. The initial outlay, providing 6MW across two data suites, is due to be delivered in the first half of 2015.

The new data centre has been designed specifically for Rackspace to maximise operational efficiency as well as Open Compute compatibility and scalability. Rackspace and Digital Realty have combined their expertise to develop and design a data centre that will be highly energy efficient and provides a very competitive cost per kW. The facility also allows for expansion into additional buildings and will be built out in phases, in advance of demand by Rackspace’s customers.

The Crawley Data Centre will be the first in the UK to make use of innovative 'indirect outside air' cooling technology on this scale, without mechanical cooling, meaning that the energy required to operate the data centre will be reduced by 80 per cent. [1] The use of such cutting-edge technology is testament to both Digital Realty's and Rackspace's full endorsement of the new ASHRAE guidelines, which demonstrates an ability to meet stringent energy and sustainability targets.

Mark Roenigk, COO, Rackspace commented: “Our hosting and cloud services are mission critical for our customer’s businesses so it’s important that their data is highly accessible as well as securely stored and managed. This was at the heart of every decision we made when we worked with Digital Realty on the design of the centre.

Efficiency was also incredible important. We factored in everything from minimising landfill and the impact on the environment during construction itself to using more efficient LED lighting and environmentally sourced paint. We are very proud to say we’re involved in building one of the greenest data centres in the UK; it’s a huge achievement.”

Michael F. Foust, CEO, Digital Realty, commented: “We are very pleased to be partnering again with Rackspace on another ground-breaking project. The Crawley Data Centre is particularly exciting because of the high level of attention in its design to efficiency and sustainability. The potential energy savings are game changing and we're exceptionally excited about its possibilities. Rackspace’s vision of meeting their customers’ mission-critical needs combined with our experience over a decade of developing and operating enterprise quality data centres globally enabled us to help Rackspace serve its expanding customer base in the UK, Europe and beyond. "

Customers in all regions will be able to use the data centre, although Rackspace anticipates that the majority of requests will come from customers in the UK and Europe. Roenigk continued: “The addition of another data centre in the UK is in response to the demand in the market as well as growth opportunities for the business across Europe.”