Company launches state-of-the-art green data centre in Portsmouth

Southampton, 18 October 2011: PEER 1 Hosting, the global IT hosting provider, today opens its new 5,372m2 green data centre in Portsmouth. The facility in Langstone Technology Park, Portsmouth offers businesses across London and the South East scalable managed hosting, dedicated hosting and colocation services in one of the greenest data centres in the country.

Within easy reach of London, the centre has a staggering 11MVA of available power, room for 20,000 servers, and provides a direct connection to PEER 1 Hosting's 10Gb fibre backbone network.

The facility is located in one of the most energy-efficient buildings of its type in the UK. Built on a brownfield site in Portsmouth, it is expected to deliver a predicted Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) rating of 1.1. For every one unit of power used for computer equipment, only 0.1 unit is used to power other areas, such as cooling. The industry average is 1.8.[1]

To achieve this, the company is the first in the world to use the energy-efficient Excool cooling system. The system harnesses the natural cooling effect of air and water, using a super-efficient heat exchange system, low-energy fans and water atomisers.

"Data centre demand shows no signs of slowing down. Our £45 million investment in this state-of-the art facility is testament to PEER 1 delivering the services that our customers need and are going to need in the future. By investing, we have developed a wholly-owned data centre that leads the way in reducing the carbon footprint for our customers, delivers 24/7 service and provides customers with the capacity to grow," said Dominic Monkhouse, EMEA managing director of PEER 1 Hosting.

In addition to its green credentials, the data centre is kept secure through biometric authentication, ultra sound technology and coordinated intruder alarms. Users also have the opportunity to work at the site as catering, Wi-Fi, conference rooms, a 150-seater auditorium and fitness centre are available.

Fabio Banducci, President and CEO of PEER 1 Hosting said, "This new data centre represents a significant investment for PEER 1 in the UK and European markets. There is a shortage of green data centre capacity in the region which creates a great potential for growth. We see this state-of-the-art data centre meeting the needs of our customers going forward in an increasingly data rich world."

[1] Uptime Institute, May 2011