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IBM to open Scottish datacentre for SMEs

Andy McCue ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 03 Oct 2008 16:08 BST

IBM is building a £2m datacentre in Scotland, with the intention of offering co-location services to small and medium-sized enterprises.

The facility in Greenock is due to be fully operational by January next year and will offer energy-efficient cooling; resilient internet connections; a dedicated electrical infrastructure, backed up by diesel generators; 24-hour security; and alarm monitoring and CCTV.

For the basic co-location service, customers will be able to move their existing back-office hardware to the facility and manage and monitor it remotely themselves. Under a more expensive 'Co-location Plus' service, IBM will carry out basic management and monitoring functions for customers.

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The Greenock datacentre is being built in line with IBM's 'green' datacentre standards and will use best practices in cooling and power management. This includes 'free cooling', which makes use of low outside air temperatures for cooling and air-conditioning.

IBM claimed the datacentre will help small and medium-sized enterprises consolidate their IT infrastructure, and significantly reduce costs and staff-management overheads.

Alex Reardon, IBM's general business-sector director for the UK and Ireland, said in a statement: "This new service aims to offer quick financial returns to a medium-sized business by removing the challenge of securing and maintaining their datacentres, so potential savings can be ploughed back into their business."