Jobs boost with UKFast data centres investment
AMBITIOUS internet hosting company UKFast is expecting to create 100 jobs in the next year after buying three buildings on Trafford Park.
The Manchester-based group has funded the expansion with a £1.2m loan from the Co-operative Bank’s Manchester corporate banking centre .
The three buildings at Cobra Court will be used as future data centres by the fast-growing privately-owned company.
The skilled jobs are expected to be spread across UKFast’s head office in City Tower and at the data centres.
The new data centres will be fitted out with a range of carbon-efficient hosting solutions to reduce environmental impact, and will increase UKFast’s storage capacity from 8,500sq ft to just over 14,500sq ft and more than double its hosting capacity from 9,000 to 24,000 servers.
Work on the centres has begun and they are expected to be fully operational by summer 2012.
The new data centres will be fitted out with a range of carbon-efficient hosting solutions to reduce their environmental impact.
UKFast founder and managing director Lawrence Jones, said: “The hosting industry consumes around the same amount of electricity on operations each year as a country the size of Argentina. This represents a substantial impact to our environment. At UKFast we believe in responsible business and are dedicated to developing new ways of working to reduce the environmental impact of our products and services.
“Our commitment to reducing the environmental impact of our business is also reflected in the design of the three new data centres, which mark the start of an exciting expansion for our company, helping us to meet the ever increasing demand for our products and services and helping to create jobs in the process.”
The company is also currently in the development stages of implementing hydro-electric projects to generate clean energy to efficiently power the company’s data centres.
Dave Loughman, corporate manager at the Manchester CBC of the Bank, said: “We pride ourselves on our unique ethical positioning and lending commitment to the renewable energy, recycling and carbon reduction sectors.
“UKFast is a thriving business, which is leading the way forward in the reduction of energy consumption in its industry and we are delighted to play a role in allowing them to realise their ambitions for the future.”
