High-tech boost to Wales’ economy

Costing £200m, the data centre’s investment has been provided by the Next Generation Data (NGD) company.

Data centres house the hardware, software and high-speed communication connections required to run customers’ websites, intranets, extranets and other e-commerce facilities in a highly secure and managed environment.

Commercial data centres offer a range of services to customers from co-location to fully managed hosting.

Next generation data

In a recent announcement, Ieuan Wyn Jones, Wales’ Minister for the Economy & Transport, described it as a strategically important investment that would bring long-term benefits to Wales and the Welsh economy.

The NGD Europe 1 data centre will be based in the former Hynix semiconductor plant in Newport, a 70,000 square-metre facility owned by the Welsh Assembly Government.

It will be located near an electricity sub-station that will ensure that the facility has adequate power for the foreseeable future.

Next Generation Data plans to sub-divide the building into a large number of data halls with dedicated infrastructure.

An area will also be designated specifically for small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) in Wales.

NGD is in negotiations with several large blue-chip companies.

Anchor tenants are being signed up on a co-location basis and allocated long-term sub-leases for secure areas within the facility, where they will install their own servers and run their business independently.

NGD will also provide managed services that will be particularly attractive for SMEs. The centre will offer hospitality facilities including a gym and a café.

The new centre will be of particular interest to our growing financial services sector

Ieuan Wyn Jones

Minister for the Economy & Transport

Wales

Minister Ieuan Wyn Jones described the investment as being a critically important addition to the IT and telecoms infrastructure in Wales, saying: “A data centre of this size and capacity will not only support Welsh businesses to remain competitive in a global economy but also has the capacity to act as a catalyst in attracting new business.”

“The new centre will be of particular interest to our growing financial services sector, offering business continuity while also providing our SMEs with cost-effective access to high quality, robust and secure data-centre services” he added.

Major investment in Wales

Wales’s First Minister Rhodri Morgan said the Assembly Government had been actively targeting the data-centre development market and promoting the Newport facility as part of its strategy to attract investment from this sector.

“Data centres are the motorways of the 21st century” said the Minister.

They encourage economic development in the same way that motorways did in the 20th century and the railways in the 19th century,” he added.

“They are an absolutely critical tool for economic growth and that is why I am so pleased that we have secured this development.”

Data centres are the motorways of the 21st century

Rhodri Morgan

First Minister

Wales

Minister Morgan continued saying that “this major investment will create up to 100 high-skilled jobs, and is a big vote of confidence in Wales.”

He added that “global demand for data-centre space is accelerating due to the rapid and continuing growth of e-business.”

In addition to the direct benefit of this 200m pounds investment to the Welsh economy, this prestigious new facility will provide a strong focus for inward investment, and secondary investment as more and more companies decide to locate to Wales to benefit from the services offered by the centre,” said Morgan.