Dell today announced the opening of a new data centre in Slough – the first the company has built in the UK.
The new facility is part of the $1 billion investment Dell announced earlier in the year to expand its global footprint of data centres and push forward its new cloud solutions.
Dell is specifically focused on getting more European customers onboard and hopes the launch of the new EU-based data centre will reassure users from a regulatory standpoint – even if as a US company the lines are slightly blurry.
It will even be offering its Unified Clinical Archiving from the data centre in 2012 to medical organisations wanting to store information in the cloud. This particular area of Dell’s cloud services has done very well in the company’s native US, where over four billion diagnostic imaging files have been stored in its cloud so far.
But Dell won’t just be focusing on the niche offerings and will provide a full suite of storage and security straight away. Plans for 2012 include introducing Dell’s Virtual Desktop as a Service offering in partnership with VMware.
The standard claims of environmentally friendly cooling systems have been made by Dell, saying the data centre’s “innovative, modular design” will enable “high density cooling for high energy use hardware and traditional ITO hardware installations.”
A statement from the firm added: “The new data centre uses a high efficiency, environmentally-friendly cooling system that enables energy efficient operations and helps provide a low power usage effectiveness (PUE).”
Dell hasn’t revealed where the next batch of the billion dollar investment package will fall but what better way to start than a data centre on our fair shores – even if it is in Slough.
