£2.3m investment sets standard for North West DCs

UKFast is continuing its long-term investment in making Manchester the UK’s number one tech city with a £2.3 million upgrade at the firm’s data centre complex.

The enhanced facilities are set to offer businesses in the North West a level of data centre infrastructure never available before in the region. The latest improvements to the hosting firm’s data centre include a security upgrade to its dedicated colocation space, and the construction of a new high-security, high-density, high-resilience compound within the existing facility.

The new extra-secure facility is equivalent to IL4 security standard and designed in line with List-X standards, primarily to meet the heightened regulation needs of government, financial services, international telecoms and utilities clients.

UKFast CEO Lawrence Jones said: “This investment is a massive feather in the cap for Manchester. Previously, firms had to collocate their hardware in London if they wanted this level of infrastructure. Right now, UKFast is doing more to future-proof IT infrastructure in the North West than any other provider.

“UKFast is about delivering a Rolls Royce product at a price that’s affordable to the SME community. On that journey we’ve attracted a number of very large corporations and public sector bodies, so it makes sense to keep listening to what they need and keep developing our service.

“We are continuing to extend our high-security, affordable offering to the British government. There’s a consensus that the government should be hosting its infrastructure in Britain with British companies.”

November’s Autumn Statement saw the government pledge up to £1bn in digital infrastructure investment, with a call to private companies to match that figure with investment in their own projects.

Jones said: “The commitment from the government is a step in the right direction, although we’d like to see heavier investment in digital across the UK. We’re taking it on ourselves to deliver the latest infrastructure for the tech community, making the choice for the government an easy one.”

In May UKFast announced the addition of its DC Support Hub to its datacentre complex. The new building offers an additional layer of physical security and a security network operations centre. The DC Support Hub also offers colocation clients the opportunity to accommodate technical staff, free of charge, while they carry out essential maintenance work during periods of low traffic during the night.

The investment in UKFast’s data centres follows an earlier property deal in October, which is set to double the footprint of the firm’s HQ and create the space necessary to deliver the manpower required to drive its planned expansion.

Jones continued: “We have outgrown our space sooner than we’d planned, so we’re investing in our headquarters as well as our data centres. We need to keep bringing in incredible people to support our clients and we need plenty of space to do that. The investment across the support hub, the technical infrastructure and the offices demonstrates that we are ready to grow to the next level.”

The fast-growing Manchester technology brand has a current revenue run-rate of £43.4m.