Datum develops business critical data centres which are designed for service providers and large corporations. It offers a wide array of services centred around colocation but with added value so that it can offer a full wrap service.
It is the cloud where Datum really differentiates from the crowd. It doesnt provide cloud services in-house, but it offers a full range of direct connections to established cloud service providers, including IBM and Amazons AWS. Datum points out that its data centres are cloud neutral as well as carrier neutral. This is a feature that will become more important as competition in the cloud becomes more intense and clients start to demand choice.
Colocation spaces at Datum start at single racks, so rule out the light to medium-sized users. Customers can specify their own racks, but Datum provides more eco-friendly chimney racks as standard. Clients that need more space, power and security can choose to lease cages or private suites. Cages come with separate storage areas and are completely secure, whilst suites are fully customisable in every aspect from power to server size. Terms at Datums data centre are flexible and shaped by the needs of the client signing up to them, whilst contiguous space is provided on request for businesses that envision scaling up in the future.
Additional services are also provided and they include remote hands and client service management. Customers seeking managed services can also be accommodated through Datums partners and parent company, Attenda.
Location
Datum is registered to an office in London but runs its operations from its one data centre at the Cody Technology Park in Farnborough, Hampshire. The facility was designed and constructed by Keysource and sits alongside a range of top IT and UK defence companies on a site developed to high security standards. The data centre is just half an hours drive from the Western edge of the M25 and 40 minutes to Waterloo by train.
The data centre, known as London-edge FRN1, was built to high specifications and high redundancy in power and cooling of 2N and N+1 respectively. The data centre is composed of three separate buildings, one of which houses the entire backup power infrastructure and one of which houses the data centre itself with space for up to 1000 racks. The third building accommodates office and meeting space which is available for colocation clients to use. Datum has achieved a range of certifications, including ISO 27001 for Information Security and the new DCA Fully Operational Class 3 award from the data centre certification scheme for FRN1.
Energy
Datums Farnborough data centre was designed to be the most energy efficient data centre in the UK at the time of its opening in 2013. It benefits from building designer Keystones patented Ecofris cooling technology, which works in combination with Rittal server racks featuring mounted chimney modules to deliver a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of less than 1.2.
Datum is also signed up to the European Code of Conduct for Datacentres and has achieved ISO 50001 for Energy Management.
Funding/business model
Datum Datacentres Limited is a private limited company and subsidiary of the IT services provider Attenda Group. Both companies are ultimately owned by Amphora Topco a group of equity investors and managers led by Darwin Private Equity.
Datum has faced significant competition in the colocation market, where facilities in the South East are plentiful. It has struggled to attract enough clients to turn a profit and is expected to break even in 2015 for the first time. Despite that, the outlook from Datum is positive and the ambition is to grow once the market becomes more buoyant, with construction on a further 250 rack data hall started in late 2014.
Customers and partners
One of Datums biggest clients to date is parent company Attenda. Attenda offers its colocation services through the Datum data centre whilst its own three existing data centres are used for Attendas managed services clients.
Other recently acquired clients include managed services provider Evorio, business continuity experts ADAM, Eurotech Computer Services, Vissenza Limited, NetPay and Bull. Its client base covers all corporate sectors, with particular emphasis on Finance, Security and Oil & Gas and professional services.
Quality data centre provision with plenty to offer
Datum data centres are not for smaller businesses, but for enterprise clients Datum offers everything they could need. Carrier and Cloud neutrality is likely to be a big pull for businesses that enjoy a good level of autonomy in service providers, whilst the expertise and extensive financial backing should reassure potential clients that Datum is here to stay, even once ownership inevitably changes.