Zen to spend £4m on new data centre

ZEN Internet has announced plans to spend £4m on a new purpose-build data centre.

The centre, which will be funded from the firm’s own resources, will be built at its headquarters at Sandbrook Park in Rochdale.

Andrew Saunders, head of product management and marketing at the internet service provider, said that the centre was being built to meet an increasing demand for web hosting services from its existing client base.

“As the cloud computing trend continues to gather momentum and businesses are increasingly reliant on IT systems to function, it has never been more important to ensure that a company’s mission critical applications are hosted in a dedicated, energy efficient data centre,” he said.

“This provides a secure, temperature-controlled environment, which has access to reliable, resilient power and connectivity.”

The 14,500 sq ft facility will be monitored around the clock by automated management systems, an onsite central monitoring team, CCTV and onsite security guards. It will also be fitted with state-of-the-art power and environmental management infrastructure.

The first phase of the new data centre is set to open in the spring.

Zen Internet’s founder and managing director, Richard Tang, said: “Our mission is to provide the best ISP service in the UK.  Translating our mission into action requires us to continually improve every aspect of what we do.

He added: “This is a very exciting time for Zen.  Technology and the Internet are developing as fast as ever, and it’s fantastic to be part of it.”

The contract for the design and build of the data centre has been awarded to Sudlows.