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A data center or colocation provider is one of the most important investments that a company can make these days.
In a nutshell, a data center can ensure the continuity of your business and make it almost impossible for your website (and internal company network) to go down fully in the event of a power outage or cyber-attack.
This provides a number of benefits, including increased security, better customer experiences, and more.
However, different data centers in the UK have different server limits, provide different amounts of power to their servers, and may offer different ancillary services. Finding the right UK data center for your business is crucial, particularly since you’ll want something that works over the long-term.
You’ll also likely want to find a data center with high uptime (as close to 100% as possible). Such data centers will have UTI certifications of Tier 2 or 3, indicating very high reliability.
Today, let's take a look at the 15 best UK datacenters. Each link will take you straight to the data center's main page so you can browse through what they offer in more detail. Let’s begin!
The Selection:
Next Generation Data Centre
If you’re looking for the largest data center you can find on the entire European continent, this is it. It hosts over 19,000 servers combined, all spread across three main floors. Not only can you share this generous amount of server space, but you’ll also be able to rent your own private data center hub for added security.
There are two 75,000 ft.² halls combined over the entire site, and the data center features a selection of specialized server racks that are designed explicitly for IT-related architecture. As a result, it may be a phenomenal choice if you’re looking for a data center specifically for enterprise-level architecture or security needs.
Perhaps this data center's most notable feature is its uninterrupted power availability. They feature a private distribution network that can provide 9 MVA directly to the data center site. This also ensures there’ll be enough power for enterprise-level data center consumers in the foreseeable future.
Location: Wales, UK
KAO Data Campus
If you’re looking for a data center that has plenty of room for future expansion, consider KAO Data Campus.
Nestled in Harlow, Essex, KAO Data has over 150,000 m² of server space overall, and that space is spread across four distinct buildings.
It’s essentially a giant data complex with enough infrastructure and expansion room for most organizations’ future enterprise requirements.
It’s a carrier-neutral data center and has an exceptional uptime certification of Tier 2 according to the UTI. Remember, higher tiers indicate higher uptime in general. When it comes to enterprise-level architecture and big businesses, even a 10th of 1% is an unacceptable amount of downtime.
Ultimately, it’s a phenomenal choice due to how many server racks it has (over 500 per suite, of which there are 16) and its expandability.
Location: Harlow, Essex
Telehouse North
This data center was actually originally constructed for servicing Japanese banks, though now it hosts almost 100,000 ft.² of server space spread across five separate floors. It offers colocated rack space that's accessible in either super-secure cages or through more open server collections depending on your security needs.
This security focus does mean that they usually have plenty of clients to juggle, so you may need to wait for a spot in the server cages to open up.
Regardless, a plethora of cable connection arrangements are available – they even allow clients to use copper or CAT5 cable connections between rooms if fiber-optic cables aren’t necessary.
The extra connectivity choices offset the minor downside that they don’t provide as much power per server rack compared to many competing data centers. Still, it’s a worthwhile choice for organizations most interested in extra connectivity options.
Location: North London
GTP 3 Data Centre
This data center is located near the heart of Birmingham, providing unlimited cloud storage, hosting and managed services for both regional public sector sites and for private enterprises. It’s an ideal location if you want to bolster your internal IT server functionality or your disaster recovery. The data center offers B2B cloud services, too.
Even better, SaaS vendors will find a lot to like with this data center. Plus, there are 24/7 on-site operations for customer service and general maintenance.
Extra server locations in Manchester and London bolster its overall resources and expandability.
In total, there are two data server halls that each hold 10,000 ft.² of server space. In the near future, this data center is set to be expanded for even more space.
Location: Palmer Street, Birmingham, B9 4EX
Ark – Cody Park, Farnborough
Some data centers, like this one, focus on providing high-quality security and customer power in equal measure.
Specifically, you'll be able to access servers that can provide power upwards of 500 kW, so it might be a great choice if you have a particularly large online business or if you need lots of server power for added security or for high downloads/uptime/anything else.
They have several top-tier clients like Crown Hosting, many of whom demand 100% uptime reliability. Thanks to this reputation, you can rest assured that your site will also stay up the majority of the time without any hiccups.
