New data centre opened in Aberdeen

A £5million state-of-the-art data centre able to store the same amount of data Facebook currently holds on a global scale has opened in Aberdeen.

Cloud hosting and data centre provider brightsolid opened its second Tier III centre, which will provide the first Microsoft Azure-enabled cloud platform in Scotland.

The 2,200 square metre facility, which builds on the firm’s existing Tier III data centre in Dundee, will be able to support 400 high-density 25kW computing racks.

Brightsolid have said at full capacity the site will be able to hold the equivalent computer power of over 100,000 MacBooks. 

Richard Higgs, CEO of brightsolid, said: “Our critical mission is technical innovation with personal service and key to delivering on this is our ongoing collaboration with customers, particularly in Aberdeen at this time of disruption, to craft and develop solutions together that really meet customers’ requirements.

“Another part of this is our Microsoft Azure enabled cloud, the first in Scotland. This is exciting as we hope it will be the first of many ground-breaking announcements to come from brightsolid to help Aberdeen stay digitally connected.”

The opening, which comes a year on from construction being announced, follows brightsolid securing a place on the Scottish Government’s hosting services framework.

The company had initially planned to have the facility completed by April, though this was pushed back because of a need to replace the roof structure.   

“As with any project of this scale, we had to overcome a number of engineering challenges but through working together closely, brightsolid now has one of the most efficient data centres in the country,” Mike West, managing director of Keysource, which was awarded the contract to design the data centre.

“We look forward to supporting brightsolid as it moves into operation and in helping it successfully grow the site as it continues to deploy its customers’ solutions.”