High integrity data centre opens with sustainability agenda

High integrity data centre specialist Ark Continuity is behind the project, which will open with the data centre campus at Spring Park, Corsham, Wiltshire. Spring Park includes SQ17, a new model for data centre infrastructure, based on standard, scalable, predictable building blocks. Ark CEO Jeff Thomas says the data centre company's model offers "all the benefits of owner-occupation – discrete space and dedicated infrastructure – but on an outsourced, modular basis". For him, users will have the security of their own technical space and infrastructure, while allowing for future expansion as their requirements grow – effectively moving investment from capex to opex. "Ark's experts have spent 10 years researching best practice and technology and this year we will deliver the first phase of UK's lowest carbon data centre campus. Planning permission has been secured for 93,000 square metres of development, and infrastructure is already in place to meet the anticipated demand," says Thomas. Ark signed up to the EU code of conduct on best sustainable practice. Thomas cites Ark's design for power usage effectiveness (PUE) coefficient as evidence – at SQ17, it's down to 1.45, while the UK average for conventional data centres is 2.2. The rural setting of Ark's Corsham campus also means the proportion of air free cooling is already more than 60% (62% in Wiltshire last year). Additional ground free cooling will be available by tapping into cool subterranean environment under the Spring Park campus, which, he says, will deliver a design PUE of less than 1.2.