IO launches first data centre in Europe and signs Goldman Sachs as first customer

22 June 2015

IO’s first data centre in Europe is located in Slough and has more than 10,000 sq m of space.

IO has opened its first data centre in Europe, choosing Slough, west of London, as its location, and banking giant Goldman Sachs is the UK facility’s first customer.

IO is a US company which mainly provides colocation and cloud services to businesses and governments. The company has six data centres in Arizona, Ohio, New Jersey, Singapore, and now London.

IO’s Slough data centre has more than 10,000 sq m of space. The company says it features highly resilient power, a dedicated substation, and will house the first international deployment of BaseLayer’s advanced ECO modules, designed to deliver ultra-efficient performance by using free, outside air, backed by traditional chilled water technology.

BaseLayer was creates by IO and operates separately as data centre infrastructure company. It claims to have invented the software-defined modular data centre.

Announcing the Slough data centre, IO’s UK managing director Nigel Stevens says: “We are delighted to open the data centre with such a prestigious first customer.

“In preparation for our launch, we have assembled a great team of industry experts from the London area. We’re looking forward to helping existing customers expand their footprint into Europe, as well as attracting customers from the UK market.”

Stevens adds: “What’s different about IO’s modular approach to data centres is that you only have to buy what you need. Historically, this industry requires that you over-provision in order to ensure sufficient capacity.

“At IO, that’s not the case. You simply purchase space and power as your business demands it. When you add to that the ability to scale power density up to 30kW per rack, and the visibility provided by our IO.OS software, it’s clear that we have a very compelling solution.”