London, UK: 30 September 2009: To meet the increasing demand for its Managed Services, SunGard Availability Services, has announced that it will be adding an extra 10,000ft² of highly resilient data centre space to its UK infrastructure. With the average UK third party data centre offering 2,000-4,000ft²* of space, this represents a significant addition to SunGard’s existing portfolio of highly resilient data centre space, which totals over 250,000 ft² in the UK alone. SunGard is also the pioneer and leading provider of Information Availability services.
The new space will be created by expanding available capacity within two of SunGard’s existing network of highly resilient data centres: the London Technology Centre (LTC), in Heathrow and TC2, in London Docklands. The expansion represents the first phase of development in these two data centres, with extra capacity still available for further expansion in the future. As with SunGard’s existing Technology Centres, the new data centre space will deliver the full range of Managed Services ranging from secure hosting services through to operating systems (OS) management, server replication and electronic data vaulting. As part of SunGard’s interconnected network of data centres it will also offer organisations a resilient and secure environment in which they can create and host enterprise class ‘private’ clouds.
These expansions are the latest in a number of investments SunGard has made to support the growth of its Managed Services business. Earlier this year it opened its Technology Centre 3 (TC3) in Woking and also made significant enhancements to TC4, its data centre in Elland in the north of England. Over 600 businesses now trust SunGard to manage their production equipment across its four UK data centres, building upon an experience bourne out of supporting live environments in a four decade history of effecting system recoveries.
“We’ve continued to experience huge interest in our Managed Services offering this year, as customers look for a more flexible, cost-effective solution to managing their IT,” says Keith Tilley, Managing Director UK and Executive Vice-President Europe for SunGard Availability Services. “A common concern amongst businesses we speak to is the lack of suitable high quality data centre space in London, particularly facilities which have the necessary power infrastructure in place to effectively support the demands of today’s IT environments. With this expansion we’re addressing this need and are committed to providing the high quality, resilient data centre space our customers are accustomed to.”
“The UK market for managed services is standing up well in the current downturn," says Bob Tarzey, Analyst and Director, Quocirca. "With data centre space in London and South East England at a premium, co-location providers with available data centre space and service providers with IT hosting expertise will continue to do well. As business look towards housing more and more of their IT infrastructure in 3rd party facilities, Quocirca expects demand to keep growing. Providers that invest in new state of the art data centre facilities in prime locations will benefit the most.”
In today’s climate companies are under intense pressure to cut costs and do more with less, without compromising the resilience of the business. SunGard’s ‘on-demand’ IT services enable organisations to cut back on capital expenditure (CAPEX) on IT projects, funding them instead on a monthly OPEX basis. Its shared services model makes data centre space available at a fraction of the cost of any one company trying to buy, resource and power its own dedicated facility.
SunGard’s years of experience and expertise in Information Availability ensure business critical systems are safely managed by specialist teams of engineers who man the facilities 24/7, monitor the hardware and carry out basic maintenance tasks. Not only do they ensure the systems function at optimum levels, they also allow CIOs to keep their own teams focused on the services and systems the organisation manages for itself, with no dilution of resources.
*According to figures provided by the Broad Group.