They offer tons of services like dedicated and virtual servers, quality web hosting, digital footprint tracking, and even cages for added security.
The data center overall is comprised of five distinct data centers that change provide 50 MW of customer load. The servers are spread over 36 acres of local campus space, and it’s not too far from Cody Technology Park.
Location: Cody Park, Farnborough
Telehouse Metro
There are multiple Telehouse data center outlets to choose from – this particular center is located in the heart of London itself, making it a primary choice for many London-based high-resource online companies and organizations.
The data center has been built from the ground up to be the future of London's carrier-neutral centers, and it offers very high-quality but secure data center space, both for primary and for secondary operations or digital architecture needs.
In addition, you’ll find a variety of carrier services provided on-site with this data center, like 24-hour cable repair and installation. There are additional security and maintenance features in place to ensure constant operation, like a fire alarm panel and dedicated fire suppression systems.
It’s also secure if you or your text need to check out the servers in-person – access is restricted by security card and there’s an on-site monitoring system as well.
Remote operations are enabled via the site service desk, so you can dictate that the data center’s people only handle things from afar. In short, it’s a perfect high-security solution for organizations worried about security compromises.
Location: 65 Clifton St, Hackney, London
VITRUS Data Centre
Also located in London, this data center is one of the most important in the entire UK and services a variety of high-profile clients throughout the London Metropolitan area. Indeed, they’re even expanding for even more server space over the next few years. At current capacity, customers can expect 160 MW of space for their organization.
It also uses a high-tech evaporative cooling technique to reduce energy consumption – an ideal benefit for budget-minded consumers or for those concerned about efficient cooling over the next decade.
Additional benefits like real-time monitoring dashboards and a selection of self-service tools allow clients to handle their server maintenance themselves or from a distance, and either in person or using dedicated remote service rooms.
Location: Hayes, London
Dockland Data Centre
offers plenty of room for server needs, and you can find it in one of the best London-based areas both for maintenance access and for user connectivity across the metro area.
They offer extremely high-level security with top-of-the-line telecommunications equipment.
Setting up a network is a long but worthwhile process, as their experts will work with your enterprise or security personnel to ensure everything goes off without a hitch.
They provide tons of network carrier choices, so you can enjoy a global network of excellent quality. They’re also one of the best-optimized data centers, as they use the “Dark Fibre” cable network to ensure very fast download and transmission speeds.
Location: London Docklands
Ark Data Centres – Spring Park Campus
This high-security data center has five sites in total and can provide power loads of 30 MW per customer relatively easily. They offer retail colocation space for a variety of customers across 200,000 ft.² in total, plus offer plenty of high-security features for added peace of mind and enterprise integrity.
The data center is spread across three buildings, and you’ll be able to select different power balances depending on your needs.
Other services include dedicated and virtual server hosting, individual server hosting, cages for security, remote access, and digital footprint tracking.
They’re currently looking to expand in the near future and potentially offer up to 40 MW of customer power. At the moment, they’re competitive because of their good prices and accessibility. Consider them if you're a company looking to expand later down the line, but also want to get a great price on server racks for the time being.
Location: Corsham Wiltshire Spring Park Campus
RedWire
This Ealing data center automatically optimizes your servers based on your location – they serve clients in London itself or overseas. They can even optimize your data services if you need streamlining for airport access.
The center itself is in West London and provides 24-hour access to most of the major airports within London, with 20,000 ft.² in total for hosting its variety of racks.
It’s another Tier 3 UTI uptime data center provider, so you should realistically see 100% uptime across all metrics.
They offer 33 MW of customer power on average, although there are higher rack power densities if you want even more services and storage capabilities.
Colocated server rack space will let you monitor your IT assets and manage things from a distance relatively easily and smoothly.
You’ll also note that they have a separate high-density area for companies and sites that need extra resources. Furthermore, every one of the data halls is made with modular and flexible constructions in mind. This will make it easy for the data center to expand, making it a good choice for future enterprise-level needs.
Location: Ealing, West London
Equinix
Equinix is an internationally-optimized UK data center, with server racks and architecture designed for global companies and businesses looking to expand their reach and integrate various servers or workers across the globe.
Its London office is in a perfect, centralized location for any carriers that want to provide networking to financial services markets or similar companies and organizations.
