DigiPlex is one of the oldest data centre providers in Europe. It provides secure, carrier-neutral co-location data centre space, mostly for customers in Norway, Sweden and Finland. It has been in business since 2000, and operating in Scandinavia since 2002.
It provides bespoke data centre design for its customers, together with expert back-up and facilities that are highly energy-efficient, providing low operating costs. With minimal capital outlay for customers, they get a flexible and resilient service, with modular solutions. DigiPlex also offers managed services and business continuity plans.
The company backs up its performance claims with Quality Management certification, including ISO9001:2008, and membership of the Uptime Institute. Its systems include a huge amount of built-in redundancy, and good operating margins. Its focus is on security, resilience and efficiency, with a mission of never, never, ever, go down. This may sound ambitious, but it is also realistic, since DigiPlex has had just 23 seconds of downtime in the last decade, an impressive performance.
Location
DigiPlex currently owns and operates three data centres, all in Oslo. It is also developing two new centres, one in Upplands Vasby in Sweden, and the other in the Kainuu region of central Finland. DigiPlex also designs bespoke data centre solutions for its customers in the UK, and supports their construction and fitting out. These can be on customers sites, or at one of DigiPlexs own facilities.
Energy
Scandinavian countries have something of a reputation for high environmental standards, so its perhaps not a huge surprise to learn that DigiPlexs data centres have good energy ratings. The sites and centres were built at different times, and therefore use different systems, but all use at least some green energy, such as hydroelectric, water cooling systems, and heat recycling systems. For example, the Oslo 2 complex recycles data centre waste heat to heat the offices and common areas.
The new DigiPlex data centres are planned as world-leading in energy efficiency. The Oslo 3 centre will use air to air evaporative cooling technology, which gives a PUE of less than 1.1. The new Kainuu centre will also use air-to-air systems, and will draw on hydroelectric and biofuel power. The Stockholm centre, at Upplands Vasby, will not only be the largest commercial data centre in Sweden, but will offer over 20MW of power from renewable hydro and wind sources.
Funding/business model
It operates a fully independent funding system, based on property assets and the direct involvement of shareholders. This gives it security and stability, although it does limit the potential for large-scale growth. The company self-funds all equity capital for new data centre acquisition and fitting out, balancing that with regional bank capital as the data centre customer base develops.
The independent funding and operating model, DigiPlex claims, enables it to focus on customers needs.
About 43% of its custom comes from the public sector, with a further 22% from hosters, 14% from telecoms companies, 13% from commercial companies such as banks and retailers, and 8% from integrators, or IT consultancies and outsourcing companies. This broad spread means that it is not dependent on any particular sector and/or regulatory environment, giving it more flexibility.
The companys newest data centres will use state-of-the-art technology to deliver PUE ratings of less than 1.1. That kind of efficiency, which helps to reduce costs, will make DigiPlexs offering even more competitive.