Why We Are Ahead When It Comes To Our Data Centre

For many companies needing IT support, finding the full package their firm needs can be challenging. Where it is available, often the providers are based far away, being a global company or one domiciled somewhere down south, like around central London’s ‘Silicone Roundabout’.

The UK is certainly growing in this area. In his recent Budget speech, Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt spoke about the importance of IT and tech to the UK economy, hailing the fact that the UK now has “a tech economy now double the size of Germany and three times the size of France”.

Mr Hunt referred to the whole country as being “on track to become the world’s next Silicon Valley” as he announced measures aimed at increasing investment in this area. But is this, like a lot of other industries, always going to be highly concentrated in the south?

Where Can You Store Data?

Among the areas where there may be a significant geographical gap to make up is data storage. For a company based in Leeds, you may be able to find all kinds of support for various IT functions locally, but your data may be stored elsewhere.

However, we do have our own data storage facility in Leeds, something of a rarity in the north but one that gives us something of an edge, because it means we can provide a one-stop shop with everything in-house in our home city.

This hitherto lack of data storage facilities in the north has prompted a lot of excitement across the Pennines over plans for a new data storage centre in Stockport. 

As the Manchester Evening News reported, plans have been moving forward rapidly towards approval for a 25,900 sq m facility on the Kenwood Road industrial estate in the Reddish area of the town.

The site was not chosen randomly. The firm behind the development, Kao Data, spent two years looking for an appropriate northern site. Spokesperson Spencer Lamb noted that while data centres are “critical” to the UK’s development in IT, especially in emerging areas like artificial intelligence, the great majority of them are based in London and the south east.

It is not a done deal that the proposal will go ahead, with some planning concerns regarding traffic. However, the principle underlying the plan is that the data centre is needed both for national capacity reasons and also because of the many benefits of basing such a centre in the north, from the jobs it provides to the capacity to help firms not based down south.

The Role Of Data Centres In Levelling Up

We certainly wouldn’t want to say anything negative about an increase in data centre capacity outside the south east and London, even if by certain definitions the location is historically more Midlands than north (the site lies just south of the Nico Ditch, the reputed boundary between the Saxon kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria).

However, we can be proud to say that while there is excitement on the edge of Manchester over news that their data storage capacity could soon be emerging from its own ditch of antiquity to catch up with the needs of a high-tech 21st century economy, on this side of the Pennines we have our own very well established facility here.

To be fair, there are some data centres already in Greater Manchester and other parts of the north, and this issue is not one of trans-Pennine rivalry but a genuine matter for the regions. For all the talk in recent years of a ‘Northern Powerhouse’, ‘Levelling Up’ and high-speed rail links that now won’t happen, this may be the most crucial piece of infrastructure.

Indeed, while here in Leeds we might be a bit envious, for now, that they have trams in Greater Manchester (though not actually in Stockport yet), the biggest business benefit in an era of high tech could come from having more storage capacity across parts of the country currently lacking it.

Some might argue this does not matter a lot when there is so much remote working, and the use of the cloud, but it does. It is not just about providing jobs (the new centre in Stockport would create about 40), but also bringing a wider array of IT expertise and investment alongside it to a broader swathe of the UK.

Why Data Storage Expansion Is An Energy Issue

There are other considerations too. For example, the Financial Times recently reported that concerns over the amount of energy being used by data centres have led to certain countries, such as Ireland, Germany and Singapore, curbing their construction, with Ireland struggling the most.

This is a reminder that these centres need plenty of energy to run and therefore expanding their presence must go hand-in-hand with wider solutions for our future economic and societal needs like extra energy provision from clean sources.

At the same time, that does provide the UK with an opportunity if it can get ahead of some of its neighbours in this area, not least as curbs on data centres in these countries will mean British companies looking for storage space may struggle to find options overseas.

In particular, Germany’s energy modernisation efforts have been exposed by its high reliance on Russian gas. At the same time, Ireland’s lack of capacity may counterbalance the various incentives it has used to attract big tech companies from the US looking for a base in an English-speaking European country.

A Big Opportunity In Yorkshire

Mr Hunt is certainly right that the UK has a growing IT sector, but, as ever, the need exists to ensure the economic benefits are spread nationally, not confined to one corner. That will be good news not just for the IT firms, but for companies here in Yorkshire and across the country.

However, with companies like ours, there are already opportunities for your business to enjoy the benefits of a comprehensive package of IT support, with data storage being part of a comprehensive service.

If you are a Yorkshire firm, knowing you can have all your IT needs met by a company right here instead of having to farm it out to somewhere far away is something that should be both pleasing and reassuring.