Furthermore, it’s a great choice for any companies that operate in the big media or financial capitals of Europe and want to expand their reach into UK markets or across the Atlantic.
The main London site is also connected to other Equinix sites in Heathrow, Park Royal, and so on. Therefore, it’s a great data center for long-term expandability – you’ll be able to rent more space and resources from the same network, changing datacenters depending on your location needs.
Location: London
Redcentric London Data Centre
This data center is also located in London, specifically in Shoreditch, a tech hub within the Metropolitan area.
It’s extremely easy to access from the nearby airport and features an on-site parking feature, so checking on your racks or stopping by for maintenance is quick and easy.
It’s colocation racks are well-regarding for offering cheap and reliable hosting regardless of your needs.
They can ensure extremely smooth and efficient maintenance for all of their clients. Perhaps most importantly, Redcentric uses 100% green power, sourcing their electricity to offer up to 80 MW of power per client.
As a result, it’s a great data center if you want to focus on renewable energy and want to ensure that your company’s green-friendly optics are secure in all aspects of your operation.
Lastly, they offer a private suite colocation data rack center. That means you can rent out an entire space for extra security and ensure that no other clients are near your company’s servers/data.
Location: Shoreditch
Volta
This independent data center has a 100% uptime record so far, although they’ve only been in operation since 2013. Still, these are great numbers for a relatively young data center and server provider, so consider them if you want to ensure perfect uptime for your company.
They offer 8450 m² of space and are located in what was formerly the Reuters Building.
There are 20 building entry points to ensure security, power, and consistent connectivity for your servers to your business or company architecture at headquarters.
They’re extremely flexible when it comes to service agreements and how much server space you need – they’re also some of the best when it comes to rack density, and are able to fit in plenty of clients in relatively limited space.
Even with that limited space, they can provide 30 MW of customer power and have a great customer service team to ensure that everything gets up and running to your satisfaction. Additional services include the standard gamut of dedicated and virtual servers, individual server hosting and cages plus digital footprint tracking for security.
Redcentric Reading
Here’s another top Redcentric data center, locating in Reading.
As a next-generation data center, it provides extremely energy-efficient technology and equipment across 15,000 ft.² of hosting space.
They offer full rack colocation, alongside managed colocation and virtual server services.
The shared data center area is secured by high-tech security features and is monitored by CCTV. They allow access by proximity with photo ID cards or even higher security stages depending on your needs and focus. The data center overall is built for extreme energy efficiency and features high-tech cooling, monitoring, and maintenance tools.
Fresh air conditioning is an excellent benefit that more UK data centers could stand to include – this data center specifically pulls cold air from the winter months instead of using chiller units throughout the entire year.
As such, it may be a great data center if you’re concerned about ongoing cooling costs as upcoming years get warmer or environmental friendliness.
Location: Reading, UK
IBF Union Street
This last data center offers extremely resilient and high-performance servers for your needs. They offer 100% uptime for all core client services, and they’ve been in business 2001: an excellent service record.
They provide stuff for small clients that only require a single server and associated hosting or even larger demands for companies that need core hosting, hardware, software, and network management all rolled into a single package.
Additional services offered by this data center include wide-area networking, network hardware management, secure VPNs, voice services, and more.
This is a comprehensive data center location that can serve a larger organization well for some time to come in part because of its expandability. Remote access, too, is available if you’re concerned about security, either by employees or by data center techs.
Location: Aberdeen, UK
Wrap Up
Ultimately, the right data center for you depends on a center’s overall equipment, how reliable they are, the services they offer, and their uptime guarantees.
We've shown several high-quality data centers that provide 100% uptime or something extremely close, so certainly consider those if you’re interested in providing the best experience to your customers and maximizing enterprise security.
But don’t forget to consider scalability as well. In many cases, you’ll end up needing more server resources and architecture than you initially planned, particularly if your company takes off ahead of schedule.
It’s often easier to start renting server space with a data center that has room for you to expand instead of having to transfer to a completely new data center that has more space than your current service.
All in all, be sure to check out each of the links above and dig through what each data center offers in detail. The above paragraphs are just overviews, but should give you an idea of what to expect as you check out each provider’s service packages. Good luck!
