UK Grid welcomes the emergency budget measures
For many businesses including UK Grid, all eyes were on the Emergency Budget announcements of 22nd June. UK Grid CEO, Rob Garbutt, gives a brief assessment:
“As with most Budgets there were good points and bad points throughout. Although the announced descent of the Corporation Tax levels is excellent news for entrepreneurs and small businesses and will encourage growth across all sectors, there are some hidden pitfalls. For example, the lowering of the Annual Investment Allowance (AIA) limit from £100,000 to just £25,000 will be painful for start-ups and small enterprise. In addition, the reduction in the capital allowances rate from 20% to 18% does not encourage small businesses to reinvest into capitalised items, such as plant and machinery.
“But there were small victories such as Landline duty of £6 per year not going ahead from 1st October 2010, and the rise of personal allowances for low rate taxpayers. Every little to help small businesses!”
Phase one of UK Grid expansion plan takes off
In June, we began the extension of the Synergy House site by installing an extra 170 racks of data storage space, during the first phase of our fast-track expansion plan.
This first phase of a £2 million project, is designed to drastically increase our overall site capacity and is intrinsic to reaching our target turnover of £10m by the end of the 2012/13 financial year. Due to the company growth since 2004, the Synergy DC1 site has quickly reached near maximum capacity and we are now operating at 95 per cent capacity. If you are situated in Synergy House DC1, and think you require additional space and power, please speak to our sales team on 0845 260 4743 option 1.
Phase one of the expansion project will be completed within 12 weeks, with phase two set to be completed by the end of Q3 2010 – providing UK Grid and our customers with over 400 additional racks at a new Synergy DC3 site with 1MW of power. Phase three will involve a new London base near the Docklands, which will add an extra 10,000 sq ft and a 4MW capacity of data centre space. This final phase will be completed before the end of 2010.
Total planned racks under UK Grid management after 2010 expansion will then be at the 1000 mark.
UK Grid sets international standard for energy efficiency
Following the introduction of a new international standard for measuring acceptable levels of power wastage in data centres, we have been calling on UK data centre businesses to do more to meet and surpass power usage targets, in order to reduce carbon footprints. The Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) metric is used to gauge power usage in IT equipment in a growing number of data centres across the UK, and has now been accepted as an industry standard in Japan, the United States, and throughout Europe.
Using the new international measurement, we are currently setting the standard as a model of power efficiency, working at a level of 1.35 PUE (the UK average is 2.9 PUE), due to the bespoke design of our systems, which include cold aisle containment, energy efficient UPS systems and inverter driven cooling systems. We are also successfully pioneering methods in carbon neutralisation, being one of the first data centres in the world to reduce its carbon footprint. The company hopes to be carbon neutral by the end of 2010.
UK Grid in the News
Over the past two months we have received a number of positive stories in the North West and sector press, which we are really pleased with, and is helping spread the word on some of our big successes. Please find some of the highlights in the links below:
Data Centre Solutions - 7th May 2010
UK Grid set international standards for energy efficiency
One of the main news and views outlets for the data centre sector uses our views on the new PUE standard
The WHIR - 21st June 2010
34SP Opens Space at UK Grid's Manchester Data Center
The Webhost Industry Review comments on 34SP's expansion into Synergy House
TheBusinessDesk.com - 28th June 2010
UK Grid invests £2m in rapid expansion
The leading online business news provider in Manchester reports on our expansion plans
Keep an eye on our web site and the newsletter for information on further coverage!
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