UK gets new James Bond-style data centre

By Nicole Kobie | SAVVIS’ new data centre will use biometrics, weight-sensitive entrance floor panels, bullet-proof glass, ‘man traps’ and CCTV for security.

A newly-announced UK data centre set to open at the end of the year will feature top end physical security straight out of a spy film.

Set to open in the fourth quarter of this year, SAVVIS’ new data centre will be sited in Slough.

The data centre will include physical security features such as biometric entrance scanning, weight sensitive entrance floor panels, bullet-proof glass, always-on CCTV across the site, and a little something called ‘man traps’ - essentially a space between two doors where people are held if they aren’t authorised for access. Might not be enough to stop James Bond or Jason Bourne from sneaking through, but thankfully they’re fictional.

“Data centres are expensive to build and the data they hold is very important data,” Richard Warley, international managing director for SAVVIS, told IT PRO. “We do have a lot of customers in the financial sector and they look for physical and logical security.”

The facility will be connected to SAVVIS data centres near Reading and at London’s Docklands for disaster recovery and business continuity purposes. The first phase will cost £35 million pounds and cover 36,500 square feet on the first floor of the building, said Warley. The second phase will offer another 30,000 square feet on the ground floor.

SAVVIS offers technology-agnostic managed hosting and network services to companies in financial sector, media and entertainment and others. The firm offers the basic option of renting space as well as fully managed services and specialised utility-based services.

The firm said the financial services sector - including SAVVIS’ customers like the London Stock Exchange - are demanding more space and closer proximity to the grid.

The data centre is one of several the firm has built recently across Europe, Asia and North America as part of a two-year, $400 million (£205 million) investment.

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