Summary: We toured Cogeco Peer 1’s data centre in Portsmouth in southern England and sat down with UK management to discuss the facility and expansion opportunities.
Background: Peer 1 grew from three to 60 racks in six months and took the decision to open its own facility. It took over a former IBM factory on a technology park near Portsmouth, next to major roads with good connections to London (about an hour away), Southampton (home to Cogeco Peer 1’s EMEA HQ) to the west and Brighton to the east. CP1 owns 90% of one building. Other tenants on the site include AT&T and Lockheed Martin, and shared facilities include a café and gym. CP1 also uses a data centre in Croydon for multi-site requirements.
Data centre: The CP1 data centre is a single-storey, 58k sqft 10.8MW facility, which has massive floor loading and ceiling heights with full height doors throughout and a full-size loading bay. The ceiling heights mean there is no need for hot and cold aisles. It uses a warm air containment system, with waste heat used to heat support, sales and networking offices, including CP1’s main global NOC. There is also access to roof space.
Current capacity: Two 1.2k sqft 1.4MW data halls with associated computer, mechanical and electrical rooms have been built out. The first was built around 2000 and the company is in the process of moving out the remaining managed hosting racks (currently taking up around 25% of the footprint) to free up more contiguous space for colocation. It provides 16 or 32 amp capacity as standard and the average rack density is 3-5kW. It can go to 8kW/rack without additional work, or higher as needed. The second data hall is 4.5 years old, offering better rack density and cooling. CP1 uses larger servers for its hosting than colocation customers do, hence the decision to move its equipment to this hall. When the process is completed, half of the footprint will be used for managed hosting and the remainder for colocation, including an area set aside for private suites.
Expansion: Two more data halls and associated M&E systems, the same size as the others, are being marketed to prospective tenants with the expectation of release in 9-12 months. There is additional space in the facility that can be re-purposed for colocation as needed.
Connectivity: BT and SSE Telecoms both have diverse routes into the data centre, with CenturyLink (Level3), Virgin and Vodafone also present. The network room has recently been upgraded to 100G into the building, with 10G connections inside. The facility offers 4ms round trip latency to London, 20ms or under within Europe and 90ms or under to New York.
Customers: The majority of the EMEA customer base take managed and/or dedicated hosting, although the contribution from colocation is on the rise. Colocation is available from 1/8 rack, with the largest customer currently taking 20 racks. CP1 provides managed Azure services and has seen some Azure-led conversations result in colocation being included in the deal. The company has historic strength in the retail and e-commerce sectors, but serves customers from a wide range of industries and a broad geographic base. There is a sales and support office in France, which has proved popular for customers wanting to deal with French speakers.
Digital Colony: The majority of the EMEA customer base take managed and/or dedicated hosting, although the contribution from colocation is on the rise. Colocation is available from 1/8 rack, with the largest customer currently taking 20 racks. CP1 provides managed Azure services and has seen some Azure-led conversations result in colocation being included in the deal. The company has historic strength in the retail and e-commerce sectors, but serves customers from a wide range of industries and a broad geographic base. There is a sales and support office in France, which has proved popular for customers wanting to deal with French speakers.
