UK edge infrastructure provider Pulsant has formally opened its new £4.5m expanded data room in Manchester, with IT services company Dacoll becoming its first customer.
By adding an additional 30% to the existing facilities, the expansion brings the site to four data rooms spanning 1,000 square meters and with over 400 racks, offering 1 MW of power.
Pulsant chief executive Rob Coupland said the expansion comes amid an exciting period for Manchester's rapidly growing tech sector. Expanding data center capacity will be a key factor in supporting future regional growth, he added.
“Manchester needs a commitment to infrastructure investment. It is the number one tech city outside London and is home to over 650 active, high-growth companies. It is one of the top five expansion areas and the largest sector in the region is the software one.” Coupland said.
“This investment is our commitment to this area and we are focused on enabling these innovative companies to deliver value, jobs and progress in the city and beyond. These companies have already secured over £530 million of investment and this expanded infrastructure means they can unleash that potential.”
Using Pulsant's national network of data centers and ecosystem of connectivity partners, the company says Manchester businesses can also access clouds, telcos and global operators through the LINX Manchester Point of Presence (POP).
“We continue to see growth at LINX Manchester, which is fantastic. Our regional interconnection hub in the north provides a place for networks to connect and maintain local traffic, reducing latency and providing an improved experience for their end users” said Colin Peckham, LINX. interconnection specialist.
“We recently hit the 500Gbps traffic mark on the exchange and now have additional services available like the exclusive Microsoft Azure Peering service, adding even more value to our connected community there.”
Pulsant took over the site in 2022 and launched its EDGE network platform a year later. Since then, there have been several multi-million pound investments to expand the company's facilities in Manchester and Rotherham, and the company revealed that there are further plans to expand its presence in central Manchester.
Pulsant sees improvements in data center sustainability
Pulsant said a key current focus is improving sustainability, and the company reduced its infrastructure energy consumption by 9% in 2023.
In the long term, the company plans to replace fossil fuels with non-palm oil HVO biofuels in its standby power generators. It has also committed to eliminating the use of FM200 fire extinguishing gas by 2030.
With the new development, Pulsant is targeting regional companies that use new technologies such as analytics, artificial intelligence and IoT.
“The Manchester facility allows us to expand our capabilities serving customers located throughout the Northwest,” said Andrew Richmond, director of enterprise sales at Dacoll.
“We are seeing greater demand from those customers to have their data located closer to their businesses because faster access means faster growth. This is supported by the fact that their data is housed in an environment that is secure and can meet future growth requirements.”
The Manchester Digital Strategy calls for £1bn investment in digital infrastructure and a 50% increase in digital sector businesses by 2026.
Last year, the city was named the fastest-growing tech hub in the north of England, with companies in the region raising more than half a billion pounds in funding in 2022.
“Greater Manchester's digital economy is worth around £5 billion. We are proud to be part of realizing that potential,” Coupland said.
“We will be looking at the successes in Manchester to help us drive regional growth through better digital infrastructure elsewhere, across the UK.”
